The Kingdom of Heaven and the Church on Earth
7.The worship of heaven

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Times of Refreshing: Summary and Application

Series 1:    “The Kingdom of Heaven and the Church on Earth.”

Topic 7:       The Worship of Heaven

Key Text:     Revelation 5:1-14

1. The Power of Music

  1. Singing has a unique place in the Christian religion, both in scripture and the history of revivals.
  1. Music has the unique power to carry thoughts past the mind direct to the affections.
  1. The influence of instrumental music and singing has vastly expanded in congregational life over the last few decades.

Application Questions

What would God’s purpose be in making it possible for music to bypass our critical faculties?

Why are there no references to instrumental music in the church of the New Testament?

2. Problems with the Worship Phenomenon

  1. Confusion about “higher levels” reflects the emphasis on the spectacular in western culture.
  1. There is no “worship service”, “worship time” or “worship leader” in the New Testament (John 4:21- 24). “Worship” is a matter of the whole of life (Rom 12:1).
  1. The only mediator of worship in the new covenant is the heavenly Jesus (Heb 8:1- 2); not earthly priest – like anointed figures.
  1. Community creation is being sacrificed for the sake of excellence in performance. Modern songs rarely contain specific ethical exhortations.
  1. The prophetic dimension of lament or complaint (Ps 22; 25; 34; 37; 40; 69; 74; 86; 149) and the cry of the oppressed (Ps 22:26; 25:16; 37:5,7,11; 40:1; 42:5; 149:4) finds little or no place. Rehearsal leaves no space for spontaneous confession of sin.
  1. Christ is not the centre, my experience of life is. Jesus is being transformed from the biblical reality to a projection point for the deepest convictions, wishes and longings of the human heart.

Application Questions

A New Testament scholar said we are living in a time of “justification by intensity.” What was he getting at? If you are in this state you may want to confess your sin.

What has gone wrong so that contemporary Christianity has become so subject to abuses in the area of “worship”?

3. Worship and Creation

  1. The core of Adam’s worship was to submit to the command of God (Gen 1:26-28).
  1. The one thing he could not enjoy with God was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:17).
  1. When tempted, Adam and Eve faced a choice between going with their senses (Gen 3:6) or submitting to God’s Word.
  1. The Fall meant that the centre of worship was moved from God to humanity (Rom 1:21-23). This is idolatry of self.

Application Questions

What do you find hardest about submission (whether to God or others)?

In what sphere of the senses are you most tempted? Thus may be a good time to pray.

4. The Heart of Biblical Worship

  1. Sacrifice, whether literal (Gen 3:21; 4:4; 9:20-22; Lev 7:37; Num 28 etc.), or of praise (Ps 50:14-15; 107:17-22; 116:8-18; Heb 13:15), is at the heart of biblical worship.
  2. Only sacrifice can deal with the human guilt and shame that infallibly testifies to our conscience that we have lost the glory of God and deserve to die (Rom 3:23;6:23).
  3. The role of music and worship rituals in non-biblical religion is to cultivate an inner sense of peace with God. This false worship is driven by demonic powers (Deut 32:17; Ps 106:37; 1 Cor 10:21; Rev 9:20).
  4. In the Bible, the blood of sacrifice covers sin and assures of forgiveness (Lev 16:15-19; Heb 9:22).
  5. Jesus offers the final atoning sacrifice (Rom 6:10; Heb 7:27; 9:12, 28; 10:10) so that no others need be offered (Heb 10:2-3).
  6. The worship of heaven (Rev 5:6-10) revolves around the Lamb who alone is worthy because of his sinless sacrifice on behalf of others.
  7. As dead and raised, Jesus is the first healed human person in the new creation (Rom 6:9; 1 Cor 15:20; 2 Cor 5:17).
  8. Christian worship is a share in the way the Son relates in love to the Father and the Father delights in the Son (Heb 1:9; 2:12; 12:1).

Application Questions

Worship is essentially about recognizing God’s worth, how do we grow in this recognition?

It has been suggested that (like under the old covenant), the Sunday by Sunday worship of the church can actually serve as a reminder of sin. What evidence do we have that this is happening?

What is the main difference between seeing worship as something we do rather than someone (Jesus) we share in?

5. Christian Worship

  1. God does not offer us worldly glory but a share in his own eternal glory through Christ (John 17:1, 5, 22; 2 Thess 2:14; 2 Tim 2:10).
  1. The more you experience suffering for the cause of Christ the more you sense your share in the worthiness of Jesus and the more heaven becomes an indelible reality (Matthew 5:11-12; Luke 24:26; Acts 5:41; 16:23-25; 2 Thess 1:4-5).
  1. We cannot know the reality of the worship of heaven if we are unwilling to follow Jesus is the way he was reckoned worthy of heaven. This involved death.
  1. In the order of God’s saving history, assurance and celebration only come after struggle with the powers of evil. We want the former without the latter.

Application Questions

Have you experienced people being delivered from their shame, guilt, fear, anxiety, depression, greed and many other ills while the congregation sings? This is something worth praying into.

Illustrate from your experience the connection between suffering and glory.

Times of Refreshing:

Series 1:    “The Kingdom of Heaven and the Church on Earth.”

Topic 7:       The Worship of Heaven

Key Text:     Revelation 5:1-14

Introduction

Compared to other religions e.g. Islam and Buddhism, singing has a unique place in Christianity. This is because only the religion of Jesus claims full forgiveness now. Every major gospel rediscovery— the Reformation (Luther wrote many hymns and Calvin set the Psalms to dance music), the Wesleyan revival, the advent of the Salvation Army and so on saw a massive flowering of new songs. [Personally, I often find that I receive revelation whilst spontaneously singing.]

Music is perhaps the most powerful medium of communication. If image has replaced the word in our culture, music has replaced the book. Music carries thoughts past the critical faculty of the mind straight into the affections. Unlike art, sculpture, reading etc. it does not need analysis to be effective, but sets up associations in the mind. This is not a new thing, e.g. JY and Evangelical Anglican congregation singing a Catholic hymn “both priest and victim in the eucharistic feast”, but it has become far more pronounced.

Music as singing has expanded in the normal Sunday celebration of many churches to exclude public Bible reading, intercession and the use of spiritual gifts. Indisputably, the Word and prayer hold central places in the congregational life of the early church (Acts 1:14; 2:42; Col 3:16; 1 Tim 2:1, 8), but there is no corresponding references to the first Christians using instrumental music.

The major shift in spirituality of many Protestant churches in the last few decades will prove to be either the cutting edge to impact contemporary culture or a terrible mistake. Everything seems to pale into significance in the light of “worship” in the modern church. [e.g. Brian Houston’s remark at a national conference a few years ago that he finds himself in various overseas situations being identified as the pastor of the church where Darlene Czezch is the “worship leader”.]

I believe something is wrong with what is happening in much of the church. Before examining some of the key questions I want to briefly list seven problems I see in the “Worship Phenomenon”.

Contemporary Problems with the Worship Phenomenon

  1. Confusion: people are being exhorted to go to a “higher/next level” with God but don’t know what’s being asked of them. This sounds like a churchy imitation of the entertainment and sports scene where performance levels keep rising. Everything in our culture from extreme sports, to losing weight to keeping fit to home renovations has become “spectacularised.” Television, movies and other forms of home entertainment teach the popular western psyche that things continuously need to ramp up.  This mis-emphasis has nothing in common with “Be still and know that I am God” (Ps 46:10), “In quietness and trust is your strength” (Isa 30:15) or “I have learned to be content with whatever I have.” (Phil 4:11).
  2. Non-biblical understanding: while in the Old Testament the vocabulary of worship is concentrated around the temple and its practices e.g. 2 Chron 29:28-29; Ezra 7:19, in the New Testament there are no special places for worship. Jesus said 21 “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 23 …the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.”John 4:21, 23). Jesus himself has replaced the temple, its rituals and its special personnel (John 2:21; Heb 2:17; 3:1 etc.).  In the new covenant there is no “worship service”, “worship time” or “worship leader”. According to scripture, “worship”, which simply means “service”, is a matter of the whole of life, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters,a by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” (Rom 12:1) Cf. work (Col 3:22 -24); home and marriage (Eph 5:21; Col 3:18- 20); caring for the needy (Matt 25:45; hospitality (Heb 13:2); justice and compassion (James 1:27).
  3. Mediatorship: there can only be one mediator, “For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human” (1 Tim 2:5). Hebrews tells us that Jesus is “seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a minister in the sanctuary” (8:1-2). It uses a word for “minister” (leitourgos) that means someone who understands and leads in the service of God on behalf of others. Jesus is the “heavenly worship leader”. This leaves no place for earthly mediators. Despite the fact that we are seated with Christ in the heavenly places (Eph 1:3; 2:6; Col 3:1 etc.), we are told “worship leaders” have an “anointing” that can lead us into the “presence of God.”  These persons are treated like new priests with a new altar trying to light the fires of our experience in the same manner as their own.
  4. Lack of community: one of the saddest features of the life of the modern church is the lack of community. People coming together to sing songs and listen to a speaker is an event, it is not relationship.  If you walk into the largest churches it is quite possible to observe that less than half the people are actually singing the songs (especially the men). Many of the songs are not designed for congregations but for performance and CD production. They conform to the expectation of the masses to be entertained.
  5. Lack of transformation: many years ago I walked out of church with one of my friends and we said to one another, “We come here each week and say ‘Praise the Lord, Hallelujah’ and we are not changed.” Much of what passes for worship cannot be, because so many Christians are not living holy lives. The escapism in the culture— the analgesia of the mood – has penetrated deeply into the church.  I was reading recently about a student revival in Ethiopia in the 70’s and how they started to write their own songs. These included songs designed to help believers overcome the evils of secularism and Marxism (it was then a Marxist dictatorship). It suddenly struck me that almost all of our songs are vertically oriented, with virtually no explicit ethical content, there may be lots of “holy” language, but what does this mean in the everyday? (Cf. Eph 5:19; Col 3:16 “singing to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” n.b. this departs from NIV but is present in KJV, GNB etc.).  Why aren’t our contemporary song writers exhorting us to beware the temptations of hedonism, materialism and sex? (You can perhaps guess my answer to this.) We don’t even seem to be saying we should love and forgive one another!) Much of the contemporary Christian music scene is so emotive, that instead of strengthening believers to resist the idolatries of the public world it simply causes them to dissociate i.e. “switch off.”
  6. Lack of prophetic creativity: about a third of the Psalms involve lament or complaint. Many of them are cries of the weak for deliverance (Ps 22; 25; 34; 37; 40; 69; 74; 86; 149) and hold on to God’s promises to the oppressed (Ps 22:26; 25:16; 37:5,7,11; 40:1; 42:5; 149:4).  (Cf. “Let the weak say I am strong, Let the poor say I am rich… Hosanna, Hosanna, to the Lamb that was slain…”).  Where is the space for Spirit led spontaneous confession in our “services”? Everything is so rehearsed. Where are the songs keeping us humble and in the reverence of God? Where is the protest against the evils of our time—  abuse, greed, oppression, racism, war, poverty…? Our songs have come to say what the people want to hear- the song writers indulge the basic desires of their audiences over and over.  There are enormous amount of money at the top of the music scene. Jesus warned, ““You cannot serve God and wealth.” 14 The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they ridiculed him. 15 So he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others; but God knows your hearts; for what is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God.” (Luke 16:13-15).(“Abomination” = something that greatly offends the nostrils) M. Malieu example.
  7. Christ is not the centre: this is the most serious problem of all. The era in which we have been living for the last twenty years or so is called the “post-modern era”. At the centre of its culture is individual self-expression. Relational, charismatic and contemplative music forms today all tend to focus on what we can get out of worship. [I thought worship was about God!].  The most important thing has become the drama of the soul, my story, rather than the story of God revealed in Christ. This is an integral cause of the creeping biblical ignorance in the churches.  The object of worship has become what I can get from worship rather than God.  It is all about passion, desire, need, sensory stimulation and religious devotion. The centre is the uncrucified “I” of the experiencing subject rather than the “I” that has been crucified with Christ (Gal 2:20).  More and more in our churches the image of Jesus is being transformed from the biblical reality to a projection point for the deepest convictions, wishes and longings of the human heart. (cf. Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics 1/2 p.252- 256.) This is nothing other than humanism and idolatry of self.  The culture of imitation is terrible. JY example— Darlene look-alike.  We need to go back to God’s original intentions, discuss what has gone wrong, and how things have been restored in Jesus. Unless we deal with foundations there can be no possible reformation in the area of Christian worship, the forces at work in the human heart are simply too powerful to resist change.

Worship and Creation

Adam was created to worship God and at the core of his worship was submission. He was commanded (with Eve) to fill the earth with the glory of God, (Gen 1:26- 28; Isa 43:7). [For this to happen it needed to be manifest that his deeds were done “in God” (John 3:21).] God had freely given him everything to enjoy (1 Tim 6:17)— the animals, food, drink and his wife. There was one thing that he was not allowed to enjoy— the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Whatever he grasped by God’s Word, “in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” (Gen 2:17), it must have been plain that he and God could not share in tree eating together.

So when the serpent came along Adam was faced with a basic choice, to go with the senses God gave him, “the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes” (Gen 3:6) or to submit to God’s Word. Submission meant faithful sonship (Luke 3:38), disobedience meant deprivation of the overwhelming desire to find personal satisfaction in all things (1 John 2:16). By refusing the Word God had spoken Adam chose not to continue in sharing God’s story but to set up his own story at the centre of his fallen universe.

[In Paul’s words, “21 for though they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools; 23 and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being” (Rom 1:21-23).]

By turning away from God and turning towards themselves, Adam and Eve did not lose the impulse to worship, they simply became the focus of worship. From now on, all worship must serve man. The one essential human problem is the idolatry of self.

[A decade ago John Piper said: “What gets preachers' juices flowing is a new psychological angle on family dysfunction; a new strategy for mobilizing lay people; a new tactic for time management; a fresh approach to dealing with depression… We find the engaging itch and we scratch it... But not a book about God. Not the infinite expanse of God's character. Not the inexhaustible riches of the glory of God in Christ.” (Preaching as Worship: Meditations on Expository Exultation, 1995)]

Even if contemporary lyrics seem to be about God, empathetic human pain-centeredness is driving them. It is the human saturated that seems to be overtaking the church.

The Heart of Biblical Worship

Whether it is the skins God provide Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:21), the favour over Abel (Gen 4:4), the fragrant aroma that pleased God after the flood (Gen 9:20-22), the Temple rituals or the New Testament, at the heart of God ordained worship is sacrifice. This can be a sacrifice of praise (Ps 50:14-15; 107:17-22; 116:8-18; Heb 13:15), but typically it is a sacrifice that involves blood. Only sacrifice can deal with the human guilt and shame that infallibly testifies to our conscience that we have lost the glory of God and deserve to die (Rom 3:23; 6:23). Adam and Eve tried fig leaves to cover their shame from judgement but something on the outside can never cover something on the inside.

But what if something on the inside could be used to cover inner pain? This has been the role of music and worship rituals in all non-biblical religion and it is a very powerful emotional tool. Cults work themselves into a frenzy, Eastern religions seek to cultivate an inner state of peace through the chant, the rote repetition of the matchless Arabic of the Koran and so on, are all cloaks for the operation of seducing spirits whose role it is to convince and delude countless men and women through their experience that their worship, that is, their lives, are acceptable to God and they have found a way back into his glory (Deut 32:17; Ps 106:37; 1 Cor 10:21; Rev 9:20).

Yet even the Bible itself, which certainly sanctifies music (1 Chron 6:31-48; 15:16 etc.), places a limit on its role— no musician went into the Most Holy Place but only the High Priest only on The Day of Atonement and only with blood (Lev 16:15-19). The Hebrew word for “atonement” (kipper) means “to cover”, and what the blood covered was the guilt of the people. It indicated that the nation was forgiven its sins at the cost of the life of a pure and innocent substitute (Heb 9:22).

Yet the blood of animals could never permanently “take away sin” (Heb 10:4). . The “conscience of the worshipper” (Heb 9:2) could not be set free “from acts that lead to death to worship the living God” (Heb 9:14). Paradoxically, the sacrifices offered again and again, one could say, Sunday after Sunday, were an actual reminder of sin to the worshippers (Heb 10:2-3). Only a worshipper whose conscience was pure and who therefore knew that their act of worship was wholly acceptable to God could impart to other worshippers the same sense.

The need for repeated offerings to sustain the favour of God has changed once for all (Rom 6:10; Heb 7:27; 9:12, 28; 10:10) through the death of Christ. One of the most potent testimonies to this transformation in scripture is the heavenly scene in Revelation “6 Then I saw between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 7 He went and took the scroll from the right hand of the one who was seated on the throne. 8 When he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9 They sing a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God saints from every tribe and language and people and nation;10 you have made them to be a kingdom and priests serving our God, and they will reign on earth.” (Rev 5:6-10).

What grips the hearts of the heavenly worshippers is the worthiness of the sacrificial Lamb (cf. John 1:29; 1 Pet 1:19). He alone is worthy because he does not stand under the judgement of God, but has maintained his faithfulness to God through suffering and death and so purchased a community of worshippers for his Father.

The lamb, a clear biblical image of atonement and reconciliation, is worthy because of his self-giving and self sacrifice, because he reckoned the Father’s pleasure in obtaining a vast multitude of worshippers in Spirit and truth (John 4:24) worth more than his own life. The cost of this to Jesus was everything- on the cross he must be deprived of the ultimate aim of all true worship— he is unable to delight himself in God and so has no sense of being a delight to his Father (Mark 15:34). His absolute agony is being ignorant of the worth of the object of his worship.

Not only is the lamb in the midst of the throne slain, but he is standing, he is a sacrificed and resurrected Lamb, this means that he is a healed Lamb, the first fruits of the new creation in the Father’s joy (1 Cor 15:20, 23; Heb 1:9; 12:2).

It is Jesus that thrills the heart of the Father, it is the Father’s satisfaction in Jesus that gives us confidence to worship before the Judge of heaven and earth. The mediator in heaven is the one true worshipper. The praise, joy and love we feel inside us for the Father are a participation in the praise, joy and love Jesus feels for the Father because the Father delivered him from the darkness of this world into the light, from the power of Satan to God (cf. Acts 26:18). Jesus himself is the first person redeemed from the power of evil (Rom 6:9). As Jesus was healed of his sorrow and grief by the Father’s love and peace he has become Lord over all the ills of humanity.

To be a Christian worshipper is to enter into the mutual appreciation, adoration and glory of the members of the trinity. The Father says to us, “this is my Son in whom I am well pleased”, Jesus is saying of the Father, “I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters, in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.” (Heb 2:12). They are forever praising one another. True worship is not measurable by the benefit it brings to us, but the glory it brings to God.

“Jesus Christ is not a part of our world. He is not a part of our worship and service to God. He is not a part of our church. It is the other way around. This is Jesus Christ’s world and he alone knows and worships and serves and loves the Father. We are a part of his world, part of his church, part of his relationship with the Father.” (Baxter Kruger)

We are called to “offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 2:5). We do not do this because we are zealous, or gifted, or devoted or passionate, but because our Saviour whose blood poured out to God is the sign to the insecure human conscience that there is after all a way to truly worship God.

Christian Worship

C.S. Lewis said we are like little children playing mud pies in a slum because we do not know what is meant by a holiday at the sea. What God offers us is not human glory but a share in his own glory: by grace, through Christ we share in the eternal (i.e. deathless) glory of God (John 17:1, 5, 22; 2 Thess 2:14; 2 Tim 2:10).

Despite the elevated claims made for contemporary Christian worship, despite the success in Arias and Australian Idol, we are not seeing a powerful move of the Spirit upon the inner and outer life of the body of Christ in the realm of praise. I know of reports from other nations of people being healed of the most serious illnesses (tuberculosis) whilst others praised. What is stopping men and women being healed from their shame, guilt, fear, anxiety, depression, greed and many other ills whilst the congregation sings? Why is “the word of Christ” not “dwell(ing) in (us) you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.” (Col 3:16)?

According to Jesus, suffering for him is a cause of praise, 11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:11-12).  After being flogged, “the apostles rejoiced that they were considered worthy to suffer dishonour for the sake of the name.” (Acts 5:41). “After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison … in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God…” (Acts 16:23-25). “Therefore we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith during all your persecutions and the afflictions that you are enduring.5 This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, and is intended to make you worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering.” (2 Thess 1:4-5)

There is a remarkable message here, the more you experience suffering for the cause of Christ the more you sense your share in the worthiness of Jesus and the more heaven becomes an indelible reality“26 Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” (Luke 24:26). We cannot know the reality of the worship of heaven if we are unwilling to follow Jesus is the way he was reckoned worthy of heaven.

This means that any music movement whose primary goal is to deliver us from suffering, rather than to deliver us from evil, is deeply deceived. Using music in a special way, the satanic plan, ever so gradually but ever so really, is to move the whole western church, “beyond the cross”. Satan knows that worship without cost is powerless (“I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” 2 Sam 24:24; Heb 13:15)

Conclusion

Symphony conductor Thomas Hohstadt (www.futurechurch.net) says in his article, “What makes Music Christian”), “In every century . . . every culture, Christian (music) liturgies always stand(s) on three moods: (1) struggle, (2) assurance, and (3) celebration. These moods rehearse the Christian story in its most basic form: (1) There is darkness in the world, (2) Jesus came to bring light, and (3) He triumphed over the darkness.
We seldom find all three moods— especially with dramatic tension in today’s church music. One mood at a time is the order of the day:… Other than angry Gen-X bands, musicians seldom perform the mood of “struggle” intentionally….

Many churches, though, live in a continual mood of “celebration.” “If we can just get everybody dancing and shouting, we’ve had ‘church’.” Not so, if we have forgotten what we are celebrating… what we have overcome. Too often, we enjoy the trip without gratitude for the journey. Our make-believe ecstasy proves only natural glee. So in place of true spiritual victory, we indulge only a catchy, bouncy, jolly, earth-stomping, toe-tapping swing. It’s a hollow hilarity… a cheap ecstasy. It’s as empty as the bubbles in (a) Lawrence Welk’s bubble machine… Christian “celebration” should always look over its shoulder. Our resurrection should always remember its cross.

Musicians are not our problem, our problem is that we are worshippers of ourselves, at the centre is not the slain Lamb, but the uncrucified “I” (Gal 2:20).

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