to receive glory and honour and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being. (Rev4:11)
You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and with your blood you purchased men for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation.(Rev5:9) Revelation4:11-5:9
The whole of Revelations chapter four is a description of God's throne in heaven. The One sitting on the throne shines like a jewel and an emerald-like rainbow encircles the throne. There are four living creatures who represent the whole of creation worshipping around the throne and there are twenty four elders who lay down their crowns before Him and say "You are worthy..."
After starting with the church and the call to "hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches, John now devotes a whole chapter to the idea that God is on the throne and should be worshipped.
Why is worship so important?
Because it is the best way to deal with the obvious reality:
God is _so_ big and _so_ good that to do anything other than worship would be an inadequate response.
John uses the word "worthy" in ch.4 and 5. In chapter four he argues that God is worthy of our praise because of creation. In chapter five he shows us that God is worthy of our praise because He alone was able to save us.
God is WORTHY: He created atoms, molecules, quarks and quasars. He lit the fires of the sun and spoke oceans and rivers into being. He paints sunsets and knits babies together in the womb. Whether we discover a universe in our microscopes or in our telescopes, we know it all comes from Him and when our jaws drop at the beauty of the mountains or the power of the tsunami, we recognise that the "Lord God made it all."
But there's more: He was slain! He entered our humanity and came to explain Himself to us in words and in actions that we were able to understand and then He let us crucify Him. There on the cross, He embraced our failure to worship and carried our resulting brokenness on Himself. Then He triumphed over that darkness and brought life to you and me.
Worship is celebrating God's "worth-ship" and John shows us that this just makes sense!
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
