This past week, we heard some powerful messages from Wendall Calder highlighting the wonderful gospel of Jesus Christ. In one of the messages he highlighted how wonderful heaven would be. He asked the question, “If you were riding in the back of a hearse instead of in the front, where would your soul be?” That is not an exact quote, but instead of repeating the entire message, I give the gist of his thought.

The answer depends on one idea. Have you received Jesus into your life? For, “as many as received Him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God…” (John 1:12). Jesus is the way to God. There is no other way. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotton Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Heaven is the destination of the believer. When we die, we will be absent from the body and present with the Lord. If you believe in Jesus, when you die, you will go to be with the Lord.

What will that be like? What will you see when you go to heaven? I don’t know the full answer, but I know someone who saw heaven. And he gave us a picture of what it was like. Let’s look at what heaven will look like when we first arrive there.

Our text is Revelation 4:1-10. In this passage, the apostle John, the writer of the book of Revelation, gets a glimpse of heaven. He doesn’t die, but he does see heaven. So what does he see?

First, he sees a door. Re 4:1 “1 After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.””

Notice that the door stood open. I don’t know if this is what we will see or not, but for John, he saw the open door. He did not need to open it. He did not need to unlock it. It was an open door.

If in fact the first thing we see after death for the believer was an open door, what would that tell us?

The first thought I had was that someone was home. Most people close and lock their doors. An open door means that someone was there before me. This reminds me of John 14:1-3. John 14:1-3 “1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”

The second thought I had was that an open door signifies an invitation to walk through.

If you are looking for someone in a building and you see two rooms side by side, one with the door open and the other with the door closed, which one do you look into first? The one with the open door.

For the Christian, the door to heaven stands open. At death we will not need to have a key or turn a knob. The door to heaven has already been opened for us by Jesus. His death brought us into God’s family. Family doesn’t need to knock, they can just walk right in.

When you walk through the door, what will you see?

John saw a throne with someone sitting on it. 2 At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it.

So the first sight of heaven may be that we will see a throne with someone sitting on it.

That is what happened with Stephen. Just before he was stoned he had a vision of heaven. Listen to what he said. Ac 7:55-56 “55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

So what does God look like? For it is evident that God is sitting on the throne. When we come to be in heaven, what will we see?

”3 And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian.

I am not sure what color jasper is. It could be purple, which is a royal color, blue, green or brass, which in the Bible is often a sign of judgment. And then this carnelian or sardine is a flesh-colored stone. So we see these two colors of brass and a flesh color but the person on the throne is not in other ways defined.

A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne.

We would see this green hued rainbow circling the throne. When you see a rainbow, what comes into your mind? The first thought I have is the rainbow that appeared to Noah, the promise that the world would not be judged by a flood again.

4 Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads.

What we see next are twenty-four thrones with elders seated on them. Were these Judah, Joseph, and the other ten brothers of Jacob plus the twelve apostles? We do not know. But they are in a circle around this throne. This throne we see first is at the center of several other circles. The first circle is the rainbow, the second these twenty-four thrones.

What is the first sound we hear?5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder.

When we enter heaven’s gate, we may not hear any words before we hear the sound of thunder and flashes of lightning coming from the throne. Have you ever stood outdoors in a thunderstorm? When the air is crackling, the lightning flashing and the sound of thunder is rolling across the fields, most of us run for cover. If there is anything that brings fear, respect and awe it thunder and lightning.

When we enter heaven’s door, we will be struck with an element of fear, fear of the Lord, of respect, of awe as we stand in the presence of God sitting on his throne.

Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God.

When we enter heaven’s door, in some way the invisible will become visible. These seven lamps are a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Seven is a number of perfection, so here the Holy Spirit, invisible to us, is made visible at the seven spirits of God, the perfect Spirit.

6 Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.

When we enter heaven’s door, we will see a sea of glass in front of the throne. Normally, in the Bible, when a sea is mentioned in symbolic literature, it depicts the evil in the world. It is a tumult. For example, Eze 32:2 “2 “Son of man, take up a lament concerning Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him: “‘You are like a lion among the nations; you are like a monster in the seas thrashing about in your streams, churning the water with your feet and muddying the streams.”

But this sea is like glass. It is calm. I love photographs of the sea, but when we see one of a calm sea with no wind, no waves, no disruption, that sea brings calm to us. We will find a calmness in heaven even though God’s thunder and lightning are threatening judgment, that judgment is not against us.

In the centre, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and behind. 7 The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. 8 Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings.

When we enter heaven’s door, we will see angelic beings. These beings remind us of both Ezekiel 1 and Isaiah 6. As they are around the throne, these four beings make a square. They stand between the throne of God and the throne of the elders. What a sight!

Day and night they never stop saying: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.”

When we enter heaven’s door, we will hear these words over and over. “Holy, holy, holy. Lord God Almighty.”

• On this earth we tire of repetition. I know people that do not like the fact that some of our worship songs repeat a phrase two or three times. Or that our worship team will end a song with the chorus sung over and over. We all have our limits and as a personal preference, I tire of telling God I love him a thousand times when I think he heard me the first time.
• But when we get to heaven, these words will be heard over and over. We will never tire of them. The angelic beings will say them day and night, over and over and over again. “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.”
• At this point we have seen and heard much. But when these words are said the first time we walk though heavens door, we may be amazed at what happens next.
• 9 Whenever the living creatures give glory, honour and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever.
• The twenty-four elders, who all sit on thrones, get off their high horse, I mean, their high thrones, and fall down before God who sits on the throne and worship Him.
• We do not hear anyone telling them to do this, they just do it. I don’t know how often the angelic beings say these words or how much space is between them. It may be that the vision is not the reality, though I am treating it as though it were. But whenever these words, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.” Are said, the elders leave their own thrones and fall down before him who sits on the throne.
• Why?
• They lay their crowns before the throne and say: 11 “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”
• Because God is worthy of their worship. These are the first words out of their mouths. They fall down and lay their crowns before the throne and say that their Lord and God is worthy. Their crowns show their own leadership position. These are important people. But before God, they cannot wear crowns of leadership. They must come off before the Lord their God.
• Catch this, because it is important and it is the center of all I am telling you today. If the elders, the leaders, the most important human beings in heaven, possibly the leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel and the apostles fall at Jesus’ feet in worship, how much more should you and I have this same heart, this same attitude, this same posture of worship towards God in our lives?
• This is what real worship is. Real worship is when you do not run your own life. Real worship is when God rules your life. Real worship is when you are not the real leader. You may have a position of responsibility. You may be a boss, a supervisor or be in charge. But you turn and bow to Jesus on how you run your business, live your life, and treat those who look to you to deal. Real worship is when the center throne in your life is the throne God sits on, not the throne you are on.
• So, you say, “I thought worship was when we sing songs to God.” I say to you, that worship does not take place from our mouths, it takes place in our hearts. If you mean what you sing, if the words reflect what is inside you, if you are honoring God in what you sing and say, then worship is taking place.
• This is why we call our worship leaders “worship leaders.” They cannot make you and I worship, that is a heart issue. They can only lead us to God, give us the words that will help us express our heart to God, but only we can worship.
• A second question that comes up is this: Why should I let God sit on the throne in my life? Why can’t I just take what I want from God, from the Bible and then leave the rest behind? Why are you asking me to give up control of my own life and live under authority of Jesus?
• The next two weeks we will answer that question. The real question is, “Why is God worthy of our worship?” And that is clearly given in the text.
• I close with this thought. One reason why you are facing some of the problems you are facing in your lives is because God is not on that center throne in your life. You do not worship him from the heart. You are having problems getting along with people. Why? In part, because you have not treated people the way God wants you to treat them. As you sat on your throne you said, “I am going to tell them exactly what I think of them.” Or you may have said, “I am going to do this because I want to.” If you had turned and bowed to God, he would have warned you that what you were going to do would get you into trouble. He would have helped you deal with whatever you were dealing with in a better way. But he was not on that center throne and now you are in trouble.
• You are struggling financially. Why? It may be because you are handling your money the way you want. You are not doing it God’s way. You don’t want God to tell you what to do with your money. So now you are under stress. You and your spouse are arguing about money. Debt and despair are a part of your life. Why? Because God is not on the center throne in your life. You are not worshipping God as God is worshipped in heaven. And you are suffering the consequences.
• The list goes on. It covers why life has no meaning, it covers why your intimacy with your spouse is not what it should be, it covers why you feel so bad about yourself, about your anger issues… At the heart of these is the issue of who is on the throne in your life, who do you worship.
• So what are you to do? In Revelation 22:9 the solution is given in two words: Worship God. Worship God.