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1. One Sitting on the Throne (Revelation 4:1-3)
REVELATION 4:1
1 After these things I looked and saw a door opened in heaven, and the first voice that I heard, like a trumpet speaking with me, was one saying, “Come up here, and I will show you the things which must happen after this.”
The Open Door to Heaven: In his revelation Christ at first had examined his seven churches in Minor Asia and forced them with holy love into their sanctification (Revelation 2:1 - 3:22). His church is as important for him as the apple of his eye. It is the bridge head of his kingdom on our earth. It is the fruit of his salvation work.
Yet now direction and issue of the revelation are being changed. The angel of the Lord showed John something new. He directed the eyes of the seer toward heaven. There, he saw an open door. This heavenly door had been open already before John realized it. The veil of the Holy of Holies had been torn when Jesus died (Matthew 27:51). The Crucified Risen One has widely opened the door to God and has passed through the heavens and appeared before his father (Hebrews 4:14-16; 6:19-20; 9:24).
Since then all followers of Christ have an open door to the Father! We are now members of the family of God and always have access to him (Ephesians 2:18-19; 3:12). Stephen, the martyr, saw the open heaven and the Son of God standing at the right hand of his Father (Acts 7:55-57). Yet the responsible witnesses of the Sanhedrin did not want to hear of the open heaven and stopped their ears (Acts 7:57).
For Muslims the heaven remains closed. While Islamic spirits tried to enter, they had to stay outside (Sura al-Jinn 72:8). According to the will of Allah all Muslims at first get into the burning heat of hell (Sura Maryam 19:71-72). Only those who fear God may run a chance to get out of hell again.
Jewish apocalyptic writings speak of three, seven, ten, or even nine hundred and sixty two heavens. John did not like such speculations. He speaks of only “one" heaven and mentions it 46-times in the book of Revelation.
Muslims argue that there are seven heavens. In the first heaven dwells Adam, in the second the son of Maria together with John the Baptist, in the third Joseph, son of Jacob, in the fourth Idris, in the fifth Aaron, in the sixth Moses and in the seventh Abraham. Allah himself is enthroned above the heavens, according to Islam, and is absent from the paradise of Muslims which is separated from the heavens. In the heavens of Islam does not dwell a single Muslim according to Koran.
PRAYER: Father, we thank you that your Son has widely opened the door to heaven for us.
QUESTION:
- Why was the door of heaven opened wide to every man?