LEARNING DAILY

 

Revelation 4:1, After these things I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven.  And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me saying, “Come up here and I will show you things which must take place after this.

 

Many Bible teachers believe that at this point in The Revelation the Lord Jesus Christ has taken His faithful followers out of the world.  You can read about this event in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; the rapture refers to the true Church being caught or taken up from earth to meet the Lord in the air.  They will be visibly united with the Lord Jesus Christ and taken to the Father’s house in heaven for eternity.

 

The rapture of the true Church will proceed the seven-year period of the Tribulation.  The Church is not mentioned in The Revelation until 22:16; however the “bride of Christ” (the Church) is said to already be with Christ in the nineteenth chapter before He returns to earth to judge the wicked and reign for 1,000 years (the Millennial Reign).  The Lord also told the church at Philadelphia that He would keep it from the worldwide trial to come.

 

Beginning with chapter four, a new section begins in The Revelation that will reveal terrible events in the tribulation and God’s purpose in bringing judgments.  Take a moment to read the entire chapter.  John shows us, through the open door, “all heaven’s inhabitants gathered around the throne of God – showing God’s authority and sovereignty.  They are engaged in worship of the glorified Christ and Creator, whose judgment (symbolized by lightnings, thunderings, and voices) is about to fall on earth.  The One sitting on the throne is God the Father” (from the David Jeremiah Study Bible). 

 

We begin looking at what is to come with a vision of worship of the One who is the “open door”, the entrance to heaven for all who believe.  Jesus Christ is the only door to heaven, the narrow gate.  This door is never closed to Believers.  I want you to think of the last time you worshipped and it made you want to fall down before “Him who lives forever and ever”.  I know my experience is far and few between these times.  In heaven, I wonder if that is all we will want to do! Perhaps we will need to be in heaven, with our glorified body, without our sin nature before we really understand true worship.

 

Take a closer look at the worship being given.  It begins in response to what God has done for us.  Notice the worship is in response to the four living creatures giving worship to what they see – “a holy God who always was and is to come!”  When you and I spend time in God’s Word, we come to see God for who He is and we cannot help but worship.  God is ”worthy to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things.  And by Your will they exit and were created.” 

 

I believe we can all get to this place of worship.  I pray all of us have a greater hunger and thirst for His kingdom and His righteousness.  The promise when we do is that we will be filled.  That might only happen when we really see God for who He is.  That happens only through taking time to be with Him in prayer and studying His Word.

 

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