Chapter Nine

Chapter 9.
A Door Opened in Heaven

A Sermon Delivered by Rev. Arthur T. Pierson, D.D. In The Metropolitan Tabernacle On Lord's-day Evening, February 7th, 1892

"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."—Revelation 4:1. This book is called the "Apocalypse," because it is the opening of hidden things, the revelation of mysteries kept secret from the foundation of the world. The first three chapters are prefatory and introductory. They contain a salutation, and then an account of the personal vision of the ascended and glorified Christ, with a record of the messages which he dictated to his servant John to be written to the seven churches of Asia Minor. This fourth chapter opens with the words, "After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven." That is to say, at the beginning of the fourth chapter we start with the Apocalypse proper, or the unfolding of the marvellous mysteries of heaven. "A door was opened in heaven"—it is the first time a door was ever opened into those great mysteries, and a believer bidden to "come up hither and behold the things that shall be hereafter": the first time, except, perhaps, when the apostle Paul was caught up to the third heaven. Certainly to the same degree and with the same explicit declaration of these mysteries, we have no other such vision of heaven in the Word of God: if a believer had ever before had knowledge so complete of the marvels of that celestial world, he had never come back to earth to reveal them to men. Here is "a door opened in heaven"; a celestial "voice" that speaks with divine authority; and a "shewing" or revelation of the hereafter. The scene is thus transferred from earth to heaven, from the present to the future, from the here to the hereafter. And if you will follow, step by step, the nineteen chapters that constitute the remainder of this book of the Apocalypse, you will find that everything proper to be communicated or possible to be communicated, concerning that marvellous and mysterious sphere of life, has been at least outlined on the pages of this holy record. Surely it is not strange that, in the midst of a great sorrow like this for you, and a great triumph like this for him who has departed, we should gladly get a glimpse of the abode where he is, and the joy that in the future state awaits all fellow believers. So may God help us to get out of this word of revelation the balm of a divine comfort! Let us look through this open door, and see what John saw.

First of all he saw a throne and him that sat upon it, and a rainbow round about the throne in sight like unto an emerald. The central object, and the central glory in the vision of heaven, is God; and if we have not learned to think of heaven as, first of all, not the place where our departed friends, however dear, are gathered, but, first of all, as the place where God dwells, we lack the fundamental conception of heaven. The first thing that John saw, and the first thing to be seen, was the throne of God. The light and glory of that divine presence makes every star grow dim, and fills the whole horizon of heaven and the whole vision of the redeemed.

What is the significance of the rainbow round about the throne? The rainbow was the first sign of covenant promise. When God set the bow in the cloud, he called the attention of Noah and his family to the fact that it was to be the sign of covenant relation. Whatever else the "rainbow round about the throne" represents, it seems to say to me, as a believer, that the God that sits on the throne is "my God" in covenant, and that I need not be afraid to approach him if I approach him under the shelter of the covenant sign.

There is another equally conspicuous object that John saw there, a very curious and complex object, too—a Lion-Lamb—the "Lion of the tribe of Juda," and the "Lamb as it had been slain," combined in one. A lion for majesty, a lamb for meekness; a lion for strength, a lamb for weakness; a lion as the reigning sovereign, a lamb as the atoning sacrifice. God's Lion is a lamb, and God's Lamb is a lion; and if any of you have ever doubted the equality of Jesus Christ with God the Father in essence and in glory, I beg you to notice how, through these nineteen chapters of this book of the Revelation, there is no worship paid, or honour ascribed to God the Father, on the throne, that is not equally offered and ascribed to that Lion-Lamb, that Lamb-Lion.

And, as there is a rainbow round about the throne, which reminds me that God is my God in covenant, so that Lion-Lamb has about him blood that interprets the sealed book; for in the next chapter we read of the book, written on the surface and on the backside, and sealed with seven seals, and that no man was found worthy to open the book, or unloose the seven seals; but this Lion-Lamb of God prevailed to open the book and unloose its seals; and the ascription of praise and of worship testifies that he was found worthy and competent both to unloose the seals and to interpret the record. Oh, the interpreting power of the blood of Christ! Is prophecy a sealed book to you? You have never applied the blood to it, for there is not a seal there that the blood does not dissolve and unloose. Is human history a sealed book to you? Touch the seals with the blood, and the history is found to be the record of God's redemptive plan. Is the providence of God a sealed book to you? Touch the seals with the blood, and the mysterious providence of God is explained. Is this your present bereavement an event inexplicable to you? The interpreting power of the blood shall reveal to you its meaning in God's good time. Is the Bible a sealed book to you? From Genesis to the Apocalypse, Christ is the light that illumines its darkest pages. And so we have God on the throne, with the rainbow of the covenant assuring the soul; and we have the Lion and the Lamb, with the power of his blood to interpret the Word of God—the book of prophecy, of history, and the oftentimes more mysterious book of God's providential dealing.

Then round about the throne there is a countless host of angels. Numbers are exhausted to express the vastness of their multitude. "And the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands." That is, ten thousand times ten thousand, which is one hundred millions, and thousands multiplied into thousands, which gives us another multiplier of millions; and so we have, at the lowest figure, hundreds of millions multiplied by millions: in other words, absolutely countless myriads, or multitudes of angels. According to the literal interpretation of these figures, they would more than sixty times outnumber the entire population of the globe! Sixty spheres like this, each inhabited by fifteen hundred millions of human beings, would give us only the equivalent of these numbers if we take them at the lowest reckoning, and disregard the plural form of the multipliers.

Within the circle of these angels, as though nearer in relation to God than even the angels themselves, there is a multitude besides. In the first place, there are those four mysterious living creatures (ζῶα which remind us of the cherubic vision of Ezekiel. We know not what those living creatures represent, but if I may give my personal "judgment as one who has obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful," I am more and more satisfied that they represent the great ruling attributes of God, such as wisdom, and power, and love, and grace, in their relation to the salvation of the lost race of man. But, as this matter is encumbered with mystery, we pass it by. In close connection with these four living creatures, there are twenty-four elders, and we shall have less difficulty in recognizing in them the representatives of the body of believers in the Old Testament and in the New; that is to say, the twelve tribes and the twelve apostles, twenty-four representative elders signifying the entire body of believers, both in the Jewish dispensation and in the Christian dispensation. Their viols and their harps, their palms and their songs, all indicate their individual connection with the scheme of redeeming love.

Beside these, we have, in the seventh chapter of this book, an account of the "hundred and forty and four thousand" sealed from among the tribes of the children of Israel. It is wonderful how the Bible interprets itself, for, in a subsequent chapter (14), where these hundred and forty-four thousand again appear, we are told they are the "first fruits unto God and the Lamb." First fruits are those first gathered out from the harvest field, the specimen of the harvest to come, but only a specimen; and these virginal redeemed ones that have never been "defiled with women,"—and are therefore in marked contrast with the followers of adulterous Babylon—and who, so far as they have been defiled by sin, are washed in the blood of the Lamb and follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth,—these are "the first fruits"; and so, after this, the apostle John beheld "a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues," sorrounding the throne of God. They represent the final harvest, of which the hundred and forty-four thousand are only the first fruits. As has been said, the twenty-four elders and these hundred and forty-four thousand, and the multitude that no man could number, all stand inside of the circle of the angelic host, as though nearer to God than the angels themselves. And it is no exaggeration to say that a believer in Jesus Christ, in his finally redeemed estate, will stand in closer relation to God than even the angelic hosts; for, among all the angels, none are accounted worthy to constitute the bride of Christ, but that bride is to be gathered out of all peoples of the earth, and to enter into relations of espousal with the crucified but risen Jesus. So much for the inhabitants of heaven.

Let us go a step further. What is revealed about the employments and enjoyments of heaven?

First of all there is endless worship. Worship means worth-ship, the ascribing of worth to Almighty God. "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power." And, in all parts of this book of the Apocalypse, there is the same tireless, endless, heartfelt, adoring worship. Let us stop to consider a moment, that, if you do not love worship, you never can enter heaven. If you do not love worship, you are unfitted for the main activity and ecstacy of heaven, which is endless ascription of glory and praise to God and the Lamb! And then, besides this worship, there is endless and tireless activity, as we have already seen. "They serve him day and night in his temple." "His servants shall serve him;" their activity ennobled, and strengthened; their activity, in its nobler and grander sphere of service, knowing nothing of present limitations of strength and knowing nothing of present hindrances to activity. The service of God in heaven will be the perfection of service.

And, then, how many elements, even beside these, enter into the enjoyments of heaven!

First of all, the presence of God. God is in the midst of them, and is their God. "The Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters." How wonderfully does John describe by the Spirit the perfection of bliss! There is all in heaven that could be desired, for God is there, and Christ is there; the saints are there, and the angels are there; heavenly society, and perfect fellowship with God and the redeemed and the angels. What opportunities for the enjoyments of the mind and the heart! for increasing experience of divine things! What opening of the inmost soul to be absolutely filled with the divine incoming and indwelling! And as everything is there that is to be desired, so is nothing found there that is not to be desired. "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat." "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." "And there shall be no more death; neither sorrow nor crying; neither shall there be any more pain." Such words as these mean nothing less than absolute renovation! "Behold I make all things new." It is the passing away of everything that curses this world. The slime of the serpent is on all human joys and pleasures; but there is no track or trace of the serpent there! The blossoms of our human Edens all fade and fall even before we pluck them; but the blooms in that garden never fade and never fall. Satan is cast into the lake of fire and destroyed. Nothing enters that defiles or works abomination or makes a lie. Sin for ever banished! No death, for death itself shall die! Perfect bliss! We can say no more about it. The Bible says no more about it. The probability is that the things that are there, beyond what intimations we have, are simply "unlawful to utter." The voice that spoke to John said, "Come up hither, and I will shew thee things that must be hereafter." They must be seen to be known. They cannot be brought down to this sphere, even in inspired description, for we have nothing to interpret them. We must ourselves be lifted to that sphere and look through that open door, or we can have no appreciation of these great things of God. Our examination would be seriously incomplete if special attention were not called to the vision of "the holy city," which John records in the twenty-first chapter; and that it may be before us more completely, let me read a few verses from that chapter:—"And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God." In the tenth verse also we have "The holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; and had a wall great and high." And the city had twelve gates; on the east three, on the north three, on the south three, and the west three. "And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day; for there shall be no night there."

What does all this mean? There is a heavenly city, "a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God;" and what does "city" mean, but an organized community, a place prepared, an everlasting habitation? There is a place prepared for those who love our Lord, and when God prepares a place it is sure to be just what is needed, absolutely adapted to all the wants of his dear children What a place that will be for us intellectually! We are told, in the thirteenth chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians that, "Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face." The bulk of our knowledge in this world, which does not come to us by the observation of our senses, we get through the inductive processes of the reason. For example, we reason from cause to effect; and so we discover truths, as we say, "by inference." But there we shall not reason doubtfully from cause to effect All knowledge will be instinctive and immediate, like the intuitions of the human mind and soul. Intelligence will flash on us as a lightning glance reveals objects hitherto in the darkness; and so the present measure of our knowledge shall absolutely flee away as the dimness of day-dawn departs when the mists of the morning flee, and the glorious, full-orbed sun shines forth in cloudless and matchless splendour!

And, as the intellect will find in heaven a home perfectly fitted for it, so will the heart of man, and his moral and spiritual nature, find in God's city everything that is needed for perfect satisfaction and bliss; the union of the aesthetic and of the moral, beauty and virtue, boundless perfection in all surroundings with boundless perfection in our own nature and capacity to enjoy.

Notice also that the gates of this city are always open, and there are twelve gates—three opening toward each point of the compass. What a rebuke to bigotry! Is there any church that would pretend to say that the only entrance to heaven is through its particular communion? Is there anyone that dares to say that entrance to heaven is only through his particular form of theological dogma? How John's vision of the Holy City rebukes all such intolerance and uncharity! From all directions they come, but always moving in one direction! Mark that The gates face toward every quarter; but from all quarters of the horizon the lines of march which pass through those twelve gates meet at one point! It matters not whether believing souls come from Asia or from Africa, from America or from Europe, from remotest lands or islands of the sea. It matters not whether they come from Jewish, Pagan, Heathen, or Moslem tribes, or from denominations of the Christian church in Christian lands. If you have found God in Christ, if your heart has been turned from sin towards holiness, if you have felt after God, if haply you may find him who is not far from every one of us; if in any way you have learned to rely on God's appointed sacrifice, and have been taught of his precious Spirit; from whatever quarter of the earth you come, you have equal right to enter through whatever gate of the city, and you will find your way to the throne of God and the Lion-lamb, and have an equally assured welcome. The gates will not be shut at all by day, and as there is no night there, they are never shut. What is the use of a shut gate? It is to keep somebody out or to keep somebody in; and those gates will be always open, for in heaven there is no occasion to keep anybody out, and there is no occasion to keep anybody in; those that are within do not desire to go out, and those that are outside could not be induced to come in. I had lately put into my hands an infidel tract which seeks to make ridiculous the Christian doctrine of hell; and the basis of this, as with almost all these infidel assaults, is found in a misrepresentation. God is conceived as drawing an arbitrary line between one class and another class, so that, like a despot, he admits some to heaven, and remands others to hell; whereas the Word of God teaches us that, whatever may be said about divine sovereignty in human salvation, there is a law of spiritual affinity, which is inseparably connected both with heaven and hell. When Judas by transgression fell, he went "to his own place"; and, the disciples, "being let go" from the presence of the Jewish Council, "went to their own company." God ordains in this world a mixed society, the good and the bad together, that the good may restrain the bad, and that the bad may even discipline the good, and so help to perfect the goodness of his own children. But, when we leave this world, everyone of us, being loosed, goes to his own company: and the company of impenitent and rebellious sinners is enough to make a hell, as the company of penitent believers would make a heaven. We must never overlook the fact of this affinity, and its importance in its bearing upon eternal destiny. God may, with impunity, leave the gates of his celestial city for evermore open. There is no danger of any redeemed souls desiring to go out, unless perchance there were some message of mercy or errand of grace still to be accomplished for our Lord and his Christ. Nor will there be any lost soul, outside of heaven, that would desire or even consent to come in. In my youth I heard a sentimental clergyman say, as he concluded a sermon, "If I could stand on the battlements of hell and preach this gospel to lost souls and fallen angels, what a jubilee there would be in hell, and what a universal acclamation of praise to Almighty God!" There would be no such thing. Not a lost soul or fallen angel would enter heaven if full permission were given, for unless the Holy Ghost inclines you to worship, what would you do where worship is the eternal and universal employment? And unless the Holy Ghost gives you a spirit of willing and loving service for Christ, what would you do where only his servants are found, who serve him day and night with tireless energy? And unless you have a heart that goes out to God in the affinity of a spiritual nature like unto himself, what would you do there, and how could you be happy there, even though you were there? Do not deceive yourselves. There are some birds whose eggs are laid in another bird's nest, and, when the little birds are hatched and begin to mature, and their wings begin to grow, if they hear the voice of the mother bird, though they may never have seen their own mother before, they will leave the nest of the stranger and alien, and fly to the shelter of the mother.

"Rivers to the ocean run, Nor stay in all their course;

Fire ascending seeks the sun;

Both speed them to their source. So a soul that's born of God, Pants to view his glorious face, Upward tends to his abode, To rest in his embrace."

If you have such affinity and attraction toward God, you could go nowhere else but to heaven; and if you have not that affinity for God, you could not go to heaven, and you could not and would not stay there if you were there. Will you not seek now the preparation, that makes it possible for you to enter through the gate into the city, and go no more out?

There appears to be no building in the holy city, not even a temple! If there were buildings seen there John has not left it on record. He tells us of the city, of walls and gates, but there is no hint of any buildings. This is a mystery, and I can only venture to suggest a possible solution. When the Feast of Tabernacles was kept, the Jews were accustomed to go upon the roofs of their houses and celebrate that feast by building booths to commemorate their pilgrim sojourn in the wilderness. And, when their numbers became too great and the house-tops became too small, they gathered in the temple courts, or in the open spaces, such as the street that was before the water gate, of which we read in the eighth chapter of Nehemiah. In some large open vacant space they erected their booths and abode under them for eight days, that they might commemorate their journey in the wilderness with the tabernacle of God in their midst. When they built these booths they were directed in Deuteronomy to build them of various materials, and four sorts of branches seem to have been interwoven into their structure. First, there were fruit trees; second, palm trees; third, willow trees; and fourth, evergreen trees. If we rightly interpret this record of the Old Testament we may find types in all these. The fruit tree represents fertility of life in service. The palm tree represents a life of victory over temptation and trial. The willow tree, that grows only by the brook, represents patient endurance of sorrow and suffering. And the everlasting green seems to speak to us of a life in Christ that never fails or fades. And may not the booth of the pilgrim have been itself a type of our future reward? Is it not possible that, within those magnificent walls, John saw only an open space, because, so to speak, every believer who enters heaven through the blood of Jesus Christ nevertheless builds his own booth? Will it not depend upon the measure in which, by grace, you have triumphed over trial and temptation, the measure in which you have patiently borne the sorrows and the sufferings which God has sent upon you, the measure in which you have yielded fruit in the service of a holy and active life for him, the measure in which you have in yourself represented and manifested the undying life of the Holy Spirit; may it not depend in some measure at least upon your earthly triumphs and services and endurances what kind of a booth you build within the walls of the heavenly Jerusalem in that last great Feast of Tabernacles? In that mysterious parable in the sixteenth of Luke we are told, "Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations." With all the obscurity that surrounds that parable, there is at least a plain suggestion in it that we should take even material possessions, like money, that have in themselves no moral quality, and so use them, with a consecrated spirit for the glory of God, that, by-and-by, when heart and flesh fail us, we shall find that they have gone before us and constructed for us everlasting habitations. In other words, while salvation is all the free gift of grace, your work has its wages, your service has its reward, and the measure of your reward will depend on the quantity and the quality of your service. There is an old Latin maxim which finely represents this, affirming of good works, "non causa mercedis, sed regula retributionis"; which in substance teaches that, while grace is the entire ground of our salvation, our good works in Christ Jesus determine the measure of our reward—the rule of recompense, not the ground of acceptance.

It is now a week ago, since that devoted man of God who has long preached in this pulpit, heard that voice, "Come up hither," and, obedient to that voice, not only looked through, but went through, the open door into heaven, and now knows as he is known. Extended reference to him will be made hereafter. But consider what a reward he has! What a booth was built for him by his long and unselfish ministry to souls, even before he went into the presence of his Lord. Think of his triumphs over temptation, and of the palm branches entwined in that booth! Think of his patient endurance of suffering, and of the willow branches woven into that booth! Think of the manifested life of God in him, and the evergreen branches that helped to build that booth! Think of the fruits of his long and consecrated ministry, and of the fruitful branches that complete that booth!

I never knew a man whose personal love for Jesus was more tender and beautiful than his. When he sat in this house of God, or on the platform of great public assemblies, and brethren, of whatsoever denomination and from whatsoever parts of the earth, spoke the language of Canaan and paid their tribute to the personal majesty and glory of his Redeemer, the tears that ran down his face, and the smiles that illuminated and transfigured it, showed how his heart beat in response to every such tribute of personal love to his Lord. What must have been the rapture of that Pastor of yours who has been withdrawn into the glory, when for the first time he looked on the face of Jesus! His ecstacy must have surpassed words and even surpassed imagination. He now stands with the white-robed throng, and has struck his harp to a nobler song than was ever sung on earth. He loves somewhat as he was loved. He has dropped sin in the perfection of holiness that knows no blemish; sorrow, in the perfection of bliss that knows no alloy; pain, in the perfection of the health that knows no disease; and for him death has died!

Oh, let us, through this solemn week, look from the open grave to the open heaven, and turn our eyes away from earthly ashes to heavenly beauties; let us seek to get up where, through this open door, we may get a glimpse of him who sits on the throne, come within the shelter of the Bow of the Covenant, and touch the Blood that has redeeming and sanctifying power; let us henceforth do whatsoever we can in the Name and Power of God to accomplish the whole will of our Master, and so accumulate for heavenly service and heavenly blessedness all those good works which, wrought in Christ Jesus, prepare everlasting habitations for God's saints!