The King's Church in Ilford
The following is the text of the talk given on 8th March 2009 by Robin Hawkins
"A Worshipping Church"
A Worshipping Church
Reading: Revelation 4
Being a worshipping church is a fundamental part of our vision. It's what we are - but we want to go deeper; so it's what we want to be. Teaching about worship is like walking into my office with its familiar bookshelves and furniture; and I think "Yeah, I know where I'm going with this!" But then I open God's Word and it's like a bomb hits my office and all things familiar. The walls are blown out, the ceiling's blown off, and the enormity of what worship is all about blows my mind - and I'm undone! I'm looking up into the sky, past the moon and the sun, and on into the infinity of God's universe, and I think, "Where do I start? - let alone finish? The truth is, I started by praying, "Lord, what do You want me to say about worship?" I think the answer came quite quickly, "Speak from my Word!" In other words, put all your old ideas aside, and take a fresh look at Scripture. We may come back to familiar principles; but we'll start in Heaven at the throne of God.
John has been taken into Heaven and was seeing divine things impossible to describe. How can you have a rainbow resembling an emerald? Who are the 24 elders? What are these four living creatures? Truth is, not all Bible Scholars agree, and I'm not going to be the referee that tells you which one's right. I can tell you only where I'm at having taught through Revelation twice now. These 24 Elders represent the whole people of God - 12 tribes of Israel and 12 apostles - one redeemed people around the throne of God. The four living creatures represent the rest of creation. Numbers in Revelation have meaning; and four is the number of creation. We speak of the four corners of the earth, the four winds, the four points of the compass, the four seasons - all of which encompass the whole of this earth.
So what we are seeing in Rev 4 is the People of God, and the rest of creation all caught up in extravagant worship. "Day and night, they never stop saying, 'Holy holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is, and is to come.'" There is day and night in the eternity of Heaven, and this is the God of time and eternity that they are worshipping. When I first read this, I foolishly thought, doesn't God get fed up with hearing this repeated over and again? Has He ordained them to worship Him thus around His throne? I had totally missed the point! These worshippers are not simply mouthing words. They are being constantly overwhelmed by some new revelation of who God is, and what He has done. These expressions of worship are bursting forth from hearts overflowing with fresh wonder, awe, and amazement. What price status? Or position? What price possessions? Thrones are abandoned, crowns cast at the foot of the throne, as they all fall on their faces before Him who is thrice holy.
This all seems a long way from our own experience, and in some ways it is, but then we're not fully in Heaven yet. At the moment, we get glimpses of the glory that will be ours in the future. The good news is that we can have as many of these glimpses as we really want. They are an expression of God's grace to us, and God's grace comes to us through the Holy Spirit. We will always find that our starting point is God's grace through the Holy Spirit. He reveals Jesus to us. He is our contact on earth with God.
So, do you want to see more of Jesus? Seek more of the Holy Spirit. Do you want to get closer to Jesus? Get closer to the Holy Spirit. There's no short-cut. There's no alternative approach route. We need always to be filled, immersed, soaked in the Holy Spirit. So if we come on a Sunday morning, having already spent time with God, getting ourselves ready and prepared for worship, we will find ourselves having divine encounters that will result in outbursts of praise and worship. We won't be scratching around, wondering what we can say to God. It'll either burst out of us in acclamations of God's greatness in word or song. Or we'll be flat on our faces before, lost for words and lost in wonder.
But I don't think we can suddenly switch into spiritual mode on Sunday mornings; as if we've been in "office mode" or "family mode" the rest of the week. Our worship will only be as deep or as real as our relationship with God over the course of the week. Some people try to compartmentalise God and in their minds keep Sunday separate from their lives during the rest of the week. So they could be mistreating their wife at home, milking the benefits system, stealing from their employer, and fail to see that that is going to affect their relationship with God on Sunday.
This will become clearer when we look at what the Greek word for worship actually means. Literally, it means "to kiss the hand of"? What does this mean? It is a commitment to obedience. In days gone by, a knight would kiss the hand of his king as a promise of allegiance. A gentleman would kiss the hand of a lady saying: "Your servant, ma'am." Both were saying, "I'm yours to command." There's no point in saying that if you're going to go out and do your own thing, but we often do that in worship. We say we love Jesus, we promise to obey Him, but Monday to Saturday, do we? I've often said it's all very well on Sunday making such a promise of obedience to Jesus. Suppose on Monday, I do my own thing, but on Tuesday, I remember my promise, and obey His commands. On which day have I truly worshipped? Passionate worship arises out of a life lived in obedience to the Lord Jesus. Now we're not perfect, and in the course of the week we're going to get it wrong. Normally we should keep short accounts with God, and get it confessed right away. But if there's stuff you know you need to put right with God, get it sorted before the meeting. Spend time with Jesus before the meeting getting your heart right before Him. Honour Him by arriving early for the meeting. Then you'll find you enjoy the meeting much more, and your worship will be more passionate and real.
True worship is motivated in our hearts by God's grace. It's the Holy Spirit that has revealed Jesus in all His glory to us. It's true that we have to respond to His grace, but when the wonder of who Jesus is, and what He done has really grabbed us, we'll find we can't wait to get to the meeting because we enjoy being in His presence so much. We'll find ourselves getting there on time because we don't want to miss anything, and we want to be used by the Holy Spirit - maybe to bring a word, but in some way, to be a blessing to the Lord and to others.
You can see why Jesus taught us that we had to be those who worship Him in "spirit and in truth". The truth is that we couldn't do it without the Holy Spirit! And there's something beautiful and life-giving about living in the truth of who Jesus is and what He's done for us on the cross. There's great freedom in recognising the truth about ourselves, owning up to our sins, and knowing the joy and freedom of sins forgiven. Living in the light of openness and honesty with one another is also an expression of worship because in doing so we're honouring the Lord Jesus.
In the book of Deuteronomy, the people of Israel are told, "Never to come before the Lord empty-handed." Today we follow the same principle, but the good news is that we can bring more than just our offerings of money. We get to do the stuff that Jesus did as well now! So He may want to use you to pray for someone who's sick, or bring a word of encouragement to someone going through difficult times. You may have a prophetic song that stirs up our faith; or a prayer that lifts our praise to Jesus. There are any number of ways that you can bring an offering of worship to the meeting; but to do so, all of us have to come with the desire to do so, and the expectation that God will actually use you to be a blessing to others.
Jesus wants the whole world to be worshippers of God. Once we know the truth about Jesus, that's not so hard. You won't to do anything else! So if you're here today and you don't know this truth, let me encourage you to find out. Give Jesus a chance. Please don't close your mind to Him, but give him a chance to show why He said, "I am the way, the Truth, and the Life." Come and ask me afterwards to show you, and at least then you'll have the facts to make your mind up about Him properly. As for the rest of us, read Rev 4 again when you get home. That's our destiny, so grab it now with all your hearts, and go for God.
