Comfort for the Suffering Church

Pastor Martin expounds Revelation 4 as the first half of the great vision of the throne of God and of the Lamb. After the seven letters are dictated, John is beckoned through an opened door in heaven to see a throne set and One seated on it, surrounded by four living creatures and twenty-four elders rendering unceasing praise. He explains that before the church can understand the cycles of conflict to come, she must see the Creator God upon His throne, holy, almighty, and eternal, and hear the elders ascribe to Him worthiness because by His will all things were and are. The vision is a word of instruction and consolation for the struggling church (God is still on His throne, the rainbow of covenant faithfulness still surrounds it) and a word of terror to the impenitent who chafe against a non-negotiable divine sovereignty.

In the final sermon on Christ's kingship in Revelation, Pastor Martin expounds 11:15-18, the sounding of the seventh trumpet and the great voices declaring, 'The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.' Using the illustration of a family's photo album arranged in thematic cycles rather than chronologically, he explains that Revelation brings us to the consummation six or seven times under different figures. The substance of the vision is the proclamation of an arrived universal and eternal kingdom, and the worship of the twenty-four elders over the events that usher it in. The significance is a pointed word of admonition to the impenitent, a powerful summons to adoration for the saints, and a precious salve of consolation for the suffering church — for the kingdom is as good as come.