Sermon Tone Analysis

*A Glimpse Into Heaven*

*Text:  Revelation 1-5*

 

 

 

*The crash* of Golfer Payne Stewart's plane was one of the most bizarre incidents I've read about in a long time.

In Orlando, the famous golfer, Payne Stewart, boarded a twin-engine, $2.4 million Leer jet along with 5 companions.

Left the runway at 9:19 a.m.

There were 2 pilots, all seemed fine when they checked with air traffic controllers a few minutes later.

But the pilots apparently lost consciousness shortly before they were to turn west toward Dallas, they couldn't be raised by air traffic controllers, 2 Air Force jets went up to investigate.

No one was at the controls.

There was no movement in the cockpit, the windows were fogged, suggesting the cabin had depressurized, became chilled with stratospheric air 45,000 feet above the earth.

One of the Air Force pilots said, "It's a very helpless feeling to pull alongside another aircraft and realize the people inside that aircraft are unconscious or in some other way incapacitated.

And there's nothing you can do physically from my aircraft even though I'm 50 feet away."

When one of its two engines finally ran out of fuel, the plane began spiraling through the clouds, plunging toward final, destruction.

One air safety investigator said that airplane depressurization can be "very insidious."

He explained the problem could slowly deprive the crew of its ability to know what’s happening.

"It could be one of those things where you're feeling good, you're feeling happy, and you don't know what's going on."

Each new year, we are on a runaway, on a collision course, only moments of time remaining.

But people are so caught up in themselves, and in the pleasures, and pursuits of this age that they don't know what’s going on as they spiral downward toward final, cataclysmic destruction.

The end of history is approaching, and nowhere is it described more accurately and more vividly than in the final book of the Bible—the book of Revelation.

The book of Revelation begins with these words: /The revelation (the unveiling, the information, the mysteries, the truth from God) of Jesus Christ which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place./

That gives us the purpose of this final book of the Bible.

It’s given to show us what’s about to happen, and how the future will unfold.

Verse 19, we have the divinely given outline for the book of Revelation: /Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now, and what will take place later./

John was to write 3 things.

The book of Revelation falls into 3 sections.

*First*, "what you have seen," refers to the opening vision of the glorified Christ, that John had just seen, and had just recorded in chapter 1.   

 

*Second*, the things that are now.

That’s, the truth about current conditions among the 7 churches who were the immediate recipients of this letter in chapters 2 and 3.  

 

*Third*, and the longest section of the book is the part that tells us "what will take place later."

That’s the part that stretches from chapters 4 to 22.

·         What you have seen: Ch 1

·         What is now: Ch 2 & 3

·         What will take place later: Ch 4-22

*Today*, we look chapters 4 and 5, which give us the scene in heaven around God's throne at the commencement of the Great Tribulation period.

Chapters 6 through 18 give us the scene of earth during the Great Tribulation.

In chapter 19, the return of Christ is described, bringing to an end the Great Tribulation period.

Our Lord's millennial reign and the final judgment is described in chapter 20.

And the last 2 chapters, 21 & 22 of the Bible give us a glimpse at eternity, and at the new heavens and the new earth.

·         The scene in heaven at the commencement of the Tribulation: Ch 4-5

 

·         The scene on earth during the Great Tribulation: Ch 6-18

 

·         The return of Christ: Ch 19

 

·         The millennial reign of Christ and the Last Judgment: Ch 20

 

·         The eternal state: The new heavens and the new earth: Ch 21-22

 

 

This morning I would like to look at chapters 4 and 5, the scene in heaven at the commencement of the Great Tribulation.

Chapter 4 is very short, 11 verses, so let's read it together:

/After then I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven.

And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this."

At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it.

And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian.

A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne.

Surrounding the throne were twenty-four elders.

They were dressed in white, and had crowns of gold on their heads.

From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder.

Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing.

These are the seven spirits of God.

Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.

In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back.

The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle.

Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings.

Day and night they never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come."

/

 

Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to him who sits on the throne, the one who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives forever and every.

They lay their crowns before the throne and say:  "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.

*After This*

In *chapter 1* of Revelation, we have a vision of Jesus Christ walking among his churches on this earth.

In *chapter 2* of Revelation, we have our Lord's message to 4 churches on this earth.

In *chapter 3,* we have his message to 3 additional churches.

Chapters 1, 2, and 3 are full of information about the church of Jesus Christ on this earth.

Suddenly, here at the beginning of *chapter 4*, the church vanishes from this earth.

4:1- /After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven.

And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this./

After what?

The Greek phrase here is /meta tauta.

/It’s exactly the same terminology as in chapter 1, verse 19:  /Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now, and what must take place later/—/meta tauta/—/after this./

After what?

Well, chapters 2 and 3 are devoted to the era of the church, to the age of grace, to the period in which the church of Jesus Christ will be on this planet.

Now, suddenly, at the beginning of chapter 4, I believe the rapture has occurred and now John is going to tell us what is going to take place meta tauta—after this—after the church has been removed from this world at the rapture.

When in the book of Revelation does the rapture occur?

I believe it occurs between chapters 3 and 4, or if you prefer at the beginning of chapter 4.  In chapters 2 and 3 you have the age of the church.

Now, meta tauta—after this, what happens?

Look at verse one again:

·         A door swings open in heaven

·         A trumpet sounds

·         A voice shouts, "Come up here!"

In his commentary on the book of Revelation, W. A. Criswell writes:  "When John was transported to heaven, he was a type and a picture of the transporting, the rapture, the snatching away, the taking up of God's people into glory.

Then, after the door is opened in heaven, after the great call of God to his sainted dead and His sainted living, after the rapture and the transporting of the church, the Holy Spirit writes, 'I will show thee things which must be [meta tauta, the things after the things of the church, the things after the churches are taken away, the things after the people of God are in heaven].'

The rest of the Revelation is a description of that awful and terrible period when God has taken His people out of the earth and when He pours upon the world the judgments of the wrath of the Almighty."

Now what will we see when we are raptured?

What did John see when he was transported into heaven?

He saw several things.

* *

*A Throne*

First, he saw a Throne.

This is clearly the most dominant feature of chapter 4.  The idea of the Throne is central to chapter 4, the word occurring 13 times.

Sitting on the Throne is God the Father, and look at the way He is described.

Verse 3 says: The one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian.

So John describes the appearance of the Throne and Him who sat upon it, using two different jewels.

The first was jasper.

Now, we don't know exactly what stone this was.

In our modern world, jasper is an earth stone that comes in red, brown, green, and yellow, and is found in France, Germany, India, Russia, Venezuela, and the United States.

But look at Revelation 21:10: /And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.

It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious stone, like a jasper, clear as crystal./

So whatever jasper was in John's day, it was brilliant, very precious, and clear as crystal.