“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. And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. 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.” - Rev 4:1-3 (KJV)

The same trumpet like voice that introduced the apostle to the resurrected Christ in Rev 1:10, now announces the beginning of a new section of the prophecy.

“Come up” and see the things which must be “hereafter”. If you recall, the book opened with – “Write THEREFORE (in the better translations) the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter” (Rev 1:19). If we are now to see the “hereafter things”, logically, the church things must be “the things which are”. That makes sense because the apostle would have known about the seven churches that Christ was addressing. What about the things which “thou hast seen”? This refers to the vision that he saw of Christ, the candlesticks, and the stars
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Before we move into the next section in detail, let us be mindful of some principles as we read further.

1. Our God, the Spirit, and Christ are well versed in human language. Every word, jot, and tittle, is there by design, and if He has chosen to make His message known to His people, it will be in terms that they can understand, and not in esoteric symbols only for the initiated.
2. From 1, we are to interpret the Word, as it is written, literally, EXCEPT for where symbolism is indicated. You will note that the apostle is functioning pretty much like a spiritual video camera, where He is faithfully recording all that he is seeing, without embellishment. Some of the things he is seeing (e.g. sword emerging from Christ’s mouth) are spiritual pictures, some are symbolic (candlesticks and stars), but please note, where things are symbolic (mystery is the word), they are clearly explained by our Lord Himself (candlesticks = churches, stars = angels/messengers). This is a principle we will see repeated throughout this book, and it helps us to not spiritualize everything we read, but process it as it was meant to be understood.
3. We are to examine the things we see with the rest of scripture, as they may already have been explained there. We have some examples in this weeks’ text, which we will illustrate now.

The apostle sees an open door, is asked to “come up hither”, and he is immediately transported to heaven. Did he literally go there? Let us look at some other instances
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The apostle Paul tells us – “It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. “ – 2 Co 12:1-4 He is speaking of himself, but even personally experiencing a vision of paradise, did not know whether that was an in-body, or out-of-body experience! Very similar to what is happening to the apostle John! The Spirit is able to move us to see what He wants us to see.

Here’s another example, this time from the book of Ezekiel – “And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell there upon me. Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins even downward, fire; and from his loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the colour of amber. And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy. “ – (Eze 8:1-3) Here we don’t see a door, but the form of a hand, lifting up the prophet and transporting him in the Spirit to Jerusalem from Babylon.

Lastly, in the book of Acts, we find this – “And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea.” – Acts 8:39-40. Philip was physically transported from the desert between Jerusalem and Gaza to Azotus.

So what do you think happened to the apostle John? We have at least two examples (Paul & Ezekiel) that lead us to believe that he was indeed transported - in the Spirit- to the throne room of Heaven – now whether that was in the body or out of it, like Paul, we cannot tell, but do not think he was physically transported as Philip was.

Some commentators (Including Dr. J Vernon McGee) have reasoned that this verse signifies the rapture of the church before the great tribulation. We have a trumpet, an open door, and a command to come up! Let us be careful to note however, that this invitation is specifically to the apostle for the purpose of showing him what will come after – the Church age, or the church “things”, just as Paul and Ezekiel were given revelations. More on the rapture at the appropriate time…

Rev Chapter 4 gives us a vision of the throne room of Heaven, and we see many wonderful things there, but we are not to give our own interpretation of what we see, rather we are to look for scripture to let us know whether these things are literal or not. 
For example, compare the vision of the Almighty on the throne, and the 4 beasts around it – with a corresponding vision that the prophet Ezekiel had in Eze 1:4-28. You will instantly see the similarities – in Ezekiel, the creatures are in motion carrying the throne, their four faces (lion, ox, eagle, man) are seen, and wheels covered with eyes are in motion. In Revelation 4:6-8, we see those same beasts AT REST, facing in 4 directions (presenting one face to the apostle), and the wheels are invisible – only the eyes covering them are seen. The only difference is that Ezekiel sees them as having 4 wings, whereas the apostle sees 6. Even the throne, the rainbow around it, the appearance of the One on it are similar.

Commentators liken these 4 faces of the beasts (or the beasts themselves) to the four Gospel writers, or the work of Christ as king (lion), servant (ox), human (man), eagle (high). We submit that there is no need to spiritualize the representation of these creatures to represent anything other than the bearers of the throne of God Almighty, created by Him, and man, the lion, the ox, and the eagle are honored by being represented there. Here are aliens if you ever wanted to see one.

We are privileged to be partakers of the apostles experience – let us look in awe and wonder at what we are being shown, as it reveals to us things that have been hidden from the beginning of Creation!

Hallelujah!