--- title: "Revelation 4 - Study King James Bible with the church pulpit commentary" description: "Read Revelation 4 with the church pulpit commentary commentary. 1 After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said" image: "/_app/immutable/assets/missing.C7wGMEZ6.jpg" url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/the-church-pulpit-commentary/revelation/4" --- [ Read](/kjv/revelation/4)[ Commentary](/study/revelation/4)[ Interlinear](/interlinear/revelation/4) Audio 1 After this I looked, and, behold, a door *was* opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard *was* as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. 2 And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and *one* sat on the throne. 3 And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and *there was* a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. 4 And round about the throne *were* four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. 5 And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and *there were* seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. 6 And before the throne *there was* a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, *were* four beasts full of eyes before and behind. 7 And the first beast *was* like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast *was* like a flying eagle. 8 And the four beasts had each of them six wings about *him*; and *they were* full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. 9 And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, 10 The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. [Revelation 3](/study/revelation/3) [Revelation 5](/study/revelation/5) ## Commentary To verse 1 *THE VISION OF HEAVEN* **‘Come up hither.’** ** [Revelation 4:1](/kjv/revelation/4/1)** ** This is the first of a series of visions which St. John had in Patmos—the vision of the temple in heaven, the vision of the throne of God and the Lamb, the vision of the seven angels with the trumpets, the vision of the seven vials, of the last things, of the New Jerusalem coming from God out of heaven, St. John is here called to a view of the hierarchy of heaven watching over the Church below. **I. St. John summoned to a vision of heaven.** (*a*) *The summons was given by Christ*, Who alone has the keys of death and of Hades. This was an apocalyptic vision; soon Christ called His servant to the never-ending vision of heaven’s glory. How soon may it be said to us, ‘Come up hither!’ Therefore should we look upon earth and earthly things from heaven as a ‘coigne of vantage,’ ascending thither in the Spirit. (*b*) *The vision was seen by St. John in the Spirit*. There was thus a higher condition of spiritual exaltation. In the Spirit we may see visions of heaven by the eye of faith that shall purify our life and fill it with meaning. (*c*) *The purpose of this vision* was that St. John might know ‘the things that should be hereafter.’ It was not knowledge of his own personal future, but of the future of God’s kingdom, and events in the world bearing on it. God alone knows all this, but we may know that all that happens on earth is most surely settled in heaven. All is ordered by a Sovereign Intelligence. **II. St. John’s vision of heaven.** (*a*) *The sights he saw*. There was a throne; there was the Enthroned One, and around this Enthroned One His accessors, the twenty-four elders; and the four living creatures. The lightnings come from the throne, and symbolise the justice of God in His law; the rainbow encircled the Enthroned One, and is an emblem of the mercy of God; the sea of glass was in front of ‘Him that sat on the throne,’ symbolic of the undisturbed repose of the great Jehovah. ‘He sitteth above the waterfloods; He sitteth King for ever.’ (*b*) *The songs he heard*. There was the song of the four living beings, who cried, ‘Holy, holy, holy,’ like the seraphim in the temple of Isaiah (6). What a song is this! To God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost—holy, holy, holy—a song ever repeated in the Christian Church on earth in the trisagion of the Holy Communion Office. 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