Winners & Losers: The Singing Revolution (Rev. 4-5) Chris Altrock – July 24, 2016

A Second Look at Heaven

I just finished reading a book by Fredrik Backman entitled A Man Called Ove. The main character, Ove, was married to a beautiful and caring woman named Sophie. While the couple was vacationing in Spain a drunk driver caused an accident involving the couple. The accident took their unborn child and Sophie’s legs. Four years later Sophie died of cancer. The book opens with Ove trying to end his own life. Why? Because he desperately wants to be with Sophie, his wife, in heaven.

Now, put aside any debate that may be starting in your head about whether Ove has chosen an appropriate way to get to heaven. And just consider Ove’s view of heaven. Because it’s very likely the view that many have–including many Christians. When we think of heaven, what do we think of first? For many, what comes first to mind are loved ones who’ve gone before us. Ove wants to get to heaven because that’s where Sophie is. And for many Christians that’s what they think of first when they think of heaven. Heaven matters because it’s the place where our loved ones reside.

John, the author of Revelation, may urge us to take a second look at heaven. Later in his book he will acknowledge that heaven is indeed filled with our loved ones. But in Rev. 4, his and our very first glimpse into heaven, what captures his attention about heaven is not his and our loved ones. It’s something else. Something he and his readers and we desperately need even more than our loved ones:

4:1 After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2 At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. (Rev. 4:1-2 ESV)

What’s the first thing John beholds in heaven? Not beloved martyrs like Stephen who’ve gone before him. Not Ove’s wife Sophie. Not your grandmother or your sister or your spouse. The first thing John beholds in heaven is a throne.

This heavenly throne is mentioned 17 times in chapters 4 and 5. It’s mentioned  21 more times in chapters 6 through 22.^[1] This throne appears 38 times in Revelation. That makes it very important.

What makes heaven important in Revelation is not first of all that it’s a place where we’ll see our loved ones. What makes heaven important in Revelation is that it reminds us of a throne. John wants us to look at heaven because he wants us to see this throne.

 

Living Amidst Thrones

Why? John wants us to see this throne in heaven because, according to John, we are living in the midst of many thrones on earth. Some of these thrones put our faith in conflict. Some put our faith in compromise.^[2] We live amidst thrones that lead us into spiritual conflict or spiritual compromise.

John illustrates this in his letter to a church in the city known as Pergamum:

2:12 “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ‘The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword. 13 “‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. 14 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. 15 So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. 17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’ (Rev. 2:12-17 ESV)

New Testament scholar Gregory Stevenson points out the phrase “Satan’s throne” in v. 13 and a two-fold tension facing Christians in this city as a result of this throne.^[3] That throne may be literal or symbolic. Either way it points to forces facing these Christians that conflict with their faith and that lead some of them to compromise their faith.

On the one hand the Christians in Pergamum were facing spiritual conflict. For example, John mentions in vs. 13 a situation where a faithful witness was killed. But there would have been other, less explicit, forms of spiritual conflict. A Christian silversmith in Pergamum would have belonged to a guild. Meetings of the guild would have involved the offering of sacrifices to deities. Thus he would have faced the difficult decision of maintaining a career that feeds his family yet requiring involvement in idolatrous practices or quitting that job and losing his income. He faced spiritual conflict.

On the other hand the Christians in Pergamum were facing spiritual compromise. John criticizes some of them for eating food sacrificed to idols and engaging in immoral behavior. In fact all the prominent financial, political, education, recreational and medical buildings in Pergamum were temples or were closely associated with temples and deities. For example, if you wanted your sick child healed, you visited the temple of Asclepius, the god of healing.

John associates all of this with a throne, a throne of Satan. His point is simply that his readers lived among thrones, real or symbolic, that lead to conflict with their Christian faith or led them to compromise their Christian faith.

The same is true for us. Every time we wake up we face things that either lead to a conflict against our Christian faith our a compromise with our faith. This is especially true as our culture continues to shift away from institutional and traditional forms of faith.

A couple of weeks ago I was thumbing through some of the old bulletins of the Highland church. I came across this article in a bulletin from 1964:

Do you want to help defeat this issue? Then: write, phone or telegraph all five of the City Commissioners….(2) Attend the City Commission meetings and express your opposition to this matter when it is presented; (3) Pray daily and earnestly–alone and in groups–that this matter be defeated now and for all time. We, as Christians, realize that this is one of the greatest blights upon our city and community…

What was this evil? It was a proposal to expand the number of liquor stores allowed within the city limits. An important issue for sure. But it pales next to the things that, today, we’d label as “one of the greatest blights upon our city and community.” I’m not minimizing the threats to faith faced by our parents or grandparents. But the threats we face today are far greater. We may not have literal idols like the people of Pergamum, but if you want to take your faith seriously and really live as a follower of Jesus, it’s tough to do today. You’re going to face things that will result in a conflict with your Christian faith or tempt you to compromise your faith.

That’s why John’s first view of heaven is a throne. That’s why our first view of heaven in Revelation is a throne. What we most need to know about heaven is a throne, and the one who sits upon it. Because every day we face all kinds of competing thrones here on earth.

 

Centered on the Throne

And the point of this throne is heaven is this: Everything finds its proper place in relationship to the throne. Let’s read what John sees in relationship to this throne:

3 And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. 4 Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. 5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, 6 and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal. And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: 7 the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. (Rev. 4:3-7 ESV)

• The stones jasper, carnelian, and emerald are the first of a longer list given later in Rev. 22 and represent the majesty and glory of God.^[4]
• The rainbow harkens back to the first rainbow, the one that appeared in Genesis, and symbolizes God’s mercy.^[5]
• The flashes of lightning and the rumblings of thunder recall the revelation of God at Mt. Sinai, and especially his sovereignty.^[6]
• The sea, in the Old Testament, was the dwelling place of dragon or sea monster and in Revelation is the home of evil, the place from which the beast comes (13:1). The fact that this sea is smooth as crystal represents that the one on the throne has stilled all evil forces and reigns supreme over them all.^[7]
• The twenty-four elders probably symbolize the twelve patriarchs of the Old Testament and the twelve apostles of the New Testament and thus symbolize all the people of God, Old and New Testament.
• The four living creatures symbolize all animate life on earth.^[8]

What John sees in heaven is the rightful arranging of all human life and all non-human life ordered around and centered upon the one on the throne. This is the picture of life at its best, life as it was meant to be lived. Life is heavenly when everything finds its rightful place around the throne.

Specifically, John sees the twenty-four elders take the crowns from their head and place them before the throne saying, “Worthy are you.”

 10 the twenty-four 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, 11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God…” (Rev 4:10-11 ESV).^[9]

When a Roman Emperor would enter a city, it was common for the people to come out and to say “Worthy are you!”–the very words the twenty-four elders say to the one on the throne.^[10] The words “our Lord God” were the words which the Roman Emperor Domitian desired to be called, the emperor during which John is writing.^[11]

Thus what John sees are representatives of all humans on earth, faced with the threat of other thrones, instead turning to the one throne, and saying to the one upon it, “Worthy are you. You are Lord and God.” This is what John and his readers needed to see and hear. Though their life on earth felt hellish because of Rome, it would be heavenly if they would orient themselves correctly around the throne.

John wants us to see that this scene in heaven is what we were created to live – a life centered upon that throne, not a life centered on any other throne.

 

The Singing Revolution

But how? How do we keep ourselves centered around this throne when so many other thrones are vying for our attention? This is where we may be surprised. Because John seems to recommend something that may seem utterly powerless at first. He recommends singing. The rest of our text is just songs. Five songs. The way that all the human life and all the other created life maintain their right orientation to the throne of God is through singing. Here are the five songs we hear them singing in heaven:

 

Sung To	Sung By	Song
God	4 living creatures	8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” (Rev. 4:8 ESV)
God	24 elders	They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 11 “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.” (Rev. 4:10b-11 ESV)
The Lamb	4 living creatures + 24 elders	8 And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9 And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals,  for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation 10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” (Rev. 5:8-10 ESV)
The Lamb	Countless angels	11 Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Rev. 5:11-12 ESV)
God & the Lamb	Every creature every where	13 And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” (Rev. 5:13 ESV)

 

Notice how the first two songs focus on God. The next two songs focus on the Lamb, or Jesus. And the final song focuses on both God and Jesus.

Also notice how the congregation singing grows. It starts out with just 4 – the 4 living creatures. Then it grows to 24 – the 24 elders. Then it grows to 28 – the 4 living creatures + the 24 elders. Then it grows to countless angels. Finally it includes every creature everywhere.

There’s a lot going on in the songs themselves. They are deeply theological. But Eugene Peterson cuts through their complexity and presents their simplicity with this one line:

We worship so that we live in response to and from this center, the living God. (Eugene Peterson)^[12]

Let’s substitute the word “sing” for the word “worship.” What’s the purpose of the five songs which John hears in heaven? The five songs are the way in which every creature in heaven lives in response to and from the center, the throne of the living God. That is, singing helps us keep our proper orientation to the throne of God. John is given this vision of what’s happening in heaven because it’s supposed to influence what’s happening on earth. And what needs to happen now on earth is that John and all those like him, us included, are to keep our proper orientation to the throne of God. We are to resist all other thrones. Those that conflict with our faith. Those that compromise with our faith. We are to remain centered on God’s throne. We are to ensure that God alone is the one who is given greatest worth in our lives. And how do we do that? We do that by singing. In fact, singing becomes an act of resistance against all other thrones. It becomes an act of revolution against all other thrones.

Estonia is a small country in Eastern Europe. After achieving independence in 1918, the country was overtaken by the Soviet Union in 1940, by Nazi Germany in 1941, and again by the Soviet Union in 1944, under whose control it remained.^[13] During these tumultuous times, Estonia continued its  massive song festivals, which date back to 1869. These song festivals, held every five years, feature a choir of roughly 20,000 to 30,000 singers and have drawn audiences of more than 100,000 people.^[14] Singing was such an important part of the culture that one poet from the region once wrote that a “shield of songs” could repel spears.^[15]

During the 1947 song festival in Estonia, shortly after the country had been taken over, again, by the USSR, while they sang songs that were clearly Soviet propaganda, they also used singing as resistance. A famous Estonian poem called “My Country is My Love” was set to new music and thousands sang it at the festival in defiance of Soviet officials. It soon became a kind of unofficial national anthem. The song was sung at the music festivals as a protest song, allowing the people of Estonia to voice their dissent. Here’s a glimpse of how it sounds at one of the singing festivals:^[16]

At the hundredth anniversary of the song festival in 1969, the choirs on stage and the audience started singing “My Country is My Love” a second time in the face of stern Soviet orders to leave the stage. No one left. The Soviets ordered a military band to play and drown out the singers. But a hundred instruments is no match for over a hundred thousand singers. The song was sung repeatedly in the face of authorities. There was nothing the Soviets could do but invite the composer on stage to conduct the choir for yet another encore and pretend they intended to allow this all along.^[17]

Then In June 1988, 100,000 Estonians gathered for five nights to sing protest songs until daybreak.^[18] Estonians began to display their old (illegal) flag again, and in September of 1988, over 300,000 people (almost a quarter of all Estonians)  took part in a protest and song festival, demanding independence.^[19] The movement culminated in Estonia achieving independence from the Soviet Union, nonviolently, in 1991. It was called “The Singing Revolution.”

And this is the ultimate purpose of John’s vision in heaven. It’s intended to prompt a singing revolution. Singing is not just something we do at a worship service. It’s not just something we do in the shower or in the car. Singing is a revolutionary act. It’s an act of resistance against all other powers. All other thrones. It’s how we stay centered upon the one and only throne in heaven. It’s how we keep the right orientation to that throne. It’s how we stay centered upon that throne. And it’s how we assert our dissent and our protest against all other thrones. That’s what’s happening in heaven with these five songs. And that’s what happens as we sing today. Singing keeps us centered upon the right throne and in resistance against the wrong thrones.

This is why singing is featured prominently in all revolutions and in all protest movements. This is why protest marches often are accompanied by songs. This is why wars themselves often are accompanied by songs. John sees that we are at war. And these are our war songs. These are the songs that keep us centered upon the right throne and in resistance against all other thrones.

The musical Les Miserable is set against the backdrop of revolution in France.^[20] It begins and ends with a song called “Do You Hear the People Sing?”:

Do you hear the people sing?

Singing a song of angry men?

It is the music of a people

Who will not be slaves again!

When the beating of your heart

Echoes the beating of the drums

There is a life about to start

When tomorrow comes!

In the musical, the revolution begins and ends with this song. The sound of all the people singing. That’s what John hears in heaven. The sound of every creature singing. It’s the sound of revolution. And that’s what the vision is intended to produce on earth. It’s intended to get us singing. Because singing is the sound of revolution. It’s how we keep our hearts and our minds centered on the one upon the throne. It’s how we keep inspired as we face other thrones which create conflict or tempt compromise. These songs we hear in heaven are intended to get us singing here on earth.

Now What? Find a song that keeps you centered on God and sing it all day every day this week. You might choose the last of the five songs. You might choose your favorite hymn or contemporary Christian song. Choose one song and sing it all day every day this week. Ask God to use it to keep your mind and heart centered upon him all week long. When you find other thrones in conflict with your faith, sing that song. When you find yourself tempted to compromise your faith sing that song.