“And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, "Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created."
(Revelation 4:9-11)
This heavenly scene should inform our understanding of worship. Any worship that is truly Christian must be directed toward God, since He alone is worthy of our worship. Any other conception of worship is intrinsically idolatrous. What this means for us is simply this: God is the audience of our worship, since He blesses us through a divine visitation through word and sacrament. Indeed, our worship is directed to the One seated on the throne and to the Lamb who walks in our midst. Therefore, the congregation as a whole assembles for the purpose of worshiping God in heaven. We do not come to church to watch what goes on in the front of the church or to listen to the choir. We come here to add our voices to those of the elders, the angels, the four living creatures and multitude of departed saints who worship God in heaven at this very moment.
Even a glimpse of the heavenly throne reminds us of what John Calvin described as the greatest of Christian privileges, to enter the presence of God and be numbered among the assembly of those who are allowed to worship the creator of the world and the redeemer of the saints. Let us never forget that God could have left each one of us in darkness and bondage to sin. If he had done so the only time we would enter his presence would be to hear the words, “depart from me, I never knew you.” But this not the case for all those in Christ. God has chosen us despite our unworthiness. He has sent Christ to die for our sins and raised him from the dead for our justification. He has called us to faith through the preaching of the gospel and He has confirmed those promises through the sacraments. And He has done all of this so that we might be numbered among the assembly of those who enter His presence on the Lord’s Day.
(Kim Riddlebarger)
No comments:
Post a Comment