Do you reverence God?

Do you revere God?

There is a song that many Christian’s sing called “I Can Only Imagine” by MercyMe. Part of the song goes like this:

Surrounded by your glory, what will my heart feel?

Will I dance for your Jesus, or in awe of you be still?

Will I stand in your presence, or to my knees will I fall? Will I sing hallelujah?

Will I be able to speak at all?

I can only imagine!

I can only imagine!

I can only imagine when all I will do is forever, forever worship you!

Have you thought much about what will happen the day that you die? Oh, we will all die, it is inevitable. Me, you, our children. One day all of us will meet God in heaven. We will all come face to face with the one who created us.

The question is: What will you do when that time happens? I think that part of what will happen will be based upon what you think about God now. What your ideas and attitudes are about him and who you trust in now has a great bearing upon what will happen when you meet God in heaven.

Many people in this life live without any fear or reverence of God at all. They reject God by worshipping other things beside God. They reject God by setting other things above him. They reject God by dishonoring him and not reverencing him. When these people meet him, and really see how amazing, powerful and wonderful he is they will be struck with terror, dread and servile fear. They will realize that God created the world, all that is in it, them, and upholds all things by his power and will realize that they are his enemies.

Yet those who knew him and understood who he is while on earth, those who trusted in and relied upon the perfect righteousness of Christ, and the forgiveness through his death, burial and resurrection. When they see him they will finally see what they were waiting for all their life. They will see how absolutely perfect, wonderful, awful (full of awe) and amazing he is. And whey they behold him they will cry out, just like the living creatures, “holy, holy, holy.”

This is the song that we sang today. It was written by a man named Reginald Heber, who was a highly respected minister, writer, and church leader. He served as the Bishop of Calcutta during his short life. He died at the early age of 43. His wife had some of his previously unpublished hymns published one year after his death. This hymn, holy, holy, holy was one of the collection of those 57 hymns that she published.

This hymn is based off of Revelation 4:8b, but really I think it is based off of the section of Revelation 4:3-11. Let me read it and we will try to see the beauty and wonder of God, so that even today we may get a glimpse of his beauty and wonder and cry, “holy, holy, holy…”.

Revelation 4:3-11

And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.

And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. 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!”

And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

The presence of God causes reverence (4:5-6a)

The first thing that happens in this passage is that we get a glimpse of God himself. God is sitting on the throne and his appearance is like “jasper and carnelian”. Jasper is of the variety of green quartz. Carnelian is a variety of chalcedony, another type of quartz, which varies in color from a deep red to almost white. Thus, we see that God is full of splendor when one of the ways that he can be described is through the appearance of beautiful gems. Around his throne was a rainbow that looked like an emerald. The rainbow is the covenant sign of God to Noah after the flood. It is just like a war bow, instead of pointing down at us, it points towards God. This is God’s promise to not destroy us. This bow ultimately pointed at the heart of the very Son of God, and God’s wrath was executed upon his Son instead of us. This amazing picture shows us the very nature of God, utterly beautiful, gracious and forgiving.

Next we see twenty-four thrones with twenty-four elders who are clothed in white garments and have golden crowns on their heads. These elders represent both the old and new covenants. The first twelve stand for the twelve tribes of Israel and the second set stand for the twelve apostles of Jesus. All twenty-four are wearing perfect garments, symbolizing their being made perfect and holy through the blood of Jesus Christ who washed away their sin. They all wear the victors crown, having conquered through Christ death and won the prize that we all long for, everlasting life with God. This shows us God’s works in history, how wonderful he is to redeem a people for himself even at his the cost of his Son.

Still more amazing is that from the throne, God’s amazing presence, we hear, see and feel his power. Flashes of lightning we see, manifesting his extreme power over all things. Rumblings and peals of thunder from the after effect of the lightning are both felt and heard. All of our senses are engaged as we behold God.  This engages are senses and shows us the power, wonder and magnificence of God.

Before God are seen Christ’s beautiful churches that are holding the light of God high for all to see, filled with the Holy Spirit. This shows us how the church is a part of the glory of God as he has brought us into his story.

Finally, we see that the dread and terror of the sea has been silenced. We no longer have to fear it, because the dread of mankind is now gone, because man is with God and God is with man. This shows us how God has conquered all his and our enemies and brought peace to the universe.

These things that we have seen and heard then show us ultimately that God is utterly beautiful, powerful, wonderful, magnificent, yet he has redeemed us and brought us into his story, which is a story of victory and peace. This can only lead to one thing…worship.

The angelic beings revere God (4:6b-8)

This is why we now see that the angelic ministers of God, perhaps the cherubim and seraphim cannot help but cry out endlessly, the refrain that will be upon all of God’s children’s lips, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.”

These creatures know the ultimate truth, that God is the only one who is worthy of our praise. God is the thrice holy God. He isn’t just a little bit holy, or a lot holy, he is the perfection and completion of holiness. Holiness is defined by the very being and nature of God. Holiness is perfection. Holiness is the absence of evil, of anything false. The repetition of this word shows us that God is the answer to all of our longings, the completion of what we need, The perfect One.

But this perfect One is the Lord, the Master, the Creator, the Mighty One. He is the source and perfection of all. And he never had a beginning, lives in the eternal present, he calls himself I AM, and will never have an end. God is the alpha (beginning) and the omega (end). He is the completeness and perfection of all.

Thus, this is why the angelic beings and ultimately all those who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God, will continually cry out, “holy, holy, holy...” Exclaiming and proclaiming the wonderful attributes of God.

The representatives of God’s redemptive plan revere God (4:9-11)

And so, the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to this wonderful, magnificent, beautiful One who sits on the throne, who lives for ever and ever. All the beings who love and worship God boast about God, spread his fame and reputation around, and actively give God thanks for all that he is, all that he has done, and all that he is doing.

Thus, the old and new covenant people of God fall down before the throne and give God the worth that he deserves by worshipping him. They ascribe to God all those things that are inherently true about him, that make him God, they ascribe to him the God-ness that he already has in his eternal being.

The crowns that they had been given for standing fast and firm in the faith, throughout the persecution and trials of the world, they cast before the throne, because they realize that all that they are, all that they did really is in and through him. Thus, they return praise to God for all their good works. For it is God alone who is worthy to receive the boasting of humans, the fame that humans can spread about him, the power that governs us as humans. Why? Because God created all things, God did it because he wanted to, and all things exist in him.

Thus you see is the reason the hymn writer penned these words:

Holy, Holy, Holy! All the saints adore Thee, casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea; cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee, which wert and art and evermore shalt be.

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty! All Thy works shall praise Thy name in earth and sky and sea; Holy, Holy, Holy! Merciful and Mighty! God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity!

These words are really this revelation song. There is nothing to do but boast in our God. So, today, we can cry out with all the heavenly hosts, all the Christians before Christ, after Christ, and all the Christians to come:

Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!

It is really the only thing that we can do when faced with the amazing beauty, wonder and power of our living and true God.