Revelation 5:11-14
 
“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.”  Amen. (Psalm 118:1)
 
Earlier in the week pastor and I, you may know, attended a conference in Colorado.  One of the big presentations at that conference was simply about “Heaven & Hell.”  We talked about whether it was more a place or a state of existence.  We looked at speculations about what heaven is like from the aspect of time, what resurrected bodies will be like, what a spiritual existence consists of.  We looked at the different perceptions of heaven taught by different religions, whether it be the 5 levels of heaven in Mormonism which teaches a degree of salvation for all and therefore no hell; the X-rated version of heaven taught by Islam; the peaceful state of mind taught by Hinduism; or the belief of a soul in limbo in Purgatory prior to heaven taught by Roman Catholicism.  There are a number of strange concepts out there.

As Bible-believing Christians, we know that John’s book of Revelation is really our best picture of heaven.  We don’t pretend to understand every last detail of the book.  We let more easily understood portions of Scripture guide our interpretation.  Ultimately, what we want to walk away from a studying of Revelation with is that this heaven that the Apostle John is viewing truly is the place where God dwells, a place where we want to be.  If heaven is something that we don’t think about multiple times a day, it’s probably because we don’t fully understand what exactly it is that we are looking forward to.  I’m going to suggest this as another description of heaven—it’s a place where people are:

“Compelled to Sing”

We’ll see what that means today by examining Revelation 5:11-14, but first we need to have some general knowledge of the book.  How familiar are you with the book of Revelation?  It is the book of the Bible that generally receives the most requests for Bible Studies but it’s not unusual for people to come out of those studies feeling like they have even less of a handle on what the End Times will be like.    Revelation is always interesting, often misunderstood, but rarely fully appreciated for the joy that it offers.  

We take a closer look at the chapters leading up to our lesson for today and find that after writing the Seven Letters to the Seven Churches (Rev. 2 & 3), John was invited to view God’s throne room in heaven (4:1).  Around God’s throne were 24 other thrones, on which 24 elders were sitting.  In case you’re wondering, these 24 elders are generally interpreted as two groups of twelve—the twelve Tribes of Israel in the Old Testament and the twelve Apostles of the New Testament (Matthew 19:28).  In other words, the 24 elders are symbolic of all of the believers of the Old and New Testament world. Perhaps already you can see where confusion often creeps in regarding Revelation.  In the center of these other thrones were four peculiar “living creatures,” covered with eyes.  One creature had the appearance of a lion; the second, that of an ox; the third had a face like man; and the fourth had the face of a flying eagle.  John said that these creatures, often interpreted as either the four gospel writers or four angels, never stopped praising God.  

As John stood before the glassy sea and emerald-looking rainbow (4:3), he would hear one of the most powerful songs ever sung.  When he turned his attention to the figure on the central throne, John saw a scroll that revealed what the future was going to be.  At first, John wept in despair because no one was worthy to open the scroll and look into it.  But, he was then informed that someone called the Root of David was able to open it as a result of his victory (5:1-5).  

Then John witnessed a Lamb standing on the throne, looking as if it had been slain.  The four living creatures and the 24 elders formed a circle around the Lamb.  As he took the scroll, the living creatures and the elders fell down and sang a new song.  The throne room erupted with praise for the Lamb who was worthy to open the scroll.  He was worthy because he had been slain to redeem mankind and make them a kingdom of priests (5:6-10).

It is at this point in the vision that our lesson begins.  In tackling our lesson, we have to eliminate some of the false preconceptions that the world has regarding heaven.  Several years ago I had spoken to a friend of mine, a lifelong Christian, who attended a public university.  I’d asked him about his new friends and about witnessing opportunities to them, which he admitted were abundant.  But, he said, “You know, it’s difficult, because people have this perception of heaven that’s not much more than a glorified choir practice.  Consequently, it doesn’t appeal to everyone.  It certainly doesn’t seem worth turning away from the sinful temptation and indulgence of college life.”  Sometimes I thought he was trying to convince himself that heaven was worth depriving his sinful nature.  I’m not exactly sure how he ended up in his struggles.  

The danger of a misconception of heaven is severe.  My friend, many whom he witnessed to, and many that I’ve run across in my life have not struggled with the fact that they were sinful, haven’t doubted the truth that they had a historical, personal Savior in the form of Jesus Christ, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), and have not had confusion when it came to what God’s will for their life was in the form of his commands.  Where they got caught up though was the issue of whether or not eternity in heaven was worth giving up what their human nature, their sinful flesh wanted for them in the years they had here on earth.  Surely the love of money, the excitement of promiscuity, the juiciness of gossip, the forbiddances of homosexuality, the lightheartedness of drunkenness, the fantasy of pornography, the wonderful irresponsibility of laziness, the self-centeredness of apathy, the pleasure of gluttony, and the self-absorption of pride are all more enjoyable to me and my sinful flesh than some white robes, some crazy Lord of the Rings-looking creatures, and a choir practice.  It is not easy for our sinful nature to flee such things.  In a sense, we may even feel like we are suffering without them.  But Paul, referring to a suffering that we probably can’t relate to, said in Romans 8:18, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” It’s a powerful encouragement for us to set our sights on heaven every day.  The danger of a misconception of heaven is severe.

Maybe it isn’t the indulgences of this world that really cause us to question heaven.  Maybe it’s the problems and misery that sometimes occur in this life that cause us to wonder about how incredible heaven really is.  They may very well be legitimate concerns, but I guarantee that they are not as legitimate as the concern of our eternity.  We get so wrapped up in our own problems that we take our eyes off the prize that Christ freely won for us.  But would we even be tempted to not think about heaven, to not fully appreciate it, if we had a better understanding of it?

So what does the Bible teach that heaven is?  We look again at the first verse in our lesson today.  “Then I (John) looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand.  They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders.  In a loud voice they sang: ‘Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!’”  Can you picture that?  Here we have “thousands upon thousands” of angels.  Literally the word is “myriad”.  A myriad is the highest number that a speaker of this time would have used.  Consequently, a myriad multiplied by itself would indicate an innumerable amount.  All of these countless angels began to gather around the living creatures and the elders.  As one loud voice they all began singing praises to the Lamb on the throne.  Why were they singing praises to him?  They sang praises to glorify the sacrificial Lamb, whom any interpreter of Revelation, novice or professional, can clearly identify as Jesus Christ.  Christ brought himself down from heaven, clothed himself in human flesh, remained unblemished, and allowed himself to be sacrificed for our violations against his own Word.  But this wasn’t just a kind, generous, philanthropic act.  It means everything to us.  It saved us from the torments of hell and transported us to the glory of heaven.  A glory that our human brains cannot begin to comprehend.  

Heaven is not choir practice.  This is actually the first time that music is referenced in Revelation and so we have to ask ourselves why it occurs.  What we see here is God’s children reacting to the joy of heaven and the one who made it possible.  Again, the thought that we want to avoid is that people are singing in heaven because they are commanded to do so.  That’s like saying that people in hell are gnashing their teeth and that’s the epitome of what hell is—teeth gnashing.  In heaven, God’s people are singing out of joy.  Have you ever been so joyful that you burst out in song?  Maybe you have.  It usually doesn’t happen all the time though.  I remember when my Dad would sing when I was growing up.  I could hear him when he was in the shower.  I could hear him when he was doing the dishes.  He would do it on car trips.  There were times when I thought it was a bit corny, but my mom would say, “Don’t discourage him.  I like to hear him sing.  He does it when he’s happy.”  He had such a positive, optimistic look at the world sometimes that he couldn’t hold back his enthusiasm and he expressed it in song.  Now imagine that you shouted those songs from the top of your lungs because you couldn’t harness the ecstasy any longer.  Now we’re starting to grasp what heaven is.  It’s a place where we’re “Compelled to Sing” God’s praises.

We see the picture again with another doxology (song of praise) from today’s lesson in verse 13: “Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them (This phrase is used to express the universality of the proclamation.  Everyone who saw God was united in this activity).  What were they doing?  They were singing: ‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!’”  A lot could and has been said about the attributes of God listed in this lesson.  Which of them are inherent qualities of God?  Which of them are qualities that we attribute to God?  What exactly is the distinction between such qualities as “power” and “strength.”  It has potential to get confusing though and I think the temptation with Revelation is to get lost in confusion rather than appreciate the God-given clarity.  What we have here is every creature alive praising God in a manner, in a form that has never been seen before.  God grant that we have the same devotion and praise to our Savior in our thoughts, words, and actions, knowing that our praise will be perfect in heaven since that loving Savior has washed away the times we have failed to perfectly worship him here on earth.

But even in the weakness of our praises, the Lord has worked.  He blessed this congregation even through the benediction of a new vicar, who could barely concentrate due to his heart practically pounding through his chest.  He graciously heard and answered all of our prayers although at times our motivations may have been wrong.  His almighty Word even worked through our stumbling words as we witnessed to a friend or stranger.  Several weeks ago we had our Festival of Friendship.  If you’re curious about the numbers, we as a church invited a total of about 150 people, approximately one for each member.  We had 20 visitors from those invitations.  If we would have had no visitors though, it still would have been a blessing as the Lord encouraged us to grow in expressing our faith.  What a fantastic thing.  Feel proud of that.  Really take pleasure in that.  If you don’t feel the intense pleasure of that now, anticipate the pleasure that sharing your faith can bring.  Imagine someone tapping you on the shoulder in heaven.  You turn around to find tears of joy in their eyes.  They say, “I know you don’t know me, but you left me a card that reminded me I needed to get back to church and get my life back on track” or “you went out of your way to invite me to hear God’s free message of salvation.”  “I was saved from the fires of hell, I am here in paradise because of the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit working through God’s Word and you were the one who showed me that Word.  Thank you.”  He is an awesome God that has heaven prepared for us.  Let’s start singing praises to him right now and encourage others to join us on that path to everlasting righteousness.  

And so we join together with the gospel writers and the entire God-fearing world mentioned in verse 14 and bow down and worship the one true God and say, “Amen.”  This is true.  This is right.  This is what I love.  You are the only God and Lord of my life.  If that sounds good now, just wait for what that will sound like in perfection.  Amen.  
 
“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Amen. (Philippians 4:7)