Evangelical Free Church of Embarass

What if you and I wanted to observe and learn the right way to worship? Where would we go? Would we go to Willow Creek Church in Illinois? Would we visit Saddleback Church in California? Would we go to the Church of the Open Door in the Twin Cities, or to Promise Keepers or Women of Faith conferences to observe and learn the right way to worship?

What if we went right to the throne room of heaven to observe and learn the right way to worship? If anyone has it right, it seems it would be those who are worshiping in heaven, doesn’t it? You would think that they are the ones who are doing it the right way, if anyone is.

So, as we continue our series on worship, let’s journey to the throne room of heaven like the Apostle John did in his vision. John is on the island of Patmos; he’s been exiled there. God in a vision gives him the revelation of His plan into the future. In Revelation 4, the Apostle John in his vision is invited to come up into heaven. Eventually, he’s going to receive God’s plan for the future. But first, he sees what’s going on in his present in the throne room of heaven. He’s going to see what’s been going on there in his past, and he’s going to see what will go on there in his future.

What is that? It’s worship. In Chapters 4 and 5 of Revelation, John observes worship in heaven even before he receives the revelation about the future. We’re going to look at Chapter 4 today and Chapter 5 next Sunday.

The scene in Chapter 4, verses 1 – 11 very clearly revolves around the throne. In those verses there are nine references to the throne, and it becomes very clear that the throne is the focal point of this chapter. The throne and the One sitting on the throne become the focus of this entire text. We have characters who are there around the throne: 24 elders, four living beings, the seven-fold spirit of God. We’re not even going to try to identify those beings --- some things are better left to the theologians, or else to mystery and wonder.

I want us to look at what they are doing, not so much who they are. Let’s just look at what they’re doing. They are worshiping. They’re worshiping the One on the throne, the Lord God. Maybe we can learn something about worship that will help us to be better worshipers as we observe how it goes on in heaven.

What’s happening before the throne of God in heaven is happening right now as we’re meeting here this morning. Tonight, when you’re sleeping in your comfortable bed, it will be going on in heaven. Tomorrow, as you go off to work, it’s going to be happening in heaven. On Tuesday night, when you go to a ball game somewhere, it will be happening in heaven. Come Wednesday, when things are really tough and tense in your home and you and your family aren’t getting along very well, it will still be going on in heaven.

Declaring God’s greatness

The first thing we see in the worship before the throne of God is that there is a continual declaration of His greatness. Verse 8 talks about the four living beings. It says, “Day after day and night after night, they keep on saying, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, the One who always was, who is, and who is still to come.’” In their worship in heaven, they’re declaring the greatness of the One sitting on the throne.

In just this one statement, you have three things that they’re declaring about God, reciting back to Him over and over again: First, His holiness. “Holy, holy, holy.” That’s like us saying “holy, holier, holiest.” Second, they are declaring His power. “Holy…is the Lord God Almighty.” Third, they are declaring His eternal quality, His self-existence, “who always was, who is, who is still to come, no beginning, no end. No one started You, God; no one will bring You to an end. You’re God all by Yourself: eternal, self-existing.” That’s the worship going on in heaven. There is the continuous declaration of the greatness of God, just expressing back to Him who He is, and what’s so great about Him.

Presenting glory, honor, thanks

The second thing we see in this text, about the worship in heaven, is a presentation of glory, honor, and thanks. Verse 9 says that these living beings are giving glory. They are giving honor and thanks to the One sitting on the throne. Don’t overlook that little word “give” in the text. Worship is all about giving. It’s not about getting. They are giving glory, honor, and thanks to the One on the throne.

Worship is about presenting. It’s not about receiving. How often do we leave a worship session, talking about what we got out of it? We’re focused on what we received through that worship experience. Worship isn’t about getting; it’s not about receiving. It’s all about the One sitting on the throne, as we discussed last week. It’s all about giving and presenting to Him. In heaven, they are presenting glory to Him; they are presenting honor to Him; they are presenting thanks: glory and honor for who He is, thanks for what He has done. They are presenting these; they are giving.

Expressing humility

The third thing that’s going on in this heavenly worship service is the expression of humility before God. Do you see that in verse 10? It says that the 24 elders fall down and worship the One who lives forever and ever. They fall down before the Lord God Almighty, the One on the throne.

They fall down. I don’t know if they have knees, but maybe falling down means that they get down on their knees. Maybe they fall right on their faces. The idea here, I think, is that there is humility in their worship. They are falling down before the One sitting on the throne in humility. This isn’t a light-hearted experience going on in heaven. No one struts arrogantly into the presence of God. No one stands before the throne of God proudly. Before the throne of God and in His presence, even those in heaven fall down.

There is so much awe, amazement, and reverence in His presence. It is a privilege to be worshiping in the presence of God. There’s a sense of being unworthy to be there before God, and so there is the falling down in humility.

I don’t think that in this scene in heaven you would ever hear these beings saying to the One sitting on the throne, “You are the salt on my Frito.” Sometimes we sing that at camp in what we call a worship service. I heard about a worship leader who was trying to get a worship experience to appeal to young people, dressing up in a Mickey Mouse costume as he led the worship. Do you think anyone in heaven, before the throne of Almighty God, would dress up as Mickey Mouse? In heaven, the worship that goes on day and night is not a flippant light-hearted thing. They are falling down before the One on the throne. There is total humility in the presence of God.

They are declaring God’s greatness and all the things that are so great about Him, just reciting them back to Him. They are not receiving or taking, but they are presenting honor, glory, and thanks, and they are doing it in a very humble way: they are falling down before Him.

Renouncing the crowns

The fourth thing we see in the heavenly worship is the renunciation of crowns. “Renunciation” is simply a big word for surrendering or giving up. When you renounce something, you give up or surrender your rights or your title to it. In verse 10 we find that the 24 elders in this worship fall down and worship the One who lives forever and ever, and they lay their crowns before the throne.

Remember, earlier in the chapter it says that they are sitting on thrones around the main throne and they have crowns on their heads. Here in this worship setting, they come and fall down in humility, then they take their crowns off and lay those crowns before the throne and the One sitting there.

What are those crowns? We don’t have to figure it out in detail, but we do know that, according to scripture, crowns are rewards. Crowns are something God gives for faithfulness in different areas. The 24 elders have in a sense earned these crowns. They were something God had given to them for their faithfulness.

The crowns were a reward from God, but what are the elders doing in their worship? They are renouncing their right to those rewards. They are taking the very thing God gave to them, and surrendering it back to Him. In doing that, they say, “You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power.” You see, sometimes we get the crown, the gift from God, the reward, the blessing --- it might be as the result of something we faithfully did --- but we let that reward, that blessing, or that gift go to our heads. We start believing we deserve it, and we start giving ourselves a little honor, a little “Atta Boy.” But in worship in heaven, those who have been given the crowns by God turn around and renounce those crowns and give up their right to them. They give back to God what He has given to them. That’s an act of worship.

That’s why I suggested earlier in today’s dedication service that as my little grandson Soren is given back to God, it’s an act of worship. According to scripture, he is a reward to Tyler and Ali. According to scripture, he is a gift from God to them, but in their dedication, they are turning around and surrendering back to Him the gift He has given. It’s an act of worship. That’s part of the act of worship in heaven that goes on: the laying of crowns before the throne, surrendering back to the Lord God Almighty the treasures, rewards, and gifts He has given.

So that’s the scene we have in the throne room of heaven: day and night, the declaration of God’s greatness; presenting to Him glory, honor, and thanks; falling down before Him. The elders do all of it in the context of humility, as they surrender back to Him that which He has already given, saying, “You are worthy, not us. You are worthy of glory and honor, because You are the creator, You made it all for Your pleasure.” That’s the heavenly scene of worship.

I draw your attention to a quote by Bruce Leafblad: “Worship is essentially about the priority of God….The great need of the church today is neither to cling to the old or to create the new forms and formats. Our greatest need today is to recover the priority of God in our worship.” I hope you will think that through on your own.

Today, many of us say that the church has so many needs when it comes to worship. We might think the need is to get back to the way worship used to be, or to do something new and different. That’s not the great need of worship in the church today. The great need of worship today is to get back to the priority of God. That’s the essence of worship --- it’s for the One on the throne. In heaven, He’s the focal point. That’s what worship is all about: the One on the throne. Worship is expressing priorities: we worship that which is our greatest priority. That’s what we need to get back to.

Let’s say we decide to make our trip to heaven to learn how to worship. We won’t go to Saddleback Church, or Willow Creek Church, or Promise Keepers, or Women of Faith, but we will go to heaven to observe and learn about worship and how to do it right. We buy our tickets and we all hop on whatever we need to hop on to get to heaven, and we go there. We come to the throne room of God like John did in his vision, and from the wings we observe worship.

Do you know what’s going to happen? Someone in our group is going to say, “This worship is really going on a long time --- day after day, night after night. Talk about a long worship service.” Someone in the group will say, “I’m getting tired of this repetition. They keep saying the same thing over and over again: ‘Holy, holy, holy.’” Somebody is going to see the 24 elders falling down before the throne and say, “Well, this is embarrassing. I wouldn’t do that. That’s going a little far, don’t you think?” Some will see the elders taking the crowns off their heads and laying them before the throne and say, “What are they doing that for? They worked hard for those crowns. If that was me, I’d keep the crown on my head and worship.” Still others would say, “This is getting boring. Where’s the spontaneity? Why do the same thing over and over again?”

Wouldn’t it be sad if our group came back from heaven and decided that it wasn’t a worthwhile trip and that we weren’t very impressed with how they were worshiping there? What if we all came back with our own little criticisms? That would be very sad.

I’ll tell you what, friends. If it’s done right anywhere, it’s done right in heaven. There, you have the declaration of God’s greatness. Let’s declare that greatness. In heaven, you have the presenting of glory, honor, and thanks --- not taking or receiving, but presenting. Let’s present the glory, the honor, the thanks. There you have humility before the Lord God Almighty. Let’s not come before His presence arrogantly. Let’s not be flippant before God. In heaven, they surrender what He’s already given them back to Him, because He’s the only one worthy of glory and honor.

Really, it has nothing to do with style or method, does it? As long as the greatness of God is being declared, as long as there is the giving and presenting of glory, honor, and thanks, as long as there is true humility before Him, and as long as there is a surrender and we’re willing to say, “You are worthy, not me,” we are worshiping correctly.

In that make-believe scene of us going to heaven to observe and learn, and perhaps sadly coming away with criticism of even that worship, we would find ourselves verifying what’s happening in churches all across the world today. That is, we are focusing on the style, the method, and the means. We are focusing on all that stuff, but we are not focusing on the throne and Him who sits on the throne. That’s what happening in heaven. It’s all about the throne and who’s sitting on it. That’s where to put the focus.

In the Greek language in the New Testament, the word “worship” comes from the word “proskuneo.” It means “to kiss toward”, or “to kiss the ring”, “to kiss the hand.” The word comes right out of that culture. When the emperor Caesar would make his entrance, everyone was to say certain words: “Worthy art thou.” If you were close enough, you had the opportunity to stoop down and kiss the ring on Caesar’s hand. That’s what proskuneo means: to kiss toward, to kiss the hand.

Do you know why John was exiled on the island of Patmos? It was because he would not kiss Caesar’s hand. He would not say, “Worthy art thou.” He preached Jesus. He kissed toward the One on the throne, in heaven. He worshiped the One on the throne, not Caesar, and he was exiled.

Friends, that is worship: to kiss toward. Let’s not kiss toward the style, let’s not kiss toward the method, let’s not kiss toward the past or the future, let’s not kiss toward variety, and let’s not kiss toward tradition. Let’s kiss toward the throne and Him who sits on the throne. That’s what’s happening in heaven.

And if anybody does worship right, it’s the folks in heaven. Let’s pray.

Father, we thank You so much that we have the privilege to worship You. As unworthy as we are, we have the privilege as Your children to come into Your presence and kiss toward our Father and our God, to worship, to declare Your greatness, to present to You glory and honor and thanks, to humbly fall down before You, to surrender back to You all that You have given to us, and to say “Worthy art Thou.” You are worthy, not us, for praise, honor and glory. Father, receive our worship, in Jesus’ name, Amen.