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On Worshiping Jesus

Series: Revelation

by Liam Goligher April 18, 2021 Scripture: Revelation 5

Christianity has thoroughly Jewish roots. The first Christians were Jews and regarded Jewish Scripture as Christian Scripture. Like faithful Jews, they were quite explicit in rejecting idolatry and in promoting monotheism. For them, the God of Israel is the only God that there is. Like the Jews, Christians regarded worship as the mark that distinguishes God on the one hand as the Creator, and all things relative to God, all things in relation to God. God alone must be worshiped. To worship anything in the creaturely category would be idolatry, pure and simple.

In Jewish monotheism, the unique name of God, “the LORD,” that is, Yahweh — not a title, but a name, proper name, personal name, Yahweh – names God’s identity. It is his exclusive name, in a way that the word “God” isn’t — exclusive — the word “god” is used of the false gods of the pagan nations. And this is nowhere in the Bible clearer than in a section of Isaiah, beginning, really, chapter 40. In chapter 45, it is Yahweh who says these words:

“There is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior, there is no one besides me. Therefore, turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone forth in righteousness a word that shall not return: To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess.”

Isaiah 45:21-23

Now, if you break that statement down from Isaiah 45, there are three very clear statements that are repetitions of the standard formula for monotheism.

“No other god besides me.” “No one besides me.” “I am God, and there is no other.” Those three statements are very, very clear. And this one and only God is the only Savior. He is a righteous God and a Savior. “It’s only by me that people will be saved,” he says. And therefore, only he is the object of worship.

“To me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess.”

Now there’s nothing clearer than that. The God of the Bible, the God of the Hebrew Scriptures, is a monotheistic God. He’s the only God there is. He will tolerate worship being given to no one other than himself. Now keep that in mind and keep those very words in mind. Because when we come to the New Testament we read, for example, in one of the Apostle Paul’s letters – Philippians – in Philippians chapter 2, this very same passage of Scripture being utilized and used by the Apostle Paul. But he’s talking there about Jesus in his identification with us. And as Yahweh, universal sovereignty and unique deity of Israel’s God will come to be recognized, confessed, and worshipped by all creation. Here’s how he completes it, quoting from Isaiah 45:

“Every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Yahweh, to the glory of God the Father.”

Philippians 2:10-11

Now that’s a radical thing. These Jewish monotheists did not hesitate to worship Jesus as Yahweh, that is, as the God of Israel. You find this when you go through the book of Acts that tells the story of the early church. For example, in Acts chapter 13, we find some prophets and teachers in the town of Antioch. And we’re told that they were worshiping the Lord, that is, the Lord Jesus, Yahweh Jesus. There are a variety of texts in the New Testament that talk about Christian believers calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that that formula, calling on the name of the Lord, is a formula you find in the Testament in reference to believing people, God’s chosen people, calling on the name of the Lord Yahweh, the Lord God of Israel.

And then lastly, you have the name Jesus itself, which captures the unique name of God, the God of Israel. His name means “Yahweh saves”. Yahweh saves. And then there’s another little hint, there’s an Aramaic word that is retained in the Greek New Testament in its Aramaic form. And it’s a word that’s used in the Old Testament, in the worship of the God of Israel. “Maranatha – “our Lord Yahweh, come. Come” And the usage of that word “Maranatha” indicates that from the very, very, very, very earliest days of Christianity, when it was mostly Aramaic speaking people who were Christians, they were worshiping Jesus as Yahweh.

So Christians then were committed to the exclusive worship of God as Jews were. They used, for example, Christians were familiar with the Shema of Israel: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one.” This threefold repetition of the name of Israel’s God; it was basic for Jews, and it was basic for Christians. In First Corinthians chapter 8, you have the Apostle Paul using the Shema of Israel and applying it to the New Testament God the Father and the Son:

“for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.”

1 Corinthians 8:6

Couldn’t get any clearer than that. Now here in Revelation, this commitment to monotheistic worship remains clear. There are two occasions that the Apostle John, as he’s receiving this revelation of Jesus Christ through the instrumentality of an angel, is overwhelmed both by the presence of this angelic being and by the significance of the revelation that’s being given to him. And so overwhelmed is he that his reaction is to prostrate himself on the ground in an act of honor and worship of this heavenly being that’s giving him this heavenly message. And on both occasions, the angel is very quick to react: “You mustn’t do that,” he says. “I am a fellow servant, with you and with your brethren who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God. Worship God.”

Yes, the heavenly glory and the supernatural authority of an angel may be very great; the revelation that he transmits to you may be overwhelming, but in the end, you must worship and not even an exalted supernatural being like an angel. And yet it’s in the Book of Revelation that we find Jesus revealed as God with God. In the book of Revelation, wherever God and Christ are mentioned together, as they are here for example in this chapter 5 – God and the Lamb, wherever they’re mentioned together, only singular verbs and singular pronouns are used. John never makes them, the Father and the Son, the subject of plural verbs or plural pronouns. He never ever speaks of God and Christ in the plural or as a plurality.

And the reason for that is that Christians from the beginning placed Christ on the divine side of the distinction between God and creation. I’ve quoted before from Professor Richard Bauckham of Cambridge University, who believes that the theme of the whole prophecy of Revelation is the distinction between worship and idolatry. A distinction that we Christians today need to maintain, of course. He writes this: “In chapter 14 of Revelation, there’s a reference to the eternal gospel, and the eternal gospel is summarized in this phrase: ‘Fear God, give him glory and worship him.’” That, by the way, echoes what Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, when he said the Father is seeking worshipers. A believer is, first of all, a worshiper. “Fear God, give him glory and worship him.” And the conflict, he goes on to say: “The conflict between God and Satan takes historical form in the conflict of human allegiances manifested in worship.” You’re either a worshiper of the Dragon – that is, the devil, and the beast – that is, the devil’s henchman, or you worship God in the heavenly Jerusalem.

So the whole book reaches its climax, the whole book of Revelation reaches its climax. You have two alternatives: Babylon the whore, or Jerusalem the Bride. Babylon represents human culture, human society, human industry, human activity. Babylon the whore, that is not out to enrich you or free you or redeem you, but to destroy you; and Jerusalem the Bride of Christ. And it ends with a punchline: “Worship God. Worship God.”

Now Revelation chapter 4 and 5 are helpful here, because the theme of these two chapters is the heavenly worship that is a prototype of the antitype, which is our human worship that we’re engaging in this morning as God’s people; worship in the gathered assembly of the church. It is gathered worship that draws a line, a very clear line of demarcation, between the church and the world, between God and the creature, in a way that you and I in our own ordinary individual lives can’t do. I mean, we can live Christian lives, but in many ways living a good Christian life in the world you can be very, very close living the same way a really godly pagan is living, with the same values more or less, to some greater or lesser degree. What is it that marks you out as a Christian? It is that you come Sunday by Sunday to assemble with God’s people, and to make a public declaration simply by being here that your allegiance is to God, and not to the world.

To God, first of all. In chapter 4, we have the worship of God considered absolutely, that is, the worship of the Triune God. In that chapter, we saw the heavenly representatives of God’s creatures, the living creatures. We saw the heavenly represented, representatives of God’s church embracing the Old and the New Covenant. We saw them acknowledging and confessing and worshiping God as the Creator. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Because the Father creates the world by his Word – the Son – and by his Spirit. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are gathered up.

The one on the throne in chapter 4 is the same one on the throne in chapter 5, and it’s the Holy Trinity that’s on the throne; it’s the one God of Israel who’s on the throne. Now what’s remarkable is this: that when we get to chapter 5, we find the worship that’s due to Almighty God alone being given to a creature. The creature is the Lamb which represents Jesus of Nazareth. It represents the human being that we all know about from the gospels, but he’s a creature. So there is one of the first problems in what we call Christology. How can you worship a creature? Of course, what we need to be reminded of is that who’s on the throne – God.

What is God? Jesus taught us that God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; so the Son’s on the throne. Jesus’ human nature is whose human nature? It’s the Son’s human nature. So that when you worship the human Jesus, you’re worshiping who? You’re worshiping God the Son. And that’s, by the way, what brings us ultimately to the Nicene Creed that we recited earlier today. The Nicene Creed is working out those things and putting them down on paper so the church can say what is true about God as it’s revealed in Scripture. But I want us to see how remarkable it is – the worship that is due to the Lamb who was slain.

First of all, the scene is set: the four living creatures, the twenty-four elders who had bowed down before the throne and worshiped the Creator in chapter 4 now bow down and worship the Lamb in chapter 5. The four living creatures, the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, just as they had fallen down “before him who is seated on the throne and worshiped him who lives forever and ever” in chapter 4. So now they fall down before the Lamb, and they worship him. The worship of the Creator is being given to the Lamb of God. And each worshiper we’re told holds a harp or a lyre – l-y-r-e. This was a traditional instrument used in the Old Testament for the praise of the Lord God of Israel.

“Praise the Lord with the lyre; make melody with the harp.”

Psalm 33:2

“Sing praises to the Lord with a lyre, make a joyful noise before the King, Yahweh.”

Psalm 98:5-6

So the use of the lyre here tells you it’s the worship of the God of Israel that is in view. And you can see the connection between the throne and the Lamb of God. The Lamb is on the throne, standing in the midst of the throne. The twenty-four elders are partially modeled on the twenty-four orders of the Levites, who were commissioned to give thanks and praise to the God of Israel, in singing and in accompanying themselves by the use of the lyre. Now all of this then is gathered together. That’s the image we have. To say the same kind of worship offered to the God of Israel under the Old Covenant, is being offered in heaven by these beings. And as they bring their praises they bring their bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. They bring, they gather up all the prayers of the saints. This is based by the way in Psalm 141:

“May my prayer be counted as incense before you.”

Psalm 141:2

And the prayers of the saints are likened to incense, a sweet smell of incense, rising in the air is a symbol that was very vivid in the minds of Jewish worshipers. And the idea that you were to get is that this wafts up as your prayers are sent to God, it is to God like a sweet smell would be in your nostrils. Your prayers are precious to God, and they’re received by God. It doesn’t matter what you’re going through in your life right now, your cries out to him are heard by him. Your pleas for vindication, or for justice, or for help are heard by him. They are brought before him. These beings bring the prayers of the saints, that is, all of us who have been set apart by God, and by God’s eternal choice for his own possession. Our prayers are being presented to him day and night. Later on in Revelation we’ll read this:

“The incense is offered with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose up before God.”

Revelation 8:3-4

Brethren, your cries and your tears, your prayers and your cares, whether they’re uttered or unexpressed, are heard in heaven. God receives them. So the scene is set; and then a new song is sung. Look at verse 9, that they sang a new song. Throughout the Psalms, we read of a new song wherever they want to express praise for new mercies.

“He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.”

Psalm 40:3

But the primary context of this is Isaiah. As we’ve seen already, so we see again. In Isaiah chapter 42, for example, Isaiah 42, God talks about a new thing that he is going to do. Let me read what he says:

“Behold, the former things have come to pass, new things I will now declare; before they spring forth I’ll tell you of them. Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth.”

Isaiah 42:9-10

God is going to do a new thing, he’s telling Isaiah, “I’m telling you before I do it that I’m going to do a new thing.” God says to him the events of the old order are going to give way to the events of a new order. The glories of the Old Covenant – and the Old Covenant was glorious, with its massive Temple, and with the with the glory cloud that hung over the Temple, and the pillar of fire that had led Israel through the desert and that hung over the Temple by night for about a thousand years, where they worshipped in Jerusalem. The glories of the Old Covenant were glorious. But God is saying through Isaiah, he is saying that the glories of the New Covenant will eclipse all the glories of the of the Old Covenant.

However wonderful, he’s saying secondly, however wonderful the old creation was – this universe that we are familiar with – however glorious and wonderful that is, the new universe, the new creation that God is going to bring about will be so significant by far, more magnificent, more wonderful than the old. And new heavens and a new earth, where everything is made new. And this whole idea of newness is uppermost in the mind of the Holy Spirit, who is the author of Revelation.

The God-appointed Jewish era was marked by its animal sacrifices and by its racial exclusiveness. God was working in the world through one race primarily – the Jews – in that era. But as we find in chapter 5 what marks out this new era is that there are no multiple sacrifices being offered on altars anywhere. There is one sacrifice, one sacrifice — the Lamb that had just been slain. His sacrifice, the sacrifice of the cross. The focus of worship is Christ and him crucified, just as the focus of our preaching is Christ and him crucified. The focus of our worship is Christ and him crucified.

“He who bore our sins in his own body on the tree.”

1 Peter 2:24

“The Lamb of God who bore away the sins of the world.”

John 1:29

One sacrifice that can take away sin. And instead of racial exclusiveness, there is racial extensiveness. The whole world is caught up into this new thing that God is doing, that is for people from every part of society and for every place on this earth. Throughout Scripture there’s this promise of a new world and a new life. A new order that is inaugurated by the Servant – the suffering Servant of the Lord, who goes like a lamb to the slaughter. And that will be consummated in new Jerusalem and the new creation.

The one that, the one seated on the throne says, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And each citizen of that new Jerusalem, in that new earth, will receive a new name; and in praise of this new thing, we’ll sing a new song. But listen to what they sing to the Lamb, that is, to Jesus. “Worthy are you.” Same words that are used in chapter 4:

“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power.”

Revelation 4:11

Same words, chapter 5: “Worthy are you.”

“Worthy is the Lamb, to receive power and honor and glory and blessing.”

Revelation 5:12

The same worthiness that belongs to God belongs to the Lamb. Worship of Christ where worship is exclusively God’s. The same glory is given to Jesus as is due to God. Only he is worthy to take the power and purposes of God into his hands. And he’s worthy why? He’s worthy because he was slain in his human nature. Christ was crucified. And by his death and resurrection he wins a decisive victory over the devil, and over evil, and over hell, and establishes the kingdom of God on earth.

In chapter 4, we see the sovereignty of God in heaven. In chapter 5, we see the one who is exercising the sovereignty of God on earth. The Crucified takes control of the book of destiny and rules history. It’s through his self-sacrifice that he has brought the faithful to God, by the shedding of his own blood. This echoes the doxology back in chapter 1:

“To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.”

Revelation 1:5

Listen to what it says in chapter 5:

“by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, you have made them kings and priests, and they shall reign on earth.”

Revelation 5:9-10

A people for God, by forgiving their sins, by freeing them up that they can release, resist sin. These are the ones who’ve been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. They are now saints; they have been set apart by God for God’s own possession. God’s own people gathered from the whole earth to be a worldwide empire under God’s rule. These despised people, the people the world looks down their nose at, thinks that you’re out of your head, are the true kings, true priests. They’re not the Caesars of this age, not the influencers, not the billionaires that have all the power and influence to do what they like and are given a free ride by the governments of the world. None of those things. Not the dictators of this world. It is persecuted, marginalized Christians who will inherit the earth. To whom the Apostle Paul says,

“If you endure, you will reign with him.”

2 Corinthians 2:12

The scene is set; the song is sung; the praise starts to swell. Look at verse 11:

“Then I looked, and around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads.”

Revelation 5:11

Billions billions. They didn’t have a word for billion, they didn’t have a word for million, when they put all of this stuff together. They meant you to understand the biggest numbers you can conceive of. Billions and billions of angels

“saying in a loud voice, ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth, wisdom and might, honor and glory and blessing.’”

Revelation 5:12

You compare the praise of Christ with the praise of the Lord God in verse 11 of chapter 4, and you’ll see that there is no subordination in Christ. There is no lesser glory or honor or worship given to Christ than there is to God. The very same language is utilized in praise of Christ, who as the Son of God bears the very nature of God the Father. And in fact, do you notice there is this seven-fold description of praise to God, pointing to its fullness, its completeness, its perfection? And the Lamb is described as standing on the throne of God, being worshipped as God.

Two scholars, I’ll quote from two scholars. From one, from Kiddle,

“Nowhere else in the New Testament is Christ adored on such absolutely equal terms with the Godhead.”

Martin Kiddle

Or Swete of Oxford University:

“This chapter is the most powerful statement of the divinity of Christ in the New Testament, and it receives its power from the praise of God the Creator which precedes it.”

Henry Barclay Swete

In other words, when you read the praise of the Lamb in chapter 5, you have to be thinking back to the praise of God as Creator in chapter 4. Jesus the Lamb is being given the exact same praise that is given to God as Creator. And if you were in any doubt, the cycle of praise climaxes:

“And I heard every creature.”

Creature in the Bible includes every created thing, from a molecule to a mole on your skin, to a galaxy to a black hole, to the synapse in your brain — everything that God has made is a creature. Every creature in heaven, that’s in the universe, on earth, under the earth, in the sea and all that is in them, every created thing you can imagine or cannot imagine comprehended in this expansion of praise. John hears the roar of it, and there’s no doubt about Jesus’ identity, in case you were any doubt, John resolves it right at this point by the Holy Spirit.

“To him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”

Revelation 5:13

From the ages to the ages. In one of the oldest liturgies of the church, the minister says, “Let us give thanks unto the Lord.” And the people shout back: “It is meet and right so to do.” Meet and right – proper and fitting – but also inevitable. What is the most natural thing in the world for a creature to do than to worship the Creator? These worship scenes in Revelation 4 and 5 make very clear to us who the acting subject of Revelation is. It’s the Lord God of Israel. It’s God of the nations, God of the cosmos. It’s God the Triune. It’s the Lamb that was crucified and risen.

That’s why, you see, the blood of the Lamb will prove to be stronger than all of God’s enemies, will be the means through which all his enemies will finally be conquered. The throne, therefore, the majesty and the sovereignty and the glory belongs to God and the Lamb conjointly. The doxology is offered to both as one and is compelling. And so the heavenly representatives add their Amen. The elders fall down and worship. The elders who represent the believing communities of the Old and the New Covenant, they fall down, and they worship. The heavenly representatives say their Amen to the universal and cosmic honor given to God and the Lamb.

I want to ask you this morning: Will you give your Amen to the worship of Jesus Christ crucified, risen, exalted, the Son of God who for us and our salvation became human so that he might redeem us to God? Will you say your Amen?

This is God’s will for the world. He is seeking worshipers who will worship him in Spirit – the Holy Spirit – and in truth. The One who said, “I am the truth.”

But I warn you, if you add your voice, it can be costly to you. The pressure is on to give Babylon your worship. Babylon, which represents the whole world system with its politics, and its laws, and its technology, and its people, and its entertainment, and its identities, and its requirements. Babylon.

Babylon wants your allegiance. And if you say Amen to the worship of Jesus, you’re doing what? You are drawing a line, and you are saying to Babylon “You’re the whore.” Christ is the Bridegroom and the church is his Bride whom he’s purchased by his blood. Babylon never freed anybody. Babylon sucks everybody into the into the vortex of its demands and its pressures, but Jesus frees. Jesus frees. Frees us up to live as those who belong to new Jerusalem.

Will you say you’re Amen to Jesus? The hymn writer puts it like this:

“Yea, amen, let all adore thee
high on thine eternal throne;
Savior, take the power and the glory,
claim the kingdom for your own.
Hallelujah, hallelujah,
everlasting God come down.”

Charles Wesley, “Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending”

Maranatha, come, Lord.

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