◄ Revelation 4:11 ►
"Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things; by Your will they exist and came to be."
Study Bible
“Worthy are You, our Lord and God,

This phrase acknowledges the supreme worthiness of God, a central theme in Christian worship. The use of "worthy" reflects the recognition of God's inherent value and authority. The title "our Lord and God" emphasizes a personal relationship with the divine, echoing the language of reverence found throughout Scripture, such as in Psalm 95:3, which declares the Lord as a great God and King above all gods. This phrase also counters the Roman imperial cult of the time, which demanded worship of the emperor as a deity, affirming instead the exclusive divinity of the Christian God.

Rev 5:12 In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb…
Jhn 20:28 Thomas replied, “My Lord and my God!”
Psa 18:3 I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised;…

to receive glory and honor and power,

The triad of "glory, honor, and power" signifies the totality of worship and reverence due to God. Glory refers to the divine radiance and majesty, honor to the respect and reverence owed, and power to the omnipotence of God. This echoes the heavenly worship scenes in Isaiah 6:3 and Revelation 5:12, where celestial beings ascribe similar attributes to God. The repetition of these terms throughout Revelation underscores the centrality of worship in the heavenly realm and the acknowledgment of God's sovereignty over all creation.

1Ch 29:11 Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power…
Dan 7:14 And He was given dominion, glory, and kingship…
Jud 1:25 to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, dominion…

for You created all things;

This phrase affirms God as the Creator, a foundational belief in Christian theology. It reflects Genesis 1:1, where God is depicted as the originator of the universe. The act of creation establishes God's authority and right to receive worship. In the context of Revelation, this serves as a reminder of God's ultimate control over history and the cosmos, providing assurance to believers facing persecution. The acknowledgment of God as Creator also contrasts with pagan creation myths, asserting the uniqueness and supremacy of the biblical God.

Col 1:16 For in Him all things were created, things in heaven…
Jhn 1:3 Through Him all things were made, and without Him,…
Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

by Your will they exist and were created.”

This emphasizes the intentionality and purpose behind creation. Everything exists by God's will, highlighting divine sovereignty and the purposeful nature of creation. This aligns with Colossians 1:16, which states that all things were created through and for Christ, indicating that creation is not random but part of a divine plan. The phrase reassures believers of God's ongoing involvement in the world, affirming that nothing exists outside of His will. It also points to the sustaining power of God, as seen in Hebrews 1:3, where Christ upholds the universe by His word.

Eph 1:11 In Him we were also chosen as God’s own,…
Act 17:28 For in Him we live and move and have our being.…
Psa 115:3 Our God is in heaven; He does as He pleases.

Persons / Places / Events
1. The Lord and God
The central figure in this verse, recognized as the Creator and Sustainer of all things. This title emphasizes His sovereignty and divine authority.

2. The Twenty-Four Elders
Although not directly mentioned in this verse, they are the ones who proclaim this worship in the heavenly vision. They represent the redeemed of all ages, offering praise to God.

3. The Throne Room of Heaven
The setting of this verse, where John witnesses the worship of God. It symbolizes God's ultimate authority and the center of divine governance.

4. Creation
The act of God bringing all things into existence. This highlights God's omnipotence and the purposefulness of His will.

5. John the Apostle
The author of Revelation, who receives this vision while exiled on the island of Patmos. His role is to convey the divine revelation to the churches.
Teaching Points
God's Worthiness
Recognize that God alone is worthy of our worship, glory, honor, and power. Our lives should reflect this truth in our daily worship and devotion.

The Purpose of Creation
Understand that everything exists by God's will and for His purpose. This should encourage us to seek His will in our lives and align our actions with His divine purpose.

Sovereignty and Authority
Acknowledge God's ultimate authority over all creation. This should bring comfort and assurance, knowing that our lives are in the hands of a sovereign God.

Worship as a Response
Our response to God's creative power and sustaining will should be one of worship and adoration. Cultivate a heart of gratitude and praise in all circumstances.

Living for God's Glory
Strive to live in a way that brings glory to God, recognizing that our existence is meant to reflect His greatness and majesty.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does recognizing God as the Creator influence your understanding of your purpose in life?

2. In what ways can you incorporate worship into your daily routine, acknowledging God's worthiness as described in Revelation 4:11?

3. How does the concept of God's sovereignty provide comfort in times of uncertainty or difficulty?

4. What are some practical steps you can take to ensure that your life aligns with God's will and purpose?

5. How can the acknowledgment of God's glory and power in creation inspire you to share your faith with others?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Genesis 1
The creation account, which establishes God as the Creator of all things, aligning with the declaration in Revelation 4:11.

Colossians 1:16-17
These verses affirm that all things were created through and for Christ, and in Him, all things hold together, echoing the themes of creation and divine will.

Psalm 19:1
The heavens declare the glory of God, which connects to the worship and acknowledgment of God's glory in Revelation 4:11.

Isaiah 43:7
God created people for His glory, reinforcing the purpose of creation as stated in Revelation 4:11.

Romans 11:36
All things are from Him, through Him, and to Him, which complements the acknowledgment of God's sovereignty and purpose in creation.
Sermons
Thou Art WorthyCharles KingsleyRevelation 4:11
A Door in HeavenD. Thomas, D. D.Revelation 4:1-11
A Door Opened in HeavenC. H. Spurgeon.Revelation 4:1-11
An Invitation to GloryS. Fisher.Revelation 4:1-11
Element of the IdealC. E. Eberman.Revelation 4:1-11
Heaven NearDean Vaughan.Revelation 4:1-11
Heaven Near, Though HiddenT. M. Herbert, M. A.Revelation 4:1-11
Heaven Our HomeRevelation 4:1-11
HeavenwardWm. Guild, D. D.Revelation 4:1-11
Soul ElevationHomilistRevelation 4:1-11
The Heavenly Vision of the SoulJ. S. Exell, M. A.Revelation 4:1-11
The High Court of HeavenS. Conway Revelation 4:1-11
The Open DoorD. C. Hughes, M. A.Revelation 4:1-11
The Upward CallH. W. Beecher.Revelation 4:1-11
The Vision of the ThroneG. Rogers.Revelation 4:1-11
The Vision of the ThroneJames Young.Revelation 4:1-11
Trumpet Voices Talking with UsH. J. Bevis.Revelation 4:1-11
Man's Higher Sphere of Being: (2) Spiritually EnteredD. Thomas Revelation 4:2-11
Creation the Consequence of LoveBp. Woodford.Revelation 4:9-11
Give God the GloryA. J. Gordon, D. D.Revelation 4:9-11
Glory to the Glorious OneH. Bonar, D. D.Revelation 4:9-11
God Glorified in Heaven for Tits Works of Creation and ProvidenceJ. Lathrop, D. D.Revelation 4:9-11
Man in HeavenHomilistRevelation 4:9-11
Rightful HomageJ. Marrat.Revelation 4:9-11
Royal HomageC. H. Spurgeon.Revelation 4:9-11
The Church's Song of PraiseR. Green Revelation 4:9-11
The CrownMorgan Dix, D. D.Revelation 4:9-11
The Feelings of Saints in HeavenE. Payson, D. D.Revelation 4:9-11
People
John
Places
Patmos
Topics
Ascribe, Create, Created, Desire, Existed, Existence, Fitting, Glory, Hast, Holy, Honor, Honour, O, Pleasure, Power, Receive, Saying, Worthy
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Revelation 4:11

     1045   God, glory of
     1130   God, sovereignty
     1165   God, unique
     1175   God, will of
     1305   God, activity of
     1325   God, the Creator
     4006   creation, origin
     4026   world, God's creation
     4060   nature
     4287   universe
     5441   philosophy
     8369   worthiness
     8435   giving, of oneself
     8440   glorifying God
     8646   doxology
     8665   praise, reasons

Revelation 4:1-11

     1090   God, majesty of

Revelation 4:6-11

     1454   theophany
     4627   creatures

Revelation 4:8-11

     8444   honouring God
     8632   adoration

Revelation 4:9-11

     5878   honour

Revelation 4:10-11

     7720   elders, in the church

Library
Thou Art Worthy
Eversley, 1869. Chester Cathedral, 1870. Trinity Sunday. Revelation iv. 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." I am going to speak to you on a deep matter, the deepest and most important of all matters, and yet I hope to speak simply. I shall say nothing which you cannot understand, if you will attend. I shall say nothing, indeed, which you could not find out for yourselves, …
Charles Kingsley—All Saints' Day and Other Sermons

The Sea of Glass
(Trinity Sunday.) REVELATION iv. 9, 10, 11. And when those beasts give glory, and honour, and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 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 Church bids us read …
Charles Kingsley—The Good News of God

The Open Door.
(Trinity Sunday.) REV. iv. 1. "A door was opened in Heaven." When Dante had written his immortal poems on Hell and Purgatory, the people of Italy used to shrink back from him with awe, and whisper, "see the man who has looked upon Hell." To-day we can in fancy look on the face of the beloved Apostle, who saw Heaven opened, and the things which shall be hereafter. We have summed up the great story of the Gospel, and have trodden the path of salvation from Bethlehem to Calvary. We have seen Jesus, …
H. J. Wilmot-Buxton—The Life of Duty, a Year's Plain Sermons, v. 2

The Preface.
Courteous Reader,--It floweth more from that observance--not to say honour--which is due to the laws of custom, than from any other motive, that the stationers hold it expedient to salute thee at thy entry into this book, by any commendatory epistle, having sufficient experience, that books are oft inquired after, and rated according to the respect men generally have of the author, rather than from the matter contained therein, especially if the book be divine or serious; upon which ground this treatise …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

More than Heaven
"A throne was set in Heaven, and One sat on the throne."--Rev. iv. 2. C. P. C. tr., Emma Frances Bevan, 1899 Jesus, Lord, in Whom the Father Tells His heart to me-- Jesus, God Who made the Heavens, Made the earth to be-- Jesus, Lamb of God once offered For the guilt of men, In the Heavens interceding Till Thou come again-- Jesus, once by God abandoned, Smitten, cursed for me, Sentenced at the throne of judgment, Dying on the tree-- Jesus, risen and ascended, On the Father's throne, All the Heaven …
Frances Bevan—Hymns of Ter Steegen and Others (Second Series)

Twelfth Day. The Thrice Holy One.
I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up. Above Him stood the seraphim. And one cried to another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory.'--Isa. vi. 1-3. 'And the four living creatures, they have no rest day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, which was, and which is, and which is to come.'--Rev. iv. 8. It is not only on earth, but in heaven too, that the Holiness of God is His chief and most glorious …
Andrew Murray—Holy in Christ

Imagination in Prayer
"Lord, teach us to pray."--Luke xi. i. "Full of eyes."--Rev. iv. 8. I NEVER see, or hear, or speak, or write the word "imagination" without being arrested and recalled to what Pascal and Butler and Edwards have all said, with such power and with such passion, on the subject of imagination. Pascal--himself all compact of imagination as he is--Pascal sets forth again and again a tremendous indictment against the "deceits" and "deceptions" of the imagination. Butler also, in few but always weighty words, …
Alexander Whyte—Lord Teach Us To Pray

His Holy Covenant
"To remember His Holy Covenant; to grant unto us that we, being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, should serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all our days."-LUKE i. 68-75. WHEN Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, he spoke of God's visiting and redeeming His people, as a remembering of His Holy Covenant. He speaks of what the blessings of that Covenant would be, not in words that had been used before, but in what is manifestly a Divine revelation …
Andrew Murray—The Two Covenants

The Trisagion Wrongly Explained by Arians. Its True Significance.
And how do the impious men venture to speak folly, as they ought not, being men and unable to find out how to describe even what is on the earth? But why do I say what is on the earth?' Let them tell us their own nature, if they can discover how to investigate their own nature? Rash they are indeed, and self-willed, not trembling to form opinions of things which angels desire to look into (1 Pet. i. 12), who are so far above them, both in nature and in rank. For what is nearer [God] than the Cherubim …
Athanasius—Select Works and Letters or Athanasius

Relation v. Observations on Certain Points of Spirituality.
1. "What is it that distresses thee, little sinner? Am I not thy God? Dost thou not see how ill I am treated here? If thou lovest Me, why art thou not sorry for Me? Daughter, light is very different from darkness. I am faithful; no one will be lost without knowing it. He must be deceiving himself who relies on spiritual sweetnesses; the true safety lies in the witness of a good conscience. [1] But let no one think that of himself he can abide in the light, any more than he can hinder the natural …
Teresa of Avila—The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus

Some General Uses.
Before we come to speak of some particular cases of deadness, wherein believers are to make use of Christ as the Life, we shall first propose some useful consequences and deductions from what hath been spoken of this life; and, I. The faith of those things, which have been mentioned, would be of great use and advantage to believers; and therefore they should study to have the faith of this truth fixed on their hearts, and a deep impression thereof on their spirits, to the end, that, 1. Be their case …
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

The First
refers to Genesis ii., the promise being, "I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God" (Rev. ii. 7). God begins from Himself. The Apocalypse related not only to Israel, but to the earth; and the first promise goes back to Eden and to the "tree of life." The way to that tree was lost: but was "kept" (or preserved) by the cherubim (Gen. iii. 24). These cherubim next appear in connection with the way to the Living One, in the Tabernacle, and are thus linked …
E.W. Bullinger—Commentary on Revelation

How Subjects and Prelates are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 5.) Differently to be admonished are subjects and prelates: the former that subjection crush them not, the latter that superior place elate them not: the former that they fail not to fulfil what is commanded them, the latter that they command not more to be fulfilled than is just: the former that they submit humbly, the latter that they preside temperately. For this, which may be understood also figuratively, is said to the former, Children, obey your parents in the Lord: but to …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

The Life of Mr. Hugh Binning.
There being a great demand for the several books that are printed under Mr. Binning's name, it was judged proper to undertake a new and correct impression of them in one volume. This being done, the publishers were much concerned to have the life of such an useful and eminent minister of Christ written, in justice to his memory, and his great services in the work of the gospel, that it might go along with this impression. We living now at so great distance from the time wherein he made a figure in …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Of Deeper Matters, and God's Hidden Judgments which are not to be Inquired Into
"My Son, beware thou dispute not of high matters and of the hidden judgments of God; why this man is thus left, and that man is taken into so great favour; why also this man is so greatly afflicted, and that so highly exalted. These things pass all man's power of judging, neither may any reasoning or disputation have power to search out the divine judgments. When therefore the enemy suggesteth these things to thee, or when any curious people ask such questions, answer with that word of the Prophet, …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

The Mercy of God
The next attribute is God's goodness or mercy. Mercy is the result and effect of God's goodness. Psa 33:5. So then this is the next attribute, God's goodness or mercy. The most learned of the heathens thought they gave their god Jupiter two golden characters when they styled him good and great. Both these meet in God, goodness and greatness, majesty and mercy. God is essentially good in himself and relatively good to us. They are both put together in Psa 119:98. Thou art good, and doest good.' This …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

A Book for Boys and Girls Or, Temporal Things Spritualized.
by John Bunyan, Licensed and entered according to order. London: Printed for, and sold by, R. Tookey, at his Printing House in St. Christopher's Court, in Threadneedle Street, behind the Royal Exchange, 1701. Advertisement by the Editor. Some degree of mystery hangs over these Divine Emblems for children, and many years' diligent researches have not enabled me completely to solve it. That they were written by Bunyan, there cannot be the slightest doubt. 'Manner and matter, too, are all his own.'[1] …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

The Christian's God
Scripture References: Genesis 1:1; 17:1; Exodus 34:6,7; 20:3-7; Deuteronomy 32:4; 33:27; Isaiah 40:28; 45:21; Psalm 90:2; 145:17; 139:1-12; John 1:1-5; 1:18; 4:23,24; 14:6-11; Matthew 28:19,20; Revelation 4:11; 22:13. WHO IS GOD? How Shall We Think of God?--"Upon the conception that is entertained of God will depend the nature and quality of the religion of any soul or race; and in accordance with the view that is held of God, His nature, His character and His relation to other beings, the spirit …
Henry T. Sell—Studies in the Life of the Christian

Of the Incapacity of an Unregenerate Person for Relishing the Enjoyments of the Heavenly World.
John iii. 3. John iii. 3. --Except a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom of God. IN order to demonstrate the necessity of regeneration, of which I would fain convince not only your understandings, but your consciences, I am now proving to you, that without it, it is impossible to enter into the kingdom of God; and how weighty a consideration that is I am afterwards to represent. That it is thus impossible, the words in the text do indeed sufficiently prove: but for the further illustration …
Philip Doddridge—Practical Discourses on Regeneration

Paul a Pattern of Prayer
TEXT: "If ye shall ask anything in my name I will do it."--John 14:14. Jesus testified in no uncertain way concerning prayer, for not alone in this chapter does he speak but in all his messages to his disciples he is seeking to lead them into the place where they may know how to pray. In this fourteenth chapter of John, where he is coming into the shadow of the cross and is speaking to his disciples concerning those things which ought to have the greatest weight with them, the heart of his message …
J. Wilbur Chapman—And Judas Iscariot

Covenanting Enforced by the Grant of Covenant Signs and Seals.
To declare emphatically that the people of God are a covenant people, various signs were in sovereignty vouchsafed. The lights in the firmament of heaven were appointed to be for signs, affording direction to the mariner, the husbandman, and others. Miracles wrought on memorable occasions, were constituted signs or tokens of God's universal government. The gracious grant of covenant signs was made in order to proclaim the truth of the existence of God's covenant with his people, to urge the performance …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

The Death of the Righteous
'For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.' Phil 1:1I. Paul was a great admirer of Christ. He desired to know nothing but Christ, and him crucified. I Cor 2:2. No medicine like the blood of Christ; and in the text, For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.' I. For to me to live is Christ. We must understand Paul of a spiritual life. For to me to live is Christ, i.e.' Christ is my life; so Gregory of Nyssa; or thus, my life is made up of Christ. As a wicked man's life is made up of sin, …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

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