Topic: Worship Fills Revelation – Discover the Book by Dr John Barnett 3 January 2022
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Worship Fills Revelation
“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.”
-Revelation 4:11, emphasis added
At this point in God’s plan for the ages, we will have already arrived in heaven by way of “the snatching away,” the Rapture. Thus, we will be part of the redeemed of all the ages who will worship in this celestial atmosphere around the throne.
Worship–to glorify God and enjoy Him forever-is our main purpose for existence. And true worship will always center totally on God, as is seen in the fourth stanza of this glorifying old hymn: Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty! All Thy works shall praise Thy name in earth, and sky, and sea; Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty! God in Three persons, blessed Trinity!
Let us now look in chronological order at chapters 4-22 and see Christ, the Lamb, being exalted by the faithful angelic hosts and the redeemed saints. You see, worship is the background music of God’s kingdom. Songs of worship and triumph, which occur in eleven chapters of Revelation (Revelation 4, Revelation 5 Revelation 7:1-20 Revelation 11 Revelation 12 Revelation 15 Revelation 16 Revelation 17, Revelation 19, Revelation 21, and Revelation 22), make up the background music to the story.
Chapter 4- Jesus is worthy of worship as the Creator. God, as Creator, is on the throne. Salvation starts with the acknowledgment of Jesus as Creator: For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him (Colossians 1:16; see also Acts 14:15; Acts 17:24).
Jesus is worthy of worship because He is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6).
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All the angelic hosts worship Him: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” (Revelation 4:8). By this point we will get to join in the worship of heaven! At last, we will blend our voices with all of the angels and all of Creation and start our eternal, sacrificial service to our King.
The heartbeat of God’s Word is worship. In fact, Jesus defines believers as worshipers because the driving message of salvation is to worship the God of heaven. The Scriptures open in Genesis with God walking and talking with Adam and Eve, His worshipers. Exodus contains elaborate plans for a tent-its sole purpose being to bring worshipers to God. Psalms, the longest book at the heart of God’s Word, is a manual on ways to worship the God of the universe. The rest of the Old Testament is a series of prophets lamenting the neglect and abandonment of worship by God’s people who were to be a kingdom of worshipers (priests).
The New Testament opens with the introduction in the Gospels of the God of heaven, on earth, seeking creatures who would be willing to be worshipers. The book of Acts records what happens when average people from every walk of life, every strata of society, and every depth of sin, are bound together with a common passion for being lifelong worshipers. The Epistles are a manual on how to grow as worshipers. God’s Word then closes in Revelation with all of God’s worshipers home at last with their Creator-and joyfully worshiping Him!
Is your heart the heart of a worshiper? The word “worship” is full of meaning; it expresses the idea of “falling down, prostrating oneself, and kissing the feet or the hem of the garment of the one honored.” We should ponder William Temple’s wonderful definition of worship, which is “to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open up the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.”[2]