In this lesson we will study the first vision that was shown to John and recorded in the Book of Revelation. We have already discussed in Lesson #1 why I do not believe that this verse represents the Rapture of the Church. This verse does signify a beginning, however, for it is a beginning of John’s recording of the visions of the future events. In Revelation 1:19, Jesus commanded John to write “the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter.” In other words, John was commanded to write down his memories from the past, the direction for the church that God had given him at the present time, and also the prophetical visions of the future. John obeyed all three commands. He wrote the Gospel of John which detailed his memories of the past ministry of Jesus Christ. He wrote the letters of I John, II John, and III John giving guidance to what was then present circumstances. God also revealed to him the spiritual conditions of seven churches of Asia which John recorded in chapters 2-3 of Revelation. In this verse, Revelation 4:1, we have the beginning of John writing down the prophetic events. Some people have taught that the seven churches of Asia prophetically represented seven “church ages,” but to believe that is to believe that the present age is one of apathy and lukewarmness! I believe that those seven churches of Asia are representative of types of churches found in every period of time but were actual messages to seven actual churches during John's life.

John saw in the spirit a vision of heaven. This is the only detailed look into what heaven is like right now. Notice that there are no streets of gold. It is New Jerusalem that comes "out of" the "New Heaven" that has streets of gold. This current heaven that John is looking into is the "Old Heaven." We will go to this heaven initially at the Rapture of the church, but we will live forever in "New Jerusalem." We will discuss the "New Jerusalem" in greater detail when we get to the end of the book of Revelation.

Also notice that there is only ONE throne in heaven and ONE sat on the throne! There is only one God and not a trinity! As we will see later, the ONE who sits upon the throne is the lamb of God, Jesus Christ!

The one upon the throne shone with mighty splendor and there was a rainbow around the throne!

Around the throne were twenty-four seats with twenty-four "elders" sitting in them. They were clothed in white clothing and had crowns of gold. There are many varied opinions about who these elders are or who they represent. Some have said that they are the heads of the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 disciples. I find that interpretation unlikely in that there are no other scriptures to back them up. Also, if you take the King James Version interpretation of Revelation 5:9, then they were redeemed from "all of the earth" not just the Jewish people. Some people teach that this is the church and that the 24 elders represent the church. That is again based upon the King James Version's interpretation of Revelation 5:9. I tend to lean toward another theory which we will discuss below, but the bottom line is that there is no way to be absolutely sure who or what is represented by these "elders."

This reference of the "seven Spirits of God" has caused many people to err in interpretation because of not allowing scripture to interpret scripture. We know that God is a Spirit (John 4:24) and that there is only ONE Spirit (I Corinthians 12:12-13; Ephesians 4:4) If we interpret this verse in light of all of scripture there cannot be seven distinctly different Spirits of God. So what then is meant by this passage? A careful study of ALL of scripture reveals that there are seven ways that we must allow God's Spirit to move in our lives! That is, there are seven different aspects of God's Spirit that want to work in our life. We will take the time to go through one by one:

Here we find three aspects of the "spirit of the Lord."

1. Spirit of wisdom and understanding - To allow the Holy Ghost to completely work in our lives, we must allow it to bring "wisdom and understanding." There are many commandments and passages of scripture that do not make sense until a person has received the Holy Ghost (I Corinthians 2:9-16). After a person receives the Holy Ghost, they must allow the Spirit of God to deal with their heart about areas of their life that they need to change. If they do not, then the Holy Ghost cannot fulfill it's purpose for coming into their life! Wisdom is the application of what you understand. By allowing the Holy Ghost to reveal and apply correction to their life, a person allows God's Spirit to perform this work.

2. Spirit of counsel and might - The words here for "counsel and might" in the original Hebrew are literally "purpose and power." The second work of the Holy Ghost in a person's life is to bring a new sense of purpose and to give them the power to fulfill that purpose! Priorities should change in a person who has received the Spirit of God!

3. Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord - The third work of the Spirit of God in a person's life is to cause them to desire in an increase of knowledge of the Lord. We learn more about the Lord through His word, but also by trusting Him through trials and experiencing deeper moves of God. As a person learns more about God, the more reverence or "fear" that they develop toward Him! Those that "fear the Lord" are those who grow deeper in God (see Psalms 25:12-14).

4. Spirit of truth - This scripture along with (John 16:13; John 8:31-32) all mention the importance of allowing the Spirit of God to bring a "spirit of truth." Many people have a form of "truth" but we must allow the Spirit of God to tear away the traditions of men and make sure that we believe everything like the original Early Church that Jesus Christ established! Unfortunately, some people receive the Holy Ghost but resist it's effort's to lead them into complete truth.

5. Spirit of Faith - The Holy Ghost also tries to bring a "spirit of faith" into a person's life. The Spirit of Faith is an attitude that says "any promise written in God's Word is for me and can happen today, so I will speak it and believe it!" We need to allow the Spirit of God to remove the seeds of doubt in our life.

6. Spirit of holiness - This is a much neglected work of the Spirit of God. If a person will submit themselves completely to God, they will begin to feel the Spirit of God call them to be "holy" or "clean like God" and separated from a worldly lifestyle. Notice this scripture:

There are two elements to holiness: the outside and the inside. That is what men see, and what God sees. We must endeavor to be more holy and God-like in our lifestyle, dress, speech, and actions, but also in our thoughts, meditations, and attitudes!

7. Spirit of prophecy - The angel said that "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." The ultimate work that the Holy Ghost tries to bring about in a person's life is for them to witness to others with the "testimony of Jesus." Jesus' testimony is how that He died, was buried, and rose again. The "brethren that have the testimony of Jesus" are those who have died to their sins in repentance, been buried "with him" in water baptism, and resurrected to a new life through the infilling of the Holy Ghost! When you follow the leading of the Holy Ghost and share the "testimony of Jesus Christ" with other people, you are actually in the spirit of prophecy because you are prophesying what will happen in their life if they will yield to God's Spirit! When you tell someone that they need to Repent, be baptized in Jesus' name, and be filled with the Holy Ghost, you are prophesying about what God will do if they will obey His Word!

Now let's get back to our study in the fourth chapter of Revelation:

In heaven there is a huge "sea of glass." That is the floor is made of something like pure crystal! It is certainly hard to fathom but it must be beautiful! There were also very different looking creatures around the throne:

These are definitely interesting creatures and are probably a reference to the angelic, four-headed creatures that Ezekiel also saw. He describes these creatures in detail in Ezekiel 1:5-25; 10:7-22. I believe that from a careful study of the book of Revelation, it is obvious that God created all sorts of creatures in heaven as well as in earth. From Ezekiel's description it seems that these angelic creatures have four heads: the heads of a lion, calf, man, and eagle respectively and yet are joined together in such a way as to be one creature. Ezekiel describes another creature that was in the form of a wheel with eyes all upon it that were near the four-faced creatures. Ezekiel also tells us that the four-faced creatures had at least four wings, two of which were joined to the other head's wings and two with which to cover their bodies because they were in the presence of the holy God! Here in Revelation, it is mentioned that they have six wings so obviously the extra set of wings are used to fly. When you realize the great diversity and wonderful creatures that God has created upon earth, then it is not farfetched to believe that God also filled heaven with magnificent and strange creatures whose sole purpose is to praise God!

In fact, earth was created and fashioned after heaven. Under Law, the mercy seat upon the ark of the covenant was considered the "throne of God" and had angels upon each side of it bowing to the place where God dwelt. This golden box behind the veil of the temple was God's throne upon earth. The seven candlesticks of the temple were obviously modeled after the burning flames of the "seven spirits of God." There is also an altar of incense in heaven where the "prayers of the saints are offered" (Revelation 8:2-6). There is also an altar of sacrifice in heaven (Revelation 6:9-11). It is important to understand that the temple and tabernacle of God upon the earth was just a model of the real thing in heaven!

With those truths in mind, then we must ask "what then is the earthly representation of the four headed beasts?" In Numbers chapter 2 we find that God gave specific instructions on how the children of Israel were to camp while in the wilderness. They were not to just throw down their tents in any convenient way, but were to follow God's plan. The temple of God where the presence of God dwelt was to be in the middle of the camp and the Levites and spiritual leaders were to camp near the tabernacle. The twelve tribes were grouped together in four separate groups with one tribe chosen as the "lead tribe." They were grouped as follows: Judah, Issachar, and Zabulon on the east; Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin on the west; Reuben, Simeon, and Asher on the South; Dan, Asher, and Naphtali on the North. The fun thing about studying the arrangement is that they were grouped in such a way to form a perfect shape of the cross every night that they camped! (see diagram at end of this study) The Jewish Rabbis tell us that each of the four groups had a "standard" or banner which they raised to represent their position. Judah's ensign was a lion, Ephraim's a calf, Reuben's a face of a man, and Dan's an eagle! The arrangement of the tribes of Israel into four groups were the earthly model of these fantastic creatures in heaven! And like the creatures, the tents of the Israelites were to face the throne of God as a constant sign of worship to Him!

The twenty-four elders also worshipped God! We will discuss them at length in a moment.

God had a book in His hand that was "sealed" with seven seals. In Biblical days, when a king decreed something or wanted to protect the contents to only be read by a certain someone, they would melt a bit of wax upon the item and then, while the wax was soft and moldable, place their signet ring into the wax, leaving the image of the king for all to clearly see (see Matthew 27:66; I Kings 21:8; Esther 8:8; Nehemiah chapters 9-10; Daniel 6:17). It was a stamp of approval and also so that all could see that it was a decree made by the king's authority. In similar manner, the Holy Ghost is the "seal of God" in that when a person receives the Holy Ghost, they are stamped with the image of the King while they are soft and moldable and all can clearly see that they are under the control of the King's authority (see Ephesians 1:12-14)!

When a scroll was sealed, then to open the scroll or book, one had to FIRST remove the seals upon it. So for the contents of this book in God's hand to be revealed, someone had to remove the seven seals upon it.

The only problem was that there was no man in heaven or earth worthy to open the book or remove the seals!

The terms "Lion of the tribe of Judah" and "Root of David" are both terms for Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ was from the tribe of Judah and was a kingly descendant of David and He was the one who "prevailed" to open the book. As John looked, a vision of a Lamb "as it had been slain" appeared. When John the Baptist first saw Jesus he proclaimed "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world" (John 1:29)! It is very obvious that there is not a literal bloody sheep in heaven today and that John is seeing a symbolic vision of the work of Jesus Christ upon Calvary! These two chapters are a view of the end-time events from the viewpoint of redemption!

This by no means "proves" a duality of the Godhead, because the Lamb came from the "midst of the throne" and there was only "one" who sat upon the throne. In Revelation 1:8, Jesus said that He was "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending. In Revelation 21:5-6, the ONE who sat upon the throne said that He was the "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending." It is obvious that Jesus is the ONE God who sits upon the throne! The Lamb refers to God become flesh and when we realize that the Lamb came from the "midst of the throne" we get a beautiful picture of a mighty God of glory who became flesh and died so that we could be redeemed from sin and Satan and have eternal life!

The book then is the plan and revelation of God to man. But it could not be opened and the seals could not be removed until AFTER the Lamb of God had been slain and resurrected! When Jesus Christ ascended into heaven, He was able to take the plan of God and begin to tear off the seals so that the ultimate plan of God could eventually be revealed to men. This is important, because when we study the seven seals in the next lesson, we will find that they are end-time events and so now we know that they could not be fulfilled until after Calvary and that they are just the preliminary events leading to the ultimate plan of God being revealed to the world!

Now we finally get back to the twenty-four elders. They began to praise the Lamb for His work on Calvary. An interesting point is that this is the first reference to singing in heaven after the fall of Lucifer!

The King James Version and the New King James Version has for verse 9 "hast redeemed US to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation." And verse 10 says "hast made US." They are the only two major translations that render the verses in this manner and most translators believe that they are incorrect according to the majority of the critical texts. Almost every other major translation in the English language renders these verses in a manner similar to the New American Update:

That is instead of the twenty-four elders saying that God has redeemed "us" from the earth, they are saying that God has redeemed "men" from the earth. All other major translations including the Revised Standard Version, New International Version, The Living Bible, American Standard Version and corresponding Updates, take this view due to the much more extensive collection of manuscripts available to us today.

If this is so and the King James Version has the incorrect rendering then I believe that the twenty-four elders are created angelic beings in heaven that form the "government of heaven." This is not so farfetched when we take into account that everything on earth is a model of a heavenly reality and that 12 and 24 are the numbers always associated with Godly government. There were twelve tribes of Israel, twelve disciples, etc... In Moses' tabernacle, there were 24 courses of the priests in the earthly temple that were the leaders of worship on earth (I Chronicles chapters 23-27). I find it much more likely then that these twenty-four "elders" are simply the angelic leaders of the heavenly worship. There governmental roles are then signified by their crowns. There is, of course, no way to prove any of the theories of the twenty-four elders, but this latter one makes much more sense to me and given how that everything found in this vision has been the heavenly reality after which everything on earth was patterned, it seems that this theory would be more probable than the others.

John saw literally millions of angels worshipping God! Notice that the angels were "round about the throne and the beasts and the elders" which seems to signify that the four-headed beasts and twenty-four elders were closer to the throne.

Notice after mentioning the "angels," John also mentions that "every creature which is in heaven" began to praise God. This certainly seems to point to the theory that God created a great diversity of creatures throughout the heavens as well as earth! They all were created to worship God!

John's vision of the Lamb that was slain is just an introduction to prophecies of the seven seals. In our next lesson we will study these "seals" that have to come to pass in order for the perfect plan of God to be revealed to the world!