We pick up today where we left off last time, in the Throne Room of God in the book of Revelation 4. Revelation 4:2 says that John has been taken in the spirit to the Throne Room of God. Remember that the word throne is found forty-five different times in the book of Revelation, so it is a prominent teaching and understanding. God is ruling and reigning from His throne, and we find here in Revelation 4-5 that He is worshiped there in this wonderful worship service.
We are looking at Revelation 4:3 where John has seen that there is, One on the throne, as he says, Revelation 4:2, “and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and One sitting on the throne.” Now, the One sitting on the throne as we will see is God the Father. When we look at Revelation 5, we will see that the person that is prominent there is God the Son, but that is later. Notice here that this is the Father on the throne. In Revelation 4:3 it says, “And He who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance.” Now as we look at these metaphors and these pictures, notice the terminologies of the word like. John is trying to describe the indescribable. How do you describe a beautiful sunset? How do you describe something that is just gorgeous in our own nature on earth? So, if you think of how difficult that is, think about trying to describe the glory and splendor of God and then you will understand the problem that John is dealing with. He is not saying that the Lord looks like a stone of any kind, but he is saying that the majesty and glory and the beauty of the Lord stands out. He is trying to describe that in some way. He says also, “and there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance.” We’re not sure the purpose of that except that the predominant goto in the book of Genesis concerning Revelation – going all the way back to Noah’s Ark – and after Noah gets off the ark and God puts up a rainbow as a promise that He would not again flood the earth. So, a rainbow would represent His faithfulness to His own promise. So perhaps that is the purpose here of the rainbow as a reminder of God’s faithfulness to us.
In Revelation 4:4, “Around the throne were twenty-four thrones; and upon the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and golden crowns on their heads.” So, now we are starting to see some other creatures in heaven. Of course, God is God, but everything else is created beings. We are looking at some of the most magnificent of these created beings as we work our way through Revelation 4. The first group we run into are twenty-four elders who sit on twenty-four thrones. Whoever this group is, they have some form of authority – they are on thrones. They are in the Throne Room of God. That is pretty high authority. They are also clothed in white garments and golden crowns are on their heads. This is a little bit difficult to know who this is. Perhaps a more traditional view is that this is the church because of the elders, and because in Revelation 19 we find that the church, as the bride of Christ, is clothed in white garments. Also, the Lord has given His people, according to the epistles, He gives rewards in the form of crowns. So, these twenty-four elders could represent the church, and they are dressed in this way and have these crowns. It is also possible it could be angels because we have pictures in scriptures of angels being dressed in white garments as well. We will have to leave that to look at a little later . . .
