Hebrews 12:18-29 - Hope in God’s Kingdom

Pray

Father, your Word is so precious to us.

Thank you for revealing who you are and what you’ve done.

Thank you for loving us so much that you would send your Son to die for us, and rise from the dead, and intercede for us so that we can be saved and adopted into your family.

Lord, your entire Word is focused on that wonderful truth.

I pray that you would help us see and savor this good news of salvation in Christ.

Speak into our hearts through the preaching of your Word this morning.

Please, use your Word to change our hearts to be holy like you, to live and love like Jesus.

Lord, I certainly can’t do that at all, so please use my preaching to work this miracle in each of our hearts.

I pray all of this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Intro

We’ve come a long way in our series through the book of Hebrews.

We saw how Jesus is a better messenger than the angels because he became human, better than Moses, and all the prophets because he has a higher authority and a better message of salvation.

We saw how he’s a better minister than all the Levitical priests because he has a better priesthood, a better covenant, a better sanctuary, and a better sacrifice.

He sacrificed his own life so that all of humanity might be saved from sin and death, one ultimate sacrifice for all time.

We saw how the proper response to Jesus’ sacrifice is worship in loving service, faithful submission, and hopeful remembrance.

Our worship, specifically our faith, can fall away if we don’t understand our suffering as we pursue righteousness.

Our suffering is really God’s loving discipline, and his way of healing us of our sin together.

Our hope can also fall away if we forget our future in God’s kingdom, and get wrapped up with the things of this life like Esau did as we saw at the end of last week’s passage.

We tend to get our thoughts stuck in the past or the present in this life, and we lose our hope because of it.

Our thoughts, our hope is often backward facing.

Focused on where we’ve come from.

Focused on how things used to be.

It’s also often downward facing.

Focused on our present circumstances.

Or relying on our own abilities or other people or things that we think might possibly make this life better for us.

Instead of backward or downward facing hope, our hope should be upward facing, looking to God alone, and forward facing, anticipating the future in God’s kingdom even as we experience some of that kingdom right now.

In our passage today, Hebrews 12:18-29, God has explained the forward and upward facing aspects of both the disposition and the response of hope in his kingdom.

And we’re going to look at both of those aspects of hope.

So, let’s start out in with our disposition, our mental and emotional state of hope in verses 18-24.

Hebrews 12:18–21 ESV

For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.”

Hebrews 12:22–24 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, 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, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

So, this is describing…

Our Disposition of Hope in God’s Kingdom (18-24)

This is another aspect of our enduring right response to Jesus’ sacrifice.

Remember, last week we looked at how a right understanding of our suffering can help our faith endure.

And the author of Hebrews listed some practical things we can do to help each other in our pursuit of enduring faith and struggling against sin.

Now, we get a further reason that we ought to do those things, and it all has to do with our hope under the new covenant compared to the hope of those under the old covenant.

In verses 18-21 we get a description of the people’s…

Dread in the Old Covenant (18-21)

This is what we under the new covenant have NOT come to, but what those under the old covenant had come to.

They had come to a physical mountain that they could actually touch, Mt. Sinai.

And at Mt. Sinai, God established his covenant with them through Moses.

The covenant of the Law.

And the disposition of that old covenant was dread…

Dread of breaking God’s Law and the consequences that would follow.

Dread of approaching God in the wrong way.

Dread of worshipping God in the wrong way.

Dread of doing the wrong thing even though it looked right from their point of view.

Dread of being destroyed by God’s holiness because of their sinfulness.

The description of the inauguration of the Mosaic covenant we have here in Hebrews 12:18-19 is from Exodus 19:16–20 “On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. 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.”

Just before this account, the people were warned against approaching the mountain, they were warned to stay away from God’s presence because of his holiness.

In Exodus 19:12–13 Moses told the people what God had told him, “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. No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot; whether beast or man, he shall not live.’ When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.””

So, what we have here is a warning to only approach God at the proper time and in the proper way and the consequence for disobedience whether intentional or unintentional was death.

But when the appropriate time came and they approached in the appropriate way, there was still dread because of God’s holiness and sovereignty and power.

There was so much dread that the people trembled with fear, and even the mountain trembled with fear.

Everyone and everything was shaken to its core by God’s power.

Even Moses, the one God spoke with face to face as a friend.

Moses recounted his dread of God’s anger against his people for the golden calf incident in Deuteronomy 9:19 “For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure that the Lord bore against you, so that he was ready to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me that time also.”

This trembling, this dread, this fear of God’s holiness and anger against sin, was not without hope, though.

Just before the people were warned against approaching God in the wrong way or at the wrong time, they were assured of their hope in him.

God told Moses to give the people hope by giving them this message in Exodus 19:4–6 “‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.””

Before witnessing God’s terrifying power, he had assured them of his love for them, his desire for them to be his special possession even though he already owns everything and everyone.

God gave them hope that he intended to bless them.

His intention was to make them holy like him, not to destroy them.

Although that hope was tinged with dread because of the immeasurable power of God and the consequences for not pursuing holiness.

Now, God’s power hasn’t changed, and his intention to make his people holy like him hasn’t changed, so how come we aren’t as terrified of God’s power and holiness as they were?

That’s what the next few verses is about.

In contrast to the dread of God’s presence in the old covenant, in verses 22-24 we get a description of our…

Delight in the New Covenant (22-24)

Remember, we haven’t come to that physical mountain that instilled such dread in God’s people.

Instead, we’ve come to a spiritual mountain where something significant has happened.

The author of Hebrews lists 7 things that we’ve come to in the new covenant that change our dread into delight.

The first four things we’ve come to in this list are (1) Mt. Zion, which is the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God, (2) innumerable angels in festal gathering, (3) the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and (4) God, the judge of all.

These things are all the hope we look forward to in eternity even as we’ve currently come to them.

Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, is the city Abraham was looking forward to as described in Hebrews 11:10 “For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.”

We’ve come to what Abraham looked forward to in faith and hope.

But we also haven’t quite taken up residence in God’s city yet.

It’s our home, where our citizenship is, but not our residence yet.

We’ve also come to a massive amount of angels gathered for a party!

John got to see a glimpse of that party and he recorded what he saw and heard in Revelation 19:6–8 “Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.”

Now, the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven is the Bride of Christ at that marriage supper, it’s us, redeemed mankind who are partying with the angels at the marriage supper of the lamb.

Jesus is the true firstborn heir of God.

But we’re also considered God’s firstborn because of our faith in Jesus.

Paul explained this in Romans 8:29 “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”

Our predestination to be conformed to the image of Jesus, to be considered firstborn along with Jesus, is described using the imagery of a book with our names written in it in Revelation 20:12–15 “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

Everyone’s actions are recorded in these books, and everyone is judged by the contents of these books, the merit of their actions which fall short of God’s standard.

That judgment will be death, eternal torment in hell, the lake of fire.

But for those whose names have been written in the book of life, Jesus has already paid that penalty.

And we are saved from that eternal punishment.

And you can know that your name is in that book of life.

If you have faith in Jesus and submit to him as Lord of your life, then your name is in that book, enrolled in heaven, and you are considered God’s firstborn along with Jesus and all those who have been saved by him.

And God is the judge who is reading these books and the roll to determine our eternal destination.

He’s the one that measures our actions to see if they are perfectly righteous or not.

And none of us are perfectly righteous, so all of us deserve God’s judgment of eternal condemnation in hell.

But he’s also checking the list of names in the book of life to see if our penalty has already been paid by Jesus.

The last three things we’ve come to are also linked.

We’ve also come to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

These things are how we’ve come to the previous four things in hope and delight rather than dread.

How can we come to the heavenly Jerusalem, how can we come to the marriage supper of the lamb, how can we look forward in delight to God as judge?

We can have hope in all of that because we’ve been redeemed by Jesus, we’ve been made perfect by him, he’s interceding for us, and he shed his blood so that we could be forgiven rather than condemned.

Again, the spirits of the righteous made perfect is us.

I don’t think this is a separate group of people from the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven.

Some people think this is a separation of Israel and the Church, but it seems to me that this is simply two different descriptions of the same group.

I don’t think there’s as much distinction between Israel and the Church as some people make it seem.

Paul wrote in Ephesians 3:4–6 “When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”

Along these same lines he wrote in Galatians 3:28–29 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”

God’s people are not the natural descendants Israel.

God’s people are the spiritual descendants of Abraham who have faith like Abraham, specifically, faith in Jesus as the culmination of all God’s promises, how God blessed all the nations of the earth through Abraham’s seed.

That’s what Paul argued in Romans 9:6–8 “But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.”

So, the spirits of the righteous made perfect is a reference to us, redeemed mankind, who pursue righteousness.

And our pursuit of righteousness will finally be completed, perfected, finished, when we finally become like Jesus in heaven.

John wrote in 1 John 3:2 “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”

Also, we can only look forward to all of this because Jesus is our great high priest, our mediator of a new covenant.

We’ve been cleansed, we’ve been given new hearts, we’ve been given the Holy Spirit to dwell inside of us, we’ve been forgiven of our sin according to the new covenant.

Ezekiel 36:25–27 “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

Jeremiah 31:33–34 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.””

Jesus has mediated this new covenant for us, and he’s interceding for us at the right hand of the majesty on high so that when we mess up, when we sin, he pleads for mercy based on his prior payment.

He says, “I already paid for that, show him mercy.”

That’s the beauty of Jesus’ sprinkled blood.

His blood cleanses us in the new covenant, and his blood pleads for mercy.

That’s the better word than the blood of Abel.

Cain killed his brother in a jealous rage and when God confronted Cain about it he said in Genesis 4:10 “And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.”

Abel’s blood cried out to God for justice.

But Jesus’ blood cries out to God for mercy.

Our hope under the new covenant is exactly the same as hope under the old covenant because God’s plan has never changed.

The only thing that changed is our perception of it.

Rather than looking forward to how God would fix what was broken, we look back at how he did that through the sacrifice of his own Son, Jesus.

Now our hope in God’s plan is a delight rather than dreadful because we have the message and ministry of Jesus so clear to us.

Now, our circumstances have changed because we’ve been cleansed, we have Jesus’ righteousness, we’ve been justified, so that we can stand before the very presence of almighty God and rejoice rather than tremble in fear.

And our hope is still pointed forward, but now it’s pointed forward to the return of Jesus and to eternity, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to the marriage supper of the lamb, to God’s judgment and our eternal life, to our perfection in Christ because of his mediation of the new covenant and his blood that pleads for mercy on our behalf.

So, how should we respond?

That’s what verses 25-29 are all about.

Hebrews 12:25 ESV

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.

Hebrews 12:26–27 ESV

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.” 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.

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.

So, this is describing…

Our Response of Hope in God’s Kingdom (25-29)

And the first thing we are given as a proper response is a…

Warning of God’s Inescapable Kingdom (25)

Make sure that you don’t reject the one who is speaking.

Who’s the one speaking, and why is it so important not to refuse or reject him?

It’s Jesus; Jesus is speaking.

Remember Hebrews 1:1–2 “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.”

God is speaking to us by his Son, Jesus.

Don’t refuse him, don’t reject his message, don’t harden your heart, don’t run away from him.

This is the one warning of the book of Hebrews reiterated so many times and in so many ways throughout this book.

And this warning is inevitable and inescapable.

Those who refused to listen to Moses were still held accountable to the Law.

They couldn’t escape God’s punishment for their sin.

And even more so, those who refuse to listen to Jesus will still be held accountable.

No one can escape God’s punishment for sin.

Everyone will be judged, and either your punishment was paid for at the cross, or your punishment will be paid by you in eternal condemnation in hell.

There’s no escape, so don’t refuse to listen.

The foundation for this warning is in verses 26 and 27, the…

Explanation of God’s Eternal Kingdom (26-27)

There is a very important word to understand in these verses in order to make sense of them.

It’s the word, “shake” or “shaken.”

Verse 26 is a reference to Exodus 19:16-20, which we looked at earlier, and a quote of Haggai 2:6 “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.”

In the passage from Exodus, God’s voice shook the earth and shook the people so that they trembled in fear.

The Hebrew word used to describe this trembling of both the earth and the people is the word khaw-rad, which carries a connotation of terror or anxiety.

In the passage from Haggai, God says that he’s going to make the earth tremble in fear again, but this time he’s going to include all of creation.

The Hebrews word used in Haggai is raw-ash, meaning to make someone shake or quake with fear.

These two words are different, but they mean the same thing, they’re synonyms.

And that’s incredibly helpful for us knowing exactly what the author of Hebrews is getting at.

This shaking is specifically the shaking of someone in the throes of terror, the fear of someone on the wrong side of the awesome and destructive power of almighty God.

Verse 27 explains the reference from Exodus 19 and the quote from Haggai 2:6.

And when the author of Hebrews brings up the phrase “Yet once more,” he’s not just referring to those three words, he’s referring to the entire phrase quoted.

It’s an escalation of God’s display of power.

But more than that, it’s the fulfillment of God’s plan.

The shaking and terror that came at Mt. Sinai was because of God’s holiness and the anticipated wrath of God on everything and everyone not holy like him.

This second shaking and terror comes on all the things and people who experience God’s wrath coming on them at the final judgment.

And all that will remain after God’s wrath is poured out, is his eternal kingdom inhabited by all who have escaped his wrath through the blood of Christ.

The eternality of God’s kingdom and the ultimate destruction of everything else is described in Psalm 102:25–28 “Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end. The children of your servants shall dwell secure; their offspring shall be established before you.”

Peter also described this in 2 Peter 3:11–13 “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”

Peter asked a rhetorical question there, and the answer to that question is what the next two verses of our passage in Hebrews answers.

What sort of people ought you to be?

People who pursue holiness and godliness.

People who eagerly anticipate Jesus’ return.

In verses 28 and 29, in light of all these things we’re given a…

Command to Worship in God’s Unshakeable Kingdom (28-29)

Therefore, in light of all that’s just been explained, let us be grateful, and let us worship.

Let’s be grateful for receiving an unshakeable kingdom.

We’re a part of God’s kingdom, his everlasting kingdom, his kingdom that cannot be terrified of him and his holiness and wrath because everyone in his kingdom is forgiven and redeemed by the blood of Christ.

That’s something to be truly thankful for.

Especially when you see how the things people value in this world fall apart or get destroyed through normal means let alone by the wrath of God.

We’ve received an unshakeable kingdom, an eternal kingdom, an inescapable kingdom.

And that is more valuable than anything in this world because everything else is going to be destroyed.

Paul explained this in the context of working to build up God’s kingdom before we take residence in it in eternity.

He wrote in 1 Corinthians 3:10–15 “According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.”

There’s a famous refrain from a poem originally written by a missionary named C. T. Studd back in the early 1900’s.

“Only one life, ‘twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.”

Let’s be grateful for receiving a kingdom that will last, and let’s live in such a way that builds on that everlasting kingdom with everlasting materials, the everlasting souls of the righteous made perfect, the names of the firstborn enrolled in heaven.

Let’s be about adding to God’s kingdom by sharing the gospel with as many people as we can.

Share it with them as you pursue living lives of holiness and godliness.

Share it with them as you look forward to Jesus’ return in glory.

Share it with them as you hope in God’s kingdom.

No only are we to be thankful for receiving God’s unshakeable kingdom and live out our gratefulness by adding to it.

We also need to live out our gratefulness in worship.

I’ve mentioned the definition of worship a few times as we’ve worked through the application section of Hebrews, and I’m going to keep mentioning it each time we come to it.

Worship is loving service to God, in faithful submission to his authority, because of our hopeful remembrance of his greatness and goodness in the gospel.

And we can see all three of those aspects of worship in this command in verses 28 and 29.

Let us offer acceptable worship.

That’s how the ESV translates that phrase.

The word translated as “worship” is the Greek word la-TRUE-oh, which basically means service as worship like the service of the temple priests.

And acceptable worship, service that’s acceptable to God is loving service to each other.

The author of Hebrews has mentioned this before.

Hebrews 10:24–25 “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

Let us offer acceptable worship with, reverence and awe.

Reverence and awe denote submission.

Acceptable worship, acceptable service to God in submission to him.

This reverence and awe, this submission, is also known as the fear of the Lord.

Now this fear of the Lord is not the trembling or shaking in terror or dread that we saw earlier.

This fear of the Lord is a healthy understanding of God’s sovereignty and power.

It’s understanding the same things about God, but from a different place.

Terror and dread if you’re on the wrong side of God’s wrath.

Reverence and awe if you’re on the right side of it.

But all of us were made to fear the Lord, to submit to him and his commands.

That’s what the whole conclusion of the book of Ecclesiastes is.

Ecclesiastes 12:13–14 “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.”

Let us offer acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

We serve God in submission to him because we remember who he is and what he’s done.

We remember that he’s sovereign.

We remember that he’s jealous.

We remember the lengths he went to rescue his people from Egypt.

But more than that, we remember the lengths he went to rescue us from sin and death.

Verse 29 is a reference to Deuteronomy 4:24 “For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.”

This was the reason given to avoid idolatry in the old covenant.

And it’s the reason given to us to worship God alone in submissive service in the new covenant.

He burns up his enemies, so don’t be his enemy, and don’t side with his enemies!

Remember who he is, he’s the sovereign creator and sustainer of everything and everyone.

Remember what he’s done, he sent his Son, Jesus, to become a man, live a perfect life, die a horrible death, and rise from the dead all so that you could be saved from his wrath, saved from his consuming fire, and live with him in his infinitely satisfying and loving presence forever.

Conclusion

So, we’ve got a sure hope in God that’s a delight rather than a dread because we’ve been redeemed by Jesus.

And our hope responds to God’s promises by heeding Jesus who warns us to obey the gospel in faith, because God has promised that he’s about to make everything and everyone that’s opposed to him tremble in terror at his wrath, and all that’s left after he pours out his wrath is God’s kingdom that we are a part of.

So live in gratitude, holiness, and godliness.

Share the good news of the gospel and let people know what happens if they refuse to listen to Jesus.

And worship him in loving service, faithful submission, and hopeful remembrance of who he is and what he’s done in the gospel.

When you hope in God like that, your hope won’t waiver because your hope is upward and forward facing and based on the everlasting assurance of God rather than backward or downward facing based on the fleeting things of this world.

Your hope shouldn’t be backward facing.

Don’t put your hope in where you’ve come from.

Don’t put your hope in how things used to be.

Also, your hope shouldn’t be downward facing.

Don’t put your hope in your present circumstances.

Don’t put your hope in your own abilities or anyone or anything other than Jesus.

Because anything other than Jesus and his kingdom will be destroyed, and only Jesus and his kingdom will remain unshaken.

Your hope should be upward facing, looking to God alone.

And your hope should be forward facing, anticipating the delights of the future, eternity in God’s unshakeable, eternal, and inescapable kingdom.

Now, if you aren’t a part of that kingdom yet because you haven’t put your faith in Jesus, then please, put your faith in him right now.

Paul explained in Romans 10:9 that “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

All you need to do to be saved from God’s wrath and saved into his eternal and unshakeable kingdom is submit to Jesus as Lord and believe the gospel.

Believe that Jesus is God who became human, lived a perfectly sinless life, died on the cross for your sins, and rose from the dead all so that you could be forgiven and have eternal life.

Believe it because it’s the truth, and submit to Jesus because he’s almighty God who created you and who loves you.

Pray

Father, thank you for giving us hope.

Thank you for saving us, and adopting us into your family, for bringing us into your everlasting kingdom to live with you forever.

Please help us remember that so that we don’t lose hope.

Help us remember the delights of your kingdom to fear you in reverence and awe rather than terror and dread.

Remind us of your inescapable, eternal, and unshakeable kingdom, and how we get to be a part of it because of Jesus.

Help us keep our hope focused on you and our future in eternity with you.

And help us respond to all of this in worship as we serve you in love, submit to you in faith, and remember you in hope.

We pray all of this in Jesus’ name. Amen.