Reading: Rev 4:1-11
Introduction
So, this morning we continue with the series of sermons on worship. Thus far we have had Worshipping as a Family and Worshipping Reverently. This morning we are going to discuss Worshipping Through Holiness.
I have had the topic swimming about in my head for the last few days and not being able to make much sense of it. After reading some stuff and thinking about this and that, chewing it over if you will, it then dawned on me, Worshipping Through Holiness is not limited to Sunday morning worship/formal worship, but there is a connection that we will discuss in due course.
What is Worship?
So worship, what is worship? Reverence, homage, prostrate one’s self to… ? Yeah all of that. One translation of the word worship from the Greek, proskuneo, has the idea of a dog licking its master’s hand. So you get the idea, right? But that aside, worship can be summed up in one word (it would seem to me); response.
Heb 1:6
And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, "Let all God's angels worship him."
Heb 12:28
28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe…
We can see from a casual glance from these scriptures that worship is more than just a response (but it is a response); for if all response was worship then eating a chocolate cake or seeing a cool car and responding to it in the way that we do, would then be classed as worship. So clearly there is a difference: Worship is in response to God who is worthy, his very nature and presence demands our worship! Some people might not like chocolate cake, or maybe have seen an even cooler car thus provoking no action! However, worshipping God is in response to Someone who is worthy of it, who merits it and who expects it.
In Revelation 4, the twenty four elders in the presence of God responded by laying their crowns before the throne and saying: "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being." Here we see adulation given to One who is due it! There can be no argument: God is worthy of worship, God demands worship.
Our Worship Response
Rom 12:1
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-- this is your spiritual act of worship.
Again we see the idea of worship as a response, in this context its in response to God’s mercy. And how does Paul say we should offer this worship? Turn up here in a Sunday, sing a few songs, drink some wine eat some bread, try not to fall asleep during the lesson and then have a prayer at the end to let people know that its over? He says, “…offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God -- this is your spiritual act of worship”
Therefore, in response to God’s mercy, we are called to Worship Through Holiness. We are called into holy living in order to please God through worship. This means, as we know, that worship is not confined to what we do here today and every Sunday; our worship is a daily walk with God, living for him, pleasing him.
Israel was called to holiness over and over again, and the reason God does this, springs from what he has done for them in redeeming them from Egypt. This redemption and making them into his people was NOT the result of their goodness! Their deliverance was not a result of the national attractiveness, God denies that he chose his people because of any sort of stateliness. He chose them and made them a holy people out of pure love.
Deut 7:6-8
For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
In being their God and making them his people, he made them holy.
In the book of Leviticus from chapters 11 – 15, God gives instructions to ancient Israel for ritual purity:
11 – Clean and unclean food
12 – Purification after childbirth
13 – Infectious diseases and mildew contamination
14 – Cleaning from infectious skin diseases
15 – Bodily discharges causing uncleanness
The Israelites were to be kept separate from things that make them unclean so that they wouldn’t die in their uncleanness for defining God’s dwelling-place which was among them. The tabernacle was in the middle of the camp and he was going to descend into it, so he wants them to take being in his presence VERY seriously, hence the reason for making such a big deal about these ritual purity laws: the condition that God demands of his people for contact with him. The bottom line: God wants Israel to know that he is Holy and that they ought to be holy, like him.
In the NT, we don’t have ritual purity laws, but we are called to be holy nonetheless. When God calls us to holiness, like the Israelites, it is linked to his Rescue work, for us, this rescue is accomplished in Jesus Christ. Holy living is called for as a response to this, it is the offering of our spiritual act of worship through holiness. The lives we live, is in response to God’s work is our act of worship through holiness.
So if being holy, or living a holy lives constitutes worship, what is it we do to become holy?
Wives, accept the husband’s headship – for this is in response to Christ’s headship of the saved body.
Husbands: love your wives – for this is in response to Christ loving the church and giving himself for her.
Christian: forgive your brother his sin against you - for this is in response to Christ forgiving you.
Accept one another - for this is in response to Christ accepting us.
serve one another - for this is in response to Christ coming not to be served but to serve and to empty himself and die on a cross.
Live lives of reverence and purity - for this is in response to our being redeemed and with the precious blood of the Lamb.
Renounce the notion of sinning that grace may abound - for this is in response to having died with and being buried with Christ who died to destroy sins.
Love one another - for this is in response to Christ having loved us.
Eph 4:22-24
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
All of this, is your spiritual act of worship holy and acceptable to God!
Heb 12:14b
…without holiness no-one will see the Lord. The Hebrew quotation can be misleading if taken out of the Biblical context, it is very clear that there is no merit in the pursuit of holiness on its own. The pursuit of holiness is our worship-response to the One who is worthy, who is seated on the throne of heaven. As Christians we are now God’s holy people, and we are expected to live accordingly, for this is our spiritual act of worship. Worship Through Holiness!
You know what Jesus says about all this, don’t you? The answer is simple: Nothing. Well nothing much. He really didn’t say a great deal about worship. Do you know why? Because He didn’t have to… his life told people what worship looks like, so his mouth didn’t have to. His life can be characterised by one word: holy.
Worshipping through holiness is heeding the call to Christ-like living. Worship is all about giving our lives to God, again and again and again.
Formal Worship
All of that, has a direct impact on this, Sunday worship; worshipping as a family with reverence. We often make the mistake in thinking that Sunday worship is something separate from the rest of our lives; but its not! It’s inextricably linked to our own daily worship with God.
Often we confuse worship with the feeling we get when we sing, or how encouraged we feel from the words in the sermon or how connected we felt at the Lord’s supper… This is borne out of a lack of understanding of what worship is all about. And this lack of understanding is produced by our lack of worship through holiness.
Sometimes I wonder if we are more concerned with what worship does for us, while showing less concern for the object of our worship. Worship is not about entertainment, or how you feel or what you get out of it. In fact, it is not about US at all, its about HIM.
The Key to worship: When wonder ceases, worship ceases. If there is no longer a sense of wonder regarding the things about God, then how can worship continue? Wonder doesn’t come in this forum (Sunday worship), wonder is borne out of living lives in daily response to Him. If there is no daily worship and holy living, then how can we possibly come here and worship?
Worshipping is a response, so how can you turn up here and respond to him, if you are not doing that in your daily life? When we pursue God daily, we are better placed to worship in response to him in community/family worship. And when all members of the family pursue this, you will see how it affects the worship!
This forum is nothing more than an extension of our daily worship. And like our daily worship, we enter through the gateway of the cross. It is the cross that brings us together with God in a holy relationship, its in response to this that we worship through holiness; and it is the cross here that where we love, we cry, we dream, we give up, we shut up, we kneel, we bow, we confess we surrender. We bring him into view, and in his holy presence we place him above ALL else!
BECAUSE HE IS WORTHY!
HE IS HOLY!
Ps 99:9
Exalt the LORD our God and worship at his holy mountain, for the LORD our God is holy.