“After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.’ At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, and 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 four living creatures, full of eyes in front 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 living creature like an eagle in flight. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!’ 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 twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, ‘Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.’”

The book of Revelation describes many things – some of them are relatively straightforward and easily understood. It doesn’t necessarily require deep contemplation and an in-depth knowledge of Biblical symbolism to comprehend John’s introduction, or the praises and condemnations that Jesus gives to the seven churches. Then there are areas that describe things that are on the fringe of our understanding – it takes careful contemplation and Spiritually given discernment to work through the victories promised to those who conquer from among the seven churches, and to consider some of the attributes that the glorified Christ is described as having in the first chapter of this book. Then we move to subjects and events that are beyond mortal description or comprehension. We’ve seen this in part of John’s account of glorified Jesus, Revelation 1:14–16 saying,

“The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.  In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.”

These verses actually show a mixture of all three, as the white hair is easy enough to understand, and the symbolic imagery of eyes like fire, feet like burnished bronze, and a voice like roaring waters can be discerned. But the stars in His hand, as well as the lampstands mentioned just before this section would be a complete mystery if Jesus Himself didn’t go on to explain them. Likewise, while we may understand the meaning of the sword of His mouth through passages like Hebrews 4:12,

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

And Revelation 19:15,

“From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.”

And understand that Jesus’ face shining like the sun calls us back to what was witnessed at the transfiguration, seen in Matthew 17:2,

“And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.”

Just because we understand what John is describing doesn’t mean that we can actually, physically comprehend it. John is given this vision, this revelation, and through divine inspiration and guidance, he records what he has witnessed, but human words can only capture so much, and there is only so much we, who look on as though through a dimmed mirror, can comprehend on this side of eternity. It’s important to understand as we move through Revelation that all parts are worthwhile – whether straightforward, complicated, or unknowably vast, all of it is glorifying to God, all of it is there for a reason, and all of it deserves careful consideration. There can be an inclination when something is too big, too confusing, or too intimidating, to simply write it off, to skip it and move on to the next section – but again, all this is there for a reason, and if it didn’t matter or wasn’t relevant, it wouldn’t have been recorded in the living, breathing Word of God. I make a point to say all this, partly because it’s always good to bear this in mind, but also because as we conclude Advent and resume our time in Revelation, we see the entire book shift. Up until now we have stood with John on Patmos, the island of his exile as he is given vision in the Spirit, and is visited by glorified Jesus. We see their exchange and hear as Jesus comforts His friend and Apostle, and the word He gives for John to relay to each of the seven churches. But after this, we leave the earth and enter into heaven – we’ll regularly see the earth again, but from a somewhat outside perspective as John witnesses what is to unfold there. This is not something a mortal mind can fully comprehend, and it can at times be intimidating and confusing – but it’s also beautiful, comforting, and glorious – and above all, it permits we who are so very limited in the confines of our flesh to marvel at the overwhelming and inexpressible glory of God, our Father, the One who is seated on the throne, who was, and is, and is to come, who presides over all eternity with His mighty, and righteous hand.

The Immeasurable Glory of God

1. Glory that Fills Eternity

“After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.’”

From his vision of the glorified Christ and the message he’s given to the seven churches, John receives an invitation – an open door into heaven itself. From the invitation comes a commandment – the voice of Jesus, calling and declaring like a trumpet to enter into heaven and to bear witness as to what is to come. Despite the markedly different circumstances, there’s a similarity here to what Jesus says to His first two disciples in John 1:35–39,

“The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God!’ The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, ‘What are you seeking?’ And they said to him, ‘Rabbi’ (which means Teacher), ‘where are you staying?’ He said to them, ‘Come and you will see.’ So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.”

The “John” we see mentioned is John the Baptist, and we’re only told the name of one of the disciples, but tradition holds that the unnamed man is John, the Apostle and writer of Revelation. Jesus didn’t just tell them, but invited these men to bear witness, to see and understand. This was a central theme and foundational element of John’s entire gospel – he was not writing a second or third hand account, but as an eyewitness – one who saw the water turned to wine, who stood by the cross and witnessed the blood and water pour from His Master’s side, and who witnessed the empty tomb, and the risen Savior. This is the perspective and authority that he begins the letter of 1 John 1 with, saying in verses 1–3,

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.”

And so now, as Jesus reveals to His Apostle things far greater and more glorious than he has witnessed previously, John is invited into heaven, into the very throne room of God, to witness the things that will unfold.

“At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald.”

As we look into the throne room we must exercise caution as we talked about earlier, as there’s much to understand, much to speculate on, and plenty of forest to get lost in amongst the trees. As we read descriptions of the things that John has seen, some passages from later in Revelation can help give context for the materials we’re discussing. Revelation 21:10–11 says,

“And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.”

And Revelation 21:18–21 tells us,

“The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.”

These aren’t normal stones, just as the gold, which is pure and “clear as glass” isn’t normal gold. Jasper as we know it is most commonly a reddish color, but comes in many, many different varieties of colors, which doesn’t fit the image we’re given of the One who sits on the throne. He is also likened to carnelian, which is a more consistently reddish stone, but again has plenty of patterned variation to it, which doesn’t fit the examples of this stone we have in our world. You may wonder, if the evidence tells us that what John is seeing didn’t actually look like what we know as jasper and carnelian, how did he know that’s what he was seeing, and what’s the relevance of him mentioning them? The simple answer in terms of how he knew what he was seeing is that he was given the knowledge through spiritual revelation. How many times have you had a dream where you were speaking to a specific person, or were in a specific location, yet upon waking and recounting the dream, that’s not the person you were talking to, or that’s not the place you were in? Within the dream, you had complete understanding, this person’s identity, or your location made perfect sense, even though your conscious mind couldn’t reconcile things. Think of this as an oversimplified and imperfect representation for John’s knowledge – what he witnesses, the appearance of God likened to jasper and carnelian, doesn’t make sense to mortal minds, at least in part because what he’s seeing is incomprehensibly glorious. We can fully know the significance of this vision and of the overwhelming glory of God because of the profound position both of these stones are later given when we see both of them mentioned in Revelation 21. New Jerusalem, perfect and descending from heaven, bearing the glory of God is likened in its radiance to, “a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.” This jasper is what forms the walls of the city, and the first of the twelve foundations that New Jerusalem is built upon. In terms of carnelian being seen again as the sixth foundation, this is significant, though perhaps less distinct. Seeing jasper as the walls of the city, and as the first laid foundation, it’s easy enough to make the connection back to today’s passage and to the overwhelming glory of God – but carnelian is less direct, and this is an example of where I personally have to exercise caution, and not attempt to force something where it isn’t there. My initial thought was that, since there are twelve foundations, and this is the sixth, it’s the middlemost one, it’s the core of the foundations. This may show you that, while I’m blessed with an earnest devotion to Scripture, and I dearly love writing and teaching on the Word, you do not want me doing your taxes, because that’s not how even numbers work… I then wondered if there could be relevance to the sixth tribe of Israel (Naphtali), the sixth Apostle (in the synoptic lists, Bartholomew) or the sixth day of creation (when man was made), but there’s nothing that seems to exist here organically. We have to understand that it is enough to see that this same carnelian quality that John witnesses in the glory of the One seated on the throne is a present feature in the foundation of the newly made Jerusalem, and not try to read in more than is there in our attempt to know the unknowable.

“… and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.”

John is not the first person throughout the history of recorded Scripture to witness the interior of the throne room of heaven, however if we compare his account to the two others we have and allow them to complement one another, we can gain a greater understanding and appreciation for the massive and incomprehensible glory that is on display. Isaiah 6:1–4 says,

“In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!’ And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.”

We’ll return to the matter of the seraphim and their declaration later, but for now note two things – one, that God is seated high above all else and that the train of His robe, His shining and expansive glory, fills the entire temple. Two, that when the foundations and the thresholds shook, “the house was filled with smoke.” Isaiah was blessed to witness God and His throne and His glory, as well as the seraphim and their worship, but not the throne room itself. There were things obscured from Isaiah that are shown to be in common between what Ezekiel and John both see. Ezekiel 1:22, 26-28 says,

“Over the heads of the living creatures there was the likeness of an expanse, shining like awe-inspiring crystal, spread out above their heads.”… “And above the expanse over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance. And upward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were gleaming metal, like the appearance of fire enclosed all around. And downward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him. Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking.”

As with the seraphim, we’ll return to the matter of the living creatures later. It seems that what John witnessed from inside the throne room, and what was hidden from Isaiah, was seen from below by Ezekiel – through this awe-inspiring glass expanse, stretched out like a sea of crystal – like a window of the throne room of God. We also gain some context in that what John describes as jasper and carnelian, Ezekiel describes as gleaming metal and enclosed fire. It helps to appreciate the beauty and the glory of what they’re seeing in John comparing this great sheet of crystal to the sea – Ezekiel calls it an expanse, like the sky itself, which makes sense as he’s looking up and seeing this in the heavens, and gives us an appreciation for its vastness. But John, looking at the floor of the throne room compares it to a sea stretched out before the throne, and this again allows us to take in the profound contrast between man and God as we consider what the sea meant to people living in antiquity, and if we’re honest, what it still represents to us today. The ocean is a mystery, and it’s deadly. It of course is neither to God – in Job 38 God says that He walks the recesses of the deep – there is no mystery and no danger before the Almighty. But to mankind, the sea is death. There’s a reason that Jonah’s time, deep in the sea, in the belly of the great fish is used to prophetically symbolize Jesus’s three days in the grave before His resurrection. There’s a reason that in Revelation 20:13, which says,

“And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.”

The sea is given its own bracket of the lives it has claimed. Because of global exploration, we don’t think of the sea as being quite so mysterious in modern times. Tourists crowd the shoreline, ships sail across it, planes fly over it. We have detailed charts of air currents and tidal shifts, and maps upon maps recording the great blue expanse. But to put everything in perspective and humble us modern folk a little, here are some quotes from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s website.

“As of June 2025, 27.3% of the global seafloor had been mapped with modern high-resolution technology (multibeam sonar systems), usually mounted to ships, that can reveal the seafloor in greater detail. While almost 52% of the seafloor beneath U.S. waters had been mapped to these modern standards, the nation’s seafloor is larger than the land area of all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the five territories combined. Thus, there’s still a significant amount of seafloor left to be mapped at high resolution.”

That sounds pretty good, right? A lot to go, but still, a lot done. But that’s seafloor mapped, not explored. The NOAA goes on to say,

“We can’t say we’ve explored the seafloor until we’ve seen it, and explorers have seen less than 0.001% of the deep ocean seafloor — that’s roughly the size of Rhode Island. Since more than 90% of the ocean is deep ocean (i.e., deeper than 200 meters/656 feet), a very large majority of the ocean remains to be explored.”

So, not to belittle modern advancement or scientific achievement, but in the grand scheme of things we’re approximately one Rhode Island’s worth of seafloor more advanced than we were when John wrote Revelation… Don’t let the differences between modern life, and the lives of those who lived in antiquity distract your focus or blunt the edges around your understanding that this image of a window stretched out like the sea and seen through by God, shining and clear and glorious and vast, helps us appreciate how small our understanding is of the eternality of the glory of God. But this is something that Ezekiel and John were both allowed to see and to describe: God, seated on His throne, looking through something as vast as the sky itself, as all-encompassing as the unknown depths of the rolling sea – and yet it’s crystal clear. It’s not dark, or mysterious in its nature, it is shining, and radiant, and glorious. In witnessing the glory of the throne, John compares what he sees to emerald, Ezekiel to sapphire – both precious stones, both featured in the twelve foundations of the New Jerusalem, and both in keeping with what we can see, though not fully understand, of the glory of God. Both men also compare the radiant glory to a rainbow – seven colors that reflect the completeness of the One seated on the throne. Something that John is entirely unique in witnessing is the twenty-four elders, and the seven lamps of the spirits of God. The elders serve to reflect the saints, those who have received the unfading crown of glory, who have been made worthy and righteous and are there in the presence of the Living God. Their number helps us identify their priestliness, as in 1 Chronicles 24, David divides the priests into twenty-four rotational divisions. The “seven spirits of God,” can be a hang-up for some people, but there’s no reason for this. God has one Spirit, the Holy Spirit. We know Him in three parts, as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, making up what we know as the trinity, but God is One, each part of the trinity is fully God and fully singular despite also being three unique persons… Does it defy human explanation? Yes, yes it does, but that doesn’t stop it from being true. Likewise, God has one nature, in that He is fully and completely holy, in all things, at all times, but we see many things from Him – He is the literal embodiment of Love and Truth – in Him we know hope, peace, joy, justice, wrath, and judgement. He is One glorious figure with many glorious things coming from Him. Again, consider the idea of the emerald (or sapphire if referencing Ezekiel), that is also likened to a rainbow – from one, seven, in seven, one. The image of the seven spirits is not about any kind of division of God, but simply illustrates again expanding, multiplying glory that emanates from the throne of the holy and righteous Living God. I know that we’ve covered a lot of information, a lot of symbolism, and a lot of prophetic visions that we can only understand in part, so to make things as clear as possible, what we’re driving at understanding, something we’ll never be able to really close our fingers around on this side of eternity, is how inexpressibly glorious God is. We can’t understand it because we operate entirely within time, within measurable amounts, and trackable scales, and God’s glory usurps all of this – He is eternally glorious, His glory literally fills that which is endless, the timelessness and endlessness of heaven and earth and eternity stretching on without end is filled with His perfect holiness. We can’t understand this, but we have to try. We have to try because it’s true, because He is due this in our worship of Him, and because this is what John is telling us about as he writes of his vision of the throne in heaven. Now that we’ve established that to the best of our ability, we’ll move through our next two points a bit more quickly, as both look at the proper response to the enormous and eternal glory of the Living God.

2. Glory Worshiped by the Angels

“And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front 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 living creature like an eagle in flight. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!’”

I’ve always been of the opinion that the reason we’re not given more information about angels throughout Scripture is because if we were told too much about them, many would end up worshiping them. I feel pretty confident in saying this, because I’m pretty confident that most of us aren’t better off than John, and he tried to worship an angel twice during the process of receiving his revelation. Revelation 19:9–10 says,

“And the angel said to me, ‘Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ And he said to me, ‘These are the true words of God.’ Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, ‘You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.’ For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

And we see in Revelation 22:6–9,

“And he said to me, ‘These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.’ ‘And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.’ I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me, but he said to me, ‘You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.’”

This is the opposite of shooting the messenger who brings bad news – angels shouldn’t be disregarded – they’re our fellow servants in the service and worship of God, but just because they transcend space and time in their service of God in ways that mortal minds can’t comprehend, and just because they deliver good news in their service as messengers of the Lord, doesn’t mean we revere or worship them. They are our fellow servants – in whatever form or function they take, they are with us, not above us. Now, bearing that in mind, let’s look at the angelic response to the glory of God. The four living creatures that John describes bear some key similarities to the seraphim that Isaiah writes of in the passage we read earlier – six wings, and the persistent declaration to the holiness of God. What we can see in John’s physical description of the living creatures is that they’ve been blessed with a complete awareness, and in this they are fully and completely devoted to worshipping the glorious, eternal God. Here’s what I mean by them having complete awareness – we see the face of a lion, and ox, a man, and an eagle – so a cunning predator of the land, a beast of burden, the one creature blessed to walk the earth in the likeness of God, and a predator of the sky, borne up on the wind to see over the land. To help keep our focus, Scripture tells us some about each of these animals and God’s dominion over them. In Job 38:39–40 God asks,

“Can you hunt the prey for the lion, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions, when they crouch in their dens or lie in wait in their thicket?”

In Job 39:9–12 He asks,

“Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will he spend the night at your manger? Can you bind him in the furrow with ropes, or will he harrow the valleys after you? Will you depend on him because his strength is great, and will you leave to him your labor? Do you have faith in him that he will return your grain and gather it to your threshing floor?”

Genesis 1:26 says,

“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’”

And in Job 39:27–29 God says,

“Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high? On the rock he dwells and makes his home, on the rocky crag and stronghold. From there he spies out the prey; his eyes behold it from far away.”

All of His questions to Job are rhetorical, all of these things are beyond the scope of man and are well within the providence of God. God has perfect, intimate knowledge of all His creation, and nature testifies to Him in response. In all this, we can see how the physical descriptions of the four living creatures cover four very different beings, yet despite any differences, they are all singularly united around their eternal worship and declaration of the glory of God. John also writes that they are, “full of eyes in front and behind,” as well as, “full of eyes all around and within.” They’re blessed, not only to see all that is around them, but also all that is inside themselves. They have been created to cover the spectrum of creation, and to witness all, and with this perspective their worship is for God and God alone. Returning to the living creatures mentioned in Ezekiel, we see that despite some variation in description, the function of angelic obedience is much the same. Ezekiel 1:5–12 says,

“And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had a human likeness, but each had four faces, and each of them had four wings. Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf’s foot. And they sparkled like burnished bronze. Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. And the four had their faces and their wings thus: their wings touched one another. Each one of them went straight forward, without turning as they went. As for the likeness of their faces, each had a human face. The four had the face of a lion on the right side, the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four had the face of an eagle. Such were their faces. And their wings were spread out above. Each creature had two wings, each of which touched the wing of another, while two covered their bodies. And each went straight forward. Wherever the spirit would go, they went, without turning as they went.”

The living creatures that John sees see everything with their many eyes, and we see their worship for God in their declaration of what they see – His perfect and eternal holiness.  We see this same kind of obedience to the truth of the glory of God in how the living creatures that Ezekiel sees move – “Each one of them went straight forward, without turning as they went,” “And each went straight forward. Wherever the spirit would go, they went, without turning as they went.” No hesitation, no deviation, straight and unyielding, not by their own power, but in obedience to the path of the spirit. This is what is illustrated for us by the angels, powerful, and mysterious, and joined to us, fellow servants in the worship of glorious and holy God.

3. Glory Worshiped by the Saints

“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 twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, ‘Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.’”

If you need any further proof that we are in harmony with, and not placed below angels, see that our worship of God is in tandem with theirs. We spoke briefly of the twenty-four elders before, and how their number helps us understand their positions as saints. Their exact identity is one of many pits in Revelation that people will throw themselves into. Is their number literal or representative? Are we seeing the twelve tribes of Israel added to by an additional twelve from the church? Interesting points to speculate on and discuss, but wade deep enough into this and soon enough you’re failing to see the forest for all the trees you’re fixated on. The twenty-four elders, regardless of any specifics, are our brothers, seated in places of honor, crowned with salvation in the presence of the Living God. And what we can take away from them, is how they hold their honors, and how they respond to the glory of God. Jesus tells the church at Smyrna in Revelation 2:10–11,

“Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.”

And He says to the church at Laodicea in Revelation 3:21–22,

“The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

We are witnessing the fruition of these promises – saints crowned with eternal life, enthroned in the presence of God – and what do they do? What is their response to the glorious holiness of God? They fall from their thrones, they bow down before God, and they cast their crowns at His feet. This is not disregarding their blessings, but rather acknowledging the extreme, profound glory of God, giving to Him all that He is due. Paul writes in Philippians 3:7–11,

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

Now Paul wrote this in reference to worldly things, but what the twenty-four elders illustrate is that even glorious eternal gifts are worth casting down, not as rubbish, but as due offering rightly given before holy God. What’s interesting is that the elders also show us that these things are not lost – God is not self-possessed in His righteousness and glory, but still cares for His children. We know this because the elders leave their thrones and cast their crowns repeatedly – they worship, and they are restored, and they worship again. This is the response, the only response to the eternal, immeasurable glory of God – unending worship, unending praise – not out of compulsion or obligation, but with great joy, because this, in all His greatness, is what He is due, forever and ever, amen.

Pastor Chris’ sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXlLEKl3FpM