By All, in All Places, at All Times

Texts: Micah 4:1-5; Revelation 5:6-14

I WANT YOU TO LOOK AROUND. WHAT do you see? The same familiar church sanctuary, right? Look more closely. What do you see? The pulpit's in its usual place; the Communion table is front and center, today with the elements of the Lord's Supper laid out on it . . . But what do you see? Look at each other. All around you are the same old-- or young!-- church friends and family you see every week, correct?

But look more closely. Look with the eyes of the spirit. Look with eyes opened and made keen by the Holy Spirit of God. What do you see now?

It is my hope and desire that you see yourselves gathered together with apostles, martyrs, and evangelists of every time and place, with saints of every nation, race, tribe, and language. I would that you knew yourselves to be worshipping in the presence of angels and archangels and all the company of heaven. It is my prayer that you see yourself falling down before the spotless Lamb of God sacrificed for the sins of the world; that you experience how He, the Crucified One, has even now raised you up with Him to the very throne of God.

For, brothers and sisters, that is among whom and where we are today, and among whom and where we are every time we worship our holy and living God in spirit and in truth. We are more than just the visible group you see congregated here Sunday after Sunday. The Church of Jesus Christ includes all His people who have ever lived and ever will live, and together with them we join in confessing that one true faith that is to be held by all people, in all places, at all times. We join with them in receiving the life-giving truth of God as He imparts it to us through His Word read and preached. We come to Him with our praises and petitions. We share our Lord's Holy Spirit and receive Jesus' own self by taste and touch as He gives Himself to us in the bread and the cup. What we do this morning is not something restricted to the Dallas Presbyterian Church, nor does it happen only on World Communion Sunday. No, brothers and sisters, whenever two or three or two or three thousand are gathered together in Christ's name, we are one in Him with all His Church. And in this holy meeting we with all Christ's saints know the joy of sacred union with our God and Father through our Lord Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Do you know what your purpose in life is? Your purpose is to find your highest joy and fulfillment in worshipping your almighty, infinite Savior God. But we tramp through this world day after day, and it can be hard to realize that. It's difficult to imagine that receiving God's word and praising Him is our ultimate enjoyment! The troubles and tedium of everyday life simply get in the way.

It's not just that we get distracted, either, or that other good things take up our attention. It's the sin that dwells within us. We're not really inclined to worship God. The natural inclination of every person ever born is to worship his or her own will and desires; actually to worship himself, and what a dead, dark, and lonely worship that is! Our sin cuts us off from almighty God; it makes us liable to His wrath; it keeps us far from His presence. The prophets of old declared the judgement of the Lord against the idolatry of all people, Jew and Gentile alike. And that idolatry continues today. The natural human inclination is to find the worship of God to be a bore. "Pastor, get us out of church in an hour!" people say. "Forty-five minutes if it's a game day!" And that's regardless of whether the true riches of the faith are being proclaimed from the pulpit or not.

But the will and purpose of our Father in heaven for us, is that we should know our greatest joy in worshipping and enjoying Him, both in this world and the next. And that this joy be shared with all peoples from all times and from all places.

So out of all the nations, God called the Hebrew people to be His very own, that He might teach them to worship Him as He deserved. He gave them the sacrificial system in the tabernacle and the temple, not as an ultimate solution to sin, but as a looking forward to the ultimate sacrifice of the Lamb of God, slain before the foundation of the world. And for centuries this special relationship was only for the Jews. For centuries before the coming of our Lord Jesus only Israel had the right and privilege to worship and enjoy Him. The Gentile nations were enmired in the worship of idols and demons opposed to the God of Israel. They liked it that way. If you asked the Gentiles, they would have said that that Lord-- whom they knew as God Most High-- was worth worshipping, sure, but you could get so much more of what you wanted out of gods like Molech or Astaroth. The foreign nations were enemies to Israel and their God and Israel and its Lord were opposed to them.

But the word of the Lord came by prophets like King David in the Psalms, by Isaiah and Micah and others, looking forward to a day when the Gentiles would be included in the glorious worship of God. This would happen after Israel had been judged for their own unfaithfulness to the divine covenant, in "the last days" after the Messiah was revealed and the holy remnant that is the true Israel was called forth.

Micah says,

[T]he mountain of the LORD's temple will be established
as chief among the mountains;
it will be raised above the hills,
and peoples will stream to it.

By this we understand that the time would come when peoples all over the world would recognize that the God of the Jews was not just another national god, but the high and exalted holy Lord of the Universe, to whom all owe devotion and honor. This will not be according to the natural way of things, for look, the stream of peoples is flowing up the mountain of the Lord, drawn there by His majesty and power. This is the same scene we see in our reading from Revelation 5, where every creature in heaven and on earth is gathered around the throne of God praising and falling down before Him. This is not the natural order of things: This can only happen by the hand of God!

Micah goes on to say,

Many nations will come and say,
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths."

Here we see that the proclamation of the word of God is basic to true worship! Some, even many, people these days believe that "worship" is all about what we give to the Lord in our songs and praises, and that reading, teaching, and preaching aren't really needed at all. But if we do not first receive from Him, we grow weak and dull of spirit, and we forget what we are praising Him for. When we come together as a church God first of all serves us, and we respond to His gifts with our praise. All true worship of God is centered around the word of the Gospel of Christ, where we hear again how He was born and lived a sinless human being, true God but fully man; how He died on the cross to take away the sins of the world; how he rose again in victory to give us new and everlasting life; how He sits at the right hand of God forever interceding for us. We who have been Christians for years need to hear that good news over and over, too, just as much as the most wandering sinner needs to hear it for the first time. In fact, I think we can appreciate it more, for we've had longer to think about everything Jesus has saved us from! We know better than any new convert what He has done to make us rejoice!

And so in Revelation the divine worship centers around Jesus Christ the Lamb and His infinite worthiness. The scroll symbolizes His judgement against sin. Jesus accomplished it on the earth by the victory of His cross, and it will be totally fulfilled when He comes again in glory. For as it says in the new song of the elders and the living creatures,

"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."

Jesus' righteous blood gives Him the right to execute judgement on all who remain in rebellion against the Lord of all; but His blood covers our sins, having purchased us for God out of the evil of this world.

This word of mercy compels us to fall down in worship and adoration! We deserved nothing but wrath, but Christ through His cross has brought us joy and salvation and communion with God forever! And this mercy is not only for us, it's for people of every tribe and language and people and nation!

In fact, we are among those nations who have been streamed up to the mountain of the Lord. Are our ancestors Jews? Were we among the original covenant people? No, we were Gentiles, we represent the tribes and languages and peoples whom Jesus has redeemed for God! As St. Peter says in his first Epistle, "Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy"! So in Revelation it says,

"You have made them to be a kingdom and priests
to serve our God,
and they will reign on the earth."

I hope you are struck as I am that we with all the saints have been purchased for God. Together we are a kingdom and priests to serve Him. How does a priest serve? By bringing the good gifts of God to the people and leading the people in praise to God. Our whole lives should declare the goodness of our Lord, shown to us in the cross of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Our whole lives are called to be acts of praise to the Lamb, who was slain, who is worthy

"[T]o receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and praise!"

Brothers and sisters, the glorious worship of Jesus Christ to the glory of God the Father will be made perfect in the Last Day when we receive our resurrection bodies and see our Lord face to face. But by His Spirit it goes on whenever we gather together in His name. Especially He makes it happen when we gather around the Table of our Lord. Here He gives us the benefits of His broken body and His shed blood in the elements of bread and wine. Here He renews in each of us His life-giving presence and unites us with saints of all times and in all places, while angels look on with rejoicing and awe.

But is our worship then finished? No, as the kingdom of Christ reigning on the earth we take our worship into the world. Micah declares that

They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.

This verse has often been applied to the secular sphere; it's even engraved on a monument outside the United Nations building in New York. But unless and until every last UN delegate and every last national leader willingly bows the knee to Jesus Christ, that monument is a waste of real estate. Micah says,

"All the nations may walk
in the name of their gods;
we will walk in the name of the LORD
our God for ever and ever."

And without the grace of our God extended to them, the nations of this world will continue to walk in the name of their false gods. But the Spirit has called us to walk in the name of the Lord and to enjoy the peace and unity destined for the people of God. We are one in Jesus now! So let the old weapons of your warfare with your family, your neighbors, your co-workers become instruments of cultivation and growth! Use your thought and will and creativity to make peace with one another. You have been redeemed by one Lamb into one holy body to be ministers of the one true God! So say No to all racial or ethnic or regional prejudices! Away with economic envy or factional strife! Among our brothers and sisters in Christ, we are all one in Him. And although the world may not respond with peace, we can extend the peace of Christ even to those who do not believe and so show the holiness and grace of God in this fallen world.

Brothers and sisters, together we stand with angels and archangels and all the company of the redeemed in heaven and on earth, singing glory and praise to the Lamb who was slain, the Lamb who is worthy, the Lamb who has purchased us for God. It's no ordinary thing we do here. It's no ordinary life you lead. You are not alone in your most holy faith. You are joined together with the faithful people of God in every time and place, confessing His mighty acts and rejoicing in what He has done.

"To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and power,
for ever and ever!"

Let us fall down and worship! Amen and amen!

Liberated for Worship

Texts: Exodus 6:6-8; 8:1; 1 Peter 2:9-12; Romans 12:1-2

IT’S BEEN YEARS SINCE CHILDREN in the Presbyterian Church (USA) were required to memorize the Westminster Shorter Catechism in order to be confirmed. But say I were to ask you, "What is the chief end of man?" most of you could reply, "Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever."

There’s the meaning and purpose of human life, right there in those twelve little words. Human life is for the glorification and enjoyment of Almighty God. You and I and every human being ever born were made for worship. Everything in creation was made to focus us on the living God as our chief joy and treasure. Everything we do should show all creation how wonderful the Lord Almighty is. That’s how He made us to find fulfillment. That’s what He created us to do.

But we don’t see humanity carrying out that purpose, do we? We don’t even see it in ourselves, who bear the name of Christian. Ever since Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, we have turned away from worshipping God and enjoying and glorifying Him above all other things. In Romans 3:10-18, St. Paul reminds us of what is written in God’s holy law:

"There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands,
no one who seeks God.
All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one."
"Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit."
"The poison of vipers is on their lips."
"Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness."
"Their feet are swift to shed blood;
ruin and misery mark their ways,
and the way of peace they do not know."
"There is no fear of God before their eyes."

God made us to seek Him, to do good to others to the praise of His name. He gave us tongues to speak His word and vocal cords to sing His glory. He purposed our lips to proclaim the health-giving truth of His righteousness and love and our mouths to utter blessings on Him and our neighbor. Our feet He created to run quickly to do His service; our whole being He made for encouragement and joy and peace, peace we would find in bowing before Him and worshipping Him, looking to Him in holy fear. But do we? Does any human being of his or her own volition truly seek the Lord and the kingdom of His righteousness?

No, we do not. We humans run after and worship every other god except the Lord of heaven and earth. Some of us worship forces of nature, depicted as idols of metal, wood, or stone. We so-called superior modern types, we worship the false gods of money, power, position, or family. If we’re really sophisticated-- and I use the term satirically-- we claim to be worshipping the Lord God Himself , but we make Him over in our own image. We say, "Well, the God I worship wouldn’t do that!" or "My Jesus would always do this other thing!" When the very word of Scripture declares that we’re telling total lies about the Triune God.

When it comes down to it, we fallen humans are really worshipping ourselves, just as Adam and Eve did in the Garden. Every sin, every act of human crime and warfare, every evil and disease that has come into this world, can be traced to that one vicious motivation that lies in every one of our hearts: We would be as God, and our chief end is to glorify ourselves and enjoy ourselves in our own way forever.

So as Paul continues in the third chapter of Romans, "Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God."

But why should God hold us accountable? What difference does it make to Him if we glorify and enjoy Him-- or not? When the Scripture declares that God’s wrath will come upon those who refuse to worship Him alone, isn’t He being arbitrary and unfair?

Seems like a reasonable question-- until the Lord opens our minds to understand just how things are. God must punish rebellion against Himself, first because idolatry violates the very reason He created us. It’s an outrage against the image of God in us all. Then, the wrath of God comes because our refusal to glorify and enjoy Him puts us in opposition to Him in a battle we can’t win. Our sin is like fierce waves pounding us like frail wooden boats to pieces against the rock of God’s righteousness. It’s true that God Almighty cannot bear sin in His presence, but more than that, we sinners could not bear His presence in our sin.

But the third reason God must punish our idolatry is perhaps the greatest of all, and the hardest for us in our fallen natures to understand: It is that He is God. He and He alone has the right to be praised, worshipped, and glorified now and forever. That’s what it means for Him to be God. He made us; we did not make Him. He commands us; we are not to command Him. Ultimately, everything ought and should and shall be done to His glory and to the praise of His name.

And so, for His own name’s sake, God Almighty did not leave us in our sin. He called us to be a people of His own choosing and provided a way for us to be saved.

In the days of Moses the Lord freed the Hebrews from slavery under Pharaoh in Egypt and led them out to be His chosen people. After the children of Israel came into the Promised Land the Lord gave them judges and kings and prophets, to liberate them from oppression by the Gentile nations round about them, and from the yoke of idolatry they so often took upon themselves. And we know that these wonderful acts of salvation looked forward to the greatest act of liberation of all-- that day when Jesus Christ, God’s own and only Son, hung upon a cross to take the wrath we deserved for our sins and to bring us salvation through His blood.

Why did He do it? Why did our Lord Jesus Christ suffer not only tortures of physical pain, but also the infinite horror of separation from His eternal Father? To save us from our sins, we reply. Yes, but why did He save us from our sins? Why did He set us free? Going farther back to God’s great liberation of Israel, why did He free them from Pharaoh? What was it all for?

The Lord our God freed us for worship. Over and over the Lord commands Moses to say to Pharaoh, "This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me." Not, "Let my people worship, so they may go." Worship wasn’t a ruse to get the Hebrews out from under Pharaoh’s eye, as if God wanted him to think that they’d come back as soon as they’d offered their sacrifices. No, they needed to be liberated from their slavery so they could worship God as He has a right to demand. In Exodus 6, verse 7 the Lord declares, "I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God." He intended to bring Israel into a unique relationship with Him, where they could glorify and enjoy Him. In Exodus 1:12, the Lord tells Moses that their worship of Him at Mount Sinai would be a sign that it was indeed He who was with him.

If that was true for the children of Israel, how much more it is true for us, who are the new Israel in Jesus Christ! The Apostle Peter in his First Letter describes how it is with us:

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

God chose us in Jesus Christ and called us out of darkness, that we might declare His praises! He liberated us for worship! When we truly worship Him, it is His testimony to us that He is with us and has set us free. Only God’s people can worship Him, and we become His people not by our efforts, or by what we deserve, but by His gracious liberating hand.

And from the days of Moses; even from the time of Creation, the worship God desires is like a beautiful bird with two wings. We worship God-- that is, we glorify and enjoy Him-- by coming together to hear His holy word read and preached, to receive the holy sacraments He has given to us, to sing His praises, to give our offerings, and to raise up our adoration and petitions to Him in prayer. And we worship Him with our lives as we serve our neighbor, those in the church and those yet outside of it. Peter tells us we should live such good lives among unbelievers that ultimately they, too, may glorify God. Paul in Romans 12 reminds us that in view of God’s mercy in freeing us from sin and wrath through the shed blood of His Son, we are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to Him. By such continual acts of worship we "test and approve what God’s will is--his good, pleasing, and perfect will." As we worship Him in our lives we begin to know what it is to enjoy Him forever.

But we still have a problem, don’t we? We keep forgetting what we were saved for. To hear some preachers talk, you’d think God freed us from sin so we could have prosperous lives and happy marriages and well-behaved children and a sense of self-esteem and fulfillment. According to others, after Jesus has saved us by His free grace, it’s up to us to find our purpose under God by working really hard at some forty-day program, as if being a living sacrifice were something we have to do on our own. But no, God has saved us by Himself and for Himself, and having begun the work, He will bring it to completion.

But say we do acknowledge that we’re liberated for worship. The old Adam in us still wants to come up with his own ideas about what worship of Almighty God is. I’m sure you’ve heard people say, "I can worship God just as well or better on the golf course or at the beach as I can sitting in church." But the Bible’s answer to that is, No, you can’t. True worship of God is corporate-- it is offering of the whole royal priesthood, the people belonging to God. Even when we must be alone, our worship must acknowledge the spiritual presence of the whole body of believers. To claim it can ever be "Just Me and God" is to fall once more into idolatry.

But more than that, our worship together is not primarily a matter of what we give Him, but of what He gives us. Tell me, you who claim to worship on the golf course, are you hearing the Word of God preached? Are you hearing the bad news of God's wrath against your sin and the good news of Jesus Christ crucified to reconcile you to Him? And you who say you commune with God on the beach, are you receiving the holy sacraments our Lord has ordained? If not, how can you say you’re worshipping the one true God? Where our Lord does not give Himself in the ways He Himself has ordained, we are left worshipping idols we ourselves have made.

Then again, what if we want to remake worship to make it a better "experience," especially for the unbeliever? Let’s have more entertainment, louder amplifiers, better PowerPoint graphics, more exciting effects! Let’s get rid of boring sermons and sacraments and any talk about sin!

Beware, for if we omit or minimize the means of grace our Lord has given us, we’ll find we’re not worshipping the living God, but our idolatrous idea of Him. We can give a seeker the best "worship experience" in the world, but if we aren’t communicating the bad news of sin and wrath and the good news of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, that man or woman will remain just as much a child of Hell as they were when they walked through the church doors. Worship is not about giving us great experiences, it’s about glorifying and enjoying the eternal, righteous, holy, and all-worthy Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Or what if we think worship is just what we’re used to and find comfortable, like a social club with hymns? What will we do when He roars like a lion in His Word and burns like fire by His Spirit? What will become of our tame Jesus idol then? It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!

But take comfort, Christian friends. Our heavenly Father knows our weakness and comes to us in mercy and love. The worship of God is not a burden, it is your glory and your joy! Yes, we often fail truly to worship God as we come together as local churches. We don’t perfectly worship Him as we go about our lives in the world. But our Lord Jesus is here by His Spirit to forgive us, to guide us, to guard us, and to lead us more perfectly in His service. He is with us to teach us to desire the living God more than life itself, for He is Life itself. Our Christ has liberated us to worship Him, for it is in worship that He gives us His grace and strength; it is in worship that our God and Father receives the honor He is due; and in worship we come to fall at His feet, lost in wonder, love, joy, and praise.

In the name of Christ our risen Lord, wherever we are, whatever we do, may we glorify God and enjoy Him forever. As His liberated people, let us continually worship God.