Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #34 of Revelation, chapter 11, and we are going to read Revelation 11:16-19:

And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

I will stop reading there.  We have been going, verse by verse, through the Book of Revelation and we are progressing through Revelation, chapter 11, and we have reached the point of the sounding of the seventh angel, the last trumpet.  This is Judgment Day and, actually, trumpets five, six and seven are the “three woes” and each trumpet identifies with Judgment Day.  It is simply looking at it from different perspectives, as God gives us different information with each of the trumpet blasts.

We have seen that it said, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.”  This is a glorious truth, as the Lord Jesus Christ is now reigning supreme as King of kings and Lord of lords.

Then it says in Revelation 11:16:

And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats…

These twenty four elders are mentioned several times in the Book of Revelation.  The number “24” comes from 12 tribes of Israel and 12 apostles of the Lamb.  The 12 tribes of Israel represented the Old Testament saints of God and the 12 apostles represent the New Testament saints of God.  The number “12” points to “fullness,” spiritually, so this represents the fullness of those that God has saved.

Notice that they are seated before God on their seats and this is so because of what we read in Ephesians 2:6:

And hath raised is up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

In the previous verse it said, “By grace ye are saved.”  This is exactly what is in view with these twenty four elders that sat before God on their seats.  It can only be “in Christ” that this can happen; it is the only way we have any entry at all into the kingdom of God, let alone to sit in the very presence of God in His throne room.  It is not as though these twenty four elders (who represent the fullness of God’s elect) are just “hanging around” and they have no function and no role.  They are reigning with Christ.  They are “kings” with Him.  When God saves us and raises us up at the point of salvation to be seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus at the right hand of God, this is really language indicating that we have become a part of the royal family of God.  At that time we have spiritually become a “prophet” and “priest,” but also a “king” that rules and reigns with Christ.  This is why it says in says, in Revelation 11:16, that they “sat before God on their seats.”  To “sit” means to rule.  That is why we read in 2Thessalonians, chapter 2, that the man of sin took his seat in the temple which indicated he would rule in the churches and that is exactly what Satan did during the twenty three-year Great Tribulation period – he ruled over the congregations.

It is the same idea here, where it says in Revelation 11:16:

And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats…

They are ruling before God.  It is not that they are ruling over God; God is the Supreme Ruler and He has His people round about the throne, we read elsewhere in Revelation, and they are carrying out His purpose and will.  In that sense, they are ruling with Him, in perfect agreement with the will of God.  

The Greek word translated as “seats” is “thronos,” and you can almost hear our English word “throne.”  That word “thronos” is translated in some other places in the Bible as “thrones.”  So the twenty four elders are sitting upon their thrones – they are kings and they are ruling with the Lord Jesus Christ.  Remember, this is what God says in Matthew 25, in the parable of the talents.  It says in Matthew 25:14-18:

For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents. And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two. But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money.

To get to the point of this parable, the lord who gave them the talents comes and reckons with each servant: “What did you do with the talents I gave you?”  Of the one that was given five talents, it says in Matthew 25:20-21:

And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

Following this, the man with two talents came and it is the same story; he also made two talents more and he was made ruler over many things and entered into the joy of his lord.  This is language that points to salvation.  But God wants us to know that when He saves a person and redeems a sinner by creating a new heart and spirit in them and when that child of God has completed the tasks God has given him on earth and enters into heaven, he will be a ruler over many things.  Here, God does not say what those “many things” are, but He simply says, “I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of they lord.”

Now we can speculate a little, but we cannot say this definitely because God does not write about this, but we do know that God is an Eternal God.  He has always been from everlasting past.  He is a God who has no beginning.  If you and I wanted to do a mind exercise, we can just imagine going back before this world was created and entering into eternity past; once you are in eternity, let your mind travel backwards in eternity past and just keep going, and going, and going.  Whenever you feel like stopping, just remind yourself that this is Eternal God and He has no beginning, so what you would end up doing is going back for evermore.  It is just like if we turn our attention to the future.  When this world is finished and the children of God enter into eternity future and we begin to travel with God into this glorious eternal state, how long will that eternal future continue?  The answer is that it will always continue – you can never reach the end of eternity future.  This is why the idea of “eternal life” is so super wonderful and super glorious and super magnificent, because we have been given life for evermore.  It is not “ten thousand years,” if time could be reckoned; and not even a million years, but on and on we will live because God lives.  He is the “Great I Am,” the Ever-existent One.   He has always been and always will be and “is.” 

When we comprehend as much of this as our finite minds are capable of comprehending and we grasp just a portion of this tremendous truth of a God that inhabits the entire spectrum of existence called “eternity,” then we can think about this vast universe and it is one creation – there are many stars and many galaxies – and, yet, it is one creation; God simply spoke and created everything within this realm: the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars and everything the greatest of telescopes could possibly see, and, yet, this is still one creation that God created.  He gave man dominion over all things of this world when He first created us in His image and likeness.  As far as we know, there are no other creatures that were created in the image and likeness of God.  Obviously, there is not in this creation, but the interesting thing is that God speaks of putting this creation on display to “principalities and powers.”  When we consider the Person of God and His nature and some of the things the Bible tells us, we know, firstly, He is an eternal Being who has always been and, secondly, He abhors idleness.   God is not idle and God commands mankind to work – He tells us to “work with our hands” to get our own bread, and so forth, and He has placed Himself under His own Law.  This means that God cannot tell mankind not to be idle (to lounge around and goof off) and then He does not observe that commandment Himself.  It says in Psalm 138:2:

I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

The Word of God, which is the Law of God, is not something that God dismisses or ignores or says, “This does not apply to me.”  He has magnified His Law above all His name, so God has submitted Himself to His own Law.  We see a perfect example of this in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Christ came to “fulfill all righteousness,” and, again, and again, He said that the Scriptures must be fulfilled.  He came and humbled Himself, which meant that He magnified the Word, or the Law of God, above His glorious name.  He was subservient and He submitted Himself to the will of God.  How do we know the will of God?  It is written in the Bible and the Law of God speaks of “work.”  It says, “Six days thou shalt work.”  When God created the world, He worked for six days and then the Bible says He rested the seventh day.  What was God’s work?  God’s work was to create.  He created the earth and then we read that He created the creatures and mankind and the sun, moon and stars; this was the “work of God.” 

So to bring together these Biblical principals, we see that God is eternal and that He is under His own Law and that his Law requires work.  God certainly was not idle from eternity past until He created this world.  He was not going about doing nothing.  He was working before He created this present world.  What was God’s work?  Creation is the work of God, so, in all likelihood, God has been creating in eternity past and we cannot begin to fathom how far and long the depths of eternity are, but God has always had the tremendous power and ability to create.  Therefore, He has been busy “occupying” and creating many creations that are separate and distinct from this creation. 

It is not like there are “aliens” or something, as some people think there is life “out there” in this universe or in this galaxy that could, potentially, reach us or that we could reach them.  They sort of have the “right idea,” but it is not part of this creation.   There is no life out there in deep space in this universe and part of this creation, but there is life, in all probability, in other creations, but they would be creations that cannot enter into this creation and we cannot enter into those creations at this time.  But there are other creations that God rules over and they are all good and perfect and all creatures that were designed and suited for those particular creations would be completely different than creatures created and designed for this world and this creation. 

We are amazed and it seems so incredible when we look at this creation and we see the varied creatures; there is the dog and the cat, the mosquito and the fly, the elephant, the giraffe, the sea creatures and the birds of the air; then, of course, there is man, created in the image of God, that rules over all these creatures.  Then there are creatures that are so microscopic that we cannot see them.  It is such an incredible display of the glorious, creative power of the Almighty, omnipotent Creator.  He simply spoke it all into existence.  He did not have to do very much work, at least from our perspective – He speaks a Word and there it is.  So what would prevent God in eternity past (as He works in accord with His own Law) from speaking and creating other worlds?  He could do it in six days or six minutes; then over there is another creation and over here is another creation.   God is glorified in each one and He sets up principalities and powers in these creations. 

Of course, all eternity past led to the point where the Lord Jesus Christ, from the foundation of this world, died as the Lamb for a special creature (man) unlike any creature God had ever created, even though He has created untold numbers of creatures – perhaps, trillions, upon trillions, upon trillions – in all of these different creations.  God, in his ultimate wisdom and according to His purpose timing, decided to make a special creature called “man” and God knew that man would fall into sin and all the things that would result because of their disobedience.  The Lord knew all these things in advance and He decided and determined to put on display to all the principalities and powers His wonderful attributes: His love, His mercy, His grace, His glory, His honor and His justice.  All these things and many more were demonstrated by permitting mankind to fall into sin in order to work out a salvation plan to redeem a people for Himself. 

First of all, mankind (created in His image) is a unique and special creature unlike any other creature ever created by God.  God had predetermined to redeem a portion of mankind, after they fell into sin, and this portion very likely numbers two hundred million; He decided to make them His people and to bring them into His royal family and to make them “kings and princes” and “sons and daughters,” and to give them rule: “You are over ten cities.  You are over five cities.  You are over two cities.”  Each one is His trusted Son. 

You know, when we read of kings in the Old Testament, they would conquer nations and those nations would become provinces.  It was a custom for the king to set up “under” rulers in those provinces.  Who would the king set up?  If he had many sons, he would set up his sons to rule over that land – in the South or in the East – because there was no one he trusted more to rule there than his own sons.  They would do so faithfully and he would not have to worry about rebellion.  In a way, that is exactly what God has done; God has created untold numbers of creations and they have “principalities and powers.”  This is speculation, but there is a good possibility that it is God’s plan to set up His children (his sons who are kings) to rule over these cities, or over these creations, that God has been so busy in creating in eternity past: “You rule over that creation, my son.  And you will rule over this other creation.”  Is it possible that God has over two hundred million creations?  I would not doubt it.   God is an incredibly powerful God.

We will have to talk about this a little bit more in our next study regarding these twenty four elders that are seated upon thrones before God and how they fall down on their faces to worship Him – there is no pride, no arrogance and no thought that they are somebody.  While seated in glory in Christ Jesus, they are still humble before their God.