Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Becoming Spiritually Fit | New Testament | Revelation 4

Episode Date: October 26, 2023

Many parts of the Bible are easier to understand. Revelation, however, is not one of those parts. In today's episode, Patrick dives into John's vision in Revelation 4 to share what it reveals about God. Listen to find out tools for becoming more spiritually fit. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Revelation 4

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. A few years ago, a picture of a 24-hour fitness gym went viral. In many ways, this gym is totally normal. It's in a suburban strip mall, brown stucco, exterior walls, a big 24-hour fitness sign. But the strip mall is about 15 feet above the parking lot, which means that you need to take a set of stairs to reach the gym. or you could take a set of stairs because there's an alternate option. There's also an escalator going up. Now, there's something hilarious about taking an escalator to a gym. Aren't you there to get fit, to work out?

I don't know. Maybe you just don't like cardio, so you take the escalator, or maybe you're planning a tough lay date. But whatever the reason, most people take the escalator to avoid the hard work of climbing a staircase. Why do you read the Bible? Why do you listen to this podcast? On the one hand, I hope it's not because you think doing so will earn you God's love and favor.

No, hear this. Jesus has already won you God's love and favor on the cross apart from your works. And yet, I think precisely because we know God is at work in us, it's appropriate to say that we read the Bible too by God's grace become spiritually fit. Many parts of the Bible are fairly easy to understand, stories, letters, even worship songs in the Psalms. But other parts are much more difficult. Revelation is one of those parts. And today we begin the part of Revelation where John begins to unveil his visions. These visions were probably not easy for his original audience to understand, much less for those of us who live millennia later. So I've got good news and bad news.

The bad news is that there's no escalator to this gym. There's only one way up. We take the stairs. But here's the good news. Jesus gives us the wisdom and strength we need by his spirit to take those stairs. When we started this podcast, one of my goals was that anyone who listened to it would slowly begin to feel as though they don't need it anymore. Because over time, they learned from us how to read God's word and maybe you don't need us

anymore. That's great. That's my goal over the next few weeks as we enter the challenging parts of Revelation. Your legs may hurt by the end of this. You may need to pause and catch your breath, but I hope by the end of it, you'll find these stairs a bit less daunting. One of the things that makes Revelation so challenging is that John's words aren't straightforward to modern readers.

You see, it was written in an ancient genre called Apocalyptic Literature. Now, when we hear the word apocalyptic, we think about the end of the world. But as Keith pointed out in his episode about Revelation 1, that's not what this book is about. The word apocalyptic actually comes from a Greek word, Apocalypseus, which is not only the Greek name of this book. Revelation means Apocalypseis is all tied together, but the meaning of Apocalypseis is to reveal or to unveil a revelation. You see, that's what apocalyptic literature did. It pulled back the curtain on ordinary, earthly, human life, and it unveils or reveals what's happening behind the scenes in the spiritual, realm. For example, an ancient person might see Rome only as a city. But in apocalyptic literature,

Rome is unveiled as the horror of Babylon. That's the spiritual reality of Rome. Pull back the curtain on Emperor Nero, and in Revelation, he is now a terrifying, monstrous beast. This is why that beast is marked with the numbers 666, which is the numerological form of Nero's name. Now, I know this can sound like really complicated stuff, but I want you to get at the core of what I'm saying, revelation is about unveiling, revealing what's happening in the spiritual realm that we cannot see. So that said, we are never meant to take what we see behind the curtain as a literal depiction of the future. Instead, what we see behind the curtain is a spiritual, symbolic depiction of the events that were happening at the time in which revelation was

written. So there's a lot of challenging stuff here, symbolism, imagery, the unveiling of reality. There's no escalator to the top of Revelation. If we want to appreciate its spiritual treasures, we've got to take the stairs, which finally takes us to Revelation 4, a passage rich with symbolism and imagery. And it's no surprise that when John pulls back the curtain on earthly reality, he doesn't immediately see an image of Satan enthroned or human emperors and potentates and power. No, what he sees, first and foremost, is the most important thing, the throne of heaven. heaven itself. You see, this is the most fundamental reality about reality. God really is in charge. Jesus truly is sovereign. Whatever pain or hurt or persecution we may experience in this life,

none of them signify that Jesus is on the retreat. No, most fundamentally, he is the king of all creation who is worthy of all worship, including yours. And in Revelation 4, John enters that third. throne room. He doesn't focus on describing the person on the throne, but in Revelation 4, he focuses on everything around the throne. And from top to bottom, everything around the throne is designed to symbolize the fact that Jesus is in fact king over all creation. Let's just read this section together, and I'll briefly explain the symbols as we go through. We'll pick up in Revelation 4, verse four. Surrounding the throne were 24 other thrones and seated on them were 24 elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. Now let's pause. The 24 elders

represent the whole of redeemed humanity, the 12 tribal heads of Israel plus the 12 apostles of the church. John is telling us that Jesus rules over his redeemed people. Verse 5. From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peels of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. Again, let's pause. Seven symbolically represents perfection and wholeness. And so right here, God on the throne is depicted as perfect in power, perfect in light and perfect in spirit. He is the perfect whole king who is the light of the world. Verse six. Also in front of the throne, there was what looked like a sea of glass clear as crystal.

Jewish cosmology, basically how they saw the universe. They broke up the world into two forms of waters. There were the lower waters, which would be earthbound seas and lakes, and then there were also upper waters. You could think about that like the clouds and the blue sky. But what I want you to catch is that in John's revelation, the throne is above the upper waters. In other words, the throne of God is both spatially and symbolically over the whole of creation. God is the king of the universe. God is the king of the cosmos. Let's continue. In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes in front and back. The first living creature was like a lion. The second was like an ox. The third had the face of a man, and the fourth was like a flying eagle.

The four living creatures represent all animate life on earth. Animals and humans. The throne is above them all. Jesus is king over them all. But these four creatures don't just symbolize that. They all represent constellations which were only visible during certain seasons. And so John is saying that Jesus isn't just king over all of the animals. Jesus is king over every season and king over time itself. Verse 8. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings.

Day and night, they never stopped saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives forever, the 24 elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They lay down their crowns before the throne and say, You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will, they were created and have their being. Do you see what's happening here?

The entirety of the universe is represented in this scene, and it's all below God's throne. He is the one in charge. But this doesn't mean that his creation is base or that it's servile. No, it means that his creation is full of his glory, and that his creation takes no greater delight than in worshiping him, the one on the throne. Creation was made by God. Creation was made to enjoy God. creation was made by the glorious one to enjoy his glory and share in his glory. And John wants you to be

in awe. But he also wants us not to be fooled by what we see in the present. It's so tempting to believe the opposite of what this vision is saying, to believe that God's throne is below creation, that Jesus isn't really in charge, that we're all just victims of history or circumstance or the country that we live in, that my life isn't really in his hands. But the truth is that whatever you feel Jesus is least capable of caring for, well, Jesus is actually the most capable because he is the king. So cast all you have before him today. Fall on your knees with all creation and sing. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come.