1After these things I looked and saw a door opened in heaven; and the first voice that I heard, like a trumpet speaking with me, was one saying, “Come up here, and I will show you the things which must happen after this.”
2Immediately I was in the Spirit. Behold, there was a throne set in heaven, and one sitting on the throne 3that looked like a jasper stone and a sardius. There was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald to look at. 4Around the throne were twenty-four thrones. On the thrones were twenty-four elders sitting, dressed in white garments, with crowns of gold on their heads. 5Out of the throne proceed lightnings, sounds, and thunders. There were seven lamps of fire burning before his throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. 6Before the throne was something like a sea of glass, similar to crystal. In the middle of the throne, and around the throne were four living creatures full of eyes before and behind. 7The first creature was like a lion, the second creature like a calf, the third creature had a face like a man, and the fourth was like a flying eagle. 8The four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within. They have no rest day and night, saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come!”
9When the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to him who sits on the throne, to him who lives forever and ever, 10the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever, and throw their crowns before the throne, saying, 11“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, the Holy One, to receive the glory, the honor, and the power, for you created all things, and because of your desire they existed and were created!”
Note the structural marker, “after these things,” which connects this to Jesus’ instruction to John in 1:19. This helps outline the message of the Revelation and tells us that we are not in the portion of Revelation that looks into the future. Though some interpreters believe that what follows has already been fulfilled (Preterists), it is better to see these events and personalities as yet future (Futurists).
John’s “looking” is the same term he used in chapter 1 when he turned and saw Jesus. The “door” he sees in heaven is not a literal door, but a part of his vision. It was a common image used in extrabiblical Jewish apocalyptic literature. That does not invalidate Jesus’ use of this with John nor indicate that John was making it up to match Jewish literature. Rather, John is reporting what he saw and heard from Jesus. Jesus likely used this because it was familiar to John, and he would catch its significance.
The “voice like a trumpet” that calls John up to heaven in his vision is that of Jesus. John identifies it as the same voice he had heard in chapter 1. The intensity and volume of voices throughout the Revelation indicate power and authority.