HOLY, HOLY, HOLY | Revelation 4:1–11

[0:00] Father God, we thank you just for this time and this opportunity for us to gather together as we are just faithful to you.! You are one amazing God.

[0:12] You are the Lord of all creation. You are sovereign. You are in control. And we come before you to just offer our burdens and our cares before you.

[0:24] We know that certainly we are not perfect. And we live in a broken and fallen world that's full of darkness, division, and hatred. But we come before you as the one who is constant, holy, good, truth, light, and the provider of life.

[0:44] We ask if there's anything that is derailing or distracting us. We want to lay that aside so we can focus on you and the word this morning. We ask that you bless this time together as we're going to turn our Bibles to Revelation 4 in this very powerful scene that is happening.

[1:08] We know that Revelation can be a very, unfortunately, very controversial book. But it really isn't. It is from your word. And we thank you for your word.

[1:21] Be with us together this morning. May the message be clear and understood by all those who hear it and those who are here in attendance, whether it's virtually, digitally, or in person.

[1:31] It is in the name of Jesus that we pray and we all say together, Amen, church. So we begin here. Revelation 4. We've been going through the seven churches of Revelation. That's been a very long process.

[1:44] And we finished up with the seventh church, the church in Laodicea. The lukewarm church. And as we were in that, there was this section about how Jesus was knocking at the door.

[2:00] And it's important for us to recognize as we closed Laodicea, now that we're entering into Revelation chapter 4, the importance of Christ that opens the door for us.

[2:14] And in the case of that church in Laodicea, they had shut the door. That's a very powerful imagery that we can think of then and even today. That at times when we shut the door to God out, the Lord is there waiting for us to open the door back up.

[2:32] And here we're going to see a shift in the scene, though. A shift within the language. We're going to see. How many of you have seen the Wizard of Oz before? Right? And you think of the man who's behind the what?

[2:47] Behind the curtain, right? And there's this whole scene, right, that is behind the scenes, right? And the guy doesn't want you to see what's going on behind the scenes. And there's that whole thing that's going on. It's kind of a very negative aspect.

[2:58] But I'm only bringing that up because in this scene, we see the curtain being pulled, as it were, into the spiritual realm. Right? What's very important for us, we live in this physical world where a lot of physical things happen.

[3:12] And the things that are spiritual are not always the things that are seen. And so here, there's this curtain that's being moved on what is true now, but also what is true forever.

[3:26] However, it's important for us to know the imagery of God on the throne. It's important for us to know that it is God who rules and reigns.

[3:37] Amen? Just those statements in and of themselves, right? That God is on the throne and we celebrate that, right? But it's so much more than what is going on here. God is on the throne and all creation worships and the door is open.

[3:52] It's important for us to understand that distinction. And so what we're going to go ahead and do, if we can go to that next slide then, we're going to go into Revelation chapter 4, verses 1 through 11.

[4:02] We're going to read all of that together. Let's go to the next slide then. And it's going to be on page 1220 to 1221 in your ESVP Bible.

[4:15] Or you can use your Bible, your mobile device of choice. And church, it's 11 verses. Can we read this all together?

[4:26] Let's read this together, right? You know, before we read, we're just going to read chapter 4 here. But the thing that I love in reading Revelation, just like in reading any parts of Scripture, it's us as a community reading the Word of God together.

[4:43] And especially when it comes to Revelation, be reminded of Revelation 1-3. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy. And blessed are those who hear and keep what is written in it, for the time is near.

[4:56] So let's read this together. Are we all there, Revelation chapter 4? All right, let's begin together. After this, I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven.

[5:09] And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, said what? Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this. At once I was in spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven with one seated on the throne.

[5:25] And he who sat there had the appearance of what? Jasper and Carnelian. And around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald.

[5:36] Around the throne were how many? Twenty-four thrones. And seated on the throne were twenty-four elders, clothed in what? White garments with golden crowns on their heads.

[5:47] From the throne came flashes of lightning and rumblings and pearls of thunder. And before the throne were burning how many? Seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God.

[6:00] Before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass like crystal. And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are how many? Four living creatures, full of eyes in front and where?

[6:13] And behind. The first living creature like a lion. The second living creature like an ox. The third living creature with the face of a man. And the fourth creature like an eagle in flight.

[6:25] That can get very confusing very quickly, right? We're going to continue, right? And the four living creatures, each of them with how many wings? Six wings. With full of eyes all around and within.

[6:37] The day and night, they never cease to say what? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. Amen, right? Those lyrics, we sing these songs, right?

[6:51] We see it straight out of Revelation. Verse 9. And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne.

[7:08] And what? Worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne saying what? Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power.

[7:20] For you created all things and by your will they existed and were created. Ooh, that's heaviness in there, right? You have a lot of the apocalyptic language.

[7:30] You can go to that next slide there. And so we have the open door, right? And what's important for us, we need to observe what is going on in the text, right?

[7:42] So we have John who is basically, there's a door standing open in heaven, right? The voice saying, come up here and I will show you, right?

[7:53] And there's this scene of the throne room in heaven, right? And the one seated on the throne, right? So that would be the Lord, the appearance of Jasper and Carnelian, right? So it's very, very bright, right?

[8:05] We have a lot of this kind of description. There's the 24 thrones and the 24 elders. It's important for sections like this in Revelation. Let's go to that next slide.

[8:16] It's important for us to recognize, specifically in apocalyptic language, the use of numbers, right? And we'll go further into that. But there's a reason why there's 24, if you think of the number of 12.

[8:29] So just keep that in mind. So these 24 elders, they are wearing white garments, right? And we've seen within Revelation the purpose and the importance of white garments, right? That when we believe in the Lord, right?

[8:41] When we are transformed and we become a new creation, we are as, remember, filthy rags, right? What do they become? They become like white, right? So you basically, you receive new garments, new clothes to enter into the wedding feast, right?

[8:56] So these 24 elders then are wearing these white garments. They have the golden crowns. And notice how those crowns are being laid before the throne.

[9:07] That's very powerful, right? If anyone has a crown and they lay it before a throne, why are they doing that? Think about that. It's something to think about, right? It's very, very quickly we can observe from the text.

[9:18] Now you have this language of flashes of lightning and rumblings and pearls of thunder showing the epicness, right? The awe and wonder of what is happening in the heavenly realm here.

[9:29] So you have the seven torches, which is the seven spirits of God. We've actually gone over that before. The sevenfold spirit, which is found earlier in Revelation in chapter one. We won't go over too much into that.

[9:41] But it's also this repeatedness of the presence and the completedness of the spirit of God. Now the sea of glass, like crystal before the throne, right? There's this sense, again, of how big this structure is, how big the heavenly realm is.

[9:57] Now it's important for us to know, if you are able to, I want you to turn real quick to page 822 in your ESVP Bible.

[10:10] And I want to show you something here. Because when we see what's happening in Revelation, we can actually see, and I'll go further into this, that it's a direct tie-in with the Old Testament.

[10:24] In this sense, this scene is very specific to the prophet Ezekiel. And it's fascinating in there because this same kind of language that John is seeing in this vision is very similar to what's happening in Ezekiel.

[10:41] So if you can turn to Ezekiel, it's Ezekiel chapter one. And I'm just going to show you a few verses, but notice in here how similar that kind of language is in Revelation.

[10:54] So if you're there, Ezekiel four, I'll just go ahead and read it. As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north and a great cloud, right?

[11:06] Brightness was around it. A fire flashing forth continually. And in the midst of the fire, there was gleaming metal. Okay. Verse five. And from the midst of it came the likeness of how many creatures?

[11:18] Four creatures, right? Just like what you're finding in Revelation, right? And then even more fascinating. And this was their appearance. They had human likeness. Each had four faces. Each of them had four wings.

[11:29] So the numbers are a little bit different. But you still see in here, what is it? Verse 10 here. And for their likeness, their faces had a human face.

[11:40] The four, face of a lion, right? Face of an ox, face of an eagle. And there's the human face. They're all in that verse 10, which is almost identical to what you see in the scene of what's happening in Revelation.

[11:55] And I love these kind of things because it is showing just the power of the connections within prophecy, the consistency within words.

[12:09] Now, granted, you have to think when you're in the Old Testament how you're going to describe a lot of the spiritual things is going to be very difficult, right? But there is a parallel into that. And I just wanted to share that with you as we're going along in here, that this is not the first time that it's been shown in Scripture.

[12:26] How many of you knew that before? Isn't it kind of amazing that you see this kind of consistency? And that's not the only time that this kind of language is being shown within Scripture. And so I want you to keep this in mind.

[12:39] So going back to Revelation chapter 4, verse 1, behold a door standing open in heaven where it's saying, right, you have the voice like the trumpet.

[12:51] Now, it's important in that, just right away, that the door is opened and not shut. Remember Laodicea? They had shut that door and here the door is open, right?

[13:02] And there's this invitation for John to go through this door, right? And so we can directly think of how that goes to us as Christians today, that God gives us time to make a decision to enter into a relationship, right, to begin believing in the Lord, but not forever.

[13:20] That's a very important thing. That's actually importance into why we need to believe in the Lord now and not tomorrow, right, make that decision immediately. Let's go to that next slide then.

[13:31] So the throne room scene, right, you have the throne, the one that's seated on the throne, right, the 24 elders, and then the four living creatures that I was mentioning on there. So it's very interesting.

[13:42] So important to know, right, throne, obviously it's a seat of authority, right? When you see like these old movies or you ever watch Game of Thrones, that huge throne that's going on, right, these seats of authority.

[13:55] Only certain people can sit on it, right? And then, of course, you have, isn't it interesting in there that there's the reference to the rainbow in Revelation? Isn't that wild?

[14:07] You think of the rainbow, you know, I don't, I certainly do not think of it in Revelation. I think of it back when there was the ark and there was the promise, but yet there's that wonderful connection that's happening in there.

[14:20] So that's amazing. And then, of course, when you have this, this Jasper, right, being this kind of diamond-like material and this carnelian being kind of like this fiery red kind of color that's happening.

[14:34] And so let's go to the next slide then here, right? So those are the things. So, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Now, this is where you see this kind of scene that's just, it's so powerful.

[14:49] You think about it where essentially everyone is worshiping the Lord. And this scene where it's going on even further in the text, it's talking about the four living creatures, right?

[15:03] Verse 8, the four living creatures, each of them, they never cease to say, holy, holy, holy, right? And then even later on, the 24 elders, right? Basically, everybody is going to be worshiping God in that scene.

[15:15] And it's such a powerful scene. It's such a powerful lyric. I mean, for some of you who know Revelation song, we'll be singing that in closing to kind of have this wonderful lyrical and musical connection with that.

[15:27] But they're worshiping the God who lives forever, right? And casting their crowns, giving up their power and authority before the Lord. How many of us are willing to give up our own power before the Lord?

[15:39] You don't have to answer that, but it's certainly something for us to think about. I know for some of us, it may be a little harder than others, right? Especially if you have lots and lots of power, right? But they're giving, that's the imagery, right?

[15:50] And so worthy are you, O Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, right? That's what is happening in verse 11 in there. And so there's just a lot of this, right?

[16:01] Now, the holy, holy, holy is known as the trisagion, right? Which is actually found in Isaiah 6, 3. Wonderful connection.

[16:12] You don't have, we're not going to turn there right now, but it's again, another connection within the Old Testament. That is the beauty, not only within Revelation, but the beauty within Scripture, right? How intertwined and interconnected it is.

[16:25] Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel. I mean, these are some heavy, right, books from the prophets here, right? And so this three times, this repetition is showing the significance of that.

[16:39] Look, whenever you find a pattern within Scripture, or whenever you find something that's being repeated especially three times, it's something that's important for you to pay attention to.

[16:51] And so, let's go to that next slide then, in there. What does all of this mean then, right? Let's go to the next one. And so, the first thing from this is that the throne room is current, and it also is forever.

[17:08] That is a very powerful scene. What does that mean then, right? Well, in, do I have that next slide? Let's go to the next one. I might have, yeah, okay.

[17:19] But, we went over Ezekiel 1, where it was showing the same kind of imagery of the four creatures, right? In Isaiah, it's very similar, talking about the Lord being lifted on high and on the throne, right?

[17:36] So, what was once prophesied is in there. And interesting, it says about Isaiah having the six wings, and that's where, remember, Isaiah 6-3 is where holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty is being lifted.

[17:49] And then, in Daniel 7, Daniel is a remarkable book of the Bible, by the way. If you're looking at things that are, like, going to happen in the future, that's a really good book to turn to. But, in Daniel 7, it talks about the ancient of days taking his seat, and his throne is blazing with fire, right?

[18:06] That's that same kind of imagery, that kind of red tinting that's going on. And so, in there, in Daniel 7, 10,000 times 10,000 stand before him, right?

[18:17] That same kind of imagery of all creation worshiping the Lord. Three accounts here, right? Different perspectives, but yet they're all describing the same thing that's happening, just in different ways, right?

[18:31] If you see something that's happening, right? If you're standing right here and you see an event, you're way over there, you see a different event, or the same event. The way you're going to describe it is going to be different, but it goes to show the significance of what is happening in Revelation.

[18:46] And so, they saw these three prophets, they saw something that was already true, right? And it's the same thing that John is seeing, the same type of throne.

[18:58] And so, when we think of the throne of God, not only does the power and the authority of God exist today, but it certainly is going to exist forever, amen?

[19:09] Going to show the power, the might, the strength, and the authority of God. I mean, that's powerful. I mean, God being glorified in that moment, and God being glorified forever is something that is, it should give us more confidence, because we also have to think about the continued battle that happens between good and evil.

[19:33] When we think about us knowing the Lord and receiving salvation and growing in Him, to know that the battle is won in Jesus Christ. And to see that kind of throne room, that there's going to be praise and worship that's happening, should give us confidence.

[19:50] The battle is already won. I don't have to worry about darkness. I don't have to worry about brokenness. I have confidence in the living God. And so, it's important, and I need to drive this once again, is that as we think of the open door and the throne room, God is giving us, as individuals, time for us to repent, right?

[20:15] The changing of the mind, metanoia. To change our mind and our perspective on who Jesus Christ is, and it's important for us, especially before we even know who Jesus is, what is your perspective on Christ?

[20:28] Well, for many of us who are Christians, we're like, I already know this, Pastor. But not everyone can answer in that same perspective. Some people, especially nowadays, may say, well, Jesus Christ was a great teacher.

[20:40] And they just leave it at that. You have some people that say Jesus Christ was just an incredible prophet. Well, he's much more than a prophet. He's much more than a teacher, much more than a miracle worker.

[20:51] Let's talk about Christ being the Savior for all. That whosoever believes shall not perish but have eternal life. Let's talk about the significance of that.

[21:03] And that Jesus Christ being the way, the truth, and the life in him. So, in other words, the spiritual realm then, that curtain that's being opened up for a second here, right?

[21:16] That door that's being opened saying, hey, John, I want to show you something that's going on. If God's ever going to show you something and say, hey, look, take a look at this, go through the door, see what's going on. You may not understand it, though, and that's all right.

[21:29] It's just showing the power and glory of God. And these three witnesses in the Old Testament, and then, of course, you have John. I mean, it's not anything new. John is seeing what has already been true and been prophesied on in these prophetic accounts.

[21:46] Let's go to that next slide then. Now, I mentioned I was going to talk about the 24 elders, right? You see this repeated number of 24 and 24, right?

[21:58] Much like you see earlier in Revelation, where there's seven upon seven. When you see this, right, we think of seven being perfect or complete.

[22:10] In this sense, many scholars have actually said that the 24 elders represents the 12 tribes and the 12 apostles. Now, that's very interesting. Now, some people debate on that.

[22:21] But what's important, whether you believe in that conclusion or not, it's important to know the significance of 12 upon 12, right? Completedness upon completedness.

[22:31] Again, when you start seeing these repeated numbers, it's showing that much more significance within the number. And so, yeah, in Scripture, when we see 12, it equals completedness.

[22:42] And so that 24 is completedness upon completedness, right? So it's just kind of, for us, it may be kind of hard for us to think about that, right? If something's complete, how can it be more complete, right?

[22:53] But it's showing that what God has going is far beyond even our understanding. And so what's also interesting is the four living creatures here, right? You have the lion, the ox, the man, and the eagle.

[23:06] I found this very interesting. A lion, is that a cat? I mean, I guess technically it is, right? But it's not your domestic cat that you have that you name Tiger and you think is a lion, right?

[23:18] You have maybe your tabby cat. You have your Siamese cat or whatever is going on. That's not... I'm sorry. It's not a lion, right? So a lion would be something that's not domestic.

[23:30] It'd be something that you typically find in the wild, right? So it's interesting to note that the lion is wild. And the ox, on the other hand, is domestic. That's kind of interesting, right?

[23:41] And then, of course, you have man on the earth and the eagle in the sky. So it's actually showing in here, in these different type of beasts, the extent of which creation and the extent of which all of creation, right?

[24:02] It's going to show the amount of power that God has over creation. So it's just kind of a very interesting thing going on. In other words, it's the fullness of creation in four categories.

[24:14] And it's important to note, once again, that all creation is worshiping in this scene. And what a powerful type of scene that is going on here.

[24:25] Let's go to that next slide. Now, for those of you who have been here before, we went over the parables of Christ. We did 38 parables, around 38 parables, which was an incredible amount of parabolic teaching from Christ.

[24:41] But there is the parable of the hidden treasure. If some of you may know it, you may not remember it or may not know it. But it's where someone who is seeking for, they find the hidden treasure.

[24:55] And it's something that is so valuable, the person is willing to get rid of everything just to have that field with the treasure, right? And so in this sense, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure that is hidden in a field.

[25:09] And what's important for us to see this connection then is that the throne room has always existed, but yet it has been hidden.

[25:20] And it was revealed partially to the prophets and partially to John. And what a blessing it is that through scripture, that hidden treasure is being revealed to us.

[25:34] Isn't that amazing? Having just a piece of the spiritual realm being revealed in these different accounts. And we have been shown what people may not always understand or may not even see.

[25:48] But it still remains to be true that God is on the throne and that worship never ceases. What a beautiful imagery that we have from here.

[25:58] And so, in other words, the open door from Revelation 4 is like the revealing of the hidden treasure of such value and of such worth.

[26:11] Let's go to that next slide then. So what do we do about this then, right? Next slide, please. Well, the first thing and the most important thing is, now granted, in the sense here where we have the door that's open, where it says here, a door standing in heaven may be a little harder for us to understand, right?

[26:39] But I want us to think, maybe not necessarily a door that's open in heaven, but the door that is open for you to go through. The door that is open that Christ wants you to go through.

[26:54] And I want you to think, yes, they're technically two different doors, but they both reveal a lot of significance. The Lord calls for us. In other words, the door is open and Christ has opened it and no one can shut it.

[27:11] And so, think of this as your invitation for you to receive in salvation by going through the door, right?

[27:21] You hear the language all the time, enter through the narrow gate. The other day I was going through, because your pastor is a geek, I was going through old charts and diagrams and I found this one.

[27:34] It's from the 1800s. And it shows the wide road and the narrow gate. And it's showing all these people, right? They're just all going through the wide road and saying, enter through the narrow gate, right?

[27:47] And it's just a little, like, rickety old gate. And you're like, wow, it's just, there's the door, right? Very similar in language of what we're talking about.

[27:59] Now, granted, we don't want to have this scene where everybody is going through the wide road. We got to tell people about the gate. We got to tell people about the open door, that it's leading to salvation, that it leads to transformation, and it certainly leads to the new heaven and the new earth.

[28:20] And I don't know about you. I want to dwell with the city of God, in the city of God, with the Lord forever. That is a remarkable thing, rather than destruction or the alternative in that sense.

[28:36] And so, we can also think of, we think of those who are yet to believe, or those who have not believed, the call for them to enter through the door. But it's also important for us to, let's not forget the door is there.

[28:51] For those of us that may have entered through the door, we may have forgotten that you once made a decision for Christ. Recognize the significance of that decision, that it not only affects your life here on earth, but it's going to affect your eternal life.

[29:07] You're talking, essentially, two lives that are being affected by one decision. That is incredible. So, if you have drifted, or you've had hardness in your heart, maybe it's a time or a call for you to remember the door.

[29:26] The door that you have once gone through. Don't be like Laodicea, one that shuts the door. Don't be like one who regrets the door.

[29:41] Remember it. Remember the significance of your salvation. You know, I don't know if I've told you guys this story before. There was an older man that I once met who told me how as he got older, he got more, not on fire for the Lord, but he said the thing that would always get him to be more on fire for the Lord was to see a new believer.

[30:09] And how on fire they were. And how excited they were. And how simple their faith was, right? I believe in Jesus.

[30:20] He died for my sins. And he would tell me, sometimes I need a reminder not to get caught up in all the craziness and to just remember, amen.

[30:34] Jesus died for my sins and that's all I need to remember. Sometimes we need to go back to the basics. Sometimes we need to remember where we once came from. Sometimes we just need to know that Jesus died for our sins.

[30:48] So this is directly applicable whether you are a seasoned Christian, whether you are distant from the Lord, or whether you do not believe in the Lord. The second thing then is to embed worship in everyday life.

[31:02] Now, what's very powerful in this spiritual realm is the constant worship of the Lord. And we think of how we live in the world today.

[31:15] Our worship should not be contained or restricted just to Sunday. Let us have Christ at the center of our lives in what we say and what we do.

[31:28] It should become a part of who we are. Not just, you think of the famous scene, you know, I'm only a Christian on Sunday, but who knows when I'm going to be on Monday, right?

[31:39] Who knows what, what, or what's going to happen on Wednesday, right? It's having this embeddedness. That I am a Christian and I'm not perfect.

[31:52] I am a work in progress, but I believe in the one who is perfect and the one who is doing a new thing in my life. And so the four living creatures, if you go back there, in verse eight, the four creatures, each of them, right, with the six wings, they're full of eyes around.

[32:15] It says in there, that day and night, they never cease to say, holy, holy, holy. In other words, they never stopped praising the Lord.

[32:27] Isn't that interesting? Even though we may not fully understand the four living creatures, there's a lot of debate on what specifically it means. But what's important to know is what they're doing. It's also important to know to see that this is not the first time they show up in scripture.

[32:44] And so, don't let your worship be only on Sunday. Be Christ-like. Live and love like Jesus Christ all the days of your life.

[32:56] And I'm reminded, how many of you have heard that verse? That even the stones would cry out. Stones?

[33:08] Rocks? Are you out of your mind? But yet it's in there. An inanimate, non-living object can worship the Lord if God is going to say it to be so.

[33:23] How powerful is that? That God will be worshipped. So even the stones would cry out if they're commanded. And we've seen from this text the throne room.

[33:38] Our response should be worship and embedding that in our very lives. So ask yourself that question then. How do I embed worshipping the Lord in what I say and in what I do?

[33:53] Is it through the conversations you have with everyday people? Maybe. Is it your prayer life? Is it perhaps you haven't read the Bible in a long time?

[34:06] Perhaps it's just reflecting on your salvation story and the saving grace that comes from Jesus Christ. Whatever it may be, may you take time to reflect on this.

[34:20] And the third thing is to proclaim what you have seen. Can you imagine seeing the heavenly realm? whether it's Daniel or Ezekiel or John or any of these individuals seeing the curtain pulled and not telling people about it?

[34:38] Right? That'd be crazy. When we think of the scene of the throne room or when you think of the salvation you receive, you have got to share it with other people.

[34:53] How you share it depends on you. It might just be sharing in your testimony. It might just be being present with other people within the community. Do you realize that how you share the gospel, there's many different approaches in doing that?

[35:09] There are some people, they go to the streets and they say, Jesus is Lord, and they speak from a microphone. Praise God. There are other people, they work in a secular work environment where you being a Christian is shown by how you perform your work and how you conduct yourself so that your boss is like, why do you do such a good job?

[35:36] Or you might be one of those people that, hey, you know what? God's changed my life. You should know about it. I mean, one thing that Amber and I are very big on is the ministry of presence and friendship evangelism.

[35:55] Ministry of presence, be present with people. Show up when there's crisis to the best of your ability. Ten minutes, a simple text.

[36:06] A lot of times when a crisis happens, just show up. You don't even have to say a word. Maybe just, I'm here for you.

[36:17] Do you know how many times I've been in a situation where I don't know the words to say and yet here I am as a pastor having lots of words to say? There are situations like that where you just being there is what matters.

[36:30] Friendship evangelism, building relationships. Building relationships first so people can see who you are so that your words and your actions are in alignment and they ask, what do you believe in?

[36:47] Why do you do this? I'm always fascinated by those kind of questions, right? I'll tell you that one time with our STEAM nights, there was a family and not believers or anything and they asked me, why are you putting on this community event?

[37:09] This is in a church. I said, yeah. Well, what's the catch? You going to convert me or not? I'm like, don't have a sense of humor, right?

[37:23] Do you want me to convert you? Right? He said, well, no. I'm here, you know, I brought my kids here. I thought it was a wonderful community event. I said, that's fine.

[37:36] Did you enjoy your meal? Have you enjoyed your time? Well, yeah. Good. He's not ready. He's certainly not. Hey, have you read John 3, 16, but I, you know, no.

[37:49] In that kind of moment, you have to establish a relationship with them. You know, what ended up happening was, so you're not going to convert me?

[38:00] I said, unless you want to, we can, I mean, we can go over it. He said, well, why would a church put something out on like this and not try to, to force, I'm like, I see where you're getting at.

[38:13] You're asking, why would you put on an event and not try to force it down my throat? I said, because this is what we're called to do. We are called to love God and to love people, period.

[38:26] So, you, atheist, agnostic, whatever you are, I'm going to show you the love of Christ and what you're going to do with that is on you, period.

[38:39] Now, did I ever see the man again? No. Will I see him again? I don't know. But I hope that my words and my actions were enough to plant a seed.

[38:51] That is friendship evangelism. That is the approach that I recommend for us and maybe that's not your, your tempo. Maybe that's not your style.

[39:03] At least consider it. There are many ways to share in the gospel and what's unique to you or what God has specifically called you for, respond to that. I share these stories because it's important for us to proclaim what we have seen.

[39:18] John did not keep the vision to himself. Did he? Absolutely not. He wrote it down and he sent it to the churches, right? The seven churches. So, clearly, it's important.

[39:30] And by the grace of God, we have revelation. So, clearly, it is for us as well. And so, to see the open door, to go through it or to see the throne room, whatever God has done in your life or revealed to you, share it with other people.

[39:49] You will be amazed at how you can reach people. Presence, proclamation, words, actions, whatever it is.

[40:02] May you, I pray that all of you will find your right way to share in the gospel with others. And so, the hidden treasure is not only hidden from those who haven't heard yet, we receive the hidden treasure and we share it with others.

[40:22] The greatest treasure that we can receive that's not only parabolic but also apocalyptic is the gift we receive in Jesus Christ. And that gift is available for every single person.

[40:36] Let us carry the news of what has been revealed. Let us carry the message of Jesus Christ to others. Amen? Amen. Let's pray together.

[40:48] And Father God, we thank you for this time and this chance, this opportunity for us to go through Revelation 4. We recognize how difficult and how heavy Revelation is.

[41:01] may we faithfully continue to discern, to learn, and to be transformed by your word. We're grateful that you promise blessing by reading the words of this prophecy together.

[41:19] May we recognize that the door is open. May we walk through it. May we recognize the throne room showing your power and your glory. And may we worship you here on earth, but also in the new heaven and the new earth.

[41:37] May we respond to you. We thank you so much for your word and for this incredible book of the Bible. We love you.

[41:50] We praise you. We glorify you and we honor you. And we're going to sing together that Revelation song together. It is in the name of Jesus Christ that we pray. And we all say together, Amen, church.

[42:02] Amen.