Lifting Our Eyes to the Throne of God
Pastor Tan Thai · Apr 26, 2020
This sermon leads the congregation to contemplate the vision of God's throne in Revelation 4, emphasizing the absolute holiness, authority, and glory of the Most High. The pastor explains key symbols in the passage, including the twenty-four elders, four living creatures, sea of glass, and seven lamps, while connecting this vision to Isaiah 6 and Ezekiel 1.
The sermon opens with a vivid illustration of human knowledge limitations: people born in southern Vietnam had no experience of snow until they settled in a country with winters. From this, the pastor introduces the central idea that our understanding of heaven, the kingdom of God, and where God dwells is similarly limited. Jesus confirmed this in John 3:11-13, declaring that only He, who came down from heaven, has the authority to speak about heavenly things.
The pastor presents four major interpretive approaches to the book of Revelation: the preterist view, the historical view, the futurist view, and the eclectic view. The sermon adopts the eclectic approach, built upon the structure of Revelation 1:19, which divides the book into three parts: things already seen, things presently occurring, and things yet to come. Under this framework, Revelation 4-5 belongs to the future section, describing heavenly scenes that will unfold after Christ's return to rapture believers, as written in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.
The heart of the sermon is the description of God's throne and its surroundings in Revelation 4:2-11. The pastor explains four main elements: the twenty-four elders representing either God's people or the highest-ranking angels; the seven lamps representing the seven qualities of the Holy Spirit according to Isaiah 11:2; the sea of glass symbolizing the vast chasm between sinful humanity and the holy God; and the four living creatures as Seraphim and Cherubim, the highest angels, symbolizing God's omnipotence, patience, wisdom, and supreme sovereignty. The pastor also draws extensive parallels between these images and those found in Isaiah 6 and Ezekiel 1 and 10.
The sermon emphasizes that the vision of God's majestic throne in Revelation 4 was written to encourage, strengthen, and comfort believers suffering persecution under the Roman Empire. When Caesar demanded that Christians declare him lord, the image of the King of kings enthroned above all reminded them that only God holds absolute sovereign authority over all creation. The unceasing worship of the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures—crying 'Holy, holy, holy'—forms the climax of this heavenly vision.
The sermon concludes with a profound contrast between God's infinite holiness and humanity's sinfulness and lowliness. The pastor calls the congregation to lift their eyes to God's throne not only to recognize their own smallness and sin, but also to behold a God who is great, holy, perfect, good, omnipotent, and omniscient. The atoning death of Jesus Christ is presented as the only bridge enabling sinful humanity to approach the One who sits upon that glorious throne.