This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome back to our look together at Revelation chapter eight.
This is day two of our look through this chapter. We're going to focus on verses
two to five today.

And as we look at those verses, we're going to be looking together at an angel
who's standing in an altar of prayer, an awesome picture of worship of God in
this place of heaven. In verse two of Revelation eight, the Bible says, "I saw
the seven angels who stand before God, "and to them were given seven trumpets. "
These angels who stand before God, servants of God.

By the way, we know, I believe, the name of one of them. In Luke chapter one,
verse 19, in the Christmas story, an angel answered and said to him, "I am
Gabriel who stands in the presence of God, "and I've been sent to speak to you
"and to bring this good news. " So here is Gabriel who stands in the presence of
God, ready to serve, and here are all the other angels standing there ready to
serve, and there are seven specific ones.

Maybe Gabriel was one. We're going to find out later about some more about that.
Who blow these trumpets of God, looking forward to God's plan for this world.

These are the angels that are there to give him praise, but also to carry out
his orders. And these are the angels that stand in the presence of God and are
given responsibility of letting the world know God's plan. But before they
begin, something else happens.

In verses three to five, let me read for you what happens there. Another angel
who had a golden censer came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense
to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the
throne.

The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up
before God from the angel's hand. And then the angel took the censer and filled
it with fire from the altar, and he hurled it on the earth. And there came peals
of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.

There's a picture here in these verses. There's a picture here of a place of
worship. There's a golden censer, there's an altar, there's a throne.

There's a picture of a place of worship in heaven. The Bible tells us, in the
book of Hebrews, that the tabernacle that Moses built on the earth has an exact
duplicate up in heaven. In fact, he built the one on earth to represent what he
already had in heaven.

So when the Bible talks about an altar in heaven and things that are happening
at that altar, you know that it's talking about things that are happening at
this exact duplicate of the tabernacle that was built on this earth. When the
Bible says there's a golden altar of incense, since God had us build a duplicate
on the earth and we can read about it in the Old Testament, we know exactly
where this was in the temple. If you were to walk into the tabernacle, or later
the temple in Jerusalem, you'd walk through some different courts, particularly
in the temple, on the way to a place called the Holy of Holies, the place of
God's presence.

You would walk first through the outer court, outside of the temple. This, you
might say, was the front yard to the temple. And then from this outer court, you
would pass by an altar of sacrifice, and you'd walk into an inner court.

Now you're sort of in the front room of the building. You're in the actual
building itself, the actual tent or tabernacle itself, whether you're talking
about the tabernacle or the temple. And in this building, this tabernacle, there
were two separate parts.

And there was a curtain that separated the two parts. One part was the place of,
the inner court, the place of sacrifice before God, and the other part was the
Holy of Holies, or the Ark of the Covenant, where God's presence was. That
curtain separated man from God's presence, because we're not fit to live in
God's presence.

That's the same curtain, by the way, that was torn in two from top to bottom
when Jesus died on the cross, signifying the fact that everything changed the
day Jesus died and gave his life for us. No longer do we live under the picture
of the tabernacle in the Old Testament. Now we live with the picture of the
cross.

Now he has said emphatically by ripping that curtain in two, "I am in you. "I
want to live in you. "My temple is no longer a place in Jerusalem.

"My temple now is the human heart. "Now his Holy Spirit lives in our lives as
believers. " So when you think about this altar of sacrifice, and you walk into
it, you're thinking about not only a picture in heaven of what happened on
earth, you're also thinking about a picture of what happens in your life.

You walk in, and you walk past this altar of sacrifice, and you walk to the
inner court, and you see this altar where incense is burned. The Book of Hebrews
talks about this altar that's in these verses in Hebrews nine, verses three to
four. It tells us that this altar of incense actually belongs on the inside of
the curtain.

That's where it should be in God's presence, because it's where the prayers of
the saints, prayers of God's people go up before him. But in actuality, in the
tabernacle, in the temple, it was placed outside of the curtain. Why?

Because the priests had to serve at that altar every day, and they couldn't go
to be in God's presence. You might remember if you studied the history of this,
that only one priest, the high priest, was allowed to go behind that curtain
only one time a year to offer sacrifices for the people. No one else could go
in.

In fact, it was so important that no one else go in. If you went in, you would
die in God's presence. Only the high priest was allowed.

It was so important that no one go in, that when the high priest went in, a rope
was tied to him, to his ankle, to his waist somewhere, so that if he happened to
die while he was in there, or faint and not be able to revive, they could pull
him out without someone else having to try to go in and save him. That's how
important this place of God's presence was. And this altar of incense that we're
looking at here, it stands in this place of God's presence, a holy place, a holy
of holies place.

And here it is in heaven, this same altar of incense, this altar of incense that
we talked about earlier in the book of Revelation. We learned about it in
chapter five, and here it is again in chapter eight. And it's a place of your
prayers.

Your prayers, my prayers, go out before God, and they're taken from this altar
as a sweet aroma in God's presence. Our prayers are sweeter to God, they are
more precious to God, they are more awesome to God than you or I will ever
realize. This altar of incense being placed just outside of the holy of holies,
it means that it was placed as close to God's presence as possible.

But you and I, we don't live just right outside of God's presence anymore,
almost there. No, we live in the presence of God because of what God has done
for us in Jesus Christ. Do you see how intricate God is in his plan?

In every detail, he wants to teach us something. And he began back in the Old
Testament giving us a picture of a tabernacle and a place of prayer, a place
where offerings were made. And he shows us in the book of Hebrews that that also
exists in heaven.

And here in Revelation, he reveals to us that our prayers are going before God
in this very place. There is a prayer that's been prayed by every Christian
since the time of Jesus Christ. I say this because Jesus taught us to pray this
prayer.

That's why we've all prayed it. It is a prayer that has not yet been fully
answered. You've prayed this prayer.

You may have prayed it just by rote when you were a child following others as
they prayed, but now you pray it. And these exact words are the cry of your
heart. The prayer is, "Thy kingdom come.

"Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. " Is that prayer being answered?
Is God's will being done on earth as it is in heaven?

Not yet. We don't see it completely yet. But that does not mean that the prayer
is not being answered.

In heaven, it's already seen. That's what these verses are here to tell us. When
God says it, when God determines it, it happens immediately in his sight 'cause
he sees all time at once.

On earth, God's will is not done immediately in our sight because God has
allowed us freedom of choice and that's brought evil into the world and sin into
the world. And so in our sight, this prayer has not been answered yet. But here
in heaven, here's this altar where all those prayers, every time someone has
prayed, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," it's right there.

And God has already determined he will answer that prayer. The book of
Revelation, the revelation of God, is telling us how God is answering that
prayer. "Thy kingdom come.

"Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. " He's going to create a new
heaven and a new earth in which his will is done every moment, all the time.
These pictures of the book of Revelation, this revelation that's given to John
so we could see it as well, it is an answer to our prayers.

Our prayers that the evil in this world will pass away. Our prayers that we
would live in the presence of God. Our prayers that all of our doubts would fade
away.

Our prayers that we would enjoy who he is for all of eternity. Our prayers that
the temptations that have been dragging me down would just be lost. Our prayers
that the tears that we have cried would be dried.

Every one of those prayers is going to be answered. And God is showing us how as
we walk through the book of Revelation. In this place of worship, in this place
of sacrifice, you and I are being shown the comfort and the care and the power
of our Father.

Let's talk to him. Our Father, who art in heaven, holy, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Lord, I pray that for this world. I pray that for the circumstances of my life.
I pray that for my friends, your will be done.

I pray that for my life. In Jesus' name, I pray it. Amen.

Join us tomorrow. We're going to get a deeper understanding of what the word
tribulation means as we walk through the book of Revelation.