WORSHIP AS SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE

-Tonight we’re going to look at various verses in Revelation chapters 4 & 5

-You know, before I came here to Alabama, we lived in Mississippi right over the border from Memphis. Memphis is famous for a lot of things—BBQ, blues music. But it is also famous because it is home to one of the most famous tourist spots in the world—Graceland. I visited the home of Elvis Presley a few times while I was there (usually just to show out of town family), and the impression that I left with every time I visited was that I had just walked through the temple of a foreign god.

-While it is pushing through tourists on a daily basis, it also twice a year hosts a pilgrimage of people to mark Elvis’ birthday and the day of his death, filled with a week long calendar of events. The only way that I can describe what some of these people do is that they have come to worship their god. It really is like a religious experience. They come to honor their deity—they show ultimate worth to their idol. And that is what drives them and motivates them and moves them. It is what they obsess over. All of this for a dead singer. (Although, rumor has it he’s still alive and working at a 7-11.)

-This worship of this earthly god shapes them into the people that they are—it forms them. Worship has a tendency to do that. If the worship of an idol has such power of formation, how much more does the worship of the true and living God. We have been talking about the spiritual disciplines available to us for our growth and maturity in the faith, and worship is definitely such a discipline.

-Often, when we talk about worship, we think of singing. While that is one part of worship, that is not the entirety of worship. It is an expression of worship, but there are other expressions as well. In its most basic sense worship is the proper response to God when we have been changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself said that His people would worship God in Spirit and in truth. One author describes how this change of heart brings us to seek that which has ultimate worth. He says:

[The gospel] transforms us and enables us to know God. It rescues us from the darkness of sins and opens our spiritual eyes, enabling us to see things from a true perspective, to see things as they really are. It gives us the ability to perceive the fallacy of the world's value system and thus to value those things which have real worth. That's not to say we always avail ourselves of this ability, but once we have come into spiritual life there is no longer any excuse for worshiping that which does not deserve our praise.

-And when we worship that which is true and valuable, we grow in our faith and it flows out into our lifestyle. Tonight I want to consider how worship is so formative in our lives.

-First, worship is formative because it is theological. Theology is to have a knowledge of God—not one that is merely intellectual, but one that affects the way we live. You can only worship what you know, and the more that you know the worth and value of something or someone, the more apt you are to give the worship and praise due to that one.

-So, consider the scene that we have here in Revelation. John is brought into the throne room of heaven. There he sees angels and living creatures and elders worshipping God the Father and the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, constantly. And you notice that the depth of their worship is tied to their knowledge of God. These heavenly creatures know a whole lot more about God than mere humans do, so it caused them to worship. And yet, at the same time the more that they worshipped the more they learned about God. They never exhausted learning more about God because God is eternal.

-So this is how worship is formative. We study the Word and pray and use the other disciplines to know God more. The more we know God the more we know of His infinite value and worth, and that leads to worship. But then in the act of worship itself we learn more about God which feeds itself into more worship. Worship is not merely some ritual that we go through to maybe manipulate God to give us what we want, or some mindless ceremony. It is reflecting back to God His worth because of the theology that you know about Him.

-So, look at what the heavenly beings do and say in worship:

Revelation 4:8–11 LSB

8 And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within, and day and night they do not cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.” 9 And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 11 “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.”

-In v. 8, three times it is repeated that God is Holy, Holy, Holy. It is repeated for emphasis—this word is the best human word there is to describe God’s character and attributes. By acknowledging His holiness they are saying God is valuable because He is completely different and separated from anything else. God is Creator, everything else is creation, and so there is nothing that can be on the same level as God. They are also recognizing that God is set apart and separate from sin. God is morally perfect and pure. It would take an eternity to fully comprehend the extent of His holiness.

-Another bit of theology is that He is the Lord God Almighty. This is a recognition that God is transcendent, that He is all-powerful, that He is completely sovereign and providentially controls everything that exists. It is a reminder that there is no one and nothing that can change God or manipulate God.

-They recognize that God is eternal. He is above time, outside of time, beyond time. He is the one who was, and is, and is to come. So, their theology drove their worship because God is everything I just mentioned and so much more. And the more that they worshipped God based on these truths, the more these truths and other truths became even clearer to them.

-There is a second way that worship is formative in that it is practical—and what I mean by that is that it leads us to action, it leads us to certain practices in our lives. I think that this is important because so much of modern day worship (thankfully not here) is man centered, and the impetus is to get people to feel good. It doesn’t try to lead you to a better knowledge of God or a better practice of your Christian faith; it leads you to feel good about yourself. But feeling good (in this sense) doesn’t help you to grow or mature.

-Real worship leads to a God-honoring lifestyle, bringing certain attitudes and actions along with that. So, what do I mean by this? Well, for example, look at the posture of worship that was going on in heaven. I want to look at three certain verses:

Revelation 4:10 LSB

10 the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

Revelation 5:8 LSB

8 And when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

Revelation 5:14 LSB

14 And the four living creatures kept saying, “Amen.” And the elders fell down and worshiped.

-Consider the posture of the elders. Every time here they fell down on their face and worshipped. That is a good posture to be in because it is indicative of a humble heart. True worship will lead to humility. When you worship you recognize God for who He is, and after you realize who God is you get a better sense of who you are in comparison to Him. Here is this mighty, holy, sovereign, amazing God—and then there’s you and me, sinful, mortal, frail human beings.

-Those who have a right theology about God in worship also have a right anthropology of who humanity is in comparison. That is why those who have such a little view of God have such a big personal ego—when your god is small you become big. That’s why people who refer to God as the “man upstairs” or “my buddy” are absolutely clueless. In fact, it is downright insulting to God. But when your theology is right, and you see yourself in comparison, you cannot be anything but humble.

-Worship also reminds us that we are to surrender anything and everything in our lives to the sovereign One. Look again:

Revelation 4:10 LSB

10 the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

-Notice that they cast their crowns before God. If we want to say that the crowns represent achievements, rewards, accolades—anything that humans might seek or receive for their works. What do these in heaven do—they cast their crowns at the feet of God because anything that humanity does is miniscule in comparison to what He did. And so, it’s a sign and reminder that everything that we think we have, own, do, or possess, all belong to God. If I have done anything halfway decent in my life, it’s because of God. If I have achieved anything in my life, it’s because of God. If I possess anything in my life, it belongs to God anyway.

-We’re even told in Scripture that we are not our own—we were bought at a price. So, worship is a reminder to surrender and it is a time that we actually do surrender: we surrender our material possessions, we surrender our agenda, we surrender our future, we surrender our hopes, we surrender our dreams, we surrender our reputation all to Him. So, worship builds into our lifestyle a constant surrender of everything—giving to God all we hold dear because of who He is and the fact that it’s all His anyway.

-And then worship brings about a lifestyle of constant praise. If worship is generally showing God worth and value, praise is the specific action of extolling the wonders and excellence of God. Praise is not just singing the songs at a service, it is singing songs at home or in the car. It is recognizing His excellencies when we are doing yard work. It’s lifting our hearts to Him when we see the wonders of His creation in a sunset. Look at heaven praise:

Revelation 5:9 LSB

9 And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the scroll and to open its seals, because You were slain and purchased for God with Your blood people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

-They are praising Jesus for His work of redemption. One author said:

True praise means that wherever we are, whatever we are doing, we give praise to God in front of those who know Him and especially in front of those who do not know Him. We ascribe to Him the honor and the glory that He alone is due.

-So, this is how worship is a spiritual discipline, affecting what we know and what we do—growing us in walk with Christ. May we seek to make it a daily part of our lives and see how much closer we come to Him....