What is true worship? This question has been at the heart of some of the most horrific battles and fights among Christians throughout the centuries. In contemporary times there has been a label placed on this ongoing debate about the nature of true worship… the worship wars. And the term “wars” is not to far off from what the debate really entails. We have seen churches split, pastors quit, emotional outrage and even physical fights break out amongst brethren over what true worship is. Why? What is it about worship that has created such “adversity” amongst Christians?
A simple search on an Internet search engine will reveal how hot of a topic worship has become. Just a few days ago I did such a search on Google and this is what I came up with: A search on “worship” produced 12,800,000 sites. 12,800,000 sites just on the subject of worship alone. To be fair to our scope of the word, I narrowed the search down to “Christian Worship” and came up with 5,020,000. Still a lot of sites devoted in some way to worship in the Christian faith. Since we want to discover what true biblical worship is, I again narrowed the search down to “Biblical Christian Worship”: This time I got 2,860,000.
Now I wondered how many books were written on the topic of worship. For this search, I checked out the book section at Amazon.com and typed in “Christian worship”. 2,233 books were written on Christian worship. Folks, this is a hot topic. People just cannot agree on how we are suppose to worship, in what style are we suppose to worship or what the product of worship should be. I am not the expert on this subject, although I have done some study, and I cannot give you a definitive answer on which style is good worship, and which style is bad worship. All I can do is look to the Bible and point out a few scriptures that give us boundaries and freedom in the matter. But no matter how you look at it, we must, in Christian unity, come together and understand what true worship is as we see it in the Scriptures and we get a little glimpse of this true worship in the 15th chapter of Revelation.
We have now come to the climax of the cliff hanger part of the story. Since chapter 12 John has kept us on our toes. It reminds me of a Stephen King novel that I read when I was a kid. I knew something was about to happen, but I didn’t know what and I started to read through the pages faster and faster, and in my mind the scary music was becoming more intense, until finally there came a break in the story, only to find that it intrigue my curiosity as to why it happened as it did, so I kept reading only to find that I got caught up in the same cycle again.
The last timeline piece of information that we received was at the end of chapter 11. Do you remember? John witnessed the sounding of the seventh trumpet and we heard the lyrics of the Hallelujah chorus ring out: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.” Then there came a pause in the timeline of events that happen on earth and during the next few chapters, from chapter 12 up until this point, we don’t see what the seventh trumpet judgment brought about. John has been describing for us glorious events in heaven that transcend time and space. And now we come to chapter 15 and finally, what we have all been anticipating, biting our nails, clenching our jaw and the whole bit. In a stage play, this would be the final ACT. The final movement of a symphony. John shares with us what the seventh trumpet signifies: the seven bowl judgments and God’s final wrath on the earth. Let’s turn to chapter 15 together.
“I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign:” - This is the third time John has used the word sign to describe events that are occurring in heaven. The first two signs, one depicting the woman with Child and the other depicting the dragon, were in chapter 12. This language basically serves as a signpost directing our attention towards God’s final judgment. It is moving us along on this path of God’s impending wrath.
What is this third sign? It is the “seven angels with the seven last plagues – last, because with them God’s wrath is completed.” This is it! This is what we have been waiting for. This is what the seventh trumpet has signaled. At last, God’s wrath will be taken out upon a sinful earth and He will be glorified. This is the “great and marvelous sign”. This is when God will display His righteous judgments and thus show forth the glory of His Name!
Let’s read on. Verse 2: “And I saw what looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire,”… hmm. Sound familiar? This is the same image that John gave us in chapter 4 with his original description of heaven. This time though there is something that looks like fire mixed in with the sea. Remember that this is metaphoric in nature. John is describing to us something that has never been described or seen before. There have been many interpretations of the fire and quite frankly they all are similar and don’t really matter a whole lot to the overall interpretation of the book, but my gut feeling on this fire is that it is signifying God’s impending judgment and wrath. The glass sea symbolizes the dividing factor between earth and heaven. It most likely represents the holiness and majesty of God that separate Him from His creation and this fire in the sea is God’s wrath gearing up to do justice on the earth.
Following the description of this sea we see another image: “and, standing beside the sea, those who have been victorious over the beast and his image and over the number of his name.” Hmm… who can these people be? Well, we know by now that it is not the church for the church has been ruptured before the beast takes control of the earth. The church was represented earlier by the 24 elders encircling the throne room of God and these elders are not mentioned here. Well, what about the 144,000 Jews for Jesus? Could it be this group? Remember back two weeks ago? Pastor Terry took us through the beginning of chapter 14 and we saw the 144,000, the faithful remnant, gathered on Mount Zion singing a new song. We know it’s not them, for they have been protected from the beast and could not be in heaven because they will be on the earth throughout the seven bowl judgments. To solve this question, let’s look back in chapter 7:9:
9 After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice:
“Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.”
11 All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying:
“Amen!
Praise and glory
and wisdom and thanks and honor
and power and strength
be to our God for ever and ever.
Amen!”
13 Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?”
14 I answered, “Sir, you know.”
And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 Therefore,
“they are before the throne of God
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them.
16 Never again will they hunger;
never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat upon them,
nor any scorching heat.
17 For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd;
he will lead them to springs of living water.
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
These are the men and women who have come to faith during the tribulation and have given their lives for the sake of Christ. They have been victorious in that they did not submit to the beast or his image or to the number of his name. They died as martyrs and have been before the throne of God, “serving him day and night in his temple” since their death. In chapter 15 we come upon them again, still in the throne room of God, serving Him day and night and so they are also witness to what John is seeing and they now begin to worship in anticipation of God’s righteous acts and their vindication - God’s wrath on the earth and on the beast.
“They held harps given them by God and sang the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb: ‘Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the ages. Who will not fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.”
Some of you may be wondering, as I did, what is the source of this song? Where did it come from? Terry has taught us that many of John’s visions are similar to and related directly to passages found elsewhere in the Bible relating to the end times. John knew the scriptures well enough to relate to them as he was seeing witnessing these visions. This inclusion of the “Song of Moses the servant of God” provides another way for John to relate what he has seen to what he already knows. If you can remember the old testament passage that was read for us today, Exodus 15. Here we see Moses and the Israelites after they just crossed the Red Sea and were saved from the Egyptians. Right beside the sea, Moses led the Israelites in, what I believe, is one of the greatest Psalms of Praise and Thanksgiving.
The context of Revelation 15 and the context of Exodus 15 seem to be very similar. Even though the words are not the same, they are both songs of praise in response to God’s great deliverance. In Exodus, the Israelites are praising God for His deliverance from the Egyptians. In Revelation, the martyrs are praising God for His deliverance from the beast. Except here, we have the Song of the Lamb added to this praise chorus. What is this Song of the Lamb?
I contend that these two songs represent two different deliverances, all provided by God. The Song of Moses is a praise song for the deliverance from the things of the world and in this context, from the beast. The Song of the Lamb is a praise song for the deliverance from sin through Christ and cannot have been sung by anyone else except those who have been glorified in the presence of God in heaven. The song can only be fully realized by those who have experienced salvation and have been transformed and glorified. This is a new song, not found anywhere else in the Bible, but rather it is found in the saving work of Christ on the cross and in His blood covenant. He is the King of the ages. His ways are just and true.
This is the song sung by those who have suffered greatly during the tribulation, have not bowed and worshiped the beast and have now passed to the other side and stand beside the great sea in heaven, worshiping God in the same way Moses did, but with a new song because of the deliverance not just from their enemies, but also from death itself. What greater reason is there to praise God! He is the author of our salvation, our eternity and of our song!
Worship is not about us… it is about God and is manifested in our heart’s cry to Him. The literal English translation of worship from both the Greek and Hebrew means to “prostrate oneself before God” or to “bow down before God”. In doing so we come before the Father, on our knees and head and body bowed. If you think about this posture and see it done, you realize how much this posture can make a person vulnerable in front of another. In a position such as this, we cannot see the one who we are bowed down to, this we are placing complete trust into that person. That person who we prostrate ourselves before can either kill us or protect us because we have become defenseless in this posture.
In the same way in our worship, we come before the Father in complete trust for our eternal lives. As the Person whom we are prostrated before, He has the power and the right to condemn us or protect us, and He has chosen to do the latter. The worshipper, by his attitude, his actions, and his speech communicates the fact that his will is no longer his own. He who falls prostate before the Lord in true worship surrenders his life, his possessions, and his service to the Lord. We are nothing, but God is everything, and He alone is worthy of our praise.
This is true worship. Our modern culture attempts to portray worship as some kind of spiritually good feeling about God. We come out of worship services saying “that song really moved me” or “I didn’t like the way that song sounded”.
Music is possibly the most expressive means of directing our worship toward God. It can give voice to our deepest feelings and attitudes of the heart. I can give testimony to this because in times when I am most excited about what God is doing or during times when I am in the most anguish, these are the times when my most heartfelt and true worship come out of my mouth through music and song.
Music is also a major theme of the Bible. From this song of praise and thanksgiving that we have seen in Revelation 15 to the song of the morning stars in Job, to the music of celebration and feasts throughout Israel’s history to the hymn that Jesus sang with his disciples just before His arrest, music plays an important role in the life of old and new testament saints. God has created music. All three Persons of the Godhead are involved in making music. He has created within man the ability to create and perform music so music in itself is not essentially wrong. All things were created to bring to worship to God, but just as in all of creation and created things, the enemy seeks to take that worship away from God by perverting it and destroying it. This is not only seen in secular music, but also sacred music where many hymns and worship choruses have prideful “me” first lyrics. We must be careful to examine the music we listen to and to discern that which is pleasing to the ears, with that which is glorifying to God and edifying to the body. I am not saying you cannot have both in worship music, but it is the utmost importance that we worship God with music that is glorifying to Him and that which contain sound theology.
We live in a humanistic society that raises the elevation of personal opinion to the level of divinely inspired truth. If a person likes the music, then it can become, in their minds, the only music that God desires for us to worship Him with. This, I believe, is the reason why we have these “worship wars” in the church at large. It is rooted in the very real and grounded opinion of some very well meaning and sincere people. And I’m not just talking about people who are for that style or this style, but about people on both sides of the spectrum.
You can’t blame others for being defensive about their preference of music style. Since music is a reflection of our deepest feelings and emotions, we become very attached to the style of music in which we praise our Savior. Therefore, a person’s musical tastes go far beyond mere aesthetic preferences and for this reason most people will respond negatively when their musical preference is attacked. We must have an understanding of what true worship is so that we can come together in agreement and not disunity.
We must understand that worship is a matter of the heart. It is the manifestation of the believer’s heart cry to God. It is a direct reflection of our attitude and our humble surrender to God and His will for our lives. Therefore, the music of a Christian will only be right when his heart is truly right. The only music that can be considered true worship is that which exhibits the attitude of surrender to the will of God and praise to Him for His greatness.
So lets look at what is not true worship as we wrap this up today. True worship music is not the mere opinions of men. This is regardless if they are a Christian or not. As Christians and as the church, we must remain rooted in the teaching of the Word. Now Scripture does not command us to worship one way or another. There is no Biblical precedent saying that we must use classical hymns or that we must use contemporary music. We do have examples of how old and new testament saints worshipped. These examples show us that the worshipers used music that was familiar and contemporary to them during their day and that they also used music from their past. New Testament figures would sing the Psalms in the synagogues as part of their worship.
The only example that we can find from our Lord of singing a worship song is from Mark and Matthew, when they record Him singing with the disciples after the Lord’s Supper. The mention of this song is very generic – this is no title or style attached to it. It simply states that they sang a song. Can you imagine what would have happened if there was a designation of style to this song? Worship in the church would be nothing more than the same, repetitive song week after week. I believe it was God’s intention to be generic about the identity of this song so that we would have freedom in creating new worship to Him.
I believe that we should treat worship music as we treat the teachers of theology throughout church history. There have been some really good theologians, which have put names to things that we would not have understood before. Just because the teachings are old and non-contemporary does not mean that they are no less valid for our study of understanding God. There have also been some theologians who have taught bad doctrine. We would not want to base our idea of God on them. On the flipside, there are some modern theologians who are coming up with new, creative ways to understand God and His purposes. We must be discerning with the new theology, but be open to considering it and evaluating it against scripture and what has come before.
Likewise it is with worship music. We should not disregard the old just because it is old, but rather embrace it as the music that our beloved church fathers have sung in heartfelt worship of the same God we worship. It is a way of connecting to our historical roots and understanding that God is a God of all ages and time. We should also be willing and open to accept new ways of worshiping God and be creative in our worship to Him. We must use discernment with both old and new, but we should never dismiss one over the other as false worship for the sake of it’s style.
Worship is also not entertainment. I believe it is ok to listen to Christian music for entertainment value, but we must make a distinction between listening for the joy of listening and worshiping God. When we approach a worship service as a place to come and be served up good sounding music that makes you feel good and that you can relate to, then worship music has become entertainment solely based on a consumer mentality. Let’s get out of the consumer mindset and let’s offer God a sacrifice of our praise.
I have said what worship music is not. Let’s flip that and come up with five guidelines for what worship music should follow: 1) It should be scriptural: This does not mean that the lyrics should be word for word right out of the Bible, but that the lyrics should reflect the truth of scripture and be based on scripture. 2) It should be scholastic: Since we learn 90% of our theology from our worship, our worship music should contain sound theology and should teach, uplift, edify, encourage, or admonish believers in their walk with God. 3) Worship music should be Spirit-filled: Is the music consistent with the Holy Spirit’s leading -- does the music point people to Christ or to the singer? 4) It should be superior: Are you giving your all and your best when you worship? 5) Lastly it should be God-centered and not man-centered: There is nothing wrong in worship that produces emotion, but there is something wrong in the person who seeks worship for that emotional quality. Don’t seek worship music that feels good, seek worship music that is Biblical and directs your focus to God.
It comes down to the attitude of our heart. Our motive should always be pure and without pride. We should always strive to worship as the martyrs do in Revelation 15. In complete submission and surrender of our will to God, with thanksgiving for what He has done for mankind on the cross, and in anticipation for what He will do, we must come before Him not with concern for style or emotional satisfaction, but with only concern for the glory of our Triune God.
