Sermon Tone Analysis

“There is an old story about a man who dreamed that an angel escorted him to church one Sunday.

There he saw the keyboard musician playing vigorously, the praise team singing, the musicians playing their instruments with gusto.

“But the man heard no sound.

The congregation was singing, but the sound was utterly muted.

When the minister rose to speak, his lips moved, but there was no volume.

In amazement, the man turned to his escort for an explanation.

“‘This is the way it sounds to us in heaven,’ said the angel.

‘You hear nothing because there is nothing to hear.

These people are engaged in the form of worship, but their thoughts are on other things and their hearts are far away.’

[Robert J. Morgan, Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations, and Quotes, electronic ed.

(Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000), 809.]

Now, I tell you this story this morning not as an indictment of worship here at Liberty Spring Christian Church, but rather as a warning.

Whatever we desire to receive from our engagement in worship on Sunday mornings is secondary to what we offer.

Worship is, first and foremost, the way that we ascribe God the glory that belongs to Him, the way that we express our reverence and adoration for Him.

The word comes from the Middle English word “worthship,” which meant to acknowledge the worth of God.

In this series that I’ve called “The Church — Revealed,” we have so far talked about the creation of the Church by Jesus, we’ve talked about the Holy Spirit-enabled launch of the Church in Acts, chapter 2. We’ve defined the Church as the New Covenant community of the Spirit.

And we’ve looked at the four marks of this new community we call the Church.

Today, it seems appropriate to talk about the purpose of the Church, and while we’ll break it down a bit in the next couple of weeks, there is really only one purpose of the church, and that is to worship God.

As A.W. Tozer put it, “We are saved to worship God.

All that Christ has done for us in the past and all that He is doing now leads to this one end.”

[Tozer, Whatever Happened to Worship, 94.]

Today, because our modern worship context occurs so significantly within the bounds of this weekly service, I want to spend some time looking at what the Bible has to say about what we do here each week.

And the first place to look is to Samaria, where a woman drawing water from a well took part in a short theological debate with Jesus.

You’ll find the Apostle John’s account of this meeting in John, chapter 4.

I’m sure you remember the story.

Jesus asked the woman at the well for a drink of water, which led to an exchange in which He revealed that He knew her darkest secrets.

“Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet,” she responded, because she still didn’t understand that He was, in fact, the Son of God and the only one who could redeem her from her sins.

And so, since she thought of Him merely as a prophet at this point, she decided to ask a theological question that had caused much division between the Jews and the Samaritans.

Where was it appropriate for people to worship God — at Mt. Gerizim, as the Samaritans did, or in Jerusalem, as the Jews did?

The correct answer to that question had always been “Jerusalem.”

That is the place that God had chosen back in the days of the Old Testament for the gathered worship of the congregation of Israel.

Mt.

Gerizim had been set up as a site of worship by the Northern Kingdom of Israel when it had seceded from the unified nation after the death of Solomon.

And it was set up by the Northern Kingdom’s kings in order to keep their people from going back into the Southern Kingdom of Judah to worship in Jerusalem.

This is one of the reasons there were no God-fearing kings in the Northern Kingdom’s lifespan.

From the beginning, by choosing not to worship God in the place He had chosen for them, they had chosen not to worship God the way that He had desired.

And there’s a lesson here about worship that we shouldn’t miss.

Acceptable worship in God’s eyes is worship that is according to His standards, not ours.

As we consider what it should look like for us to come together in worship each week, we must be careful that we are committed to worshiping God as HE wishes, and not according to our own preferences.

But Jesus didn’t give this particular theology lesson in His response to the woman at the well.

Instead, He told her that things were about to change in regards to worship.

Look at verse 21.

His point here is that worship was no longer connected to a physical place.

Worship would no longer be in a place, but in a person, in Jesus.

Through Jesus and His Spirit, worshipers would now be able to come directly to God.

That’s what it means to worship in spirit — or, perhaps, more correctly, in THE Spirit.

And to worship in truth suggests coming to God the Father through knowledge of and faith in His Son, Jesus, who described Himself as “the way, the TRUTH, and the life.”

And so, we can conclude another important thing about worship.

It can only be offered by those who have a true knowledge of and faith in Jesus, those who have come acknowledging that He is the truth, those who have accepted the truth of the gospel.

Now, holding this idea of worshiping in spirit and truth in the back of our minds, let’s leave Samaria and go to heaven.

That’s the one place we might expect worship to be done just as God wants it done.

We get a very good look at the worship in heaven in the Book of Revelation.

For all of the woes and judgment that we see poured out upon the earth during the events John describes in this prophetic book, what’s really wonderful to see is how the Father and Son are worshiped by believers and by angels, no matter what is happening down below.

And I’m going to suggest to you that what we see about worship in the Book of Revelation tells us a lot about the manner in which we are to worship here on earth as we wait for the day when Jesus returns for those who have followed Him in faith and takes them to heaven in the Rapture.

Mazie Nakhro, a pastor and theologian in India, wrote an article in an academic publication that I’ve used to help structure this brief look into the Book of Revelation this week.

He wrote: “The worship of God in heaven is expressed through praise and thanksgiving, songs, prayers, gifts, response to God’s revelation, anticipatory silence for divine intervention, and festive celebration of God’s goodness.”

[Mazie Nakhro, “The Manner of Worship according to the Book of Revelation,” Bibliotheca Sacra 158 (2001): 169.

Recognition is due to Rev. Nakhro for the insights that follow.]

Praise.

Thanksgiving.

Songs.

Prayers.

Gifts.

Response to God’s revelation.

Anticipatory silence.

And festive celebration.

Those are the eight things congregational worship should include, based on what we see of worship in heaven.

I’ll argue that there’s two others missing from the list — confession and repentance.

And the reason they’re missing should be obvious.

They’re missing in heaven, because in heaven there will be no more sin, no more need for confession or repentance.

We will be in the very presence of the spotless Lamb of God who gave Himself as a sacrifice at the cross, taking upon Himself our sins and their just punishment, so that all who follow Him in faith would be forgiven and redeemed.

In heaven, we who have followed Jesus in faith will have received our glorified bodies, and we will no longer have even the urge to sin.

So, let’s take a look at these 10 elements of worship for Christians who are gathered together to worship in spirit and in truth.

First, we see praise as a prominent element of worship in Revelation.

The four living creatures are described in verse 8 of chapter 4 as offering unceasing praise to God for who He is.

God’s holiness — His set apart-ness — is the very essence of His character.

It is because of His holiness that He has done all the things He has done in history, and so it is proper that we praise Him for who He is, even before we praise Him for what He has done.

But in that same passage, in verse 11, we see the 24 elders around the throne worshiping and praising God also for what He has done.

Do you see that?

He is WORTHY of glory and honor and power.

The 24 elders are ascribing to God the worth that is His because of His great creative acts.

“Only He is worthy because He created everything.

Creation displays His glory.

The psalmist recognized this when he wrote, ‘The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.’”

[Mazie Nakhro, “The Manner of Worship according to the Book of Revelation,” Bibliotheca Sacra 158 (2001): 169.]

Jesus also receives praise in heaven.

We see that in verses 11 and 12 of chapter 5.

As the eternal second person of the Trinity and the Lamb who was slain so that rebellious mankind could be reconciled to God, Jesus is worthy of praise.

He is worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.

He receives all these things from His Father.

And the Apostle Paul tells us that just as all things have been subjected to Christ, He will in turn be subjected to His Father, “so that God may be all in all.”

This God, who created all things, who gave us His own Son so we could be reconciled to Him, who will be the “all in all” for believers in eternity — this God deserves our praise, and His praise should be ever on our lips, especially as we gather for worship on Sundays.

And closely connected to praise is thanksgiving.

After the seventh trumpet has sounded during the Great Tribulation, the 24 elders are described in verse 16 of chapter 11 as falling on their faces in worship and saying,

The elders are thankful because of God’s eternal reign.

They are thankful for the rewards that will be received by those who have followed Jesus in faith and served Him here on earth.

And they are thankful for God’s judgment upon the wicked and for the fact that He will destroy those who destroy the earth.

We can easily understand the idea of being thankful for God’s reign and for the rewards we might receive.

But what about being thankful for God’s judgment and destruction of the wicked?

It comes down to this: Justice is as much a part of God’s character as is mercy.