When John peered through the doorway into heaven, I’ll tell you what he didn’t see. He didn’t see the 24 elders playing baseball. He didn’t see the four living creatures water skiing. And he didn’t see the heavenly host of angels playing badminton. He saw them all worshiping.

I’ll be honest, for years I read Revelation 4 and 5 and said, “How Boring! I sure hope it’s not going to be like that. Just standing around singing all the time. Ugh!”

Ever think about that?

Well, this is my opportunity to make a public confession. I’ve had a change of heart. I realized that the problem is not what’s going on in heaven. The problem was actually that my idea about worship was completely impoverished. I stand corrected. Worship is life-giving.

I’ve talked to many people these past couple weeks who commented on how wonderful worship is on Sunday morning. And I’ve wondered if it’s because it’s one of the few, or the only occasion during the week when we are freed from our general preoccupation with ourselves.

This is the fourth sermon in our Revelation sermon series, titled Last Things. In the first chapter we were introduced to the author John, who had been exiled on the island of Patmos for his testimony of Jesus Christ. We found the “Last word on Christ” to be that He stands in the center of the church and in the center of our lives. From there we moved on to the seven letters of Jesus, written to the seven churches of Asia Minor. The “Last Word on the Church” was for them to return to the love they once had. Love for Christ and love for one another.

John now moves us onward and, quite literally, upward…Where we begin to see the big picture and hear the last word on worship.

To the Romans, Saturn was the god of agriculture; to the Greeks, the father of Zeus. Last week, to the folks at the Seattle Times, Saturn was their cover photo. It caught my eye as I headed out with my groceries in hand. The shot was clear and colorful and for some reason it captivated me with its many rings circling about like a golden crown.

According to the caption, this is the most detailed natural-color global view of the planet to date, assembled from 126 different photos, taken by cameras aboard NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. The 126 images were then assembled like pieces of a puzzle to achieve the end photo.

The Cassini took these photos from a relatively close 3.9 million miles away from the planet. That must have been some lens on those cameras…And any photographer would tell you that the lens makes all the difference. The final result: the big picture on Saturn.

Are you a “big picture” kind of person? I am. I’m always wondering if there’s more. Wondering if I’m missing something. Wondering how this all fits together.

Do you ever wonder that way about worship? I mean, what’s really going on here when we gather together, and sing our songs, and pray our prayers, and say our “Amens”? This is a peculiar thing we do week in and week out, wouldn’t you say? So, I’ve been wondering lately what the big picture on worship really is.

Do you ever feel like God is about as distant as Saturn, which, by the way is a mere 746 million miles away? From that distance God is bound to look fuzzy. And I can’t help but think that if our idea of God is fuzzy, then our idea of worship will be equally fuzzy. How then do we bring the blurred edges and dull colors of this God into sharper focus? Perhaps it has something to do with finding the right lens to look through.

Dorothy and Toto are caught up in a great tornado. Their gray-toned farm house spinning and spinning until it is suddenly drops down in the middle of the Land of Oz. As they step through their front door, they enter another world, brilliant with color, and teaming with munchkins, fairy godmothers, flying monkeys, talking lions, a tin man, and a real life scarecrow.

Peter, Susan, Edmond, and Lucy pass through the door of the wardrobe and into the magical Land of Narnia, full of both delightful and terrifying creatures: centaurs, dwarves, dragons, giants, unicorns, and talking beavers just to name a few.

And then there’s John, exiled on this tiny little island. He writes, “I looked, and there in heaven a door stood open!” John ascends through this door, and enters another realm, radiant with light, and filled with the sound of thunder. A heavenly host of strange and wonderful creatures is gathered around One seated on a heavenly throne. And with one voice they sing, “Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God the Almighty, who was and is and is to come.”

This morning we are going to leave earth, grab onto John’s sleeve, and hitch a ride to heaven. We will be reading
Revelation 5.

Every high school has a mascot. Can you remember yours? Mine was the tiger. Perhaps your mascot was a Wildcat, a Wolverine, or a Falcon. Mascots are generally chosen for their qualities of perceived strength, swiftness, agility, power, wisdom, honor and might…Qualities they believe will enable them to conquer their opponents.

The Indianapolis Colts are taking on the Chicago Bears today. What if the Chicago Bears football team was called the “Chicago Little Cubbies”? Not quite the image a pack of 300-pound linebackers conjures up, is it? Not quite as menacing or intimidating. And certainly not expected.

Which is something of what John finds as this heavenly worship scene continues to unfold. When no one is found to open the scroll, John weeps bitterly. But he is quickly comforted by one of the elders who says to him, “Do not weep. See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”

Surely this Lion will get us up on our feet cheering. Surely this is the Messiah we all want for our team. This One they call Worthy. This Root of David. Surely, he is strong and powerful, wise and courageous, mighty and menacing. And so we stand with bated breath, waiting and watching for him.

And then something quite remarkable and unexpected happens. John turns to find not a Lion…But a little Lamb, standing as if it had been slaughtered. What?! Is this the Messiah we were expecting? Is this the One we waited for? If we’re honest, we might even say that this is not the Messiah that we really want. All weak and wounded. Nevertheless, this is the One who has conquered - not by the sword, but by his blood - and because of this, he alone is worthy to stand in the center of heavenly worship.

In fact, I think this is the One that we absolutely need in the center of our worship. I suggested earlier that our worship will be as fuzzy as our picture of God. I believe this image of the slain Lamb is one of the sharpest images of God that we have. John here gives us a truthful and jarring reminder that the One who stands in the center of our worship is also the One who still bears in his flesh the marks of pain and suffering and death.

John reminds us that the God we worship is the same one we find in the middle of the pain and suffering down here in the world. This is the One who said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side.” (John 20:27). The truth, my friends, is that without Jesus, the crucified Jesus, sharing and bearing the pain and sin and suffering of the world—without that Jesus, I really don’t actually know who God is at all.

Without knowing Jesus, God may look like a fuzzy, distant, disinterested planet. 746 million miles away. But if Jesus is the lens through which our satellite hearts look on the face of God, then we will discover in that face what it means to worship. Why? Because we will discover what it means to be loved. We do not say that God so loved the world that he sent somebody else. We say that “God so loved the world that he sent his only beloved Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.” And when you know this man, Jesus, there is only one response, and that is praise. And worship is one way that we cultivate this relationship with him.

Worship happens when we are alone, out on a hike, or sitting in our bedrooms. But this morning I’m interested in worship when we gather together.

Each week we enter into worship through the doors of this sanctuary. We enter, like Dorothy into Oz, or children into Narnia. We enter in like John through the door of heaven. We gather around the Lamb, positioning ourselves like the Cassini spacecraft circling Saturn. And we start paying attention. We start watching and listening and taking pictures. We’re piecing together a really big picture. Not of a planet with a golden crown, but of a King with a crown of thorns. It is in our worship that we encounter this God who desires to love and be loved.

When we step through the door, and enter into worship, we’re not simply practicing or rehearsing for some future worship that we’ll do down the road when we get to heaven. No, our worship now is as real as what we read here in Revelation 4 and 5. It’s real and we are invited to participate. And we do this every week…

In Revelation 5 we find five ways of worship that bring us into a closer relationship with Christ, for it is in these actions that God reveals himself to us…

First, we worship with the Word.

John weeps when no one is found to open the scroll. We gather to hear Scripture read and proclaimed, to have it opened to us. To hear of Christ’s saving action and love. Each week as we gather, we read Scripture. We pray Scripture. We sing Scripture. And we proclaim the gospel message found in Scripture.

It is through Scripture that we learn that we too are included in this heavenly choir, for “by your blood you ransomed for God saints from every tribe and language and people and nation; you have made them to be a kingdom and priests serving God” (Rev 5:9). When we worship with the word, we take a photo and add it to our mosaic, to our big picture.

Second, we worship in prayer.

Each week we gather and fill our bowls with prayers. They rise like incense, a fragrant offering to the One we call Worthy. We pray out of our sorrows, and out of our joys. We offer prayers of thanksgiving, and prayers of petition. We offer prayers of confession and prayers of intercession. And in each of our prayers, we enter into a place of intimacy with a God whose heart is on fire to speak with us and reveal himself more fully to us. Every time we worship in prayer, we take a photo and add it to our mosaic.

Third, we worship in song.

Three of them are right here in Revelation 5. Tell me, where else do most of us get together with a room full of people to sing like this? We sing with one voice. And why do we do it? Because God loves it when we sing our praises to him. When we sing together we join with the choirs of angels and elders and creatures in heaven. We join our voices with the millions of Christians around the world who sing “Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” When we worship in song, we take a photo and add it to our big picture.

Fourth, we posture our bodies.

The elders and the four living creatures fall down and bow before the Lamb. They are moved with reverence and awe and humility.

At the last Alpha retreat we had a time of singing our praises to God. Later one of my friends shared with me a new experience he had while we were singing. He was so moved by the Holy Spirit, so caught up in praise that he couldn’t keep his hands down. Up, up, up they came until they were fully extended. And in that posture of openness, the Lord encountered him as he received a deeper revelation of God’s love.

How we posture our bodies in worship is important. We raise our hands, we kneel, we bow, we stand. All this to the glory of God. And when we do, the Lord encounters us in that, and we take a photo to add to our big picture.

Finally, we find here in Revelation 5 that worship affirms.

“And the four living creatures said, ‘Amen!’” Our Amen is really our “Yes!” to God, who has already said “Yes” to us. In the early church prayers always ended with a vigorous “Amen!” They were robust affirmations of agreement. Our “yes” aligns our heart in agreement with God’s heart. Creator.

Yes! Ruler of the kings of the earth.

Yes! Alpha and Omega.

Yes! Lamb that was slain.

Yes! Healer of the broken hearted.

Yes! The One restores sight to the blind.

Yes! Friend to the lonely.

Yes! Worthy.

Yes!

When we say “Yes,” “Amen,” to God, we say yes to the big picture of God.

Friends, we orbit our satellite hearts not around some distant god of agriculture, but around the living and true God who has drawn near to us, revealed in Jesus Christ. In worship, we position ourselves not to observe from a distance, but to enter into the presence of this great and awesome God. We take pictures along the way. When we start to place those images side by side, what will we find? Will we find a God so in love that he will do whatever it takes to be with us? Even die on a Roman cross?

Friends, I believe the last word on worship is this: Worthy, worthy, worthy is the Lamb. Without this, as T. S. Eliot warned, we have the experience, but miss the meaning. Because ultimately our worship is not about the God we want, but about the God who wants us.