What can we Learn from Revelation Chapter 5？ — Stephen Elliott

The Worthiness of God in Revelation 5

Revelation chapter five, I was looking at the passage and I was particularly drawn to verse 11 and 12, where it talks about the worthiness of God to be worshiped and praised and thanked. I was reminded a while ago of what it means to glorify God.

Glorifying God as Positive Attention

The word glorify is kind of a bit of a tricky word, but the essence of the word glorify means to make God the center of positive attention. Sometimes we say, well, this is that person's moment of glory, meaning that all eyes are on that person and people are thinking highly of them.

The Church’s Purpose of Glorifying God

And so it's the church's purpose, one of the church's purpose is to glorify God, to make Jesus and God the Father the center of positive attention. I was looking at this issue of worship as well, and my mind turned to the story of when Jesus was born and the wise men came, and it says, where is he who's born king of the Jews?

Worship Begins with Truth About God

And I was noticing that worship, there's four components to worship. The first being that we have to acknowledge what's true about God. We have to acknowledge that he's holy, that he's eternal, that he's sovereign, that he's merciful, that he's loving, that he's the ultimate judge.

Worship begins with the acknowledgement of what's true about God. But the second aspect of worship is to acknowledge what's true about yourself, because in that same passage about baby Jesus and the wise men coming, it says that when they came in, it says that they fell down at his feet.

Worship Recognizes Our Lowliness Before God

And so they were acknowledging that he's greater and they are the lesser, and so true worship not only acknowledges, first of all, what's true about God, but it acknowledges what's true about ourselves in light of who God is.

And so God is holy, I'm not holy. He's all powerful, I'm not all powerful. He's everywhere present, I'm not everywhere present. So the first two aspects of worship is acknowledge what's true about God, acknowledge what's true about yourself.

Worship as Offering and Sacrifice

And then third of all, what's going on in Revelation chapter five is the offering of something. The wise men offered gold and silver and frankincense, but the Bible says later on, it talks about offering a sacrifice of praise.

And so it's the offering of something that we value, something that God would value, offering him our lives, first of all, our lives as a living sacrifice, which is holy and acceptable unto God, and offering him our adoration.

Obedience as the Final Act of Worship

But the last aspect of worship is probably the one that people sometimes miss. And that's, they were warned in a dream in the story of the Christmas story, not to go back to see Pharaoh, or to see the king.

And so in that moment, they obeyed what God told them to do. So the last aspect of worship is to do whatever God tells you to do, to obey him. So I was looking at Revelation chapter five, verse 11, 12, my eyes went on that passage about adoring on God and making him famous and glorifying him, giving him thanks.

Revelation 5 and the Call to Adore God

And my mind turned to worship. And that's what I took out of that Revelation five passage.