Scotty Smith on Worship in Revelation

Scotty Smith, pastor of Christ Community Church in Nashville, Tennessee, provides some great meditations on worship from the book of Revelation. In it he says:

When John wrote about worship in Revelation, he wasn't engaging in debates, nor was he even thinking about questions of art, style, liturgy, or musical preferences in the services of worship. Rather, John was concerned with the real meaning of worship--with worship service...that is, with helping the young church in Asia Minor know how to live faithfully as the betrothed Bride of Jesus on a day-in-and-day-out basis in this world, while longing for the wedding day in the new heaven and new earth.

These are to be the main concerns of followers of Jesus: How do we adore and serve the One who has lived and died to make us His Bride? How can we possibly offer an adequate response to Jesus for the grace and love He has lavished upon us? What expressions of love and faithfulness does He desire from us? How do we worship Him well?

Indeed, Revelation doesn't present worship as a component, even the most important component of the Christian life. For the original recipients of the letter, worship is assumed to be the one category carrying implications for every aspect of their lives--politically, economically, culturally, and physically. Worship was an issue forced upon them, not merely by their cultural heritage of religious preferences, but by the dark powers of the Roman world.

And...

Our hearts, along with everything else, have already been fully spoken for. Revelation doesn't present worship as something we do to grow spiritually. Rather, it's the consuming, whole-life response of the ill-deserving prostitute who has become the wife and queen of the King of kings--Jesus Christ!