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"Making our Worship Heavenly" Revelation 7
by Clancy Nixon
October 30, 2005
Church of the Holy Spirit
Ashburn, Virginia
Have you ever entered a worship service and been absolutely overwhelmed by the
presence of God there? I have. In 1990, Ginger and I sensed God's unmistakable call to
leave the Episcopal Church in Georgetown where we had first met, and to find a new
community of faith. We attended a Worship and Spiritual Warfare Conference at Truro,
where David and Margie Harper led a workshop. They astonished us with some deep
truths of Heaven. So we decided to visit Church of the Apostles, where they served.
Apostles has probably the ugliest church exterior I have ever seen. God bless my
home church, it looks like a tin box. It does not look like it has been set apart for holy
purposes. But when I first opened the door to the sanctuary there, I felt like Lucy
stepping in the wardrobe for the first time in The Chronicles of Narnia. I was transported
to another realm, and absolutely blown away. Not by anything visual, though there is an
awesome life-size wooden cross on the dais. I swung open the door, and God's presence
was so thick and heavy and real there that it enveloped my being. The presence of God
was as thick as the smoke at the 9:30 club when Los Lobos played. At Apostles, there
was no incense or smoke, only the Lord. In less than one second as Google would say,
in zero point two five seconds - I just knew that I had come home. The people were
singing, but it wasn't the quality or the style of the music that caught my attention - it was
the presence of God, and the attitude of the worshipers. They didn't just hope that God
might show up; they knew that God was there. All the focus was on God, and the worship
of Him. It was a taste of Heaven. Apostles was the Nixon's church home for six years,
where we soaked in God's spirit and his truth. They sent us to seminary.
When Jesus taught us to pray, he said to pray that God's will be done on Earth as
it is in Heaven. In John 4:23, Jesus also said that the time was coming when the true
worshipers would worship him in spirit and truth. If there is any place where the worship
of God is in spirit and in truth, it is in Heaven. If there is any place where worship is
according to his Kingdom will, it is in Heaven. As much as possible, God intends that
our worship down here be a mirror of the worship of the saints up there. Amen?
The word saint means believer. Not just superstar believers; according to the
Bible, every believer is a saint. The saints in heaven have been called the Church
Triumphant. Their race is run; their strife is o'er; their lives are of unbroken praise. They
have triumphed. You and I, the living saints, are called the Church Militant. That's
because we are in the thick of the battle of the ages for the glory of God against the devil
and all his schemes. God's battle plan for us is not to take ups swords or guns, but to
worship him in spirit and truth. God's battle plan is for us to be always in His presence
as a branch in the vine. Such worship disarms the enemy. Devils flee from true worship
they can't stand it. We pattern our worship here after the worship in Heaven found in
Revelation Seven. It starts at verse 9, page 1220 of your blue pew Bibles. Let's look at
this pattern, and see what the saints up there can show us about how to worship down
here.
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We're anticipating the celebration of All Saints Day on Tuesday, the day we are
reminded that we never worship alone. We always worship together with the saints who
have gone before; we always worship with the Angels of God; and we always worship in
continuity with the worldwide church today. Thanks be to God. While we are never
alone, that does not mean that we don't need to gather. Notice in verse 9, John has a
vision of a great multitude of martyrs from every nation, who has gathered for worship in
Heaven. There is a postmodern model of Christianity called the Emerging Church
Movement. It encompasses many different tendencies, but one part of it says that small
group gatherings are enough for church. Revelation Seven shows us that this model alone
falls short of God's best as it is in Heaven. I think small groups are very important, that
everyone needs a group Jesus had his group of twelve. God's plan for worship includes
gathering together many people, from every ethnic group, and worshiping in a large
celebration. There is spiritual power in the big meeting. The Bible says, don't neglect the
gathering of yourselves together, as is the habit of some.
We also welcome people of all races to our worship. The more multi-ethnic we
are, the more heavenly our worship. Amen? We need the gifts that a variety of races
bring.
Continuing in verse 9, the martyrs in heaven stand before the throne of God and in
front of the Lamb. They linger in God's presence. Oh, that we would linger in God's
presence we were made for that, you know? They wear white robes, wave palm
branches, and they praise God together. In verse 11, the heavenly angels fall on their
faces before the throne of God, "amening" the saints, who stand in God's presence. In
verses ten and twelve, notice how worship in Heaven is done: both the martyrs and the
angels recite together, one after the other. They cry out praises to God simultaneously
and seriatim. They extol God's attributes; worship is all about God. They might be
singing together. There is power in this common worship. There is Heavenly power,
Heavenly Truth, heavenly Spirit in speaking truth as One. That's why we recite together
here on Sunday, so that our worship can be heavenly.
This multitude wears white robes, as symbols of purity and righteousness, for
they are the persecuted church, the saints who will come out of the great tribulation at the
end of time. In verse 14, we learn that their robes were made white because they washed
them in the blood of the lamb. Even martyrs need their sins washed away. I wear a white
robe on Sunday as a symbol of this same heavenly reality. Not that I am sinless, or that I
am a martyr. My sins stain me as scarlet, but Jesus washed away my sins, so that He sees
me as white as snow. As God sees you, so you are. It's all about God. The white robe is
worn as a symbol of purity at baptism, and is also a sign of victory. He also puts a palm
branch in your hand as a symbol of His victory over your problems. In biblical times,
when a king came home victorious from battle, he would wear a white robe and the
people would wave palm branches for his triumphal entry.
The Heavenly reality is that God is victorious over your eternity, and over the
battles you still fight in your life today. He has already won the victory for us; maybe we
just don't see it yet. In faith, God wants us to take up our palm branches, and believe him
for victory in our battles. He gives us the victory as we worship him in spirit and truth.
My vision for worship is that we would experience God here as they do in
Heaven. That we would soak in His presence, which would be as thick among us as
smoke in a blues bar. That we would know that God is here, and we would long to linger
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in his presence. That our worship would not be about the look of the building or the
gym; it would not be about the style of the music, or the perfection of the liturgy; but that
it would be all about God. His presence. His glory. That's a taste of Heaven.
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