Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #12 of Revelation chapter 19 and we are going to be reading Revelation 19:10:

And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

I will stop reading there.  The Apostle John has been receiving glorious divine revelation from an “angel” or “messenger” of God.  In response, John fell down to worship him: “And I fell at his feet to worship him.”  He prostrated himself before the feet of the one that was showing him these things.  Then the messenger said to him: “See thou do it not.”  The added words are to help us understand that the “angel” is correcting John and is telling him not to fall down and worship him.  Then John is given the reason why he is not to worship the messenger: “I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” 

There are numerous times in the Book of Revelation where Christ is referred to as the “angel” or “messenger” of God.  We covered this in previous chapters, where a reference to an “angel” is actually a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ.

But, here, we have a problem and a big question arises: if this “angel” who is showing John these revelations from John is Jesus, when John falls down to worship Him, why would He say, “See thou do it not.”?  Christ is our fellow servant and He is our brethren.  This would fit because at another time when Jesus was told that His mother and brethren stand without, Jesus responded, “Who is my mother, or my brethren?...For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.”  We are married to Him, but God also likens His people to His brethren.  So this statement could apply to Christ but the question is: “Why would Christ tell John not to fall down and worship Him?”

For example, many times in the Gospel accounts, people would come to the Lord Jesus Christ and fall down before Him to worship.  Let us look at a few of these accounts when this did happen.  It says in Matthew 8:2-3:

And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

This is very significant that the leper came and worshipped Him.  It was direct worship to Jesus and Jesus did not say what we are reading in Revelation 19: “See thou do it not.”  Christ did not tell him to get up and not to worship Him.  Remember what Jesus said to Satan when Satan was tempting Christ in the wilderness.  It says in Matthew 4:7-10:

Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

Of course, Christ would not fall down and worship Satan and neither should any man fall down and worship any other god, like an idol or other men.  The only one deserving and worthy of worship is God.  That is why Christ accepted the leper’s worship of Him, but it was not only the leper.  It says in Matthew 9:18:

While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.

Notice, again, there was no correction.  There was no rebuke.  He did not tell him not to worship Him, but to worship God. 

This is also the case in Matthew, chapter 4.  Just to set the context, Jesus came to His disciples walking on the sea.  Then it says in Matthew 25:28:

And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God.

Again, they worshipped Him and Christ accepted their worship.

Then it says in Matthew 15:22-25:

And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.

Of course, He did go on to help her and to heal her daughter.  This would have been an excellent opportunity for Christ to set this woman straight.  After all, she was a woman of Canaan and the Canaanites were involved with idol worship, so Jesus could have told her, “Do not do that, but worship only God.  You are not to fall down at a man’s feet.”  But He did not do that because He is God.  He is God in the flesh.  He is Emmanuel or “God with us.”  The Bible says, in John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  Then it says in John 1:14: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.”  Jesus is God and, therefore, all worship, whether it be from a leper, a ruler or the woman of Canaan, is a right thing to do.  Christ does not refuse the worship or tell anyone not to worship Him anywhere in the Bible that I could find.  God does not turn back worship that is offered unto Him, as far as I can see. 

In the context of Christ’s resurrection, it says in Matthew 28:6:

He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

Then it says in Matthew 28:9: 

And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him.

It also says in Matthew 28:16-17:

Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted.

Again, Christ is worshipped and I cannot find anywhere in the Bible where Christ tells someone not to worship Him.  There is an instance when the rich young ruler said to Jesus, “Good Master,” and Christ said, “Why callest thou me good?  There is none good but one, that is God.”  Some who do not properly understand who Jesus is and they want to think of him as a prophet or a just a man, they point to this verse even though there is an incredible amount of other evidence to the contrary and they try to say, “Jesus is saying He is not God.” 

But that is not true.  What He said was, “Why calleth thou me good?  There is none good but God.”  He does not say He is not God, but He simply wants the rich young ruler to understand that he is addressing Christ as “good” and, of course, that is correct because Christ is God.  He is trying to lead the rich young ruler along those lines, but He is not telling the rich young ruler not to call Him “good,” but He wants him to think about why it is he is calling Him “good.”  So, as far as I can see, there is no place where Christ corrects someone for worshipping Him.

However, there is an account in the Bible where a true believer (or someone God is in the process of saving) falls down before another true believer.  We find that in Acts 10:1-8:

There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway. He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter: He lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea side: he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do. And when the angel which spake unto Cornelius was departed, he called two of his household servants, and a devout soldier of them that waited on him continually; And when he had declared all these things unto them, he sent them to Joppa.

Peter will come to Cornelius and explain what is going on, so Cornelius sends his servants to Joppa and they found Peter exactly where God said he was and Peter returns with them to Cornelius’ house.  Since Cornelius is Italian, he is a “Gentile,” so God is giving Peter a vision on the rooftop and Peter sees unclean animals coming down a sheet.  God tells Peter, “Rise, Peter; kill, and eat.”  Peter receives the vision three times and the number “three” is emphasized strongly in this chapter to point to the purpose of God concerning the Gentiles being “fellowheirs” with the Jews of God’s salvation.  The unclean animals represented the Gentiles, but God is telling Peter, “What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.”  The Jews and the Gentiles alike would be the recipients of God’s grace as the Gospel goes into the world.  Of course, God has always saved people from any land, but now He is officially sending the Gospel into the world to the nations and it not primarily just the Jews.  They were the “corporate body,” or the outward representation of God’s kingdom to the people of the world for nearly two thousand years.  Now the churches would be established throughout the nations and the Jews and Gentiles alike would be the members of these churches.

So all of this is going on and then we read in Acts 10:22-26:

And they said, Cornelius the centurion, a just man, and one that feareth God, and of good report among all the nation of the Jews, was warned from God by an holy angel to send for thee into his house, and to hear words of thee. Then called he them in, and lodged them. And on the morrow Peter went away with them, and certain brethren from Joppa accompanied him. And the morrow after they entered into Caesarea. And Cornelius waited for them, and had called together his kinsmen and near friends. And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him. But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man.

This is the key event that we wanted to look at, because Cornelius had heard from an angel of God concerning Peter and he sent for him and now he has waited a few days for Peter to receive the message and return with the three men Cornelius sent.  Finally, Peter comes and Cornelius, being overwhelmed with all of these things, falls down at the feet of Peter.  But Peter quickly “took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man.”  It is the equivalent to what is being said in our verse in Revelation 19:10:

And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

There is correction for the Apostle John.  Cornelius was in a position of waiting to hear a man, a messenger of God, who was to explain to him what God met in regard to the visitation he had just a few days earlier.  And when Peter came, Cornelius fell down at his feet.

John has been receiving glorious visions and revelation from God and now he is hearing about the “marriage supper of the Lamb” and the completion of God’s salvation program.  The bride has made herself ready and she is arrayed in fine linen, clean and white.  It had been said unto John, “And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.”

One just cannot get a more glorious and awe-inspiring news than all the things that had been revealed to John and God is going to move him to record these things.  And being awe struck, John fell down at the feet of the “angel,” but the angel does not receive his worship.  If it were Jesus, He would have received the worship – that is what the Bible lays out in all the examples we read in the Scriptures.  Christ does not correct someone for worshipping him because He is God.  It was said to Cornelius, “Stand up,” and it was said to John, “See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant…worship God.”  He is basically telling John to get up and stand on his feet.

Concerning the identity of the “angel” that is giving John this revelation at this point, let us go back to Revelation 17:1:

And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me…

This directs us to return to Revelation, chapter 15, where there were seven angels that had the seven last plagues and it says in Revelation 15:6:

And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles.

It is interesting that the bride that John is now seeing is also arrayed in fine linen, clean and white.  The fine linen is the “righteousness of saints.”  The seven angels are messengers and they are clothed in pure and white linen; they are the bride and they are the saints of God.  The Apostle John saw the bride and then he fell down at the feet of the one that told him this and it happens to be one of the seven messengers, or the bride, or the fellow brethren.  It can be confirmed that it is one of the seven angels or messengers when we look at Revelation 21:9:

And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.

Do you see how that fits with the context of Revelation 19?  The bride, the Lamb’s wife, was shown to the Apostle John.  Who showed him?  According to Revelation 21:9, it was one of the “seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues.”  Those “seven angels” are clothed with pure and white linen, the “righteousness of saints.”  They are not angelic beings and they are not Christ.  They are the saints.  They are fellow brethren or God’s elect.

In Revelation, chapter 22, we have a similar occurrence.  It is almost identical language as we find in Revelation 19.  It says in Revelation 22:8:

And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things.

Again, please take the time to read the previous verses because it was super glorious what John had just seen and heard.  To quickly recount what he saw, John saw the “tree of life” and it is yielding her fruit and healing the nations; there is no more curse; there is the throne of God and the Lamb and they shall see His face; there is no night there and no need of a candle, for God gives them light and they shall rain for ever and ever.  And then it said in verse 6, “These sayings are faithful and true.”  The things John heard were super wonderful and super glorious and, again, it says in Revelation 22:8-9:

And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God…

You know, it is hard for us to understand because we have never been in the position to see such things.  The wonder, the glory and the power of those things God was showing John caused him to fall down before God, but it was the “messenger of God” that was showing him these things.  And this gave opportunity to make it clear that only God is to be worshipped.  That is what Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego told Nebuchadnezzar.  They would not fall down to worship the golden image, but would only worship the true God.

Here, God is highlighting that wonderful truth that only He deserves and is worthy of worship and His people are only to worship Him.