Heaven is in You.

Jesus Christ did not come to start a religion.
Jesus Christ came to establish a Kingdom.

This Kingdom
is not one of outward appearances,
but a kingdom of internal realities.
As Jesus said,
his body was the temple,
and it would be destroyed,
and on the third day
it would be raised up.
On the cross
the veil of his temple was torn,
his heart was pierced,
and out of that temple of his body
flowed blood and water.
That water,
was the Holy Spirit.

To be a Christian 
is to be a little Christ,
a temple of the Holy Spirit
as Paul tells us.
And this calling to be a temple
is both inward and outward.
Christ is in you.
This is the mystery of our faith.
And so we present our bodies as living sacrifices,
and as we do this,
we become living places for the fire of the Holy Spirit to consume us.
We present a sacrifice
and we become the place of communion.

This is the mystery
and the reality of the faith.

John, in the book of Revelation
is giving us a glimpse into heaven.
We are getting heaven's perspective
and in Christ we are in this place.
There
can be here
in our hearts.

This week I want to look at this passage from the Book of Revelation, chapter 5.
And look at the Resurrection
from Heaven's perspective.

Many people miss what's going on in Revelation
because they go straight to interpretation
before they observe what the text says.

So this vision of heaven
in Revelation 5 is part of a larger series of visions that John says
he had while on Patmos
on the Lord's Day.

Patmos is a small island off the coast of modern Turkey.  
This is the Asia described in the book.  
Patmos was very near Ephesus, 
and it makes sense that John would be there 
since it is close to where he was living. 
The island is small, rocky, and does not have a large population.
Patmos is traditionally described as a penal colony, 
and that John was in prison on the island.  
There is no historical evidence for a penal colony on the island.
More likely, John was on the island
because it was a safe place during times 
when Jews and Christians
were being persecuted.
Since he was the leader, 
he could still be close to home, 
and still have contact with his congregation, 
but also be “under the radar.”

John tells us 
that he is on this island,
and it is the “Lord’s Day.” 
That is, Sunday morning,
the weekly celebration of the Resurrection.
John has gone through a revolution from one covenant to another.
He is now in the New Covenant.
And to him
and in his mind,
this day, the first day of the week in his world,
is also the Day of the Lord—the new Messianic era.
He is talking about a shift in time,
and this shift is important throughout Revelation.
And because John is in a new era,
he is also in the era of the Holy Spirit.
And he is in the Spirit.

Paul instructs us:

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit,  addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, always and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.  Ephesians 5:18-20

Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,  Ephesians 6:18

Paul is describing here what the New Testament assumed 
was the normal experience of all believers: 
to be in the Holy Spirit.
Be—not do.
Your identity and personality is formed by being in the Holy Spirit.
John is describing the Spirit filled life. 
And being in the Holy Spirit,
full and established,
will enable you to receive revelation.
When you are in the Spirit,
you are in contact with the Eternal Realm.
Smith Wigglesworth once described himself 
as larger on the inside than on the outside.
This is what many of the holiness preachers called the “normal christian life.”

We need to keep in mind that in the New Testament,
all the writers believed that the New Covenant
established by Jesus
was about releasing the Holy Spirit in the earth.
They understood that everyone would be filled 
with the Holy Spirit at baptism,
that they would receive and operate in spiritual gifts,
and that they would bear fruit of the spirit in their lives—
love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, gentleness, goodness, and self-control.
Father I pray for everyone listening that they would be full of the Holy Spirit,
and walk in the awareness of your presence.
To be a Christian
was to be in the Kingdom,
through this Covenant in the Holy Spirit
not meet religious requirements.

Jesus Christ came to make you a temple of the Holy Spirit.

So John is in the place of worship and communion with God,
and he hears a voice behind him.

And the Voice tells John to write a book
and send it to the seven churches.

The voice comes from behind John,
and so he redirects his attention,
to the place where the voice appears.
this is like Moses turning his attention to the burning bush.

All revelation comes to us when we turn our attention
and our affection toward God.
If you receive revelation, you will be given more.
And this encounter 
also gives us a window into how God reveals things to us.
God is always the initiator, we are not.
But, when God reaches out to get our attention,
he always gives us a moment to respond.
For John, that response 
is his turning around to hear where the voice came from.

In the book of Revelation
the most used number is the number seven.
Remember, 
numbers are a language all by themselves in the Bible.
Seven is fullness,
completeness,
and wholeness.
Seven is Shalom.
He sees seven golden lampstands.
In the first century a lampstand was the brightest form of light.
We are going to see a lot of gold in the book of revelation.
Gold is incorruptible,
it doesn’t rust or tarnish.
Gold points to the worship in the tabernacle,
and gold points to heaven.
Gold and light are going to point us to God
and heaven
and true worship.
So we are looking at the fullness of incorruptible light.
The full light of heaven 
and the fullness of worship in heaven
is being revealed.

And who is standing in the middle of this full revelation?
One like a Son of Man.

John again refers back to Daniel 7 
and the term that Jesus used throughout his ministry 
to describe himself.

This is the one who walked out of a cloud before the Ancient of Days.

John is seeing Jesus
in a long robe,
with a golden sash across his chest,
his head and his hair are white
white as wool,
white as snow,
his eyes are full of flames of fire,
his feet are as highly polished bronze,
and his voice is as many waters.

There is a lot in this, 
so lets unpack it.

John is seeing a Theophany—an encounter with God.
The book of Revelation is a revelation of Jesus
so we are going to see things about Jesus we never saw before.
Jesus is standing in the middle of complete light,
and that light is going to reveal a complete revelation.

John sees Jesus dressed in the white robe 
the High Priest wore on the day of atonement.
But the gold sash is the sash that the emperor wore.
If you go into a greek orthodox church and look up, you will see a dome.
And usually, in the middle of the dome
you will see a painting of Jesus,
holding up his right hand in blessing,
and wearing a gold sash around his waist.
This was the sign in the Roman empire of the office of the Emperor.
This icon is called the Pantocrator: Emperor of the Universe,
and was inspired by this scene in Revelation.
it is the pictorial representation of the primary way 
to address God in Jewish Prayer:
Barach atta Adonai eluheinu malech ha olam:
Blessed are you Lord our God, King of the Universe.
Jesus is the King of the Universe.

Jesus is both High priest, and King of Kings.
He is white—
he is the head of the body
and his head is pure like the unblemished lamb for Passover,
and like snow.

And after this encounter with Jesus,
John receives seven messages for the churches in Asia.

And at the end of these messages,
There is a transition.
John looks up
and he sees a door in heaven.
And John is invited to "Come up hither."

One thing we have to understand
is that John is not showing us a linear
story in the earthly sense.
He is showing us
things from multiple perspectives
outside of time.
Revelation is revealing more than one dimension at a time.
There is a sense 
when you spend time in Revelation
that things are happening in parallel to earth.

In 2006
I found myself in a similar vision
to the one described here.
I was dancing in my living room,
when I suddenly found myself in a cloud,
and when I got to the other side of the cloud
there were four golden lampstands,
and there were bowls of incense.
And I looked up
and I saw an emerald colored disk
that formed a rainbow at the edge.
And below the disk were four giant sized creatures
that were around the throne crying to one another 
Holy, Holy, Holy.
And they were an intense blue,
and they were covered all over with eyes.

And there was this vast multitude of people
all around the throne.
They held hands,
and they danced together.
And they were in worship.
As an artist,
two things happened to me.
I was overcome with the music,
the sound,
and the color.
The color in heaven spoiled 
color for me on earth,
and it ruined my painting.
I could never capture the colors
and when I attempt,
people tell me I don't understand color theory.
It makes you want to quit.

And here in Heaven,
God shows John a book.
And the book is sealed.
Last week I saw a documentary on the 
burial of the pope.
When the pope's casket is closed,
an official comes and puts a red wax seal on the coffin.
And the only person who can break the seal
is an official from the Vatican
who oversees the causes of saints.
A seal is like a lock on the door
to a room full of secrets,
or a vault full of treasure.
A seal can only be broken by a person
with greater authority than the person who made the seal.
So John sees a book
with seals,
and the seals must have been put there by the Father,
because there is no one 
in heaven or on earth
or under the earth
who has authority to break these seals.

And John began to weep.
Remember the tomb in the garden.
There were seals on the tomb,
put there by the high priests and the Roman officials.
The religious and political authority 
sealed the tomb,
so no one could open the tomb
and say that Jesus rose from the dead.
And Mary, and the disciples wept,
because no one could open the tomb.

And one of the elders in heaven says to John,
Weep not.
Behold,
the Lion of the Tribe of Judah,
the root of David,
has prevailed.
There is one person who can break the seal 
on the tomb.
There is one person who can break the seals on the book.
The one who rose from the dead.

And behold,
in the midst of the throne
stood a lamb
who looked as if it had been slain.

Remember,
we are looking at a vision that is being explained
in Hebrew symbolic language.
This lamb,
that had been slain
is alive.
And because he is alive,
and has conquered death
he has seven horns.
John isn't seeing a mutant lamb.
Horns are a very important symbol in the Bible.
A horn in the Bible is a symbol of power,
military might,
and victory.
This lamb has complete 
and total power
might, and victory.
And he doesn't have seven eyes.
He has complete and total fullness of vision.
He sees all,
perceives all,
and knows all.
God leads us with his eye,
so this direction is perfect.

We are told this complete and total power
and complete and total perception
is the complete and total Spirit of God.
The Holy Spirit is going out all over the earth
in fullness of power and vision.
So John is seeing the Resurrection
and Pentecost,
all at once,
from heaven's perspective.
And then
the elders bring the book to the Lamb,
and this is accompanied
by prayer and worship
from the church
both on earth and in heaven.

John is re-experiencing Easter morning,
from the vantage point of heaven.

   "You are worthy to take the scroll
      and to open its seals,
   because you were slain,
      and with your blood you purchased men for God
      from every tribe and language and people and nation.
 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
      and they will reign on the earth."

Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they sang:
   "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
   to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
   and honor and glory and praise!"

Jesus the Lamb,
offered himself,
and was a spotless sacrifice.
And then he conquered death,
and was able to unlock everything that was hidden.
He is the Key of David 
from Isaiah 22:22
who opens all that was shut.
He has been given all authority in heaven and on earth.

And because of this,
he is Worthy.

For many years,
I led worship at an event called the Ten Days of Prayer.
I was doing what they called "Harp and Bowl" worship.
That is,
I led people in worship and prayer 
using passages from the Bible.
One day,
I had my Bible open to Revelation 4 and 5,
and began to sing.
Sometimes things just fall into place,
and I began to sing a little tune that was catchy.
It was very catchy,
because we sang it for several hours.
Over and over again.
And then we stayed in those chapters for months
as I went back and forth between these phrases from heaven.
In the end I set two chapters of Revelation to music.

And I began to ask God,
"If you own everything,
and you are above everything,
why are we saying you may receive 
power,
wealth,
wisdom,
strength,
blessing,
and honor?
You have it all."

We have been in the last few chapters of John for a few weeks.
And Jesus tells us 
that if we live in him
and he lives in us
we can ask anything in his name and he will do it.
We are seeing this as intimate fellowship with God.

This truth does not change
when we look at this from heaven's perspective.
The truth that John is seeing the Lamb
doesn't change the reality
that the Lamb is living inside John
and John is in the Lamb.
Jesus prayed that John would be in him
and that Jesus would be in John.
And so this throne
and this temple
by the Holy Spirit
is in you.
There is no temple in the city,
because the lamb is the light
and the river flows from the throne.
Out of your belly will flow rivers of living water.
You are the temple.

And when we worship and ascribe to Jesus
all these things
this triumph,
this victory,
this power,
we are building up in our hearts
the temple that we are.
We are the temple of the 
Sevenfold Spirit of God,
the spirit with complete vision
and total power.
So when we ascribe to him
all of these things,
we are seeing,
Jesus,
you are in me,
and you are the richest person in the universe.
If you lack resources,
proclaim his wealth.
Jesus you are in me,
and you are the most powerful person in the Universe.
If you lack strength
ascribe to him power and strength.
Holy Spirit,
your vision is perfect,
see through me.
If you lack vision
praise his seven fold complete vision.
Holy Spirit,
your power is perfect,
manifest through me.

Jesus is worthy,
because he has won all of these things 
for us,
and made it possible for us to manifest these things in the earth.
The point is this:
Christ is in you.
This is the hope of glory.

John was in the Spirit,
and when he was in the spirit,
the door to heaven was open to him.
And when we go through this door,
we have access to all that the Lamb
through his own blood
purchased for us.

This is nonsense to a religious mindset
that thinks we need to make things happen through
prayer and worship.
This is not the Kingdom.
Our goal is to come into agreement with heaven's perspective
and come into agreement with the Kingdom of God
that is within you.
Jesus is the King.
His Kingdom
is in you by the power of the Holy Spirit.
So there is a place in you
that is spotless,
whole,
complete,
wealthy,
and blessed.

Jesus made this possible.
Worthy
is the Lamb
that was slain.