Revelation 4: Creation’s 4 With Us 24, Worship on Christ’s Glassy Sea

Rev. Jacob Heine, pastor of Christ the Rock Lutheran Church in Rockford, Illinois, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Revelation 4. “On each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes.” In Revelation 4 John’s perspective is spirited away from Asia Minor to God’s throne room. Much is familiar—a door, the voice, white robes, the crowns. The church and our worship are windows to heaven. But there are these four living creatures and “twenty-four elders.” The elders represent God’s people old and new, the tribes of Jacob’s twelve sons and the church of the Lord’s twelve apostles. The creatures, however, represent all creation: an ox for the livestock, a lion for the beasts of the field, an eagle for the birds of the heavens, and human face for mankind. They worship God “day and night” around “a sea of glass.” God is putting all six days’ creation into perfect order, removing all waves and chaos, perfecting what He started in Genesis. Christ gives us thrones and crowns that we might fall down in worship.