Revelation 4 - 5

Revelation — Steve Gregg

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Revelation 4 - 5

RevelationSteve Gregg

In this discourse, Steve Gregg provides an analysis of Revelation 4 and 5, which he considers a turning point in the book. He notes that this section describes a vision of heavenly beings and their worship of God. Gregg interprets the four living creatures mentioned in the text as representing different aspects of Jesus, while the 24 elders symbolize the redeemed from both the Old and New Testaments. The discourse emphasizes the importance of fulfilling God's will and purpose, and the rewards that await those who do so.

Transcript

We are coming to the fourth chapter of Revelation, and here we have a turning point. However you divide the book, everyone would call this a turning point, because at this point, John is caught up into heaven, and a series of events begins to take place that doesn't really come to a logical conclusion until maybe chapter 19. The first three chapters have been different than the rest of the book in that they're simply normal epistles, dictated as anyone might dictate an epistle to a group of people.

These are, of course, epistles that Jesus dictated to the church. Churches, the seven churches, but because there are seven, we suspect that this means the whole church. And therefore, in every age, there are probably churches that fit each of these descriptions, and that need the kinds of exhortations and correction and encouragement that these churches receive.

But now, having spoken to the seven churches, John is going to receive a revelation that will occupy many chapters to come with many movements. There will be a scroll with seven seals that must be opened, and they will be opened. There will be seven angels with seven trumpets that must be sounded, and they will be sounded.

There will be other angels later that will have seven bowls of wrath, and those will be poured out. And there are other things, wonders stranger than these. A woman bearing a child with a dragon waiting to kill it.

A beast with seven heads and ten horns coming out of the sea, and another one with two horns like a lamb and a mouth like a lion or a dragon. And stranger things still. And these things are all about to begin unfolding.

Now the section that lies ahead of us, of course, is subdivisible also. And whenever there's a series of sevens that we will read of, as there was seven letters to seven churches, there will be seven seals here in this next section. There will be seven trumpets and seven bowls in another, succeeding sections.

Before these seven items in every group really are considered individually, they are introduced, sometimes by a greater and sometimes by a lesser detailed introduction. But generally speaking, these events, these series of seven, the seven letters of the seven churches, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls, these all represent events taking place on the planet. But John, before each seven, is caught up into heaven or at least into the spirit where he sees things that are otherworldly.

In fact, before he gave the seven letters of the seven churches, he had a vision on the island of Patmos in chapter one that he describes, a vision of Christ. Although he himself was on earth, certainly he was transported into a spiritual realm where he saw things that could not be seen by the natural eye. And before the seven seals are broken, there is first an introductory vision where he's caught up into heaven.

Now the breaking of the seals will affect matters on earth. But as in every case, there is a vision in heaven first and then there is what happens on earth. The point seems to be that the things on earth are explained somehow and somewhat by the vision in heaven.

In other words, instead of just seeing a series of calamities, we are given a heavenly vision, a peek behind the curtain, so to speak, to see why they are happening. Preachers have often made the example of seeing a tapestry from the backside. It's just a tangle of strings and knots that seem random and they don't make any sense at all.

But if you happen to see the same tapestry from the other side, which is where the picture is, then all those nonsensical random elements are seen to really conspire to make an intelligible picture. And as we see events on earth that are terrible, calamitous, and deadly and disastrous to people or nations, we see that that doesn't seem to make much sense. Why did that happen? That just seems just wrong.

Well, we don't make sense of it. It's like we're looking at the wrong side of the tapestry. When John is caught into heaven, he sees the tapestry from above.

And he sees that we are looking at the underside of the tapestry where we stand, but he goes up above and he sees the picture. He sees why it is happening. He sees why this makes sense.

And so these heavenly visions that John has that precede the series of judgments are explanatory, so to speak. They basically show what it is that's precipitating these events. In this case, he's caught up in heaven in verse 1 of chapter 4. After these things, I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven.

And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this. Immediately I was in the spirit, and behold, a throne set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he goes on to describe the throne and other things he saw.

But let me just comment here. John says he was in the spirit. That's what he said in chapter 1. He was in the spirit on the day of the Lord, and he saw the vision of Christ.

Now immediately he's in the spirit, and he sees spiritual things. Whether he was actually caught up into the sky, or whether he just had the sensation of being caught up in the sky, and it was more of a vision like it or a dream type of experience. He was in the spirit.

You know, the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12 said he knew a man in Christ who about 12 years ago, he said, about 12 years ago, this man was caught up into the third heaven. But Paul said, whether in the body or out of the body, I'm not really sure. Now most commentators believe that Paul is speaking about himself, and there are reasons to think that, as far as the flow of thought before and after it go.

But he's saying, if this is true, he's saying, I was caught up in the third heaven, but I don't know whether I was in the body or out of the body. I don't know if I really moved from the planet Earth or not. I don't know if I was just experiencing a spiritual revelation, or whether I really traveled somewhere.

And that is probably what John would have said to you after this revelation. He probably said, I don't really know if I ever left Patmos, but certainly in my awareness, in this vision, in the spirit, I was caught up into heaven. I saw things there that were helpful in explaining why other things were going to happen on Earth.

Now I should point out that since one of the most popular views of Revelation is the dispensational futurist view, you may find, if you have not already, that teachers will say that this verse, chapter 4, verse 1, is the rapture of the church. It seems evident that it is at this point that a turning point has been reached. The so-called tribulation follows this point.

Before this point, we have only the letters to the churches. It is sometimes said, very often in fact, that in the first three chapters, the word church or churches appears 19 times in chapters 1 through 3. But that word church or churches does not appear any time after chapter 4, verse 1. Well, they mean on Earth. In chapter 22, yeah, but that's after everything's over.

That's kind of in the epilogue, right? But they mean in the description of events, the church is not mentioned again after this. Well, the word church, it is true, is not found in during the series of events that's called the tribulation from chapter 4 through 19, is the tribulation section. And you won't find the word church in those chapters.

But that's somewhat an irrelevant point to make, because if that is meant to say the church has been removed from the Earth, that is using the word church to mean the global church, the universal church has been removed from the Earth, not just some congregation here or there. And although the word church and churches is found 19 times in the first three chapters, it never means the universal church. It's always the church of Ephesus, the church of Smyrna, the church of this town, the seven churches.

It's referring to local assemblies. It's not talking about the global church. There is no teaching there that specifically addresses the body of Christ as a whole, which is what the rapture would affect if we're talking about the rapture.

The absence of any reference to the word church after this point is simply that no more letters are being addressed to the church. The reason there's 19 appearances is because seven times it says to the church of, the angel of the church of, and seven times it says, he that has ears to hear the letter of the spirit says to the churches. So you've got seven of those and seven of the addresses.

That makes 14. And in chapter one, there's five that talk about take the letter to the seven churches, to the church of, and the church of, and the church of. So essentially the occurrence of the word church in Revelation never refers to the universal church.

And the reason it appears so frequently in the first three chapters is because that contains seven letters, each of which contains the word church twice. That makes for a high concentration of the use of that word. There are no more letters to the churches anymore after this, and therefore the word church doesn't occur.

However, other words that are synonymous with the church do. For example, if you look at chapter 13 and verse seven, speaking of the beast, it says it was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. In verse 10, it says, he who leads into captivity should go into captivity.

He who kills with a sword must be killed with a sword. Here is patience and faith of the saints. The persecution of the beast is directed toward the saints.

The saints are called to persevere. In chapter 14 and verse 12, it says, here is the patience of the saints. Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

Well, who we might ask keeps the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, if not the church? Well, the dispensationalist knows these verses are here, and they say, well, that's not a problem. That's not the church. That's the saints who are converted during the tribulation after the church is gone.

These are what they call the tribulation saints. They don't belong to the body of Christ. The body of Christ belongs to the church age.

The church age ends at the rapture, and then the church is gone. After that, there will be people saved, but they will not become part of the body of Christ or the bride of Christ. They're not the church.

They are the saved, the elect, the Jews who get saved, the 144,000, the people they convert. Those are simply the tribulation saints. They're a different category than the church.

Well, I dare say, why should I believe you when you tell me that? Is there some reason for saying so? Yes, because we place the rapture in chapter 4, verse 1, so it necessitates that the church is not the saints. Now, if there's not a better reason than that, I'll pass. Thank you.

I'm not going to be convinced by an argument that has no arguments in its favor, and besides, they're wrong. If you look at chapter 19, verses 7 and 8, Revelation 19, 7 and 8, it says, this is at the end of all this, it says, let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready. Now, the Lamb is Christ.

His wife can be little else than the church, certainly, and it talks about this bride, this wife of the Lamb. In verse 8, to her was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. So, the church is dressed in the righteous acts of the saints.

Would that not suggest that the saints are the church saints? How could the church come to be dressed in the righteous acts of some group that was not the church? Some tribulation saints that aren't part of her. Obviously, if you do a concordance study of the word saints in the New Testament, you'll find that in every case outside of Revelation, the word saints refers to the church or the Christians. There is no reason to believe that Revelation is an exception to that rule.

There's nothing in Revelation that says the saints are not the church, and in Revelation 19, 8, it says that the church is indeed arrayed in the righteous deeds of the saints, obviously saying the saints in Revelation are the same people the saints are in Romans or Corinthians or Thessalonians or any other book in the New Testament. The saints are the church, the followers of Christ. So, indeed, the church is seen in the intervening chapters after this.

But there's more in argument for chapter 4, 1 being a reference to the rapture of the church. They say John being caught up into heaven is like the church being caught up into heaven at the rapture. He says he heard a voice like a trumpet speaking, saying, come up here.

So he's called up into heaven by a trumpet-like voice. Doesn't that sound like the rapture as it is described in other places? For example, 1 Corinthians chapter 15. It says in verse 52, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible and we, the church living, will be changed.

When? When there's a sound of a trumpet. And even more closely verbally similar would be, of course, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, probably the most famous passage about the rapture. In fact, one of the two in the Bible.

Not much competition to be the most famous one since there's only two, but the other one. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 describes the rapture in these terms in verse 16 and 17. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet of God.

And the dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Now, when? When there's a sound of a trumpet, there's a voice of an archangel, there's a voice, there's a trumpet. John says in Revelation 4.1, after these things I looked, behold, a door opened in heaven and the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet, speaking, saying, come up here.

There's a voice like a trumpet. That certainly sounds like the rapture. Well, it might sound somewhat like the rapture, but if you look at Revelation 1.10, Revelation 1.10 says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day and I heard behind me a loud voice as of a trumpet.

Was this also the rapture? John heard a voice like a trumpet in chapter 1, verse 10. He heard a voice like a trumpet in chapter 4, verse 1. In both cases, it resulted in him being in the Spirit, or he was in the Spirit before he heard the voice. In any case, it was a spiritual experience he was having.

He was not physically caught up, or if he was, so what? It's not the rapture. To say that John being caught up into heaven is a type or a picture of the church being caught up requires that we would have an answer to the question, what makes you think that John's geography corresponds to the geography of the church? Is there anything that makes that obvious, that that would be the case? And if it is the case, does John going up represent the church going up? But when John comes down again, the church comes down. After all, John comes down and measures the temple in chapter 11.

And then he's up in heaven again in chapter 14. And then he's down on earth again in a wilderness in chapter 17 where he sees the harlot. He's going up and down like a yo-yo.

Is the church following him? Is there a rapture and then there's a descent and another rapture and descent? Of course not. John is all over the place because wherever there's something to be seen and described, he is transported there in the Spirit. His movements do not correspond with the movements of anyone other than himself.

He does not represent the church going up, and therefore everything about the arguments for Revelation 4, 1 being the rapture, simply are vacuous. There's not one valid argument here. And so all we know is that John was caught up to heaven, and that's all we need to know because he's going to describe what he saw.

Now what he saw, in my opinion, is not what you or I would see, for example, if you would die today and go to heaven. He's going to see and describe things that are, to my mind, symbolic. When you go to heaven, you'll see things as they are.

John sees them as they are depicted in a symbolic form, I believe. Now obviously you're at liberty to disagree with me on that, and it wouldn't make any difference whatsoever whether you were right or I was right. There's no reason to argue about it, but I'm simply letting you know.

I am not assuming that what John describes is what we will see. I don't expect to see God holding a scroll with seven seals on it. I don't expect to see Jesus as a lamb with seven eyes and seven horns, which John will see.

I don't expect to see creatures that are like the four living creatures, necessarily. I don't think the actions that are described are literally going on. I think that what he's given us is an impression of what heaven is like and what the inhabitants of heaven are occupied with, and more importantly, what was taking place in heaven that precipitated the events that we will read of in chapter 6, which is the breaking of the first six seals.

He is setting things up here for us to see in chapter 5 a scroll with seven seals, a presentation of a mystery. What's in this scroll? Who's going to open this? And at first the tension mounts as we shall see a loud voice out of heaven says, who is worthy to open this scroll and break the seals? And initially no one is worthy, and it looks like the story is going to end right there, and then of course Jesus appears. So it's all done very dramatically, but the point is the vision in heaven, which occupies chapters 4 and 5, is setting the stage for the breaking of the seven seals and giving, I believe in a symbolic manner, something of an explanation of why these events are taking place.

Now I'll read it to you, and then I'll talk about the details. First chapter 4, immediately verse 2, I was in the spirit, behold a throne set in heaven, and one sat on the throne, and he who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance, and there was a rainbow around the throne in appearance like an emerald. Around the throne were 24 thrones, and on the thrones I saw 24 elders sitting clothed in white robes, and they had crowns of gold on their heads.

And from the throne proceeded lightning, thunderings, and voices, and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. There they are again. Before the throne there was a sea of glass like crystal, and in the midst of the throne and around the throne were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back.

The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had the face of a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around about within, around about and within, and they do not rest day or night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and who is to come. Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.

Now this is just setting the stage. The chapter division is artificial. The next thing he sees is the throne.

He's already described the inhabitant of the throne, but the fact that he now notices in chapter 5, verse 1, that there's a scroll in his hand becomes the central focus for a few verses. But let's talk about what we've seen so far. He sees a throne and one sitting on it.

No description of the man on the throne, except that he's like a jasper, an asardius stone in appearance, and that doesn't really tell us much. He said, Did you meet so-and-so? Yeah. What did he look like? He looked like a stone, kind of like a stone, like a gemstone, you know, a couple of gemstones, actually.

Well, I mean, that doesn't really tell you anything about what he looked like, and there's a reason for that. Ezekiel also saw the throne of God, and he saw some things reminiscent of this very vision. And Ezekiel described the throne and the chariots and the wheels and the creatures at the four corners of the chariot, and one thing he didn't describe is the one on the throne.

Why? Because God was not in the habit of making himself visible for fear of the temptation of making images of him. If John had described in detail what the one on the throne looked like, Christian art throughout history would have had, you know, graphic portrayals of God, which is forbidden. Now, I mean, when you think about it, there is a graphic picture of Jesus, but it's symbolic, and yet even the symbolic pictures have inspired art.

Christians and Jews, probably before Christians, could not resist the temptation to sculpt and to draw images of the things in heaven, although the second commandment is you shall make no graven image of anything in heaven or on earth or under the earth to bow down and worship it. When God told Israel that when they saw the cloud and everything on the Mount Sinai, you saw no image. You saw no shape or form.

Just remember that. You can't make an image of me because you don't know what I look like. And so there's no description of the one on the throne, except that he was apparently either glistening or transparent or something like gemstone somehow.

He doesn't even mention him having a human shape, although since he's on a throne and he has a hand, as we shall see in chapter five, he probably had a human shape in general. It says around the throne were 24 thrones. We saw the 24 elders described.

And of course, who are they? And who are the four living creatures? We have descriptions of both of them, and yet they remain very mysterious even to commentators. Many people think that 24 elders are the 12 patriarchs, that is, Jacob's 12 sons who gave rise to the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles. And yet one of the 12 apostles was separately viewing them, John.

And so if indeed he was looking at the 12 apostles, he was looking at himself in one of those thrones. He doesn't indicate he recognized himself or any of the others. They were just elders.

Elders are rulers, and they were on thrones. And they had crowns of gold on their head, too. So they had the trappings of kings, but they also had white robes.

And later we will see the elders burn incense. They have incense censors later on, and we shall see that. So in others they do what priests do.

They have kingly functions, sitting on thrones, wearing crowns, and yet they are like priests wearing the long white robes and burning incense as it was done by the priests in the temple. So they are priestly and they are kingly, whoever they may be. Some say that the number 24 is taken from the fact that David divided the priesthood in his day into 24 courses, because there were too many priests to serve simultaneously all at the tabernacle.

He divided up their duties into two extents year-round, and there were 24 groups of them. And that is possible. These elders do have priestly functions, and the number 24 does call to mind the 24 orders of priests that David divided into.

But I think probably we're to understand these 24 elders to simply represent God's people. And God had people before Christ came and after in the Old Testament and the New. And the people of God were divided into the 12 tribes in the Old Testament and are represented by the 12 apostles in the New.

And while I don't think that John was seeing the 12 apostles and the 12 patriarchs, I think the number 24 suggests the combination of Old Testament and New Testament saints. That is, these elders probably aren't real people at all. They're a vision.

They're symbolic. I don't really expect to see 24 thrones around the throne of God if I go to heaven. Now I could be wrong.

What I expect isn't authoritative. But as I understand the nature of a vision in the Bible, whether it's Daniel, whether it's Zechariah, whether it's Ezekiel, whether it's John on Patmos, the nature of visions is that things, almost everything in the vision represents something and conveys a concept. And therefore the number 24 persons who seem to be kingly and priestly would suggest God's people.

We are a kingdom of priests. This was true of Israel in the Old Testament when they were faithful. And it's true of the church in the New Testament.

And therefore 12 elders representing the Old Testament saints, 12 elders representing the New Testament saints is what frankly most commentators have come up with on this. And I think that I've not been able to really imagine an alternative that makes better sense to me given the overall message of the vision as I understand it. And we'll see that they are praising God.

The people of God do praise Him. He receives glory from His people, both those who He saved in the Old Testament and in the New. We will find in chapter 15 that these inhabitants of heaven are singing what is called the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb.

Revelation 15.3, these people were up in heaven singing around the throne and it says they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb. And it gives a sample of their singing there. Now the song of Moses, of course, is the song of the Old Testament redeemed people who came through the Red Sea.

They sang what was called in Exodus 15 the song of Moses. But this is the song of Moses coupled with the song of the Lamb. You've got the saved of the Old Testament and the redeemed of the New Testament singing together here.

And therefore, again, the singing of the 24 elders probably is the same as the singing of these people in chapter 15. They are representative of all the people God has saved at all times, Old and New Testament. They are not necessarily all in heaven.

You see, those who believe that the pre-trib rapture occurred in chapter 4 verse 1 often say, well, see, the church is in heaven here. They say the 24 elders represents the church and it's in heaven. So the church must have been raptured.

Well, I assure you much of the church is in heaven. In fact, as we speak, they say, well, Jesus, in order to come back with 10,000 of his saints, he'll have to rapture the church first so that he has to come for the saints before he can come with the saints. Not so.

There are 10,000 of his saints with him in heaven right now. He can bring with him any moment he wishes. It does not require that he rapture us first.

He can bring the tens of thousands who are with him now. John is caught up in heaven. He sees the people of God.

Now, I'm not even positive that we're to understand that he's conveying the idea that these people of God are specifically in heaven. He's in the spirit, seeing spiritual things. And therefore, the worship of the people of God might represent the people of God no matter where they are.

Certainly many of them have gone on to heaven. Some of them are still here. But the worship of the saints is, I believe, represented by these people.

And no doubt, since the venue is heaven around the throne, it's primarily conveying the idea of saints who've gone to heaven. But he says, after he describes the 24 elders, it says in verse 5, from the throne proceed lightning, thunderings, and voices. Now, we're going to see a lot of lightning, thunderings, and voices in the book of Revelation.

In fact, every time they're mentioned together, he seems to add something more. Lightning, thunderings, voices, and an earthquake. Then lightning, thunderings, voices, an earthquake, and great hail.

These things are going to accumulate. But the main thing is they're proceeding from the throne. And they are judgment images.

The idea here is whatever judgment we're about to read of is not random at all. It is proceeding from the wise judge who is himself sentencing and sending forth and executing these judgments against people who deserve them. We'll have more to say about that in a moment.

Now, there were also seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. Now, we encountered the seven spirits of God the first time in chapter 1. And it was not all that helpful. But it said, in trying to understand who they are, in chapter 1, verse 4, it says, John to the seven churches which are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ.

So I suggested that many believe this is the Trinity. The first person mentioned, he that is, was, and is to come, being the Father, Jesus Christ playing himself. And then the seven spirits of God representing the Holy Spirit.

I say that because the commentators say that. I also said I'm not at all convinced that this is a very satisfying explanation of who the seven spirits of God are. I just know of no other alternative that has ever been suggested that that makes more sense.

Not to say that makes a lot of sense. Who the seven spirits of God are, are something of a mystery. To say that they represent the Holy Spirit solves a mystery in a way.

Whether it solves it satisfactorily or not will be anyone's judgment. But we encountered them in chapter 1, verse 4, without any explanation who they were. Then in chapter 3, verse 1, we encountered them again in Jesus' statement.

These things says he who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. So here he associates the seven spirits of God with the seven stars in some way. You remember the seven stars were the seven angels of the seven churches.

What John saw that was explained at the end of chapter 1 in verse 20 was, what are the seven stars? What are the seven lamps? Well, the seven stars are the seven angels of the seven churches. The seven lamps are the seven churches. So we see in chapter 3, verse 1, the seven spirits of God are somehow associated with the seven stars.

But here in chapter 4, they are associated with the seven lamps. In fact, identified with them. Chapter 4, verse 5, there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God.

In chapter 1, the seven lamps were the seven churches. Of course, there are seven lamp stands, but presumably each lamp stand had a lamp on it. Now, whether this is saying that the churches are bearing their light under the supervision of God before the throne of God or whatever, I'm not sure.

But what's mysterious is that it says that these lamps are the seven spirits of God. So the mystery thickens. And we're going to hear about them one more time.

And it's not going to help. We will see them mentioned again in chapter 5 and verse 6, where at the end of that verse, the middle of the verse says, there stood a lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. So now, what are the seven spirits of God? Well, they are the seven eyes and they are the seven lamps.

And they're somehow associated with the seven stars and also associated with Jesus and the Father in the greeting at the beginning of the book. And when you can put all those clues together and tell me what the common denominator is, we will know what the seven spirits really are. Those are all the verses we have that mention them.

So I think I have learned to be very content with what few things I can understand and realize there are going to be a great number of things probably that I cannot. But one thing I can understand, I think, as we move along and compare scripture to scripture, is the movement of the plot of this story. And that's what I'm going to try to share with you.

Now verse 6, chapter 4, verse 6, before the throne there was a sea of glass like crystal. And in the midst of the throne, by the way, sea of glass, that means it's very calm. The sea is sometimes very turbulent.

At this point, there's a calm. The sea is going to be stirred up. In chapter 7 it says, in verse 1, chapter 7, after these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth holding the four winds of the earth that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree.

That is, no turbulence will be allowed to go at this point because something has to be done first. In that case, it's the sealing of the servants of God on their forehead. It has to happen before any turbulence, before there's any judgment.

The sea is going to be blown around. The sea is going to be stirred up along with trees and other things. But right now he sees calm, a sea of glass.

Now there's thunderings and lightnings proceeding from the throne, but they are not yet messing things up. The sea is still calm. The judgments have not really been unleashed.

It says in verse 6, and in the midst of the throne and around the throne were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. Now, where are they? They're in the midst of the throne and around the throne. Okay, what would be in the midst of the throne? I mean, picture a throne, and there's already someone seated there.

So where are the living creatures going to be in the midst of the throne? Maybe the throne is like a complex, a whole stage area they're in. I don't know. But they're not in the midst of the throne only.

They're also around the throne. Now there's only four of them. They've got to be positioned in some way that he says are in the midst of and around the throne.

I cannot picture it, and I don't feel the need to do so. All I can say is I think these these details are impressionistic, and I think they're trying to convey ideas. What are the ideas? What are the four living creatures? Well, probably their description could help us out.

Do you think? I don't know. Let's see. They were full of eyes in front and in back, so they're real hard to sneak up on.

The first living creature was like a lion. The second living creature like a calf. The third living creature had a face of a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle, and they had six wings each, and they were full of eyes around and within.

Apparently, they were introspective as well as outward looking. Their eyes were around them, but also within them, and they do not rest day or night, and they sing. Okay, so that should be enough clues to go on.

What kind of creatures are these? Well, easily, one's a lion, one's an ox, one's man-like, one's an eagle, but what do they represent? This imagery is certainly taken from a combination of Old Testament passages, as much of Revelation's pictures are, combining images from more than one place. In Ezekiel chapter one and in Ezekiel chapter 10, twice, Ezekiel gives detailed descriptions of creatures that he identifies as the cherubim. Now, he does not use the word cherubim in Ezekiel chapter one.

He just describes them as creatures, but in chapter 10, he gives the exact same description. He sees them again, and he says, these are the cherubim. So, we now know that what Ezekiel saw were cherubim.

Were they these creatures? Well, not exactly, but they seem to be relatives, because the same four creatures that we find represented here were represented in the cherubim. The only difference is, here we have one creature like a lion, one like an ox or a calf, one like a man, one like an eagle. The cherubim that Ezekiel saw were also four creatures in number.

They were the four corners of the chariot, like footmen, around God's throne chariot, but each of them had four faces. Each of the cherubim had a face of a lion, each had a face of an ox, each had the face of a man, each had the face of an eagle. So, in other words, there were 16 faces among them.

As near as we can tell, these living creatures only have the four. They're the same animals, the same faces, but distributed somewhat differently. Furthermore, the cherubim that Ezekiel saw had four wings.

It's distinctly stated they had four wings. This says these creatures, in verse six, or verse eight, excuse me, have six wings. Now, in having six wings, they resemble more the seraphim, the burning ones that Isaiah saw in Isaiah 6, when he saw the Lord high and lifted up with his train filling the temple.

It was the seraphim that were there singing, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Hey, that's what these are singing. That's the song these guys are singing.

They're singing the seraph song, and they have six wings. The seraphs had six wings. Now, are these seraphs then, or are they cherubs? It is possible that the seraphs fit this description completely, and the cherubim are sort of like them in having similar faces, but my impression is that this symbolic vision is borrowing images from both the cherubim and the seraphim.

We could, of course, assume that the cherubim are real creatures that fit the description that Ezekiel gives, and actually live in heaven, and the seraphim are also living creatures that live in heaven. These are like some kind of a hybrid, like there's been some intermixing up there. The angels aren't married or given in marriage, but there's some transitional forms in between them.

There's these four living creatures. I don't think that's the way we're supposed to look at it. I think that the cherubim described by Ezekiel, the seraphim described by Isaiah, and these creatures are all symbolic descriptions rather than literal, and this shouldn't bother us.

Once you become familiar with Ezekiel, especially, and other books like it, like Zechariah, you'll find that this is not an unusual thing to say. Every vision that Zechariah saw or Ezekiel saw was full of stuff that was really not what it appeared to be. Eagles representing kings of Judah, an olive tree or some kind of a cedar tree representing the Messiah, the king of Tyre called a cherub, the king of Assyria being called a cedar in Lebanon.

Ezekiel, Zechariah, these visions, in Zechariah, Joshua and Zerubbel are called two olive trees, and they are represented as having golden pipes running from them into golden bowls feeding a lampstand, and they are these two guys. In other words, in apocalyptic visions, things are not what they appear to be. What is presented is a representation of an idea that corresponds to something, and therefore, a description of the cherubs or of the seraphs or of these creatures probably corresponds to certain ideas that we're supposed to get across here.

I'm going to assume this true based on my familiarity with the other similar types of visions in the Old Testament. And what then do they represent? Although the faces are distributed differently here than in Ezekiel, the same four faces are in both places. You've got a lion, you've got an ox, you've got a man, you've got an eagle.

And what do those represent? The rabbis had a theory about this, of course not about Revelation, but about the faces in Ezekiel, which are represented here in Revelation also. The rabbis contemplating the cherubim of Ezekiel said, well, the lion is the chief of the wild beasts. The ox is the chief of the domesticated beasts.

The eagle is clearly the chief of the birds, and man is the chief of all creation. So that the lion, the ox, the birds, and man simply encompass representations, the chief representations, of all of the created realm, all the beings that God created. Just as when Moses needed to negotiate with the 12 tribes of Israel, he called the chiefs, he called the leaders, the princes, the elders of the tribes, the older men who negotiated for the tribes.

The tribes were represented in their chiefs. And so all the realms of creation, the wild animals, the domestic animals, the birds, all creation itself, represented in their chiefs, in these visions. The idea being that these four living creatures represent the creation.

And what do we find them doing? Praising God. The heavens declare the glory of God. The creation is speaking his praises, as are the redeemed people.

In this vision, God is being praised by those people that he's redeemed and his creation, the two sources from which God receives praise. And one reason, among others, for suspecting that we're not looking at a literal picture is that it says that these living creatures do not cease, they do not rest, day or night, they don't stop singing this song. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty, who was and is and is to come.

Now it's a very lofty song, it's a very edifying song, but it doesn't have, I mean, it has some good theology in it, but day and night, forever and ever, they just sing these three lines and nothing else. Maybe, but what makes it seem less likely that this is literal is that it says in verse 9, whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, whenever they do, but they do it 24-7, but whenever they do it, well, whenever they, what do you mean, when do they ever stop doing it? They do it ceaselessly, day and night, but whenever they sing this song, the elders respond by casting their crowns on the, in front of the throne. Now, does this mean the elders are continually throwing their crowns off because the living creatures are continually singing? Whenever the living creatures sing this song, they take their crowns off.

Well, then do they put them back on and throw them off and how's this work? How are we supposed to picture this? I don't know that we are supposed to picture it. I think we're basically supposed to be absorbing it, not so much picturing it, but digesting it more like. The idea here is that the elders, of course, are casting their crowns before the Lord as if to say, whatever achievements we have gained are not really our achievements, but yours, whatever rewards we have earned, we have earned through your strength, through your enablement, through your grace.

Therefore, these rewards belong to you. At least the action of casting the crowns down before the throne would convey that idea. And I think this vision is more interested in conveying ideas than giving us some kind of a literal description of what's really going on in the sky right now, or was even literally going on in the a picture story that gives him some idea of heavenly realities, but not in their literal descriptive form, I think.

And we find that the elders are singing this song in verse 11, you are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things. And by your will, they exist and are created or were created. So they are acknowledging God as the creator of everything and indicating his prerogatives.

Since everything was made at his behest, everything was made for his purpose, at his will, everything was made as the King James says, for your pleasure. The King James says, for thy pleasure they are and were created. God had an idea that would please him.

And he made everything for that idea. Of course, this suggests that the creation does not have any purpose of existence other than to please God and to fulfill his purpose. That means that we who are part of that creation have no reason to exist except to fulfill the purpose of God.

We sometimes imagine that we have purpose. And you know, when you talk to an atheist or read an atheist, they really do not have any good answer to the question, well, then what is the purpose of existence? They have to, if they're honest, say, well, there really is no purpose. But if they're not quite honest and not willing to go that far, they'd say, well, you can, every person has to decide for himself what purpose, what's the purpose of his existence.

My purpose is to make the world a better place. My purpose is to alleviate poverty. My purpose is to do these good things or whatever.

But who assigned that purpose? You did? Well, then it has no intrinsic validity. You're just pretending that you have a purpose because we're asking what purpose was there for you existing? You didn't come into existence by your own will to fulfill your purpose. You have decided for yourself on something you wanted to do once you were here and decided that's going to be my purpose from now on.

But what was the purpose of you being here in the first place? And you couldn't have chosen that. And very few people are going to let their parents choose their life purposes for them. So who purposed you being here? If there's no God, no one did.

If there's no God, there's no purpose in living. And it's not too surprising that nihilism has become such as a classic mindset of a generation or two that have been raised being taught that they weren't created by God. They just arrived the same way every other animal species did through a process that nature mindlessly worked and brought about things that nature never intended to be here.

It's just nature produced them blindly, mindlessly. There's no more reason for you to be here than there is for a rock to be in the ground. There's no reason for anything to be here.

It just is. It just happened. But of course, if you think that, then there really is nothing transcendent about being human at all.

You can't fulfill your purpose in life because there really isn't one. You can pretend there is. You can imagine there is.

You can hope there is. You can define a purpose of your own and say, that's my purpose. But you have to live with the knowledge that I'm just saying that's my purpose.

I really don't know why I was born. I think I wasn't born for anything. I was just born for nothing.

And I've got to, in order to find satisfaction, pretend that there's something I'm here for. Something that was supposed to happen. I was supposed to fill a place in this puzzle.

Something that had to be done. And I was the one for the job. Now see, if God made us, all those intuitions are true.

Everyone believes there's a purpose for their existence. Or if they don't, they're kind of ready for a padded cell. Because you really can't live as a human being without a sense of direction.

A sense of there's a reason I should go this way and not this way because it's my purpose to do that. One philosopher, I don't remember if he was a Christian or not. He probably was a Christian, but he was a philosopher, not a theologian.

He's quoted as saying, according to evolution, the universe purposely produced creatures that are obsessed with finding their purpose. But there is no purpose for them. And it would be very strange for this obsession with believing there's a purpose, but there isn't, to somehow have selective advantage.

Why would it be that creatures who are deluded about reality and think there's something transcendent when there isn't, why would that be predictive of selective advantage? Why would evolution produce this kind of creature? These people are like ostriches with their head in the ground if it's not true. They're pretending that the universe is a different way than it is if it's not true. It's hard to imagine how evolution, if it's picking the fittest and the wisest and the best, why it would select a whole race to be the dominant race who believe something about the universe that isn't true and something about themselves that isn't true, namely that somebody made them for something.

And someone did. And that's what these 24 elders are declaring. God is worthy to receive every glory and honor and power because he created all things and he did it for a purpose.

They exist by his will. Now it's important to note the ramifications. Because God created, he is worthy.

His creatorship translates into his being worthy, that is deserving of something, to be glorified, to be honored. That people are told to honor and glorify God because he deserves it. And therefore, if people choose not to honor and glorify God, they are depriving God of something he deserves.

Just like if you hire someone to do some work in your yard and they deserve to be paid and you just send them home without money. You say, sorry, you're not going to get the money. You rip them off.

If somebody deserves something from you and you don't give it to him, you're a thief. To say he's worthy to receive means he deserves this. Why? Because he created it and he has the right to expect from his creation the things that he made it for.

You know, this concept that the creator has the right to his products is intuitive in every legal system in modern thinking civilization. That's why we have copyright laws. That's why we have patents.

Because if you are the creator of something, it is intuitively known, well, you ought to have the right to do with it what you want. You get the patent on it. You get to control its production.

You get the copyright. You get the royalties for it. Why? Because you made it, of course.

Why should anyone else get that? The thing you make doesn't have intrinsic rights to anything but the person who made it does. And so God is worthy to receive what he wants from his creation. And nobody has the right to deprive him.

Now, people do have the power to. God gave us free choice. And sometimes people get confused about that.

Well, if God gave us free choice, why is he going to judge us for anything? Free choice means you can make the wrong decisions. It doesn't mean you can get away with it. Free choice doesn't mean God said all choices are equally good, all choices are equally valid.

It just means that there's a right choice and a wrong choice and he lets you make the choice which you'll have. But the wrong choice comes with consequences. And so we have the choice to glorify God or do something else with our lives.

According to the elders' song, we have, in a sense, the power to make that choice but not the right. We don't have the right to deprive God of anything. And therefore, anyone who lives one moment of his life without consciously being devoted to serving and glorifying God is, at that moment, robbing God of what is owed to him, what he's worthy to receive.

Now, chapter 5 then continues the vision without a break but adding some new details. We already saw there was one on the throne and he was surrounded by a group of unusual throne attendants, the 24 elders and the four living creatures. We're going to be introduced to millions of angels in this part of the vision, but before we do, there's some important action to take place.

There's no forward movement of the story in chapter 4. There's simply a description of what's continually going on in heaven in John's vision. But now there's a plot, now there's action, now there's development. And I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals.

Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals? And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look at it. So I wept much because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll or to look at it. But one of the elders said to me, do not weep.

Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seals. And I looked and behold, in the midst of the throne, there's a lot of things in the midst of the throne, the living creatures are there too, as well as the inhabitant, but in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent out into all the earth. Then he came and took the scroll out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne.

Now, if you wanted to get any sleep, that was the wrong thing to see happen because as soon as that happened, everything in heaven got noisy. Things, everyone berserk. This was considered to be an occasion for celebration when the lamb stepped forward and take this scroll.

It says, now when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song saying, you are worthy to take the scroll to open its seals for you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood. The Alexandria, Texas has redeemed men to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation and have made us again, the Alexandria, Texas men, kings and priests to our God.

And we or they in the Alexandria shall reign on the earth. I mentioned the way in the day, because the way suggests that the singers are the redeemed ones from every tribe and tongue. And as that would identify them certainly as the church.

If we are redeemed from every tribe and tongue and have become a kingdom of priests, this is the church. And if it's the singers themselves, then we've easily identified them. Unfortunately, the older manuscripts don't say we, but they.

So whoever it is singing is singing about the church. Whether they are the church or not is not so easy to decide from the pronouns. Then I looked and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, the living creatures and the elders.

And the number of them was 10,000 times, 10,000 and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. Just coincidentally, there are seven things in that list and every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them. I heard saying blessing and honor and glory and power to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb forever and ever.

Then the four living creatures said, amen. And the 24 elders fell down and worshiped him who lives forever and ever. Okay.

Now what have we just read about? Well, the last half of the chapter is simply the celebration. The action takes place in the first half of the chapter and then we find how important that action was by the fact that first the living creatures and the 24 elders start singing and then they're joined by the voice of many angels. And the number of the angels was 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands.

So there's millions of them. And then in verse 13, every creature which is in heaven and earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea all join in. So this is a rising crescendo with more and more voices being added until every created creature in the universe is now singing this song.

Now the fact that it says every creature in heaven and earth and under the sea and so forth, all the fish and all that are singing again conveys the idea of a symbolic picture, but conveying the idea that all of creation and all of the inhabitants of heaven are excited about what we've just seen. So it is kind of interesting, but what is so exciting about it? You've got this scroll, it's got seven seals on it. Now a seal was made of wax with the mark of a signet ring.

They're not hard to break. When it says in verse 3, no one in heaven or earth or under the sea or the earth, excuse me, was able to open it, when it says they weren't able to open it and break the seals, the problem was not that they didn't have the strength. Anyone would have the strength to break a wax seal.

The issue is who is worthy or authorized. That's the question that's asked in verse 2. Who is worthy to open the scroll and loose its seals? The issue here is not strength, but qualification. The scroll has got to be opened, but only a qualified person can break the seals, like any official document.

An official document in those days would be sealed shut and would have to be opened by someone qualified to break the seals. Not everyone was allowed to do it. Anyone could do it if it came to brute force, but being permitted to legally would be another issue.

So what is this scroll? Well, that's a matter of opinion, of course, as are most things in the book of Revelation. But the common view of the futurist, and I believe of some of the other views as well, is that it is the title deed to the earth. And as it is understood by the futurists especially, this is the deed that was surrendered by Adam to Satan.

God gave Adam and Eve dominion over the earth, but when they sinned, they came under the dominion of Satan. It's as if the rule of the world was delivered over to Satan. But God always intended to get it back, and Jesus is the one who paid the price to get it back.

This is how the story goes. Now to tell you the truth, that scenario I just gave, I have no objection to it. As near as I can tell, that's one very reasonable way to summarize the biblical story.

But they take it from there and say, so this is the end of the world when Jesus is finally taking the world back. He's going to take the world back and reign for a thousand years on it, and then he's going to make a new heaven and a new earth. But first he has to reclaim it, and that requires opening this scroll.

Now this scroll is going to be a judgment on the devil and all who are on his side, so that they will no longer be able to have control or ownership. So Jesus in a sense is seen as taking the title deed of the earth back to own it. Now there's nothing unedifying about that particular scenario.

It's one of several that could be imagined. I happen to favor another. I personally think that Jesus appears here for another function.

I believe the scroll has a different function. In my opinion, John has been caught up into a throne room where a trial has been underway, and John missed the trial, but he got there in time for the sentencing. He got there just in time to see the sentence being handed down, the judgment on the criminal.

The criminal is described in many ways in the book of revelations, sometimes as a harlot who's drunk with the blood of the martyrs. Well, who's the plaintiff in this case? The martyrs themselves. We get this hint when the scroll is being opened and the fifth seal is broken, and in chapter 6 we read in verse 9, chapter 6 verse 9 and following says, when he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held.

And they cried with a loud voice saying, how long, O Lord, holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth or land. We'll have to decide between earth or land momentarily. And white robe was given to each of them, and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who would be killed as they were was completed.

Now, here's the plaintiffs. They're crying out to God saying, when are you going to avenge? Aren't you the judge? Didn't you say, vengeance is mine, I will repay. Didn't you tell us not to avenge ourselves so that you could do that for us? When are you going to do that? When are you going to judge and avenge those who shed our blood, those who killed us? There's some injustice done here.

Just as the blood of Abel cried out from the ground at the injustice of his murder so that God had to address the murderer Cain, so the blood of the martyrs or the souls of the martyrs who've been slain is crying out saying, hey, when are you going to avenge our blood? This is not the kind of thing that a good judge can leave unfinished. How long will it be? So I believe we have a picture of an unredressed injustice. However, it's about to be redressed.

When the story ends, when you get to really the end of the judgment portion, you're in chapter 19 or actually back in verse 18 and the transition to verse 19, it says in verse 21, Revelation 18, 21. Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea saying, thus with violence, the great Babylon shall be thrown down and shall not be found anymore. Then it goes on and then it says in verse 24, and in her, that is in Babylon, was found the blood of prophets and saints and of all who were slain on the earth.

That must be the culprit that the martyrs are complaining about. When are you going to avenge us on those who killed us? But here, Babylon is the one who is, in her, has found all the blood of the prophets and the saints who were slain on the earth and therefore she is judged. She's thrown into the sea like a millstone.

And in verse 19, after these things, I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven saying, hallelujah, salvation and glory and honor and power to the Lord our God, for true and righteous are his judgments. He's finally avenged. The judgment, the sentence has been executed because he has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication.

He has avenged on her the blood of his servants shed by her. So the martyrs are complaining, how long before you avenge our blood? Well, that's exactly what's going to be taking place here. There's been a trial.

The plaintiff has brought the complaint. These people killed us and therefore the judge is handing down the sentence. As the seals are individually broken off the scroll, the judgment unfurls.

The judgment develops and the rest of the book of Revelation, I believe, is intended to be seen as the verdict of the judge and the sentence of the judge being passed down and executed. But the question first is who is worthy to execute the harlot? The question seems to be the same as that which Jesus raised when a harlot was brought to him in John chapter 8. He said, let him who is without sin be the first to cast a stone at her. She surely deserves to die because Moses said that she should be stoned to death.

Jesus didn't question whether she should die or not. He said, let the one who's worthy, let the one who is not as guilty as she is be the first to hurl the stone. Of course, only one person was present who was worthy to do that, to execute the harlot, and he on that occasion said, I don't choose to do that right now.

Just don't go and sin anymore. But here's a case of a harlot who needs to be executed and she's guilty of the blood of the saints and the martyrs. And the saints and martyrs are raising their complaint before God night and day saying, when is this going to happen? And so God is responding.

He's handing down the sentence. Apparently when John was caught up there into the courtroom, all testimony and evidence had been presented. And it's now left to the judge to hand down the sentence.

And so he's got it in his hand and now he's looking for an executioner who's qualified. It has to be someone who's without sin. And therefore it's very difficult to find somebody who's qualified.

He says in verse two, I saw a strong angel proclaim with a loud voice, a strong angel, a loud voice. Why? Because this message had to go through the whole universe, had to be heard far and wide saying, who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals? And the answer was no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to respond to that summons. They weren't even able to look at it.

I think that's why John wept. He was curious. Shoot, I was hoping to get a look at that thing.

So I wept much because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll. Actually, I'm kind of facetious when I said he was just curious and disappointed. I think he got a sense, perhaps before we do, of the import of this particular scroll.

We are not really given enough information yet by chapter five, verse three, to know exactly what the issue is here with this scroll. But John apparently realizes this is not something that can go unopened. And he's weeping convulsively when he finds that it looks like no one's going to show up to do it.

Now, what does it take to qualify? Now, it turns out that Jesus is the only one who qualifies. So we might think, well, he has to be sinless. Let him who is without sin cast the first stone at her.

True, no doubt he does have to be sinless, but there are sinless angels too. Why didn't they qualify? Heaven's got millions of them. Why couldn't any of them break it? Well, probably the fact that Jesus was human had something to do with qualifying him too.

The fact that he had been in our shoes and could then be, as it were, qualified to judge in a sense sympathetically and justly. If you look at John chapter five, also written by the same author as who wrote Revelation, obviously, John 5, 22, for the father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the son. That all should honor the son just as they honor the father.

He who does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him. And then it says in verse 27 that God has given him, Jesus, authority to execute judgment also. Why? Because he's the son of man.

He's sinless and so are angels, but he's not an angel. He's a man. And that is why God has given him the authority to exercise all judgment.

Why is that an issue? I remember when I was young hearing preachers sometimes tell a story. It was fiction, but it was illustrative about how all the people are rounded up on the day of judgment. They're sitting in the outer room of the courtroom waiting to go before the judge behind the big double doors that are shut there, and they're waiting for their day in court, and they're all talking to each other about how God has no right to judge them.

Because each one tells this story. There was a stigma in my life from the time I was born, because I was in poverty, and I was born out of wedlock, and I was born to a hated race, persecuted. I was subject of racial prejudice and all these different problems.

I was betrayed by my friends and all that stuff, of course. And you know where this is going. And each one tells this story and says, God has no right to judge me.

He's been here in his ivory tower all this time, unaffected by all the temptations and pains of living in the world we lived in. How could he possibly pass righteous judgment on us? And then they came up with the idea, we should actually put a list of demands to God that before he can judge us, he would have to go through this, this, and this. And they make the list, of course, that resembles the list of what they said were their exemptions.

Until God goes through that, he cannot judge us. And then the angel comes out and opens the door and says, okay, court is in session. Come in.

And they look and see who's sitting on the bench, and they realize God has served his term already. And he is qualified to judge them, because of course, he was the son of man. He is the one who has been through what men have been through.

Not every last thing, but the Bible does say he was tempted at all points as we are, yet without sin, he's had to struggle. Someone said that when Jesus went back to heaven, I think the first thing he said was, man, those guys have it really hard down there. You know, he's not a high priest who is untouched by the feeling of our infirmities.

He's been encompassed with infirmity himself. And therefore, he is qualified to judge. He knows how hard it is for us, because it was hard for him.

Harder for him, because he didn't succumb to temptation. It's a lot easier on the people who succumb than those who hold out, because succumbing is the easy way out. The person who never succumbs temptation is doing the much more difficult thing, of course.

And so he has been through as much as we have, only harder. And he's without sin. And he is in all points qualified as no other being in the universe is.

The only man who's been in our skin and who didn't sin. So initially, no one shows up. The summons goes through heaven.

No angels qualify. Through earth, no men qualify. Under the earth, anyone down there? No, no one qualifies.

And so John says, uh-oh, looks like this story's over. Guess I'll go home to Patmos now, because I'm not going to see any more action here. Because no one's here to open this scroll.

And obviously, that's supposed to happen. But verse 5 says, one of the elders said to me, do not weep. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.

Now, the lion of the tribe of Judah is a term not used anywhere else in scripture. Although, a lion traditionally was the emblem of the tribe of Judah. When the tribes marched through the wilderness on their way to Canaan, and the order of their encampments and marching order are given in the book of Numbers, there were banners of each of the tribes.

And although the Bible doesn't say what was on the banners, according to Jewish tradition, Judah's banner was a lion. Interestingly, the other major tribes on the other sides of the tabernacle were an ox, a man, and an eagle. But that's neither here nor there.

That's Jewish tradition. But Judah is associated with a lion. In fact, when Jacob prophesied over his 12 sons, when he came to Judah, he likened him to a lion.

In Genesis chapter 49, prophesying about Judah, it says in verse 9, Genesis 49, 9, Judah is a lion's whelp. From the prey, my son, you've gone up. He bows down, he lies down as a lion.

And as a lion, who shall rouse him? Then it says, the scepter shall not depart from Judah. That is the royal authority. The emblem of being king is the scepter.

It will not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh comes. Shiloh is a word that means him to whom belongs. Him to whom the scepter belongs will not come from anywhere except Judah.

And Judah will keep the scepter in hand through the house of David until Shiloh, the one to whom it belongs, comes. This is the prophecy. But he likens Judah to a lion.

And so also Jesus is called the lion of the tribe of Judah. Now what John is told is that the lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed. But he doesn't say what he's prevailed over, but he's won the battle.

Jesus said the same thing in the upper room, but he said, I have overcome, same word, I've overcome the world. And obviously the churches who are receiving this communique, this book of Revelation are also urged to be overcomers. Jesus has overcome.

He's like a lion. So obviously John expects to look up and see a lion. He's been weeping.

His eyes are blurred. He looks up to see what has been described. And what has been described or alluded to is a lion, a prevailing lion, obviously a ferocious lion.

And he looks up and he sees what appears to be the opposite. I looked and behold in the midst of the throne and in the four living creatures, there stood a lamb, and not just a lamb, but one that's been killed. I mean, if a lamb isn't unintimidating enough, just being there as a lamb, it's even less intimidating when it's dead.

It's been slain. And it had seven eyes and seven horns. Now I've mentioned before, horns throughout scripture are emblems of power, seven of perfection.

It means that Jesus is all powerful. He is omnipotent. Seven eyes obviously speaks of being aware of things, seeing things and knowing things.

So having seven eyes means he knows, he sees and knows everything. In fact, it says his seven eyes are the seven spirits sent out into all the earth. I don't know, again, who the seven spirits really are, how to describe them.

But it's clear that it says his eyes are sent out into all the earth. The seven spirits are his eyes. And therefore, he's drawing information directly through direct knowledge.

Like when you see something from all over the world, he's paying attention to everything. Now, I find it interesting that those who are acclimated to the rare climes of heaven and see things through heavenly eyes, when they see Jesus, he's a lion. John, who's a mere man, looking at the same object, sees a lamb.

Jesus, the same being. From one perspective of a lion, that's how the inhabitants of heaven recognize him and see him. To a man, a lamb.

When Jesus was on earth, to the eyes of men, he was not really very scary. He was holy, harmless, separate from sinners, the writer of Hebrews says. Harmless, never heard of flee.

Yeah, he drove a few cows out of the temple once or twice, but he never heard of a person. And he was, in a sense, no one would be afraid that he was going to take up a sword and attack them if they spit in his face. He's harmless.

He's like a lamb. However, the demons, when they saw him, they had a different reaction. Whenever he encountered demon-possessed people, the demons were terrified.

They said, we know who you are. You're the Holy One of God. Have you come to torment us before the time? What have you to do with us? Leave us alone.

Don't cast us into the pit. They obviously saw Jesus differently than people did. People saw Jesus as a harmless lamb.

The demons saw him as an intimidating, fierce foe who could apparently torment them and destroy them. Now, I personally believe that when we come to Revelation 12 and we read of this war in heaven, which ends up with the dragon being cast out of heaven, which is at the cross, I believe, that we are being told that when Jesus was on earth, culminating in the cross, there was a fierce battle going on in heaven. Michael and his angels fighting against... I wasn't speaking to you, Michael.

Michael and his angels making war against the dragon and his angels. There's this battle going on. It ends at the cross.

So it must have been going on while Jesus was here on earth. If you could have seen into the sky, into the heavenly realm when Jesus was here, you'd see a great battle going on. That's no doubt what the demons saw going on.

They could see that realm. People couldn't. It just looked like Jesus walked around like a harmless peasant, teaching people, feeding hungry people, healing sick people, holding children on his lap, you know, gentle Jesus, meek and mild, and yet in the heavenly realm, there's this horrendous battle going on that ends up with the defeat of Satan, and Jesus sort of hints at that.

When the disciples come back, the 70 come back in Luke 10 from casting out demons, they say, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. He says, I saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven. He saw this violent overthrow of Satan's kingdom going on.

What the disciples saw was this person get delivered a demon, that person get delivered a demon, a few incidental anecdotal victories. Jesus saw the total victory happening. There was this great war and Jesus won it.

He's the lion who prevailed. From the eye of, to the eye of man, he's like a lamb. To the eyes of the inhabitants of heaven, he's much more imposing than that.

And so he came and took the scroll out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne, and that was what, of course, triggered all that happened with this noise in heaven. Now, I'm not going to go into this detail because we've run out of time now, but I do want to just comment on the content of their songs because it's interesting that the first song that was sung in chapter 4 was speaking about how God is worthy because he created all things. The second song, which is in chapter 5, verse 9, talks about how Christ is because he has redeemed mankind.

And therefore, God and Christ together receive praise of a similar sort. They are both proclaimed to be worthy, and of course, both were involved, as we know, in creation and in redemption. It is these two works of God, creation and redemption, which are the things that qualify God to get what he should get.

And for Jesus to do what he must do. Jesus is sovereign and has the right to break those seals and do whatever he needs to to those enemies. God the Father is sovereign and he has the right to do whatever he wants because he made it all.

And so he's praised for his creatorship. He's praised for his redemption of his creatures. And the angels join in the song of verse 11 and 12, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.

And just about anything else you might want to add to the list, apparently, because the list is kind of, I think, impressionistic. I don't know that there's a big difference between power and strength, for example, or honor and glory. These are just heaping, heaping accolades, really, upon him.

And then every creature which is in heaven and earth and under the earth, which are under this and in the sea, they all begin saying blessing and honor and glory and power unto him who sits on the throne and unto the lamb forever and ever. And then, you know, when everyone in the universe has been shouting these things out, apparently the song dies down and it ends with the four living creatures saying amen. And the 24 elders fell down and worshipped him who lives forever and ever, which is what they did continually.

And so this picture is of a God who is acknowledged by his creation and by those he's redeemed as worthy to do whatever he wants to do. And he only does the right things. He's a redeemer.

He's a creator. And he now is going to respond to those who are saying, when were you going to avenge us again? Okay, now is when you're going to do it. Here's the sentence.

Here's the one who's going to execute it. This lamb, this lion lamb is going to execute the judgment. Now we have not yet identified who the defendant is against whom this sentence is being handed down.

It is Babylon. We know that because in her was found the blood of the prophets and the apostles and the saints and all that were slain. And that's who's being judged here.

It's a vindication of the martyrs here. But who is Babylon? Now that is something that will have to be discovered from the content of the book itself as we move further into it. But at this point, we don't have time to go further into it.

So we will actually view the breaking of this sixth, at least the first six seals in chapter six. I think we'll probably see in our next session, we'll probably be able, I hope, to take chapter six and seven in saying that I realize I'm probably setting myself up for disappointment, but we will try to do that next time. That will cover all the seven seals, at least if we go up to chapter eight, verse one.

So we'll make that our goal next time. And you can laugh at me tomorrow after the class when I fail to get that far.