Seeing the glory of God can be a terrifying experience. A quick check of Scripture affirms this. When the people of Scripture encountered the glory of God - from Adam and Eve after their sin through the elders in Revelation casing their crowns at the feet of Jesus in heaven - God took them apart.
In today's reading from Matthew 28 we see this happening again at the resurrection of Jesus. When the angel of the Lord came down from heaven and rolled away the stone, v.4 says, "The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men." We're also told that "Mary Magdalene and the other Mary" were there too. The first words that the angel spoke to them in v. 5 were, "Do not be afraid . . ."
Seeing the glory of God should cause us to tremble because the glory of God will always take us apart. When we feel the weight of God's holiness and power and when we see and experience his transcendence, we are made actutely aware of our sin, our brokenness and how incredibly finite we are.
When God takes us apart, we have two choices. We can lay like the guards in a zombie like, catatonic state and never allow it to move us or change us. Or we can be like the two Marys, who, when they heard the news of the resurrection and hurried away and met Jesus, fell at the feet of Jesus and worshipped Him.
Being in the presence of God is no casual matter. Here's the really terrifying truth of it though: it will ALWAYS take us apart. Not because God's mean or arbitrary. No, no, no. God is love and He loves us enough to take us apart so that He can put us back together in a healing, restorative way.
When God takes us apart, it's for our benefit. When Moses went up on the mountain to meet with God, God took him apart to purify him and prepare him. When the prophet Isaiah felt the presence of God in the temple, he cried out, "Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips . . . " God took Isaiah apart to purify him and prepare him. When Peter saw Jesus walking on the water and realized his unworthiness to be in the presence of Jesus, God took him apart to purify him and prepare him.
When we go to worship God, and to be in his presence, I wonder if sometimes we're too casual about it. I'm not talking about the clothes we wear or the style of our worship. I'm talking about our attitude and our expectations. As a pastor, one of the things that has always absolutely aggravated me is when somebody comes up to me after worship and says, "That was nice," or "I enjoyed that," or "This was a good time." I realize it's a compliment and folks are being nice, and maybe overly nice because they didn't want to say, "Man, that was a dud of a sermon."
But I don't want people to walk away from Alive, or any worship experience in any church, saying "That was nice." Nice or good or enjoyable isn't the goal of being in worship in the presence of God. Being taken apart by God's glory is the goal. Falling at the feet of Jesus in repentance and adoration and humility is the goal of worship. As I wrote yesterday, being in the presence of God's glory should bring us to our knees in repentance, and then should bring us to our feet in adoration, worship and service because of what Jesus has done for us.
The resurrection of Jesus was literally an earth shaking event. The worship of the resurrected Jesus should be too. Don't settle for nice or good or enjoyable in your worship. Come to the resurrected Jesus with the hope and expectation that God will shake the foundations of the life you've built for yourself and then take you apart to purify you and prepare you for your ministry.
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