A Door Open in Heaven Revelation 4:1

John the apostle saw the vision of Jesus in chapter one of “Revelation”, and he began to write to the “seven churches in Asia”. He started with the church located in “Ephesus”, then the “church of Smyrna”, the “church in Pergamos”, the “church in Thyatira”, “the church in Sardis”, “the church in Philadelphia” and finally the “church of the Laodiceans” where He told them, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me”, and continued, “To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne”, and he added, “he that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”. In chapter four and verse one of Revelation John saw “a door was open in heaven” where we read:

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 here, and I will show you things which must be hereafter.

The verse reads, “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;” John began with the words, “after this” which are the Greek words “meta tauta” and means “after these things” “I looked” or “John perceived with his eyes, noticed, discerned and discovered”, “and, behold” or “and lo and see” “a door” which refers to “a vestibule, entrance way or passage” “was opened” or “ajar and unfastened” “in heaven” which refers to “the region above the sidereal heavens and the seat of order of things eternal and consummately perfect where God dwells and other heavenly beings” “and the first voice” or “the chief and principal in influence and rank tone, sound of uttered words, speech, language and tongue” “which I heard” which means “that John was endowed with the faculty of hearing, attended to, considered and understood” “was as it were” or “was like or even as” “of a trumpet” which means “the quavering or reverberation of a trumpet” “talking” or “uttering, emitting or articulating speech or sounds” “with me” which means “with John the apostle”. After listening to Jesus share about each of the seven churches in Asia, this “door” to “heaven” was “opened” to John, and he heard a loud “voice” that sounded like a “reverberating” “trumpet” .

The verse continues, “which said, Come up here, and I will show you things which must be hereafter.” John added the words, ““which said” which means “the voice uttered, spoke, proclaimed and declared”, “Come up here” which means “ascend, rise, mount, be borne and spring up to this place”, “and I will show you” which means “and the voice would expose to the eyes, give evidence or proof of a thing, and teach my words” “things which must be” or “things that are necessary, have need and behoove what is right and proper” “hereafter” which are the Greek words “meta tauta” means “after these things”. John heard the “voice” invite him to “arise” into “heaven” and there he was to be “shown” “things” which were to be “after” the church age.

When we meditate upon John's words in this verse, we see how John was invited to go to “heaven” where God and His angels dwell. John heard a loud “voice” that told him he would be “shown things” that were to be after the age of the church. In Revelation chapter one and verse nineteen we learned about the three divisions in the book of Revelation – the things which you have seen, the things which are, and the things which shall be “meta tauta” or “hereafter”. Now we enter into the future things of the book of Revelation asJohn was shown an “open door” to “heaven” and he heard a loud “voice” which invited him to hear things which were going to be. May we all “go to heaven” with John as a precursor to entering into heaven one day because we have received Jesus Christ as a personal “Savior and Lord”.

Next time we see John say, “I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven”, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow…there is more…

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