Glorifying God in the Church by our Worship
Glorifying God in the Church by Our Worship (Revelation 4-5)
Preached by Pastor Phil Layton at Gold Country Baptist Church on January 27, 2008
I want to invite you to turn in your Bibles to Revelation 4 and turn your hearts upward to heaven to get a glimpse of what worship looks like before the throne of God above. Of all the pictures of worship we have in scripture, I don’t know of any more moving or lofty picture than chapters 4 and 5 of Revelation, and I pray that we can even worship together as I read these 2 chapters in their entirety, and seek to set our minds on things above, not on things here on earth, to lift our minds to heavenly thoughts of the glory for which we were created for, the reason for our existence, and the ultimate purpose of the church – the glory of God. One of the chief ways in which God is glorified by His church as well as by His heavenly hosts is by worship.
Revelation 4:1 After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.” 2 Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and One sitting on the throne. 3 And He who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance. 4 Around the throne were twenty-four thrones; and upon the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and golden crowns on their heads. 5 Out from the throne come flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God; 6 and before the throne there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal; and in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. 7 The first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. 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.”
Revelation 5:1 I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a book written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals. 2 And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals?” 3 And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it. 4 Then I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it
5 and one of the elders said to me, “Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.” 6 And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth. 7 And He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. 8 When He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9 And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. 10 “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.” 11 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” 13 And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.” 14 And the four living creatures kept saying, “Amen.” And the elders fell down and worshiped.
Abraham Kuyper gives a good summary of our study last week: ‘the purpose of the Church does not lie in us, but in God, and in the glory of His name’[1]
And the glory of God’s name is most magnified and God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him and mesmerized by Him, as we praise and worship Him and enjoy Him forever on earth as it is in heaven.
New Purpose Statement of Gold Country Baptist Church:
This church exists by the grace of God, for the glory of God, which shall be the ultimate purpose in all our activities
Isaiah 43:7 says God created us for His glory. Ephesians 3:21 says “to God be the glory in the church.” We as individuals and as a church exist by God’s grace and for God’s glory above all.
We’re going to spend several weeks and messages expounding how we as a church glorify God, by the God-given mandates of the church, or the means by which we will seek to fulfill our ultimate purpose, which is to glorify God by the activities He calls us to.
In our new constitution we have that overarching purpose statement about the glory of God above everything else, and then underneath we will have a separate section that says this:
This church will seek to glorify God by:
#1. The Worship of God. (Ps. 34:1-3; John 4:22-24; Rev. 4:8-11)
In the weeks ahead, we’ll be spending a week or more on other priorities through which the church is to glorify God (View of God, Word of God, Loving and Obeying God, Serving and Edifying the People of God, the Gospel of God - Evangelism, Missions, etc.). There’s a reason we put worship first on the list. Worship is to dominate everything and pervade everything we do. Some might put missions first on their list, or evangelism first, and I appreciate that zeal. But worship has a preeminent place because:
- all other actions should flow from and be fueled by a heart that worships in spirit and truth (if we are not truly worshipers, God is not pleased no matter what we do when our heart is far from Him, like Jesus said of the Pharisees)
- also worship is above man’s duties because it precedes the existence of humanity and does not rely on man
- when the earth was being created the angels sang for joy and worshipped God, days before Adam and Eve existed
- the heavens and earth created before man were to declare the glory of God, as Psalm 19 says
- worship not only came before humanity on earth, but it is one activity which will continue long after there is no man on earth and this world is recreated to a new heavens and a new earth. Missions and evangelism and teaching the Bible are only around for awhile in this life, but worship is eternal
In fact, worship really should be the motive and fuel of missions and evangelism, to bring others to worship this God and enjoy Him forever, which ultimately gives God glory. Evangelism exists because there are many places and peoples where God’s worship does not exist, and where God is not glorified as a result.
John Piper says it this way: “Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over … missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.”[2]
The chief end of man and the chief end of the church is to glorify God and enjoy Him (not just forever but now). Arguably the chief way in which we do that is through our worship and praise of God.
Ps 50:23 “Whoever offers praise glorifies me” (NKJV)
Ps 86:9 “All nations whom You have made Shall come and worship before You, O Lord, And shall glorify Your name.”
God’s worship and glory are clearly linked throughout scripture
So how can we glorify God as a church in our worship?
1. A SUPREME FOCUS ON GOD
Throne – appears 18x in the passage we read. To put that in perspective, the word throne appears more times in this text than it does in all the other books of the NT combined. Throne occurs nearly 50x overall in Revelation, and is an undeniable theme or emphasis of the book – not just a chair, but the sovereign rule it represents and the Sovereign One seated on the throne.
Isaiah’s vision of heaven (Isa 6:1) also begins this way
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. 2 Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.”
There’s a lot of things we could focus on from Isaiah’s vision and glimpse into heaven but notice it’s essentially the same picture and activities that John sees, angelic creatures surrounding the Lord crying holy, holy, holy, praising the Lord, glorifying God, worshipping, and the Lord’s majesty is on display, high and exalted – but the first thing both see is God’s Throne. There were a lot of difficulties for God’s people in Isaiah’s day and John’s day but God is always on His throne, ruling and reigning no matter what happens here on earth. The hearts of kings are in God’s hand and God turns them wherever He desires. God is now, always has been and always will be Sovereign! King Uzziah died but the real King is alive and enthroned, and God alone is to be the source of our strength and comfort, not any man or even the greatest of men.
In John’s day, it was not the seemingly all-powerful Roman Empire that would determine the future of Christianity. Caesar was not ultimately in charge. God and God alone occupies the throne of Omnipotence and actively rules over all, working all things for His glory and the good of His people.
There are many different approaches and nuances and interpretations of Revelation as a whole, but one point that should be very clear to any reader is that the Sovereignty and Supremacy of the enthroned Lord is dominant in this book. He is in charge!
Original audience:
Seven local churches in the Roman province of what in old days was called Asia Minor, in modern times would be on a map of Western Turkey. These were seven local churches, that had some good things going for them, but in other areas they were struggling, not unlike our churches today; struggling with sin, lukewarmness, lethargy, lack of love, lack of church discipline, tolerance of bad teaching, troubled by tribulation and persecution.
When you think of the book of Revelation, many of you immediately think of the prophecies of chapters 6 and following, these apocalyptic judgments of God, and God’s future plan for His saints, the people of Israel, etc. But after addressing each church and their sin issues in chapters 2 and 3, God doesn’t immediately launch right into giving His people what the future and end of time will look like or helping us get a chart laid out so we can put it on our wall or put it into bestselling books. Studying the details of future events has its place, but the first place and first thing God wanted John to see was this vision of majestic worship of the supreme and Sovereign Lord of the universe. God spends all of chapters 4 and 5 with this focus on God-glorifying worship, two full chapters that are mostly about the worship of Himself in all of His splendor and majesty and dominion. Don’t miss this focus!
To be sure, Revelation does give us details about how it all will end, but lest we get stuck in the trees and miss seeing the whole forest, what God wanted John and those original churches to first be caught up with was this vision of the throne room and the Master of the Universe who rules and reigns despite all the persecution and problems that first century Christians were facing.
When God is truly big in our minds, our problems are not as big.
That’s the big picture. So let’s not jump right to the prophecies and symbols to try to figure out what international politics or modern newspaper headlines have some correlation to the rest of the book of Revelation, and be so consumed with those secondary things that we miss the all-important primary message of chapters 4-5 about the worthiness of our Lord, the worth-ship of our Lord, the worship due His matchless and majestic name. In fact, the book is called the “Revelation” of Jesus Christ – He is the main character of this book, Christ not the antichrist is to be our focus. Christ is central and this book is primarily unveiling (that’s what Revelation means “unveiling”) the glory of the King of Kings who is coming back. The main point of the story is that King Jesus will be triumphant and victorious, and Revelation 19-21 tell us His kingdom will be setup, Satan will be bound and encarcerated in the abyss so he can longer deceive the world, Jesus will conquer His foes, and one day judgment will come on fallen angels and humanity.
It’s my personal belief that unfulfilled prophecies will be fulfilled by Christ as literally as the prophecies He fulfilled while here on earth the first time. In other words, God will fulfill promises in the future the same way as he fulfilled promises in the past during biblical times. I don’t assume that God’s pattern for many hundreds of years of fulfilling prophecies literally to the detail is now abandoned and prophecies are fulfilled mostly spiritually now. I think the way God accomplished promises at Christ’s first coming is the pattern we can expect for promises about His 2nd coming.
But before giving the vision of end-times events, God gives John the all-important vision of God and how He is glorified in worship. What John needed to see and what those seven churches needed to see first (and what we need to see above all) is a vision of the Lord high and lifted up, that we would be refreshed by seeing what God-centered, God-entranced, God-focused worship looks like before the throne of God above. The result should be that no matter what is going on in our lives and our world that we would long for the day when we will be on our faces before this Holy Holy Holy Lord of Hosts who before whom the whole earth is full of His glory.
And as we see true and perfect worship of God taking place, our prayer should be “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” – our desire is as much as possible in this life, that our worship of God here on earth would be as it is in heaven.
A. W. Tozer wrote: ‘I can safely say, on the authority of all that is revealed in the Word of God, that any man or woman on this earth who is bored and turned off by worship is not ready for heaven.’[3]
I pray that’s not true of you, and that we love to worship together. We don’t have time today to look at all the details of this passage, but I want to highlight just a few observations and broad lessons and the first one we’re already discussing is this Godward, God-centered focus in worship. I hope one thing stood out as we read – their worship was totally dominated by and pre-occupied with God.
- God is the center of their worship (few references to self)
- God is the subject of their worship (not them)
- God is the object of their worship (it’s not for them, it’s not about music style or how it makes them feel, it is not a performance seeking applause, it’s praise to God)
You may notice we don’t typically clap after our choir or musicians sing, and they don’t expect you to because their praise is not mainly for your enjoyment or entertainment, it’s for God’s exaltation. We certainly hope it helps you worship, and music done with excellence to the glory of God can do that – in fact, there are many times that a well-sung song ministers to with me and sticks with me throughout the week, sometimes for week, and the biblical truths move and impact me more than if I just read them or sang them myself.
But the worship of the four living beings here in chapter 4, and the singing of these 24 elders, was not primarily for the benefit of John the onlooker, or even John’s original readers, their worship and praise was primarily for God, of God, about God, and to God.
This is important to keep in mind, because we all have different styles and preferences in music (contemporary vs. traditional vs. blended, no instruments vs. classical instruments vs. rock band, acoustic vs. electric, praise team vs. choir, hymns vs. choruses, Powerpoint vs. printed lyrics, fast vs. slower, loud vs. soft, often younger vs. older generation, etc., etc., etc.). There’s a phrase “worship wars” used of churches - ironically the time we are to have such unity in praising God with united hearts and voices is instead a cause of church splits. This act of worship that is supposed to be primarily internal and God-focused has become focused on man and our preferences and the external sounds and styles. If that is your focus in worship, you are missing the point!
We are forgetting, beloved, that worship is not for us, it’s for God! The point is that our voices would together praise God, despite our differences and tastes and backgrounds and preferences and traditions, we come together not for us, but for God’s praise!
We glorify God in our worship when our hearts are God-centered and God focused, that’s the first point, now secondly also by:
2. BIBLICAL AND THEOLOGICAL CONTENT
Notice the biblical and theological vision and understanding of God in this passage is what fuels their worship. This praise and worship of God in Revelation 4-5 is not manufactured by the right beat or the right band or right background music – certainly those things could have a part in worship, but they can’t produce worship in and of themselves. In fact, music itself is not worship – it can lead to worship or be a part of worship, but God looks at our heart far more than how well we sing. Worship goes far beyond music.
In fact, to try and help us with a biblical and theological understanding of worship, we have tried to reflect this by application even in the way our bulletin is structured now:
PREPARATION FOR WORSHIP – I’ve never really liked the word “announcements” but there are opportunities for future worship and ministry that we share as we call to worship, ministry events and needs we share within our family. The opening prayer is an act of worship as well as the reading of Scripture. Preparation for Worship in reality starts a lot earlier – should be Saturday night
WORSHIP IN SONG – notice this is only one way we worship
WORSHIP IN THE WORD – your reverence and attention to scripture and efforts to appreciate and apply God’s truth
WORSHIP IN STUDY – the goal of further study on Sunday is not just to fill your head with more information, but to fill your heart with greater love and praise for God to live more for His glory
WORSHIP IN GIVING – not just a mechanical thing, but do it unto the Lord, cheerfully as an act of worship
WORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES – missionary projects, upcoming opportunities for study or fellowship or service are to flow out of our heart of worship. 1 Cor. 10:31 says in all we do throughout the week (even things like food or drink), it is to be done for the glory of God.
Definition of Worship:
If you simply do a word study on the biblical language words for worship you’ll find they are often used for acts of worship, the technical or original sense has the idea of bowing down low, giving honor or homage, it’s often the physical posture of lowly humility. This is seen clearly in Revelation 4:10 where these 24 elders literally fall down and worship Him, casting down their crowns as if to say even the rewards and honors God gives we will give back.
See also Revelation 5:14. Of course, worship is not just outward actions, it includes inward attitude. It’s not just a physical posture, but is the posture of our hearts. It might do us well to kneel more or fall on our faces more before God. The worship you read about in the Bible was wholehearted – they weren’t just mindlessly mumbling some words of a song. Our emotions and affections are to be engaged, but not merely emotionalism – enthusiasm without knowledge is just a pep rally. Paul speaks in Romans of those who have zeal, but not according to knowledge. And probably a lot of us have knowledge, but no zeal. These are living beings worshipping here in Revelation, but probably a lot of us look dead when we worship. Let this be a spiritual pulse-check for us – our chief end is not only to glorify God but also to enjoy Him.
Let’s pray that God will give us more zeal and stir up our affections toward Him, but at the same time that the content would be full of knowledge that is biblical and theological. Worship comes from those who know and love God in all His fullness and character and love Him with heart, soul, and mind. Worship in song must be driven by a biblical and theological understanding of God and His attributes. Without this, many lyrics of praise songs sung today, can become what Jesus warned against – “vain repetitions” (mindlessly repeated over and over and over and over).
I appreciate it when people pay attention to lyrics of songs. There’s a song that ends with the lyric that says of Jesus “you took the fall and thought of me above all” – I appreciated last year when a brother at our men’s study pointed out that the lyric is not quite right. When Jesus died, He was actually thinking of God’s glory above all, not me (read John 17, and other scriptures that make clear glorifying God was the ultimate reason Christ came and lived and died and rose and will come back). We want to make sure the content of what we sing is thoroughly biblical and theologically God-centered (“all about you” can be sung in a way that’s not).
Steve Camp has said when you have good theology combined with good hymnology, that produces great doxology (glory to God).
It’s when you understand the depth of God’s towering holiness and unapproachable majesty that you can sing from the heart like Revelation 4:8 “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty”
Allen Ross writes: ‘churches are always trying to make worship more meaningful. But usually these efforts focus on new methods and different styles designed to make worship more lively and more relevant rather than on how to inspire worshippers to see the true and holy God of glory … For any significant change to occur in our worship activities, we have to get behind forms and methods and changes in style and focus on the biblical theology that informs worship, because one of the reasons, if not the main reason, for the lack of proper attention given to worship, is the lack of a biblical, theological understanding … For worship to be as glorious as it should be, for it to lift people out of their mundane cares and fill them with adoration and praise, for it to be the life-changing and life-defining experience it was designed to be, it must be inspired by a vision so great and so glorious that what we call worship will be transformed from a routine gathering into a transcendent meeting with the living God. When that happens, then we will be caught up in our spirits to join the heavenly choir of saints and angels who even now are gathered around the throne of God. Thereafter, our hearts and minds will be filled with the hope of glory so that we may truly love and serve the LORD in this life … The starting point of any discussion of worship must be the object of worship, the Lord God himself, who is higher and more significant and far more glorious than life itself.’[4]
Revelation 4:8 “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.”
Revelation 4:11 “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.”
Revelation 5:9-10 “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.”
Revelation 5:12-13 “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.”
This is true biblical and theological worship here, to God’s glory
They’re not just singing “cumbaya”; there are no “Silly Songs with Larry” here; you won’t find lyrics from modern Christian artists like “Oh, baby, baby”; there’s no trite or trivial slogans that try to sound cool; there’s no syrupy, shallow, superficial sentimental songs where you can’t tell if the singer is singing to his girlfriend or his God
The worship in heaven has deep biblical theological content and rich lyrics. Count the attributes of God that they extol, notice the theology of redemption, notice the lamb imagery from the Old Testament which this same author John said in the first chapter of his gospel “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” These worshippers understand the fulfillment of the sacrificial system, the redemption accomplished by Christ, even theologically precise wording “purchased … men from every tribe and tongue” (not every human being is universally redeemed). Rev. 5:10 also has the doctrine of the priesthood of believers and the truth that they will reign on the earth. And the culmination piles phrase upon phrase, adjective, upon adjective, attribute upon attribute, superlative upon superlative, exhausting every possible term in the vocabulary to exalt and worship and glorify God. The content is biblical, theology, and doxology.
I like this definition:
‘Worship is not a sentimental feeling of nostalgia; rather, it is an engagement of one’s total being with the triune God. A study of worship in the Book of Revelation reveals the true meaning of worship and how believers today should worship God. In the Book of Revelation those who worship God are seen declaring the Lamb’s worthiness, celebrating God’s presence, submitting to His authority, and fearing and serving Him.’[5]
There’s a 3rd and final way we can glorify God in our worship:
3. CORPORATE EMPHASIS
In Revelation 4-5, there are a number of reasons the 24 elders may represent the corporate church
- the Greek term for elders usually refers to men not angels
- these elders are in white clothing, which just a few verses earlier was promised to true believers in the church (3:5, 18) and book of Revelation elsewhere has the saints in white clothing
- also the crowns of gold they have are associated with redeemed men, rather than angels
- elders were representatives of the church as a whole in Acts, and in the O.T. there were 24 priests who represented the thousands of priests (of course, 5:10 says all believers are now priests which is true for N.T. saints)
- some suggest the number 24 would include the 12 patriarchs or 12 tribes elsewhere spoken of in Revelation with the 12 apostles (i.e., both OT and NT saints)
This is the first corporate worship John has been able to see in quite a while. Remember the original context when he writes. The apostle John is in exile by himself on the aisle of Patmos.
On the Lord’s Day he apparently is worshipping and remembering the Lord’s Day (1:10) a day he used to spend with the church. All of the other 11 disciples are dead, many Christians are martyred, persecution still rages on, and John is probably about 90 years old, having seen much in his lifetime and wondering how it all is going to end up. Before John dies, the future is unveiled to this disciple whom Jesus loved, shown to him and through him to the churches.
This vision in Revelation 4-5 of this breathtaking corporate worship service surely was a great encouragement to John as an isolated individual apart from the assembly of believers.
The dominant focus of worship in the Bible is corporate. We often stress individual relationship with God, but in so doing I think we don’t always grasp the value of worship as the covenant community’s together. Private worship and family worship are important, but the greatest expression is in the church. Arguably the main way in which God is glorified in the church is by our worship as a corporate group, together as the church.
Psalm 34:3 “O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together”
Romans 15:5 Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus,
6 so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ps 86:9 “All nations whom You have made Shall come and worship before You, O Lord, And shall glorify Your name.”
You can’t even sing “O for a thousand tongues to sing” with sincerity if you do not have this corporate focus on worship. So many of us think about worship in relation to myself, style I like, songs I like, etc., but worship is fundamentally about God!
Be careful of when “me” and “I” are dominant in songs, as is the modern trend. The biblical emphasis is on corporate praise (of course the psalms do speak in first person as do some hymns, but even in many Psalms it moves to calling on all to praise God).
Hallelujah is a command in Hebrew, appearing about 200x
All but a handful of those are plural commands (i.e., “you all”). It is not calling individuals to praise the Lord, it’s calling the assembly, the body, the group of believers to praise God
Rev 4-5 has groups of people praising God, and the praise increases in number as well as intensity:
- four living beings in 4:8
- then the 24 elders in 4:10
- then the two groups join together in 5:8
- then in v. 11 many angels join in (highest number Greek language can express)
- finally in v. 13, it’s every creature in the universe joining in for the grand finale, the climax and crescendo far greater than the greatest orchestra here on earth
- and in v. 14, they say Amen (in heaven, all denominations will say Amen – and it’s ok to say it on earth sometimes, too)
The pattern of worship here in Revelation 4-5 appears to have influenced the pattern of worship by ancient believers.
- There is a call to participate (like 4:1)
- There were musicians who sang God’s praises (cf. 4:8)
- There was the humble worship of the church before God as their Lord, Creator, and Sustainer (4:10-11)
- There was the scroll or the book taken up to be read to reveal God’s will (5:1-7)
- There was a focus on Jesus Christ and His redemptive work (5:6-10)
- They praised Jesus with instruments (5:8)
- There were the prayers of believers that replaced the incense and sacrifice of the Old Testament (5:8)
- There was stirring corporate worship of their Sovereign Lord and Savior (5:11-12)
- There was a doxology at the end and the worship never ends (5:13-14)
What a great pattern for an order of worship. May our enthroned God and exalted Christ help us to be more on earth as it is in heaven, and to glorify God and enjoy Him more in our worship.
Amen?
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[1] Abraham Kuyper, Lectures on Calvinism, 67.
[2] John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad: The Supremacy of God in Missions, p. 43.
[3] A. W. Tozer, Whatever Happened to Worship?, p. 13.
[4] Allen P. Ross, Recalling the Hope of Glory: Biblical Worship from the Garden to the New Creation, Kregel, 2006, p. 37-39.
[5] Mazie Nakhro, “The Meaning of Worship According to the Book of Revelation,” Bibliotheca Sacra Journal Vol. 158:629 (Jan 2001)p. 75.