Around the end of May, I was here at the church praying and studying, and during that time of seeking God, the Lord spoke something to me that has been recently renewed and revived in my heart: I want this church to exemplify heavenly praise. For many weeks I’ve weighed this out in my heart, and took time to search the scriptures, as well, and feel that now’s the time that we need to explore this subject. So, I want us to begin looking at worship tonight, and search out some of the truths the Word of God offers on the subject.
When you’re talking about exemplifying heavenly praise, I had to go to a portion of scripture that describes the act of worship as performed in heaven. And as I said Sunday, worship is more than an attitude, or frame of mind - it is an act. It’s something that we do, not that we think of, or merely envision. In fact, for man to be able to worship God, it is one of the highest honors He has afforded to us. In fact, I believe that the Bible reveals that the angels of God are even kind of shocked by the scene. In one place it’s recorded that the angels say, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him?"
It’s almost as if they can’t believe that God would be interested in any verbal expression coming from mankind. Not because God is not worthy, but because of how worthy He is! It implies that man seems so lowly and unworthy, not to mention physically ignorant of how glorious God really is. So, they wonder how man could possibly give God the praise that He is due. It appears that God’s interest in man’s worship is almost unbelieveable to the angels. *And why shouldn’t it be? We see several passages of scripture which reveal the angels worshiping God. They have been worshiping for eternity, and lift a continuous chorus of praise before Him day and night.
And then they see man. They see our "puny praise." They see our excuses for not worshiping. They see our failure to give God the glory that He is due. And in their eyes, in their thoughts, they have to wonder what God sees in us that is so attractive and pleasing. That’s what I see in that statement, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him?" Yet God desires for man to worship and praise Him. And He doesn’t want us to worship Him the way we want to. He wants us to worship Him the way He wants us to. And for this church, I am convinced that His desire is for us to exemplify heavenly praise.
Now there is a lot that this entails that cannot be covered in one service, but I want us to look at something tonight that will get us well into the consideration of the act of worship. Revelation 4 describes a scene of heavenly praise and worship. And I am partucularly drawn tonight to the four and twenty elders. There is much speculation about who these 24 people are, and I don’t want to get too involved in that. It seems, though, that they are almost like "representatives" of redeemed mankind. They serve as representatives of the entire heavenly priesthood, which Revelation 1:6 says is what God is making all of us.
So I want us to look at their actions, mixed with the actions of the beasts, and see what is revealed about worship. The Bible says that these beasts cease not to praise God, saying, "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come." Can you imagine that? There’s a continual chorus of praise being rendered to God day and night. I’ll give you some more thoughts on that at a later time. But the Bible says that "when the beasts give glory and honor and thanks to him that sat on the throne, the 24 elders fall down before him, and worship him, and cast their crowns before the throne."
First, I see here a physical act. This "falling down" is not an unwillful act. On the contrary, it is very much an act of the will. It is a purposeful action, produced by a concious decision, in light of God’s revealed glory. And I believe it also stems from these elders’ own recognition of their unworthiness, and therefore worship because of the matchless Grace of God. Second of all, they take the crowns that are upon their heads, and they cast them down before the Lord. I’ll come back to deal with that in a moment. But then, thirdly, we see the verbal expression in their praise. Praise isn’t just physical, it’s verbal. Now, there are some times when we get quiet in His Presence, but this shows that there are other times when we are to get physical and verbal in our praise.
And I could spend major time on any of those things. But I want us to look at one area tonight in the remainder of our time. When the elders fall down before the Lord on the throne, the Bible says that they, "cast their crowns before the throne." There are a lot of different things we could talk about. One of the things that I noticed is that their worship was spontaneous, but it was united. No one had to tell anyone what to do. It was the automatic response to the revealed glory of God. That’s the way worship should be in the church. The problem is, that, on the earth, we often find ourselves having to press in to seeing His glory, and not everybody wants to go.
Not everyone in the church has the same desire when it comes to worshiping and praising God. In fact, some don’t even really care for that part of the service. But worship is so vital to raising the level of other ministry areas, that we cannot bypass the time of worship and praise. In fact, worship should be the main reason we are here, and then out of our worship flows the Word that teaches us more about Him, and also the ministry of the Spirit that can leave lives forever changed!
And in accessing that realm of praise and worship, there is something that I see in this text that must be duplicated in our lives, and in our services, if we’re going to see that become a reality. The Bible says that these elders "cast their crowns before the throne." The Lord drew my attention to that act, and I began to contemplate it, and began to seek the answer to this question: What does it mean to cast down your crown? If that is a part of the heavenly portrait of praise and worship, then we need to know what it means. And more importantly, what it means for me, and to me, here and now.
Let’s consider a few things. The Bible says that the Lord is making us to be kings and priests. So, these elders had crowns on their heads because they were kings. They had position, and they had authority. But when they viewed the One on the throne, and heard the beasts praising and giving glory to Him, they fell down, and cast their crown at the throne. And so, for them to cast down their crowns, was for them to recognize His position and authority as being greater than theirs. Now, this doesn’t seem like a big revelation, but it is the entire base and foundation for true worship: Recognizing that the great-ness of God so far surpasses your concept of self-greatness.
You may think that this is not a potent revelation, but it needs to be for many people. What keeps hands from being raised, and tears from being shed, and knees from bowing? What keeps people talking, and flipping through papers and books while worship is going on? What keeps people turning to the person next to them and making cute comments while service is going on? They are failing to realize the greatness of the God that they say they have come to worship. If they would only consider the One whose house they are in, they would be adjusting their actions to be worshipful of the One whose house it is!
Listen: The casting down of our crown is revealed in the acts of worship which we involve ourself in. And when our worship is "all attitude" and no action, we’re still sitting with our focus on who we are instead of who He is! These elders knew that they only had those crowns because of the Grace of God. And when we remember and realize that we are where we are by that same glorious grace, we will throw
down our position, our authority, our prestige, and our accomplishments; we’ll throw down what we think we are, and we will begin to recognize the One who brought us to where we are.
And there’s no need you sitting up all high and mighty like you are somebody. Ain’t no need you sitting their like you’ve done great things. We already know that you’re here by the same grace that we are. We already know that you didn’t get yourself here. We already know that had it not been for the Lord that you would have died, or been in jail, or been in hell. We already know that who you are is only because of what He made you. You might as well go ahead and throw your crown down, and say, "You are worthy to receive glory and honor and power."
To cast down your crown is to recognize and declare: Your position and authority is greater than mine. I am only here because you allowed me to be. And I like the fact that they fell down and worshiped. They didn’t make it all proper and ritualistic. They just came to the revelation and fell right down on their face. They saw who God was, and who He is, and their only reaction was to prostrate themselves before Him!
So, let me ask you: Who is God? What’s He like? How you answer those questions will determine if you wear your crown, or if you CAST DOWN YOUR CROWN!
