First Baptist Church, Earlville, New York
November 19, 2017 10:30 AM
J B Stopford, Pastor, Speaking
“GIVE THANKS !”
Revelation 4
TODAY’S SPECIAL
“A Beverly Funny” (in honor of one of our congregants)
Hey, why do you see hardly any crows as road kill along the highways?
Because the crows warn each other, “Car! Car!”
INTRODUCTION
Thanksgiving has been celebrated on the 4th Thursday of November in the U.S. on and off since 1789 – as requested to Congress by George Washington. It became a federal holiday in 1863, as requested by President Lincoln during the Civil war, a national day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwells in the Heavens.”
And, of course, as we all know, it also marks the halfway mark of the Christmas holiday season which began sometime before Labor Day (ok, just kidding).
In our Scriptures, there are 100 references to “thanks” and “thanksgiving”. The first is found in of all places 1 Chronicles 16:34,35, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Cry out, ‘Save us, God our Savior; gather us and deliver us from the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name, and glory in your praise.’”
The last usage understandably is found in Revelation. Today’s passage is a familiar one, and I personally was amazed to find the word “thanks” in the midst of a most familiar passage. As we give thanks today as a spiritual community, may we also be aware that our thanks will not begin and end today.
PRAYER.
#1. We’re in the present – visualize the eternal (Relation 4:1-8)
As I approach this passage, this most familiar passage, I approach it with a simple question, “what does this passage say that helps my worship, my praise of God, and my being thankful?”
Beginning with Revelation 4:1 with the words “come up here”, the church is not seen again until Revelation 21 and 22 with the “new heavens and the new earth.”
But John himself is in the present! He is seeing the future as if it is now.
And when you and I read passages like this, we, too, are in the present – but like John, we, too, can visualize the eternal!
And what would we see with John? We would see worship face to face! We would see pictures that we could not put into words that would make any sense! We would see in the midst of that worship, elders who are bowing down on a regular basis before the Lord Jesus. We would see pictures of the heavenlies like what we would have read in books like Isaiah and Ezekiel coming to fruition.
How do you describe all that? In one word: worship!
Look closely at verse 8: “day and night they never stop saying, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, Who was, and is, and is to come.’” Through John we are hearing the verse from Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.”!!! And this worship of our Savior is non-stop, day and night. Can we even begin to visualize that?
So before we offer our great God the gifts for Whom only He is worthy, we need to remind ourselves that all of eternity is surrounding the theme of worship.
But John is in the what? TODAY! And so are we! So what things do we do that are wasteful when we could be learning to do what we’ll be doing for all eternity: worshiping our wonderful Savior!
So have I answered my beginning question? Yes! I have learned that I cannot put God in a box and say, “there, I’ve figured You out!” No, only He is worthy of my worship. Only He could bring me to the cross and cause the rest of my entire life AND my eternity to follow to center around…HIM!
#2 The 3 gifts we can give to God now (4:9)
Verse 9 introduces us to the crux of the theme of this day. The living creatures – whom we met first in Ezekiel Chapter 1 – are described as doing just 3 “tasks”, if you will, for all eternity. Now I could think of a whole bunch of things that I would like to do if I had a lifetime to do them in – and yes, golf certainly would be one of them. But their “tasks” are confined to just 3 descriptions. And all 3 they offer to the Lord Jesus:
A. Glory – the word “glory” is taken from the root word which means simply, “to boast”, or better, “to joy, to rejoice.” In essence, this living creatures brag about God – to Himself! They offer no prayer. They offer no complaints. They offer no concerns. They don’t even review before Him what they have observed Him doing for the past millennium or so. NO! They brag on Him – they boast; yes, they GLORY in Him!
B. Honor – the second thing they do is to honor Him. The only thing we have even similar is what we call the judge in a court, “Your Honor.” That is similar to what this means. It is the idea of offering to God His value. But it is much more than just His value. It is what WE value of Him! And the living creatures for all of eternity will be telling God what they think of Him, telling Him what is their value of God for Who He is. Non-stop. Wow.
C. Thanks! It is interesting that to complete the trinity of this picture of worship, John observes not only glory and honor, but also “thanks”. To put it simply, praise is often defined as telling God Who He is. Thanks is telling God what He has done. Once again, it is a purposeful focus – in this case, of eternity! – on reminding God what He has done for all eternity.
Today we are going to do this as well, to thank Him for what He has done this past year!
**LET’S TRY THIS NOW** (the congregation then each one is to offer his or her thanks for what the Lord has done for them this past year)
#3. True worship is eternal (4:10-11)
Simply put, we are to be practicing what these 24 elders do in the last two verses of Chapter 4: for all of eternity, they will be worshipping the Lord Jesus. They will be reminding Him, as it were, that He alone is worthy of their worship.
We are to be practicing NOW what we will be doing for all eternity: centering our lives on the eternal, even the Lord Jesus, alone!
CONCLUSION
ILLUSTRATION: Yesterday I had the privilege to officiate the funeral for a family which I had first met several months ago. I had to travel quite a distance to the funeral home. So before I left our home, I made especially sure that I had my Bible, my copy of the eulogy, and the several “remembrances” that family members had already written out for me.
When I arrived at the funeral home with time to spare, I was quite thankful. I got out of the driver’s side of the van, making sure the van keys were safely in my pocket! I opened the side door behind the van to retrieve from the back seat my Bible with its contents of the eulogy and the remembrances.
And then I reached for my suit coat. But it wasn’t there! In all my preparations, I had left the coat hanging up on the coat rack in the entry way of the parsonage.
An interesting spirit immediately overwhelmed me – one of thanksgiving; one of confidence that the Lord was in charge; one of humbling, that He alone orchestrates the details of my life.
When I went into the funeral home and met with the undertaker, it wasn’t long before he saw my dilemma – and its solution: he and I have the same coat size! He went upstairs and brought down a coat which matches the color of my pants – and the grieving family was not distracted with my lack of clothes. God is overwhelming!
The point is this: in our worship, true worship, God wants us to get out of our own way! True humility before Him becomes the norm, and with that, our text reminds us what God wants us to be practicing now, since we will be doing this for all eternity:
1. Live as if in the heavenlies – visualize an eternal life!
2. Give God eternal gifts today: glory, honor, thanks
3. Each day is a day of worship – get used to it!
Practice it today!
Pray