Chapter # 4 Paragraph # 1 Study # 3
January 28, 2024
Broadlands, Louisiana
(Download Audio)
Thesis: There are three major issues of "background" for this "Revelation" (the "Love of God"; the "Justice of God; and the "Sovereignty" of God) with the focus being upon "the Love for Justice" that is to be revealed by the enforced "Wrath" of the "Sovereign God".
Introduction: In our last study we considered some of the issues of John being summoned into The Heaven "in spirit" (as opposed to flesh) so that he might "see" the "things which shall be hereafter.
In our study this evening we are going to look into the details of what John first saw.
- I. This Chapter Is The Ultimate Background For All That Follows.
- A. It is a vision of The Heaven as the initial presentation of the realm of Heaven (with its characteristics and significances) in respect to "what must take place after these things..." (4:1 compared to Daniel's declaration to the king in Daniel 2:28 and that king's summation of the major lesson he was to learn in 5:21).
- 1. A major element in the connection between "The Heaven" and "The Vision" of what is to come is "sovereign dominion" that cannot be undercut: the "things to come" are going to come.
- a. There is a vast host of "unwritten" details that may, or may not, be "determined", but a sufficient number of them have been so "determined" so that the things John sees are the things that will happen in human history upon the earth.
- 1) The issues involved in "determination" include omniscience, omni-wisdom, love, truth, and omnipotence.
- 2) Within the structure of "creation" is a reality wherein "ends" are "determined", but "processes" may, or may not, be so; the wisdom of God functions to bring declared "ends" no matter which "processes" are involved.
- 3) This reality allows for "personality" to exist in created, sentient creatures while there is a constant commitment to the "end" that is involved.
- b. This is not a challenge to "sovereign dominion"; it is simply an acquiescence to the realities involved in "the wise God's creation" of "persons".
- B. The relationship of "being in the spirit" to the summons to Heaven.
- C. What John saw...
- 1. The "First" issue: he saw a throne...
- a. "Straightway" and "Behold".
- 1) This is John's only use of "straightway" (eutheos) in The Revelation.
- a) In the Gospel of John, this word is used in three texts/contexts and in each one the meaning of the word is akin to "immediately" (a brief passage of time between two "events".
- b) In 3 John 1:14 he uses it to indicate his desire to see the recipient(s) of his letter without a long period passing between the arrival of the letter and an actual face to face meeting.
- 2) "Behold", on the other hand, is found in 25 texts/contexts of The Revelation with the first being in 1:7 with the second being in 1:18.
- a) In 1:7 the "behold focus" is upon the promise of the Second Coming with every eye seeing Him descending with clouds.
- b) In the 1:18 text/context, the "behold" concept is the resurrection out of the realm of the dead with the keys to Death and Hades in His possession.
- c) Both of these first uses set the pattern for "significant" truths that are, frankly, earth shattering in terms of the claims made.
- d) There are, then, five more uses found in the letters to the angels of the churches in Smyrna, Thyatira, Philadelphia (twice), and Laodicea. In each case the "behold" is followed by a declaration of large significance.
- e) The rest of the uses are in various settings in The Revelation and are tied to things that we need to ponder a bit more than certain lesser issues.
- f) The final two uses (22:7, 12) are both tied into "I am coming quickly...", and the exhortations to be sure to be living how you wish to be when He comes.
- b. The "throne" is the next issue John raised.
- 1) The prominence of "thrones" in The Revelation is significantly large (there are 37 texts/contexts where "thrones" are referenced).
- a) There are seven references in chapter four alone: all dealing with the main "undercurrent" of a "throne".
- i. This primary undercurrent is the enforced "rule" of the one(s) who are sitting upon the throne(s) involved in each context.
- ii. This "rule", when applied to the future rule of the King, is regularly characterized as "with a rod of iron"; a concept that is one of a total disregard by the one on the throne for any "objections" by the ones subject to his rule (12:5).
- iii. That it is a rule by means of "a rod of iron" strongly implies the presence of such objections.
- b) This focus upon "thrones" has a backdrop in 1 Kings 10:18-20 where King Solomon (the name is tied to the word for "Peace" in Hebrew) is to "rule" without opposition in a time of "peace" procured by his father David. There are six steps up to his throne with two lions on each step and a further two lions at the sides of the throne itself; fourteen "lions" in all (seven sets of two).
- c) The "point" of this "sight" is the impossibility of successful opposition to the rule of the King as "lion-capable", and the King of God's Kingdom is also so characterized in Revelation 5:5, though His appearance is that of a "slain lamb" (5:6).
- 2) The link between this "throne" and the rest of the "sights" recorded in this book involves, to a high degree, the reality of all of the prophecies being rooted in Omnipotence guided by Omniscience coupled to Omni-Wisdom, and the related concept of most of the prophecies being matters of the outpouring of "wrath" by both the One on the throne and the Lamb (6:16). This is linked to both Isaiah's record of the true God being identifiable by the ability to "prophesy" (and have the prophecy fulfilled) as well as the entirety of the Bible's focus upon a "Sovereign" God (the only "kind of God" there ever could be).
