The phrase after this (meta tauta in Greek) is repeated twice in (Revelation 4:1). The Bible has other important references to heaven, in passages such as (Isaiah 6:1-8) (Ezekiel 1), and in passages describing the Tabernacle, which symbolically describes heaven (Exodus 25-32) (Exodus 35-40).
After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.”
After these things. After what things? After Jesus was finished speaking to the churches, John experienced the vision of (Revelation 4)
Like a trumpet! The voice spoke loud and clear to John. It was like the trumpet that gathered the congregation of Israel together, or gathered an army for battle. This voice speaking to John that says, “come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.” John will be shown things that concern the future and not the present.
Some like to interpret what John saw up through (Revelation 19) as fulfilled in what took place before John’s day, notably, in the Roman invasion and destruction of Jerusalem. Jesus clearly told John that He would show him things which must take place after this. Some like to interpret what John saw up through as fulfilled in history after John’s day but before our present day. But these events have yet to be fulfilled in any sort of literal sense; they can only be said to have been fulfilled by making them wildly symbolic. Therefore, we regard what Jesus will show John in the following chapters of Revelation as belonging to the future, and as proceeding the coming reign of Jesus on earth.
Notice that John says, “Immediately I was in the Spirit.” Where was his body? Was John’s body in heaven also, or was it just his spirit? This is impossible to know. Paul, when he had his heavenly experience, didn’t know if he was in the body or not (2 Corinthians 12:1-4). But what is really the point of this part of Scripture is John’s description of heaven. The throne is not empty. There is some One who sits on this great heavenly throne. The throne is a powerful declaration of not merely God’s presence, but of His sovereign, rightful reign, and His right to judge. We can’t think rightly about much of anything until we settle in our mind that there is an occupied throne in heaven, and the God of the Bible rules from that very throne. “While there may be many differing interpretations, the fundamental truths are self-evident. At the center of everything is an occupied throne.”
Around this setting of all sovereignty, power, authority and glory, this setting of the throne of God, God has a reminder of His promise to never destroy the earth again with water, a promise that directs His sovereignty, so that it is not against His promises. A throne says, “I can do whatever I want, because I rule.” A promise says, “I will fulfill this word to you, and I cannot do otherwise.” A rainbow around the throne is a remarkable thing, showing that God will always limit Himself by His own promises.
The heavenly Father in His Sovereignty, has a right to do with you, his child, as He pleases, but He will never let that sovereignty get out of the limit of the covenant. As the Sovereign, He could cast you away, but He has promised that He never will, and never will He. As the Sovereign, He could leave you to perish, but He has said, ‘I will not leave thee nor forsake thee.’ As the Sovereign, He could allow you to be tempted beyond your strength, but He has promised that no temptation shall happen to you, but such as is common to man, and He will with the temptation make a way of escape.”