"Our Present Singing Is Practice
For Everlasting Singing"
Weekend of September 12, 1999
Sermon on Revelation 5:11-15
Saint Mark's, Watertown
Pastor Karl Walther
Grace and peace to you from ... Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Amen.
The brief Word of the Lord to us for this September Festival of Favorite Songs is the Apostle John's observation of other-worldly worship-- Revelation chapter five, verses eleven through fourteen. I'd like you to read it aloud with me. This is on page nineteen hundred nineteen of your pew Bibles....
Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they sang: "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!"
Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!" The four living creatures said, "Amen," and the elders fell down and worshiped.
This is God's Spirit-inspired Word of Jesus Christ.
Introduction: Our Singing In Services Is Unique
Dear fellow Christians-- whose worship is warm-up for other-worldly worship:
The singing we do in our church services is absolutely unique. Do you realize that? It's true that elsewhere in our society people gather to go through an agenda-- like what we do in the liturgy, Sunday by Sunday. Elsewhere in our society there are people who gather to listen to a leader-- sort of the way we listen to a sermon, Sunday by Sunday. But where else in modern-day society do crowds of people gather-- young and old, traditional and non-traditional, musically inclined and not at all musically inclined? Where else does everybody get together: to sing?
Theme: Our Present Singing Is Practice For Everlasting Singing
It all suggests we must have some really good reason to do what we do in our worship services. And that's certainly so. God's Word to us today declares that: OUR PRESENT SINGING IS PRACTICE FOR EVERLASTING SINGING. You could say that: OUR SONGS ARE ENGENDERED BY THE SLAUGHTER OF THE LAMB, and that OUR SONGS ARE EXEMPLIFIED BY THE MUSIC OF SAINTS AND OF ANGELS.
Part One: Our Songs Are Engendered By the Slaughter of the Lamb
Why do we sing as we do in worship? John gives us a clue when he reports: Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they sang: "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!"
Why do we sing as we do in worship? In a few short words: "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain!" Jesus' payment in blood on the cross for our sins is so significant, so utterly important, that we can't simply read it, we can't just proclaim it, we've got to adorn it with the highest expression of our poetry and melody. We've got to sing this message! We've got to sing our confidence: "I Know That My Redeemer Lives!" We've got to sing our conviction: "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God!" We've got to sing our certainty that: "On the cross, our burden gladly bearing, you bled and died, to take away our sin...."
Part Two: Our Songs Are Exemplified By the Music of Saints and of Angels
So, our songs are engendered by the slaughter of the Lamb. That's the "why?" of our singing. Now, how about the "how?" How is it that we sing as we do in worship? John gives us another clue when he reports: Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!" The four living creatures said, "Amen," and the elders fell down and worshiped.
How is it, then, that we sing as we do in worship? In a few short words: with praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever! After all, if we're joining hundreds of millions of God's holy angel helpers, if we're joining all the noble saints who have gone before us, if we're joining the voice of all creation, when we render praise to God, doesn't our singing have to be full of praise? Doesn't it have to be inspired in awe and honor? Don't we have to sing in glory and in power in an undying way? It can't be at all surprising to you, then, why we emphasize music here at church!
Conclusion: Our Singing In Services Is Important
And how we emphasize music! Not only does music have its place in our every worship service, but our choirs and combos have their place nearly every day of each week. Kids, if you're wondering: that's why you will be singing so much in church this year-- especially all you kids (and I hope it is nearly all of you kids) who joined the Alpha and Omega choirs. Men and women, this is why we've got (at last count) three choirs-- the mixed choir meeting on Tuesday nights, as it has faithfully done all these years, and contemporary chorus and male chorus meeting on Thursday nights, each starting their second year. This is also why we've got so many instrumentalists, regaling our worship with special sound for a special Savior. And this is why we've bought a set of handbells to be put to use already at the end of this autumn.
I hope, then, you join us to sing -- and to listen -- in church every week. Our present singing, you see, is practice for everlasting singing. And nothing could be much more important than that! Amen.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, ...to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.