Worship that is Worthy
TEXT: Revelation 4:8-11
TOPIC: Worship that is Worthy
Pastor Bobby Earls, First Baptist Church, Center Point, October 16, 2005
Have you ever given much thought to the reason you are here? I mean, what is your motivation for attending church each Sunday? There are four popular motives for attending worship services. 1) Some simply think that it is the decent thing to do. 2) Others are fans of popular preachers. As long as their favorite preacher is in the pulpit, you can count on their attendance. But let that popular preacher miss a Sunday or leave the church and often these preacher-worshippers are just as absent. 3) Still others think that attendance is good for their personal reputation. Attending church is all about social status to these kind. 4) There is a fourth group for whom worship is a glorified aspirin tablet to guarantee peace of mind.
There is really one reason why God wants His people assembled in worship: to ascribe to Him the worth and the value that are His. A.W. Tozer called worship “the missing jewel in the evangelical church.” We preach, evangelize, educate, and organize, but do we really worship?
In Revelation 4 and 5, we see what John was privileged to see, a glimpse into Heaven itself, where God is continually worshipped in truth and beauty. If we hope to discover the truest essence of worship, then Revelation 4 and 5 is our model. Worship ascribes to God His worth and surrenders to Him in light of that worth.
Revelation 4:8-11
8 The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!” 9 Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever,10 the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying: 11 “You are worthy, O Lord,
To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created.”
I. WORSHIP COMMENCES WHEN WE ACKNOWLEDGE THE AUTHORITY OF THE LORD, Revelation 4:9-10
A. We Acknowledge His Sovereignty, “Him who sits on the throne,” v. 9
When John observed the perfect worship of Heaven, one thing dominated—a throne. Nine times in this passage he writes of a throne. Worship begins with the confession, “I am coming to a throne. Not the throne of an elder, a ruling official, or even a human king, but the throne of the living God. Hebrews 4:16 says “let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it.
B. We Acknowledge His Eternity, “who lives forever and ever,” v. 9 and “worship Him who lives forever and ever,” v. 10
We acknowledge His authority over time and space. He is the One whose very name means “I AM THE GREAT I AM.” We worship the One for whom a thousand years are as a day. We are time-bound slaves to our watches and calendars, to our day planners and our palm pilots. But in true worship we confess that there was a time when we were not, but that there has never been a time when He was not. When we worship His eternity, we acknowledge that there will be a time when we will not be as we are now, and that there has never been a time when He shall not be as He has always been.
C. We Acknowledge His Activity,
We acknowledge His activity in creation and in redemption. When we acknowledge His creation of “all things” we affirm that the entire universe came from His hands. But the highest praise, the greatest worship, the loudest hallelujah is reserved for His activity in redemption. The God who created the stars of the heavens, the sands of the sea, the mountains and the seas, this God’s greatest work was the work of redemption when He hung on the cross for you and for me.
II. WORSHIP CONTINUES WHEN WE YIELD TO THE AUTHORITY OF THE LORD, Revelation 4:10
A. This yielding demands a submission, “the twenty-four elders fall down and worship the one who lives forever and ever,” v. 10
The twenty-four elders represent all the redeemed in creation. They (that includes us by the way) fall down or prostrate themselves before the Lord. This means to lay oneself flat in humility and adoration. We see this repeatedly throughout Revelation, (i.e., 5:8, 14; 11:16; and 19:4). Our only appropriate reaction to the sovereign, eternal God is to fall down before Him in submission.
B. This yielding demands an abdication, they lay their crowns before the throne” v. 10
Redeemed humanity takes its own crown off its head, its own sign of achievement and accomplishment, and lays it down at the feet of Him on the throne of God. The taking off of one’s crown was a symbol in John’s day of one surrendering authority of their own lives to another.
III. WORSHIP CONSUMMATES WHEN WE ASCRIBE WORTHINESS TO THE LORD, Revelation 4:11
"You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created."
Rev 4:11 (NKJV)
The highest act of worship is when we tell God that He alone is worthy of the three things that men most seek: glory, honor and power. When we worship, we ascribe or attach to God glory, honor, and power. Simply put, we tell Him in front of the world that He alone is worthy of it all.
We tell Him that He is worthy to receive glory. “Glory” means that which is heavy, or weighty, or of substance.
Honor is special recognition, acknowledgment, and esteem.
Power refers to authority, and control.
These very virtues which man so often seeks, are ascribed to God alone in true worship and praise.
Tonight, we glimpse the future, our future. It is a future filled with praise and true worship, worship that is worthy. We can do more than wait for this future. We can practice here on earth what we will spend an eternity doing in Heaven. Worshiping the one true God who is worthy, our Lord Jesus Christ.