Revelation 4:11
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On April 8th of this year, people are going to flock from all over the country to places like Evansville, Indiana, Idabel, Oklahoma, Caribou, Maine, and Paducah, Kentucky, and they're going to go to see something that they won't see until 2044. Most of you might know what it is. It is a total solar eclipse okay so everybody's going to get together in these different places in this swath of the country and they're going to get there to stand for four minutes with these crazy looking plastic well cardboard glasses on to look up to see something that is otherworldly something that is different than you see every day something you don't see every year something and you don't see every 10 years.
Well, we saw it three years ago or whatever. But anyways, most 10 years. They won't see for 10 years. And they're going to be there to see something and look up with wonder at the sun disappearing for four minutes in the middle of the day. They go to see something different, to see something exceptional, to see something otherworldly. And tonight, our passage draws us and draws our eyes to something higher, something greater than ourselves.
And that is the God who created and sustains our universe and who is worthy of our worship. So if you look at the front of your bulletin, I'm going to read Revelation 4.11. 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. So the main idea of this passage is pretty clear.
It's pretty obvious. It is that the God who created and sustains you is worthy of your praise. The God who created and sustains you is worthy of your praise. What we're going to do tonight is we're going to kind of look at two parts. First, the objective worthiness of God. And then we're going to talk about a few implications of that. So we're going to look first at the objective worthiness of God. So Revelation 4 begins with a door opening in heaven and John sees the throne of God.
He sees a truly awesome sight, a sight that would cause any of us to drop our jaws in just the overwhelming nature of it. I'm going to read a couple of verses, verses 5 through 7, just to give us kind of a picture of what's come before here. 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. When we read a description like this, we may be tempted to focus on all that's happening around the throne of God.
You have lightning, thunder, a sea of glass, a six-winged lion full of eyes around and within. Yet, if we had been there with John, our gaze would go to the throne, to the Lord God Almighty. We see a God in this picture here who is transcendent above all else. And by that, I don't mean he's unknowable, but that he is high over everything else.
He is exalted over everything else in this world. So we can think about texts like Isaiah 6-1, where Isaiah sees God on the throne, high and lifted up. In the Psalms, many times God is referred to as the most high. Or we can think about Psalm 113-5, which says, Who is like the Lord our God who is seated on high? He is above all and reigns over all. So we come into verse 11, and we have that picture in our mind.
A God who is above all and reigns over all. He is transcendent over everything in this universe. And then we come to verse 11 where we have a declaration of God's worthiness. Why, if we look at the text, does it say that God is worthy of our worship? Well, the text says, you created all things and by your will they existed and were created. So, God created all things.
He sustained all things. He's the Lord of heaven and earth. He's not a creator who wound up the clock and just let it go. He's not a creator who has created everything and then kind of sits back and just says, let's see what happens. Let's see if this works. Let's see if that works. I wonder if water is going to flow this way or that. He sustains everything. He created everything. From the smallest thing to the largest thing. Nothing is and nothing continues to be unless God is.
Unless God sustains it. So let's think about that for a minute. You know, we see signs. We see this everywhere, right? We see it in, you know, when we go to the mountains and we see a spring coming up out of the ground and flowing out. We see it in a baby's smile. We see it in the clouds moving across the sky on a summer's day. From the largest thing to the smallest thing, he rules over everything. It really is wonderful, and none of it is by accident.
None of it is by chance. So what sorts of places can we see this truth? We can see this truth everywhere. So I decided to point it out in giraffes and spiders, okay? Obviously. And Brittany told me I talked about chicks the last time I was up here, so I had to continue the animal theme. So, you know, we see this everywhere. Okay, so let's think about giraffes for a minute. Giraffes have really long necks, okay? I'm not a zoologist. They have really long necks.
Their brains are up here at the top of their necks. And in order to get the blood up to their brains, they have to have really high blood pressure. Seriously, they do. So the blood gets pumped up to this giraffe's brain. Now, if you've ever seen a giraffe drink, what does a giraffe do when it drinks? It has to bend over, okay? If you have ever, you know, remember when you're a kid, or maybe you still do this if you're a grown-up, you hang upside down on the monkey bars, what happens? You know, if you hang there too long, your head starts to get filled with blood and you start getting dizzy.
Well, a giraffe, you know, if it was created like us, it would basically pass out every time it took a drink of water. Every time. But it doesn't. Why is that? Well, to protect the giraffe's brain from sudden changes in blood pressure when it drinks, the jugular veins have incredibly elastic walls and large one-way valves that allow the veins to expand significantly and prevent the blood from flowing back to the brain when the giraffe's head is lowered. So, we can look at that.
We can say, oh, that's cool. Wow, that's really cool. You know, you're watching Planet Earth. That's super cool. Giraffes are awesome. That's not what we're supposed to, well, we could do that. We can do that, and that's cool. You can say giraffes are awesome. But that leads us to something else, right? It leads us to say the God who created this giraffe and sustained it and made it so that it works this way is worthy of glory and honor and power. What about a small little creature like a spider?
There's these spiders. They live in Europe and Asia, and they actually live underwater even though they breathe air. And you know what they do? Like once a day or so, they go up to the top of the water, they do a somersault and create a bubble, and then they hold the bubble and swim down to their web, and they live inside this air bubble underwater, and that's their home. Okay, again, we can look at that and we can say, that is the coolest spider, besides maybe Spider-Man, that I've ever heard in my life, right?
Wow, what an awesome spider. That's a genius spider. That spider has got it going on. It knows, it's figured out, like this is the... No, we look at something like that and we wonder at what God has made, at what God has done, at the God who is created and sustains all things. And there is no end to this, right? We could spend all day, we could get outside the animal kingdom and go into all sorts of stuff. And we could spend all day talking about our God who created all things and sustains all things, who is worthy of praise.
Well, everything in this world, everything in this world, speaks to the truth that God reigns over all and sustains it all. There is nothing we can observe, there is nothing we can discover, there is nothing we can experience that does not point to the fact that God is worthy of worship. So Christian, this truth is truer than anything else that is true.
It's realer than my hand right here in front of my face. God is worthy of all praise. He's worthy of all worship. It was true at 4 a.m. in the morning this morning. It was true when we woke up. It was true when God spoke the earth into existence. It is objectively true. And it doesn't matter what I believe about it or what you believe about it. It's still true that God is worthy of praise.
And he will be worthy of praise for all eternity. There will never be a time where God is not worthy of our praise. And we'll never grow tired of that. Why will we never grow tired of praising God and tired of saying he is worthy of praise? Because he will never not be worthy of praise. Our God is unchangeable. He is transcendent above all else. There is no time, there is no place, there is no space where this is not objectively true.
So, I just have three quick implications for us here. The first one is this. As Christians, we can praise the Lord that we have access to our creator and sustainer God through Jesus Christ, his son. If you keep reading into Revelation 5, John's vision continues. And John sees a lamb standing as though it has been slain. And we see these elders. They're saying, who's worthy to take the scroll?
And then the elders sing this song. Worthy are you to take the scroll and open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign the earth. This God who is transcendent, who is ruling over all things, loved us so much that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Jesus gave his life as a ransom for us. If we turn and put our faith and trust in him, we receive his righteousness and he takes our sin upon himself. He is the one who ransomed people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. And he's worthy of our praise. And we can approach God because of what he has done. Maybe you're here, your friend brought you here today, and you don't know this God.
You don't know Jesus. Well, the good news is you can know him. You can know him by turning from your sin, placing your faith in Jesus Christ, and trusting him to save you. And if you do that, he will. If you're here, you came with someone else, ask him about that afterwards. So, we can praise God that because of Jesus, we can know this God who transcends all things. The second thing is, as human beings, we're most fulfilled, most joyful, most human when we glorify God.
So, human beings are wired to worship. We can think about that very simple example. I think right now, probably still, there are thousands of people sitting at a game, watching grown men running around, throwing a ball to each other, and trying to get people on the ground and trying to take the ball from the other person. Just screaming, screaming men at the Chiefs-Ravens game right now. And so, I love football just as much as the next person.
But the small joy, this small joy of seeing a sports team succeed, it points to something else, right? It points to the truth that God has put eternity into our hearts as human beings. We long to praise that which is praiseworthy, right? A beautiful pass that goes, you know, 50 yards and somebody catches it for a touchdown. We long as human beings to praise that which is praiseworthy. The truth is, only God is fully praiseworthy, and we will find joy, fullness of joy in him.
Psalm 1611 says, you make known to me the path of life, and in your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Only God is the source of supreme satisfaction for humans. And that is, that's true because only God is worthy of our worship. Only God is truly worthy of our praise. So the last thing is there is nowhere that God is not worthy to receive praise.
You cannot find a place on this earth where God is not worthy to receive praise. You cannot find people anywhere on this planet that do not owe their existence and their creation and their continued existence to God. And because of that, you cannot find anyone on this entire planet who does not owe God their worship and their praise.
And so, you know, we can think about Alder, you know, talking, they're going to South Africa. you're going to go to South Africa and the people there their praise is owed to Jesus Christ and is owed to God and you can go there knowing that that's something that you can know 100% and for those of you considering do I want to pursue missions do I want to think about going overseas you can go with confidence you can go with confidence knowing this true fact there is nowhere there is nowhere on this earth that does not contain people who owe their praise to Jesus, owe their praise to God.
And the same is true for us here, right? The same is true at our workplaces, the same is true with our family, the same is true with our friends, is that all these people, anyone who has not bowed their knee to Jesus, who is not praising God with their lives, the best thing for them is that they would do that. So there is no space in the universe where God is not worthy to receive honor.
Let's pray together. Father, we thank you. We thank you that you are worthy to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they existed and were created. And we praise you, Jesus, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. We thank you for that, and I pray that your word would bear fruit in our hearts.
We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.