We are going to take an adventure into heaven this week with the apostle John in Revelation 4. We have already now looked at Revelation 1 which gives us a wonderful picture of Christ. Then we have gone through the messages in Revelation 2-3, written to the seven churches of Asia. Then we come to Revelation 4. Revelation 4-5 are sort of a transitional section of the book going from the churches to the Tribulation Period.
So, we begin Revelation 4 with these words, “After these things I looked.” This is interesting, in the book of Revelation, the phrase after these things is found twice here in this verse and then it is also found in Revelation 1, 7, 15, 18 and 19. It is kind of an opening to a new chapter – not in how we think of our chapters – but a different section of the book of Revelation each time. So, it shows us something is happening. Probably the most important of these uses of that terminology is in Revelation 1:19 where it says, “Therefore write the things that you have seen and the things that are and the things that will take place after these things.”
This is our table of contents of the book of Revelation. Three major sections:
1. Revelation 1
The things which you have seen – He says write those down John. He has just seen these things in the magnificence and glory of Christ.
2. Revelation 2-3
Then the things which are – would be the seven churches that He is writing to. There are local churches that existed at the time this book was being written. There are seven very different messages to those churches from Christ that we have looked at already.
3. Revelation 4-22
Then it says, “and the things that will take place after these things,” and now we come to Revelation 4:1 and he says, “After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven.” So, I think he is referencing Revelation 1:19 and this third major section of the book that we are going to be looking at now for the rest of the time that we study the book of Revelation together.
So, after these things is going to be in reference to the future. The first question that comes to our minds though is after what things? Immediately we know its after these messages to the seven churches, but it is possible it goes further than that and many believe it does. You see, the messages to the seven churches take place to churches in the church age. So, is it possible then that after this church age, after the church is no more on earth, that something is going to happen? I think that is a real possibility. In other words, between Revelation 3 and 4 is the Rapture of the church. The church has been Raptured, taken to be with the Lord, as we find in 1 Thessalonians 4, and it is no more on earth. Another piece of information that helps us come to that conclusion is that the church is very dominant in Revelation 1-3 and then it is no more dominant at all. It is not mentioned at all again, in fact, until Revelation 19, when the Lord returns to the earth at the Second Coming with the church and then the church starts to play another role once again. So, it is very possible then that after the church age, after the church has been Raptured, then these things that he is going to talk about are going to take place. We wouldn’t want to build a dogmatic argument on that logic, but it does make a lot of sense . . .
