Heavenly Worship: Responding to the Spreading Goodness of God (Revelation 4-5)

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Why do we worship God by offering songs and prayers of praise and thanksgiving? Let’s be honest. Is it primarily because we are told to do so—either as a suggestion or as a command—or is it out of the overflow of a heart that is being transformed by the love and glorious goodness of God? I know which one is more precious. Sadly, I can tell you that sometimes we offer up what we call worship only because we think it is expected. Along with “a sacrifice of praise,” do we view gratitude as a spiritual discipline to be developed? I contend that we cannot offer sincere gratitude to God if we haven’t somehow “seen” or otherwise experienced his goodness. To put it in our current post-Christmas context, if we have not received a gift, then why would we write a thank-you card?

Worship as a Response of the Heart 

The truth is that we have a God who is himself the gift that keeps on giving, not to get something in return but because spreading goodness is what he does. He delights to share His glory with us, even though we may not recognize or acknowledge it. As children, we are quick to see the wonder of God at work around us, but we are trained to disregard such divine glimpses.

Our cultural climate goes to great lengths to hide the goodness of God, only giving tongue-in-cheek blame for “acts of God” but rarely giving credit from reliable sources. “Miracles” are said to be due to science, doctors, and “good and generous people,” but not due to a real, present, and powerfully gracious, Triune God. We don’t hear his story enough. Even when we do read the Bible that speaks of his goodness, we get distracted looking for rules and laws, proof texts, and self-help tips. However, if we read with our eyes open to the love of God, we will begin to see it everywhere in Scripture—even in the hard places!

This love is not a marginal attribute of God in isolation, but the motivation of all his plans and purposes, from the beginning to the end, in redeeming and blessing us together in community. When we read the scriptures to encounter a loving God, who acts in time and space, we will not be disappointed. However, we may be surprised by a rising faith that enters our lives when we put our trust in what the scriptures reveal about Jesus Christ, who, in turn, shows us the heart, will, plans, and works of God the Father. This faith is strengthened as we internalize what is revealed about God and his great love for us, and then respond with worship straight from the heart, resonating with that of the psalmist.

I have told the glad news of deliverance
          in the great congregation;
behold, I have not restrained my lips,
                                                             as you know, O Lord.
I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart;
I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;
I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness
    from the great congregation. (Psalm 40:9-10)

How Worship Reveals the Spreading Goodness of God

When we look at the great heavenly worship narrative that is found in Revelation Ch. 4-5, we can see the spreading goodness of God reflected, and responded to, in the praise that is offered. While there are topical differences in the five recorded expressions of praise found here, differences that could be arranged chronologically, it is possible that more is being communicated in this great vision than merely chronology. The sequence and scope of these praise anthems seem to suggest a spreading goodness flowing from the nature of God himself that elicits a response from increasingly larger and more “distant” groups of worshippers.

Let’s look at the four concentric rings of responsive worship resounding in this section of the Book of Revelation.

Worshipping the Lord God for Who He Is (4:8)

The four living creatures, those closest to the throne, representative of all of creation, model unending worship centered on the character and attributes of God…

“Holy, Holy, holy,                                                 

 is the Lord God Almighty                                   

 who was and is and is to come!”                       

Our Triune God was holy in the past, he is holy in the present, and he will always be holy in the future. He is a Holy Father, a Holy Son, and a Holy Spirit! Such goodness is communicated within the Godhead itself and is not dependent upon anything or anyone else. His Trinitarian holiness, his power, and his authority, as well as his abiding and eternal life, elicit the praise of those creatures closest to the thrown—the “four living creatures”.

Photo by Zhang Kaiyv on Unsplash

But the goodness that provoked such praise is neither contained nor accumulated; rather, as John records the heavenly revelation, his imagery suggests it expands and flows forth in ever-larger concentric circles of experienced blessing and the response of joyful worship. Historically, this goodness was first experienced by earthly creatures in how God’s goodness was expressed in creation.

Worshipping the Lord God for what He has done in Creation (4:11)

The second ring of heavenly worship shows how the 24 elders responded to the worship offered by the four living creatures with their own chorus:

“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.   

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

This chorus introduces the concept of the “worthiness” found in the Lord God, to receive glory and honor and power, not only because of who he is and what he is like, but because of something he has done—he has created all things! His goodness was manifested as he created all things according to a divine plan and purpose. Nothing was in conflict. Everything had what it needed to thrive. At the creation, nothing was yet marred by sin and wickedness. Today, as we experience even the now sin-flawed creation, we still see aspects of God’s creativity, his aesthetic eye, loving care, and perhaps even humor. Yet, what is to be done about the man-made mess? Who would be able to open the seals on the scroll and bring God’s redemptive purposes to pass?

Worshipping the Lamb for What He Has Done in Redemption (5:9-10)

This third layer, or ring, of worship shows the first two groups of worshippers (the four living creatures and the 24 elders) now combined in recognizing the worthiness of Christ, the Lamb of God, for ransoming a great multi-ethnic group of people for God. Together…

They sang a new song, saying,

“Worthy are you to take the scroll and open its seals,

for you were slain, and by your blood ransomed people for God

from every tribe and language and people and nation,

and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,

and they shall reign on the earth.” (5:9-10)

This heavenly chorus to the Lamb then expands beyond the four and the 24 to include an innumerably vast group of angels—myriads of myriads—saying,

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,

to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might

and honor and glory and blessing!” (5:12)

Did you notice how many different things (of which the Lamb is worthy) are listed? It is that number to which John’s inspired writing repeatedly returns, to emphasize completeness. Jesus Christ, the Lamb who was slain, is more than worthy of anything and everything good that we could offer. And everything good is only good as it shares what he has so abundantly given. If we even had a little awareness of all he has done for us, we would willingly offer everything we have to him in gratitude. However, we often deny the depth of our need and miss the significance of what he has provided and what he still wants to give to us (Rev. 3:17-18). This great heavenly host responds to the spreading goodness of God that came to earth as a virgin’s babe, lived a sinless life, healed and delivered all who asked, then died for a world that could not save itself from itself, and rose again in victory. This is the goodness that changes things from the inside out. He is worthy!

As wonderful as this heavenly worship is, it would be incomplete if it stopped there. It must allow all who have been transformed by God’s love-in-action to respond.

Worshipping the Father and the Son, Together, Forever (5:13-14)

The rippling waves of praise now spread out even further to include every creature in heaven and earth and under the earth,

“To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb

be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”

And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.       

While I could stop here with verse 14’s mighty “Amen!”, this article would be incomplete without one last passage. 

In chapter seven, there is one more group that worships the Father and the Son together. It is a subset of the “every creature” group mentioned above and has an important lesson for us today. It is the anthem of those who had not tried to save their own lives but lived faithfully as the redeemed people of God, a new race made up of “all tribes and peoples and languages”, despite the great tribulation of their circumstances. As it is written, 

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, 

“Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying,

“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” (7:9-12)

Worship is shown to be a community practice and a practice that needs to continue forever. Why forever? Is it because God wants to hear us tell him how awesome he is over and over again? No, rather it is because he continues to share his amazing love with us, in surprisingly creative and wondrous ways, that we cannot keep silent before the fountain of gratitude that rises up in our transformed hearts.

God shares the goodness of his glorious love with us in all that he is, and all that he does. How can we help but respond, and then with enthusiasm pass it on to others?

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
    for his steadfast love endures forever!
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
    whom he has redeemed from trouble… (Psalm 107:1-2)

House Rules (SOAP Journal from 1 Timothy 3)

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In addition to regular articles, I will be posting highlights of some simple SOAP journals that were produced during a regular gathering of pastors to journal, pray, and encourage one another. These are not exhaustively studied as they are generally the work of 20 minutes of reading, 20 minutes of writing, and 20 minutes of sharing with each other what we have written. These brief devotional journal posts will begin in the Pastoral epistles (1 & 2 Timothy, Titus). Hopefully, they will be encouraging to the readers of this blog.

We used the simple SOAP acronym as a devotional guide... which stands for:

• Scripture—what verse or short section caught my attention today?
• Observation—what can I briefly notice that the passage specifically says?
• Application—what will I do differently as a result of reading this today?
• Prayer—what will I ask the Triune God to do for, in, and through me today?

S = 1 Timothy 3: 2-7, 14-15

"Therefore an overseer must be above reproach,

• the husband of one wife,
• sober-minded,
• self-controlled,
• respectable,
• hospitable,
• able to teach,
• not a drunkard,
• not violent but gentle,
• not quarrelsome,
• not a lover of money.
• He must manage his own household well. (v.4)
• He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit. (v.6)
• He must be well thought of by outsiders. (v.7) [bullet-list mine]

v. 14-15

I hope to come to you soon, but 

I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay,

you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God,

which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. (emphasis mine)

O = Paul was preparing Timothy and those to whom Timothy would minister for the possibility of his being delayed. He gave Timothy what amounts to a list of “house rules” that pertained not so much to a physical place as relationally to the family of God! This list is pretty descriptive regarding the “above reproach” character (KJV "conversation") attributes of someone pastoring/overseeing the church. This is a great gift for it is a (non-exhaustive) list of how God's love manifests itself in God's family on earth. Because pastoring is a “noble task” the pastor/overseer must have a noble character. It needs to have been transformed by Christ from the inside out. So many problems would be solved if all who serve in church leadership lived up to these lofty standards from a heart responding to the love of Christ. If there is any hope for people to mature and become more like Christ, their leaders should show evidence of such change in their lives.

A = Just as we have a sign in our home listing attitudes and actions that we would like to characterize our lives together, Paul left just such a set of affectively descriptive “house rules” for Timothy and those he would pastor. However, we don’t always live up to such lists. I recognize how much I need the grace of God to live into such noble standards! I am reminded of a quote from the movie Remember the Titans, "Attitude reflects leadership!" The attitude of church leadership is contagious—one way or the other.

Will I be honest and vulnerable about my own struggles, wrestlings, and lessons learned the hard way? It is not a failure to show people:

• that I am human but adopted into God’s family,
• that I am broken, but depending on the God who heals the sick, and
• that I am not perfect but am hopeful and am being transformed by the love of Christ poured into my heart by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5).

This week I will see this scriptural list not as a condemnation of my weaknesses but as an invitation—listing areas where I can respond more affectionately to the love of Christ for me.

P = O Lord, please help us to live by your "house rules", not just by behaving in a way that honors you and honors your presence in your people but as a loving response of our hearts to yours! Let us function as a community of mercy and grace, full of forgiveness, yet rightly focused on the work of gently, faithfully, and lovingly, advancing your kingdom.

Don't Swerve from Love (SOAP Journal from 1 Timothy 1)

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

In addition to regular articles, I will be posting highlights of some simple SOAP journals that were produced during a regular gathering of pastors to journal, pray, and encourage one another. These are not exhaustively studied they are generally the work of 20 minutes reading, 20 minutes writing, and 20 minutes of sharing with each other what we have written. These brief devotional journal posts will begin in the Pastoral epistles (1 & 2 Timothy, Titus). Hopefully they will be encouraging to the readers of this blog.

We used the simple SOAP acronym as a devotional guide... which stands for:

• Scripture—what verse or short section caught my attention today?
• Observation—what can I briefly notice that the passage specifically says?
• Application—what will I do differently as a result of having read this today?
• Prayer—what will I ask the Triune God to do for, in, and through me today?

1 Timothy 1:5-7

S = “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.” (v.5-7)

O = Certain persons whom Paul chooses not to name had “swerved” (ektrépō). But from what things did those “certain persons” swerve? They had turned away from love. The love that flows from…

• A pure heart
• A good conscience
• A sincere faith

Some in Ephesus had swerved from these three things and thought that they should be teachers, but in reality, nothing about them was worthy of being passed on to others. Today, in the Twitter/X world, we sometimes talk of “sub-tweeting,” which is a way of calling out or criticizing someone without mentioning their name in your posts. Does it make you wonder who Paul was writing about? This turning from the priority of love was an issue that needed to be repeatedly addressed in Ephesus. This lesson was the very issue mentioned by the risen Christ to the church in Ephesus (Rev. 2:4).

A = Am I a pastor or a teacher? If so, then I should ask myself how I am doing with these three issues of love? Do I make confident assertions about things I don’t understand? I hope not. Do I argue for the sake of arguing or waste time in baseless speculation? I better not. This passage challenges me to stay on target…to live a life of love from... 

• a pure heart (cleansed and without competing affections), 
• a good conscience (exercising confession and relational repentance) and 
• a sincere faith (authentic trust in Jesus).

Because my conscience tells me that I can’t save myself, I will fully rely on Jesus to reproduce his character in my heart. So, if my heart is pure, my conscience good, and my faith sincere, can I conclude that Christ’s love will issue forth from my life? Make it so, Lord!

  

P = O Lord Jesus, let me relate all I do today to these three issues of love…for the glory of your name and the good of those around me. My ministry cannot be effective without it starting affectively in my own heart. Lord, let your love transform and bring purpose to my life, and may it overflow to others through me.

What is "Affective Spirituality" anyway?

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In the DMIN program that I previously directed, our various cohorts generally present an affective or heart-based approach to Christian Formation and Discipleship. Many people have had questions about this thing called "affective spirituality." 

No, we didn't spell it wrong. And despite Grammarly constantly flagging the word and suggesting "effective," we use this word intentionally. Let me explain why this is.

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Western Christianity, taking seriously the mission of God, often focuses on effectiveness, measuring what we have accomplished quantitatively, asking questions such as — How many? How much? How long? Who best?

Yet the heart of God (manifested in Christ, revealed through the Word by the Spirit), from which his mission flows outward, is not centered on mere outward effectiveness or numerical expediency. Quite often, his plan is advanced counterintuitively. And refreshingly, in the Kingdom of Heaven, the end doesn’t justify the means.

Photo by Warren Wong
 on Unsplash

Contrary to conventional wisdom, God extends his redemptive mission using the most unlikely methods and unworthy messengers. He consistently chooses the youngest, the poorest, the exiled, and the culturally powerless. God delights to make his case through the humbled and transformed hearts of those whom the world might have labeled, marginalized, and dismissed as adulteresses (Tamar, Rahab, the Samaritan woman at the well), scandalized (Ruth, David, Mary Magdalene), "just women" (the first witnesses of Jesus' resurrection), as ignorant fishermen (several disciples), scoundrels (Jacob), even cheats and economic oppressors (Matthew/Levi). The Lord also transformed some of his most hostile enemies into great defenders of the faith (Naaman the Syrian, Nebuchadnezzar, and Saul of Tarsus), and he still does the same thing today. 

Our Triune God is more concerned about transforming our hearts by pouring his love into us by the Spirit (Rom. 5:5) than about how eloquent our sermon is, how much money we raise, or how many friends and followers we might have. Without what are our efforts ultimately judged to be ineffective, and our very person found to be empty?

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. (1 Cor. 13:1-3)

The critique of our form of Christianity is not that we should do less, but that we should respond to his love more relationally than ever before. This critique is also found in the Book of Revelation, as Jesus wrote (via John) to the Ephesian church — a church committed to missional effectiveness and Stoic endurance in the face of opposition. Yet they failed to notice that they had missed something along the way.

“‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. (Rev. 2:2-7 ESV, emphasis mine)

In the process of attempting to fulfill the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20), we can put it before the Great Commandment (Matt. 22:36-40). Our efforts at discipleship can become externally focused through sin-management initiatives in hopes that it will eventually be smuggled inside our hearts, instead of internal transformation in response to God's love that naturally works its way outward in our lives, changing everything in its path. For Jesus said, 
     “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: 
             just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 
  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, 
                                                  if you have        love for one another.” (John 13:34-35) 

Our love testifies clearly to whom or what we serve.

What do you mean by Affective Theology?

In the remainder of this article, Dr. Ron Frost offers an answer to the questions about affective theology, or as he prefers to call it, “affective spirituality,” which was originally posted on Dr. Frost's Spreading Goodness blog.

He writes…

“What do you mean by ‘affective theology?’ I’d never heard of it before I met you.”

It’s a fair question. I first found the label in Heiko Oberman’s The Dawn of the Reformation, where he wrote of fourteenth-century Christians whose “suspicion of speculation” led them away from prior theological streams. They preferred “an affective theology in its place’’ that, while not being anti-intellectual, was more heart-based. It reflected Franciscan reforms and “a new longing for a comprehensive system of thought” (pp. 7-8). Older traditions were broken: reform was needed. Oberman viewed this impulse as a continuing element in later reforms.

In taking up this reform, I also prefer the term “spirituality” rather than the more generic “theology” because the former underscores the Spirit’s role in the Spirit-to-spirit bond of regeneration. And the church today still needs a more comprehensive system of thought that receives the Bible as the guiding Christian resource for sound faith and practice.

Affective Spirituality has three prominent features. A simple Biblicism for one. In John chapter eight, Jesus called on those who are “truly my disciples” to “abide in my word” by embracing the truth he offers to a capsized world. Second is the recognition that hearts, rather than the human will or volition, explain every action. This dismisses the Greek-Stoic anthropology that makes autonomous choice—the “free will”—a basis for human identity. Third, the reality of God’s Triune relational existence is central: we have been born of the Father, Son, and Spirit, who pours out his inherent love “in our hearts” by the Spirit. So that a transforming love for God and neighbor is active in all who know him.

Let me touch on each of these very briefly.

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First, the Bible comes to us as God’s gift of self-disclosure. And our hearts must respond to him for faith to exist. I’ll offer my own story to illustrate this. I grew up in a Christian home with sound church training. But it was simply moral and creedal content, and that didn’t move me. By the time I reached my middle teen years, I was ready to leave it all behind. Yet at the same time, I wanted to hear from God! So I finally tried reading the Bible despite my skepticism. Then, in reading the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), the text came alive! I met Jesus there as a living voice speaking through the written words.

While conversion through immediate Bible reading isn’t normative, it is suggestive. Faith comes by hearing words about Christ, yet the same words can be barren for one reader and lively for another. And if we presume God—whose Spirit awakens the soul to “hear” the Scriptures in a life-giving way—isn’t being arbitrary, we’re left to locate the problem in “hard” and skeptical human hearts. And addressing that is another conversation!

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Second, we need to recognize the heart as God’s locale for communing with us, where His Spirit lives after our conversion. But despite the huge weight of heart-focused references in the Bible, the default view of the soul in most churches is that love is an act of our will rather than a response of the heart.

Listen, for instance, to the unknown author of The Cloud of Unknowing—an influential fourteenth-century guide to spirituality: “Will is the faculty by which we choose good after it has been approved by reason, and by which we love God … and ultimately dwell in God” (Penguin, 138). It sounds lovely, but it’s not what the Bible actually teaches. The truth is that none of us seeks after God like that.

The Bible says the opposite: we only love God because he first loved us. So here’s a bold challenge: read the entire Bible through in just a few weeks and mark each reference to the heart and to the will. See where the real weight lands.

Third, we have the Trinity: God’s singular being with his three eternal distinctions. And his eternal loving communion is the basis for both creation and redemption. Yet we won’t have a sound grasp of these two actions if we haven’t explored the Bible’s Trinitarian roots.

In my own experience, it was the seventeenth-century Puritan Richard Sibbes who turned on the lights for me—his fascination with the Trinity as explained by the early Church Fathers and as applied in the relational insights of Reformers like Martin Luther and John Calvin was invaluable. Michael Reeve’s lively summary, Delighting in the Trinity—or, in the UK, The Good God—is a good starter for filling in this blind spot.

If we summarize the whole we have this: affective spirituality is a faith that arises in those who are assured by the Spirit’s personal witness to our hearts of God’s Scriptural promises: he loves us personally and he’s invested in transforming us into the likeness of the Son in order to share God’s love with us through all the ages to come. And as Jesus prayed in John 17, love among believers will show a skeptical world that God is alive and well.

Finally, if you aren’t there already, I encourage you to open your heart to Christ’s affective ambitions. He looks for those who have a heart like his own.