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Turn, if you would, to the last book in the canon, the book of Revelation. We continue in chapter 4 this morning. But before we hear the word read once more and preached, let’s ask the Lord’s blessing upon those things and the reception of that word in preaching.

Let’s pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, we come again. We bask in knowing the privilege of your presence as we worship you together at this time, and we thank you that you are good and holy and able to cleanse us and to grow us, truly clean us and wash us, and that you are gracious, and that you are truly able to deal with us in our sin and in our brokenness. And we thank you that you are merciful and that you are able to lift us up in our weakness and in our frailty, and that you are strong and good and true and gracious. And we pray as we turn to you again and to your word, we pray that we would seek you and hear your spirit instructing us, and that you would place that word in our hearts, that there we may love in new ways. Place it in our minds that we may understand your ways better. Touch our wills, we pray.

By this, your word, that we may submit ourselves joyfully to your sovereign will, and that all of our life we may learn how to glorify you and enjoy you forevermore. So we come to you again, dear Heavenly Father, and ask, speak, for your servants are listening. We pray this all in Jesus’ name, and all God’s people said, Amen. Amen. Revelation chapter 4, I’ll be reading all 11 verses of this chapter. Please give your full attention, this is the Word of the Living God.

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. And 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 all around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. And 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. And 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 all around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind. The first living creature is like a lion, and the second creature like an ox, and 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 24 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.”

So far the reading of God’s Word, may He truly add His blessing upon it at this time. When we think of the book of Revelation, as we’ve seen, it can be complex, it can be mysterious, it can be a bit frightening. If we were to ask what the single theme of the book is, yes, it’s Christ wins, Christ is victorious. But this is so because of that underlying reality, that underlying theme of God and His greatness. This is clear in Revelation 4 and the following chapter, Revelation 5, where we’re given a vision, a glimpse of heaven.

God is enthroned in the midst of the angelic host. He is indescribable. And His incomprehensible glory fills the universe. He is worshipped with songs of praise. His creatures celebrating all His works. His rule is established at creation. His mighty hand has guided all of redemptive covenant history.

But in the heavenly scene, what’s prominent as well, we’ll see next week, is the Lamb. The One alone that is worthy to open the scrolls describing God’s purposes for the future. All of heaven reverberates with praise to Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.

And this morning we begin a new section of the Apocalypse, Revelation, chapter 4 and 5, a part of John’s vision where he This vision is of the heavenly throne. Before we look at this text, before we go through it, we need to keep in mind a number of things. The context of John’s vision. What was that? The vision was of heaven, as well as some of the distinctives of apocalyptic literature we will look at.

Remember, in apocalyptic literature, which Revelation is, the author uses symbolic language to paint word pictures, to describe spiritual realities. These spiritual realities which lie behind redemptive historical events. John does not intend us to understand the things he describes literally. The symbols he uses are taken directly from the Old Testament, and we are to interpret them in light of the big picture of redemptive history. It is a macrospective book, it is glorious, and we must understand as we do that the current events and the creativity of man’s imagination are not the interpretive grid to understand the book of Revelation.

No, rather, the book of Revelation is a divine commentary on the Old Testament, showing that all that was foretold there, all that was pointing, all that was shadowy, was or will be fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the Lord, the Lamb who was slain, at the center and the focus of the story of redemption. And the key to interpreting correctly the symbols that we find in Revelation, the scene in heaven included, is to see how those symbols were used in the Old Testament and how they are now interpreted in light of where we are in redemptive history, in light of the coming of Christ.

In these two chapters, Revelation 4 and 5, there are 14 elements that come from Daniel 7 alone regarding the Son of Man and the Ancient of Days. There are also clear echoes from other prophets, Ezekiel chapters 1 and 2, as well as Isaiah 6, which is why we read that earlier. But John does here in Revelation what the Old Testament prophets could not do. He will point us straight to the Lamb who was alone worthy to open the scroll, which was sealed until the time of the end. And through apocalyptic imagery, John brings together a number of themes from the Old Testament.

Given the church on earth, The heaven’s perspective that we see in this chapter of Christ’s direction in the Lord’s Prayer, where it says, your kingdom come, your will be done as it is in heaven. And in this incredible vision, we are given a glorious glimpse of God and his will being done in heaven. Therefore, we can say that Revelation 4 and 5 gives us a summary of the history of redemption from the perspective of glory itself.

Christ rules not only over his church, but he rules over all of the cosmos. Before the drama of redemption comes to conclusion, we know that the outcome is certain. Because God’s will is being done in heaven, we can know that one day it will be done on earth, even despite the seeming victory of the beast over the saints. Thy will be done on earth is exactly what God has promised and that for which Jesus has asked us to pray. In these two chapters, Revelation 4 and 5, we see God’s will being done in heaven.

And of course, we look at the context of where we are and just what’s unfolded. This gives us great hope for what one day will be a reality upon all the earth. This is meaningful. It’s meaningful given those first three chapters that we’ve gone through.

In those chapters, the focus has been on John’s vision of the resurrected Christ as He walks in the midst of His churches, empowering them through the Holy Spirit to be witnesses of His grace and mercy to all those around This is very plainly seen in the seven letters, the risen Christ addressed to the seven churches mentioned there.

In each letter, recall what happened. Jesus knew the precise circumstances his people faced. He spoke to them words of encouragement. He promised blessing for obedience, cursing for disobedience, a call to repent, be faithful. But these seven churches are also typical of Christ’s church in every age. So what Christ says to these churches, He says to us as well. What He promised to these seven churches, He promised also to us.

In Revelation 3.21, recall, He promises the overcomers in Laodicea that one day they will sit with Him on His throne, ruling over the nations.

This is important, so important to God’s people, because many of these believers face persecution and death. from the satanically empowered beast who sought to force them to confess that not Jesus was Lord, but Caesar was Lord. Some people had lost their livelihoods. and some their lives. Other Christians faced slander and persecution from those Jews who sought to stop these churches from preaching the gospel. Most of these congregations struggled with the question of how to remain faithful to Christ while living in a culture that is so overwhelmed and so pagan. hammered, hated, and hounded, and tempted to compromise with the spirit of the age at every turn, believers in these seven churches, as we’ve read, are promised that if they overcome by staying faithful to the gospel, they will receive all of the blessings that Christ promised to them.

And so you see, it’s no accident that John’s vision of heaven follows immediately after the letters to the seven churches. the best encouragement to these pressed and persecuted churches is to give them a glimpse of God’s heavenly throne, a glimpse of His power.

It will give them courage, it will give us courage, even in the face of what we come up against, to face the beast. Because the ultimate victory is certain, the beast will be defeated. And a glimpse of heaven, a glimpse reminds us of God’s goodness and His justice. And it supports and buttresses the promise that the righteous will triumph and the wicked will be punished. A glimpse of the Lamb who was slain reminds us, as God’s people, that our redemption is an accomplished fact in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And this heavenly vision reminds the saints that in the midst of their trials and their sufferings and their temptations, God sovereignly controls all things. And one day, His will, which is now being done in heaven, will truly be done on earth.

And then one final and important point needs to be mentioned before we get into the text proper, and it’s this. In the second commandment we are told that we must worship God only as He commands. And so it should be obvious that when we come to a passage like this, glorious passage, which describes the worship of God that’s taking place in heaven, even at this very moment, we should be looking for patterns in the worship of this heavenly vision. So that we might pattern our Lord’s Day worship after that which takes place in heaven. And this is obvious, right? When we, as the people of God, gather together on the Lord’s Day to worship the One who is in throne, the One seated upon the throne and the Lamb, we add our worship to that which is currently taking place in heaven.

Incredible thing. And at the very least, our worship here on earth should prepare us to worship in heaven. For one day, we will all take our places among the assembly who surrounds that glassy sea and add our voices to that same heavenly choir. Worship is and should be one of the great joys of the Christian life. It is also a very, very serious business. And you think, oh, if we would only realize and believe it, what is taking place, we would be greatly changed. We would look at worship all more seriously. It’s an amazing and glorious gift, brothers and sisters.

Let’s now turn to our text, Revelation 4, and there we hear words from John that echo earlier words from the Old Testament, from the prophets Daniel and Ezekiel, when they too were given glimpses of this heavenly scene. And John says, After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. Jesus used that phrase there to start that.

After this or after these things. It provides an important clue about what is to follow. After this. It’s referring to that vision which followed, right? It was revealed to John after the vision that we just worked through, from chapters 1 to 3. It doesn’t necessarily mean chronologically, historically, after the events.

There’s a lot of overlap in John’s vision of the resurrected Christ and the letters to the seven churches and the worship that we read of in Revelation 4 and 5. But note, in Revelation 1-3, Jesus speaks to the seven churches. And these are symbolic of the church militant during the last days, right? What is that? That’s the whole time between our Lord’s first advent and His second coming. But in chapters 4 and 5, He’s describing the same period of time from the perspective of God’s throne in glory. So the first thing we should realize and acknowledge as we look at this is that the image of an open door means that John was allowed, he was invited to see these things that are otherwise restricted from human sight.

He’s already heard Christ’s voice, Revelation 1.12. And now he hears it again, he refers to it. 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.

And here John is given a vision of the last days, the time between the first and second comings, from the perspective of heaven. That earlier vision was given from the perspective of Christ’s presence with his churches. Two perspectives, two visions, the view from Christ with his churches and the view from heaven. And the vision from glory, from or of heaven, is like the prophet Ezekiel, who was repeatedly raptured, taken up by the Spirit to see heavenly things.

John says that once I was in the Spirit, through the Holy Spirit. John is given a vision of the heavenly scene. How astonishing, how overwhelming and amazing this must have been, right? You can imagine. And like the prophets of old, this vision establishes John as a prophetic messenger of what he sees. He’s given this vision so that he might now proclaim what he sees to Christ’s church.

And so when our family and friends, our loved ones of a dispensational bent, tell us that John here is talking about the rapture of all Christians off the earth, and that the rest of the book of Revelation is all about an alleged seven-year tribulation, they’re just mistaken, sadly mistaken.

This verse has nothing at all to do with the rapture. No, what it has to do with is John being caught up into heaven to describe what follows. And then after that invitation, he’s shown what? He’s shown the enthroned one. And like the prophets, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Daniel, John is granted a vision of things that we can only imagine. specifically the throne of God. And according to John in verse 2, And it’s very important, if you didn’t notice, that we see here that John never attempts to describe God Almighty, but he describes only the divine glory and all the creatures who surround him. God is a spirit. Scripture describes him as a consuming fire, who dwells in unapproachable light and glory.

That’s why John here describes the scene around the throne, around, before the throne, from, on each side. He describes the creatures who attend the one who sits there, but he does not describe God, only his glory. For instance, in verse 3, and he who sat there had the appearance of Jasper and Carnelian, and all around the throne was a rainbow.

They had the appearance of an emerald. These precious gems that are mentioned here. They refract light in nearly all the colors of the spectrum, pointing to God’s tremendous and again incomprehensible glory. And then we encounter the rainbow. The word in Greek actually is iris, like the eye. It’s an arc or a circle of light, a halo, if you will. It doesn’t necessarily denote color like we think when we think of a rainbow. But remember what the bow is. What is the rainbow? It’s the bow in the sky.

And it brings to mind God’s covenant oath and faithfulness in providing salvation for His people. And remember there, in Genesis, like the bow of a warrior, not pulled back tight, cocked and loaded, but hung relaxed in the sky, pointing away from the earth, peace. And just as the rainbow was a sign of new creation after Noah’s deliverance through the flood, from the flood, so too the presence of the rainbow in heaven directs our eyes to the new creation that began with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That same new creation of which you, dear Christian, if you trusted in Christ, if He is your Savior, you are part of even now and will be fully at the consummation of all. Part of that new creation. And that new creation one day will be God’s will on earth.

Oh, the glory. The glory of that. Truly outstanding. And doesn’t a moment’s reflection on these things, I pray that they do, doesn’t a moment’s reflection on the glory and the magnitude of all that, the high and holy reality of what’s pictured here, what’s envisioned, doesn’t that warm and excite your hearts? Brothers and sisters, it truly should. I pray that it does. Praise Him for this. It’s awesome. Awesome indeed.

And then in verse 4, John now turns his focus away from God’s glory to the creatures who attend that divine throne. And he begins telling of those around the throne. Verse 4, around the throne were 24 thrones. And seated on the thrones were 24 elders, clothed in white garments with golden crowns on their heads.

And now the identification of these 24 elders, I have to say, is much debated. There’s much discussion about what this means and who these elders are. Some say they’re the 24 orders of priests from Chronicles. Some say they’re symbolic of the church in heaven. And the number of them, 24, surely points to the church in both Testaments, right? The 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles in the New Testament.

Based on what they’re doing, though, their function before the throne, these elders mentioned are probably angelic beings, the heavenly representatives of God’s people in both the Old and the New Testaments. In the first vision, in Revelation 1-3, it viewed the church in light of its earthly struggles.

But this vision views the church in light of its heavenly identity. And if the elders depicted here are indeed connected to the angels we read of, of the seven churches, this should remind us that the church on earth must find its true identity, not on earth but in heaven, where God and the Lamb are worshipped in spirit and truth. Therefore, what is done on earth in the churches must be done in light of what is now being done in heaven. Have you ever thought about that?

God’s glory in heaven is accompanied by the phenomena associated with God’s judgment and his presence found on earth throughout redemptive history. We recognize the phrases. John describes, from the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. And since these same, again, these things repeatedly appear at key moments in the drama of redemption, the biblical drama, it’s not accidental that they appear again, and will, at the book of Revelation, at the conclusion of the seven judgments that are yet to be revealed. In the presence of lightning and thunder, right, what does it remind God’s people of? That God has not forgotten them in the midst of their earthly struggles.

But this is not all. John goes on, before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, drawing here again on the visions from the prophets, Zechariah, Ezekiel, connecting lamps with the spirit of Yahweh and with the spirit of Christ present with his churches that we just got done reading through in Revelation 1. This is clearly a reference to the sevenfold fullness that he mentions of the blessed Holy Spirit And there’s even more.

Verse 6, And before the throne there was, as it were, a sea of glass, a sea like crystal. And this clearly, among other things, echoes back to Exodus. Exodus 24, in particular, when Moses and Aaron and Nadab and Abihu, when they went up on Mount Sinai and they saw God and they reported that under His feet was what? They saw a pavement of sapphire, clear as the sky itself. also may refer to a transparent path, grounding, that surrounds the throne. But one thing is for certain, the heavenly sea is tranquil like glass, like crystal.

What are the seas of earth like? They’re often the context of storm and tempest and uproar and madness. The sea is depicted as well in Revelation as the place of chaos and rebellion, the place the beast emerges to wage war upon the saints. In Revelation 11 and 13, the sea, for these people, its waters represent danger and dread and terror and death. But in heaven, The sea is calm, like glass, as crystal, as clear as crystal. There is no storm, there is no tempest there, only calm and peace.

And in addition to the 24 elders, John sees, as Isaiah did, other creatures who attend the one who sits upon the throne. Listen, starting in verse 8. 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.” It’s mind-boggling.

It’s very much like the creatures that we were seen by Ezekiel in his vision of God’s throne in chapter 1 of Ezekiel. These creatures were also seen by Isaiah. In Isaiah 6, our Old Testament reading, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up.

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. Such an amazing sight overwhelms Isaiah with a sense of his own sinfulness.

So throughout the book of Revelation, Numbers are always used symbolically, right? The number four connected to this is used throughout as the number of the world, right? Since the earth is said to have four corners, right? Northeast, south, and west. Four winds is divided into four regions. Sea, earth, river, springs, and the heavens.

And therefore, when John sees the four living creatures, they represent the entire created order. And this is the reason the creatures are depicted as looking like Earth’s greatest creatures. The man, the lion, the ox, the eagle. But given their function as part of the royal entourage, if you will, surrounding the throne, who continually worship the enthroned one seated there, Given the fact that they are covered with eyes which see everything, these creatures serve as the royal guardians who keep God’s heavens from being defiled. Even as Adam was called to do and failed to do and ejected for not doing so. To work and to keep it. That’s what that means. Protect and guard.

They not only worship God and the Lamb in heaven. They also execute God’s judgment upon the earth, right? We’ll get to Revelation 6, and there we learn that these same living creatures will go forth to bring judgment upon the earth when the first four seals of judgment are opened. But in verse 8 of our chapter, Revelation 4, John describes their function in worship.

It says, 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 the heavenly hymns that they sing remind us that God is holy, that He is triune, three times holy, that He is eternal without beginning and end, and that He is sovereign. He is the Almighty. Given these glorious attributes, In triunity of God, He alone is worthy of praise and has been from all eternity.

When these living creatures praise God, they represent the whole world of creation, praising their Creator, praising, giving Him glory. And when they worship, as they have from all eternity, those 24 elders join with them. The picture we’re to draw from this is that all of creation, right, the four living creatures, as well as all of God’s redeemed people represented by the angelic beings connected to the churches, represented by these 24 elders, all of them worship the one who is alone worthy of worship.

And John describes this scene to us in verses 9 to 11. Hear again the glory of what’s going on here. 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. And they cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Worthy are you, O Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and by your will they exist and were created. Truly incredible.

And this not only reminds us of God’s indescribable weight and gravity and greatness, but the heavenly scene also should become the pattern, right? We need to make that connection. It should become the pattern for all Christian worship on earth until we get there. Because truly we’ll be drawn up there anyway when we come as His people together on His day. What glory! What an amazing and awesome glory that is! And we can learn from this awesome scene given from heaven, what? What can we learn from this?

Well, for those churches in Asia Minor, struggling, pressed, persecuted as they were, such a scene like this would not only give them great encouragement in the face of their struggles, but this vision of God’s throne also confirmed for them that God’s will is being done in heaven, even while Satan wages war on them while they live on the earth. And listen to this.

Not only does this point us forward to a time when God’s will will be done upon the earth, this glorious scene of peace and power confirms the blessed state that awaits all who die in Christ. Therefore, when the beast puts one of God’s saints to death, what? That saint comes to life, and they reign with Christ. That’s the promise, and that’s the blessing. And having been given a glimpse of the heavenly throne, the persecuted saints on earth know what awaits them in heaven when they die.

But this scene not only gives us comfort, comfort to believers facing death at the hands of the beast, it should also give comfort to all of us, A friend had said, who have stood beside the graves of those we love, because all who die in Christ, along with all who we’ve loved, who’ve been persecuted unto death, have taken their place before that throne, adding their voices to that glorious heavenly choir. They have come to life, and they are now reigning with Christ for a thousand years, and they await the great and glorious day of the resurrection. And for us, what’s more? What more does this tell us?

This heavenly scene should inform us our understanding, our understanding of worship, just what we’re doing here. Any worship that is truly Christian must be directed towards God, and God alone, since He alone is worthy of our worship. Any other idea of worship is inherently idolatry, it’s idolatrous. What does that mean for worship here? It means at least this, God is the audience of our worship, since he blesses us through divine service, a visitation, through word, and through sacrament. Those things he’s ordained to do so.

And truly our worship is directed to the one seated on the throne, and the Lamb, who truly walks in our midst. and therefore the congregation as a whole assembles for the purpose of worshiping this God in heaven, this enthroned one upon his throne. And we don’t come here today to watch what’s going on, or listen to others sing well or not. We come here to add our voices to those of the elders, of the angels, of the four living creatures, and a multitude of departed saints who worship our God in heaven, even at this very moment.

That is why Christians from the very beginning have used a worship like our liturgy, like the historic Protestant liturgy, like we use every Lord’s Day. We hear God’s word of calling. We sing praises to Him and come into His very presence, as He has called us to do, so we confess our sins and we hear Christ’s words of forgiveness, so that we worship without guilt, without fear, reminded of who we are, what Christ has done for us, our cleansing. We hear God’s God replied to us, speaking to us in His Word. And we confess our faith in the words of the Creed, which is a testimony to those around us of the worthiness of the one who sits on the throne and of the Lamb. God confirms to us His promises in the sacraments. And He sends us off, commissions us to take the truth, the love, and the glory back into the world while we are here. That is glorious.

And it goes without saying, that should eradicate any kind of pseudo-worship that’s meant to entertain the congregation, or designed to meet the felt needs of so-called seekers, people who are really idolaters, who need to be told how God wishes to be worshipped.

So brothers and sisters, we do not worship like that. We do not do what we like in worship. We worship God as He directs us to worship, particularly given the fact what we find in the passages like this one. This is why worship is such serious business and glorious and life-giving business, and why I can never see the assembly of the saints on the Lord’s Day the same way we would see people going to a concert or a big event or a silly sports game, which far too many people approach it in that way.

What do people do going to those places? They get there late, they leave early to beat the traffic, they get up, they meander around, small talk with their friends. But this is not appropriate during worship when God is our audience and our visitor and when He is speaking to us, He promises to draw us up to Himself as we do so. So you can see how gross, and how offensive, and demeaning, and out of place it is when worship is conducted like that.

They introduce things to focus on man, or someone’s accomplishments, or focus on someone’s talent. Treating it like an end-of-season awards show, or like we’re all at a coffee shop, hanging out or something. The criterion for worship is not whether the pastor is funny, or the band, or the music was great, or whether or not we’ve received a blessing. The only acceptable criterion for worship is whether or not God received the blessing of His people in accordance with His Word.

This is why we must give due and appropriate preparation and due attention to what happens here on the Lord’s Day. When we come here, we enter into God’s presence. And the focus is not on earthly things, but it’s on things heavenly. Even a glimpse of the heavenly throne reminds us of what’s been said in the greatest of what is the greatest of all Christian privileges, to enter into the presence of God as his people and be numbered among the assembly of those who are allowed to worship the Creator of the world, and the Redeemer of the saints.

So may we, brothers and sisters, never forget, never forget that God could have left each one of us in darkness and bondage to sin, and the only time we would enter His presence, the only experience we would have, we would hear those words, depart from me, I never knew you. But glory to God.

This is not the case for all those in Christ. I pray that as each one of you this morning, God has chosen us despite our unworthiness. He has sent Christ to die for our sins and raise Him from the dead for our justification. He not only died for us, He lived for us. Never forget.

He has called us to faith through the preaching of the gospel, and He has confirmed those promises through the sacraments that He ordained. He has done all of this so that we might be counted among the assembly of those who enter His presence on the Lord’s Day and add our voices to that glorious heavenly choir, singing praises to the one enthroned and to the Lamb. And with them even now we sing, You are worthy, O Lord, and our God. to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they were created and have their being.” Because once we’ve been given a glimpse of God’s throne in heaven, and we realize that this is the reason we have been called, how can we resist falling before the throne and worshiping the One seated here and the Lamb?

Praise Him. Praise Him, brothers and sisters. With all the saints, praise His holy name. What an amazing Redeemer and King we have indeed. Let’s pray. Our Lord and our God, by the power of your Spirit, we pray give us strength to live, changed by the message that we have heard today. Father, we want to embrace these truths and to believe your word. May we grow to know and love and believe. Give us faith. Give us strength. Give us faithfulness. May we find our life in Christ. We ask, Heavenly Father, use this church for your purposes, for the furtherance of the gospel in our city.

Do a work in this area and glorify yourself, even in a small colony of the kingdom of heaven. We praise you, Lord, and we pray for all of us. Help us to have hearts full of your love, spilling out, showing kindness and love for each other, even to the extent the outside world would see your people’s peculiarity, their joy, their demeanor, their behavior, their peace, their love, their calm, their rejoicing in suffering. Use us in our lives to witness to your glory. We praise you that you have fed us again this morning, as we have heard your word and we see that this is our life and our sustenance. We praise you, asking all these things in the mighty name of your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.