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 His wife had some of his previously unpublished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
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.
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