March 5, 2017 We worship what cannot be shaken – Heb 12, 18-29
Message map: Heb 12: 18 – 29
- The law lands with fearful alienation
- The Living God Graciously Makes Us Firstborns
- God Either Is A Judge Who Throws The Law/Book At Us, or He’s Our Mediator of Grace
- There Is Only One Way with No Escape Hatch
- We Gratefully Respond In Worship Of Our Unshakeable God
Heb 12: 18 – 21 ESV – What We Have Not Come to is
… 18For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest 19and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. 20For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” 21Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.”
Heb 12: 22 – 24 ESV – What We Have Come To is …
22But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23and to the assemblya of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
Heb 12: 22 – 24 ESV – What We Should Do As a Result is …
25See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. 26At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. 28Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29for our God is a consuming fire.
What We Have Not Come to are the frightening aspects that accompanied the arrival of the law Heb 12: 18 …
18For you have not come to what may be touched which were the elements that accompanied the delivery of the law.
The frightening aspects that accompanied the law were…
Heb. 12: 18- 21 were 18a blazing fire and darkness (a curious mixture of opposites) that created gloom and a tempest …19and the sound of a trumpet and a voice that terrified and made the hearers tremble with fear.” This communicated keep the law or face Judgement! (Ex 19:21 & Heb 10:31)
God’s presence as the fearful, awesome judge of the universe that accompanied the giving of the law was too heavy a conviction for human kind to handle. Abe 10:31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
20For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” 21Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.”
God advised Moses at Mount Sinai, when & where the law was given in Exodus 19:12 – “And you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, ‘Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death.”
Mount Zion symbolizes the grace, peace & comfort of New Jerusalem…
Heb. 12: 22-23 22But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23and to the assemblya of the firstborn
Heb. 12: 22-23 “The Firstborn” means:
- Christ who according to Col 1:15 & Rev 1:5 is the incarnate visible image of God, & firstborn from the dead. Col 1;15 says “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation who are enrolled in heaven.” Rev. 1:5 says and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth
- Each born again believer, who inherits the full benefits of salvation (Rev 21:5-8 5And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” 6Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. 7“He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. 8“But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”) Col 1;15 “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation who are enrolled in heaven.” Rev. 1:5 and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
God Judges Us under the law. some get the book thrown at them. Some are credited with righteousness Under The New Law of Grace .…
Heb 12: 23-24 In Heaven’s Court we all are destined to stand before 23… God, who either will be our lawful judge because we rejected GRACE, or because we received Jesus, our mediator from whom we obtain the gracious terms of the new covenant.
Heb 12: 23-24a 23… and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect 24and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant,
We all are in God’s court, whether we acknowledge it or not. In that court, we either are going to get God’s Law-book, thrown at us, or we are going to get mediated GRACE. God either is our judge because we reject grace and remain under the law, or God is our mediator because we accepted the Grace of His Salvation, through Christ.
Heb 12: 23-24a 23… as Judge, God is the magistrate, who passes judgment on our character and deeds, rewarding us accordingly. So we must keep in mind, the wages/payment/reward/recompense of sin is death = eternal separation from God and His light and life, which is Hell (Rom 6:23).
The “Righteous” are those who “are living as God wants us to live”.
The “Righteous Made Perfect” are those whom have been justified and “made perfect” in God’s sight by having been imputed the righteousness of Christ, the mediator/go between – who lived perfectly, and whom transfers or shares His righteousness with us!
Perfect means we are “raised to the state of heavenly blessedness by putting our faith in Christ.”
Ephesians 2: 4-6 4Butc God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
A Mediator is an intermediary, (b) a go-between, arbiter, an agent who arranges something good.
Christ mediated our right-standing with God by sprinkling His blood.
Christ mediated by His Own Blood which Speaks to God …
Heb. 12: 24 24The new covenant, was mediated by Christ’s sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel, which speaks on two accounts:
- the blood that Abel offered, spoke atonement which God accepted,
- In Gen 4: 10-16, God said Abel’s “blood (which Cain unjustly spilled) is crying to me from the ground.”
“Sprinkled Blood” is a reference to Num 19: 1- 10, which explains “The Sin Offering of Sprinkled Blood
1Now the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 2“This is the statute of the law that the LORD has commanded: Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish, and on which a yoke has never come. 3And you shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and it shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered before him. 4And Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, and sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times. 5And the heifer shall be burned in his sight. Its skin, its flesh, and its blood, with its dung, shall be burned. 6And the priest shall take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet yarn, and throw them into the fire burning the heifer. 7Then the priest shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. But the priest shall be unclean until evening. 8The one who burns the heifer shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water and shall be unclean until evening. 9And a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place. And they shall be kept for the water for impurity for the congregation of the people of Israel; it is a sin offering. 10And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. And this shall be a perpetual statute for the people of Israel, and for the stranger who sojourns among them.
We should not reject what God speaks – Nor Christ’s Blood Which Speaks To God, nor what God speaks to us through Christ’s blood!
Heb. 12: 25 “25See that you do not refuse (reject, decline shun) him who is speaking/ speaks.
There is only one way with no escape hatch
Heb. 12: 25-27 “25…. For if they did not escape (could not flee away, nor seek safety) when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject (turn away, pervert, try to remove ourselves; I restore, replace; mid: I desert, reject.) him who warns from heaven. Heb 2:3 “how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?”
We gratefully worship an unshakeable God.
Heb. 12: 28-29 28Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, (agitated or disturbed in our minds, so as to drive us away from it.)
Jesus is the rock upon which the house (life) of those whom obey is built. (Luke 6: 46-49 & Matt 7:24-27)
Luke 6: 46-49 46“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? 47Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them … 48… is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.c 49But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation (sand Matt.7:24-27) When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”
Thus let us offer to God acceptable (in a way that is well-pleasing to Him) worship, (devotion that results in active service) with reverence (fearful respect) and awe (the proper, dreadful motivation), both of which compel the moral gumption or fortitude that is needed to follow the Lord, and truly be His disciple.
Are we on fire for god?
29for our God is a consuming FIRE, meaning God is the intense consuming Holiness that wants to engulf our entire beings!
Haggai 2: 4-8 Encourages us to Be Strong In Unshakeable Faith – Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the LORD. Work, for I am with you, declares the LORD of hosts, 5according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. 6For thus says the LORD of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. 7And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of hosts. 8The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the LORD of hosts. 9The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the LORD of hosts.”
Pray to be consumed by God, so we will not be shaken!
To view the recorded message, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMGDzyAUChA