the twenty-four elders fall down before the One seated on the throne, and they worship Him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying:the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever, and throw their crowns before the throne, saying,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,the four and twenty elders shall fall down before him that sitteth on the throne, and shall worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and shall cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
7 sermons cite this verse
… and thanks to him who sits on the throne, to him who lives forever, the 24 elders just started taking off their crowns and setting them at the feet of Jesus, casting them before the throne. And they said, Worthy are you, God, to receive glory and honor and power and authority. For thou didst create all things, and for you they exist and were created. Lord, the church says worthy. You alone are worthy of the praise. And Father, we will not let the rocks cry out in our place. We will voluntarily say, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. We are your sons and your daughters. We are in your presence to hear from you. Speak, Lord, we are listening. In Jesus' name. Everybody agreed and said amen? Amen. Amen. You may take your seats. I would say it was three decades ago that I was in a little small women's retreat. Can't even call it a conference. There were probably about 38 of us in that little room. There was a woman that stood up to give her testimony. I will never forget. I was in my 20s at the time. She probably was in her 60s. Her name was Dory Van Stone. We called her Miss Dory. Everybody was hanging on every word that Miss Dory shared with us, because as she gave her testimony, it was so riveting and disturbing that it was hard to wrap your mind around. She and her sister were neglected and basically abused at the hands of their mother, the one who was supposed to love them and take …
… And what did they do with them? The Bible says, Revelation 4, verse 10, the 24 elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever and cast their crowns before the throne saying, you are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will, they exist and were created. The benefit of earning a crown is so that in this moment and every chance and opportunity you get, you get to cast the crown before his feet. And I don't want to be there and have nothing to cast. I don't want to be standing before him and just be going, wow, it's so cool of you to die for me. So I could be here. That's awesome how you bled out. Because the word for crown is stephanos. Stephanos. Stephanos of life. Stephanos of rejoicing. Stephanos of glory. There's only one time the word stephanos occurs in all four gospels. …
… And then the living creatures, other special angels, give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever. And then the twenty-four elders, representing the church who are present in heaven, fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, and they are saying, Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and because of your will they existed and were created. And in chapter 5 we see a similar situation. Down in verse 9, they sang a new song, Worthy are you to take the book and break its seals. You were slain and purchased for God with your blood, men from every tongue and tribe and people and nation. And then in verse 12, more praise coming from myriads and myriads and thousands and thousands of angels. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. …
… who is to come. And then there was a second paean of praise down in verses 10 and 11, as the 24 elders or the redeemed saints fall down around the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, and they begin to say, Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed and were created. You are the Creator. You have a right to your creation, which has been in the hands of a usurper since the fall in the garden. It's time to take back creation. So we've already been to the throne of God in looking at chapter 4. We return to that throne in chapter 5, and let's look at verse 1. Now God is sitting on the throne, and God is the one behind all of the activity in not only this vision, but all through the book of Revelation. And so John writes in his vision, he was transported to heaven in a vision, and he says, I saw in the right hand, or literally on, upon the right hand of Him who sat on the throne, which is, of course, God, a scroll, a book, a scroll, literally, written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals. Now, what is this? Scrolls were very familiar in ancient times. Before books, books were called codex. Scrolls, biblio, was an ancient way of communicating before books were invented. It could be made out of parchment. It could be …
… And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and because of your will they existed and were created. That's an incredible scene in heaven. We would never know anything about it were it not for the fact that the Lord gave John this vision and revealed it to him. Now remember, this is the second vision. John will have a series of visions going through Revelation. First one was the vision of Christ in chapter 1. Then with letters to the churches in chapters 2 and 3, we saw Christ moving in His church. When we come to chapter 4, the scene changes. …
… and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever. The 24 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, 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. Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals? and no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it and one of the elders said to me weep no more behold the lion of the tribe of Judah the root of David has conquered so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain. …
… stood in heaven with one seated on the throne. 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. Around the throne were 24 thrones and seated on the thrones were 24 elders clothed in white garments with golden crowns on their heads. 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 and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass like crystal around the throne on each side of the throne are four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind the first living creature was like a lion the second living creature was like an ox the third living creature with the face of a man the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight 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. …