Sermon Tone Analysis

THE MUSIC OF HEAVEN based on Rev.15:1-8

By Glenn Pease

Most of us are not gifted in the realm of music.

Many of us feel pathetic in our ability to sing, and even more so with our ability to produce music.

We can easily envy those to whom it comes easy.

Elizabeth Resen, at four could listen to music in a play at school, and then go home and play it on the piano.

A classmate asked her how she did it, and she said , "I hear it in my ear then I hum it in my mouth.

And then I play it with my fingers."

If only it were that easy for all of us.

The good news is, we have every reason to believe that all of God's people will be so gifted in their new bodies in the eternal kingdom.

God is a great lover of music, and He will want nothing but the best for all eternity.

Everyone is expected to sing His praises, and so we can expect to be given unique abilities to do so.

The fact that the Bible reveals there is so much singing in heaven implies that all who are there will be able to sing well.

The book of Revelation has a host of happy hymns of harmony as part of the heavenly scene.

Poems of praise are part of paradise.

Joyful songs of jubilation to Jesus, and songs of salvation to the Savior are a major part of this book.

It tells us about the adoration that is always an activity around the presence of the Almighty.

It makes sense that there will be a lot of singing in heaven.

If there is plenty on earth, how much greater will be our desire to praise God, when all His promises are fulfilled, and we are enjoying the fullness of our salvation?

It is also logical, because song is the best way known to unite a large number of people in a common activity.

Hundreds and even thousands can join in one accord, as they sing the praises of the Lord.

Singing is something a number of people can do together, and produce what is beautiful sound to the glory of God.

The interesting thing about the particular song in heaven, we are focusing on in Rev.15 is, it is both old and new.

It is both the song of Moses, and the song of the Lamb.

The song of the Lamb was fairly new, but the song of Moses was well over 1200 years old when John wrote.

We see ads all the time for records and tapes of songs that were popular in the 50's and 60's.

They bring back memories, and people buy them by the thousands to relive the good old days.

Now we see John is telling us, they do the same thing in heaven.

The great victory of the Exodus was the birth of Israel as a nation, and that event produced the first great song of Israel.

It became like a national anthem.

John said the dead in Christ go on singing that song of Moses, for it is a song of celebration, just like the song of the Lamb, which is the celebration of the ultimate Exodus--the Exodus of Jesus, as the Lamb of God, out of bondage to the flesh, out of bondage to matter, out of bondage to sin, death, and hell--into the liberty of the Kingdom of God.

Jesus was our Moses, and He led the way, and was the pioneer of our faith, and enabled us to pass out of the Egypt of our bondage into the promised land of liberty.

What Moses did for the Old Testament people of God, Jesus has done for the New Testament people of God.

The result is their songs are the top two on the charts of heaven, and they always will be, for all other songs are based on these two.

The Old Testament saints sing the song of the Lamb too, for their exodus out of Egypt would have meant nothing if Jesus had not led the way out of death.

On the other hand, the New Testament saints sing the song of Moses, for if he would not have led God's people out of Egypt to become a unique people, the plan for a Savior never could have been fulfilled.

Both the Old Testament and the New Testament plan of God are vital parts of the whole, and the songs of heaven prove it.

The new will be with us forever.

We will sing endless new and enjoyable tunes, and music will be an endless progression of new songs.

But the fact is, the old will never be obsolete, for the old will always be the foundation for all the new.

The old songs of Moses and the Lamb will be enjoyed one hundred billion years from now, and we will appreciate them all the more, because we will have enjoyed so much more of what their salvation means.

Don't waste your time trying to figure out which is best--the old or the new.

They are both best, for they are both vital to the whole.

The song of Moses and the song of the Lamb--cease to sing either and you rob the other of it's fullness of joy.

There is a major lesson for life here on the music of heaven.

There is no conflict between the classical and the contemporary.

There is wisdom in heaven, for they see the validity and the value of both.

Christians should appreciate the heritage of their old hymns, and yet enjoy the endless possibilities of new songs, by which to praise their Lord.

God is always the same, and so whatever was valid once, will always be valid.

But God is also infinite, and so there is no end to what can be discovered, and so the new is always valid also.

The wise Christian will learn from the heavenly singers to preserve the old, and pursue the new.

C. S. Lewis says this is the only way to grow.

It is not growth to abandon the old for the new.

That is merely change, not growth.

Growth is like a tree adding rings.

It is not growth for a train to leave one station behind and puff on to the next.

That is change but not growth.

Growth is when you add the new to the old.

He loved fairy tales as a youth, and later in life he learned to love novels.

But he still loved fairy tales, and so that was growth.

Had he lost his love for fairy tales, that would have been change only, and not growth.

Growth is a process of loving the old and the new.

Growth is what we see in the music of heaven.

They sing the song of Moses, and the song of the Lamb.

A music program that is Biblical, will be just what Paul urges that it be, in Eph.5:19, where he writes, "Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.

Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord."

Again, he writes in Col.3:16, " Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God."

The three Greek words Paul uses for singing are salmos, hymnos, and ode.

Ode is a word we do not use much, and it is used only 7 times in the New Testament.

Two of them we just read by Paul, and the other 5 are in the book of Revelation.

Two of these we have right here in our text--the ode of Moses and ode of the Lamb.

How an ode differs from a psalm, or a hymn, is not easy to say, but what it seems to mean is this--the ode appears to be more like what we call a chorus.

The odes of Revelation are all very short, simple, and not repetitious like a hymn.

The ode is newer music, like the hymn, which are in contrast to the age old psalms, but the ode is less formal than the hymn, and thus, more like a chorus.

The point is, singing that is Biblically balanced will be a combination of all three.

This gives us the old and the new, the formal and informal, the solemn and the joyful.

All the emotions are to be touched by songs.

The one area where churches have been weak, is in the area of the ode, or chorus.

They have become popular in recent years, and this is more in conformity to the music of heaven.

None of the songs in the book of Revelation are called psalms or hymns.

They are all called odes.

If these short little enthusiastic praises are good enough for heaven, then we are being spiritually snobbish if we feel they are not good enough for our worship.

I have to admit, psalms and hymns seem more dignified for a worship service, but this is because I have been conditioned by tradition.

The music of heaven, however, has made me realize worship has other perspectives.

It can be worshipful to laugh and clap, and be informal in our praise.

Mac Davis sang, I Believe In Music, years ago, and the second stanza says,

Music is love, love is music if

you know what I mean.

People who believe in music are

the happiest people I ever seen.

So clap your hands, stomp your

feet, shake your tambourine,

Lift your voices to the sky.

God

loves you when you sing.

God not only loves a cheerful giver, He loves a cheerful singer, and often the chorus helps us be more cheerful in our singing.

D. L. Moody said, "Singing could do as much as preaching to proclaim God's Word." Martin Luther said, "Next to theology I give the first and highest honor to music."

Luther began to use secular music, for he was convinced the devil should not have all the good tunes.

Not everyone agreed with Luther.

John Calvin was worried people would just have fun singing, and not really be worshipping, he put the brakes on, and even melted down organ pipes for other uses.