Christ is Worthy

We did talk on last week about this picture of angels and angelic worship of the Almighty God that we find in the scriptures, and this week we continue to look at that picture of our God who is worthy of worship, and particularly today of Christ, the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God, and why the Son is worthy of worship. It's important for us to understand this, to grasp this, because for the most part, as we think about worship, we think about the way we feel, or we think about the way we are made to feel. For example, if somebody asks you about worship and what worship was like, generally your response will be based on whether or not you liked the things that you did during worship. So much so that when we talk about worship we almost exclusively refer to the songs that we sing. We will say things like we'll have some worship and then we'll have some preaching, which says a great deal about our theology of worship and our understanding of what it means for God's people to gather together and worship him. Well, if your idea of what worship is really goes to the heart of how you feel, then ultimately your worship is centered around you, which is the absolute opposite of where our focus ought to be. When we gather together to worship, we worship our God, and we worship him primarily for who he is and for what he has done. And the way that intersects with us is that who God is helps us to understand who we are, and what God has done helps us to understand why it is that we are able in the first place and even called to worship our God. So that when we evaluate our worship, first and foremost, we don't just evaluate the songs that we sing, though that is important and crucial, but we evaluate the totality of what we do when we gather together as the people of God. And secondly, we evaluate it based on whether or not it is worthy of the One who is worthy to be worshiped, whether or not it points to rightly and properly the one who is worthy to be worshiped, whether or not it lines up with the way the one who is worthy to worship, worthy to be worshiped, says that we ought to worship him. That in and of itself says much about our understanding of worship. When I understand worship from the perspective of God and his worthiness to be worshiped. My question is not what I like to do in worship, but what does this God who is worthy of worship command me to do in worship. We evaluate our worship based on whether or not it lines up with what the God who is worthy to be worshiped says worship ought to look like in his presence, and we find that in his word. Here in Revelation chapter one, verses four through six, we see a clear picture of why it is that Jesus Christ is indeed worthy to be worshiped. Join me. At verse four we read John to the seven churches that are in Asia, Grace to you and peace from him who is and was, and who is to come, and from the seventh spirits who are before the throne, And from Jesus Christ, the faithful Witness, the firstborn of the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom of priests. To his God and Father. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen to Him, be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Glory be to him, Worship be to him, Honor be to him, And glory and worship and honor be to him, not just now, but forever and forever. I'm so be it. So Christ is not just worthy of worship, but He is worthy of all worship, for all time and throughout all eternity, and couched in this statement that John makes is the very reason that Christ is worthy of such worship. But before we even look at that, I want you to notice again that we have this sort of revelation. Waltz if you will, the rhythm of the letter again one two three, one two three, one two three. We first noticed this because John, after giving this typical greeting of an epistle to the seven churches in Asia, grace to you and peace. Grace and peace, a greeting often offered in the epistles, interestingly enough, combination of a couple of Greek and Hebrew greetings to the believers and peace from whom well first, from Him who one two three was and is and is to come. Then there is the third greeting. We'll move over the second one for a moment, to Jesus Christ, the faithful Witness, firstborn from among the dead, ruler of the kings of the earth. So we have first to him who was and is to come, then to the seventh spirits before the Throne, and then thirdly to Jesus Christ. So here is the question. The main question is who's referred to there in the seventh spirits before the Throne. We have to understand that in order to explain why it is that Jesus is worthy to be worshiped. First of all, Christ is worthy to be worshiped because of who he is and who is he? Well, he is the eternal God who is worthy of our worship. How do we know that Christ is the eternal God who is worthy of our worship? Because we have here in this text a trinitarian formula. Now it's not the normal trinitarian formula. The normal trinitarian formula is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is not normal in a couple of ways. First of all, because we have the Father, and then secondly, I'm going to argue we have the Holy Spirit, and then thirdly we have the Son. Why would I say that we have the Father? How do I know that we have the Father? Well, we've already read in chapter four in our Call to worship this morning. If you go back there to verse eight, and the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night. They never cease to say, Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. That is a reference to the Lord God Almighty. So we know that John here first references the Father, So grace in peace from whom from God, the Father, who is and who was, and who is to come. We know the third reference is a reference to the Son. But how do we get the Holy Spirit from this picture of seven spirits before the throne? Well, we know that that number is a symbolic number. It's a number that references completeness. But we also know for a couple of reasons, not least of which is the fact that this is obviously a reference to a Trinitarian formula. We have the Father, we have the Son, and we have in between the Father and the Son, some reference to spirits, the number seven, which is this number that represents completeness. But the questions are twofold. One why does he use the term seven spirits? And two why does he break the Trinitarian formula? Well, the reason I'm going to ark that he breaks the Trinitarian formula is also seen there in chapter seven. Remember I mean in chapter chapter four. This is about why Christ is worthy to be worshiped, and so we have language that is language of worship. Notice where the seven spirits are the seventh spirits who are before his throne. So we know that this is worship language. But the seventh spirits that are before his throne are positioned between the Father and the Son. Later on we will see in the throne room the Father, the seven Spirits, and the lamb. Now this picture is a picture of worship that is offered in the temple, where there is the Throne of God or the Place of God, the Holy of Holies, and before a lamp stand seven candles. We see this picture of the place of worship. And in the place of worship there is the throne and there are the seven spirits. These spirits are not going to be referring to angels, I would argue, because you don't put a Trinitarian formula with God, seven angels and then the sun. It refers to this picture of the complete spirit, the spirit of the living God, which in turn gives us the Trinitarian formula, which in turn puts Christ right in the center of the Godhead. This is a reference to the fact that Jesus is not like God, not close to God, not almost God. Jesus is God. He is the second person of the Trinity. As we read today in our catechism, question how many persons are there in the Godhead? Answer? There are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. Our God has revealed himself as the triune God of the universe, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, one God, three persons, one nature, one essence, one true and living God. This is extremely important when we talk about worship, because Christ, first and foremost is worthy of our worship, because he is God, and God is the only one who is worthy of worship. We also see that he is the eternal God. He is eternally worthy of worship. We picked that up there in the last verse in verse six, where he says, look with me in verse six, and he made us a kingdom of priest to his God and Father, to him to whom the one who made us a kingdom of priests, God and Father. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. The Father, who is and who was, and who is to come, the Son who made us a kingdom of priest before his Father, who is to be worshiped and glorified forever and ever. Amen. So we have the eternal God, the Father, and the eternally worshiped Son, who is the second person of the Godhead, the second person in the Trinity. So first and foremost, Jesus Christ is worthy of our worship because he is the eternal God of the universe, who is the only one to be worshiped. Secondly, our worship is shaped the truth that we find in Christ. He's referred to as the faithful Witness. This refers first and foremost to his infallible character. Jesus is the faithful Witness. He's not just a witness who was faithful one time when he testified. He is, by his very nature and his essence, the faithful witness. Listen to this. In John fourteen six, Jesus said to him, I am the Way, the Truth, the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Revelation three fourteen we find again into the Angel of the Church of lah Iss Here right the words of the Amen. The faithful and true witness the beginning of the creation. Jesus's first and foremost the faithful witness because of his infallible character. Secondly, because of his role as the second person of the Trinity. We know that biblically there is a model that in order for truth to be verified, it has to come from the mouths of two or three witnesses. So listen to what we find. For example, in John chapter eighteen, verse thirty seven, the pilots said to him, so are you a king? Jesus answered you, said that I am a king. For this purpose I was born, and for this person purpose I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. He came into the world to bear witness to the truth. So we have this testimony of God that is verified and validated by the Father, and by the Son who was incarnate, who was wrapped in flesh, who walked among us, spoke and verified this truth of God, and by the Spirit of God, who bears witness with our spirit. Also, his divine mission points him out as the faithful witness. John Chapter eight, verses fourteen to sixteen. We find Jesus answered, even if if I bear witness about myself, my testimony is true. For I know where I came from and where I'm going, But you do not know where I come from where I'm going. You judge according to the flesh. I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I am the Father who sent me. So the reference here to Jesus Christ as the faithful Witness, as the true Witness, is wrapped up first and foremost in his very character. In who he is. He cannot lie, he cannot be unfaithful, even when we are unfaithful. He remains faithful. That is who Jesus is, and he's worthy to be worshiped because of that truth. Secondly, because of his role as the second person of the Trinity, he is faithful and true. And thirdly because of his divine mission. We see that he is the faithful witness and the true witness. So he's worthy to be worshiped because he is God. He is also the one who shapes our worship by the truth that he is Thirdly, our worship is an expression of the hope that we have in Christ. Who is he not only the faithful witness, not only the one true in living God, but he is the one who is the first born from the dead. That phrase is extremely important. He's not just the one who rose from the dead. That would be significant enough, and that is significant enough. That speaks to who Jesus is. He verifies himself as God by overcoming death, hell and the grave. He verifies himself as being infallible in his truth because death had no hold on him. Death could not hold him because there was no sin in him, there was no blemish in him. So the fact that he, in and of himself is the resurrected one makes him worthy of worship. But beyond that, he's the first born from among the dead. And you only get to be the first born if there are those who are going to be born after you. So if Christ is the first born from among the dead, that means that those of us who are in him will be resurrected, just like He was resurrected because he overcame death, hell, in the grave. Those who have forgiveness in him, those who are found in him, those who are united with him also have holpe that we will be resurrected when we die. His resurrection signaled the defeat of death and the grave fe Corinthians fifteen fifty four, following, when the perishable put on the imperishable, and the mortal put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory, Oh death, Where is your victory, Oh death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have hope, and we worship Christ in that hope. And because of that hope he promises his promises give us hope that we too will rise. We find this, for example in one Corinthians fifteen, beginning of verse twenty. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead. The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep for us by a man came. Death by a man has come also the rest erection of the dead. For as an atom all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive, but each in his own order. Christ. The first fruits then at his coming those who belong to Christ and again Colossians one eighteen. He is the head of the body the Church. He is the beginning, the first born from the dead, that in everything he might be pre eminent. Why is he worthy of worship because of his preeminence in everything, but particularly because he's the first born from the dead. Because he is the one who promise us, promises us the one thing that you cannot find anywhere else but will look for for your entire life. And that is the answer to how do I beat death? I don't care who you are, I don't care where you come from. I don't care what your background, your heritage, or your religion. From the first time it is made known to you that men die, and that all men die, you have but one main, overarching goal. You may not think about it every day, but you will think about it for the rest of your life, and as you get older, you will think about it more and more and more. And the older you get, the more consumed you will be with this question, what happens to me after I die? How can I know what happens to me after I die? And how can I overcome that last adversary, that last enemy. You live your life and you overcome adversaries, You overcome foes, you overcome enemies, and you continue to survive. You may be lessened, and you may be weakened, but you're still here. But you recognize that there is this echoing voice that says to you, there is a last adversary and a last enemy, and no one defeats him. There is one who defeated death and hell and the grave. There is one who answers the question what happens to me when I die? There is one who is the only one who offers the only hope that there is for every man who is asking that question. And for that he is worthy of our worship. Christ is worthy. He is also worthy because of his authority and the authority that he gives to us. Notice what it says about us or about him. He is the faithful Witness, the firstborn of the dead, and he is the ruler of kings on earth. He is the ruler of kings on earth. There is no place where Christ does not rule. There is no one whom Christ does not rule. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. He is the King of kings. He is the Lord of lords. And when we go back, go back again and look at Daniel Daniel, chapter two, and beginning in verse forty four. And in the days of those kings, the God of Heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end. It shall stand forever. Just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces, the iron, the bronze, the clay, and the silver and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this? The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure. Amen, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord. What does Daniel say to Nebuca Nezart, You saw kingdoms, and you saw a great kingdom, and thenill a lesser kingdom, and then a kingdom lesser than that. And in the kingdom that was even lesser than that, it was fragile and was mixed. And then you saw this stone that was hewn out not by a human hand, and this stone crushed the statue. That stone, my friend, is the kingdom of kingdoms. That Stone is the King of kings, That Stone is the one who will rule and who will reign forever. Why is Christ worthy of worship? Because no matter the greatness of the kings of the earth, no matter how vast their territory, no matter how numerous their subjects, no matter how overwhelmingly majestic their wealth, they will all bow the knee to the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He is the ruler of the kings of the earth. And for that Christ is worthy of our worship. That's who he is. He is God. There is none other who is worthy of worship. He is the faithful witness that shapes our worship. He is the first born from the dead, that gives us hope, that motivates us to worship. And he has all authority, he says to his disciples, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. There is no authority left over for anyone else. And in fact, in Romans chapter thirteen, we see that any authority that men exercise here on this earth, it is a borrowed authority, and it is a stewardship of authority. And they exercise that authority as ministers to our God, Christ is worthy of our worship because of who he is. He's worthy of our worship. And here's what I want you to know. We can stop here and it's enough. Amen, we can stop here and it's enough. I mean, this could be it just because of who he is, and we would be missing absolutely nothing, adoring Christ for who he is, worshiping Christ for who he is, proclaiming Christ for who he is. And yet the other shoe drops. He is not only worthy of our worship because of who he is, but he is worthy of our worship because of what he has done to him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom of priest to his God and Father. He loves us, he freed us, he made us a kingdom of priests. First we looked at the person of Christ. Now we look at the work of Christ and the person of Christ. We see that he is God, that he is faithful, that he's first born from the dead who gives us hope, and that he has all authority. Now we see first and foremost that his love for us compels us to worship him. Is love for us compels us to worship him. See, we do not just bow down. Here's what you need to know. Everyone will bow down and worship Christ redeemed, unredeemed. Every need will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Everyone will bow down. So on the first count, because of who he is, everyone will worship him. But it is only those who are redeemed that get in on this who worship him, not just because of who he is, but because of what he has done. And as for a number of reasons, not least of which it is that what he has done has actually turned us in to worshipers. But first and foremost, his love for us compels us to worship him. That almost doesn't fit this God who created the world, this God before whom the angels bow. The angels do not bow down before the throne and before the lamb and say, oh, how you love us, And yet they worship him. They cannot sing the song of the Redeemed, and yet they worship him. How much more so those of us who unlike they can say he loves us. But notice the tents of the verb. The tents of the verb says he loved us. This is past, this is present, This is all encompassing, but it goes back to this completed act that Jesus did. He demonstrated his love for us. Now, this is not talking about the father's love for us. This is talking about the son's love for us. But in neither case are we talking about sappy sentimentality. We are not talking about this pining over us that says you are so beautiful, I just have to have you. That is not the picture that we have of the love that Christ has for his people. How does Christ love us? Husbands love your wives as Christ love the church? How did he love the church? He gave himself for her John fifteen nine to thirteen. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. Love and commandments, certainly these things don't go together. Love is all a sentiment. Love is all about starry eyed, squishy feelings. Right, He's talking about love and commandments. Here these things. I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this. That he just can't get another person out of his mind. I think about you all the time. Therefore I must be in love with you. No greater love hath no man than this, That someone laid down his life for his friends. Jesus loves me. This I know first and foremost, because the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong. They're weak, but he is strong. You think that's a children's song, it's actually not. Jesus loves me. He who died, Heaven's gates to open wide. He will wash away my sin. Let his little child come in. That better not be a kid's song. I need some of that, Amen. That's the picture of his love. Romans, Chapter eight, verses thirty five to thirty nine. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress, or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? Here's the beauty of his love, not being based in sentiment. Sentiments change, feelings change, Amen, somebody you don't always feel like you love, but praise God that the love of Christ for his beloved was not based on how he felt, because if it was, there was nothing in us, around us, or about us that would have made him feel like we were worth dying for. I know we got songs out there worth dying for. I'm not worth dying for. That's why it's grace. If I'm worth dying for, it's not grace. You are not worth dying for. Yeah, but I need to believe that I'm worth dying for so that I'll have self esteem. You don't need self esteem. You need to have Christ's esteem. He is worthy of worship. You are not. We esteem Christ above all else. And then my worth is derived from the fact that I belong to Him and He loved me. As it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. Knowing all things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. We worship him because he loved us. No other expression makes sense. His love for us compels us to worship him. Our redemption makes us suitable to worship him. Notice what he said. He loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood. Our redemption makes us suitable to worship him. God delivers his people and sets them apart to worship him as a distinct redeemed people. We see this in the Exodus. Again the ex this is a motif that is followed throughout the scriptures as a reference to God's deliverance of his people, and in the New Testament we see it as a reference to God delivering us from sin, from slavery and bondage to sin. But notice what we see in the Exodus when God gives his law to his people. I'm the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. So because of who he is and because of what He's done. And Ectodus chapter five and verse one. Afterward, Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh. Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. We forget that. Not let my people go, because they need to be free and autonomous. Let my people go so that they may leave your dominion and go to God's dominion and be free to worship Him for the purpose of worship. Redemption, for the purpose of worship. I have not been redeemed so that I can have my own life back and do with it what I will. I have been redeemed so that I might be turned toward my redeemer in worship. I'm worthy to worship God because I'm no longer his enemy. And as an enemy of God, I was not a worshiper of God, and I could not be a worshiper of God. I could go to worship, but I could not be a worshiper because I was an enemy of God. Go with me to the book of Isaiah Isaiah chapter one, Isaiah Chapter one, beginning verse ten. Hear the word of the Lord. Your rulers are Soddom. Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomora. By the way, Sodom and Gomorrah are toast by now. And so he is speaking here figuratively about the sinfulness of this people whom he addresses, And then in verse eleven, what to me is this multitude of your sacrifices, says the Lord. I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well fed beasts. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or lambs or goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? He calls their worship trampling his courts. What do we think, or we knew God? We thought we were doing God a favor by coming to church, He calls it trampling his courts. Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me. New moon, sabbath and the calling of convocations. I cannot endure iniquity in the solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feast. My soul hates they have become a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my face from you. Even though you have made even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, Remove the evil of your deeds. From before me. Cease to do evil, learn to do good, Seek justice, correct depression, Bring justice to the fatherness. Plead the widow's case. Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be like snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall become white like woe. You notice the pattern, he says. I hate your worship, I hate your offerings, I hate your convocations, I hate your feast. I'm sick of them. Why because you are filthy and you need to be made clean. Christ has washed us by his blood and has made us worthy to come before the throne in worship. We are no longer enemies of God. We are no longer uncircumcised Philistines, but we have experienced the circumcision of the heart. Finally, he made us a kingdom of priests so that our worship would be acceptable. So we're acceptable because of his redemption. And our worship is acceptable because He's made us a kingdom of priest. But we don't have to be Jews, and yet we're priests. We don't have to be levites, and yet we're priests. Not every Jew could be a priest. Only the Levites could be priests. Not every Levite could be priest. Only those without blemish could be priests. So we're not Jews, we're not Levites, and we're not without blemish. And yet we are a kingdom of priests before God, so that our worship is acceptable before God. We don't have to tie a rope around ourselves when we go into the presence of God before the Holy of Holies, so that, just in case we walk in in an unworthy manner, somebody drags our dead body out. Why because of the finished work of Jesus Christ that has made us perfectly righteous in Him and has made our worship perfectly acceptable before God. We are a new royal priesthood. And Jesus Christ. Listen to the way Peter puts it, as you come to him a living stone, rejected by men in the sight of God, chosen and precious you, yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Your worship is not acceptable because it feels right. Your worship is not acceptable because it moves you. Your worship is not acceptable because you did God a favor by coming to offer it. Your worship is acceptable because Christ, in his active obedience, kept the whole law of God perfectly so that he might impute his righteousness to you. And Christ, in his passive obedience, laid down his life for sins that you committed so that you would be washed and made whole. And because of his passive and active obedience, you stand before God worthy to worship him and offering him a worship that is acceptable in his sight. That's why Christ is worthy of our worship. Who he is is worthy of our worship. What he has done is worthy of our worship and makes our worship worthy of him. God help us for squabbling over styles. God help us for our desire to have our own needs met. God help us for our preferences. God help us for all of those things that cause us to come into the presence of a holy God and act as though he'd better do something to impress. God help us. God help us for thinking that we're here too long. God help us for thinking that too much is asked or demanded of us. God help us. Do you have any idea who he is? Do you have any idea what he has done. God help us for coming through those doors with any attitude other than the one that says, first and foremost, I cannot believe I have this privilege. I know who I was before He redeemed me. I know who I was when I got up this morning, even after He redeemed me. And yet, and yet, God help us for any attitude other than that, because it is only that attitude that brings us into this place and puts us into a position that says he is worthy of all that I can offer him today and so much more simply because of who he did, who he is, and especially because of what he has done. If you are here today under the sound of my voice and you do not know Christ and the pardon of your sins, hear me when I say this to you. Your worship is but trampling of His courts. Repent of your empty, meaningless worship before a holy and righteous God. Be afraid, be very afraid. And yet don't allow that fear to make you run away from the place where He is worshiped. But bow the me to him, because he is worthy. Repent of your sin, turn from it, run from it, and flee to Christ. Because he is worthy, and because it's the only way that you'll experience that love that washes you with his blood, and that makes you part of this kingdom of priests who can offer to him acceptable sacrifices. Run to Christ, Flee to Christ, be pleased and satisfied with nothing less than with no one else, because he and he alone is worthy of our worship,