Happy birthday, Mars Hill. Happy seven! You started in my living room in a rental house in Wallingford seven years ago. You look around the room and you realize its gone pretty good. It’s good to see you all. You could find the book of Revelation, that’s where we’re at today. And I wanted to make a few brief announcements as you are turning there. One, I wanted to say thank you. We had a great summer. Attendance and giving was the best it has ever been in the history of this church by quite a large margin.

And, on the top of your sermon notes, we are beginning one more phase of construction. There is about seven or eight-thousand square feet on the other side of this wall, and an additional seven or eight-thousand square feet on the other side of the wall to my right. Both of those are presently under construction, about a $600,000 building project. We need to raise about $100,000 from you guys to finish those up. In the back will be a concert venue that replaces the old Paradox from the University district. We’ll be running all ages concerts in a room that seats about 300+, as well as we’ll be running classes and events there. There will be an industrial kitchen, another classroom, and on the other side of this wall, we are completely redoing all new kids’ space, so that we can accommodate more children. And so, the details for that will be listed on the top of your notes every week. If you would like to give toward that project, you can just designate you’re giving for the building fund.

I’ll pray, and we will get to work on this great, great, great morning.

Father God, we thank you so much for your faithfulness to each of us individually, and to us as a church corporately. I thank you God, that over the years, you have seen fit to grow this church from one church to a movement of churches now, that is being involved in the planting of churches all around the country and all around the world. God, we thank you so much that the tomb is empty, that Jesus is alive, that the Gospel is true, and that things are happening because of that. God, we thank you that we are over capacity this morning. We thank you that in a year, we have been able to grow in this building, since we have entered. God, I thank you that from our initial 12 to even just the 1,200 that sit here in this morning’s service, God, that you have been faithful to seek worshipers as you promised that you would, in John 4.

God, we ask today, that as we study your word, that you would penetrate our hearts that you would cause us to be individually and corporately a people of worship, a people of devotion, a people of lavish celebration and joy. And God, we ask that you would send your Holy Spirit, who wrote and inspired this great book through the hand of John, to illuminate our understanding, to lead us and guide us and mold us and transform us into the image of Jesus. And it’s in his good name that we pray. Amen.

As we go through the book of Revelation, what we’re going to be doing is a thematic study through the book. We’re going to be looking in particular at the issue of worship. And so, I’ll start with a definition. When we’re talking about worship, we are talking about you, individually and corporately giving yourselves to an object, a person, or a thing that you believe is worthy of your devotion. It comes from the Old English word, basically, worthship; it means that you find something that you believe is worth your devotion, and then you devote yourself to it. This can be God, the one true God, this can be false God or Gods, this can be another human being, a relationship, a loved one, this can be an experience, this can be a sports team, and this can be a band. We all are created by God, expressly for the purpose of worship. And no matter what, we are all worshipers. The only thing that is different is the object of our worship. Who or what do we devote ourselves to?

And it’s incredibly important that you distinguish who you worship and identify that, because ultimately, you become like that which you worship. If you worship sex, you become perverted. If you worship money, you become greedy. If you worship work, you neglect your life and your family at the expense of being at the job all the time. And so, it’s crucial that we know who we are worshiping, and then we define how we are worshiping that particular object that we’re devoting ourselves to. In the New Testament, in Romans 1:25, Paul really lays out two categories of worship. He says there are those who worship God, who is the creator, the maker of all things, and there are those who worship creation, those things that have been made; those things that have been made by God, including other people, the earth, food, sex, and such. There are others who worship what people have made, created things; bass boats, and sports teams, and golf courses, and looks, and appearance, and everything else.

And you and I come today as a people of worship. Our lives are devoted to something. We are giving ourselves in devotion. If we worship God, that’s worship. If we worship created things, rather than creator, the Bible calls that idolatry. It’s worship of the wrong object and it’s an incredibly important thing. And as we read the Old Testament, this is a recurring and common theme that often times, as Christians, we overlook, because the culture is so much different than ours, that we don’t recognize what’s underlying this concept of idolatry, of worshiping the wrong thing. And you know what you worship by your money, and you know what you worship by your time, and you know what you worship by your energy and your passion. You’re giving your life, you’re giving your time, you’re giving your money, you’re giving yourself to something or someone; that’s your object of worship. That is your God.

And as we read the Old Testament, there is a litany of false Gods that God continually rebukes his people for pursuing, and it’s very easy for us all to overlook them. I’ll hit a few of them for you real quick, so that as you read your Bible and as you’re thinking about this issue of idolatry, you don’t overlook what God’s trying to say. Some of the more popular Gods in the Old Testament include a God named Artemis. You say, “We don’t worship Artemis.” Artemis was the God of youth. You go to the grocery store and you see all these magazines for beauty. It’s all 13 and 14-year old girls. You never see a 75-year old woman on the cover of Vogue, right. You’re never gonna see a Victoria’s Secret ad with a grandmother – never. Why? Because we’re a culture that worships youth; we market youth, we target youth. We all go in for Botox and plastic surgery, and pop Viagra out of PEZ dispensers, because why? We’re a culture that’s addicted to youth. Everybody wants to be 16 forever. Maybe we do worship Artemis.

In addition, there’s another God in the Old Testament, a Goddess, rather; her name is Ashura. You say, “I don’t worship Ashura.” Ashura is the Goddess of sex. Oh, gotcha. See, you overlook it when you just read the name. The Goddess Ashura, she had sexual prostitution as part of the worship. You would go to a temple like this, and instead of singing and such, everyone would get naked. You say, “Oh, boy. That’s a church growth strategy that’s yet untapped,” but it grew very quickly. They had temple prostitution, they also had high places where they had Ashura pools; literally, phallic symbols where people would get together and have sex.

Anybody who looks at pornography, anybody who is sexual deviant or perverted; you’re worshiping Ashura. Ashura is so popular in our culture that Americans spend more on pornography every year than country music, rock music, jazz music, classical music, ballets, and Broadway plays combined. There are 74,000 Web sites on the Net right now that are explicit sex related. I read one study that I have not yet confirmed, but it said that Americans spend more on sex each year than baseball, basketball, football combined. It’s America’s number one pastime. The Goddess of Ashura is alive and well.

In addition, there’s an Old Testament God named Baal. You say, “I don’t worship Baal.” Baal was continually worshiped by God’s people, because Baal is the God of Money. If you go to Baal, he makes you rich. In America, there are more malls than high schools. More people, today, will go to the mall than church in our nation. Each year, more people declare bankruptcy than graduate from high school. We love Baal, so people worship Baal. Credit, debt, working extraordinary hours; we work more hours than any nation on the earth. Why? Because, we want to get more money because we love Baal.

Another God that’s very, very popular: Gad, an Old Testament God named Gad. It sounds like an Italian guy blaspheming, “Oh, my Gad! It’s Gad!” Gad is this false Old Testament God. Gad is the God of Luck or Chance. Everybody who buys a Lotto ticket, every baseball player who’s on a streak and won’t wash his uniform worships Gad. Luck, chance, superstition – some of you have a lucky rabbit’s foot, or trinkets, or little things, right. When I was growing up, we had a statue of some Saint in our car, and that Saint apparently would keep you from getting in a wreck. Not sure how, he was too little to drive or do much, but he was supposed to protect you – luck, chance, superstition.

In addition, there is an Old Testament God named Molech. God’s people are continually urged, “Don’t worship Molech.” You say, “Okay, fine. I don’t worship Molech.” Molech was a God who required child sacrifice. We are a nation that worships Molech. You’re in the least churched city in the United States of America, there are also less children, per capita, in Seattle than any city in the US, other than San Francisco. Why? Because we’re a city that worships Molech; we don’t like kids – we don’t like kids. To the degree – you say, “Well, we don’t sacrifice kids.” We do sacrifice kids. We sacrifice one out of three. I know that there’s women in this room that have had an abortion. I’m not saying that God can’t love you and forgive you and heal you and redeem you. I am saying though, that when one out of three kids is aborted, we’re a nation that worships Molech. We’re a people that worship Molech. We have 1,200 people probably in the room this morning. How many should we have? Eighteen-hundred. Six hundred are missing. They didn’t make it out of the womb. Molech is alive and well. Molech is alive and very well.

In addition, there’s one other Old Testament God named Nebo, who was the God of Literature and Education. People still worship that God. They believe that they’re smarter than God. They don’t trust the simple words of Jesus because someone with a degree, someone with more degrees than Fahrenheit, someone educated beyond their intelligence, the experts all chimed in and took a vote, and outvoted God. It still happens. Idolatry is perennially popular. The opposite of worship is not Atheism; it’s idolatry. In the New Testament, the Gods are not as clearly named, but they’re articulated. I’ll give you a couple. One is Ephesians 5:5 talks about the God of Coveting; a false God of coveting, wanting what your neighbor has. We call it advertising. That’s what we call it. Ninety-three percent of teenage girls say that shopping is their activity. Why? Because they’re coveting. In addition, 34 percent of all Americans say that their favorite activity is shopping. Seventeen percent say that their favorite activity is being in nature. Twice as many people like going to the mall than going to the woods. This year alone, our nation will spend more on advertising than the total combined Gross Domestic Product of the entire world only a hundred years ago. Coveting – coveting.

In addition, the New Testament talks about some people whose God is their stomach. In Philippians 3, Paul talks about people whose God is their stomach. You say, “I don’t worship my stomach.” Really? My stomach isn’t as big as it used to be. I was worshiping my stomach for a long time. The average person in the room, today, will eat 53 teaspoons of sugar today. The average person in the room will drink 55 gallons of pop this year. [Makes oinking sound.] You say, “Why do we do that?” Why do we do – because we have this God who is just insatiable. Three-hundred thousand Americans this year will die because of poor diet and inactivity. Sin leads to death. The worship of a false God takes your life in a downward spiral. Seventy-one percent of Americans are overweight, by an average of ten pounds. You know, in some parts of the world, they’re going to starve to death, and that’s their biggest threat. We will eat ourselves to death. We’re the complete opposite. We’re the nation that invented the buffet. Your God is your stomach. Alcohol, drugs, food, even after 9/11, the big conversation was comfort food. What is that? It’s that this God will need appeasement, and so we should bake as an act of worship.

In addition, there’s a few other New Testament Gods. Celebrities – worshiping people. We are a nation of celebrities; people who are famous not because they’ve done anything. I was reading in the paper this morning, Vince McMahon, the founder of the World Wrestling Federation, that great contribution to American culture, he is now – he’s involved in the Get Out the Vote campaign; gonna get people to vote. What? Why in the world is this guy involved in – because he’s a celebrity. We’re a nation of celebrities. We worship people. I was watching an Eminem video recently and there’s just this sea of humanity; tens upon tens of thousands of people, hands in the air; devotion, adoration, worship. Far more exuberant than what we pull off here. And in that, all these angry kids from the suburbs have white tee-shirts and blue jeans and dyed hair. Why? Because they become like that which they worship. That’s why now, at places like Abercrombie & Fitch, there is thong underwear for pre-teen girls. Why? Because they worship celebrities and they want to look like them, even if they’re prostitutes.

And Jesus says that, you know, we should deny ourselves. When Paul says, in the last days that people would be lovers of money, lovers of pleasure, and lovers of themselves rather than lovers of God, that ultimately we worship our self. We keep bending into our self, worshiping our self, idolizing our self, adoring our self, serving our self, consumed with our self. Worship is where bend out of ourselves and we love God, that then enables us to also love our neighbor. We give our devotion to God who is the object of our affections. And here’s the deal, I have sex with my wife, I eat food, I drink beer, I drink wine, I listen to music, I go to concerts, but I don’t worship those things. I worship Jesus Christ. And I enjoy creation, and I worship and serve creator. And as we get into the book of Revelation, this is so incredibly important. You know, the world is a valley, scriptures are a mountain, and you start in Genesis and you start climbing. By the time you get to Revelation, you’re at the peak and you get to see Heaven, and you get to see Jesus as the object of your worship and adoration. And as we come to Revelation, the whole point is to transform us into a people of lavish worship that enjoy creation, but worship creator, not worship creation.

So, here’s where we go; Revelation 1:1; the revelation, the unveiling, the revealing. You ever been to a concert where the curtain comes back, the lights come on, there’s the band. You ever been to a wedding where everyone stands and they’re all looking for the bride, and boom! There she appears. That’s the unveiling. This is the unveiling, the revelation of who? Jesus Christ. Don’t miss the big “E” on the eye chart. As people come to Revelation, the cast of characters that surrounds Jesus is so peculiar that people get lost, “Oh, look at that, the whore of Babylon. Who’s she? Oh my goodness, there’s the mark of the Beast; don’t use the bar codes at Safeway. You’ll go to Hell.” You know, and people get lost. They get all confused and – “Oh, the four horsemen of the apocalypse. The two witnesses, the Sea of Blood.” You know, “Oh, my.” No. The revelation of Jesus. Revelation, the whole book is about Jesus. Everything comes back to Jesus.

Jesus Christ is God, he’s the object of our affection, he’s the object of our worship, he’s the object of our adoration; it’s Jesus. And it’s so easy as God’s people to get off on rabbit trails and secondary and tertiary issues. He just sticks it right in the beginning. Here’s the theme; Jesus. If you don’t stick to Jesus through this book, you’ll end up being a weird person. The people who are into Revelation, these are weird people. These are people like Ted Kaczynski, who hole up in the mountains with a typewriter, and write manifesto about the end. These are weird people. Some of you have already been emailing me, “Pastor Mark, here’s my angle. Here’s my perspective. Here’s my two cents.” Yeah. Jesus, that’s what Revelation’s about; Jesus, okay. Not flying people and all – Jesus, right. The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him, so this Revelation is from Jesus and about Jesus. Jesus reveals himself to us. It comes to us, his servants, though an angel to show us what must soon take place. This is about the end.

He made it known by sending his angel to his servant, John; that’s the author of our Book. John’s like a kid brother to Jesus. We talked about it last week. He who testifies to everything he saw. So, John is not just sitting there like some hippie, just smoking and writing whatever comes to mind in his ecstatic vision. That’s how the hippies used to do it in the ‘60s and ‘70s by the way. They would smoke weed and read Revelation to each other, because it is that kind of book, really, quite frankly. This is not that. This is not some guy who has a real creative mind. This isn’t some guy who’s high. This is a guy who Jesus, through an angel, revealed this to him, and John is just writing down what was revealed to him. This is different than speculation, where people guess, “Huh? I wonder what it’s like.” No, God revealing himself – the testimony of Jesus Christ.

And here’s a promise to all of you; blessed are you if you read the book. Read it. Some of you haven’t read it because it scares you. Read it. You’ll be blessed if you read it. It doesn’t say you’ll be blessed if you understand it, okay. So, don’t feel bad, read it; blessed if you read it. Hear it. Hear it talked, hear it read, hear it preached, and then take it to heart. Do what it says; obey God. This is how we walk with God. This is how we walk with God. We read the word, we listen to the word, and then we do what it says. That’s what James says, do not merely deceive yourselves by listening to the word, do what it says, because the time is near. So, that is who we worship. Who do we worship Mars Hill?

Response: Jesus.

Jesus, big “E” on the eye chart; Jesus. We worship Jesus. Why? I asked my four-year old son this morning. I said, “Zach, why do we worship Jesus?” He looks at me, he had a great answer, he said, “Because he’s the best.” Yes, he is the best. Good answer. Four-year old theologian. Good answer. Why do we worship Jesus? He tells us a number of reasons right here. I will catalogue them quickly. Verse 4, “John, to the seven churches in the province of Asia,” he’s writing to the church. You notice that God works through churches and communities of faith. It’s good that you’re here. “Grace and Peace,” we’re saved by grace that gives us peace with God. As we’re in sin, we’re enemies of God. We’re in hostility toward God. God loves us in Jesus Christ. He forgives us by grace. Because of that, we have peace and friendship with God, as John had peace and friendship with his buddy, Jesus, “The one who was and is and is to come,” – the eternal God – “from the seven spirits,” – angels show up throughout this book – “the seven spirits before his throne,” – you will see as we go through Revelation, the throne is the central theme.

It appears in almost every single chapter of Revelation. There is a throne, and on that throne is seated Jesus Christ, and he is the center, pulling all of his people together. He is the object of adoration. He is the object of worship, and here the throne appears very early on. “And from Jesus Christ,” – here’s why we worship him. First, he’s the faithful witness. Jesus is not a liar. Jesus is not a man who was telling us untruths and leading us astray. He’s a faithful witness. His life, his teaching was accurate and true. He tells you that throughout John’s Gospel, “I tell you the truth. I tell you the truth. I tell you the truth.” It’s an emphatic, continual refrain through the life of Jesus. He is a faithful witness. You can trust what he has to say. Our world is filled with lies and liars, and misconstrued falsity. Not Jesus. Faithful witness. We worship him because he’s a faithful witness. We worship him, number two, because it says here, he is, “The firstborn from the dead.” Jesus died. He was the first to rise, an ultimate conquering of sin and death.

The firstborn in the Old Testament is this concept where you are the head of the children who come behind you, that the blessing is given to the firstborn, and that they are to tend to and care for the rest of the children in the family. Jesus is the son of God. Jesus Christ is firstborn. He has this position of preeminence, and we, as the children of God, follow in his wake. And as rose from death, we too shall rise from death. He is firstborn. Paul says that he is first fruits. We are what trail in his wake. That he is also the ruler of the kings of the earth. That he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And in John’s day, this was a great concern. The Roman Emperors hated Christ, and they hated Christians. Paul was living through two periods of intense persecution, where members of his own church were brutally murdered, their bodies stacked in the streets, naked, left without even a proper burial. It seemed as though Jesus was losing, and the church was losing, and that the kings of the earth were winning, because it was violence and mayhem and sin.

And he sees Jesus, and he realizes that above all the kings and all of the governments and all of the elections and all of the politicians and all of the persecutions, there was Jesus who was king, and it restored his faith. And we all need to trust that what we see is not often accurate. That the righteous live by faith, not by sight, and it may look in this least churched city in the United States of America, that the Gospel is losing, that Jesus is losing, that others are winning. The truth of the matter is that he is still the King of Kings, and he is the ruler of the kings of the earth. He goes on to give us other reasons for worshiping Jesus. He says, “To him who,” – what? – “loves us.” This great, exalted, glorious God without beginning or end, who was and is and is to come, he is also a personal God who loves you. And it is his love that takes away your sin, and it is his love that transforms your life. It is his love that provides for your needs. It is the love of God that has been given to us through Jesus.

We worship him because he loves us. It’s the simplest truth, and sometimes the most easily overlooked. Why worship him? Because he loves you. Your God has inclined his affections toward you. In addition, he tells us that we should worship Jesus because he has freed us from our sins by his blood. Everyone in this room, myself included as chief sinner, is sinful. Our propensities are to worship ourselves, to worship creation, not creator. Because of that, we become like that which we worship. And because of that, we become enslaved to sin. We can’t stop; our stomach rules, our sexuality rules, our bank account rules our life, and he frees us from our sins. He liberates us so that we could be the children of God. The whole theme through the book of Exodus is that God’s people are enslaved to sin and death for over 400 years, and then he liberates them so that they can be free. Free to what? Free to worship him.

Jesus Christ, through his blood, dying on the cross in my place, as a substitute for my sins; my sins placed on him, him being punished in my place, he has freed me from the penalty for sin, which is death. He has given me new life, and I’m free to be a child of God. We worship him because of who he is. We worship him because of what he has done. He goes on to tell us that we should worship Jesus because, “He has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father.” God is a king. He has a kingdom. His Kingdom broke in with the life of Jesus. We’re awaiting its final consummation, like Jesus’ great prayer, “Thy Kingdom come.” We’re waiting for that final, complete, and total unveiling of God’s Kingdom, but we are part of that Kingdom. We are citizens of that place. Peter says that we are pilgrims and sojourners blowing through this life on our way to see him, as Paul says, face-to-face. And he has made us to be a kingdom of priests.

If you are a child of God, you are a priest of God, and the priest was the high, holy office of the Old Testament. The priest was the mediator between people and God. A priest literally is a bridge that teaches people about God, that loves people on behalf of God, and also is a mediator who brings the sin of people to God and brings the need of people to God. And in that, a priest mediates and bridges between people who are created and God who is their creator. And Jesus Christ is our great high priest – the theme of the book of Hebrews – from what he says here, is that we serve under him as priests. You and I mediate God to other people. We love them on his behalf. We serve them on his behalf. We care for them and pray for them on his behalf, and we take their needs and their burdens and their sins and their sorrows, and we bring them to Jesus, who is the great high priest.

Why do we worship God? Because that is the sum total of our life. That our life, as Paul says, is hidden in Christ, and we are priests. You say, “Well, I work a job. I go to school. I stay home with kids.” No, you’re in full-time ministry as a priest mediating God to people who need him, and people whom he loves. Like John 4 says, people that he’s seeking as worshipers, to free them from their bondage to sin and death, so that by his blood, they might belong to him and be with him and by grace, be like him. What a great privilege God has given us all. What a high, holy honor. Why do we worship him? Because we have to? No, because as priests we get to. In the Old Testament, not everyone got to be a priest. Not everyone got to be in the presence of God. Not everyone got to be in a position of respect. Not everyone got to be in a position of the priesthood that we, as the children of God, do.

Why should we worship Jesus? He tells us, “to him be the glory and power forever and ever.” Glory is awaiting us. We worship Jesus because of the weightiness that comes with him. So much in our life is just weightless, trivial, inconsequential religion. God is light and ethereal. Our sexuality weighs heavier than Jesus. Our stomach weighs heavier than Jesus. Our bank account weighs heavier than Jesus. Our day planner weighs heavier than Jesus. The opinions of others weigh heavier than the opinion of Jesus. And when the Bible says that Jesus is the God of glory, it means that he is weighty. That he weights himself most heavily in our lives. To him be the glory and power, forever and ever. If you are in bondage to sin, to Satan, to death, to lies, to discouragement, the power is in Jesus Christ. And we worship him so that his power would be given to us because we need it, and because we need him.

And then he uses this great word, what does he say? Amen! I love you guys. I’m so glad to be your pastor, but I got to talk to you about this. You are a laid back, indie rocker, crossed arm, white bread, in your seat, no fun at all kind of crowd. You just are. Golly. And I know it’s Seattle, and everybody’s contemplative and depressed, and trying to make their life better through caffeine. I know. I know. I know. And I know that we sell more books per capita than any city in the country, and so you like to think deeply and ponder. I know. But, for the love of God, say amen! Raise your – I was watching a Pentecostal guy’s church last week, and I was thinking about trading a few of you in for some of his people. He has guys in his front row that get up with their Bible and they’re like, “Amen! Amen! Amen!” I’m like, golly, I would love some love. That would be so nice. So, the reason we worship God – amen simply means, “I agree!”

Response: Amen!

Amen! So, when we say that – you’re getting it – public school didn’t totally make you incapable of learning. You guys got it. That’s beautiful. Amen means we agree. We agree. And when you hear God’s word, you don’t go, “Oh, I don’t know. I just –.” Amen! I agree! Jesus is God. Amen! I agree! I’m on that team. Cast my vote. That’s where I’m at. Because we agree with God, that’s why we worship him. God says, “I love you.” Amen! I vote yes. “I take away all your sins!” Amen! I vote yes. I vote for that. “You could be a priest, have a whole life that means something.” Amen! I vote for that. That sounds good to me. “I’ll be King of Kings, Lord of Lords, higher than the Mayor and the President. I’ll sit on a throne.” Amen! Sounds good. As people of God, part of it is your response. It’s not just your hearing from God, reflecting, and then going home and having private contemplation with your inner self. It’s exuberance. It’s gladness. It’s joy. We have one guy in this church that ever gives me an amen. His name is Sam. I love Sam. All right, what would Sam do? Do that. Amen?

Response: Amen!

Oh, listen to that. He goes on, gives us other reasons to worship Jesus. “Look! He is coming with the clouds and ever I will see him, and those who pierced him, for all the peoples of the earth because of him.” It’s a quote from Zachariah 12:10. We worship Jesus because he’s coming back. It’s been awhile. It’s a long commercial interlude. Peter says it’s not that he’s slow, but he’s patient, and there’s a lot of people he’s trying to get to, and they’re fairly difficult. Now, we all want Jesus to come back right now. Why? Because we know Jesus. Can’t this be the finish line? I mean, “I’m glad it went 2,000 years. Got me? The end. Everybody else, [blows raspberry] you know, they’re firewood. Forget them.” No. God’s patient, not – he’s pursuing, he’s saving. But I tell you this, Jesus Christ is coming back. Every eye will see him, it says in Scripture that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus came his first time in humility. He’s coming his second time in unveiled glory, and people will gaze upon him, “Look at the scars in his hands and feet and side.” Do you know that Jesus Christ will bear the marks of crucifixion. It tells us right there that they will look upon him, whom they have pierced. When you see Jesus Christ face-to-face, you will see scars from the crown of thorns. As his hands embrace you, you will see the marks of crucifixion. As he walks toward you, you will see where nails were driven through his feet on your behalf. And as you embrace him, you will feel the scar from the soldier’s sword that was pierced though his side and penetrated his heart. But for some, it will be tears of joy that we are loved and we have seen God face-to-face, and that he has come for us. For others, it will be tears of mourning, because they have been idolaters instead of worshipers. They have been worshiping creation rather than creator, and they will look upon him whom they have pierced, and they will weep bitterly. I want you all to be the ones who when you see Jesus, your tears are tears of joy, not tears of remorse.

We worship Jesus because he’s coming back. I promise you that. And we do not know when, and so we prepare ourselves, so that any moment, should he return, we will not find ourselves embarrassed and ashamed. We worship Jesus because – I love how he says it here, “So shall it be. Amen.” John says, “Yes. I am.” We worship Jesus because in Exodus 3:14, the most sacred, holy name of God given in all of the Bible is in Exodus 3:14, where Moses encounters a burning bush, and God tells him go preach, and he says, “Well, who should I say has sent me?” “Tell him that I Am has sent you, the one without beginning or end.” It’s so holy that the Jews wouldn’t even utter this name. It’s so holy that even when they spelled it, they took out the vowels, because they were so afraid of blasphemy, because Jesus is the I Am. Jesus is the one who was in the burning bush speaking to Moses.

We worship Jesus because he is the God. He says that he is the Lord God, Jehovah God. It goes on to say, “Who is,” – Jesus is alive today – “Who was,” – Jesus was alive yesterday – “and who is to come,” – is alive tomorrow. Jesus is the beginning and end, he is without beginning and end, but he creates time. He is over and through human history. Everything from day one to the Day of Judgment, and everything in between belongs to Jesus Christ. Who do we worship, Mars Hill?

Response: Jesus.

Jesus. Why do we worship? Boom! There’s the list. How do we worship Jesus? That’s his next point. Verse 9, “I, John, your brother,” don’t you love this pastor? He doesn’t say, “Hi. I’m bishop so-and-so. I have a big hat and you can kiss my ring. I’m very important.” He says, “I’m your brother.” He opens up, he says, “I’m a servant of God.” It’s a humility among God’s leadership, that they are suffering and serving with God’s people as one of the family. “I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” Here’s how you worship God; with your life.

Worship includes singing to God, and what we do here corporately. The New Testament says to sing songs, hymns, spiritual songs to one another. Be glad and make music in your hearts, to God. Worship also includes your lifestyle, individually, as we go from here. That’s where Paul says, in Romans 12, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto God. This is your spiritual act of worship. John worshiped Jesus with his life. He tells us here, “I was preaching the truth, witnessing to it with my life. Jesus had ascended back into Heaven. I was proclaiming God’s truth. People were getting saved. New converts were being baptized. People were having their sins forgiven. Because of that, the government opposed me. Started persecuted me. Started opposing me,” and Jesus Christ is a faithful witness and so is John.

Some of you bend way too easy. Somebody says, “Oh that offended me. Oh, I don’t like to hear about that. Oh, that hurt my feelings,” and we bend, “Oh, sorry. Sorry.” Not John. John saw Jesus Christ crucified. He was there, and he knew after witnessing the murder of all of the other apostles, that that is likely how his life would end, but by grace it did not. He was faithful to Jesus in spite of the cost. And in many parts of the world today, if you come to Christ, you will be persecuted and possibly murdered. That’s how we get the Christian concept of birthdays. They used to throw birthday parties after the Christians had died. If a Christian was murdered, the church would get together and the following year they would commemorate their life by remembering their birthday. Some of you undergo a degree of suffering; family, friends, co-workers oppose you. Maybe your life has been hard. But for most of us, we don’t taste a lot of persecution. But I’ll tell you this, if we love Jesus like John, we will be persecuted.

I promise you that there is a day where this church will face intense opposition. There is no way in the least churched city in the United States of America, that you worship who we worship and believe what we believe, without somebody getting upset eventually. And so, we don’t look for fights, we love our neighbor. And we love the city, and we’re like Jesus Christ over Jerusalem, shedding our tears for Seattle because we love this place. But at some point there’s resistance. We worship Jesus by enduring whatever it costs us to be with him. How else do we worship Jesus? He tells us in Verse 10, “On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit,” – the Lord’s Day is what day? Sunday. The Pagans called it Sunday, the Christians called it The Lord’s Day. Why? Because on Friday, Jesus was crucified; on Sunday, he resurrected. The Jews had worshiped on Saturday for a millennia, and all of a sudden, with the resurrection of Jesus, everybody starts going to church on Sunday.

The reason why our nation has – is supposed to have two days off – two day weekends; Saturday and Sunday, is because there was a big disagreement, “Well, should we make Sunday, the Christian day, the day off so they all can go to church, or should we make Saturday the day of worship, so the Jews can all go to church.” And they said, “Well, let’s do both. Let’s do a two day weekend.” Amen! Well done. He is worshiping on Sunday. The reason we are here on Sunday, is this is the Lord’s Day. This is the little Easter. Every Sunday, when we get out of bed and go to church, we’re reminding ourselves that at the end of time, we, like Jesus, will get out of our graves and we will go to Heaven. On the Lord’s Day, he says, “I was in the Spirit.” You worship the Lord with your lifestyle. You worship the Lord on Sunday.

You worship the Lord by the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit who reveals and exalts and glorifies Jesus, who then mediates us and connects us with God the Father. You cannot worship God apart from the Holy Spirit, and he was in the Spirit. He doesn’t tell us what that means. I read a number of commentators, they all disagree completely. I think John assumes that if you know Jesus, you know what it’s like to be in the Spirit versus being in the flesh. You know what it’s like to be led and guided and informed and illuminated and inspired by the Spirit of God. You know that there are times when the Spirit of God has opened your eyes, has opened your heart, has drawn you near to the Lord Jesus Christ. John is having that moment. He’s in exile. Here’s a pastor who has been kicked out of his church, kicked out of his town, sent to a place called Patmos, which is present day Turkey. There he is lonely, all by himself. His congregation is getting murdered and slaughtered. He’s discouraged. He’s beaten. He’s depressed. He’s scarred; they tried to boil him alive in oil. He didn’t die, so they send him off to exile into this rocky little piece of land and tell him to stay there and not continue in the work of the ministry. What’s he do on Sunday? He has church, even though he’s all by himself.

And you can have church because the Spirit of God comes to be with the children of God. And you can worship Jesus anywhere, anytime, any circumstances, and this is so excruciatingly important, because in the Old Testament, if you wanted to worship God, you needed to go to the temple on a particular day. And in the New Testament, things change. It is no longer about the outward ritual; the time and the place and the way to worship God. It’s about the internal reality. Jesus says in John 4, that the Father is seeking worshipers, those who will worship him with an inward heart condition of Spirit and truth; the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God goes with you, and you can worship him wherever you are, and you can be in the Spirit, as John was.

We worship him by the Sprit, and here’s what happens. He said, “I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet.” Throughout the Bible, every time a trumpet shows up, it’s a pronouncement that a King is coming or a Sovereign Decree is about to be made. A voice like a trumpet blows in. And I’ll tell you this, to understand Revelation from here forward; you need to have an imagination. Okay, in your Bible, there are two things that are very important. One is that everything is literal, and the other is that there’s different kinds of literalness. There’s plain literal, all right. Judas hung himself. What does that mean? That means what you think it means. Figurative literal – he’ll say in a minute, “I saw one like the son of man.” When the Bible uses the word “like,” it’s still communicating literally, but it’s using a figure of speech – it’s using a figure of speech.

Here, your imagination needs to kick in. John, on Sunday in worship, saw Jesus. He’s going to explain that to you. Jesus is the object of worship. The way you worship is by seeing Jesus. Some of you say, “I don’t know how to worship. I don’t know how to overcome sin. I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know. I don’t know.” See Jesus. Worship naturally happens. It’s cause and effect. You see Jesus, you worship. You were made to worship. You were created to worship. That’s why when you go to a Mariner’s game, people yell, “Ichiro! Ichiro!” Why? We’re made to worship. If we don’t get Jesus, we pick somebody. You are a worshiper. You’re made to worship the Spirit of God. We’ll teach you how to worship. The most important thing is to see Jesus. Get your objects straight. Once you see him, you can’t help but respond. Your imagination kicks in.

Here’s what he saw. “I turned around,” – Verse 12 – “to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands,” – that’s the church; light going out in a dark world. “And among the lampstands was someone ‘like a son of man,’” – figurative literal. It’s a quote from Daniel 7, this promise that Jesus would come, that God would come as a man, the son of a man. “Dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest.” As you read the Bible, there are only two people I could find in the Bible that wore a golden sash. It was a king or a priest; the highest political office, the highest spiritual office. Here, Jesus is priest and king. John sees Jesus in glory. And I’ll tell you this, many of us have this diminished picture of Jesus as this short Jewish guy in his late 20’s, early 30’s; poor with sort of a rag-tag, hip-hop posse of about 12 homeless guys that he hung out with. And we think, “Oh, isn’t that cute. Isn’t that nice.”

In Jesus’ first coming, he was in humility. He emptied himself. Philippians 2 said he humbled himself. He now exists as he has eternally, and as he will at the end of the age; in glory – in unveiled glory. If you’re gonna worship Jesus, you have to see him in glory. You have to see him risen, ascended, exalted, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, brilliance shining forth. And the reason that Jesus came in humility the first time, is so that we would love him. Soren Kierkegaard tells a great parable. He says that there was once a prince who went out into a field, saw a woman that he loved; she was common and simple. He desired to marry her and love her. And so to win her hand, he humbled himself, put on the clothes of a peasant and went out and took a job in his own field, working and laboring alongside of her, winning her heart so that she would love him. And on her wedding day, he revealed to her that he was the King. That is what God has done with us. We meet Jesus in his humble state and we love him, and then he reveals to us that he is the king and we are a part of his bride, the church.

And to worship Jesus, you need to see him as this king in glory. “His head and hair were white like wool,” – Verse 14; purity – “white as snow, his eyes were like blazing fire.” Jesus isn’t a God that looks at you; he looks in you, he looks through you. He knows your motive, your intentions. He knows your thoughts and your desires; that deep penetrating stare. If you had a good dad, he had one too, and he’d look at you and you’d confess everything, then you’d blame it on your sister. Jesus looks right at you and looks right through you. Looks right in you. He goes on to say, Verse 15, “His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.” In Daniel, there’s this other picture of this false God who’s mighty and strong, but he’s got feet of clay. That’s where we get that little euphemism, “Oh, you have feet of clay.” You can build a magnificent structure, but if you put it on a weak foundation it cracks; everything is destroyed.

He says the Jesus here has bronze feet. It’s beautiful because bronze is a combination of iron and copper. Iron is strong, but what’s the problem with iron? It rusts, atrophies, decays. There was a big article in the paper this week that all the old iron bridges in Washing State are starting to deteriorate and you can’t drive on them anymore. Iron is strong, but it deteriorates. Copper – does copper rust or deteriorate? All you guys that have rewired your house, does it? No. But, it’s a soft metal and it’s too pliable and flexible. When you take copper and you take iron and you put them together, what do you get? Bronze. It’s as strong as steel and as enduring as copper. Jesus Christ’s feet, he says, are like bronze, unbreakable forever. That’s the foundation. His voice was like the sound of rushing waters.

“In his right hand,” – in his right hand – what do you guys do with your right hand? You pound nails. You crush bad guys. You embrace friends. You turn wrenches. With his right hand, what does he hold? “Seven stars.” In that day, people were into astrology, into magic and divination. It was like our own day, where you turn on Oprah, and it’s like this witches’ brew of all this paganistic thinking with a few proof-texted bad verses thrown in to make sure that the demons are glorified. It’s a sick day. People worship the stars, they worship angels, they worship false Gods; all of those things, those powers, where are they in this picture? In the right hand of Jesus. You say, “Well, there’s other Gods. There’s other religions. There’s other angels. There’s other Spirits. There’s astrology.” And there’s Jesus, and he holds it right here, like a guy with a great fastball, about to send it flying. Power. Majesty over the kings and rulers of the earth, and the kings and the rulers of the air.

“Out of his mouth,” – my son’s favorite verse – “came a sharp double-edged sword.” All right, my son loves that verse; a sword coming out of Jesus’ mouth for what? War. Crushing his enemies, and Satan, and sin, and death. In Hebrews 4, and in Ephesians 6, we’re told that the sword is what? It’s the word of God. That it’s sharp and active, that it penetrates to the joints into the marrow. That it’s double edged. That it cuts both ways. That out of Jesus’ mouth comes scripture, comes truth, like a sword to divide, to cut your sin your away, to cut your folly away, to cut your lies and your accusations and your deceptions away so that you can be free. “His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.” Unveiled glory. John saw this with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, his face shown like the sun. One day we’re gonna see Jesus. This is what we’re gonna see. We’re not gonna see this humble, lowly peasant from Galilee. We will see the exalted, risen, glorified Jesus Christ.

“When I saw him,” – what happened? Here’s the key to worship. You see Jesus, respond. John says, “I saw him,” and what? “I fell face down, as though dead.” Your posture reflects your heart. When a lady walks into the room, a gentleman should stand – reverence. She should see it. When someone who is respectable and honorable and good comes into your presence, you should greet them kindly that your opinion of them is reflected in your posture. That’s why when I see my kids I open the door, and my kids come running, arms up, like a little train, just one caboose after the other. I have no doubt that I am the object of their affection. I have no doubt that I am the object of their love. I don’t need to ask, “Now, do you kids love your dad? Do you know that there are multiple Greek words for love. Which one do you feel?” I see it – I see it. Here, John sees Jesus, doesn’t have a lot to say, just gets on his face.

If you want to raise your hands, raise your hands and surrender to your father. If you want to clap; clap. If you want to kneel so you can pray; kneel. Do what you need to do in your physical body to worship God. Your heart is reflected in your posture. John on his face; what do you think? Surrender? That’s what you do when you surrender, “I give up! You’re God.” Adoration. “I worship you. Dust of the earth. This is where I come from. I’m creation. You’re creator.” Here’s what Jesus does. Who do we worship? Jesus. Why do we worship? Because of who he is and what he’s done. How do we worship? Lifestyle – according to scripture; suffering, perseverance, on our face adoration, bodily posture. What happens to those who worship?

“Then he,” – Jesus – “placed his hand on me,” isn’t that great. John is physically destroyed, boiled alive. He is emotionally devastated. It’s Sunday. He can’t be with his church. It would kill me if I couldn’t be here. John is emotionally distraught because the people he led to Christ one week, he buried the next week because they were murdered. He’s lonely. He’s hungry. All the apostles are dead. He’s by himself, and he can’t even be with his church, and who shows up? Jesus. And what does Jesus do? Speaks to him. And what does Jesus do? Touches him. Do you need to be touched by Jesus? That happens in worship. In the Scriptures, when the hands are laid on, it usually indicates blessing and commissioning. It says that they brought the little children to Jesus, he laid hands on them and he blessed them. Paul says do not be hasty in the laying on of hands; the commissioning of leaders in the church.

When you come in to worship, here’s what God does; he blesses you. He puts his hands on you, and he commissions you back into the work as a priest. Worship is where you were made strong. Worship is where your wounds are healed. Worship is where your needs are met. We come to God because we need him. We don’t come to God with hands full, saying, “God, here I am to bless you.” We come to God with hands empty, saying, “God, I need you. I need teaching. I need correction. I need love. I need instruction. I need encouragement. I need help. I need God.” And God comes and he gives. The Bible says Jesus didn’t come to be served, but to serve. We come here today to meet with Jesus. We come here today for you to worship Jesus, and we come here trusting that – where is Jesus? He’s here.

This whole picture is the seven lampstands. These are the churches, with their light going out into the world. Where is Jesus? Amidst the church. He’s there with them. Paul says elsewhere, though you do not see him, you love him, and you are filled with the glorious and inexpressible joy. Jesus Christ is here. He’s here to be with you. He’s here to be with us. He is here to reveal himself. He is here for you to respond. He is here to place his hands on you, to bless you, and to commission you as a kingdom of priests. What a great God. “Do not be afraid.” Some of you fear God. Don’t be afraid. Fear God, but don’t be afraid of God. Respect God, but don’t avoid him in your terror. Do not be afraid. You say, “But you don’t understand, my life is filled with things that are just overwhelming.” “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive forever and ever!” – You can count on me. I’m not going anywhere. –

“I hold the keys of death and Hades.” – The place of the dead – “Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later. The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.” Friends, there are angels here this morning. I know we live in this modernistic sort of academic culture that says, “Oh, we don’t believe in spirits and angels.” Angels are here. Jesus Christ is here. Our light is to go out into the city as a lamp. Jesus said to let your light shine. Angels are here with us today, ministering to us. They are here today protecting us. There is a reality behind the reality. We get the curtain pulled back and to see that our warfare is not just against flesh and blood, but principalities, powers, and spirits, just like Paul promised, that everything that you’re going through, and all of the opposition and suffering and difficulty that you may face is, in fact a spiritual reality, breaking in on a physical world. And Jesus is with you and angels are for you, because of that, John – his whole life changes.

He gets up renewed, invigorated. He goes back into Ephesus; he continues to preach until he is 100 years of age. And I told you last week, and I’ll tell you again. When he was too old and too sickly to even walk up or stand up or preach, they would carry him forward, he would sit in a chair, he would look at his church and he would say, “Jesus loves you. Love each other,” and then he died and he saw Jesus face-to-face. And every day, worship strengthened him in the Spirit. I invite you today to Jesus Christ, the unveiling of the great God who made you. I invite you to stop worshiping his creation, and start worshiping the creator. I invite you today, like John, to respond to him and to enjoy him forever as his people. He’s here with us today. He’s here to place his hands on you, to bless you and commission you. Amen.

Father God, we thank you so much that you are our God. God, as the band comes forward, as the communion servers come forward, I pray that you would quicken our hearts to be a people of praise. God, there is so much that we commit ourselves to. There are so many things that we bow down to. God, may we enjoy your creation. May we eat and drink and be merry, and make love with our spouse, and play ball with our kids, and do the stuff of life as a lifestyle of worship. But, God, may our affections always be north. May they always be inclined toward you. God, today please quicken our hearts so that we could be your people who see you, Lord Jesus, in your unveiled glory. That we see you not as the humble Galilean peasant, but as the resurrected, ascended King of Kings, Lord of Lords, who has loved us, who has freed us from our sin by his blood, who holds all principalities and spirits in his right hand, who sits upon a throne high and exalted, whose feet are bronze and dependable. And God, may we respond with our faith and with our lifestyle, with our tithes and our offerings and our song, until we see you, like John, face-to-face, as friends. Amen.