SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/2/2015
4:30 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Introduction
to Rev. Four
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
4:1-3
Message of the
verses: The first thing that I want
to do is to quote a portion from my earlier SD dated 04/09/05. “Most people that have studied this wonderful
book have come to the conclusion that Revelations 1:19 is the outline for this
book and it divides the book up into three parts: “Therefore write the
things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the
things which will take place after these things.” Chapter 4 and verse one seems to be the
dividing point for the last part of the outline and it has been subjected that
chapter 6 and verse one could also fit into this division, yet it seems to fit
into 4:1 better for in this portion of this book it is possible that the
rapture is being described in this first verse and thus the things “which will
take place after this” seem to begin.
The Church, which is what was being written about in chapters two, and
three is not mentioned again, and it could be that the reason that it is not
mentioned again is that the “Church Age” is over at this point of the book, for
“she” is now in heaven, and the description that is given in chapters four and
five tell us what the church will be doing after it has been taken to heaven at
the event most scholars call the “rapture.”
Rapture is not found in the Scriptures, yet the idea of it is
there. Rapture is a Latin word that
means to “snatch away.” To snatch away
is a good description of what this event does, and this verse in Revelations
four also describes this event. The
verse starts out by saying “after these things,” which goes along really well
with the “outline verse” in Revelations 1:19.
“Revelations chapters four and five give a wonderful
description of what real worship is all about, and this real worship is going
on all of the time in heaven, even at this time.”
Now there are some who think that John going through an
open door into heaven is a picture of the Rapture of the Church as seen in my
Spiritual Diary of ten years ago, however after listening to John MacArthur’s
sermon on this section he seems to think that this is not a picture of the
Rapture, but just John receiving another vision from the Lord. I am not going to argue one way or the other,
but one thing is certain as stated in the quote the church is not mentioned in
the book of Revelation again and so I conclude that beginning with chapter four
we find the church in heaven. I do like
the quote from above that chapters four and five are a picture of true worship.
If one looks at a concordance for the word “throne” in
chapter four they will find it eleven times, and if one looks for the word “throne”
in the entire book of revelation they will find it thirty-five times, so
needless to say this word is important in the book of Revelation. In fact in John MacArthur’s commentary on
Revelation he actually breaks up his outline by using the word throne and
because we are following his outline we will do the same thing. He writes at the end of his introductory
commentary the following: “The central
theme of John’s vision is the throne of God, mentioned eleven times in this
chapter. All the features of the chapter
can be outlined based on how they relate to that throne of divine glory. After describing the throne, John tells us
who is on the throne, what is going on around the throne, what comes from the
throne, what stands before the throne, who is in the center and around the
throne, and what is directed toward the throne.” You see here his outline from this quote.
We see in this chapter John’s vision of heaven, as to
whether or not He was actually in heaven is not certain, but we remember Isaiah’s
vision of heaven in chapters 5-6 of his book, and Ezekiel saw things that were
from heaven in the first three chapters of his book. Of course Paul tells of his journey to heaven
in 2 Corinthians, and we can be assured that Paul was actually in heaven. Now as for others, who have recently reported
that they were in heaven for a while and then came back, well all I can say is
that I doubt that it happened and leave it at that. When Paul was in heaven he could not talk
about it, but John, as we will see gives a pretty detailed account of what he
saw. What we see in chapters four and
five are John second vision, his second revelation as the first one was in
chapter one.
We first see the words “after these things” MacArthur
writes this “relates to John’s personal chronology. It notes that his second vision followed
immediately after John’s vision of the risen, glorified Christ (1:9-20) and the
letters to the seven churches (2:1-3:22).
The phrase “after these things is used throughout Revelation to mark the
beginning of a new vision (cf. 7:9; 15:5; 18:1; 19:1).” This is seen in Revelation 1:19, which gives
us the outline of the book of Revelation.
Now in 4:1 we are looking at this second occurrence of “after these
things,” and this is the chronology of the Lord, as its use marks an important
transition in the book of Revelation which goes from the end of the church age
to the beginning of the third great division of the book which is described in
1:19 as “the things which will take place and this goes all the way from
chapter four to the end of the book, chapter 22.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: This is exciting
to me as from almost the first day after I became a believer I was taught about
the Rapture of the church, the end of the church age, and I have looked forward
to it since that time.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul,
mind, and strength, and to better understand the love Christ has for me and
live in that love.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Babylon” (Revelation 18:2).
Today’s Bible
question: “What was the name of John
Mark’s mother?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/2/2015 5:08 PM
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