Isaiah 6:1-8 – Come Now is the Time to Worship
I came across some definitions of things we use in the church. MAGI: The most famous trio to attend a baby shower. MANGER: 1. Where Mary gave birth to Jesus because Joseph didn’t have private health cover. 2. The Biblical proof that holiday travel has always been rough. BULLETIN: Church information, read only during the sermon. PEW: A medieval torture device still found in most churches. HYMN: A song of praise, usually sung in a key three octaves higher than that of the congregation’s range. CHOIR: A group of people whose singing allows the rest of the congregation to lip-sync. AMEN: The only part of a prayer that everyone knows.
We all have our ideas of what church is supposed to be. In fact, even people who don’t go to church think they know what a church is supposed to be. “Well, church people aren’t supposed to…” Each of us has notions of what a church is supposed to look like, act like, sound like. Especially when it comes to worship. If you had to put a definition of “worship” into the dictionary, what would you write? No doubt you would include singing and use of the Bible. What else? Some of you would say that worship is the use of hymns, because all the new stuff is too fluffy and hard to sing. Some of you would say that worship involves emotions, and the new stuff is exciting so it’s better. Plus, the older stuff is too deep and hard to sing.
But you know, very little is said in the scriptures describing what worship sounds like. Psalm 150 says we should praise the Lord with lots of musical instruments, and chances are good it will be loud. But as far as modern day issues go, issues like hymns or choruses, fast or slow, guitar or organ, hymnal or overhead or video projector, gospel or contemporary, the Bible doesn’t specify. Most of what we like in a worship service is not based on biblical values but personal preferences. That’s not bad or good – it’s just the way it is. Just, let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that our way is the better way, the biblical way, when in fact it’s simply “my” way.
Even though the methods of worship may not be spelled out exactly in the Bible, the underlying values and reasons of worship are clear. We worship God because He is worth it. In fact, the word “worship” means “deserving of worth” or “high in value”. We worship what is important to us. Some worship idols of houses or land, some worship freedom, some worship money, some worship pleasure. Some worship rules, some worship the Bible. Some worship worship – that is, they love singing and church and praise to the point of idolatry, where they have forgotten the One behind it all.
Jesus said in John 4 to the woman at the well that true worshippers are those who worship in spirit and in truth. That is, they worship the true and living God, and their hearts are in it. There is no fakeness or false motives. Sins are not concealed, but revealed. They don’t put their brains in neutral and coast along on their emotions. Neither do they put their hearts in neutral, and worship is simply a mental exercise. True worship involves the mind and the heart. Jesus said so. And God is looking for people who worship Him that way. You see, worship is not just our search for God; He is searching for us. We are the seekers, but so is He. He is looking for us looking for Him. We wants to find us; we need to find Him. He wants to enjoy fellowship and spending time with us; we, on the other hand, need that time with Him. Worship is about lifting up God because He’s worth it. It’s also about God meeting our needs as well.
The OT prophet Isaiah had an experience of worship in ch.6 of his book. We are going to spend some time looking at what worship is, according to Isaiah 6. It will boil down to 3 basic principles. Perhaps there are more, but this passage gives us 3. Let’s read this amazing passage first. Isaiah 6:1-8.
First, worship involves seeing. This sounds simple, but hear me out. Isaiah had a vision. He saw the Lord. He got a glimpse of who the Lord is, and it changed his entire life. For the first time perhaps in his life, Isaiah saw how big God was. The Lord was high and lifted up, exalted as King of all creation. The train of His robe, the symbol of His kingship, filled the temple – that is, His reign extends over everything. And around this King were angels, praising Him. And they pointed out 2 of God’s qualities that define who He is. These 2 qualities describe only Him in their fullness – that is, though humans may get a dosage of them, we still will never be as complete as God.
Many folks come to church to see people, to see the preacher, to see what’s going on. True worship is about seeing God. There’s a story of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri, who was deeply immersed in meditation during a church service, and he failed to kneel at the appropriate moment. His enemies hurried to the bishop and demanded that Dante be punished for his sacrilege. Dante defended himself by saying, “If those who accuse me had had their eyes and minds on God, as I had, they too would have failed to notice events around them, and they most certainly would not have noticed what I was doing.”
The first quality the angels describe is His purity. The Hebrews had no word for “very”, as in, “very happy” or “very ugly”. Rather, they used repetition for description. So, when the angels said that God was holy, holy, holy, what they meant was, “very, very holy”. There is none as holy as He is. Holy means set apart, different, pure. Only God is completely, 100%, very holy.
Now, the Bible tells us to be holy as He is holy. It’s not that it’s impossible to be holy. Obviously, if we are told to be holy and set apart and different and pure, then we don’t have to wait for heaven to be that way. We can be holy now. But our holiness only flows from God’s holiness. That is, the only way we can be set apart is if we allow God to have His way with us. We’ll get to that in a moment, but understand – holiness is not conformity to rules and regulations. Holiness is conformity to Jesus -–being like Him.
The second quality the angels describe is God’s power. The earth was filled with His glory, His brightness, His radiance, His majesty, His praise, His power. In fact, even as the angels shouted this, the whole temple shook. God’s power is amazing. Never underestimate what God can do.
So what was Isaiah’s response to seeing God’s purity and God’s power? V5 – He saw himself. He saw who he really was in the light of who God really is. Isaiah’s worship first involved seeing. That led to sanctifying – that is, cleansing. Too many people come to church and call what they do worship. But if we really saw the Lord in worship, we would see our need to be cleansed. True worship must involve a heart cleansing and a heart change. V6-7. If we really believe that God is holy, then we will see our unholiness when we worship.
Yet most of us would rather not change. We want to feel good, not guilty. We want to be affirmed in our life, rather than be told of our flaws. St. Augustine said: “God, make me good, but not yet.” John Flavel said: “It is easier to cry against one-thousand sins of others than to kill one of your own.” Addison Leitch said: “When the will of God crosses the will of man, somebody has to die.” DL Moody said: “I’ve had more trouble with D. L. Moody than any other man I’ve ever known.” And some unknown wise man said: “If you could kick the person most responsible for your troubles, you wouldn’t be able to sit down for a week.” God wants to deal with our sin, and in the life of a Christian, He shows us most clearly when we are already in His presence. The great Scottish preacher Alexander Maclaren said: “We may have as much of God as we will. Christ puts the key of the treasure-chamber into our hand, and bids us take all that we want. If a man is admitted into the bullion vault of a bank and told to help himself, and comes out with one cent, whose fault is it that he is poor?”
Finally, worship involves serving. Worship for Isaiah had to do with getting a glimpse, getting a cleansing, and getting a mandate. God reveals Himself to you in worship. Then He shows you your sins and shortcomings, and He leads you to confession and repentance. Then, when you’re clean, He leads you to obey Him. Obedience must flow from worship. In fact, if there is no obedience after worship, then it likely wasn’t worship at all. As they used to say, particularly in Pentecostal circles, “I don’t care how high you jump on Sunday, as long as you walk straight when you land on Monday.”
Some unknown author wrote these words: “He doesn’t calculate what you did in ‘78. It’s not even on the record. Sure, there are lots of reasons why God shouldn’t have called us. But if we are magically in love with Him, if we hunger for Him more than our next breath, He’ll use us in spite of who we are, where we’ve been, or what we look like. I pray that as Christians, we will step out of our limitations into the illimitable nature of who God is. Then our passion for God and our passion to communicate Him will make mincemeat of our limitations.”
If we have a passion to know God better, that will translate into doing what pleases Him. We are sanctified not to be sloths, but to be servants. Getting sent comes from getting scrubbed. True worship will culminate in the statement: “Here I am. Send me. What do you want me to do?” If God hasn’t given directions for what to do next, perhaps what you felt wasn’t God.
Folks, we are called to worship. To worship is to step out of focusing on ourselves and to focus on Him. Worship is concentrating on how good He is, not just what He has done for us. Yet we come to church as if it were about us. As we continue through the why’s of our worship, why we do what we do on Sunday mornings, we need to admit we don’t worship God as we should. We enjoy the singing, the music, the preaching, and the company. But it’s never about us, or pleasing us, or making us happy. Worship is stepping out of selfishness, thinking of ourselves. Worship is placing Him first in your lives, in the good and bad times. Worship is making Him #1 in your finances, in your pleasure and leisure times, in your intimate times, in your jobs, in your families, in your quiet times, in your out-and-around times. He is worth your 100%. Anything less is an insult to the holy and all-powerful God, filled with love and compassion, grace and mercy, not treating us as our sins deserve. Seeing… sanctifying… serving. Is this how you worship?
