Rooted Deep

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Hebrews 12:18-29

Let’s stand…

18 For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest 19 and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. 20 For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” 21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” 22 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, 23 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, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

25 See 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. 26 At 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.” 27 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. 28 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, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

Pray
When you are running a race or playing a game that involves running, it is not JUST the running you have to be focused on. I am certain that when Clive was a little guy playing soccer that on more than one occasion, one of the players on one of the teams would get confused at what direction they were supposed to go and ran the wrong direction and scored a point for the other team in their own goal.
This has famously happened in professional football in the 1960s where a fumble was recovered and the poor player ran 66-yards in the opposite direction not to score 6 points for his team, but 2 points as a result of a safety for the other team.
It matters WHICH direction you are running.
Despite what the world says about the bible or God, there really is only a binary choice. There was one set before the Hebrews, it was Jesus and life or Judaism and death. There are no multiple roads to the Kingdom of God laid out in the Scripture, it really is choose life or choose death.
We don’t like that, but we live in that reality. We are either employed or not employed. We are either married or not married. In our objective reality, with most things in our life, we are one or the other. We are not “kind of” employed. You are either doing a job that someone is paying you for or you aren’t. You are not “kind of” married. Some people may live in that grey area, but if you have signed marriage documents and have not filed for divorce, you are married.
We, in this day in age, have an issue with the exclusivity of the Kingdom of God, but if you read the bible there is no ambiguity about this. Jesus says, “I am THE WAY, THE TRUTH and THE LIFE.” “NO ONE comes to the Father except through me.” In the Old Testament, Isaiah 44:6 “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.”
Throughout Scripture in the Old Testament, it was either Yahweh or paganism, which is worshipping false gods. In the New Testament it is Jesus or separation from God. There is no grey. It is like going to a funeral and distinguishing between the dead person and the alive people. No one walks into the funeral home wondering which one of the people is the dead one.
In this book of Hebrews, the author is reaching out to this young church and pleading with them to keep going in the race because it leads to life. If they quit, they may never be able to return. That is our message from this loving pastor of the Hebrews. He is showing us the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant.
The Old Covenant, the law, the ten commandments was the mirror to show us how sinful we are. It was never meant to cleanse you. Imagine being caked in mud and standing in front of the mirror and trying to use that mirror to clean your body off. It is impossible because that is not the purpose of the mirror. The purpose of the mirror is for you to see yourself. That is the law.
It is scary to look in the mirror. When Krysta and I were first married, I had an accident with our grill. I was young and dumb and it blew up in my face. I came in the house and saw Krysta’s face and it was less than comforting, I ran to the sink because I had burned my hands and I dreaded looking in the mirror for fear I had burned my face off. Luckily, I just got the equivalent of a sunburn, but looking into the mirror of God’s law is scary because it shows us just how terribly disfigured we really are.
Jesus does more than the mirror. When we are in Him, when we look in the mirror we see Jesus. He takes our place. That is the new covenant. All the dirt and filth that we walked to the mirror with has been covered by Jesus. He does the washing and the cleansing. These Jews, that the book of Hebrews was written to, are looking at turning back to the Old Covenant, but the author is reminding them what they left and how all it offers is judgement.

18 For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest

If you do not have a working knowledge of at least the first five books of the bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, then this will sound strange. I am hoping that many of you are reading through the bible in a year and you have covered this, but in case you aren’t, the author is speaking about Moses’ encounter with God in Exodus 19:17-24.
Exodus 19:17–24 ESV
Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the Lord to look and many of them perish. Also let the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves, lest the Lord break out against them.” And Moses said to the Lord, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us, saying, ‘Set limits around the mountain and consecrate it.’ ” And the Lord said to him, “Go down, and come up bringing Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest he break out against them.”
This sets the stage. Imagine going up to this mountain that looks as if it is on fire and God telling you to not even touch it or even come near it or you would die? This is serious.
They were terrified.

19 and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them.

They didn’t even want God to speak to them anymore because of their fear. They knew their state and the thought of the mirror was too dreadful. The mirror is a truth teller and when we live in lies and selfishness, truth is not something we desire.

20 For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” 21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.”

This is something that does not need to be overlooked. When we talk about the holiness of God, this is what we are talking about. A righteous and holy God deals with sin with fiery judgement. God is set apart from the world. When the Scripture tells us to be “holy as God is holy” it means that we are to be set apart from this world. When we live like the world, we are not living the “set apart” lives that we have been called to. Moses and all of Israel knew their wickedness in the eyes of God and God telling them to not come near is God exercising His holiness, His “set apart-ness” from sin. He can’t be near it, so He says that even an animal must be killed if it touches the space that He inhabits. This is the wrath of God. It is a fire that burns off all impurities. It is like the process of purifying gold and silver. When you take them from the ground they are smelted to draw out anything that is not gold or silver. It takes high heat to draw it out. We see this language in Zechariah 13:9
Zechariah 13:9 ESV
And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’ ”
The author is telling these Hebrews that they are not approaching a mountain like that of Sinai where Moses received the law. It is not something that can be earned by works. This refining process cannot be done by washing up or sacrificing goats and bulls and rams. It is not something that you can do at all.
What they have now is not what their fathers had, though they were saved by faith in the Messiah just like all of us, what these Hebrews have and what we enjoy is a new mountain. It is a new covenant. The old has gone away and the new has come. You approach Sinai to show how unrighteous and unclean that you are but you approach Mount Zion completely different because this is the place where you are made righteous.

22 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, 23 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,

Mount Zion was a geographical location. That is where Jerusalem was built with its Temple. That is where the Spirit of God dwelled amongst the people, but it was never meant to be permanent. Just like the saints under the old covenant were looking forward to the Messiah that would come and they were saved by faith in that Messiah, there was always a heavenly Jerusalem that was to come.
In John’s Gospel, Jesus tells the disciples that He goes to prepare a place for them in His Father’s house that has many rooms. There is a heavenly home that those in Christ are going to. We spend most of our life thinking about this home that we will inhabit for 80 years and do not spend near enough time thinking about our lodging for all eternity.
The Mount Zion that we approach now makes us righteous, we still approach it with great fear and trembling, but we are not relying on keeping the law, we are relying on the one that fulfilled the law. We come to the Heavenly Jerusalem….

and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

This is the best news that we can draw from this text. The blood of Abel cries out for justice from God toward the one that killed him. That is the just punishment that we all deserve. That is the cry of the vengeance of the Lord on those that have broken His law, but the blood of Jesus, sprinkled on the alter of God, satisfies the wrath of God and cries out for mercy.
It speaks a better word. It is a word for us of surrender. All of us were, and some of us still are, at war with God, shaking our fist and white knuckling this life to try to steer our own life and the word of Christ calls us to surrender our will and our life so that God can have His way with us and give us the life that is best for us.
It is the loving call of mercy that Christ delivers to us. He has taken the punishment that we deserve and so therefore we do not receive the punishment we have earned. That is offered to all of us listening to this message.
We are in great debt to the Lord and He has wiped the slate clean and separated us from it. He has paid the price. That is a better call. I beg for mercy and not justice because I can not stand the punishment.

25 See 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.

In the Old Testament, if someone broke the law of God and were unrepentant, God killed them. You can read about Korah’s rebellion, those that made and worshipped the golden calf, Lot’s wife as she was leaving Sodom, the list goes on. According to Psalm 7:11-12…..
Psalm 7:11–12 ESV
God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day. If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow;
Not only did those that received the law from Moses have the law, but they had record of God judging those who disobeyed. That law came down through a human, but the call of Christ comes down as Jesus, who is God in flesh. It wasn’t through a human mediator, it was through God. Though it is a law of grace and mercy, if you turn from it, you are taking the wrath for your sins squarely on your shoulders and the judgment that goes along with it.

26

In light of the previous passages about the discipline of God building up the endurance of believers, this shaking is a testing of those that are really sons and daughters. In the Old Covenant at Sinai, God’s voice shook the ground, but in this New Covenant God’s voice will shake the heavens causing a greater judgement.
This citation is from the prophet Haggai that speaks of the judgement of the nation. Haggai 2:21-22
Haggai 2:21–22 ESV
“Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the chariots and their riders. And the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his brother.
When Christ returns and does this shaking at the second coming, it will be a separating of what is temporal and what is eternal. The shaking will remove all that do not have their lives rooted in the Kingdom of Heaven. Only what is done for Christ is eternal and unshakable.
This is the choice. This is the binary that is laid before us and to the Hebrews. The question is posed, “Hebrews, do you want to go back to your old life of Mount Sinai where judgement awaits? Where there is no life of peace, only an endless pursuit of following a law that is impossible for you attain?”
The question posed to us is, “Do you want to go back to your old ways of following the lusts of the world and the pursuits of your selfish desires? Do you want to go back to the comforts of old sins and old ways of life?” “Do you want to go back to your life that is rooted in building your kingdom and not the Father’s?
That is a question up for your choosing. Do you want to live a lie or be in the truth? Do you want to live or die? Do you want eternity with the Father or without? There is no half way. There is no lukewarm. You are either hot or you are cold and if you are here and you profess Christ, keeping that faith to the end is proof of your salvation. Giving it up is proof of your apostacy and that you never had it.
Moses calls to you, Jesus calls to you and I call to you, the decision before you is life or death, I am pleading with you to choose life. Be a part of the unshakable things. The things that are rooted deep in the love of God. In a life of complete surrender to the Father, believing that the Son took your place and believing that you have the Spirit that will lead and guide you all the days of your life. If that is you or if you want that to be you…

28 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, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

Gratefulness is the mark of a believer. We are grateful in all things because God is the God of all things. We are never alone. He gives us what we need and puts us in places that we need to be for His glory and our good. We should be thankful for the offer of life that we get to take part in. We should come to God in the way that He deserves.
Louie, my 4-year-old son, called me Zach the other day. That is my name, but something about it made me uncomfortable. While that is my name, to him I have a greater title that I prefer….dad. God is very much the same. There are a lot of names and descriptors for God, one name is Father, one is Might God, one is friend, in our text we just read He is a consuming fire. If we just take one of those, we do not rightly worship God. For example, If we only look at God as friend and miss that He is our Father, then we are not seeing God fully and not worshipping Him as such.
We are to come to Him as a merciful God and read His word about Himself that He left us so that we can see more of His fulness. We can never forgot that He cares about how we live our life. He is also our judge. He is a consuming fire. Drawing near to Him is not safe. He is not contained. If you give Him your life, He will use it for His purposes.
C.S. Lewis answers this in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe when Mr. Beaver tells Susan that Aslan (the ruler of Narnia) is a great lion. Susan is surprised, since she assumed Aslan was a man. She then tells Mr. Beaver, “I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.” She asks Mr. Beaver if Aslan is safe, to which Mr. Beaver replies, “Safe? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King.”
This king that is calling you today is inviting you into the kingdom. Take the invitation. I can’t tell you what will happen, but it will be good because our Father is good. I can tell you that you do not have forever to accept it. I have recently done funerals for two people that, I am almost certain, went to their grave raging against the Lord. What is waiting for them is an eternity separated from the Creator of their souls if they did not turn to Jesus. Do not wait, the call is for you now. Submit your life so that the King can give you a new one, you can be baptized and be grafted into the tree of life so that when the shaking comes, you will have a firm foundation and will remain.
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