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After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this (Revelation 4:1, ESV, emphasis added).
The Apostle John was invited into heaven to see what “must take place.” I believe it is interesting that while the rest of the Book of Revelation (after chapter 4) predicts future events on earth, John first mentions worship as what “must take place.”
We learn from reading Colossians 1:16-20 that “All things hold together [v. 17] … in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, thrones, dominions, rulers, and authorities [v. 16] … and through Him to reconcile all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of Christ [v. 20].”
Have you ever felt, after listening to or reading about world events, that history is becoming unhinged and out of control? I’m from the 60s, and there was a band named The Electric Prunes, the leader of which said, “It must seem like the inmates have taken over the asylum.”
Revelation tells a different story, a pictorial of Colossians 1, illustrating the absolute control of the universe — not through commands but through worship. Let’s consider the following …
And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying “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” (Revelation 4:9-11).
God isn’t an egoist demanding worship; He requires worship because it aligns us with the essence and functioning of the universe. Without worship, the universe would fly apart. The most interesting aspect is that worship — or what holds the universe together — depends upon the free-will worship of the created!
The famous actor and atrocious theologian Brad Pitt, when asked why he walked away from Christianity, responded by saying…
I don’t understand this idea of a God who says, “You have to acknowledge Me. You have to say I’m the best—then I’ll give you eternal happiness.” If you won’t tell God He’s the best and put Him at the center of everything… You don’t get in … It seems to me to be about ego. I can’t see God operating from ego; it made no sense to me.
The real reason that heaven worships and that we should worship isn’t that God needs something, as He is eternally self-sufficient. He doesn’t need our worship, but we need to worship Him. The eternal, powerful, all-knowing, and ever-present nature of God can only be found by worshipping God.
The Psalmist gets it by proclaiming, “Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you” (Psalm 63:3). And the more qualified theologian C.S. Lewis writes in Mere Christianity…
God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.
Let’s throw our crowns at the foot of God’s throne. And, come quickly, Lord Jesus!