Priscilla Shirer - There is a Throne
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Summary
This moving message from Revelation 4 pulls back the curtain on heaven's throne room to remind us that even in our darkest, most unwanted circumstances—like John's exile on Patmos or Dory Van Stone's heartbreaking childhood—God remains sovereign on His unshakable throne. The preacher stresses that heaven's door stands forever open, inviting us to shift our gaze upward for God's presence, peace, and perspective, because He's not just ruling but actively with us in the struggle. Ultimately, seeing the throne changes everything: it anchors us in hope, compels worship, and assures us the battle's already won since our King is seated in victory.
Opening Greetings and Gratitude
Good morning. My goodness, what an honor to be able to be here with all of you who are in this room. I know there are many others of you who are on the other side of the screen, worshiping with us downstairs, I understand, and in other rooms, and then, of course, online. It is a privilege and an honor. It actually feels a bit overwhelming to be here this morning and to have the privilege of being able to share with all of you. As has been mentioned, my Aunt Ruth has been a part of Kensington Temple since 1969. 1969! Talk about faithfulness!
So, I have heard about Kensington Temple well before I was born; she was here. Throughout my entire life, during the months she would spend in the U.S. every year, for two or three months, she’d be in the U.S., or we’d pop over to London. I think I’ve visited Kensington Temple once before, so it feels like a gift to me and to our family to have the privilege to be in this space with all of you who, in our minds, are our family. We are incredibly grateful to all of you. I have aunts and uncles who are here, cousins who are here—some from the U.S., some from Germany, as has been mentioned. We all gathered together here in our Aunt Ruth’s hometown, home country, so that we could celebrate her as she deserves to be celebrated.
But I want you to know, too, at this church, that what Kensington Temple has provided—and Pastor Malcolm, I thank you and your beloved wife for having all of us here—but also what this church and its leadership have done, you need to know has had such a ripple effect on our Aunt Ruth’s spiritual life personally, but then also her ministry would be cultivated in this house. For a bunch of her nieces who ended up in teaching ministry—which you could not have told us in a million years that we would be in teaching ministry, many of us, my sister included, my elder sister Crystal, who is here—the model that we have had of what it looks like to be a woman of integrity who has authority in the teaching of God’s word, but who does so with femininity and with freedom, being submissive to the authority that God has placed in her life, the model we have had of what that looks like is because of our Aunt Ruth, and that has been cultivated at Kensington Temple. So the ripple effect of this incubator, this sacred holy incubator, has rippled through our family. We are so grateful to you, and we thank you.
Introduction to Revelation 4
So it is a privilege to share God’s word with you for just a few moments today from a portion of Scripture that I pray will encourage you as I have been encouraged. I’m going to read this portion of Scripture to you, then I’m going to say a quick prayer, and then we’re going to dive in. There’s really just one thought. This passage is filled with so much, but there’s one thought that I want to share with you today that I hope will be as transformative to you as it has been to me. I’m going to read to you from Revelation chapter 4. In fact, I tried to figure out if I could narrow it down and just read a couple of verses, but it’s too good; I can’t. I’m going to read the whole thing to you! Is that all right?
Revelation chapter 4 says this: After these things, John said, «I looked, and behold, there was a door standing open in heaven; and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet, speaking with me, said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.’» Immediately, verse two, John says, «I was in the spirit, and behold, a throne was standing in the heavens, and there was one sitting on that throne; and he who was sitting was like a jasper stone—that’s like an emerald green—and a sardius in appearance—it’s like a ruby red. And there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance around the throne.»
Verse four: «There were twenty-four thrones, and upon the thrones, I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments, gold crowns on their heads. And out from the throne came flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. There were seven lamps of fire burning around the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. And before the throne, there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the center, around the throne, four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind.»
Verse seven: «The first creature was like a lion; the second creature like a calf; the third creature had a face like that of a man; and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, all full of eyes around and within, and day and night they do not cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and who is to come.’ And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne, to him who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship the one who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns down before the throne and say, ‘Worthy are you, Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and because of your will, they existed and were created.’»
Prayer
Lord, we thank you. We honor you, Father, for this glimpse of heaven that reminds us you are the sovereign ruler. You are the promise keeper. You are seated on the throne now and forevermore. We pray now that you would open up our spiritual eyes to hear what it is that the Spirit wants to say. In the name of Jesus Christ, all God’s sons and daughters said, «Amen, amen, amen, amen!»
The Testimony of Dory Van Stone
When I was about 20 years old, I remember going on a little retreat. There were about forty women crowded into a small room at a hotel. When we were positioned in this hotel, there were several women older and wiser than our 18, 19, and 20-year-old selves listening to these women share with us. One of them gave her testimony—her name was Dory Van Stone. Dory Van Stone was in her sixties at this time. She was sharing her testimony, and all of us were hanging on the edge of our seats, sitting on the edge of our seats, our chin in our hands, and our eyes peeled, completely undistracted by this woman’s testimony. Sadly, the way she grew up was filled with a lot of tragedy. Gratefully, she met the Lord along the way, and the Lord began to change and transform her perspective, but he didn’t immediately change her circumstances, and it was tough. She grew up in California, U.S.A., with a younger sister and a mother who basically said to them outright that she wished they had never been born. Her reaction to these two young girls was one of frustration and disgust. She neglected them most of the time. Often, she would leave for hours on end, and those hours would very frequently turn into days that these two little girls were left on their own. Dory remembers trying to figure out food somewhere for her and her little sister—they were like five years old and three years old. She remembers trying to figure out what to do when there were noises in the night, and they were both terrified, but there was no adult nearby to help them. Or when they were on their own during the daytime, and there was nobody to see to them and look after them. She remembers growing up, and when her mother would finally come home, most of the time, mom was just angry that they existed. So, she would treat them cruelly, very often locking them in a closet for the entire day so that she didn’t have to deal with them. Dory remembered sitting in that closet, feeling unloved, unseen, neglected, hungry, and wondering how she and her sister were going to survive.
One day, mom came home and said, «We’re going to take a Sunday drive.» She felt excited, Dory said. She remembers her heart warming up because it seemed like a gesture of endearment—mom saying to the girls, «Let’s drive.» They got in the car, eager to see where they were going to go with their mom. They took a very long drive that ended up going down a long winding road, and they ended up at a huge, enormous building—with gargantuan stairs that went up to two ornate double doors. Dory says she remembers her mother ringing the doorbell, and then, even before someone had come to the door, little Dory—maybe seven or so—turned around and realized her mother was already walking down the stairs, had already gotten in the car, and was already waving and driving off before the door was even answered. And that was the day she and her little sister were dropped off at an orphanage. They would soon discover that the director of the orphanage was more cruel than their mother had been. She would often abuse the girls anytime there were about sixty young girls in this orphanage. She would abuse the girls anytime she found any of them crying from loneliness or sadness. So, Dory soon learned to cry silently and quietly at night so that her emotions weren’t discovered. Along the way, during those years in the orphanage, some teenagers came from a local university that were on a mission to share Jesus. And that’s where she finally met the Lord and realized and was told there was a purpose and a plan for her life. But her circumstances didn’t change. In fact, on adoption day, when couples would come to meet some of the children, she would get dressed in her one dress that she had, plaster on a smile in hopes that today would be the day that she would be adopted. But that day never came. She actually aged out of the orphanage. When she aged out of the orphanage, she was sent to a foster home where she was abused. That started a string of events; to keep a long story short, she was sent from one home to the next home to the next home, and there was abuse after abuse after abuse—all the while looking upwards to the heavens saying, «Lord, why would you allow this?»
After Miss Dory shared her testimony that day, I remember walking out into the foyer area where we were gathered. There was a little book table. I grabbed her book. I don’t even know if it’s still in print. It’s called Dory: The Girl Nobody Loved. I took that book in my little box lunch that day, and I sat in the corner of the room and started reading that book in real time—just flipping through the pages while I was eating my lunch at the retreat. The detail in the story that she had time to write down but didn’t have time to say—the detail was there! And I was reading what has been, to me, one of the most overwhelming stories of neglect and abuse I have ever read. My body language must have given away how I was feeling. There were tears rolling down my eyes as I read this story. I was hunched over, not believing what I was reading. And I must have looked like what I felt because before I knew it, there was a shadow that came over me. And when I looked up to see who it was, there was Miss Dory. She had seen me reading it across the room. She made her way to me in the corner, stood in front of me, and I will never forget this. She put her hand on my cheek, rubbed my cheek, and said, «Sweet girl, don’t you cry for me.» She said, «He was there the whole time.» She went on to describe to me something she couldn’t picture then or couldn’t describe then. But she said, «I remember being locked in that closet. I remember how dark it was and how alone I felt and how isolating those circumstances were. But I also remember in the darkness of that closet something of a window being opened up in those hours I would spend there, where the only way she said I could describe it was almost like a light coming in from the heavens where I knew that God was with me in the darkness. I knew he was present. I could sense a peace that passed all understanding. There was something of a little bit of joy in my soul despite the circumstances I was facing.» Now I know that that was God himself invading my circumstances. And while I would have preferred for him to change my circumstances, what he showed me is that he’s willing to join us in them. And knowing that he was with me made all the difference in the world.
God's Presence in Dark Times
John wants you to know that God is with you. He wants you to know that in the darkest nights of our circumstances and in our soul, our God will never leave you nor will he forsake you. That even when your circumstances are not what you prefer for them to be, we have a God who somehow loves us enough, is kind enough, and is gracious enough that he leaves heaven to condescend to us, to invade the circumstances of our earth so that we can hear his voice, see his face, sense his presence, and know there is a peace that passes all understanding. There is a joy that anchors us in the depths of our soul. That when other folks are hopeless, we can remain hopeful—not because our circumstances are any different, but because God has joined us in them.
John's Experience with Jesus
John knows what he’s talking about. The writer of Revelation is the writer of John’s Gospel; it’s the same John. Y’all know John. He’s one of the twelve disciples. John is one of the close three who got to experience Jesus up close and personally. John couldn’t believe that they got to have this kind of encounter—the Word becoming flesh, he would write at the beginning of his Gospel. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. He can’t even believe it! We beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and full of truth. They got to walk with Jesus, talk with Jesus, and experience Jesus up close and personally. They got to watch Jesus perform miracles, like when there were 5,000 people—not including women and children—so 15,000-plus people hungry on a hillside. John got to see Jesus take a couple of sardines and a loaf of bread and turn it into a Moby Dick sandwich on the beach and feed multitudes of people one after the other. He saw blind people see. He saw the lame start walking and deaf ears hear, and the dead being raised. John saw it for himself, and he got to hear Jesus teach and preach. They had heard teaching and preaching before because there were Pharisees and Sadducees and religious leaders of the day. They had heard teaching and preaching, but they ain’t never heard nothing like this! Jesus' words were dripping with awe and authority. So every time Jesus spoke, there was a multitude of people who would sit on the edge of their seats hanging on every word. They didn’t want to miss anything that this Jesus, the Christ, had come to say.
Think about how you would feel if Jesus were your pastor! So when Jesus spoke, there wasn’t anything calm or casual about the people standing around listening. Oh no! They were trying to press through the crowd to get as close as they possibly could to Jesus Christ because they thought, «Maybe I’ll be like that woman with the issue of blood who got close enough that when she just touched the hem of his garment, her entire life was completely transformed by the presence of this Jesus.» John says, «I saw him for myself.» But when we meet John, this same man as he is writing Revelation, his circumstances have completely changed because now Jesus has been crucified, resurrected, but now he has ascended. John’s relationship to Jesus, in that sense, has changed. He is no longer in the physical presence of Jesus—the one for whom he has given his life for, preached for, sacrificed for, and tried his best to serve. Now Jesus is no longer present with him. And because John has refused to denounce Jesus, because he has refused to bend the knee to the Roman Empire and worship Caesar as God, he has been exiled to a little island called Patmos. That was basically where they would send anyone they considered to be criminals and enemies of the state. He is 80 years old, and he’s on an island from which he will not be able to escape.
Patmos and Difficult Circumstances
John says in the first chapters of Revelation, «I’m on Patmos. I’m in a dark closet. My circumstances are not what I prefer for them to be, not what I ever expected they would be.» And can I just pause right here and say that in a group this size—in this room and also on the other side of the screen—I know there are some of you saying the same thing John said: «How is this my life? I haven’t been perfect, but I’ve been purposeful, trying to serve the Lord. And yet here I am in this dark closet of circumstances that are not what I prefer—in my family, or in my health, or in my finances, or in my ministry, or in my business. This is hard.»
John knows exactly how it feels to be on Patmos. And John describes how, even though he was on Patmos on the Lord’s day, he chose to worship. Do you know you can choose to worship even when you’re in circumstances you don’t prefer? Even when things are difficult, tough, and it’s the dark night of the soul, there is a choice: you can command your soul to worship anyway. And because John did, he heard a voice behind him calling out to him. And when he turned to see the voice, it was Jesus Christ revealed to him. The book of Revelation is the revealing, the unveiling. It’s actually translated from the word that means «apocalypse.» When we hear «apocalypse,» we think in our modern times of catastrophic events—the end of the world, the apocalypse. But in this time frame, the apocalypse, that word was used simply to describe an opening, an unveiling, a pulling back of the curtain like on a theater stage. This was the exposing of Jesus Christ!
John’s walk with Jesus, John’s seeing him in the flesh, John’s hearing him speak, John’s seeing this man walk on water, and yet it wasn’t until he was on Patmos that he saw Jesus revealed. Could it be that the Lord allows the darkness? The Lord allows Patmos. The Lord allows the struggle. The Lord allows the difficulty that sometimes we’re trying to pray ourselves out of. He allows it because there is an unveiling you will not have of who Jesus is, of his character, of his power. See, we always want the Red Sea to be divided. «Lord, would you divide the Red Sea?» But don’t nobody want to actually be in the place where there’s a Red Sea. We’re praying for God to show us his presence, but in the next breath, we’re praying, «Lord, would you take me out of any situation in which I’ll actually need to see your presence?» We want the walls of Jericho to come tumbling down, but we don’t want to be the ones face to face with those walls. But sometimes, when we pray, «Lord, would you show me your glory?» He says, «Welcome to Patmos.» And on Patmos, he pulls back the curtain, and there is the revelation. John says, «I looked, and there was a door standing open.»
The Open Door to Heaven
It’s almost like what Dory described! In the midst of the darkness on Patmos, in the midst of difficult circumstances that I do not prefer, I looked. I took time to pause to remember that my eyes don’t need to be focused downward on the difficulty, but I need to fix my eyes on Jesus. If I’ll just look, John says, when I took the time to turn my attention outward and upward, I saw there was a door that was standing open in the heavens, giving me access to God’s power, access to God’s presence, access to God’s peace, even while I was sitting on Patmos. John says, «If you’ll just look, you will find one of the greatest gifts that has ever been given to humankind.» And those of us, in particular, who have placed faith in Jesus Christ as sons and daughters, you have an open door to heaven. John says, «I looked; my circumstances weren’t different, but I changed my perspective. And when I shifted my perspective, I saw there was a door standing open in the heavens that gave me access to the power and the presence and the peace of God.»
This is good news for us because most of the time when I’m in difficult circumstances, I’ll just tell on myself, I have a tendency to feel like the door of heaven is closed. I can’t hear his voice. I don’t know if he’s present. I can’t see his fingerprints working in my circumstance, so to me, the door is closed. John reminds us in the first verse of Revelation 4 that it is not the door of heaven that is closed; it’s our spiritual eyes that are closed, because God, so graciously—the Father—so graciously lets the door of heaven always remain open so that we can know we always have access to our great, loving, holy God.
The reason why this particular nuance is so powerful and poignant is because just several verses earlier, at the end of Revelation chapter 3, Jesus is describing his relationship with one of the seven churches to whom he has John write these letters. That last of the seven churches is the church of Laodicea. This is the lukewarm, complacent church. He describes his relationship with the lukewarm, complacent believers in a city called Laodicea. And here’s what he says: «I stand at the door and knock» (Revelation 3:20). «I stand at the door and knock.» I wish somebody would come open this door, because if they’d open this door, they would find I’m waiting to come in and dine with them, fellowship with them, and have a more intimate relationship with them.
In verse one of chapter 4, there’s a door open. In chapter 3, verse 20, there is a door closed. Verse one, God says, «There’s a door that is standing open, » ever-ready, continuous, ever-present access to me. Chapter 3, verse 20, he says, „My people keep closing the door that I’m trying to keep open.“ That verse is often used in an evangelistic way for unbelievers: „He stands at the door and knocks.“ And it’s okay to use it that way, but you need to know that when Jesus spoke those words, he wasn’t talking about people who didn’t know him; he was talking to people who did know him. He said, „I’m standing at the door of my own church!“ Lord help us! If we’re in here and he’s out there, if we’re in here more consumed with personalities and programs and platitudes, and the presence of God is outside the door, we close the door through our indifference, through our lukewarmness, through our complacency, through our rebellion, through our sin, through our hardness of heart, through our distraction, through our busyness. We keep on closing the door!
But I’m so grateful that he does not treat us the way we treat him. That even though we shut the door, he says, „The door of heaven remains open to you. You can always come and know that I will always receive you.“ That there is nothing you’ve done, there is nowhere you’ve been, there’s no pit that you have fallen in, there’s no decision you have made, there’s no path you’ve walked down, there’s no relationship you’ve chosen, there’s no addiction from which you suffered, there is no door that you have closed that the power of God is not so great, so grand, so miraculous that that door cannot be opened once again.
The Invitation to Come Up
John says we have access; the door of heaven is open. Then he says, „I heard a voice, ” and the voice gave me the invitation of a lifetime. The voice said, „Come up here.“ Not only do you have access, but you have an invitation from Almighty God. Y’all know he doesn’t need us, right? Like, he doesn’t have to have a relationship with us. He doesn’t have to invite us to his table. He doesn’t have to give us access, but then also offer us an invitation. John says, „I heard a voice behind me.“ It was so loud and so clear. He did not want me to be confused at all whether or not I was able to come through this door and have access to the presence of God. So, he spoke so loud and so clear that it was almost like a trumpet!
And some of you that are in this space right now with us on this Sunday morning, you are hearing the voice right now. It’s loud and clear like a trumpet. Your heart is burning on the inside of you as the Holy Spirit says to you, „You are not your circumstances; come up here.“ Which means, as believers, we have the opportunity to live in two places at the same time: our feet on Patmos, but our eyes fixed on Jesus, our hearts connected to the heart of the Father.
So, before we say something, we pause and come up here. Before we post the comment, we pause and come up here. Before we accept the invitation, we pause and come up here. Before we make the agreement, before we walk down the path, before we start the business, before we decide to go in a certain direction, no matter what our flesh seems to be demanding of us or our circumstances seem to be closing in around us, we, as believers, have an opportunity to know the mind of Christ, the perspective of Christ, the guidance of Christ, the counsel of Christ, the wisdom of Christ illuminated by the Holy Spirit of God, so that we can come up here and see what it is that will most reflect the character of God in the decisions that we are going to make. John says, „What an invitation that we have as blood-bought believers of Jesus Christ to come up here and see what our God says!“
This is what the Apostle Paul described in Colossians chapter 3. He said, „If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. Set your mind on things above, not on things that are on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden now in Christ with God.“ Keep accepting the invitation, y’all! I’m from Texas; I say „y’all.“
Keep accepting the invitation! This is the gift, the privilege of believers: that we have access to the presence and perspective of God Almighty. So, John says, „I accepted the invitation. I saw that I had access. This was an opportunity while I was still on Patmos in circumstances that I didn’t prefer to experience God in a brand new way.“
And now John says to us this morning at Kensington Temple and beyond, „If for some reason you are in circumstances right now that have just sort of blurred or dulled or diminished your view of heaven and spiritual things, that you’ve been so disappointed and discouraged by Patmos, by the darkness of the closet that you might be sitting in right now in your life, and it’s been hard for you to really believe that God is there, that he’s present, that he hasn’t forgotten you, John basically says to us, ‘Come here real quick and hold my hand. If you’ll just walk with me for just a few more short minutes, I’m going to show you what’s on the other side of this door. Because if you will walk over this threshold that God has given us access to, if you get one little glimpse of so many things that we won’t even be able to get to this morning, but he says: If I could just show you the very first thing that I saw on the other side of this door, it’s going to change the course of your whole life.’“
The Unshakable Throne
John says, „I looked behind the door, and behold, there was a throne.“ The throne was standing, meaning it was set; it was concrete, it was unmoved, and it was situated in the heavens. Despite how overwhelming things feel down here, despite how insurmountable the realities of life seem to become, John says, „If you’ll just look, you’ll see that the very first thing you’re going to encounter on the other side of this door is that there is a throne, and it is set. It is unmovable. It is unchangeable. It is untouched. It is unbothered. It is unaffected by the realities of earth. There is no coup that is powerful enough to overthrow it. There is no person that is influential enough to usurp it. There is no dictator that is forceful enough to seize it.“ John says, „If you’ll just look, you will see there is still a throne, and it is set once now and forevermore.“
The book of Revelation is overwhelming. We’re intimidated by it; I am too. Sometimes I look in these chapters, and there are things that I can’t quite comprehend. I’m not exactly sure what to do with them or why John wrote them or what I’m supposed to learn from it. So sometimes we just steer clear of the book of Revelation altogether because it’s a little bit much for us. John says, „If you don’t understand all of the nuances, and you’ve been running from the book of Revelation because you’re not sure what to do with everything you’re learning, he says, ‘Let me just tell you the one thing that I want to make sure you do not leave this book without absorbing into the depths of your mind and into your heart: There’s a throne.’ He said, ‘If you don’t get nothing else, don’t miss this: There’s a throne! ’ Over forty times in this book of the Bible, he says, ‘There’s a throne! There’s a throne! There’s a throne! ’ Thirteen times, y’all, in chapter four alone, he just keeps saying, ‘There’s a throne! There’s a throne! ’ He wants to remind us over and over again, as clearly as he possibly can, that there is a sovereign ruler who is seated on the throne!“
The reason why this would have been important for the first-century believers in these seven fledgling churches that he was sending these original letters to—the reason why this would have been important for them is the exact same reason why it’s important to us, because those churches were positioned in a governmental system, in a social construct that was anti-Christ. The throne of Rome was so influential and so powerful. They were shifting the culture as they knew it. And here’s this little body of believers trying to honor Christ in this kingdom, trying to raise their kids to honor Christ in this kingdom, but everything in the culture around them was pushing against this God that they were trying to honor. And John looks at them in an anti-Christ culture and he says to them the exact same thing he’s trying to tell us in an anti-Christ culture: „They’re not in charge. He is!“
John says, „There’s a throne, and there is a throne that is above every other throne. It is above all earthly thrones. It is above all powers. It is above all human authorities. It is above all seats of influence. It is above all presidents. It is above all administrations; above all monarchs; above all kings; above all governmental systems; above all institutions; above all establishments, there is a throne! It has not been replaced. It has not been moved. It has not been diminished in power! And John says it is also not unoccupied because he said, ‘I saw a throne, and somebody was sitting on the throne! ’ Amen! Because what good is a throne that nobody is sitting on?
And in our day and age, we’ve been trying to figure out, is anybody worthy? Is anybody righteous? Can we find one just ruler? Somebody who has a moral compass that actually lines up with truth? Can we find one righteous ruler? And John says, „Don’t get it twisted! There is still a throne, and there is a righteous sovereign ruler. He is situated on the throne, unmoved by what is impacting us on earth. He has not changed; he is the same yesterday, forever, and forevermore. And he is seated on the throne. That knowledge is not designed to give you goosebumps or make you emotional; if you absorb it into the depths of your soul, it changes the course of our life, because it means we can be unbothered by the stuff he’s unbothered about. It means we can chill out and know that he is indeed God. It means that when we know he’s sovereign, we can do what Psalm 46:10 says: ‘Cease to strive, be still, chill out, and know that there is one situated on the throne who is unbothered by the realities of earth! ’ Hallelujah!
In ancient times, in the Near East, kings didn’t sit. When there was a war, when there was a battle, when there was a skirmish of any sort, the king didn’t sit down. The king would walk. He would pace. He would make sure he had oversight to make sure he knew the nuances of what was going on while they were trying to secure the victory in this battle so that he could convey the strategy to his military assistants to make sure that they knew what was going on on the field of battle. They did not sit; they stood. The only time the king sat down was once the battle had already been won. The king would sit down to communicate to everybody in his sphere of influence, „We are no longer fighting! The victory has been secured! Rest easy; we are on the victorious side! We’re on the winning team!“ John says, „Look, there is a throne, and there is a king, and he is not pacing; he is sitting down on the throne to remind you that the battle has already been won, that we are not fighting for victory; we are fighting from victory! He is the sovereign ruler! He will never leave you nor will he forsake you!“
The darkness of your circumstances has not precluded you from the sight of God. His eyes are on you. He knows what makes the tears fall down from your eyes and mine. He knows what causes your heart to be burdened with a bit of worry and anxiety. He knows what’s causing dissension, division, or the unrest that you are feeling. When your child has left home and has broken your heart, or when your marriage has slowly begun to dissolve, or when the financial downturn has brought your family and your business to its knees, or when the doctor’s diagnosis has shocked you and shifted the trajectory of your entire life, or when death, like in our family in so many ways, has stolen the picture of what you thought your future was going to look like, or when the unmet dreams or unfulfilled aspirations in your life have made you simmer with a low-grade discontent and sadness—John says, „See your Savior! He is sitting on the throne! He is still orchestrating, he is planning, he is allowing, he is restraining, he is sustaining! He is sovereignly having oversight over your life and mine. There is no life too small; there is no global interaction too big that the God of the universe, sitting on the throne over and above all, is not in full control of. He is your sovereign ruler, and he is also a promise keeper.“
Worship Around the Throne
John goes on in this passage, as you heard in our reading today, to describe beings that honestly he can’t even explain. He can’t figure out the full verbiage, the wording. He’s pulling images out of the Roman Empire at the time that he knew they would be able to relate to. He’s pulling the closest images that he can find in their landscape to hopefully translate what he’s seeing behind this door. But it’s the realities of heaven. He’s never seen colors like this. He has never seen beings like this. He has never seen angelic forces like that around the throne. He describes, as best he can, the reaction of everything and everyone, every being who has a full glimpse of this throne. And he says, „I can’t describe everything that I saw, but I do know what I heard around the throne.“
Here’s the example for all of our lives that keeps the throne as the centerpiece of our existence: Everything in the orbit of the throne bowed before it and said, „Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.“ And then he said, „There were twenty-four elders; they had crowns on their heads, and as soon as they realized they were in front of the throne, they took off any semblance of accolade and achievement and laid it down at the feet of the one who was situated on the throne. And they said, ‘Worthy are you, God, to receive honor, power, and glory, and majesty, for you alone deserve our full praise! ’“ This is the posture of every son and daughter: yes, positioned on Patmos, but with the throne in our perspective, it makes you say „Holy!“ It makes you honor God with your full life. It compels you and constrains you to want to live every single day in honor of that great God.
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, we thank you. We thank you for your throne. We thank you that the knowledge of your throne shifts the way we deal with earth. We thank you for the door that you have opened up to us in heaven so that we can react differently on earth. Thank you for eternal realities that remind us you are unchanged, you are sovereign, you are keeping promises, you will never leave us nor will you forsake us. I pray for the one who may be in this room today or beyond, and they’ve forgotten that you were on the throne. Their circumstances are so bleak, so difficult, so overwhelming that for a moment they’ve forgotten that you see and you know, you’re aware-that they’re lost on you. Lord, I pray you would do something supernatural today to let them know that you’ve got their back. Open up the window of heaven so clearly to them today that they will never ever doubt again that there is a throne and you are situated on it. In Jesus' name, amen.