This Kingdom Ain’t Movin’!

Hebrews  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  1:08:10
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Did you hear the images in our text this morning?
Blazing fire.
Darkness and gloom and tempest.
The sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. Yet note how the passage began:
Hebrews 12:18 (ESV)
For you have not come …
Then we read: Heb 12:20
Hebrews 12:20 ESV
For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.”
You may remember the image of Moses going up the mountain while the people had to stay off the mountain. It was during the exodus - you may remember the people were led by a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of cloud during the night. You may however have forgotten this command not to even touch the base of the mountain.
I struggle to even imagine what that would have been like. You’ve been on this journey out of Egypt, you’ve crossed through the sea, and been through so much. There is a fear of the Lord that is there that is a deep reverence, and at the same time a real fear as in being afraid of the Lord. Even Moses trembled in fear.
And we know how that story went. While Moses is up on the mountain - while he’s up there is when even Aaron gets scared of their fear and so has them bring him their gold and crafts the golden calf saying “this is the god who brought you out of Egypt.”
Remember though, this is where they have NOT come.
As we get to vs. 22, we come to our favorite conjunction that changes everything…”but”
Hebrews 12:22 (ESV)
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God…
This is not Mount Sinai of the old covenant, no, we’ve come to “Mount Zion and to the city of the living God.” This refers to Jerusalem, but in a different way than Zion is typically referred to, this is the “heavenly Jerusalem”, let’s read on vs. 22-24
Hebrews 12:22 ESV
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,
Hebrews 12:23 ESV
and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,
Hebrews 12:24 ESV
and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
What’s happening here is the stark contrast of the two covenants, the old covenant and the new covenant for believers.
We began with:
Hebrews 12:18 (ESV)
For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest
and all that the old covenant mountain represented. Now we’ve come to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant.
Now, rather than being separated and held back from the mediator of the covenant we are invited in.
Matthew 4:19 NIV84
“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”
Matthew 11:28–30 ESV
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Jesus invites us to “Come” not “stay away”.
When we read through the Old Testament and through the eyes of the Old Covenant so often we see a God of wrath and anger - a God who seems ready to wipe anyone from the face of the earth for their disobedience. Is there any wonder why the Israelites were more comfortable worshiping a golden calf than the active all powerful God?
I have often contended that the God of grace that we see in the New Testament in His Son Jesus is the same God of the Old Testament. I’ve often said here that one of the most grace filled sentences in the Old Testament is “Adam where are you?”
If that is the God in the beginning - and God is unchanging, isn’t that the God later in the Old Testament? Yes!
And God gives them multiple guides pointing them back to Him. We have all the statutes and laws, the 10 commandments, etc. all pointing us back to God. Yet the people distanced themselves. Their relationship became transactional instead of personal.
In the first chapter of Isaiah we read of how God has tired of their offerings and festivals (offerings He commanded by the way) and he concludes with:
Isaiah 1:18 ESV
“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.
The people fulfilled their obligation of the sacrifice or the offering and then went on their merry way - there was no relationship there. God created humanity for relationship with one another and with their God.
Our author in Hebrews reminds us of this again in our passage this morning. We haven’t come to a mountain of fire, darkness, gloom, tempest, etc.
“No!” the author says, “you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God…and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant.
We’re not coming to a place, we’re coming to a person.

Not to a place - to a person!

The author goes on to point back to the Old testament again, quoting Haggai 2:6
Haggai 2:6 ESV
For 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.
and a little later in that same chapter…Haggai 2:21
Haggai 2:21 ESV
“Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth,
Again our author of Hebrews quotes to the people the Old Testament that they knew well and reminds them that the Scriptures they knew point to the person they have come to know in Christ Jesus.
He says in Heb 12:27
Hebrews 12:27 ESV
This 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.
Finally we get to the author’s conclusion for this section…knowing all of this that I”ve presented,
Hebrews 12:28–29 ESV
Therefore 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, for our God is a consuming fire.
Back when I was in seminary I took biblical Greek from an Orthodox priest we knew as Father Sam. I will never forget his description of Hell. He said,
“The fire of hell is coming face to face with the God’s love but you’re still covered in your sin. As the sin is consumed so are you. The difference for Christians is their sin is washed away through Christ’s sacrifice and so they bask in the warmth of that love.” ~ Father Samuel Gant
The author of Hebrews reminds us again and again that Jesus is the difference. We have received a kingdom that cannot be shaken - it’s not going to be moved. So, we can be assured when we worship Him that our worship and reverence and awe is directed to the one true God. Immovable.
In the end only the kingdom of God will stand.
This kingdom is not only a kingdom of holiness it is at the same time a kingdom of grace. It is not a one and done experience it is an ongoing experience, it is an experience of yesterday, today, and forever. There is the call to holiness and grace.
Does that mean God is changing? No, as we’ll read in next weeks passage: Hebrews 13:8
Hebrews 13:8 ESV
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Jesus is unchanging because God is unchanging. That should be how we read the Scriptures both forward and backwards. That is why we can read the grace filled statement in Genesis 3:9
Genesis 3:9 (ESV)
The Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
This is a God who has invited us to come, and the mountain to which we come is to Mount Zion the city of our Great King.
As we come to communion this morning, let us all be reminded that God is inviting us to come. He calls for us in the garden. He calls to us to the promised land. He calls us to come and be with Him. He calls us to follow. and in the future we will be called home with Him. to God be the glory.
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