In a play by George Bernard Shaw, Don Juan says, “Heaven is alright, of course, but for meeting old friends and acquaintances you can’t beat hell.”
There is a powerful truth in that facetious remark. People concerned only about themselves would find the ceaseless praise of God and the Lamb intolerable. Worship on earth, a foretaste of heaven, is just as unpalatable to them as Don Juan’s thoughts. But to those who profess to follow Christ, worship is our deepest need just as it was to the seven churches in Revelations.
Worship is our response to God.
This image of the heavenly court sees God enthroned surrounded by various attendants.
John was undoubtedly drawing on the most precious things in his experience to describe the glory of God’s presence in the passage from Revelations. It is not up to us to decipher each image, but to be captured with the significance of worship that transcends time and space. Highlighted in John’s words is the importance of the Rainbow. It made its first appearance in the old testament when God promised Noah that he would never again send a flood which would cover the whole of the earth. The rainbow is God’s promise. And as we meet the rainbow in the first chapters of the bible we meet it again in the closing chapters when the rainbow is a sign of God’s glory. The rainbow in Revelations is a powerful statement that God’s sovereign rule in the disasters that will follow are not at the expense of mercy. God’s promise to Noah is not forgotten. This scene which John describes is lavish, dramatic and appeals to our faith. It is rich in biblical imagery and is designed to show us that worship is the dominating perspective of the Christian life. What appears to be a waste of time and wealth is holy waste and meets our deepest need.
John sees 24 elders. This has been described as symbolizing the ideal church represented by the 12 patriarchs of the Old Covenant and the 12 apostles of the new. And the four living creatures may stand for everything that is noblest, wisest, strongest and swiftest in nature. The king of beasts, the lion; the supreme among domesticated animals, the ox; the supreme among birds, the eagle; and the supreme among all creatures, human. This chapter from Revelations shows the throne of God towering above the troubled course of human history and the scroll of destiny to be handed to the Lamb who when the time comes, will bring history to a close. The great biblical theme of creation and redemption are underlined and these form the subject of the worship of heaven.
The 24 cast their crowns before the throne singing, ‘You are worthy , our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created’.
So many people see worship as people pleasing. It’s not. It is important to direct ourselves to be God pleasing. It is not what WE get out of worship, it is what we give God in our worship. It is important for us to concentrate on the kind of worship given to God. The English word worship means literally worth -ship. And God alone is worthy or worth-ship.
True worship is not the mechanical repetition of rituals, but should be wholehearted and reverent. It should be based upon trustful and obedient lives in that obedience is itself to be seen as an act of worship.
The supreme reason for human existence is to worship God for his love, greatness and saving deeds. True worship goes beyond mere form and can be hindered by a wrong relationship to God or to others. Remember what Jesus said, ‘before you lay your gift on the altar go and make peace with your brother’.
Praise and thankfulness are important elements of worship which also includes confession of sin, the reading of scripture and music. We are encouraged to worship with awe, worship with joy, worship with music and worship with dance. But I do accept we are a bit constrained by the aisle to follow that instruction too closely, although I have been in churches where the challenge of the aisle has been used creatively. Worship which not only gives God what is due to him but also results in many benefits to his people.
There is blessing, guidance, deliverance, a sense of God’s presence, a deeper sense of Jesus’s lordship and a boldness to witness.
Worship is praise, adoration, and reverence of God, both in public and private. While our worship may not include flashes of lightning and thunder one thing we can all do is ask God to teach us how to worship him.
And if we do that humbly, prayerfully and meaningfully, God will answer.
AMEN
Edwina