Revelation 4:1-11 – Getting Crowned
A man died and went to heaven. He was met at the Pearly Gates by St.Peter who led him down the golden streets. They passed mansion after beautiful mansion until they came to the end of the street where they stopped in front of a shack. The man asked St. Peter why he got a hut when there were so many mansions he could live in. St. Peter replied, "I did the best with the money you sent us."
Today we are talking about heaven. Well, sort of. In particular, what we will get when we get to heaven. Today I am going to share with you what the Bible says about crowns.
The idea of gaining crowns is well documented in church songs of the past. The old song, Will There Be Any Stars in My Crown? by E.E.Hewitt and John R. Sweeney, says this: “I am thinking today of that beautiful land I shall reach when the sun goeth down. When thro’ wonderful grace by my Savior I stand, will there be any stars in my crown?” And the chorus says: “Will there be any stars in my crown
when at evening the sun goeth down? When I wake with the blest in the mansion of rest, will there be any stars in my crown?” This song speaks of winning souls for Jesus, and the more souls we bring to Him, the more stars we will have.
The old marching hymn called Wear a Crown by Harriet Waters and A.E.Lind has these words: “Bugle calls are ringing out, “Forward” is the battle shout. See where floats the conquering sign, onward to the war divine! And when the battle’s over, we shall wear a crown, we shall wear a crown, we shall wear a crown! And when the battle’s over, we shall wear a crown in the New Jerusalem. Wear a crown, wear a crown, away over Jordan! And when the battle’s over, we shall wear a crown in the New Jerusalem.” This crown is the victory crown, given to the winners of a battle. Unfortunately, there’s a reference in the song to the Emperor Constantine, who saw a sign of the cross in the sky and went out and conquered pagan lands in the name of Christ. Perhaps not the best form of soul-winning. Choose Jesus or choose death. Then again I am a little cynical sometimes.
Now, I’m not entirely comfortable with the thoughts of having crowns in heaven. That is, some will have bigger or better crowns or more stars in them when we get to heaven. As if we are saved by grace but rewarded by works. I’m not entirely comfortable with that thought. But yet it’s biblical, Old and New Testaments. We will be rewarded for how we lived our faith here on earth. Here are some verses to prove this:
Matthew 16:27 – “For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.“ Ephesians 6:8 – “You know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does.” 1 Cor.3:8 – “The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.” Now, I understand that our works flow from our faith. So it really is all about how much faith we have. Still, it cannot be denied that whoever uses the faith he has will receive more in heaven than the one who doesn’t. Thus, we are rewarded for what we do here on earth. We can’t work our way to heaven, but our works are reflected by the amount of reward we have when we get there.
Thus, we get crowns. The Bible speaks of different kinds of crowns, but they are likely just different descriptions of the same crown, the incorruptible crown that Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians 9. Peter calls it the crown of glory. James 1 and Revelation 2 speak of getting a crown of life. And in Paul’s last letter, 2 Timothy, he was looking forward to getting the crown of righteousness.
Now, the idea of a crown came from Greek competitions. Just outside of the city of Corinth there was a Roman amphitheater and the plains of the Isthmus of Corinth where, every two years, the Isthmian games, part of the Greek Olympiad were held in honor of the Greek God of the Sea, Poseidon. The victor’s prize, under the Greeks was a crown made of woven laurel leaves. Later it was a crown of wild celery, but after Corinth was conquered by the Romans under Julius Caesar, the games were reestablished for a time with a crown of fir as the victor’s prize.
The fragile crowns would begin to wilt and wither away shortly after winning. Most people chase after these kinds of crowns – temporary, fleeting, fragile, useless in the end. Tell me, what do you live for? A millionaire Christian was sleeping in his bedroom when an angel came to him and woke him up. "It’s time for you to go to heaven", said the angel. "Oh, I’m not ready, what should I bring?", said the man. "Nothing, just yourself", replied the angel. But the millionaire pulled a large suitcase from under his bed and opened it up. It was full of gold bars. "Can I just bring this along?" he pled. The angel said, "OK, but only the suitcase". So the millionaire was taken up to the pearly gates where St.Peter was waiting to welcome him. Looking at the suitcase Peter said, "I’m sorry but we don’t allow any earthly possessions here, you’ll have to leave the suitcase behind." The man said to Peter, “But the angel said it was OK.” Peter says, "Well, let me take a look then.” He opened the suitcase to see all the gold bars inside and immediately fell to the floor rolling around with laughter!
The millionaire was amazed at the saint’s antics. Why was he laughing? After a while Peter was able to stop laughing and managed to let out one question, "Why do you want to bring pavement into heaven?" Folks, what is important to you? And will it be worth anything in heaven’s eyes? Are you busy making a name for yourself, or are you living for a prize that will never fade away? Are you so busy competing with others, that you forget that the real prize comes when you conquer the battle for your mind and your heart? What prize do you seek? Whose attention do you clamor for? Whose approval do you really want? Who have you set up to be the judge over your life?
So the person who lives to please God will receive a crown, and the more you trust Him, the bigger the reward. But what will we do with our crowns when we get to heaven? Just sit around and wear them all day? As far as I can tell, no. Let’s read Revelation 4:1-11.
So we read that these saints, probably representing the saints of the OT and the saints of the NT, cast down their crowns before God in worship. As I studied this, I kept thinking, “Why? Why give us crowns if we are just going to give them back to Him? Why reward us if we aren’t even going to keep the reward?” Well, in the few moments we have left, we’ll see 3 possible reasons why we would give back the crowns to the One who gave them to us first.
Well, reason #1 why we will give back our crowns to God is that 1) everything belongs to Him and is from Him anyway. You know, we often forget this truth. We are only stewards of things, not the owners.
We are only given things on loan. Our homes, our vehicles, our income, our families, our spouses, our children… none of this is ours. It is all God’s. 100% of it. We own nothing. But yet we think it’s ours. We think we can do what we want with it. It’s our money to spend. It’s our time to waste. It’s our gifts and abilities to use however we want. But God says: “No, actually, it’s all Mine.” Fellow pastor and friend Denn Guptill wrote these words: “How many people here have ever taken their kid’s to MacDonald’s. Ok you’ve taken the fruit of your loins to the golden arches, you’ve forked over some of your hard earned wealth, received your dinner and now you have retired to one of the tables to indulge yourself in these culinary delights.
You begin this experience of excess when you realize that you’ve only ordered one large fries, now if there is only one thing that MacDonald’s does extremely well it is their fries, and so you reach over to junior’s side of the table and help yourself to one of the fries. When suddenly his hand is upon yours he looks deep into your eyes and says, “Don’t eat my fries”. His fries? His fries? Who earned the money for the meal? Who drove the car to get to the golden arches? Who ordered the meal? Who paid for the meal? His fries?
Been there, done that? Sure you have. His fries! But how often do we refuse to give God some of our fries? After all isn’t he the great provider of all our french fries?” Everything belongs to Him and is from Him.
Well, reason #2 why we will give back our crowns is that #2) heaven is about Him, not about us – only He is worthy. Let’s read again v11. We are not the prize – Jesus is. We are not the good ones – God is. We are not the focus and attention and center of it all – Jesus is. Only He is worthy. That’s why heaven is about Him, not us. He alone deserves the crown, not us. Bible scholar Matthew Henry wrote this about the saints casting down their crowns before God: “They owe all their graces and all their glories to him, and acknowledge that his crown is infinitely more glorious than theirs, and that it is their glory to be glorifying God.” Heaven is not about what we get, but who God is. Heaven is the enjoyment of God, not the endowment of crowns.
Finally, reason #3 why we will give back our crowns is that 3) we didn’t do it for the reward, we did it for Him. Now, I admit, most people first reach out to Him and ask for salvation because that’s what they really want – to be saved from hell and from the messes they’re in. But, faith can’t stay there. The fear of hell is not enough to keep someone having faith. If you walk with God for any length of time at all, you need to move past serving Him out of fear and into serving Him out of love. After all, perfect loves casts out fear.
And ideally, a Christian matures to the point that they say, “Even if there were no reward, I would still do it anyway.” Even if there was no heaven waiting, no crown, no prize for the faithful, they would keep the faith. Well, why would they do it then? For the love of God. That’s why. Because their lives are better than if they didn’t have God. To live for God without even the promise of a reward, but simply out of love, is how a Christian should live. No strings attached kind of love. That is true worship. Loving Him and serving Him for who He is, not just what He’s done for you or what He’s going to do for you. Christian group Petra sang these words in their song called "Fool’s Gold", which was actually the seed thought for this whole sermon: "When the crowns of gold all lay before His feet, then the worthy Lamb of God is the treasure we will keep." The song then continues: "Some may call me foolish, some may call me odd, but I’d rather be a fool in the eyes of men than a fool in the eyes of God." Whose approval do you really seek?
In conclusion, who are you living for? Who are you living to please? Who is the object of your attention? Who is the object of your worship? Who is worthy of every good thing in your life? Tell me – will you lay all the good things in this life down at His feet? Will you lay your talents, treasures, time and even testimony down at His feet? Will you give Him your focus and worship? Will you live to please Him and Him alone? Will you seek the reward that only God can give, and will never fade away?
