Behold the Throne of God Above

Introduction:

What does authentic worship look like? We’ve all seen “the show!” We’ve been in horrid worship and we’ve been in excellent worship. At least I hope you’ve been in authentic worship before.

So, what’s the difference? Authentic worship is not a style. It is about a person. It is when worshiper and God unite in mind, body, and soul. It isn’t mystical and it doesn’t require that we conjure something up. We don’t even need smoke, lights, or a pad to keep it going. We simply need to behold the throne room of God.

Many of you may be familiar with worship leader Matt Redmond. He is most famous for his song The Heart of Worship. If you listen to him, you will notice “he ain’t from around here.” He is from Engand.

The song comes out of a time when there was great apathy in the worship at his church. Here’s what happened.

“There was a dynamic missing, so the pastor did a pretty brave thing,” he recalls. “He decided to get rid of the sound system and band for a season, and we gathered together with just our voices. His point was that we’d lost our way in worship, and the way to get back to the heart would be to strip everything away.”

The result was a return to genuine worship and the song The Heart of Worship was written. The song begins,

When the music fades, all is stripped away, and I simply come / Longing just to bring something that’s of worth that will bless your heart… / I’m coming back to the heart of worship, and it’s all about You, Jesus

So, how to we get away from genuine worship? It starts when we take our eyes off of Jesus and put them on ourselves. Our Scripture tonight is going to help us refix our eyes on Jesus. Whether you struggle with worship, or struggle with anxiety, or just are unsure of whether God is controlling what’s going on in your life and world around you, tonight we are going to glimpse into the throne room of heaven.

Read Text. Pray.

The vision that John has revolves around two main points, and then we will apply everything at the end of the message. It is also very similar to the visions recorded in and . All of the images paint a picture of the heavenly throne room and give us a glimpse at God’s glory. We also see similar feature+- those in . may be the most influential of all of the passages to help shape the vision John saw. The truth is he saw what he saw. Let’s keep in mind what Matthew Henry says before going any further.

“So far as God reveals his designs to us we may and ought to receive them, and not pretend to be wise above what is revealed.”

So that will be our guiding principle throughout the rest of the book as we seek to explain the visions John sees. I will attempt to explain the imagery, but we will also see that some of it is shrouded in mystery and we must take away only what we can.

1. Look to the One Seated on the Throne (v. 1-6a).

2. Worship the One Seated on the Throne (vv. 6b-11).

Application:

1. God is Sovereignly Ruling the Universe

2. Man was Created to Worship God

3. Earthly Worship Should Reflect Heavenly Worship