Transcript

A widely respected man known as “Uncle Johnson” died in Michigan at the incredible age of 120. His advanced years were thought by those who knew him to be due in part to the cheerful outlook that characterized his life.

One day while at work in his garden, he was singing songs of praise to God. His pastor, who was passing by, looked over the fence at his home and called out to him, “Uncle Johnson, you seem very happy today.”

The old man replied, “Yes, I was just thinking.” “Thinking about what?” questioned his pastor. And Uncle Johnson said, “Oh, I was just thinking that if the crumbs of joy that fall from the Master’s table in this world are so good, what will the great loaf in glory be like! I tell you, Sir, there will be enough for everyone and some to spare up there.”

What is heaven like? is a question that I think many believers ponder, and probably think about more and more as we age and grow older. The Bible does not tell us a whole lot, but it does give us some peeks into heaven.

We’ll examine one of the longer looks into heaven and the things that were seen and described in Revelation chapter 4.

Revelation 4:1-5: “After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.

“And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.

“And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.”

The Bible teaches that heaven is a literal place. It is a real destination and those who have trusted the gospel of the grace of God have heaven as their eternal hope.

When we talk about heaven, we are referring to the third heaven of God’s dwelling place and the place of His throne in heaven. Often, the Bible’s description of the new Jerusalem and heaven is mixed together. The new Jerusalem is currently in heaven, but it is only temporarily there.

That city of gold, light, and glory will descend to the new earth after the Great White Throne Judgment, and that holy city is the eternal home of believing Israel from God’s prophetic program for all eternity.

However, for us, who are members of the Church, the Body of Christ, we will remain in heaven, and heaven is our home forever. Heaven above is our eternal inheritance.

While there will certainly be parallels and similar characteristics between the new Jerusalem and heaven, they are not one and the same place and there are differences between them.

The Book of Revelation describes the new Jerusalem in detail in Revelation 21, and it also describes heaven in different places in the Book. Here in Revelation 4, the Apostle John describes his view of heaven above.

And in verse 1, John wrote, “After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven.” The first thing that strikes me here is that there is “a door” that opens and closes in heaven, which is interesting.

After the door was opened, John heard a voice. There are sights to see and sounds to hear in heaven. The voice John heard “was as it were of a trumpet talking with me.”

We learn whose voice this is by its description of “as it were of a trumpet” and what John wrote earlier in the Book. Revelation 1:10-11 reads, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, AS OF A TRUMPET, Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book…”

The voice that John heard as that door opened was the glorious voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s been said of heaven that it is “an unknown region with a well-known Inhabitant.”

That prospect for us who believe of meeting our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, face-to-face in heaven and being with Him forever is a source of indescribable joy and comfort. One day, we will personally meet Him in glory.

The voice of the Lord that John heard said to him, “Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.”

“Come up hither” is simply a phrase that introduces John’s revelatory vision of heaven, and it reminds us that heaven’s location is up and above.

As John looks into heaven, he wrote, “and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and One sat on the throne.” John first sees the glorious throne of God. There is a throne of God in heaven forever, and one day there will be a throne of God established on the new earth for eternity too.

In Revelation, this description of the One Who sat on the throne is God the Father.

First, we know the Father has a throne because just a few verses earlier, in chapter 3, the Lord had told John, “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne.”

And second, we know that this is God the Father because in chapter 5 we read, “And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain…And He came and took the book out of the right hand of HIM THAT SAT UPON THE THRONE.”

“A Lamb as it had been slain” refers to Jesus Christ, God the Son. “And He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him,” or God the Father, “that sat upon the throne.”

John attempted to describe the Father as He looked upon the throne, stating, “And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine [or sardius] stone.”

John saw the sovereign, eternal God sitting upon His throne in majesty and splendor. He described His appearance by equating it to precious gemstones. The jasper stone is a clear stone. Sardius is ruby-red in color.

He who sat on the throne had the crystal-clear sparkle of a jasper stone and the fiery, bright redness of a sardius stone (cf. Rev. 21:11).

Around the throne of God, “there was a rainbow…in sight like unto an emerald.”

The One sitting on the throne made the covenant with Noah to never destroy the world by water again, and a rainbow reminds us of God’s faithfulness. This rainbow is not the multi-colored rainbow we see in the sky, but emerald green in color.

God is faithful to the promises and covenants He made with Israel and He is faithful to the promises He has made to us, the Body of Christ, including the promise that we have access to Him, and will rule, reign, and live in God’s presence in heaven forever.

Next, John stated, “And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.”

While there is debate and as to their identity, I believe these 24 seats around the throne of God that have 24 elders sitting on them are angels, and high-ranking ones due to their proximity to the throne of God and their crowns of gold.

The Greek word translated as “seats” in this verse is “thronos,” which is translated as “throne” or “thrones” in other places in Scripture.

In Colossians 1:16, Paul wrote of Jesus Christ, “For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be THRONES, or dominions, or principalities, or powers…”

Paul wrote of angels and angelic ranks that Christ created in descending order, beginning with “thrones.” The 24 seats, or lesser thrones, around God’s central throne are occupied by a special, high-ranking class of angels, and it is possible that these angels are the ones that are called “thrones.”

These 24 elders, John wrote, are “clothed in white raiment,” which is emblematic of their purity. To dwell in God’s presence one must be pure and holy, and their white raiment is emblematic of their purity.

“And they had on their heads crowns of gold,” which speaks to their authority and high rank. Heaven is a place where holy angels of different ranks reside in God’s presence, and they serve Him. And the Apostle Paul tells us that one day we will judge and rule over all the angels in heaven.

Next, John observed, “And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices….”

When God’s presence dwelt on Mt. Sinai when the covenant of the Law was made with Israel, we read similar things to the scene of God’s throne in heaven.

“And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings…And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire…and the whole mount quaked greatly.”

There is power associated with the scene of God’s throne in heaven. John saw flashes of lightnings and rumbling sounds of thunder. Lightnings and thunderings are reflective of the awesome majesty of God and His supreme authority.

And then before the throne “were seven lamps of fire burning…which are the seven Spirits of God.” The seven Spirits of God could be referring to the Holy Spirit because the number seven refers to divine perfection, completion, and wholeness. Thus, this could be identifying the fullness of the Holy Spirit and His perfection as God.

Or the seven Spirits could be another set of seven angels, who are the attendants and ministers of the supreme God, and who carry out the highest service of God.

Revelation 4:6-11: “And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.

“And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.

“And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever,

“The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”

Verses 5 and 6 coincide with the layout of the tabernacle and the temple. The writer of Hebrews wrote how the tabernacle where God’s presence resided on earth was a pattern, or “the example and shadow of heavenly things” (8:5).

The throne of God is pictured by the mercy seat or the ark of the covenant in the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle. The seven lamps of fire burning are reminiscent of the seven-branched golden lampstand, or menorah, which was before positioned before the ark of the covenant in the Holy Place.

And then the sea of glass before both the throne and the seven lamps of fire is symbolized by the bronze laver full of water which was before both the ark and the lampstand in the tabernacle.

In 2 Chronicles 4:2, the bronze laver for Solomon’s temple was even called “the molten SEA” or the Sea of cast bronze. This “molten sea” was a large round bronze basin and receptacle for water. It provided water for the priests to wash their hands and feet as they ministered in the temple.

The capacity of the large Sea of cast bronze was huge: around 18,000 gallons of water.

This large round basin of water symbolized the actual, large “sea of glass like unto crystal” that is before the throne of God in heaven. We will see this sea with our own eyes one day!

Unlike the new earth in the eternal state, where there will be “no more sea,” Revelation 21:1 says, there will be a sea in Heaven eternally.

The new Jerusalem on the new earth has “a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb” (22:1), but it has no sea.

Later in Revelation, adding to the pattern of heavenly things seen in the tabernacle, you also learn about “the golden altar which was before the throne” upon which incense was offered and which had four horns on it (8:3; 9:13).

This golden altar of incense is before the throne of God in heaven, just like the altar of incense was before the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy Place in the tabernacle.

And Revelation 11:19 further states, “And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament…”

This temple in heaven is mentioned more than once in Revelation, so we also learn that there is a temple in heaven, with God’s ark of the covenant in it.

And that is an important difference between heaven and the new earth in the eternal state. Because on the earth, there is no temple, John wrote in Revelation 21:22, but there is and will be a temple in heaven forever.

Next, John tells us that “in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.” These beasts are a special class of angels called the cherubim.

The cherubim in heaven again have reference to the tabernacle. Because in the tabernacle, on the top of the ark of the covenant were two golden cheribum.

These cherubim faced one another and had their wings spread upward and the wings met each other, shading the mercy seat. And their faces gazed on the mercy seat itself.

Figures of cherubim were also woven and embroidered into the veil that separated the holy place from the holy of holies.

In the Old Testament, the Lord God is said to dwell between the cherubim. In 2 Kings 19:15, “And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said, O LORD God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone…” (cf. Psa. 99:1).

We see God dwelling between four cherubim here in Revelation 4. The cherubim are called “beasts,” which in the Greek means a living being or a living creature.

They are described by John as being “full of eyes before and behind.” They are not omniscient, but these eyes before and behind show that they have clarity, breadth, and depth of vision.

Their many eyes symbolize their thorough knowledge and penetrating perception that makes them alert, vigilant, and immediately aware of whatever is happening that affects their responsibility before God.

Then John describes each of the four cherubs, one by one, which describes them as a whole and individually. Verse 7 says, “And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf [or calf of an ox], and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.”

These symbols identify the cherubim as powerful like a “lion” (Prov. 30:30), servile like a “calf” of an ox, intelligent like a “man,” and swift like an “eagle.”

Each of these cherubim had “six wings about him.” And these wings refer to their prompt and rapid obedience to fly and execute any and every divine command.

These cherubim “rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.”

“Holy, holy, holy” is said once for each member of the Godhead: (1) the Father is “holy,” (2) the Son is “holy,” (3) and the Holy Spirit is “holy.” Holy means that God is set apart from all others. He is unique, distinct, there is no one like God. No one is His equal.

Because God is always the greatest thing and being in existence, the cherubim must unceasingly express that He is holy, set apart, greater than all.

“Lord God Almighty” is descriptive of each Person of the Godhead. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are equal and one, and each Person of the Trinity is Lord, is God, and is Almighty. And each Person of the Godhead “was,” or has an eternal past, “is,” or has a continuous present, “and is to come,” or has an endless future.

The cherubim “give glory and honour and thanks to Him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever.”

And as these high and powerful angels give God the glory that is rightly and eternally due Him, “The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne…”

The 24 elders vacate their lesser thrones and seats, and they remove the golden crowns from their heads, and they cast their crowns before the throne of God.

This symbolizes the willing submission and surrender of any authority they have in light of the worthiness of God and His supreme, sovereign authority.

And then in light of the cherubim who “GIVE glory and honour” to God, the 24 elders echo their praise of Him and His worthiness to “RECEIVE” that glory and honor.

And they say, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”

Heaven is a place where angels praise and worship God and give Him the honor that is due Him. And heaven is a place where mankind also praises God.

In Revelation 7, we learn about a great multitude of those martyred during the Tribulation, “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;

“And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne [or God the Father], and unto the Lamb [or God the Son].”

You see in this passage that believers who have died and are in heaven are “clothed with white robes.” These Tribulation saints have not yet received their resurrected bodies.

This teaches us about the disembodied state of believers, prior to receiving our resurrected bodies, that we will be clothed with white robes until we receive our glorified bodies.

One of the 24 elders explained to John why they are WHITE robes, “These are they which…have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Their sins are washed away by the blood of Christ (Isa. 1:18), and they are pure and righteous.

And this elder next told John, “Therefore are they before the throne of God, and SERVE him day and night in his temple.” Thus, we learn by this that we will not be idle in heaven. Heaven is a place of activity and purpose.

Like the angels in heaven, we will willingly submit to God’s will, quickly obey Him, and gladly serve Him.

The elder next said, “And He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.”

Believers have the privilege and the joy of dwelling in the awesome presence of this almighty, eternal God of all majesty and glory that is described in this chapter.

In heaven, “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”

These martyred saints will have died after having endured severe hardship and suffering in the Tribulation, facing hunger thirst, and heat due to the sun’s heat being increased and people being scorched.

But in heaven there is rest and peace. In heaven there is no hunger, no thirst, no pain, no suffering of any kind. We are free forever from all sorrow, sadness, and hardship.

Believers there are cared for by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in heaven, and like a Shepherd caring for His sheep, He will feed us and lead us unto living fountains of waters.

Whether this is figurative or literal is not real clear, but I like the thought of being literally fed in heaven and literally seeing and drinking from heavenly fountains of waters.

And in heaven, God will wipe away all tears from our eyes, as we will never have reason to shed tears of sorrow again, as we will experience only joy and gladness for eternity.

Death brings sorrow and tears in this life, and so what God wiping away ALL tears from our eyes means is that for our loved ones who are in glory, we will never, ever be separated from them again.

Heaven is a place of reunion, being reunited with believing family, loved ones, and friends, and heaven is a place where will be together with them forever. There will be no more death, and we will only experience everlasting life, and eternal blessing in Christ.

And stop and think about the peace of heaven. The peace of God will pervade God’s heaven and you and I will experience God’s total, absolute calm and perfect peace forever.

Heaven is more glorious than anything imaginable; it is a place of perfection, light, life, and beauty. It is a place of dwelling in the presence of almighty God and experiencing all that goes with living in His holy presence.

It is a place where believers will enjoy the presence of their Savior, the presence of holy angels, and the presence of fellow believers. It is a place of no pain and no suffering, a place of utter joy and peace, praise and worship, and activity and service.

Are you going to heaven? You can know for sure you are. Sin is what keeps people out of heaven and God’s holy presence. And all of us are sinners. Sin is the problem.

But Christ came from heaven to this world, and He died for our sins and rose again. He took the judgment that we deserve, and He paid for all our sins at the Cross.

When we trust that Christ died for us personally and rose again, God washes our sins away and heaven’s door is wide open for us and we are welcome there.