Heavens! What is That? Revelation 4:5-11

This morning we're going to be looking at the rest of Revelation chapter 5. If you remember last week, kind of the scene had been set. The point that we're at here in the book of Revelation, in Revelation 1.19 Jesus says, therefore write the things which you have seen, the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things. So then at the beginning of chapter 4 it says, after these things. So we're at this after these things kind of point here.

And if you remember from last week, John is in the heavenly scene. He was told by Christ to come up into the heavenly throne room. And in those first four verses, John has described the throne and the one on the throne. Also, John introduced the 24 elders on their 24 thrones who are representatives of the church having been raptured to the heavenly places.

And then kind of when we're looking at this, what does this scene mean to me? What's going on as far as me here? This scene is our homecoming. This is where we are now seated positionally with Christ. Ephesians 2.6 tells us we're seated with Christ in the heavenlies. This is when our condition is our position, reigning with Christ as co-heirs with Him. So this is condition and position lining up. This is us in the heavenly scene with Christ. Remember we were talking about the elders on those 24 thrones could be any one of us, will be any one of us, and every one of us who are believers. So that's kind of the neat picture that we have there. That's us.

And then as far as this throne is concerned, the throne is the center of the heavenlies. There is a throne. There's the one who is on the throne. There's beings and effects around the throne, which we got into a little bit last week. We'll get into that a little bit more this week. And there are things that originate from the throne. Now, when it comes to the throne, this is not something that simply sprung up here in Revelation. The Psalms speak of God's throne at least a couple of times. There's actually multiple references.

These two here are there for you. But it's not something new to Revelation. God's throne is something that is eternal. It's been there all along. Not something new here to Revelation. I think it's actually good to read the entire chapter. and just have the context of the whole chapter here as we're looking at this.

So I'll go ahead and do that, and we'll look at Revelation 4.1, we'll start there.

So he says, After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking, with me said, come up here and I will show you what must take place after these things. Immediately I was in the spirit and behold the throne was standing in heaven and the one sitting on the throne and he who was sitting was like jasper stone and sardis in appearance and there was a rainbow around the throne like an emerald in appearance. Around the throne there were 24 thrones and upon the thrones I saw 24 elders sitting clothed in white garments and golden crowns on their heads. So that was what we looked at last week. And then today, we're going to look at the rest of it here, which is, Out of the throne come flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God.

And before the throne there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. The first creature was like a lion. The second creature like a calf. The third creature had the face like that of a man. And the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, were full of eyes around and within.

And day and night they do not cease to say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come. And when the living creatures gave glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne and will worship Him who lives forever and ever and will cast their crowns before the throne saying, worthy are you for you Excuse me, worthy are you, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and because of your will they existed and were created.

Alright, so first thing we'll do here is we're going to dig into verse 5, and keep our mindset of what's going on here, where we're at, kind of what does this mean to me, and the focal point of the heavenlies being the throne. So verse 5 he says, Out from the throne came flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. I have a redundancy there, thunder, you can wind through that. The lightning and sounds and peals of thunder come from the throne and represent the power and glory and majesty of the one on the throne. It is God who has the power and authority and is eternally the source of those things. In fact, the Greek tense for the word come communicates that lightning and thunder are continuously coming from the throne. It is ongoing and not happening momentarily, just when John happens to keep record that it's taking place. This lightning and sounds and peals of thunder is also not something that's just new to the book of Revelation.

We first see it pop up here in Exodus 19 and 20 when God is going to first give the law to the Israelites. It's talking about the Israelites are warned not to go near Mount Sinai. And these things are showing God's holiness, His power, His authority over the people. These two verses, Exodus 19, 16, so it came about on the third day when it was morning that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. This is also something else to notice with the Israelites.

They recognize God's power and authority and his holiness as something to be fearful of. There's multiple places there in Exodus where he talks about if they should touch the mountain or if they should go near the mountain that they would die. And the reason being is, you know, God's perfectly holy and righteous, and the people, they knew that they weren't. And to go into his presence would surely, you know, just lead to their, because of their unrighteousness, would lead to death for them. In Exodus 2018 there, it says, all the people perceived the thunder and lightning, excuse me, the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. And when they saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance.

And in the context of the Bible, and especially when we get here into Revelation, we're going to see that this bringing of the law and the bringing is something that God did exclusively through the people of Israel. It's not something that's set apart for all the different nations. Israel is set apart for this. And when we get into the rest of the book of Revelation and the Tribulation, we're going to see that God's going to work through the Jewish people again. He's going to work through the nation of Israel again.

But these passages in Exodus emphasize God's awesome and overwhelming power. So it's made very evident how powerful God is. And then aside from the place where this is used here in this chapter of Revelation, it's also used three other times. And we'll get into those verses, obviously, as we continue to go through the book.

The key points to take from these passages, this is a description first used with the Jews, twice we just read them. The Jews were warned beforehand not to come close to Mount Sinai nor touch it. This description was never used with the church dispensation believers. So this fear, this trembling, this lack of righteousness that was there is never used with church believers because we're in a different place. So that's a key part to notice as well. And then, now that the tribulation period is about to begin, the focus is again upon Israel, not the church.

So these images are going to become appropriate. The heavenly beings seem in awe of the Lord, including his expressions of power, but do not seem fearful for themselves. Neither the beings which we're going to look at, nor the elders, are fearful of God. They're not in a position where they're afraid of Him. They're in a position where they know that they're righteous.

They know that they're holy with Him, because of Him. So that's a key distinction. That's something I've been pondering here. Here's this flashes of lightning, peals of thunder, and it's just completely normal. Right, they're not afraid. Yeah. Okay, that's just the way it is. This is God's awesome power. Yeah, God's awesome. Isn't that cool? Yeah. Absolutely, yeah.

So these same expressions of power continue through the tribulation period at the time of God's judgment and then they'll cease. So what we see in these passages is showing a similar display again. He's looking to move mightily amongst the Jews, his chosen people. He's been doing that in recent decades. I think the nation of Israel was reinstituted, was it 1943? 47? Right,

47. So that was something that wasn't around for centuries. A nation for those people. 19 centuries. Is that what they call the resurrection of Israel?

I'm not familiar. I don't know. I'm not familiar with that. Is that something you're familiar with? No, I don't know. I haven't heard that. That would be something to look into. And I mean, you know, creating a nation of them was never seen in any other ancient people. So these Jews, I mean, they've been around for As long as we have pretty much recorded history, you know, the Jewish people have been around, the nation itself obviously wasn't put in place until after about the time of Genesis.

Our study of Genesis, here's Jacob and Esau, two brothers, right? Born at the same time. There are something on the order of 13 million descendants from Jacob on the planet right now. And they're identifiable people with their own nature. The last time any recordable mention was made of descendants of Esau was in 70 AD, when the Romans killed off the last of them. There's no other record or nation or place or recognition of the descendants of Esau since that time. Truly an ancient people that God has kept them around. And he's kept them around for a very specific reason and we can see that.

The next part there of verse 5. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. Now, there's a couple of interesting things to note here. These seven lamps of fire, we've seen the word lampstand used multiple times in Revelation, and it's not the same word that's used here. There's a definite differentiation between these two words.

The Greek word for lampstands in chapters 1 and 2, it was a lampstand that maintained a steady and constant flame. It was something that was steady, constant, not really changing. And the Greek word for lamp was commonly used of an outdoor torch. So the Greek word used here in verse 5, commonly used of an outdoor torch that burned vigorously and sometimes violently. which is pretty interesting.

And then when it comes to this picture of lamps of fire of the Holy Spirit, it's consistent with other passages in the New Testament. And the really interesting thing about this term, when fire is used with the Spirit, it's a fire that's, you know, like if we burn something up, we have to burn something, and it's going to dissipate and it's going to go away. You fill up your gas tank, you burn up the fuel, and you've got to put more in. With the Holy Spirit, it's not consuming anything. It doesn't need something to fuel it. It is its own source. So that's also an interesting thing to notice about this fire in connection with the Holy Spirit.

The seven spirits of God is something that we've looked at previously and this is a reference to the sevenfold ministry of the Holy Spirit. We're going to see it A couple more times in Revelation. And the sevenfold ministry of the Holy Spirit is gathered from Isaiah 11-2, and you see it there. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him. The Spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, and fear of the Lord. Any questions on verse 5?

Alright, well let's hop into 6. So at the beginning of 6th era it says, and before the throne there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal. And this is something to picture in your mind. I mean, you've got the throne and there's this sea of glass before it, like crystal. And an interesting thing, in New Testament times, creating smooth glass, like we've got these windows here, we can see through them real easy. There wasn't something they had the technology to do.

That's why he uses the phrase like crystal. Crystal was something that, you know, like the actual element or mineral crystal when you, you know, something that you can easily see through. You can, I'm sure we've all collected some clear crystal or something in our time and it's something that you can see through when it's clear, it's not murky. So that's why he uses the like crystal phrase there. and then the end of six and then we'll cover seven as well.

And in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. The first creature was like a lion, the second creature like a calf, and the third had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings and full of eyes around and within, and day and night they do not cease to say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come. Now, when we look at these four living creatures, there's basically four places in scripture that we can kind of go to get some understanding about them. The first one is here, obviously, in Revelation 4.

Ezekiel 1, Ezekiel 10, and Isaiah 6 also give us some idea about what these creatures are and what they're about. So there's some easy comparisons here. The first part there, the midst of and around the throne. In Ezekiel, they're under the throne. And then in Isaiah, they're above it. full of eyes before and behind. We can go down this and the comparisons just line up almost perfectly with the verses. There are some places where maybe they don't line up with Ezekiel, but they do line up with Isaiah or vice versa.

But they're not brand new to Revelation either. They've been part of the throne as long as it's been around, at least as long as what the Bible indicates. And so there's some really interesting comparisons there from Revelation to the other three places where we could look at them. And they're consistent through the Bible as well.

They're not something that's moving around. They're changing a lot. Now, there have been lots of speculation about what did these creatures mean. They're a representation of God's character. There are lots of different things that have been used to, maybe they mean this, maybe they mean that. I'm not a big fan of maybes myself. But there are some things that we do know. When we look at page four there, the things that we do know about the four living creatures. There's four of them, we got that.

Their description is very similar to that of Ezekiel and may tie into the description by Isaiah as well. Therefore, their position in existence is not subject to change from one dispensation to the next. Under the law of Moses and now after the church has taken up, they're the same. They're not something that's changing. And then, I mean, it's interesting. Unlike the elders, their appearance in the heavens does not seem to be something related to the rapture of the church or earthly events. So their connection to what's going on here with us is possibly, you know, it's not really there.

They always seem to be close to the throne of God, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Their glorifying God is done 24-7, so they're just constantly glorifying God, non-stop. And then in Revelation chapter 6, we'll see that they have a place in executing judgment. And they seem to initiate the response of worship by the 24 elders. The 24 elders are there around the throne, and these four living creatures are just worshiping God, and the only thing that the elders can think to do is join in.

So that's kind of neat as well. And then as far as their persona, they do not seem to be human, and yet they differentiate from the angels, which would make them some special class of creature, perhaps angelic, but of a special category with special assignment. It's not really revealed exactly what they are, but they definitely don't seem to line up with people, obviously, and they don't seem to line up quite well with angels either. I would probably drop this into a category of when we get there, we'll get it. Would you add anything to that, Vernon?

They seem to be an angelic character, but as you look at this, they are just extraordinary. Yeah, I mean, if you look at the parallel descriptions, you can understand that anybody who has looked at that heavenly scene responded in awe, describing these things. And now here we're seeing them, you know, in Revelation for kind of the last glimpse, and they're still awesome. Right. And there's still something about them, you look at them and you say, that's kind of an introduction, I don't understand it all. Right. You know? Yeah. What did we say in Revelation was, what percentage of it was basically quotes from the Old Testament? Seventy percent. Seventy percent. Quotes from or drawn from? Quotes or drawn from.

I mean, this is definitely another one of those places where John's writing just lines up perfectly with what Scripture has already revealed. He probably didn't have nothing else to relate it to. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's really interesting. Well, I mean, the other side of it is like, God's revealed these same looking things to Ezekiel and Isaiah, and John's there, and he's seeing the same thing. I mean, to a degree, it's a picture of the consistency of the Bible, it's a picture of the consistency of God and His character. He's not changing. It's interesting that you look at the Old Testament, and you look at what John sees, and it's not different. It's the same. Alright, so verse 9.

And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever. With verse 9 and 10, I kind of want to back out and we'll look at some of the words in them. I'm not going to bother with trying to pronounce Greek words, that's why I didn't put them on here. But the words here will be giving So we see when the living creatures give glory, it's will be giving, it's future tense.

They will be continuing on into eternity, or eternal future, giving glory to God. They have been glorifying Him and they will do so forever. That word has an idea of continually giving glory into the future. That's where we get this, they're worshiping 24-7. So that's an interesting, it doesn't necessarily come out in the English translation, but that's the idea, the Greek words in the future tense, and it's something that's going to continue on into eternity.

The one sitting upon the throne, the Greek here gives an idea that God continually occupies the throne of authority. He's not hopping off of it and getting back on and moving back and forth. He's on it and that's where he's at. continually living. He is the one who never ceases to be and to be living.

And so when we nail this down and put it kind of into, often you'll do it expanded and explained, it's kind of like the same idea there where the tenses are going to come out a little bit better. And when the living beings will be giving glory and honor and good gracing to the one sitting on the throne and to the one who is continually living into the ages of the ages.

So God's eternity, His position of being on the throne is something that's really brought out in these words. It's not something that, oh, it's new to Him, just got it now, or this is something that's, or He's going to hop off of it at some point in time and do something else. This is really bringing out His position and that it's eternal, it's not changing. And then in verse 10, the 24 elders will fall down before him who sits on the throne and will worship him who lives forever and ever and will cast their crowns before the throne. We'll hop into the rest of that in a minute. But, will throw themselves. The 24 elders will fall down before him, will throw themselves. They are so moved by his presence that they cast themselves at his feet.

This is also in the future tense. They will continually be doing this into the future. It's just a non-stop bowing, a non-stop, and this word prostrate, again in the future tense, they will continue to do this in the future, and this word was used to describe Greek and Persian leaders who would throw themselves before the feet of their kings. So an idea of throwing themselves before their king continually into the future forever and ever. And then this toss their crowns is another future tense.

As if this will go on and on and on into eternity. This is something we covered a little bit earlier in our study. The idea of casting our crowns, it's not a one-time thing. God gives us this reward, and then we cast it to Him, we give it back to Him, and it's done. The tenses here have an idea that we cast our crown continually. We're continually giving that to God to glorify Him. He's given us this reward, and we're giving it right back for all eternity just to glorify Him. Any questions or thoughts on 9 or 10? I think that your last point is a key one where you start thinking about what does it mean for the Lord to reward us?

It's a capacity to glorify Him, not for a moment, but on into eternity. Yeah. The reward isn't hoarding anything, it's capacity to glorify. Yeah, not a treasure chest that we try and fill up or a bank vault that we're, you know, or how many zeros can we add to our account? But God's given us this and our response with it is not to hoard it, but simply to use it to glorify Him. Can I go back to six? Sure.

What do you think Why the difference of one face each and then four faces each? Four faces, I mean, that was Ezekiel, and that would make sense because it's consistent within the book of Ezekiel. But why do you think it says one face each, and that makes it sound like four individual creatures with one face, whereas the other one makes it sound like possibly one with four faces? I don't understand that. I do see what you're saying there. Obviously it's four creatures because in Revelations it says the first creature says come and then second, third and fourth. So there are four individual creatures in Revelations and it does say one face each. Where you see the other ones it says four faces each. So does that mean Ezekiel saw each one of them, but they had four faces? And obviously Isaiah didn't see any, but that could make sense because I think God only reveals himself for the purpose at hand. And so, you know, Isaiah was being sent. Maybe it wasn't necessary to reveal the creatures at that time.

One of those possibilities could be simply a matter of perception, what do you see? If you just look straight on, you would see one thing. If you kind of moved around and began looking at other faces, or if the animal-looking appearance is turned, you might see something different. So it's possible to talk about the same creature, a matter of recording what one saw depending on their perspective. So that would make sense because Ezekiel also saw the wheels and so there was moving and movement so it may have been moving around so he actually could have seen. That's right, different perspectives. Because of that, just like we look at one circumstance Or, even in John, maybe each one of the creatures had a particular purpose with that particular face in mind also. Could be. So, okay, well, I just thought that was interesting. I think we'll be able to look at it one day and figure this out. For the moment, we're not looking to inspect it. Right.

It's common in Revelation to see some figurative language. With the four living creatures, would you say that you don't draw figurative language out of them? I would not be inclined to press figurative meaning. Because what you see is a consistency between those and not a lot of description of what that means.

Right. The Bible doesn't give a lot of description of what does this mean. Yeah. Typically of Jewish symbolism, what it means is explained. But you don't quite see that here. There's not a lot of... So in Jewish symbolism, when it comes to things like four faces versus one face. It's not a symbolism that we're aware of or understand.

Yeah, and even, you know, what do all these things mean? What we've seen before is you can find one or more older contestant passages that tells you what this means. You don't get that here. And so that tells us, like you say, I've been on class for eighties. Right. Yeah, speculating is never the greatest thing.

That was something that I questioned when I was looking at it as well. I mean, because at face value, I mean, it's interesting, but I don't really understand it. And the standpoint that we're taking here is, well, we don't understand it, but we will. I guess it's also possible that the faces could have been changing too, when you think about it. Not necessarily that it had, you know, that it was a cube or a square and it had a face on four sides, maybe. There's all kinds of assumptions and extrapolation that you can make that get us nowhere.

You can imagine Ezekiel and Isaiah and John all being just floored. How am I going to describe this? I've even had times when I've got a camera in my hand. down there, I couldn't get a picture of it all. Even with a camera, I couldn't capture it. So you can imagine these guys trying to write this stuff down. It would be a real challenge to try to capture it.

So back to our, we've just finished up verse 10 where we see the 24 elders continually falling down before Him who continually sits on the throne and they worship Him forever and ever and constantly cast their crowns before Him, giving Him glory, saying, worthy are you, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and because of your will they existed and were created. God's creative ability is obviously something that we can constantly worship. It's also something that if the creation of the things around us isn't placed on Him, you're left to wonder how it happened. And it's really interesting the The science, Big Bang, evolution, all that stuff was something I really jumped into for a couple years.

Read lots of books on it. Tried to reconcile what science had to say with what the Bible has to say. These guys are smart. They've got some things going for them. They must be getting something right here. And what I ended up running into was a lot of people that really just saw that The numbers, the science adds up that if you don't have a Creator, it's not getting created.

And that's where we really run into, I mean, they're worshipping Him. For you created all things and because of your will they existed and were created. God's glory and honor are displayed in his marvelous wisdom and creative power. God does not have to puzzle with trial and error, will this work, will that work, to see if something is going to pan out or not. He wills it and it is. Man puzzles over creation.

Outside of God, we have theories like the Big Bang and evolution. Here's an interesting quote in one of those books that I ran across. This gentleman, Walter Bradley, who teaches different types of science at a university in Texas. He was actually at the Colorado School of Mines for a while. says this, if you took all the carbon in the universe and put it on the face of the earth, allowed it to chemically react at the most rapid rate and left it for billions of years, the odds of creation of just one functional protein molecule, so that doesn't even get into that protein molecule actually becoming the many things that are around us, but the odds of creation of just one functional protein molecule would be the chance in 10 with 60 zeros behind it.

So down there, there's what that looks like. You're at the point where you got hundreds, thousands, millions, billions, trillions. I don't even know what you do after trillions. How can they put a problem of the Olivia on that? Well, I don't know. They always try to solve these things with mathematics.

Well, and that's the thing is he, you know, this guy's a PhD in science and math and things of that order. Putting a probability of it probably has to deal with, you know, you go into taking apart a protein molecule and there's just loads and loads of stuff in there. And they all have to work together in order to form the protein.

And if they don't work right, then the whole thing is done. Another interesting, you know Foghorn Lakehorn, he always had those crazy contraptions where this would happen, you know, the marble falls on the on the rubber band, and it shoots up, and it lands in the tube, and it rolls down, and it goes through the thing, and in the end, the hammer hits the dog. That's the end of it, is that's what happens. Well, if one of those things is out of place, the whole thing doesn't work. So if the marble falls wrong, or if the rubber band breaks, or if any one of those things goes wrong, the whole thing is useless. And it's kind of the same thing when you get into how your body works. Especially when you get down into cells and stuff. If one thing isn't right, then the whole thing is worthless. And that's how they get into the probabilities. I don't have a math problem to put up in front of you. I probably wouldn't understand it anyway. But that's the probability of it.

Basically, in other words, it's not happening without God. More and more of these people are coming to the point where they realize the need for intelligent design. Yeah, but see, the thing is, if you give them that one probability, see, if they have that one probability, they won't quit. Well, if you want to grasp on to 1 in 10 with 60 zeros behind it, then you don't want God anyway.

That's the bottom line. I think when it comes down to, and Mike has a good point, but math has become pretty well recognized as, quote, the universal language. And therefore, if we talk about 10 to the 10th, to you, and I were a mathematician, and you were a mathematician, we would understand each other within that realm. And that's one of the reasons why math is used. It doesn't make it right.

It just makes it something that is useful between those like minds. Well, you know, the interesting thing is, I mean, God created math. He doesn't need to roll the dice 60 whatever trajillion, I don't know what that number is, times. He doesn't need to roll the dice so much. There's no trial and error here. It's I know what it takes and He made it. He just said it and it happened.

And that's why they're, you know, I can't do that. Here's my crown. So that's the picture of worshiping Him for his creative power. It's something that they know, we know, I know. Without him it's not there. You just think they give up because the more they find out, the more they find out they don't know. It's a really interesting topic. Like I said, I got mired in it for almost a year, maybe two years, where I was just reading about it all the time. It's really interesting. And there's a lot of people who will twist what the Bible says to meet what science thinks.

But the bottom line is God's got it. His word has it. He created all the science. He created all the math. Continuing on with Mike's Having worked in the Department of Energy, the one day I noticed, of course, I was working with about two-thirds of the people there were scientists or engineers, no offense. But I found out that I was working with probably the highest level of egos.

He goes to the 10th power. But that's the reason we can't give up. They are bound and determined to prove that we that believe in a supreme being are wrong. And they will prove at some point in time that we are wrong. And they'll prove it by mathematics. Well, I mean, the original sin was a desire to know and be like God. To have full knowledge. I mean, that was the original sin. And it's still very powerful. I want to know, and I want it to be me who gets it.

And I think we're all in agreeance here with those who are throwing their crowns at God that we don't get it, but you do. And that's where the worship comes from. That's where the amazement comes from, is this God, my God, who has got it all set out, who came down, who saved me, who has this place for me with Him on His throne, is the one who gets it all. And that's where the worshipping... I mean, I'll worship Him eternally happily. Anyone gets it.

I think it's interesting also in 11 that it's talking about the creator God, who's Elohim. And since this is the last chapter of the Bible, it refers all the way back to the first chapter and actually to the first verse. Because God has obviously many names and many aspects and characters and personalities and all the rest of it. But if you look at this particular passage, there's three references to creation.

God of Genesis. That's really, you know, it's kind of the beginning and the end. It's really cool. Right, yeah, and the description up there, up in there, nine, who lives forever and ever, I mean, into ages of the ages. The one who has lived into the ages of the ages, the creator, the beginning and the end. Yeah.

Isn't that a neat way to write a book? Out of all these authors and all this time and everything else, it still has the beginning and it has the appropriate end to it. Yeah, the continuity of the Bible. That's why the Bible means the book. The continuity of it. It doesn't change. There are those who might try and twist something insane that it does, but the continuity of the Bible is amazing.

Go ahead. You Jerusalem from God's estate around. We get into that more detail. Twenty twenty one. Right. On the throne. Right. He's on the throne. Still in the place of power. For us, we need to take a coffee break and get up and move around and all that. But what is not restricted is that he remains on the throne in power. It remains who he is. Right.

I mean, if we want to look at things in such a manner, Is Christ's position on the throne eternal? It was, and it is, and it will be? The point is about being on the right hand of the left hand, or whatever, and it makes me think, okay, there's a right hand of the throne, and that's where Christ sits, and so you get this picture of two. When I move around, when I'm staying there, I know it's kind of smooth. Yeah.

Well, and the thing that you have to think about the Trinity is that there are three personas, but it's one being. Something that shows up even on the slide right there is during the seven-year tribulation period, Christ is seated in the heavens. During the thousand-year reign of Christ, that will be in here on the planet Earth. So if there is a changing, a reigning, it's Christ. Right.

And that's what is written in Christ as we see it on David's throne. When you look at the Trinity, the Holy Spirit obviously has certain things that He does. Certain things that He does that God the Father and Christ do not do. roles to fill. Could we say the same of this situation with Christ where He has roles that He is fulfilling as part of God, the Trinity. He once was a manger. Right, and He was a baby. Yet His position on the throne is eternal. He was nailed to a cross, but his position on the throne is eternal.

Maybe a little bit beyond our minds. Any other questions or comments? I heard that question that somebody asked. When we're in heaven, will we see John in the corner? Right? It kind of gives you a perspective of time and where you are. Right. I think we will. That's what I think. Yeah. Will we see Ezekiel and Isaiah up there wondering what's going on too? Wrong time.

The amazing thing about this heavenly scene that John is showing us is we can bring a lot out of it and we can understand eternity to a degree, but if he gave it all away, and that's just not what the Bible does, it doesn't explain it all. When we're face to face, our faith will become our eyes, we'll see things as they are. and position and condition will be exactly the same right now. We're finite. We don't get it all, but we will. The fact that he's even revealed some of it is pretty cool to look at. Alright, if nobody has anything else, I'll close up in prayer.

Father, we thank you for our time this morning. It's so neat to look at eternity, I think it's something that it's even hard to relate to. There's so much that, you know, there's all the distractions that we have here now. There's so many different things that pull us away from you and what we see here in Revelation is it's all gone away and we see you face to face. We're there worshipping you, glorifying you. without any distraction, without anything getting in the way.

It's an amazing picture. I'm grateful that we get to see a little bit of it. I look forward to knowing the rest. But we thank you for our time as a body of believers here, learning about you, learning about our eternal position, learning about Just you. And we thank you again for the time in Jesus' name. Amen.