Revelation 4:2–3 The One On The Throne

 “And instantly I was in spirit there in heaven and saw—oh, the glory of it! — a throne and someone sitting on it! Great bursts of light flashed forth from him as from a glittering diamond or from a shining ruby, and a rainbow glowing like an emerald encircled his throne.” ^[1] 

2.         The One On The Throne (Revelation 4:2–3).[2]
VISION TWO, Revelation 4:1–16:21 Chapter 4 III. The Picture of Things Hereafter, Revelation 4:1–5:14 A.  The Throne of God: The Focal Point of History, Revelation 4:1–11
1.   John was Given the Vision a.   He saw an open door in heaven b.   He heard a commanding voice c.   He was called to “Come up here”: To see things that must take place	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 show thee things which must be hereafter.
d.   He was in the Spirit e.   He saw the astounding sight of God sitting upon His throne	2 And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.
2.   The One on the Throne a.   His position: Was sitting as the sovereign Majesty of the universe b.   His description: Indescribable	3 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.
3.   The 24 Elders a.   Were seated upon thrones that surround God’s throne b.   Were clothed in white c.   Wore crowns of gold	4 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.
4.   The Majesty of God a.   There was lightning & rumblings of thunder b.   There were seven blazing lamps: The seven spirits of God	5 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.
c.   There was a sea of glass, like crystal 5.   The Four Living Creatures Surrounding the Throne a.   Their position: They are the beings closest to God, guardians of His throne & holy presence b.   Their description	6 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. 7 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. 8 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.
c.   Their function: To glorify & honor God	9 And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever,
6.   The Function of the Elders who Surround the Throne a.   To show total submission & subordination b.   To worship the Lord c.   To show the supreme worthiness of the Lord	10 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,
d.   To praise the Lord	11 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.[3]

B. THE PLACE

Revelation 4:2–3

Some details of the place of heaven is described by John. Not all the details about heaven are given but just the initial scene that John witnessed when he entered heaven. The scene is related to the prophetic message he will receive from the Lord.

1. The Chair in the Place (Revelation 4:2, 3, 5, 6)

“Behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne” (Revelation 4:2). The chair or seat here is the throne, and it is a chair of majesty in appearance and location.

• The seeing of the throne. “Behold, a throne” (Revelation 4:2). The first thing John saw when entering heaven was a throne. Its prominence is because of Who sits on the throne.

• The Sovereign on the throne. “One sat on the throne, and he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone” (Revelation 4:2, 3). The two stones mentioned are especially glorious and in a figure tell us the One on the throne was glorious. In heaven God is not mocked, but God is honored. God is glorified in heaven. On earth He is despised, but not in heaven.

• The splendor of the throne. “And there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald” (Revelation 4:3). A typical rainbow has a multitude of colors, this one is simply a beautiful emerald green. This rainbow speaks of the splendor around the throne.

• The steadfastness of the throne. “There was a rainbow round about the throne” (Revelation 4:3). The rainbow was first given to Noah as a pledge that God would not again destroy the earth by water. The rainbow is a portrayal of God’s faithfulness. The prophetic truths to be revealed to John which emphasize judgment are not contrary to the faithfulness of God. God is faithful to His Word. Judgment is not a result of the lack of His faithfulness but a result of the lack of man’s faithfulness.^[4] 

2 (Re. 4:2–3) God, Described: there is the sight of God sitting upon the great throne of God. Note an astounding thing. The appearance of the One on the throne is so glorious and majestic that He is indescribable. No human shape or form can describe Him. God is described in terms of light, the dazzling light of the most precious gems and jewels of that day. He is seen in all of His brilliance and dazzling splendor (Ps. 104:2; 1 Ti. 6:16; 1 Jn. 1:4; see Jn. 12:35–36).

The jewels chosen to describe God proclaim a marvelous message to the hearer. They were considered the most brilliant and the most valued, precious, and desired gems on earth. Thus God is seen and described as the most brilliant and valued, precious, and desired Being—a Being of indescribable glory and splendor.

⇒   The countenance of God shone like a jasper stone. The stone referred to was different from the jasper stone of today. The idea is that the stone was some sort of translucent crystal through which light was shining. It was shining so brightly that it was apparently like the concentrated light of a laser. This represents the penetrating perfection and purity of God.

⇒   The sardine stone was a fiery red stone and it represents the justice of God.

⇒   The rainbow that surrounded the throne looked like emerald green. This represents the mercy of God and the new covenant of grace given to man by God. (See the promise of mercy made to Noah. See Ge. 9:11–17.)

Thought 1. Note this: the throne of God covers the whole scope of salvation.

⇒   There is God in all of His perfection and purity. And there is man who comes short of God’s perfection and purity, short of God’s glory.

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Ro. 3:23).

⇒   There is God’s justice and judgment. Man, being short of God’s perfection and purity, cannot live with God. God can allow only perfection into His presence. If He allowed sin and unrighteousness to live in His presence, they would contaminate heaven; heaven would no longer be heaven. Therefore, God must execute judgment upon sin and unrighteousness.

⇒   There is God’s mercy and grace. God loves man; therefore, He sent His Son to bear the sins of man. His Son actually took the sins of man upon Himself and bore the guilt of judgment against them. Therefore, man can now be free of sin. He can become acceptable to God if he will accept the sacrifice of Christ for his sins. God has had mercy upon man.

All of this is seen in the throne of God, the whole scope of human history, of the glorious salvation God has planned for man. The throne of God and God Himself declares that He is perfect and pure and just and yet full of mercy and grace. Note how all this is exactly what man needs: he needs perfection, and he needs justice to be executed upon the evil and unrighteousness of this earth. He needs to receive mercy and grace so that he can live forever in perfection.

This is the light of God, the very light that man needs. It is the penetrating light that is gloriously reflected from the throne and presence of God. God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.

“Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain” (Ps. 104:2).

“Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting” (1 Ti. 6:16).

“This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 Jn. 1:5).

“Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them” (Jn. 12:35–36).^[5]   

The Opening Vision: Heaven; Its Throne; Its Inhabitants; Its Songs.

 The fourth and fifth chapters of this book should be read together. They form a fitting introduction to the disclosures which follow. Before we have presented to us the series of visions which unfold to us the struggles of earth through which the Church must pass on her way to the end of the age, we have a glimpse of the heavenly world, its occupants, its songs, together with a sight of “him who is in the midst of the throne.” Ere the last great inspired prophecy is to be unrolled, the Apostle John has a glimpse of the seat of power in heaven. Ere he sees those scenes of mingled awe and terror which his pen will have to record, he is permitted to peer within the sacred courts above. He sees their glory, learns their thoughts, and hears their songs, as, from heights far, far above us, they survey the majesty of the great Three in One, and send up their songs of praise to their God, for what he is in the glory of his nature, and for the grandeur of his works in creation and redemption. Among the many noble sculptures of Thorwaldsen at Copenhagen, there is one of the Apostle John. His countenance is suffused with heavenly serenity. He is looking up to heaven. His tablet is before him. His pen is in his hand, but it is not touching the tablet, nor will the apostle venture on a word till it is given him from above. Exquisitely indeed has the sculptor caught the spirit of the beloved apostle as he awaits the revelation from on high. Let us, in arranging our homiletic exposition, follow the leadings of the narrative. We have— 

I. A glimpse into the upper world. “A door was opened⁴⁵ in heaven.” We need not look on this as if it were bare literalism. Yet, beyond all question, there are objective realities far greater than those which John beheld. From beginning to end of these visions we see heavenly objects set forth in earthly language, that we may be “raised from our dead selves to higher things,” and yet may not be bewildered and overwhelmed at the representation of a glory so far above us. Nor should we forget that, although this is the only book of the New Testament in which the heavenly world is set forth with anything of detail, yet the existence of that world is assumed by our Lord and his apostles throughout their teaching. This earth is not the only realm in which holy souls dwell, nor is the continuity of blessed life broken off as, one by one, they “go home.” There are, moreover, “angels, principalities, and powers;” and over the two spheres of being, angels and men, our Lord is the Pre-eminent One. Thus, though the Apostle John gives us some fresh detail, he by no means takes us into an unknown land. It is “the Father’s home.” A voice is heard. Read, not “the first voice which I heard,” but “I heard the first voice” (cf. Dean Alford, in loc.; ch. 1:10); i.e. the voice of him who is the Alpha and the Omega. From him the word comes, “Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter.” (From this we gather with certainty that, whatever the events may be which were to be indicated, the commencement of them cannot possibly date from an earlier period than the imprisonment of John in Patmos.) To this call the apostle responded. He rose in the Spirit’s might, and, with piercing spiritual gaze, looked into heaven.⁴⁶ 

IN ORDER FOR A VISION TO BE INTELLIGIBLE, IT IS NECESSARY THAT THERE SHOULD BE ONE SPOT ON WHICH THE EYE CAN FASTEN, AS A POINT OF REPOSE. Without this its glances would wander in painful unrest. There is a law corresponding to this in the mental constitution. In the study of any science whatever, minor matters have to be set in relation to some leading truth. It is so in theology. If religious truth is looked at as all detail, without anything like a centre, or like a vertebral column from which and to which the varied branchlets of truth diverge and converge, nothing will be rightly understood. So with the spiritual life. It requires its centre-point, which is Christ. 

If, moreover, in the vision before us, there were only a series of unconnected items, it would distract us. But it is not so. There is a centre. There is a throne, the seat of power and authority, from which all orders proceed, before which all creatures bow. A throne is set in heaven. Under this familiar symbol our God vouchsafes to set before us the truth that there is a point around which the universe revolves. A throne. Isaiah saw it; Ezekiel saw it; John sees it; and, with what is grouped around it, it gives us a glimpse of the glories of the heavenly world and of the dwellers there, and forms the background of the scenes of mingled mercy and judgment which are to be witnessed on earth.  

1. There is One upon the throne—the eternal Father, glorious in his majesty.

2. Encircling the throne there is a rainbow—the symbol and sign of a covenant of peace. Majesty and mercy are met together. While in this low region of cloud things often look so dark and lowering that we are tempted to think earth’s chariot-wheels are running wildly, could we but see things from that higher standpoint that saints and angels take above, we should see that the everlasting throne remained firm and true, and that the rainbow of peace was encircling it around!

3. Round about the throne there are four and twenty minor thrones. On these are four and twenty crowned elders; and from what is said of them in the ninth verse of the fifth chapter, we gather that they are representatives of God’s redeemed Church. Why twenty-four? No suggestion so much approves itself to us as the one that they represent the twelve patriarchs of the Old Testament and the twelve apostles of the New. The two Churches of the two economies are one in Christ. “They without us could not be made perfect.” These elders are seen clothed in white, in token of their purity; crowned with gold, to indicate their triumph.

4. Out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices. What can these symbolize but the outgoings of Jehovah’s power, whereby from his throne forces go forth which cause the earth to tremble; that while before the throne there was the symbol of perpetual calm, yet from thence should come mighty powers that should shake terribly a sinful world. Here we have also seven lamps of fire. These are interpreted for us. “The seven Spirits of God” sent forth into all the earth. Here is the Holy Ghost set forth in all the sublime majesty of his sevenfold energy.

5. Before the throne. What is there? “A sea of glass like unto crystal.” All calmness there. “No mighty waves of turbulent roar.” “Jehovah sitteth above the waterfloods;” the tossing, angry waves of earthly revolutions affect not the perfect calm of the heavenly world! All is “ethereal purity and majestic repose.” 

II. The inhabitants of heaven are seen.

1. Angels are there (Re. 5:2, 11).

2. The four and twenty elders are there (Re. 4:4; 5:8, 11).

3. Four living ones are there, in the midst of the scene, between the throne and the crystal sea: one like a lion; the second like a calf; the third having the face of a man; the fourth like a flying eagle. In Ezekiel’s vision each one had four faces; here, each has one face, each one has six wings about him. So in Isaiah’s vision, with twain they covered their face, in holy awe; with twain they covered their feet, in token of humility; and with twain they flew, in token of obedience. Each one, moreover, is full of eyes before and behind—the symbol of the keen penetration of perfected intelligence. Surely we have, in these unusual forms, representations of the highest advance of creaturely existence; in which the several features of knowledge, excellence, and strength, which here are severed, are there joined in one. They worship before the throne. Worship and work mark the highest orders of created being as well as the lower.

4. Nor are these all. There is an innumerable host: “myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands,” representing the vast company in the realm of life, where “they cannot die any more.”

5. We have yet to behold One around whom all the heavenly hosts gather in worship; but he comes in view as the Object of adoring song. He is “the Lamb as it had been slain.” His glory we shall view as we proceed to study— 

III. The five songs. Too seldom is the grand progression of song noticed, as recorded for us by the apostle.

1. First, the Trisagion, or song of praise to the thriceholy God (Re.4:8). This song is sung by the four living ones. The higher orders of created existence, with their vast powers of spiritual discernment—“full of eyes”—see infinitely more glory in the great eternal God than we can with our feeble powers and in this land of shadow and of care. They adore him for what he is; the perfection of his holiness is the delight of their souls. A diseased eye dreads the light in which a healthy one rejoices. Sinful men dread God’s holiness; perfect beings find in it the inspiration of their praise.

2. Secondly, the song of creation. (Re.4:10, 11) It is not only what God is that fills holy beings with rapture, but also what God does. The work of his hands in creation fills them with delight. And the higher beings rise in the scale, the more delight will they have in aught that reveals God. An angel could see more of God in a blade of grass than an uncultured soul could do in a blazing star. “Thou createdst all things.” Whether they know what were the Divine methods of creation, we cannot say. The fact that God did all is that in which they glory; and also the fact that he did all by his own will, and for his own good pleasure. But the grand unfolding of heaven’s song is far from complete as yet. The theme is continued in the fifth chapter.^[6]

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Revelation 4:2–3 The One On The Throne 

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^[1] Taylor, Kenneth Nathaniel. 1997. The Living Bible, Paraphrased. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House.

^[2] Leadership Ministries Worldwide. 1996. Revelation. The Preacher’s Outline & Sermon Bible. Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide.

^[3] Leadership Ministries Worldwide. 1996. Revelation. The Preacher’s Outline & Sermon Bible. Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide.

^[4] Butler, John G. 2010. Analytical Bible Expositor: Revelation. Clinton, IA: LBC Publications.

^[5] Leadership Ministries Worldwide. 1996. Revelation. The Preacher’s Outline & Sermon Bible. Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide.

⁴⁵ “Not ‘opening,’but ‘open’so that there may be the freest intercourse between heaven and earth”(Milligan, in loc.).

⁴⁶ “In this chapter we pass from the sufferings and temptations of the Churches below to the unsullied glory above” (Bishop Boyd Carpenter)

^[6] Spence-Jones, H. D. M., ed. 1909. Revelation. The Pulpit Commentary. London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company.