Sometimes I wonder what was considered the greatest worship service of all time. Have I even seen one of these historic worship services in my time on the earth? Probably not, but I dream about it.
Would it be one of the revival worship services where thousands were impacted, where the worship music was so moving that the people could do nothing but worship? Would it be the day when 3000 people came to the Lord during Pentecost, after the disciples waited for the power to come from Heaven in the form of the Holy Spirit with tongues of flames? Would it be the day when all the Davidic musicians came together in one glorious sound to usher in the Glory of the Lord coming to take residence in His Holy Temple? These represent some of the most beautiful expressions of worship this world has ever been graced to see, and yet there is one more that I must consider, the ultimate worship service. Consider these verses.
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2
15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name. Hebrews 13:15
5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2: 5-11
42 "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." Luke 22:42
23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." John 4:23-24
I believe the ultimate worship service ever exhibited under Heaven was when the Son of God submitted His Will to His Father and presented Himself as a living sacrifice in the Garden of Gethsemane which culminated in his eventual and excruciating sacrifice upon the cross. God had given me a song about five years ago called “Love Song to the Father,” in which the second verse captures this theme:
With your kind of love, Jesus loved you.
He laid down His life, to bring us to you.
For You were the love that He felt in His Heart.
As He suffered and died, the Lamb set apart.
To love you, to worship you, to adore you,
For you were the song in His Heart.
The ultimate worship service was not one with goose bumps or even the congregation singing in one chorus the familiar lines we love to sing. This ultimate act of worship came with anguish, agony, pain, and suffering, and yet was offered up through it all anyway, in order that the will of the Father would be accomplished. And more than that, the son loved the Father so much that the joy set before Him upon his cross was the day when the Father Creator would be once again reunited with his Children, his creation, and we would one day be able to sit with the Father, crawl up in His lap, and he would be able to commune and fellowship with his children again. The Father is Love, and He must demonstrate His Love to His children. Can you see the giant grin on the Father’s face as His children congregate in His Lap?
When we sing “Worthy is the Lamb!” what joy it must bring the Father to see the honor given his Son who gave all to reunite the Father with his Children. When the Father sees us, He sees us through the Crimson Blood of His Son shed upon an earthly rugged cross. And He says it is a worthy sacrifice and that it is enough! And we are accepted into the Beloved, the ones deemed worthy to approach the Father because they are in the Son. And so Heaven and Earth sing one chorus in perfect harmony, “Worthy is the Lamb!”
There is one more verse I would like you to consider as we come into the Easter season.
12 So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. 13 They produced false witnesses, who testified, "This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. 14 For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us." 15 All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel. Acts 6:12-15
54 When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 "Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." 57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep. Acts 7:54-60
Look at the beauty of this worship service, in the midst of the ugliness of those surrounding Stephen. In Stephen’s act of worship, we see the only time the Lord Jesus is actually standing at the right hand of the Father, to honor one of his own bringing forth the sacrifice of praise, in one voice, amidst the shouting of the rebellious crowds around him. What a glorious testimony! Will you live in such a way that the Lord Jesus stands in honor of you as you worship him? Will you move him in such a way that he stands to his feet and receives your worship? From Heaven’s perspective, our suffering is merely an act of worship to the one who is deemed worthy to receive it! Worthy is the Lamb!
In Christ’ Service, Raelynn Parkin
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