Food
for Thought:
Worship: A Must
For All Believers
February 17 , 2008
Dr. Mark Ruppert
Revelation 4 & 5
Anne Ortlund in her book Up with Worship writes,
“Christians can be grouped into two categories- marbles and grapes.
Marbles are ‘single unites that don’t affect each other except in
collision.’ Grapes, on the other hand, mingle juices: each one is a
‘part of the fragrance’ of the church body. The early Christians
didn’t bounce around like loose marbles, ricocheting in all
directions. Picture them as a cluster of ripe grapes, squeezed
together by persecution, bleeding and mingling into one another.
Fellowship and worship, then, is genuine Christianity freely shared
among God’s family members. It’s sad to think of how many
Christians today are missing that kind of closeness. Sermons and
songs, while uplifting and necessary, provide only part of a vital
church encounter. We need involvement with others too. If we roll
in and out of church each week without acquiring a few grape juice
stains, we really haven’t tasted the sweet wine of fellowship.”
Let me ask you, do you have a few grape juice stains on you?
Another question- see, I’m just full of questions today- What is
worship to you? Is it some ritual, something that you do pretty
near every Sunday morning somewhere close to 11:00 a.m., some
obligation that you feel- obligation to a spouse, another person
that if you don’t go you will disappoint them? Is worship a time
for you to give back to God, a time for you only to receive from God
or both? How would you define worship? I want to keep that
question in front of us all as we look to the book of Revelation,
chapters 4 & 5.
Today we continue in our second part of a 5 part series on the
Spiritual Disciplines where today we look at Worship. The Wednesday
Bible Study groups have already studied our passage and so maybe I
should have someone from one of the 5 study groups do the
preaching. But, Oh well, you have to settle for me. To begin, let
me say just a few things about the book of Revelation.
There is almost a choral-symphonic nature about
this book that can stir up our feelings as well as questions and
ideas. It is a book that is hard to understand and hard to forget.
It is a book to read and to feel. There are parts that have hidden
meanings and are very mysterious, and even though we might not be
able to understand every sentence, there really is an order and a
progression in the 22 chapters. It is a book steeped in the Old
Testament. A fact- the book of Revelation has more allusions to the
Old Testament than any other book in the New Testament. (J. M. Ford
identifies 400 such allusions in chapters 4-22, Revelation,
Anchor Bible, New York: Doubleday)
Revelation is what is known as apocalyptic literature.
It is written with a hidden meaning. A 3-fold mixture characterizes
apocalyptic literate and they are: 1.) hiddenness, 2.) major
upheaval, and 3.) a decisive divine act. Revelation is written, now
this is the traditional date, somewhere between A.D. 90-95 during
the reign of the emperor Domitian. John is on the Island of Patmos
and he has a dramatic vision that is recorded in the book. The
persecution of Christians was rampant and evil was everywhere.
So John’s vision is being set forth and now, in
chapter 4, the second unfolding of John’s vision begins with the
phrase, “After this I looked.” And when he looked he saw a door
standing open in heaven, he saw a throne and God is on His throne.
The scene shows forth the heavenly glory of God and the Lamb- Jesus
Christ. Around this throne are 24 elders who sit around the throne
clothed in white robes, wearing crowns, they cast their crowns
before the throne and they continually worship and praise God. Now
there are a lot of interpretations about who these 24 elders might
be. Let me share one that seems reasonable to me- and that is that
the 24 elders is symbolic, remember this is written with a hidden
meaning, the 24 elders is a symbolic representation of the faithful
people of God.
Why 24?
Because the church is made up of Jews and Gentiles. Originally
there were 12 tribes, but now that number is doubled. One scholar
by the name of Swete suggests that the 24 elders stand for the
Church in its totality. But remember, this is a vision, not
something that is but what shall be. And the 24 elders represent
the whole Church that will one day in glory worship in the very
presence of Almighty God Himself.
Amid the
magnificence of heavenly worship, which includes the prayers of the
Christians on earth, (Rev. 5:8), the Lamb, Jesus Christ, appears,
takes the sealed scroll from the hand of the one seated o the
throne, and as he opens the seals the eschatological event begins.
Eschatology meaning what is to happen at the end of human history.
You will
notice that there is worship described in Revelation 4:6-11. A few
questions: Where is the worship held? Verse 6 gives us a
clue- around the throne. What does worship consist
of? Verses 8-11 tell us. It consists of: Vs. 8 singing,
day and night; Vs. 9 giving glory, and honor, and
thanks to our God seated on His throne. It also involves
vs. 10 falling down before our God. Notice that
the last words of the heavenly chorus of 4:11 worship God as the
Creator of all. And then look over to chapter 5 and see what else
goes into this worship. Verse 6 tells us they sing a
new song to the Lamb. While chapter 4 we hear the heavenly
chorus worshiping God as the Creator of all, the choir that sings
the final chorus in chapter 5 is praise to the Lamb and is comprised
of the whole creation.
When you read
these two chapters together, chapters 4 and 5, there is a grand
vision in concentric circles from God through Christ to the living
creatures, to the 24 elders, to an innumerable host, to include
absolutely every thing that is. It is one whole creation
celebrating the one God as Creator and Redeemer.
Think about
it- there is no one and nothing that is not in this picture, no one
and nothing is excluded. This is an unbelievable scene of worship
where everyone is praising, everyone is singing, everyone is
worshiping. Everyone.
A personal
story- if you ever have the pleasure of sitting next to my
80-year-old father in church you will experience it first hand. I
sat next to him all those growing up years, with my brother and
grandmother- my mother sang in the choir so we never sat together as
a family except during the summer. But sitting next to my Dad was
an experience. My Dad couldn’t hit a note in a bucket, as a matter
of fact he sings one note and every now and then he would either be
singing the right note or harmonize, or just be plain flat. But the
reason I mention this is even though he couldn’t technically sing,
he still sang and even today at his church in Pittsburgh will be
singing next to my brother and his family. Why?
Because he
was there to worship the God whom created him and gave him life. He
sang and sings to worship God.
In the
Wednesday Bible Study there were a few questions that I want to
bring to your attention today as it relates to this passage. I will
list them and invite you to ponder them. They are: In Revelation
5:8-14 identify the beings worshiping the Lamb. What different
forms of worship do you see? The next question asks, What
does this variety suggest about our attitude toward forms of worship
that are very different from what we are accustomed to?
And then the
next two questions are, Compare your worship with that of
Revelation 4 and 5. What are the similarities and differences?
And in what ways would you like for your worship to be more like
what is described here [in the passage]? Remember at the
beginning I asked a question, “How would you define worship?” I
would like to address that question and suggest what worship is.
First, How
would you define worship? I want to read for you from our
denomination’s Book of Order that contains the Directory of
Worship for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). This part does not
mandate exact prayer texts or outline unbending orders of worship,
somehow giving preachers the exact way it should be done. It is,
however, wonderfully descriptive as it offers a clear commentary of
the theology reflected in our worship and outlines possible forms
and orders of service that are appropriate for Presbyterians to us.
Let me read
to you the first paragraph that helps us understand the specific God
focus of our worship. It reads, “Christian worship joyfully
ascribes all praise and honor, glory and power to the triune God.
In worship, the people of God acknowledge God present in the world
and in their lives.
As they
respond to God’s claim and redemptive action in Jesus Christ,
believers are transformed and renewed. In worship, the faithful
offer themselves and are equipped for God’s service in the world.”
Let me just highlight some of the key points of this quote: 1)
Worship is Joyful. The Westminster Shorter Catechism
that was written around 1649 asks, “What is the chief end of man?”
The answer: “To glorify God and enjoy him forever.” How joyful is
your worship? This doesn’t mean we should be goofy or giddy or even
glib but joyful that we are with other believers and most
importantly in the presence of our God where we can give back to Him
our praise and thanksgiving. 2) Worship should involve praise
and honor to God. From the opening sentence to the call
to worship to the benediction praise, honor, glory and power belong
only to God. 3) God is present. Worship must
recognize that God is already present, the question is have we shown
up? Are we ready to worship Him?
Do we
understand that our worship is a response to what our great God has
done, is doing, and is about to do in our lives? 4) We should
believe and anticipate that we will be transformed and
renewed. Let me read the last lines from the Directory of
Worship in the section entitled, Worship and the Ministry of the
Church in the World, which includes Philippians 2:9-11, it
reads, “In worship the church is transformed and renewed, equipped
and sent to serve God’s reign in the world. The church looks for
the day ‘when every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under
the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father.’”
To wrap this
up let me attempt to answer “What is worship?” Worship is not a
matter of style but practicing the presence of God. Worship begins
in wonder, it is a responses to mystery because Biblical religion
cannot always be explained rationally.
Our faith
begins with a God who is different, a God who exists outside human
experience, human categories of thinking and understanding, a God
who is holy, a God in whose presence we are not, at first,
altogether comfortable, just like Moses when he encountered God in
the burning bush. Our God cannot be boxed in or forced into our
intellectual categories. And so we must acknowledge that He is a
Holy God and we then kneel, fall on our faces, and like Moses, take
off our shoes before our God. Worship is praising God with organ
and guitars and flute and drums and the instruments that God helped
to create.
The great
Danish theologian, Soren Kierkegaard said, the theater metaphor is
valid, but we get the players mixed up. The audience is God. The
actors are the people who come to do something for God- to worship.
The prompters are the clergy and choir whose job is not to
entertain, not to focus attention on themselves, but to help the
people worship- for whose sake we have gone to all this trouble.
And so today,
we join with the saints who have gone one before us and as they are
now worshiping at the throne in heaven with our God and the Lamb,
let us celebrate their witness, their ministry, and their lives that
were well lived and now at rest. Let me move to the communion table
as we remember those who died this past year.
Key Points
Introduction:
Anne Ortlund, in her book Up With Worship, puts Christians
into two categories- marbles and grapes…
Questions: What
is worship to you? How would you define
worship?
A few things
about the book of Revelation…
Revelation is known as ______________
literature
A three-fold
mixture characterizes this literature:
1.
______________
2.
major
______________
3.
a decisive
__________ act
Chapters 4 & 5
A few questions:
Where is
worship held? Around the ________ vs.6
What
does worship consist of? Vs. 8 ________;
Vs. 9
giving ______ and ______ and ______ to God;
it also
involves Vs. 10 _______ down before God
Vs. 6
tells us they sing a _____ song to the Lamb
Everyone is praising, singing and
worshiping
How would you
define worship?
What is
worship?
Conclusion: joining with the saints who are now worshiping at the
throne in heaven with our God and the Lamb
Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.)
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