A Glimpse of Heaven - Revelation 4
Giving that we are moving “full swing” into baseball season, I thought I’d share this story with you:
There were two old guys, Abe and Ken, sitting on a bench in a park feeding pigeons and talking about baseball, just like they did every day. Abe turns to Ken and says, "Do you think there's baseball in heaven?"
Ken thinks about it for a minute and replies, "I dunno, Abe. But let's make a deal: If I die first, I will come back and tell you -- and if you die first, you come back and tell me -- if there is baseball in heaven."
They shake on it and, sadly, a few months later poor Abe passes on. One day soon afterward, Ken is sitting there feeding the pigeons by himself when he hears a voice whisper, "Ken... Ken...."
Ken responds, "Abe! Is that you?"
"Yes it is Ken," whispers the spirit of Abe.
Ken, still amazed, asks, "So, is there baseball in heaven?"
"Well," says Abe says, "I got good news and I got bad news."
"Gimme the good news first," says Ken.
Abe says, "Well... there is baseball in heaven."
Ken says, "That's great! What news could be bad enough to ruin that!?"
Abe sighs and whispers, "You're pitching on Friday."
We often hear stories of folks that have claimed in some way to catch a glimpse of Heaven, and come back to tell us about it…maybe not in the sense of their being baseball in Heaven. One of them was in the news just this week, the story of an eleven year old who claimed he when he underwent surgery at the age of four, that he saw heaven. As I said there are many claims, some sound similar, some sound vastly different. I am not going to say that I accept every claim, I am not going to deny every claim. However, there is only one claim that I believe for certain to be sure, and that is the account from our Scripture passage today.
Today is Transfiguration Sunday. Many churches today, are reading the passage from Matthew which describes the gathering on the mountain of Jesus, Elijah, and Moses…as Peter, James, and John catch a glimpse of Heaven as Jesus, Elijah, and Moses are surrounded in brilliant light, and the voice of God is heard proclaiming Jesus as His beloved Son and tells the disciples to listen to Jesus. It is a day in which we remember the manifestation of the divine as Christ was seen in His full glory. What day is more fitting to hear the passage we read this morning?
Last week we completed the first section of Revelation, found in chapters one through three. Chapters four and five offer us another visionary unit as God provides John this vision to relay to the churches of Asia Minor, and to each of us.
John’s message to the church in Laodicea offers the promise: “Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me. To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne, just as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.”
As we have turned to chapter four this morning, we encounter not a door that John, or any of us have opened, but a door that has been opened for John, like the door in Philadelphia, a voice calls to him, and filled with the Holy Spirit, John finds himself with a real glimpse of Heaven…John finds himself standing in the very throne room of God. Note how John was unable to see clearly the one seated on the throne, but could only describe the one on the throne as looking “like jasper and carnelian”-two types of quartz. And when light shines through quartz, with its translucent characteristics, what do we usually see? A rainbow. And what did John see surrounding the throne? That’s right, “a rainbow that looks like an emerald.” However it is a simply a glimpse of Heaven and a glimpse of God, for this side of Christ’s return, we cannot witness God in His full splendor. Why? Because as the Hebrews understood, because God is so holy and we are so profane, we cannot see God and live…as we remember the conversation between God and Moses when Moses asked to see God, and God agreed to let Moses see his back, because, as God said, “you cannot see my face; for now one shall see me and live.”[i]
Some may argue, well, that wouldn’t apply anymore, because Jesus has come, we don’t hold back to the things of the Hebrew Scriptures. My brothers and sisters, as we have said before, we have to hold on to the Hebrew Scriptures, because without them we wouldn’t even have Jesus, we claim that Jesus is the Messiah of the Hebrew Scriptures. We also have to remember that the earliest Christians were of Jewish heritage who claimed that their Messiah had come. Our passage today relates to us just how important that connection is, because it so closely connects to theophanies—the manifestations of God’s presence, not of the Transfiguration or Resurrected Christ as recorded in the Gospels, but of the manifestations of God’s presence in the Hebrew Scriptures.
We have, of course, the image of hope from Genesis 9, the rainbow, through which God made covenant to never again wipe all of creation from the face of the earth. Now, if you were being persecuted under the Roman Empire and it seemed like everywhere you were turning around, God’s people, your people, were being persecuted, or even tortured and killed, what better symbol of God’s promise would be better than the promise that God would not wipe everyone from the face of the earth.
Then we have the images of the four living creatures. Now before we get into their connection to the Hebrew Scriptures, we have to discuss the significance of the four living creatures. If you pull out your “cheat sheet” on apocalyptic symbolism, we note that four is a significant number. The number four stands represents the “created order.” What’s more, is that in the time when Revelation was written, all living creatures were divided into four classes, wild animals, domestic animals, birds, and humans—the wild animals were symbolized by the lion, the domestic by the ox, the birds, by the eagle, and humans, by, well, what else, a human. So here we have the four living creatures, a lion, an ox, a human, and an eagle, soaring around the throne praising God. John, in essence, is witnessing the created order, all of God’s creation, giving glory and honor and praise to God.
However, there is even more in these four living creatures…because the symbolism of the lion, ox, human, and eagle, connect us to another manifestation of God’s glory, and that is in the call of Ezekiel and his vision. In his vision, found in Ezekiel one and two, we see four living creatures, who, slightly different, each have the face of a lion, an ox, a human, and an eagle. We see one on the throne whose appearance is not clear, but light radiates as if shining through quartz-like minerals, forming once again, a rainbow. Another difference, though, is that in Ezekiel, the creatures have just four wings, and Revelation describes the creatures around the thrones as having six wings.
The six wings of the living creatures draws us to yet another manifestation of God’s divine presence, because it draws us to Isaiah, where in the sixth chapter, we witness the call of Isaiah as he finds himself, through a vision, in the throne room of God, and the seraphs, with their six wings, flew around the presence of God upon His throne.
The flashes of lightning and peals of thunder take us to yet another theophany…another manifestation of God’s divine presence, that we noted earlier…the clouds, the lightning, and the thunder were what the Hebrew people experienced as they watched and waited at the base of Mount Sinai, as Moses went into the cloud to receive the commandments of God, and experience God’s very presence.
We are reminded that God, upon His throne, is the God that has constantly been in covenant with His people…from Noah, through Moses, through Isaiah and Ezekiel, to now. God has not gone…God has not been dethroned…He is the one that all of creation is to worship…and He is the true ruler of all creation, not the temporary emperorship found in Rome.
We note in this glimpse of Heaven, the twenty-four thrones surrounding the throne of God, and we ask who are those twenty-four elders dressed in white robes with their golden crowns? Who would they be? The white robes and the golden crowns, after reading the words of Jesus to the churches tell us that they are “victors.” They are the ones who conquered, who have remained faithful despite the persecution. The number twenty-four is significant as well, for twenty-four is a multiple of twelve, and we remember twelve, from our “apocalyptic symbolism” is representative of the people of God. Who are those who are on the throne, they are the people of God…twelve and twelve…signifying God’s people of the Old Covenant and God’s people of the New Covenant. They are the martyrs…those who may have died in battle with evil, but they are victorious because they live in the presence of God. They all gather around God’s throne, in the presence of the seven spirits of God, or as we have said before, the Holy Spirit, and fall before God, praising him, and casting their crowns before him, acknowledging God as the true source of power, and the only one who is to be honored.
Can you picture it, my brothers and sisters, day and night, without ceasing, all of creation and all of God’s people surround His throne, giving God all praise, honor, and glory? Now, I think we need to take special note of this, my friends, as at times all of us get a little anxious after being in worship for an hour to an hour and a half…we want to come in, worship God, get it done, and get on with everything else. If we have trouble for just our short little time, we may have to rethink our desire to go to heaven, because there, it doesn’t last just an hour, it doesn’t last just an hour and a half, it doesn’t even last just two hours: “Day and night, without ceasing they sing, “Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God the Almighty who was and is and is to come.” In Heaven, worship lasts an eternity. In God’s throne room, everything, including the floor, like a sea of glass, reflects the glory of God, without end.
My brothers and sisters, as we move towards the end of our time of worship here this morning, as we experience our own brief glimpse of worshipping God in Heaven, we have opportunity to take part in another theophany, another manifestation of the Glory of God, and that is in this sacred meal in which Christ gives himself to us…through the power of the Holy Spirit, we partake of the break, we partake of the cup, and we experience the grace of God, flooding through us and renewing us and drawing us closer before His throne. In this meal, so often called a foretaste of the Heavenly banquet, we catch yet another glimpse of Heaven, so this morning, as we come down to receive this morning, let’s not be in a rush to get it over and done with, but as we kneel at the altar-rail or return to our seats, let us focus upon giving God, the One who was and is and is to come, all glory and honor and praise.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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