Revelation 19:4-7

Have You Made Yourself Ready?

A sermon by Pastor Joe Haynes

Preached on May 16, 2021 at Beacon Church.

Verses 1-10 are all tied together by the string of four “hallelujahs” in verses 1, 3, 4, and 6. But there is an obvious shift in perspective after verse 3. You see, verses 1-3 show a great multitude rejoicing because they had just witnessed God bring justice. That was the subject of last week’s sermon. But verse 4 shifts from that and shows another group responding to how that multitude praises God. In other words, the Hallelujah in verse 4 isn’t for exactly the same reason as it was in verses 1-3. The Hallelujah in verse 4 is because this next group just witnessed the Hallelujahs of the great multitude in verses 1-3. To put that another way, when the verse 4 group (the second group) witnesses the multitude praising God that will give them even more reason to praise God. The string of Hallelujahs then becomes more intense as each one adds more reasons for God’s people to rejoice. The end result is intensely happy multitude who express their happiness in praise. So then here’s how I see the main idea in these verses: What we read here is John prophesying about people whose happiness to see Jesus gets so intense because of what they see Him doing that it should convince you to do whatever it takes to be among them. So with the last two “hallelujahs,” and what happens in between them, the volume of their praises gets louder and louder as the people who love Christ welcome the day of His return.

Let me remind you, first, about the identity of that great multitude in verses 1-3. Just because verse 1 says it seemed to be a “great multitude in heaven.” But they were commanded to rejoice, in 18:20, when the voice from heaven said. “Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you against her!" (Rev. 18:20 ESV). Which means they are the “saints and apostles and prophets”—all sorts of believers who’ve gone before us. The author of Hebrews 12:1 speaks in a similar way about believers on earth being surrounded by “a great cloud of witnesses” and in Hebrews 12:23, of “the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven…” So the multitude in verses 1-3 is the Church of Christ made up of those Christians who have gone before us. And when they praise God for how He has judged the great prostitute who had blood on her hands (v2), for many of them, it was personal: it was their blood that God avenged. Coming to verse 4 now, we find another group who witnesses the “hallelujahs” of that assembly enrolled in heaven, which by itself seems remarkable, and we see how they respond to what they see when this incredible day arrives.

A second group sings an old song (v4)

The idea here is not hard to see even if we don’t bother to identify exactly what sort of creatures or people are meant by “the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures.” It’s still clear what’s happening: they fall down and worship God, and the fact that He is on the throne ruling, i.e., the fact of God’s Sovereign Rule is central to why they worship God, and what they say shows that they are responding to what they just saw and heard: “And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, ‘Amen. Hallelujah!’” (Rev. 19:4 ESV).

I can’t tell you how much I miss gathering in-person with our church—one of the things I really miss is hearing the occasional “Amen” from the congregation, often from Jeff, to something said in the sermon. This “amen” is kind of like that. These twenty-four elders and four living creatures just saw the heavenly assembly of saints and apostles and prophets (see 18:20), and they just heard them sing—and this kind of thing has never happened before!—this is a very remarkable event being predicted here; an unusual, unprecedented event in the entire history of the world—but when this group sees what they will see and hears the hallelujahs they will hear, they respond like a joyful congregation to Good News and say, “Amen!” (they agree!) and not only that, they say, “Hallelujah!” (literally, Praise Yahweh)—a Hebrew word never used anywhere else in the New Testament except right here in chapter 19.

But I do have an opinion about who I think these elders and creatures are. As I’ve explained before in my earlier sermons on chapters 4 and 5, and in my devotional videos on YouTube, the 24 elders are a symbol drawn from the way the Levites in 2 Chronicles 24 were organized in 24 divisions who took turns in the sacred ministry and service to God, and each of the 24 divisions were headed by an elder, “the heads of father’s houses”. So the 24 together represented the entire order of Levitical priests. Well in Revelation 1:6, John says Jesus has made all Christians “priests” to God, the “priesthood of all believers” the Reformers called it, so the 24 elders is a symbolic way to represent the priesthood of all Christians in the world. The living creatures is a bit more complicated but I’ve suggested before that they stand for all ministers of God’s Word—elders, pastors, preachers—that’s how, for example, Matthew Henry understood them.[i] Now if this is right, that the 24 elders and 4 living creatures represent the priesthood of all believers on earth along with all their ministers, then this seems to predict a day when not only is the assembly of believers in heaven seen and heard singing God’s praises, but when that glorious assembly is seen and heard by Christians living on Earth! But as amazing as that might be, it’s not the most important part of this. What’s most important is what they say in response to what they will see and hear: “Amen. Hallelujah!” (v4)

This exact phrase is a quote from the end of Psalm 106. Which is also the end of the fourth book of Psalms in the Bible—the section including Psalms 90-106. One of the dominant themes of that section of the psalms is God’s eternal nature. And His eternal nature is the hope of His people because Book 4 begins in Psalm 90 with the Prayer of Moses, remembering that we humans are fragile and finite, “from dust to dust”, but God is our dwelling place, a thousand years in His sight is like yesterday, so Moses prays for God to remember us, return to us, and have pity on us. That’s how Book 4 begins and at the end of Book 4, in Psalm 106:48, God is praised because He has answered that prayer: "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people say, "Amen!" Praise the LORD!" (Psa 106:48 ESV) There’s that direct quote that appears in verse 4, in the mouths of the elders and living creatures, from Psalm 106:48, “And let all the people say, ‘Amen! Hallelujah!’”[ii] They are praising God like mortal, frail people praise the everlasting, sovereign God. That’s verse 4. So I said that the idea of this whole passage is “John prophesying about people whose happiness to see Jesus gets …intense because of what they see Him doing…” In verse 4, those people responded like a happy congregation seeing and hearing a heavenly choir appear and praise God. What do we see in verse 5?

A third group learns a new song (v5)

Verse 5 at first looks like it’s just a command for people to praise God. But there’s more to it of course. “And from the throne came a voice saying, ‘Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great.’,” (Rev. 19:5 ESV).  One of the things that puzzles commentators is that although it is a command, and though the command is “from the throne,” meaning God’s throne, which means the command is from God, the words of the command don’t seem like something God would say. Not that God would not tell His people to praise Him—He does exactly that many times in the Bible. Rather, what’s hard to make sense of is that God would ever say, “Praise our God…” You see the problem? So Leon Morris wrote, “"It came from the throne, and so must be thought of as emanating from God. But the words Praise our God …make it clear that the speaker is not God or Christ."[iii] However, if it came from the throne of God, how could the speaker be anyone other than God the Father or God the Son? Let me make this mystery a little deeper: When Revelation says a voice comes from the throne, it is alluding to the way the Old Testament described God speaking to Moses in the Tent of Meeting, when God spoke from the “throne,” the “mercy seat” on the cover of the Ark of the Covenant. So Numbers 7:89 says, “And when Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with the LORD, he heard the voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim; and it spoke to him." That’s the where the image of the “voice from the throne” in Revelation comes from: the voice of God speaking from the Mercy Seat on the Ark, speaking direction to Moses. So again, how could God ever refer to Himself as “our God” like the words do in Revelation 19:5? Does God ever say something like that in the Bible? Well, yes He does. In just one place. In a song. In a song that God composed and dictated to Moses so that Moses would teach it to the people.[iv]

In Deuteronomy 31:9, God called Moses and Joshua to the Tent of Meeting and said, “Now therefore write this song and teach it to the people of Israel. Put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the people of Israel." So God spoke the words of the song to Moses, and Moses wrote down the words of the song, as God spoke the words from the “throne,” the Mercy Seat on the Ark in the Tent of Meeting, and then Moses went, the same day, and taught it to the people. The song God composed, and dictated to Moses, and Moses taught to the people, is recorded for us in Deuteronomy 32. It’s usually called “The Song of Moses” but Old Testament scholar, Daniel Block said,

[It] should really be called “The Song of Yahweh,” because Yahweh inspired it and dictated it to Joshua and Moses in the Tent of Meeting (31:14-21). Whereas in Moses’ preaching we hear the voice of God refracted …this song was composed by God and then performed by Moses precisely as he had heard it (31:30, 32:44). Even more directly than Moses’ sermons, this is “the word of God.”[v]

So when God dictated this song to Moses it was in a very special way, the very words of God. And it fits with what the voice from the throne says in verse 5: “Praise our God”—in Deut 32:3, the song from God’s own mouth says, “"ascribe greatness to our God!”. Then verse 5 says, “all you his servants”--In God’s song, He calls Israel his “servants” (Deut 32:36). Then verse 5 says, “you who fear him, small and great”—in Deut 31:12, God told Moses, "Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God…” So God spoke from His throne above the Ark and gave Moses a song to teach the people, small and great, so that they would learn to fear the Lord. And this is the event behind the words of verse 5 in Revelation 19. So what does it mean?

Well the song God gave to Moses from His throne in the Tent of Meeting was given to the people just before they entered the Promised Land. And God knew they were not going to remain faithful to Him, that they would forget His commandments and forsake His covenant. In fact He said the song they would learn would be a testimony against them because they would know better. Here in Revelation 19, I think this means God is going to teach a new song to people who did not know Jesus until this moment. Also just before the return of Jesus leads them into the Promised Land. But unlike with ancient Israel after Moses died, these people, when they learn this song God teaches them, they will never disobey Him, never turn away from Him ever again.

Again, I could be wrong about who it is that verse 5 commands to praise God. If I’m wrong it just means verse 6 is where the people obey this command from verse 5. But I wonder if verse 5 is hinting that on this glorious, happy day, God will put a new song in the hearts of the Jewish people? They are the descendants of the people of Israel who learned that song in Deut 32, so it seems to me that the voice from the throne commanding His servants, you who fear Him, small and great, to “Praise our God”—is implying that on this day Israel will be saved. Romans 11:25 says that “a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” But then promises “all Israel will be saved” (11:26). Romans 11:12 asks, “If their trespass means riches for the world,” (meaning that when Israel rejected the Gospel, the apostles spread the Good News to the rest of the world), “how much more will their full inclusion mean!” Romans 11:15 asks, “For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?” John MacArthur agrees that this is talking about “…the future spiritual rebirth of Israel.”[vi] I don’t know for sure that this is also what Revelation 19:5 is describing but I think so.[vii]

Here’s what I do know for sure: The Jewish people are going to come to faith in Jesus Christ. Here’s what I do know: Verse 5 is about God putting a new song in the hearts of the people He saves. It’s parallel to Revelation 14:3— "and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders.” Only the redeemed can learn that song because only God can teach it. When you see the chaos and violence and conflict centred on Jerusalem in the news, does it make you pray for peace? Does it make you pray for everlasting peace? Do you see it as a sorrowful reminder to pray that God will save the people He has promised to save?

Well guess what happens next? When the multitude in heaven, and the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures, and the newly redeemed who just learned God’s song; or as I am suggesting, when believers who have gone before us, and the whole priesthood of believers alive at that time on earth along with their elders and ministers, and the whole number of the Jewish people born again as followers of Jesus, see the day of Jesus Christ arrive, and see what He had done, and what He just did, the song they will raise is unlike anything ever before heard upon this earth! Because, What we read here is John prophesying about people whose happiness to see Jesus gets so intense because of what they see Him doing… and this, my friends, should convince you to do whatever it takes to be among them. The first group sang an old song—their “Amen and Hallelujah!” echoing the doxology at the end of Psalm 106:48. The second group learned a new song, the Song of Yahweh as the redeemed prepare to enter their long-awaited Promised Land. Now, in verse 6,

All of them sing the happiest song (vv6-8)

6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.  7 Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready;  8 it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure"-- for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.  (Rev. 19:6-8 ESV)

There are other places in Revelation when John heard loud voices from heaven praising God but this is different. In verse 1 he head the loud voice of a great multitude; in 15:1, those who stayed true to God sang the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb; in 14:2, the choir of the redeemed sounded like “the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder” as they sang their new song; in 11:15, loud voices in heaven said, “The Kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever…”; the closest parallel we find is in Rev 7:8, when,

"…a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,  [cried] out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,  saying, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.""  (Rev 7:9-12 ESV)

Here though, I think that multitude and this multitude are the same; I think what John was shown as an early preview of a day far, far in the future, in chapter 7, is a day that has finally arrived in chapter 19. It seems that verse 6 puts all the other descriptions of loud songs from heaven together and rolls it up into one unequalled, unparalleled expression of uncontainable joy in the throats of every single human being saved by the marvelous, powerful, grace of God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, as together, on that day, we all cry out in one united voice: “Hallelujah!” And consider with me, very briefly, what will make them sing. Ask yourself if it would make you sing? 1) “For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.” In 11:15, they sang, “He shall reign”. This predicts that when we all sing this song it will be because we now see the King we have been waiting for arrive; because we will see the prayer we have prayed for so long, finally and forever answered, “Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” We all sing because we will see, “The Almighty reigns.” But if God’s will and God’s sovereign rule does not make you happy now, it won’t make you happy then. 2) We will rejoice and exult and give God the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Again, if you would rather not live with Jesus now, you won’t want to live with Him then.

I said at the beginning of this sermon that when you read and hear about the way these groups--the heavenly assembly, the twenty-four elders and four living creatures, the small and great servants of God who learn the new song—how they all come together as a great multitude that roars and thunders with one voice when they see the Wedding Day of the Lamb arrive, and they see what He, our Lord Jesus, what He did, what He does, and what He will be doing, that it should convince you to do whatever it takes to be among them on that day. Seeing a glimpse of that day in the prophecy in these verses should persuade you of the truth in Psalm 84, that “a day in [God’s] courts is better than a thousand elsewhere" (Psa 84:10 ESV)—that there is no day in your life that will ever compare with this day; that nothing on earth you are waiting for is remotely comparable to the day when Jesus returns, when His Kingdom comes. Do you see why?

As each of these groups, in verses 1-3, in verse 4, in verse 5, and in verses 6-7—as they witness the day when “the marriage of the Lamb has come”—not only are they unified as one people by their intense happiness, they are united forever to Jesus Christ Himself. Are you ready for that? Some people say you should spend all your money before you die because you can’t take it with you. But they don’t seem to realize that you shouldn’t want to take it with you. There are things you would not want to take with you into a good marriage. There are many things you should be eager and ready to part with now for the sake of being united to Jesus. You must forsake all other loves because you are Jesus’ Bride. You must embrace your duty of service because you are His priesthood. You must offer up your joyful praise because you are His Church. We are His. BUT HE IS OURS! And this day will be the happiest day of your life! Verse 7 says, it predicts and promises, that on that day when we see Jesus return, believers will rejoice and exult because the day of His glorious wedding has come, the day He is united and comes to live with His Church forever. Next week we will see that it is only by His grace that anyone will be ready. But today I want you to search your heart and ask the Lord to give you a new desire to do whatever it takes to be part of that happy multitude who will have made themselves ready.

The Bride eyes not her garment / but her dear Bridegroom’s face; I will not gaze at glory / but on my King of grace. Not at the crown He giveth / but on His pierced hand; the Lamb is all the glory / of Emmanuel’s Land.[viii]