I continue to
be overwhelmed with the treasures found in Revelation 4:1 which reads, “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.’”
Included among
the lessons of this beautiful invitation is the encouragement that there is
still an open door into heaven, the voice of Jesus still speaks to his
brothers, and we continue to be invited to come and see the things that are
going to take place as time winds to a close. Although we cannot repeat the
experience John was graciously given, we can “behold” what now comes to us in the hearing of God’s word.
What stood out
to me today is the way this verse directs our minds and hearts towards heavenly
thoughts and affections. We are called to behold what is taking place “in heaven”. Our faith is invited to
follow John as he is invited to, “come up
here”. Our attention is drawn to the one who continues speaking as the “I will show you” that rises supreme
above what anyone else claims about the future.
In other
words, it doesn’t matter what interpreters say these things mean, or the way
prophecy-buffs claim these apply. It doesn’t matter what governments, or
nations, or bullies do to say that things will not turn out the way God has
revealed. It matters that the voice of Jesus has spoken through heaven’s open
door, and what he says about everything trumps everything else that could be
said. Even the good commentaries, and the good sermons, and the good insights,
are only good because they are measured by the plumb-line of God’s word and found
to be true.
While John was
called to write about the things Jesus spoke and revealed from heaven, he had
earlier been called to write about things Jesus spoke and revealed from earth. John
tells us that, on the night Jesus was betrayed and arrested, he expressed a
prayer that began like this: “When Jesus
had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and
said, ‘Father…’”[1]
I cannot say whether
John had this in mind some decades later when Jesus called him to direct his
attention through heaven’s door, but I do know that Jesus’ earlier prayer was
an example of how all God’s sons can approach God based on what our faith tells
us is happening in the heavenly places.
What I mean is
that, the vision of heaven that begins in Revelation 4 is to tell believers
that, no matter what we see happening here on earth, this is what is happening
in heaven. In a sense, before we see all the scenes of turmoil that will show
the world going from bad to worse, we are given the heavenly picture to
superimpose over everything else. When we see beasts, and antichrists, and
prostitutes, and Babylons, and armies of the earth rising up against God,
heaven will still be the place where God sits on his throne and his people find
their wonder-filled security in his holiness. The reason we can trust that God
will fulfill his plans is because he will always rule all things from his throne.
So, decades
earlier, when Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven, it was because he knew that
heaven is where his Father always was and always would be. When Jesus addressed
the heavens with “Father…” it was
because he knew that his Father was on his throne listening to him. Others did
not see anything at all, but Jesus prayed with his knowledge of what heaven and
his Father were all about.
This is
exactly the example that Jesus’ disciples are to follow. Paul wrote:
1 If then you have been raised
with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the
right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things
that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your
life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you
also will appear with him in glory.[2]
John was
called to direct his attention up to heaven. He saw the door to heaven standing
open; he heard a voice calling him up; and he was going to share this with us
so that we could join him by faith.
Paul wrote
that the believer in Jesus Christ has been “raised
with Christ”. This puts us in a different world than all those who are
enemies of the cross. Every believer has the same status and the same standing
before God. We have been raised with Christ. That is the only reason we have
any hope whatsoever.
However, being
raised with Christ, as is the clear position of every believer, gives us a new
way of life. We no longer seek the things that are below, but the things that
are above. We no longer set our minds on things that are on earth, but the
things that are above, in heaven.
To put it
simply, what we do in the present is founded on what has happened to us in the
past, and is motivated by what will happen to us in the future.
What has
happened to us in the past? Paul says, “You
have died”. This means that all believers have died to sin in the death of
Christ. We have also “been raised with
Christ”, which means that we have been raised in the resurrection of
Christ. And, our “life is hidden with
Christ in God”. We are in Christ, so we are with Christ in God.
What do we
look forward to regarding the future? Paul describes it as, “When Christ who is your life appears”. This
is the certain hope of the believer, the one thing that believers throughout
the world, and throughout time, have been waiting for. Revelation is not giving
us the timeline, or signs that will enable us to measure-off when Jesus will
appear. Rather, it gives us the certainty of his appearing, the certainty of
everything God has promised, because it is founded on heavenly things, not on
earthly things.
Not only will
we see something that Jesus does, but we will see something that he does to us:
“then you also will appear with him in
glory”. This is what the end of all things will look like. We will not
appear with Jesus in defeat, but in glory. We will not appear in heaven with
all the garbage that we struggle with on earth, but we will appear with him in
glory. That longing to finally be with God, to be fully like Jesus, to be with
him in the same kind of relationship that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit share
among themselves, is what is ahead for us.
As Jude
recorded: “24 Now
to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless
before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ
our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now
and forever. Amen.”[3] For some time I have marveled at this wonder, that there is coming
a day when all God’s children will be presented before God’s very own presence
as “blameless”. When this happens
there will be “great joy” in God as
he rejoices over his people, and in us as we see the wonder of the finished
work of Christ finishing us.
While we may
wish we could see with our eyes what John saw with his eyes, let us take full
advantage of what is for us all. “…faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”[4] Through hearing the words of Christ, and through reading what John
wrote down in the Revelation, we can set our minds on the heavenly things that
will give us faith and confidence about what is ahead.
As we set our
minds on the things that are above, we follow Paul’s exhortation to “Put to death therefore what is earthly in
you,”[5]
and to put on the things that belong to our new life in him.[6] We
read through Revelation, not so much to figure out how the only-God-knows
timeline plays out, but to see all the encouragement we have to continue
waiting for Jesus to come because there is no possible way that God would ever
fail to do what he has promised.
My primary
encouragement to us all is to realize that each day will be shaped by what we
set our minds on regarding our past, and what we think is ahead for our future.
The more we see ourselves through earthly deceptions, the more difficulty we
will have experiencing joy in our Savior. The more we see ourselves through the
heavenly revelations, the more hope will fill our days as we wait for Jesus’
return. As Paul said, “…the riches of the
glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”[7]
From my heart,
Monte
© 2013 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
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