Hebrews 12:18-29 (ESV)
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.
This passage is the second half of Hebrews 12. It seems rather disconnected from what Paul said earlier, doesn’t it? I don’t know if you are like me, but sometimes when I read a confusing part of scripture, my first tendency is to skim over it. There are a lot of sections in the Bible which aren’t easily read and understood. If you follow a yearly Bible reading plan, you probably know what I’m talking about. There are a lot of prophecies in the Old Testament that are not easily comprehended. When writing last week’s sermon, I got to verse 18 and thought it was an easy place to stop at verse 17, because it seemed like Paul switches topics. Mountains? Fire? A kingdom? I thought we were being told to run the race with discipline, avoid sin, and keep our eyes on Jesus? Now Paul is talking about a mountain? Let’s see how this ties together.
First, what mountain is Paul talking about? I think Paul is describing Mount Sinai. Exodus 20:18-21 describes the mountain like this: “And all the people were watching and hearing the thunder and the xsall, they trembled and stood at a distance. Then they said to Moses, ‘Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but do not have God speak to us, or we will die!’ However, Moses said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you will not sin.’ So the people stood at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.”
Mount Sinai was a terrifying place to the Israelites. I live at the base of a pretty big mountain. Each day I get to see this amazing sight. The mountain is so big that it creates its own micro-climate. We experience some awesome thunder and lightning storms. When we first moved here, it was frightening. We thought we’d be struck by lightning or our trees would blow over and our roof tiles would come apart. Even though we've seen micro-bursts that have split trees in half and broken tiles, now when a storm comes up, and we remain pretty calm. It’s just part of living by a mountain. But sometimes the storm is intense. Loud crashes of thunder boom deep enough to feel the sound. Lightning lights up the entire sky and for one brief moment the mountain outline is visible again, then suddenly disappears into darkness again. Rain pours and comes in the doors. The chimney howls and the windows shake. This is how I picture Mount Sinai. Yet, it was even more frightening: there was fire, and there was God. For God was on that mountain. He was someone to fear. Even Moses said, “I tremble with fear.”
My family and I, when we are in the middle of an intense thunderstorm, we stop and pray for God to calm the storm and protect our house. What would we do if God was the one shaking the earth and sending the fire, gloom and tempest like He did with the Israelites? Do you see why they were so afraid?
Yet, Paul says, “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,” not to that terrifying Mount Sinai. To understand what Paul is trying to communicate, we have to understand the complete juxtaposition he’s making. One mountain is frightening, and the other has “angels in festal gathering.” Festal means merry or happy. So the mountain we have come to has angels in celebration.
Not only that, but you have come “23 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.”
I really like the wording here, though admittedly I had to read it a couple of times to fully understand it. The assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven: I think that means those who have died earlier- they are enrolled or are registered in heaven. I think that is a reference to what is known as the book of life. This book is mentioned in quite a few places in the Bible. One example is Philippians 4:3, which says, “Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.” Jesus is mentions this as well when He says, “Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” in Luke 10:20. When we are converted, our names are written in this book.
Then he mentions God, the judge of all, and the spirits of the righteous made perfect. N.T. Wright says, “The fact that God is named as ‘the judge of all’ is not meant, here, to be a fearsome thing. As the Psalms say time after time, the fact that God is the judge of all is something to be celebrated. Everybody, deep down, wants the world to be put to rights. If they don’t we begin to suspect that they want to be able to exploit it to their own advantage, to get away with things and not be brought to account” (N.T. Wright, Hebrews for Everybody, p.162).
I agree with what he’s saying, for God, as the judge, is the one who brings justice. These spirits are believers who have been redeemed. They have been made righteous through the blood of Christ, who is the mediator of a new covenant, as Paul says. Because they have been made righteous, and have entered into this new covenant, once they have died, they are now made perfect. No longer are they trapped in their physical bodies, battling their sinful flesh. They are now perfect, for they are now sinless.
N.T. Wright points out something I had missed in the text. The text says, “you have come.” It’s not future tense. That means we can go before Mount Zion right now. He says, “that those who now live by faith and hope have already, in a sense, arrived at his heavenly city. They already belong there, in prayer and worship they are already welcome before God’s throne” (N.T. Wright, Hebrews for Everyone, p. 163).
This mountain is no earthly mountain we can physically touch, like Mount Sinai, but it is the heavenly Jerusalem. Although we don’t have to wait until we die to come to this mountain. We have access, now, through the new covenant. We have Jesus, who “speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”
Genesis 4:8-10 says, “Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Where is Abel your brother?’ He said, ‘I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?’ And the Lord said, ‘What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.’”
The Bible doesn’t tell us what Abel’s blood said, but we can guess. It’s figurative language. I don’t think Abel’s actual blood was actually speaking, but rather this is personification. Abel was killed unjustly by his brother. Cain should be held accountable for murdering him. I think Abel’s blood was crying out for justice. Paul is saying that Jesus’ blood speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Jesus does not say that we should get what we deserve or that we should receive the judgment due to us because of our sin; instead, He speaks forgiveness and redemption. His word is one of the mediator of the new covenant. Instead of having to fear the judgment of God, the blood of Jesus covers us if we believe in the work He accomplished on the cross by dying for our sins. We are no longer pronounced guilty. For if we repent, we are pronounced forgiven. His word is redemption instead of judgement.
Jesus speaks a better word, a word that offers us life. And consistent with Paul’s message all throughout Hebrews, Paul now offers his words of exhortation. He says, “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.”
We should not skip Paul’s warning. The God of the Old Testament is still the same God. Jesus only speaks what the Father says. He said, “I speak just as the Father has told Me” (John 12:50). He is not a different God who is now more loving or more forgiving. He has not changed. I get so frustrated when I read things that people say about God and they simply get Him all wrong. Just recently I was reading comments on an article and people were explaining away sin, not by offering the hope of forgiveness through repentance, but rather they said that we don’t need to fear God anymore because Jesus died on the cross. They said something to the effect that the God of the Old Testament was no more because Jesus had come to earth and died on the cross. Why are so many people getting this so very wrong? Why has the Church failed in explaining this basic theology? Jesus did not abolish the law. God required holiness of the Israelites, He still requires holiness today. We still cannot approach the Mountain of God unless we are holy. Back then, holiness was given through faith and the atoning sacrifices of animals that the priest offered. The people kept failing and kept sinning. So God took it upon Himself to become the offering for us. He gave His very life for us so now we can be made holy. 1 John 4:10 (NASB) tells us, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Propitiation means reconciliation or atonement. It’s how we are made right with God. Jesus paid the dept that we owed to God. He paid that for us. And then, as if that wasn’t enough, He then clothes us with His righteousness, declaring us holy. As Isaiah 61:10 says, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”
This salvation and righteousness, this access to Zion, is available to all people, but it is only given to those who “do not refuse him who is speaking.” The Israelites had God revealed to them. He was right there on Mount Sinai, yet they stood at a distance. Paul says, “they refused him who warned them on earth.” The Greek word for refused is paraiteomai and according to Strong’s concordance it means “beg off, make excuse, deprecate, refuse, reject, decline, shun, avoid.”
A question we should ask ourselves is this: today, when we hear the word of the Lord, do we refuse Him? Probably not out-right. But what about making excuses? What about avoiding even hearing Him speak? A challenge that all of us have, living now in the 21st century, is making time to hear the word of God. I think it’s a challenge, because never before has everyone as a whole been so distracted. We are constantly bombarded with information and noise. Unless we make the effort to turn off all the distractions, how will we hear God speak? He is being drowned out by all the pointless noise. I think today, to our culture, Paul might have written: see that you do not avoid him who is speaking by being distracted by all the media. We live in a time of ultimate escapism, whether it’s video games, news, television, movies, social apps, or texting friends. Unless we determine to listen to God speaking, we are probably going to miss what He is saying. That’s the same thing as refusing him.
Then Paul says, “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.” I think Paul is foretelling Christ’s return. The things on this earth will be removed, all that is temporary will be gone, and all that will remain will be eternal things: the things of heaven.
Paul says, “let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken,” let us rejoice and give thanks! Let’s join in with that “festal gathering” and celebrate! And, “let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe,” because His kingdom is like no other kingdom. This is why we are to worship Him.
Finally, he says, “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.”
The kingdom of God cannot be shaken. It cannot be moved, as the KJV says. One thing that I have learned in homeschooling my kids is the kingdoms of this earth are very temporary. We spend most of our studies learning about world history. Since the beginning of time, civilizations have risen and fallen. Cities have flourished and vanished. Countries have gained territories and been destroyed. No earthly kingdom has endured for all time. China claims the title for the longest lasting civilization, but its dynasties and empires have crumbled and been overthrown by other governments within itself. It has not been unshaken. My take away from ancient history is this: no kingdom is forever. Except the Kingdom that cannot be shaken. The kingdom of God, it will not be moved. One day that kingdom will come in its entirety and as God is a consuming fire, all that is not part of His kingdom will be removed; it will be consumed. And then, quite literally, we will be able to “touch” Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.
So how do these mountains tie in with what Paul was saying earlier in this same chapter? How does this line up with running a race and discipline? Discipline seems to be more effective if there is an element of fear, doesn’t it? If a child doesn’t respect or fear the consequences of not obeying their parents, wouldn’t that child not bother to follow their parents’ rules? If there is no consequence to disobedience, why bother obeying? Think about something as simple as driving. If police no longer issued speeding tickets, would you still drive the posted speed limit? What if you were on an empty highway? I know I’d drive faster. Why not? I’d reason that if the police actually cared what speed I drove, then they’d issue speeding tickets, but since they dropped tickets, they must not care anymore.
In the same way, people who think that God does not actually care how they behave, either because He is so loving and kind or because He can’t be bothered by humans, do not curb their behavior to please God. If our actions don’t actually matter to God or if He will forgive us anyway, then why bother to follow His directives? Like I mentioned last week, our actions do matter. There are negative consequences to our disobedience.
Paul is making it clear that no longer do we have a relationship with God where we approach, or avoid, His mountain in fear. We no longer live in the shadow of Mount Sinai. We live in sight of Mount Zion, yet we cannot forget that God is the same God. Our lack of fear before Him is not because our obeying Him is not important anymore, but because Jesus has born our punishment for us. Had the Israelites obeyed God, He would not have been so terrifying. He wanted to bless them and lavish His love and kindness on them. Deuteronomy 30:15-20 (NASB) says, “See, I have placed before you today life and happiness, and death and adversity, in that I am commanding you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, so that you may live and become numerous, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but allow yourself to be led astray and you worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you will certainly perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and take possession of it. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have placed before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding close to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, so that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”
That passage from Deuteronomy sounds very similar to everything Paul has been saying in Hebrews. We have a choice. We can obey God and follow His statues and judgements or we can turn away from Him and follow the world. What we do still has consequences. God is still the good Father who is calling us to obey Him and follow His instructions. He wants to teach us to follow His instructions by disciplining us. Not because He is full of wrath, either then or now, but because, as Deuteronomy says, he wants to hold us close to him. He was motivated by love then, just as He is now.
I think Paul is saying, though; we have it even better than they did before Jesus died for us. We now do not stand before a terrifying Mount Sinai, being held back by our failure to keep the law perfectly. We have direct access to God by the blood of Christ. That is why we rejoice and praise Him with thanksgiving and love in our hearts. That is why we pray, as Jesus taught us: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10, NASB).
Come quickly, we pray.
Pray: Heavenly Father, thank You for making a way for us to come to Your kingdom. Thank You that You are not far off or distant from us, but that we can access Your kingdom today through prayer and worship. We love You and thank You for loving us. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
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