Worship Of The Messiah During The Millennium
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday May 2, 2010
The Day of the Lord: Worship Of The Messiah During Millennium
Lesson # 37
Please turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 25:1.
This morning we will continue with our “Day of the Lord” series and in particular our study of the millennial reign of Christ, which helps to compose this prophetic period of history.
The millennial reign will be marked by the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ (Is. 12:1-6; 25:1-26:19; 56:7; 61:10-11; 66:23; Jer. 33:11, 18, 21-22; Ezek. 20:40-41; 40:1-46:24; Zech. 6:12-15; 8:20-23; 14:16-21).
Isaiah 66:23, “And it shall be from new moon to new moon and from sabbath to sabbath, all mankind will come to bow down before Me,” says the Lord.”
Worship is adoring contemplation of the Lord and is the act of paying honor and reverence to Him and affection for Him and flows from love and where there is little love, there is little worship.
It is the loving ascription of praise to the Lord in gratitude and appreciation for who and what He is, both in Himself and in His ways and in His work on the Cross for us and is the bowing of the soul and spirit in deep humility and reverence before the Lord.
Psalm 2:11-12, “Worship the LORD with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!”
Psalm 29:2, “Ascribe to the LORD the glory due to His name; Worship the LORD in holy array.”
Psalm 95:6-7, “Come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.”
Isaiah 25:1-9, “O Lord, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name; For You have worked wonders, plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness. For You have made a city into a heap, a fortified city into a ruin; A palace of strangers is a city no more, it will never be rebuilt. Therefore a strong people will glorify You; Cities of ruthless nations will revere You. For You have been a defense for the helpless, a defense for the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat; For the breath of the ruthless is like a rain storm against a wall. Like heat in drought, You subdue the uproar of aliens; Like heat by the shadow of a cloud, the song of the ruthless is silenced. The Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain; A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, and refined, aged wine. And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples, even the veil which is stretched over all nations. He will swallow up death for all time, and the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, and He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; For the Lord has spoken. And it will be said in that day, ‘Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.’”
Worship of the Lord involves “reverence” for Him, which is an attitude of deep respect and awe for Him.
Worship of the Lord also involves “respect” for Him, which is to esteem the excellence of His Person as manifested through His attributes such as love, faithfulness, mercy, compassion, justice, righteousness, truth, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, immutability, and sovereignty.
Worship of the Lord involves “awe” of Him, which means we are to possess an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration for Him.
Worship of the Lord also involves “wonder” towards Him, which refers to being filled with admiration, amazement and awe of Him and reaches right into our hearts and shakes us up and enriches our lives and overwhelms us with an emotion that is a mixture of gratitude, adoration, reverence, fear and love for Him.
Worshipping the Lord is adoring contemplation of Him as He has been revealed by the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures and is also the loving ascription of praise to Him for what He is, both in Himself, His Work on the Cross and in His ways and is the bowing of the soul and spirit in deep humility and reverence before Him.
The believer is to worship the Father spiritually by means of truth, i.e. the Word of God (John 4:23-24).
Zechariah 14:16-21 describes the millennial reign of Christ.
The first eight verses of Zechariah 14 describe the Second Advent of Christ.
Zechariah 14:1-8, “Behold, a day is coming for the LORD when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you. For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south. You will flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; yes, you will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him! In that day there will be no light; the luminaries will dwindle. For it will be a unique day, which is known to the LORD, neither day nor night, but it will come about that at evening time there will be light. And in that day living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea (Dead Sea) and the other half toward the western sea (Mediterranean); it will be in summer as well as in winter.”
Zechariah 14:9-10 describes the millennial reign of Christ.
Zechariah 14:9-11, “And the LORD will be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD will be the only one, and His name the only one. All the land will be changed into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; but Jerusalem will rise and remain on its site from Benjamin's Gate (North wall) as far as the place of the First Gate (Northeastern corner of the city) to the Corner Gate (northwestern extremity), and from the Tower of Hananel (at the opposite extremity of the “corner gate,” in the northeastern part of the city, Jer. 31:38) to the king's wine presses. People will live in it, and there will no longer be a curse, for Jerusalem will dwell in security.”
Zechariah 14:12-16 describes the Second Advent.
Zechariah 14:12-16, “Now this will be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem; their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth. It will come about in that day that a great panic from the LORD will fall on them; and they will seize one another's hand, and the hand of one will be lifted against the hand of another. Judah also will fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be gathered, gold and silver and garments in great abundance. So also like this plague will be the plague on the horse, the mule, the camel, the donkey and all the cattle that will be in those camps.”
Zechariah 14:16-21 describes the millennial reign of Christ, which is typified by the feast of booths or tabernacles.
Zechariah 14:16-21, “Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths. And it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain on them. If the family of Egypt does not go up or enter, then no rain will fall on them; it will be the plague with which the LORD smites the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths. This will be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths. In that day there will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, ‘HOLY TO THE LORD.’ And the cooking pots in the LORD'S house will be like the bowls before the altar. Every cooking pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to the LORD of hosts; and all who sacrifice will come and take of them and boil in them. And there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts in that day.”
Jerusalem will become the center of the worship of the millennial age (Jeremiah 30:16-21; 31:6, 23; Joel 3:17; Zechariah 8:8, 20-23).
Zechariah 8:20-23, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘It will yet be that peoples will come, even the inhabitants of many cities. The inhabitants of one will go to another, saying, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts; I will also go. So many peoples and mighty nations will come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the Lord.’ Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘In those days ten men from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’”
This leads us to the communion service and so therefore, could we have our ushers pass out the communion elements and let us take a few minutes to meditate upon the Lord and prepare ourselves for the Lord’s Supper.
Luke 22:14, “When the hour had come, He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him.”
Luke 22:15-16, “And He said to them, ‘I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.’”
Luke 22:17-18, “And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, ‘Take this and share it among yourselves for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.’”
Luke 22:19, “And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’”
Luke 22:20, “And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, ‘This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.’”