Worship God

Revelation 19:10

Welcome! We have been going through the book of Revelation as a church for the last several months. Over the last few weeks we have been informally combining our study of Revelation with various aspects of the accounts of Christ’s birth. This week, we have only one verse to focus on in Revelation, which we will look at near the end of the message. Last week we focused on longing for Christ, an especially appropriate mindset for the Christmas season. I drew out the parallels between the how people longed for the coming of Christ before His birth and how we too should long for His return.

This week I want to talk about marveling at what God has done. This too is an especially appropriate mindset as we reflect on Christ’s birth. We see this again and again in the Luke account. Recall that the angel visits Zechariah and tells him he is to become the father of a great prophet and his to name him John. Because of Zechariah’s unbelief, the angel causes him to become mute. News of Zechariah’s sudden muteness spread throughout the area, but of course, because he was mute, it remained a great mystery. I do think Zechariah wrote to his wife, and so she knew what was going on. So their baby was born, and on the eighth day after his birth, they were going to name him in the circumcision ceremony. Tradition held to name him after Zechariah, but his wife said no, name him John. They asked Zechariah to write the name he wanted, certain that Zechariah would choose his own name. But Zechariah wrote “His name is John.” This was astonishing enough, but then he immediately was able to again speak. Here is what the account says next:

All the neighbors were filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, “What then is this child going to be?” – Luke 1:66-67a

And then Zechariah, filled with the Holy Spirit, prophesied about both John and Jesus. Note the object of His worship – God Himself.

“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has come to His people and redeemed them. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David (as He said through His holy prophets of long ago), salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us—to show mercy to our ancestors and to remember His holy covenant, the oath He swore to our father Abraham: to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. – Luke 1:68-75

And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for Him, to give His people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.” – Luke 1:76-79

I want to encourage you this Christmas season, worship God. Don’t just go through the motions, the business of the season, but really worship God. Reflect on what He has done – be amazed again, in awe of His tender mercy to you. 

I promised last week I would talk more about literary structures in the Bible. This is yet one more way to recapture that sense of awe I believe we should have at who God is and what He has done. I want to specifically talk about a literary structure called a chiasm (pronounced key-asm). The name comes from the Greek letter Chi, which looks like an X, and the Greek word chiasma, which means “crossing.” The essence of a chiastic structure is that of an inverted parallelism. Here is a simple example of this structure, found in a single verse:

No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. – I John 3:9

You don’t see the structure yet? What if I write the verse like this (I am slightly adjusting the wording, but not the meaning):

Of those born of God
            none will continue to sin,
                        because God’s seed remains in them;
            they cannot go on sinning,
because they have been born of God.                  – I John 3:9

People who study chiastic structures label the structures like this:

A:         Of those born of God
B:                     none will continue to sin,
C:                                 because God’s seed remains in them;
B’:                    they cannot go on sinning,
A’:        because they have been born of God.                  – I John 3:9

As you can see, there is a parallelism, A goes with A’, and B with B’, but it is an inverted parallelism; the order is reversed the second time around. In this case there are an odd number of elements, and thus the middle element stands alone without a parallel. The other kind of chiasm has an even number of elements; in this kind of chiasm, every element has a parallel element and there is no unparalleled middle element.

Chiastic structures abound in the Bible, and they abound in many layers, from individual verses, as shown in this example, to entire books, and even beyond individual books. I find these things fascinating, amazing, and for me they provide yet one more piece of evidence that the true author of the Bible was not man but God Himself. Men wrote the Bible down, but God through His Spirit dictated what would be written. God did this even while permitting there to be distinctions in the wording from person to person; for example, the Greek of the book of Luke is quite different from the Greek of Mark. To me, the fact that God could do that is amazing; the Bible is quite literally a miracle (pun intended)!

By the way, it is entirely possible that the men that wrote the Bible down may not have even noticed the chiastic structure. But it is equally possible that they did. The chiastic structure aided in memorization, and since some accounts were passed along orally, it made it easier to accurately repeat the passages.

Sometimes there are chiastic structures within chiastic structures, at different levels (some over a few verses, others over a few chapters). The complexity is amazing! Now, before we go further, I want to make two important comments.

First, there is by no means universal agreement over the particular chiastic structure of a particular verse or passage, especially as you go to larger and larger passages. It is entirely possible to “force” a passage into a chiastic structure that doesn’t really fit, so care must be used when exploring chiasms. Don’t go off the “deep end”!

Second, it is not necessary to understand the chiastic structures of the Bible in order to “be a good Christian”. The vast majority of the Bible can be plainly understood by plain reading. The hard part is not understanding what it says, but doing what you already understand it saying for you to do. Will you really miss essential truths if you ignore chiasms? No, not at all!

But chiastic structures can enhance our appreciation of the Bible, and can lead to a deeper worship and appreciation of God and His story through history. To me, a reasonable comparison is someone who just enjoys classical music vs. someone else who also enjoys classical music but has also taken music appreciation classes (not just at the Freshman level, but deeper) and has learned to appreciate some of the detailed structures and forms in the music. For example, on piano I have been learning to play Bach’s Goldberg Variations this past semester. This piece is a theme followed by 30 variations. I eventually noticed that every third variation was a “canon,” a special form of music in which there is a tight structure largely built out of the theme restating itself again and again. I read more about the piece on the Internet and learned that in each successive canon, when the theme restates itself, it is one note further apart on the starting note than it was in the previous canon. Not to get too technical here, but I have found it fascinating to see how the spacing affects the “mood” or “feel” of the variation. Knowing this structural information has increased my enjoyment of learning to play the piece. For me, this is similar to what I experience as I explore chiastic structures in Scripture – greater joy, fuller wonder and awe directed to the ultimate Author, God Himself.

Now usually, the center of a chiasm contains a central point or truth that is foundational to the entire passage. In our example of I John 3:9, the fact that God’s seed remains in the people is central to the idea that they cannot keep on sinning. For a person “born again,” sin creates a conflict with the Holy Spirit within him, and that conflict cannot continue in heaven, because in heaven we will no longer sin. Being in God’s direct presence, in His holiness, means that our sin must stop. Even on this side of heaven, a believer’s life should be characterized by growth in holiness, because that is what the Holy Spirit does in us.

One reason I think understanding the chiastic structure is valuable is because it is so foreign to our way of reading and writing (and even speaking). Think about the basic essay structure: in the classic five-paragraph essay, where does the theme get placed? In the middle paragraph? No. It is in the first paragraph, near the beginning (only prefaced with a little introductory material). Another example is the structure of news articles. If you haven’t ever taken a class that included newspaper-style writing, you may not have noticed this, but the idea is that, usually, the most important information is placed in the very first sentence. The traditional idea was that if a person doesn’t have much time, they can at least read the first sentence and get the main idea. They can read on if they want more details, but they don’t need to if they feel they know enough about the subject of the article. This “important first” idea also occurs within an essay, where usually the first sentence of each body paragraph explains what the rest of the paragraph will be about.

There is one place we do use chiasms, by the way – in letters where we don’t really want to say what we need to say. In business writing classes they call this “sandwiching” the bad news. Here is an example:

Dear John,
            First of all, let me just say that I have really enjoyed getting 
            to know you. 
                        You are a lot of fun to be with, and you are a really 
                        great guy.
                                    But I think we should break up. I just don’t 
                                    have the same feelings for you that you have 
                                    for me.
                        The problem is me, not you. I know someone 
                        wonderful will fall in love with you.
            I hope we can continue to be friends.
Sincerely, Martha

Scripture doesn’t usually use the chiastic structure for this purpose, although it does sometimes. (An example is in Ecclesiastes 11-12, where statements about things like “enjoy your youth” sandwich the statement “God will bring you into judgment.”) But my point in all this is that, aside from the occasional business or “Dear John” letter, the chiastic structure is not something we normally use today. It is helpful to look for it in the Bible, because sometimes our biases, particularly about expecting the most important point to be at the beginning, sometimes lead us to ignore important things. Here is an example, at least for me, from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount:

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” – Matt. 6:24

Here it is in chiastic form:

A: “No one can serve two masters.
B:         Either you will hate the one and
C:                     love the other, or you will be
C’:                    devoted to the one and
B’:        despise the other.
A’: You cannot serve both God and money.” – Matt. 6:24

Now when I tend to think about the verse, my natural inclination is to remember the beginning and the end. You cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve both God and money. But if I focus on whom I serve, and try to make myself serve the right one, my battle is in the wrong place. The correct focus should be on whom I love, on whom I place my affections.  An ancient reader would naturally be drawn to this, but we have to work at it, because chiasms are not natural to us.

Here is another example, also from Matthew:

“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” – Matt. 11:28-30

Here it is in its chiastic structure:

A: “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and
B:         I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and
C:                learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and
B’:        you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and
A’: My burden is light.” – Matt. 11:28-30

Again, in my normal way of reading, I focus on the beginning: Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Also I focus on the end: For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. I almost completely ignore the middle! But “Learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart.” Have you even noticed that? We aren’t just to come, but to learn from Jesus, to take note of His gentle and humble nature. How this might change our prayers, from simply, “Lord, I come to You, because I feel weary and burdened,” to, instead, “Lord, I feel weary and burdened, and I want Your rest. Please help me to learn from Your gentleness and humility, to learn Your gentleness and humility.”

An example of a somewhat longer chiasm is in Genesis 11, the account of the tower of Babel. Here is the account:

Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. The Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth. – Gen. 11:1-9

Here is the passage reformatted as a chiasm, with the passage shortened so you can see it:

A: Now the whole earth
B:         used the same language and the same words...
C:                      they found a plain in … Shinar and settled there.
D:                                 They said to one another, “Come, let us 
                                     make bricks…
E:                                             They said, “Come, let us build for 
                                                 ourselves a city and a tower…
F:                                                         The Lord came down
E’:                                            to see the city and the tower…The
                                                Lord said, “Behold…
D’:                                Come, let Us go down and there confuse 
                                     their language…
C’:                    Therefore its name was called Babel…
B’:        there the Lord confused the language
A’: of the whole earth… – Gen. 11:1-9

As you can see, this is not an exact science, but the inverse parallel structure is definitely there. To me, the centerpiece seems to be “The Lord came down.” And as I think John Bullard has mentioned in a past teaching, there is tremendous irony in this, in that they are trying to build up to God, but then He came down and changed everything. In one sense they got what they wanted, but in another, they most definitely did not get what they wanted. The Lord came down.

Are you ready for an even longer example? How about the entire Book of Matthew?! Obviously, I will need to summarize here. This comes from http://www.biblicalhorizons.com/biblical-horizons/no-94-toward-a-chiastic-understanding-of-the-gospel-according-to-matthew-part-1/.

Before I do this, let me mention a little background about the Book of Matthew. Matthew was a Jew and wrote to Jewish readers. His gospel is filled with Old Testament prophecies that he showed being fulfilled in Jesus. Anyway, here is one possible chiastic structure of the entire gospel of Matthew:

A. Genealogy (past), 1:1-17

B.    Mary; Jesus’ birth, 1:18-25

C.       Gifts of wealth at birth, 2:1-12

D.          Descent into Egypt; murder of children, 2:13-21

E.             Judea avoided, 2:22-23

F.                Baptism of Jesus, 3:1–8:23

G.                  Crossing the sea, 8:24–11:1

H.                     John’s ministry, 11:2-19

I.                         Rejection of Jesus, 11:20-24

J.                            Praise for believing, 11:25-30

K.                              Attack of Pharisees, 12:1-13

L.                                  Pharisees determine to kill the innocent 
                                     Servant, 12:14-21

K’                              Condemnation of Pharisees, 12:22-45

J’                            Praise for believing, 13:1-52

I’                         Rejection of Jesus, 13:53-58

H’                     John’s death, 14:1-12

G’                  Crossing the sea, 14:13–16:12

F’                Transfiguration of Jesus, 16:13–18:35

E’             Judean ministry, 19:1–20:34

D’         Ascent into Jerusalem; judgment on Jews, 21:1–27:56

C’      Gift of wealth at death, 27:57-66

B’    Mary(s); Jesus’ resurrection, 28:1-15

A’ Great Commission (future), 28:16-20

This goes much deeper when you think about some of the details. Examples: The parallels between Jesus’ birth and resurrection (new birth), with people named Mary there in both cases, the gifts at birth including burial spices (myrrh), also used at his death, the voice of God, coming from heaven, saying “This is My Son, whom I love,” at Jesus’ baptism, and at the transfiguration, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned” in Matt. 11:25 and “You [Pharisees] will be ever hearing but never understanding, ever seeing but never perceiving” in Matt. 13:14. 

Specifically, both the chiasm and the earlier parallels with the Torah cause me to look at the accounts of and surrounding Jesus’ birth with a new appreciation, in greater context of the greater story. Like Bach, but on a vastly greater scale, God has woven themes and events of history together with levels of complexity we can only get the smallest peek at, but what we do see, at least for me, makes me more in awe of what He and only He can do.

In this chiasm, it is fascinating to me that the center is neither the death nor resurrection of Jesus, but the decision to kill Him. This occurred right after Jesus healed the man with the shriveled hand on the Sabbath. The climax was the decision, because, as it says in Prov. 23:7, and I quote from the King James here, as a man thinketh, so is he. It strikes me that this is also true for man, whether for good or for tragedy – as a person learns about Jesus, eventually they often seem to come to a decision point – they either come to faith, or they decide once and for all, to reject Him; after that they don’t really listen any more. What a terrible climax for a person’s life – that they choose to no longer listen to the Spirit’s wooing in their lives, in effect, that they too determine to kill the innocent Servant.

What about Revelation? Are there chiastic structures here? Probably. I want to present to you one possible structure. Because we don’t fully understand Revelation (because most of it hasn’t happened yet), it is more difficult to know what is literal and what is figurative, and so it is far more difficult to nail down chiastic structures, especially large structures. But here is one I have found and have been thinking about. It takes the entire Book of Revelation, and can be found at http://www.revelationofjesus.net/important-questions/how-is-revelation-structured-and-organized.html. Here it is:

A. Prologue 1:1-1:10
B.         The church on earth 1:10-3:22
            (Messages to the seven churches.)
            God’s church struggles against the attacks of the enemy.
C.                     Investigative judgment 4:1-8:1
                        (Courtroom in heaven, lamb and scroll, 7 seals, 
                         sealing 144,000, great multitude)
                         The sinless universe assesses candidates 
                         for eternal life.
D.                                Trumpet plagues 8:2-11:19
                                    (7 trumpets, 7 thunders, measuring the 
                                    temple, 2 witnesses)
                                    God’s protection of the world withdrawn, 
                                    Satan allowed to cause chaos
E.                                             Satan’s ultimate demonstration 
                                                11:19-13:18
                                                (Dragon & woman, war in heaven, 
                                                beasts from sea/earth, the mark)
E’.                                            God’s ultimate demonstration 
                                                14:1-20
                                                (144,000, 3 angels’ messages, two 
                                                harvests)
D’.                                Seven last plagues 15:1-18:24
                                    (Temple closed, 7 last plagues, Armageddon 
                                     battle, judgment of Babylon)
                                    Close of probation, plagues of God upon 
                                     the impenitent
C’.                    Executive judgment 19:1-20:15
                        (Second coming of Christ, binding of Satan, great 
                        white throne judgment)
                        Christ comes for His people, judges those who have 
                        rebelled against Him
B’.        Church in the Kingdom 21:1-22:5
            (New heaven and new earth, New Jerusalem)

            God’s church glorified in His eternal Kingdom.
A’. Epilogue 22:5-22:21

I find this a fascinating outline, because, again, the center is not where I would have expected. But if you look a little further at it, it does make at least some sense. Chapter 13 is entirely about the Beast out of the Sea and the Beast out of the Earth. It ends with the number of the latter beast, 666. Chapter 14 begins with “I looked, and there before me was the Lamb.” In classical music, one of my favorite structures is sometimes called a sunburst. It is music that is initially in a minor key and tends to get darker and darker, and then, without warning, it changes dramatically to a major key and is the musical equivalent of the sun suddenly brightly bursting out from behind the clouds. That is what this feels like to me – Chapter 14 continues with worship of the Lamb and then the angel shouting “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great.” And so, although terrible things still are to happen, there is a mood change, and I tend to ignore it because I tend to focus on all the bloodshed and other terrible things that are described.

So you can reflect for yourself on this, and let me know what you think. Very briefly, let me just say that I have also read about another possible chiastic structure whose first half is the Book of Daniel and whose second half is the book of Revelation. I’m not sure what I think about this one.

So it is fun to reflect on chiasms; if you want to try one yourself, try to map out the flood account in Genesis – it’s a really amazing one! But I want to end today with our one verse from Revelation. The context is that the angel has just shown John incredible things, an announcement of the wedding of the Lamb, that the bride is ready; fine linen, bright and clean, symbolizing holiness, was given her to wear (by Jesus’ sacrifice). It is an overwhelming picture for John, and here is what happens next:

At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers and sisters who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For it is the Spirit of prophecy who bears testimony to Jesus.” – Rev. 19:10

What has happened? You know the old saying, “Don’t shoot the messenger”? When a messenger gives someone terrible news, there is a natural human tendency to get mad at the messenger. Well, here we have the flip side, “Don’t worship the messenger.” Don’t worship angels – that should be obvious to us, but the Roman Catholic Church seems to get off on this; they call it veneration of angels, but I confess I can’t see a whole lot of difference.

I think the greater risk for us is not that we worship angels, but that we worship God’s blessings rather than God. There was a period when our kids were young, and I would come home from work and they would run and hug my legs, saying, “Daddy!” and I think I came close to worshiping the blessing rather than the Bless-er. Most of us, despite our trials, know that we are really blessed. Our friends, our families, our church family, even our material blessings – we all know we have it quite good, compared to most people throughout the world. It is so easy to be “thankful” while remaining distant from God. To quote the angel, “Don’t do that!” Even though our blessings may be great, they are nothing compared to Christ Himself. He came as nothing, a baby, a human, voluntarily forgoing the greatest blessing possible – intimate fellowship with God the Father through the Trinity. He gave that up, choosing instead a human life, filled with trials, suffering, and ultimately a brutal death, for us. Because He loved us that much! Don’t settle for a shallow relationship with Christ! If your relationship with Him is stale, or going through the motions, or has never really been real, don’t settle! “Don’t do that!”

I want to close today with another song by the group Young Oceans. This song is emotionally intense, raw, unfiltered. It’s not specifically a Christmas song, but my prayer for you this Christmas is that your heart would more deeply connect with the only One worthy of worship.

The Gates – Young Oceans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtQGG8oABJw

Did You say, 'seek, you will surely find'?
I am searching, Lord turn Your eyes to mine
But I'm weary, pacing at these gates
Jesus come, come now, don't delay

Like a child, ever faithful may I be
This I ask, God of mercy hear my plea
I have wandered with a soul impure
For this scorn, Father, send a cure

I come to You my one and only
I promise not to turn my eyes again
And yes I know we're but a breath,
But I want to taste and see and feel You nonetheless
Yeah the years they keep on turning
And I'm battered but I'm burning for You Lord.

I want to wake and feel Your glory
I want to speak in tongues of angels for You Lord
I want to sing a song eternal
I want to trample on the curses of the earth
I want to call upon Your healing
I want to see the sick and weary be made new
I want to swim inside the blessings
I want to swim inside the blessings of the Lord

Have my heart, dry and dusty though it be
And these lungs; tired from calling out to Thee
Will You come now and make Your home
May we drink the cup of life and overflow