What Do You Do With Your Crown

What Do You Do With Your Crown?

Revelation 4: 9-11

9 Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 

10 the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying:
11 “You are worthy, O Lord,
      To receive glory and honor and power;
      For You created all things,
      And by Your will they exist and were created.”

   A crown is what kings wear, right?  Not always, and in the Bible, mostly not.  The primary symbol in the Bible of ruling or the right to rule is the scepter, not the crown.  Genesis 49:10 & Isaiah 14:5 are two examples.  There can be only one ruler in a kingdom and one scepter.  Ultimate authority can’t be shared among subordinates.  We all want to be chiefs, not indians, but in reality there’s only one Chief. 

   So what does it mean when we see these twenty-four elders sitting around the Lord on His throne and wearing crowns?  If you look at the Greek word translated “crown,” you find it’s the word, “stephanos.”  A stephanos was a crown awarded to the victor of a race or a contest of some type.  The word for a king’s crown is the Greek word, “diadema,” where we get the word diadem from.  These stephanos-type crowns are what the elders were laying at the feet of Jesus - symbols of victory not symbols of ruling.

   The twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him, which is giving or ascribing worth to the One being worshipped.  They are laying the symbols of their victories before Jesus, giving Him the worship, or in other words, the credit for the victories they received the crowns for.  They recognize that the worthiness, the credit, belongs to God, not to themselves.  Casting the crowns simply acts out their declaration.  They are saying, “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power.”  And if God is worthy of the glory and honor and power, then He should get the crown that symbolizes the victory. 

   The twenty-four elders - representing all the redeemed of God - throw every achievement reward they have back to God, because they know and want all to know that He is responsible for the victory that we received the crowns for.  Also note that they all cast their crowns before Him; there are no divided opinions in heaven.  No sects, no schisms, and no divisions were displayed there.  This passage does not say that any of the elders envied another because his crown was better looking.  No one criticized another for wearing his crown a different way.  No one said, “my jewels are prettier than your jewels are.”  Sound silly?  So do many of the reasons we give for not fellowshipping with other churches.  We revel in our divisions and brag of them.  I have news to break to you:  there won’t be divisions in Heaven, so you’d better get used to the idea of being one big happy family when you get there. 

   Although I have no particular preference for the King James Version, I confess a fondness for its version of Revelation 4:11: “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”  The phrase, “and for thy pleasure they are and were created,” reminds us that we exist to give glory and pleasure to God.  Until we do that, we don’t, and indeed can’t, fulfill our created purpose.  Charles Spurgeon said, “There is a throne in heaven that no one can occupy but You, and there is a crown in heaven that no other head can wear but Yours, and there is a part in the eternal song that no voice can ever compass but yours, and there is a glory to God that would be wanting if you did not come to render it, and there is a part of infinite majesty and glory that would never be reflected unless You should be there to reflect it!”

   Do you practice worship?  And if you do, why do you worship?  Do you follow others in worship, not really thinking of why you worship?  Like so many other aspects of our Christian life, we need to examine what we do and why we do it.  If you’re just going through the motions, remember to focus on Jesus.  He is One Who is worthy of your praise.

Stephen Cram                  March 27, 2011                         Colossians 2:8