Most of us here this morning have been involved in numerous weddings throughout our lives – most of us have experienced our own weddings, some have seen our children get married, some of us have performed or been part of wedding ceremonies, and probably all of us have attended a number of wedding ceremonies. And in most cases, even when it comes to our own weddings, over time the details of the ceremony itself tend to fade from our memories. But what does endure – or at least should - is the marriage relationship itself.
In a sense, the same is true with the marriage that is pictured in Revelation 19. And unfortunately, like many of the passages that we have seen throughout the Book of Revelation, it is so easy to get caught up in arguing over all the details, that we miss the enduring relationship that is pictured by the marriage and the marriage feast here in this chapter. But when we begin to argue over the place of the marriage supper – is it in heaven or on earth? – or the timing of the supper – does it begin at the rapture, or at the beginning of the millennial reign of Jesus or at some other time? – or the length of the supper – is it only a few days or does it last for 1,000 years or even for eternity? – or the identification of the invited guests – is this the church, or is it only Old Testament saints, or “tribulation saints”? – we miss the main point of the passage.
Take out your Bibles and turn to Revelation 19 and follow along as I read the first 10 verses of the chapter. And I’m going to suggest to you that as I read through this passage, that the main point of this passage is summed up in two words in verse 10. As I get to that verse, I invite you to see if you can identify those two words.
1 After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out,
“Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
2 for his judgments are true and just;
for he has judged the great prostitute
who corrupted the earth with her immorality,
and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”
3 Once more they cried out,
“Hallelujah!
The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.”
4 And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!” 5 And from the throne came a voice saying,
“Praise our God,
all you his servants,
you who fear him,
small and great.”
6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,
“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns.
7 Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his Bride has made herself ready;
8 it was granted her to clothe herself
with fine linen, bright and pure”—
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
9 And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” 10 Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Let’s see if you can pick out the main theme of this passage. Can anyone tell me the two words from verse 10 that summarize the theme of this passage?
[Wait for answers]
That’s right – Worship God. The first part of chapter 19 is primarily about worship. And therefore it is entirely fitting that there is a wedding ceremony included right in the middle of this passage, because that is essentially what a Biblical wedding ceremony is – it is a worship service.
Over the years I’ve read many definitions of worship, but by far the most accurate and complete one I’ve found is the one developed by Louie Giglio in his book the Air I Breathe. So I’m going to use that definition this morning as an outline for examining this passage and seeing what we can learn about worship and, more importantly, how we can become the kind of worshippers that God seeks.
Here is Giglio’s definition of worship:
Worship is…
our response,
both personal and corporate,
to God –
for who He is!
and what He has done!
expressed in and by the things we say,
and the way we live.
We’ll examine that definition phrase by phrase and see how each element of the definition is demonstrated here in Revelation 19.
Worship is…
• our response
The worship that we observe here is chapter 19 naturally flows out of what we’ve seen throughout the Book of Revelation thus far. As the great multitude in heaven and the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures see the sovereign plan of God unfold, they worship by responding to who God is and what He has done. In a sense the word “response” is the key word in our definition of worship because it shows clearly that worship doesn’t begin or end with us, it always begins with God.
As Giglio writes in The Air I Breathe:
Worship is our response to God. In other words, we don’t initiate worship, God does:
He reveals; we respond.
He discloses; we respond.
He unveils; we respond.
He chooses to show us how amazing he is; we say “God, You’re amazing!”
And the response that we see here in Revelation 19 is certainly not a half-hearted “going through the motions”. Three times we see that those who are worshipping are described as “crying out”. The voice of the great multitude is described as being “like a roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder.” This is uninhibited, boisterous and loud worship!
True worship always requires some kind of a response to God. Sometimes when we see the greatness of God we’ll want to shout out with the kind of worship we see going on here in Revelation 19. Other times we may be driven to our knees in gratefulness. Sometimes we’ll want to sing to God. And, as we’ll see more fully in a moment, at other times our response will require that we take action. But worship is always a response to God. It begins and ends with Him.
Worship is our response…
• both personal and corporate
We certainly see both individual and corporate worship occurring here. Although, as we’ll see more clearly in a moment, John’s personal worship is misdirected, that individual aspect of worship is pictured here in this passage.
But the predominant picture is that of corporate worship. There is the great multitude in heaven and also the twenty four elders and the four living creatures. It is no coincidence that every time that we’ve seen these three groups in Revelation that they have been involved in worship.
Every one of us needs to be involved in both personal and corporate worship. We are not designed to operate on a weekly worship cycle in which we worship for an hour or two once a week on Sunday morning and then don’t engage in worship again for another week. Our worship of God needs to be a day-by-day, hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute connection with God as Paul points out with these familiar words:
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Romans 12:1 (ESV)
The idea of a “living sacrifice” is an oxymoron of sorts since a sacrifice, at least in Biblical terms, required that the sacrifice be killed. But the point here is that every moment of our lives needs to be offered up to God as an act of worship. In a sense, worship, especially on a personal level, is not just something that we do, it is who we are.
However, personal worship alone is never adequate, either. The exhortation that we find in verse 7, clearly directs us to join together with other believers in corporate worship as well:
Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory
This same idea was expressed hundreds of years earlier by the Psalmist:
Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt his name together!
Psalm 34:3 (ESV)
The best kind of worship occurs when each individual Christ follower lives a life of worship on a day-to-day basis and then we join together on a regular basis to celebrate together what we have experienced in our personal worship. As Giglio writes:
Church is supposed to be a celebration of our personal journeys with God since we were last together.
Both personal and corporate worship are essential in the life of a Christ follower.
Worship is our response, both personal and corporate…
• to God
Because God created man with the desire to worship, every person will worship something in his or her life. Some people worship money and possessions, some people worship other people – usually famous ones, some people worship power, some worship their own physical gratification. But as we’ve already seen, the theme of this passage is “Worship God”.
We see God as the object of worship all throughout this passage. The entire focus of everything that is going on here is God. Until we get to verse 10. And then we find one of the most surprising verses in the entire book when John bows down in worship before the angel that is revealing all of this to him. We’re going to see this same behavior again in chapter 22.
And the question that immediately comes to mind is why would John do that? Some have suggested that perhaps he mistook the angel for Jesus, but that seems pretty unlikely given John’s familiarity with Jesus, both during His ministry here on earth and the vision of Jesus that he experienced at the very beginning of Revelation.
Although we can’t be completely sure why John would attempt to worship an angel, the most likely explanation is that he got so caught up in all the emotion of the moment that he just reacted without really thinking about what he was doing.
If you’ve ever been part of a large crowd at a sporting event, you’ve probably been part of a similar experience yourself. There are times during the game when the crowd gets so whipped up into a frenzy that it’s easy to find yourself partaking in what is taking place without realizing exactly what you are doing.
That is why these words of Jesus are so important in making sure that our worship is directed at God and not merely the result of some emotional experience:
But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
John 4:23, 24 (ESV)
Jesus made it very clear that if we want to worship God, we must worship Him on His terms and not on ours. And God’s terms are that there is to be both spirit and truth present in our worship. In John’s case, he got wrapped up in the spirit, but forgot the truth. I’m convinced that John knew that he was only to worship God and not the angels, but he got so wrapped up in the emotion of the moment that he either forgot or ignored that truth.
We work really hard each week in our corporate worship to make it clear that we are to respond to God and not to me or Pastor Dana or to the worship team or to the elders. We are here to respond to God. So everything we do is centered on the truth, Jesus, as revealed to us in His Word. We are careful to pick songs that are consistent with the truth of Scripture and which reveal God and allow us to respond to that revelation of who He is. We are very careful in handling the Word of God to ensure that we don’t in any way obscure or pervert the truth.
But we also have to make sure that we provide an opportunity for the Holy Spirit to direct what we do here and be sensitive to His leading. We have to engage our hearts and our spirits, as well as our minds. We have to provide opportunities to cry out to God as well as quiet moments to meditate on Jesus and His words. That is one of the reasons that we always have a time set aside for each person to allow the Holy Spirit to speak to his or her heart so that each of us can respond appropriately to His working in our lives.
Each of us needs to have that same balance of spirit and truth in our personal worship as well. We must always begin with the truth, Jesus, as revealed in His Word. But we must also allow the Holy Spirit, who lives in every believer, to do His work of convicting, guiding and reminding us of the things of Jesus.
Worship is our response, both personal and corporate, to God…
• for who He is!
The worship throughout this chapter is focused on who God is. In verse 2, He is praised because He is true and just. In verse 6, He is praised because He is the Lord God Almighty. You might be interested to know that the Book of Revelation is the only place in the New Testament where that title for God is used. That is certainly appropriate because that is where we most clearly see the sovereignty of God on display as he carries out his eternal plans.
In both our personal and corporate worship, we need to constantly focus on the character and nature of God. We need to dwell on His holiness and all the other attributes that He demonstrates to us in His Word as well as in the creation around us as Paul reminds us:
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.
Romans 1:20 (ESV)
Worship is our response to God, both personal and corporate, to God, for who He is…
• and what He has done!
God is also worthy of our worship for what He has done. Again we see that throughout this passage. In verses 2 and 3, He is praised for judging the world’s false religious system and economic system represented in chapters 17 and 18 by Babylon – a judgment that will last forever. He is praised in verse 8, because He has granted the Bride of the Lamb, the church, righteous garments with which she is clothed.
This idea of worshipping God for what He has done is so important that God commanded His people to observe a series of seven feasts which were to commemorate the mighty acts of God on behalf of His people. For example, the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover, were given by God to commemorate and remember how God had freed His people from bondage in Egypt.
We’ll be doing the same thing next week as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper together. We will be remembering God’s mighty work of salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus. But again, worshipping God for what He has done should be an integral part of our personal worship as well.
Worship is our response, both personal and corporate, to God, for who He is and what He has done…
• expressed in and by the things we say
There is a single word of praise that we find four times in this passage: “Hallelujah”
This word is the Greek transliteration of two Hebrew words which are used together frequently in the Old Testament:
“hallelu” = “give praise”
“yah” = shortened form of YHWH
This is the only place in the New Testament where we find this word, although it is quite common in the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms. In most English translations, these two words are translated “Praise the Lord”. In fact, Psalms 113-118 are known as the “Hallel” because these words are used so frequently in those Psalms. Since we know that those Psalms were incorporated into the observance of Passover, it is almost certain that the Hallel was the hymn referred to in Matthew 26 that was sung by Jesus and His disciples after they finished their observance of the Passover on the night before Jesus’ crucifixion.
It is interesting that even to this day, Jews associate those Psalms with the destruction of the wicked, which is exactly what is being celebrated with the word “Hallelujah” here in Revelation 19.
This passage is filled with the worship of God that is expressed in the words that are spoken. The great multitude, the twenty four elders and the four living creatures all worship God with the things that they say, just as we have seen them do throughout the Book of Revelation.
And it is with the things that we say, whether that be through song, or through prayer or just our conversation, that we are to worship God.
Worship is our response, both personal and corporate, to God, for who He is and what He has done, expressed in and by the things we say…
• and the way we live
I’m convinced that this is the one aspect of worship that we most often miss. Because we call our corporate gatherings “worship services” there is a tendency to relegate worship to singing songs and listening to a sermon. But true worship also requires action. We see this very clearly beginning at the end of verse 7:
and his Bride has made herself ready;
8 it was granted her to clothe herself
with fine linen, bright and pure”—
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
Notice here that the bride, the church, has made herself ready. In other words, she has taken some action to prepare herself for the wedding. This is completely consistent with what we know about Jewish wedding customs. After the marriage contract was sealed and the betrothal period began, the bride would return to her home while the groom would build an addition to his family’s home in order to prepare a place for him and his bride to live. During that time, the bride would make preparations for the wedding feast and the consummation of the marriage. Since she did not know when the groom would return, she had to take the proper actions to be prepared for his return every single day.
And how did she prepare herself? By clothing herself with fine linen, which is identified for us as the righteous deeds of the saints. In other words, the bride worshipped by living her life in a righteous manner. This is exactly what we have seen throughout the book of Revelation as God’s people remain faithful to Him to the very end, even when that means that they lose their lives.
This in no way contradicts the idea that our righteousness before God is not a result of our own works, but rather depends completely on the finished work of Jesus on the cross. In fact, you’ll note here that the ability to clothe herself with righteous deeds has been granted to the church by God. But what it does point out is that a transformed life is the proper response to the righteousness given to us by Jesus. This relationship between God’s grace and our righteous works is clearly demonstrated by a couple of familiar passages:
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:8-10 (ESV)
It is by God’s grace that we are saved – that we are made righteous before God. That is all God’s work. But you’ll note in verse 10 that the result of the working of God’s grace in our lives is that we are to carry out the good works which God has prepared in advance for us to do.
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Philippians 2:12, 13 (ESV)
Paul instructs us here to work out our salvation and we do that through our righteous deeds. But it is God working in us that gives us both the desire to do that and the ability to carry out those righteous deeds.
Worship is clearly not limited to what we do for an hour or so on Sunday morning. It is to be a lifestyle in which we constantly - day-by-day, hour-by-hour, and moment-by-moment - live our lives in a manner that will give God glory. Earlier we looked at Romans 12:1 and saw how being a living sacrifice is an act of personal worship. Being a living sacrifice is not to be limited to just those areas of our lives that we might consider to be “spiritual”. That is to be a lifestyle that is demonstrated in everything we do. Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of that verse in the Message helps us to understand that more clearly:
So here
