But soon enough you

you will care by the time i'm done

A sermon on Revelation 4

Today’s Scripture takes us to the heavenly throne room. 

And what a scene it is! Blinding hues of red and orange burst from the throne. A rainbow encircles the throne. And so do seven torches. And so twenty-four thrones! And seated on each one of those thrones, are twenty-four dignitaries, all clothed in regal attire. 

Those twenty-four elders, they fall down and worship the ONE seated on the throne at the center of it all. They even take off their crowns to cast them before the foot of the throne. 

Prowling along the edges of it all, are four beasts. All eyes. So that they can continually attend to nothing else but the one on the throne. In fact, these beasts even join in worship. When the elders finish the refrain, the beasts provide the chorus: “Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God the Almighty.”

What a picture! Everything gathered around the throne, lost in praise. 

It’s a longing we all have. Isn’t it? It’s what our hymn, “Jerusalem, My Happy Home,” is all about.

BUT, before you can get to the throne, John shows us something unexpected. Something ominous, even; a glassy sea. 

A glassy sea that is as surprising and foreboding as it is essential.

This sea separates the throne of God from everything else. 

And when John says, “sea,” he means sea. This is no mere watering hole. This is no pond. And it’s certainly no lake, either. No, this is a sea—an imposing body of water. 

A gulf you can not cross if you try and carry anything along with you. And honestly, even then, it will still be too vast to cross on your own…

Keep that sea before you. We’re going to come back to it. We have to come back to it…

Because it’s not just the majesty of the throne room that’s so compelling. Is it? It’s also the way everything is ordered around the throne. 

How there’s a rainbow around the throne. And seven torches, too. And twenty-four elders, all seated on their thrones. Prowling around it all, are the four beasts. Everything is centered around the throne, without confusion or commotion.

…Which sounds pretty good. Doesn’t it? After all, things don’t feel particularly ordered these days. Do they? In fact, unrest and uncertainty seem to be the order of our day. 

Sure, we spend plenty of time and energy trying to impose a little structure on our days. But it’s not serving us all that well. Is it?

In the throne room, however, all of creation is in orderly array.

And the reason for this is so mind-numbingly obvious, I hesitate to say it aloud; God. Because God is on the throne, everything else is in place! 

…Which I suspect you already know. After all, isn’t that why you’re here? In your bones, you know that when God is at the center, everything else falls into place. 

But, as I’m sure you also know, it’s not that simple! It’s not that simple. If it were, you wouldn’t be here now. Would you? No, you’d already be lost in praise. In the crush of this and that, though, so many other things compete for our time and attention. So many other demands try and sneak on their way onto the throne. 

And if you’re anything like me, you’ve spent the week trying to appease those other would-be rulers. …Only to be let down.

Well, if that’s you, lift up your head! 

Lift up your head because you are right where you should be right now! It may not look like much, but by the power God’s voice blaring to you like a trumpet in these words, you are being carried to the heavenly throne room!

In fact, you were carried there long ago! That old, imposing sea, you already stand on the other side of it!

That glassy sea around the throne of God, is the sea of old. 

The sea of nothingness and darkness God spoke over on the first day. The sea Noah crossed on the ark during those 40 days of rain when the earth was flooded. The sea the Israelites passed through, dry-shod, when they fled from the Egyptian army. The sea Jesus was baptized into when he submitted to his cousin John’s baptism. 

This sea is the sea of God’s creation, cleansing, freedom, and resurrection. The sea of baptism! 

At this sea, your old life ended. Anything that would get between you and God was left on the other side of the shore. And even that old sinner in you, who would try and carry all that other stuff across the shore, was drowned there!

Scattered along the far side of the shore are all the remains of previous lives. Regrets. Pride. Failures. And accomplishments. Guilts. Grudges. And fears. Sorrows. And disappointment. Sin. And even righteousness, too. Everything. Everything we can’t bring with us to the throne of God is on the far side of the shore.

But you, you stand on the other side of the shore. You stand at the foot of the throne. Because in your baptism, you’ve been carried across!

…All those other things that compete for your devotion, they have no claim on you. You are free of all their demands. And their empty promises, too! You are on the other side of the shore. Between you and them stands an impossible sea.

In the end, you will experience this fully. But for now, it is the good will of the Holy Spirit to give you a glimpse. Revealing to you what’s truly happening right now at this very instant in worship!

You don’t have to try and make worship anymore. Just let the hymn that’s raising up within you burst through your lips! 

You don’t even have to try and put everything else into place, either. Although, heaven knows you’ve tried. Now everything else takes a backseat to the one needful thing, getting lost in praise. And when that happens, everything else falls into place.

You are at the foot of the throne of God. Join the hymn. Get lost in praise. It’s the most certain thing about your existence right now! Let everything else fall away, because it has. And it will. 

You, you are freed. You are at the foot of the throne. Take your place where you belong, Jerusalem, your happy home!