Good morning! He has risen! He has risen indeed! No, I have
not mixed up my Sundays. For the first 10 years of my life, I grew up in
traditional German Reformed church, which meant the church followed the
liturgical calendar to the letter. I understand why some Christians step away
from tradition and liturgy. They feel both tradition and liturgy will lead to
rote repetition of words without thinking about their meaning. I appreciate the
tradition around this time of year. If you look on the liturgical calendar,
today is the 2nd Sunday of Easter. The liturgical calendar reminds
us that Easter is to be remember for more than just 1 Sunday. Keeping with the
spirit of the liturgical calendar, I have spent the past week continuing to
reflect on Easter. As much as I kept trying to think about Easter Sunday, the
Holy Spirit kept pulling me back to think about Palm Sunday. My pastor, Jim Heindel,
gave a wonderfully expository, exegetical and hermeneutical sermon on the
Triumphal Entry. My favorite part was when he cross referenced the Triumphal
Entry with Revelation 7:9&10,
which reads, “After this I looked, and
behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all
tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the
Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and
crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the
throne, and to the Lamb!’” These verses remind that Palm Sunday not only
looks to the past to recall and celebrate a past event, but Palm Sunday also prepares
us to look forward to second Triumphal Entry, when Jesus establishes his
kingdom on heaven and on earth. I wondered to myself, “Is Easter like that? Does
Easter Sunday not only look back to celebrate a past even, but does Easter
Sunday also point forward to a future event?” Well, I got my answer about Palm
Sunday from the book of Revelation, so of course I would get my answer
concerning Easter Sunday also from the book of Revelation.
If you haven’t already, I invite you to turn to the book of
Revelation. Anyone can find the book of Revelation easily. Just turn to the
back, and it ends the Bible as the last book in the Bible. Everyone knows the
book of Revelation for its end-time prophecy, but no one should limit the book
to just end-time prophecy. For starters, in the first 3 chapters of Revelation,
John writes letters to the seven churches he oversees, all located in then Asia
Minor, which is today Turkey. Even before John gets to all the death and
destruction that make a smashing good film, John spends the next 2 chapters,
chapters 5 and 6, depicting the Lord God on his heavenly throne, receiving
praise and worship from the heavenly host. Chapter 4 emphasizes the Father as
the Creator, and chapter 5 focuses on the Son as the Redeemer. The order makes
sense. Before anyone can call Jesus Redeemer, that person first must
acknowledge the Father as creator. The sinner worships the created, but the
righteous worships the Creator. The sinner abuses God’s creation, but the
righteous are good stewards of the creation. Revelation 4 teaches its readers
how to rightfully worship the Lord as creator.
And whenever the
living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the
throne, who lives forever and ever. ~Revelation 4:9 ESV
Beginning Revelation 4:9 with the word “whenever” might
sound like it contradicts the previous verse, which states the 4 living
creatures never cease to praise the Lord. It might mean that the 4 living
creatures praise God repeatedly but not continually. John input the whenever to
emphasis the eternal repetition into the future. The whenever might refer to
not the 4 living creatures, but rather, it refers to the 24 elders. The 24
elders receive their cue from the 4 living creatures. The 4 living creatures
praising the Lord leads to the 24 elders worshipping God.
John describes the 4 living creatures’ praise as giving
“glory and honor and thanks.” Giving does not mean the 4 living creatures
provide the Lord’s attributes, but rather, the 4 living creatures proclaim the
attributes of God. To proclaim the Lord as glorious, the 4 living creatures
proclaim God as majestic and wonderful. To give the Lord honor, the 4 living
creatures proclaim God’s fame and worthiness. To give the Lord thanks, they
proclaim the blessings that outflow from God.
Together, John paints a picture of the Lord seated on his
heavenly throne, surrounded by the heavenly host. This image should not be new
to any Bible reader, it would not have been new to John. The Old Testament
describes God as seated on the heavenly throne, surrounded by the heavenly
host, in numerous Old Testament passages (e.g. 1 Kings 22:19, 2 Chronicles
18:18, Psalm 47:8 Isaiah 6:1-3, Daniel 7:9). What might be new, however, is
adding the attribute of God’s eternity to this description. The closes in the
Old Testament that happening is Daniel 4:34, where Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges
the Lord’s eternity. Coupling the Lord’s sovereign rule with his eternity, John
wants the recipients of his letter to clearly understand that God’s rule is not
temporal, but it is as eternal as he is.
the twenty-4 elders
fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives
forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, ~Revelation
4:10 ESV
At the same time the 4 creatures worship the Lord, the 24
elders join in worshipping God. Verse 10 repeats the same 2 attributes of the
Lord as in verse 9. While this repetition from a modern perspective might sound
redundant. The repetition to ancient reader would have meant John wants the
reader to focus attention of these 2 attributes. John draws our attention to
these 2 combined attributes for a few reasons. First, John wants the reader to
contrast the Lord’s eternal reign to the temporal reigns of the kings and lords
on the earth. It doesn’t matter if you think Revelation speaks to the
persecuted churches under the Roman emperor, or the earth under the Antichrist
during the Tribulation, or both, or anyone in between, all these reigns are
temporal. God’s reign is eternal. Second, John wants to assure his reader that
God is indeed the ruler over all the universe. Since God is the creator the
universe, he is also the king of the universe. Third, John repeats the exact
same attributes with similar actions, so they reader may also respond in a
similar fashion. If the 4 living creatures and the 24 elders worship the Lord
as the eternal ruler, then Christians should respond similarly.
The 24 elder do not simply worship in word or song. Their
worship also contains action. First, the 24 elders fall down in worship. The
verb does not mention if the 24 elders fall down by bending the knee, bowing or
fully prostrate, but the verb tense clearly states that this action shall be
ongoing into the future forever. Then the 24 elders cast their crowns before
the throne. The verb “cast” might sound like a forceful throwing. Roman
historians Cicero and Tacticus record that when kings of smaller kingdom would
visit the Roman emperor, the emperor would make the lesser king lay down his
crown at the throne, symbolizing submitting the power of the Roman emperor and
his empire. These kings would forcefully throw their crown down, showing they followed
the emperor’s commands, although they didn’t approve. Revelation doesn’t sound
like that all. It really means to lay down the crown, which, if you think about
it, kind of paints of picture of humbling kneeling to lay it down. Here, the 24
elders lay down the crown voluntarily and humbly. The crowns represent the
power and authority to rule. By bringing their crowns to the throne, the 24
elders acknowledge God as the king of kings and lord of lords. The Lord is the
only true sovereign ruler.
“Worthy are you, our
Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.” ~Revelation 4:11 ESV
To continue to emphasize God’s sovereign rule, the 24 elders
address their praises to the Lord and God. Emperor Domitian used the Latin
version of this total to refer to himself. John’s uses the title to affirm the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit as the only true Lord and God, as well as the true
king of kings and Lord of lords. In the Greek, the adjectives glory, honor and
power all have definitive article. A translation of that line in verse 11 could
read, “to receive the glory, the honor and the power.” John probably used the
definitive article to emphasize all
the glory, honor and power goes to God, or to refer back to the same glory,
honor and power state in verse 9. Verse 11 differs from verse 9, however,
because the 24 elders worship God for his glory, honor and power, whereas the 4
living creatures give glory, honor and thanks. Giving thanks partially draws
attention back to the self. The 24 elders focus all their praise totally onto
God. Verse 11 goes on to explain the Lord God deserves glory, honor and power
because he created all things. God’s creation demonstrates his power because he
has the power to create all things. God’s creation displays his glory and honor
because the creation came about as a result of God’s will. Since God created
the world, only he deserves to rule the world.
At the end of verse 11, the 24 elders sing, “by your will
they existed and were created.” The verbs might sound redundant to us, but they
probably had meaning to the 1st century audience. Perhaps the
synonyms created a synonymous parallelism, emphasizing nothing comes into
existence unless God creates it. Maybe the elders hint that when God creates
something, he creates it twice. First, he creates it as a thought in his mind,
and then he creates it again when he brings it into existence. The verb tense
provides better hint. The first verb comes to us in the simple past, whereas
John pens the second verb in the ongoing past. Therefore, John attempts to
teach the reader that not only God creates all things into existence, but every
living thing’s ongoing existence depends on God, too. Such a message would have
meant a lot to the persecuted churches John oversaw. These churches needed to
know that their evil emperor’s reign existed only temporarily, but God would
preserve the church eternally through his eternal reign. God stands above all
kings and lords, and kings and lords below him must submit to his good will,
not their evil will.
As verse 11 close chapter 4 of Revelation, we see how verses
9 to 11 contribute to the overall message and themes in chapter 4. John
highlight the Lord God as the Creator of the universe. The Lord created the world
and universe out of his almighty power. Nothing exists apart from God. Because
the Lord created the universe, God alone has sovereign rule over all the
universe. Any other ruler, either from heaven or from earth, must submit to the
will of God Almighty. Therefore, the Lord deserves glory, honor and thanks from
his creation, in both heaven and earth. As Creator and Sovereign Ruler, God deserves
worship from the creation as such.
As mentioned earlier, the crown in the original context of
Revelation represents the power and authority to rule. To bring the truths of
Revelation 4 to our 21st century, I ask you, what is your crown? I
believe your crown is anything, either material or non-material, that your take
pride in. Your crown might be a high
school or college diploma. More specifically, it could be a cum laude, magna cum
laude or summa cum laude GPA. Your crown might be award or trophy you once wpm
competing in a sport or extracurricular school activity. You might consider your
crown your job security, your tenure or your salary. You could call your house
or your car a crown, especially if you worked hard to earn it. If you haven’t
caught on yet, yes, I would say that any blessing the Lord has given you is
your crown, but remember, God gave you that blessing to bless others and give him
the glory and the honor. Therefore, just like the 24 elders, Christians need to
cast their crowns before the throne of God above.
I know you might think to yourself right now, “But
Revelation 4:10 says the 24 elders cast their crowns before the throne, not the
multitude of Christians, like in Revelation 7:9.” I hear you. I actually wrestled
with that myself, but listen to how apostles talk about crowns in the epistles-
Do not fear what you
are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into
prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be
faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. ~Revelation 2:10
ESV
I am coming soon.
Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. ~Revelation 3:11
ESV
And when the chief
Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. ~1 Peter 5:4
ESV
Blessed is the man
who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will
receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him ~James
1:12 ESV
Henceforth there is
laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge,
will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved
his appearing. ~2 Timothy 4:8 ESV
From all these New Testament verses, I believe that all
Christians will receive crowns in the new heaven and new earth. Now if I see
the 24 elders, who actually deserve the authority to rule, lay down their crowns
at the heavenly throne of God, how can I keep my crown on my head? How can I
not also lay down my crown at the throne of Jesus? That’s the application John
wants his readers to get from Revelation. When the 4 living creatures praise the
Lord, the 24 elders join in worshipping God, adding their worship by falling
down and laying their crowns. The 24 elders have set an example, and the
Christians need to follow that example. If the 24 elders can humbly relinquish
their authority to rule, then Christians need to humbly submit all blessing the
Lord has given me, whether by giving them directly back to God, or passing them
off to someone else who needs that blessing. Christians need to realize the
same thing the 24 elders did. All our blessing belongs to the Lord. In his
sovereignty he grants it to us.
On the 1st Sunday of Easter, a lot of churches
will celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus by writing their sins on a
notecard or some piece of paper, and then nail those papers to a cross. My church,
Stony Brook Mennonite Church, participated in the practice. I really liked how
Becca Grosh, our worship leader, reminded the congregation that nailing our
sins to the cross should not be sad, like on Good Friday, but on Easter Sunday,
it should be a celebration. I really liked that. Indeed, when Christians nail
their sins to the cross, they should celebrate that when they come to the cross
with a confessing and repenting heart, they will assuredly receive forgiveness
and reconciliation. Let’s be honest, though, that’s the easy part. Born-again
Christians want to rid themselves of sin. If Jesus willingly wants to take that
burden, Christians will throw that burden onto him. When Christians come to the
cross, however, Jesus calls them to give more than just their burden. Jesus asks
for their all. In order to nail that sin to the cross, it requires to first lay
that crown at the foot of the cross. To rid ourselves of sin, we must rid
ourselves of our all, including our “crowns.”
When I see churches celebrate Palm Sunday by waving palm branches,
I remember Revelation 7:9, and I tell them they are doing a “practice.” They
practice waving the palm branches today, for one day will wave their palm
branches when Jesus reigns victorious over sin and evil. I invite you to do a “practice
round” of Revelation. Make a crown out of paper (or if you’re not that
creative, go get one from Burger King). Next, decorate it. Then, write on it
what your crown represents: your schooling, your job, your achievements, your
awards, your worldly possessions. Finally, I invite to somehow symbolically lay
it at the foot of the cross. If you have a cross decoration at your house, put it
below it (and if you don’t, you might want to buy/make one!) Use it as bookmark
in your Bible. Whatever you do, remember you participate in a practice round of
Revelation 4. I can confident assure you that you will do it again in the new
heaven and new earth, but then you will lay in front of the real throne of
Jesus Christ.
