2007 Book of Hebrews Series –
“Consuming Fire”
Hebrews 12:18-29
Sermon preached at Curwensville Presbyterian Church – October 7, 2007
Prayer Introduction:
I have never preached or taught on this morning’s text. I have read the words of
I. A Tale of Two Mountains (vv.18-24)
You’ve heard of Charles
Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities. Well we are going to look at verses 18-24
and “A Tale of Two Mountains.” READ
Mount Sinai and Mount Zion. Verses 18-21 speak of the old covenant and Mount Sinai – where the people of Israel received the law of God as the Lord descended onto the mountain. At Sinai, the people came near to God, and the experience was terrifying.
Listen, again to the seven images that describe the encounter at Mount Sinai:
(1) a mountain that cannot be touched
(2) burning with fire
(3) darkness
(4) gloom
(5) storm
(6) a trumpet blast
(7) a voice speaking words that the people could not bear to hear
Then verses 22-24 speak of the new covenant and Mount Zion. Listen to the seven remarkably different images that describe the encounter at Zion.
(1) the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God
(2) Thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly
(3) The church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven
(4) God, the judge of all the people
(5) The spirits of the righteous made perfect
(6) Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant
(7) The sprinkled blood that speaks better than the blood of Abel.
If you had to choose a mountain, which one would you choose? Clearly Zion. And the author of Hebrews is showing us how much greater the new covenant is to the old covenant. Why is it greater? Jesus.
When God’s holy voice spoke in the old covenant at Sinai the people cried out, “No more. No more. We can’t take it.” But in the new covenant of Zion that voice speaks through the sprinkled blood of Jesus the mediator saying, “I love you, I choose you, I cleanse you, I protect you, I forgive you, I keep you, I will always be there for you.”
If you had to choose a mountain, which one would you choose? Clearly Zion – because Jesus is there fulfilling the law’s demands; absorbing the holy wrath of God.
Notice that God hasn’t changed between the old and new covenants. He is still holy, awesome, powerful, one to be feared. God hasn’t changed. What has changed is that we can draw near to his holy, awesome, powerful presence with confidence that he won’t pour out his righteous wrath upon us – because he has poured it out on Jesus.
As we will sing after communion, “once your enemy, now seated at your table, Jesus, thank you.” Apart from Jesus we are God’s enemy, awaiting his judgmental wrath; but if we have put our trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, we are no longer God’s enemy; we are seated at the Lord’s Table as adopted sons and daughters of the heavenly Father.
If you had to choose a mountain, which one would you choose? Clearly Zion – which we can choose because of Jesus.
I weep for those who have not chosen Zion, who have not chosen salvation by grace through faith in Jesus. You can tell the difference between those who have chosen Christ and those who have not – because those who know Christ, come to Zion, they draw near to God; whereas those who do not know Christ stay away from God.
Last week we
saw, in
The tale of two mountains reveals the heart behind the lame excuses – they don’t know Jesus. If they knew Jesus they would long to be in God’s presence – to be renewed and reminded of his love in Christ, saved from God’s holy wrath and made his holy child.
II. The Threat and the Promise
But the author of Hebrews isn’t
just speaking to those who avoid coming to church; he is really speaking to
those who avoid coming to the Lord. There are many who come to church, but don’t
come to the Lord. Verses 25-27 motivate us by a threat and a promise. READ
“Do not refuse him who speaks” – do not refuse the Lord, as Esau did. And then comes the threat – if they did not escape him who warned them on earth how much less will we escape him who warns us from heaven?
John Piper explains, “In other words, even though fear is not a tender, winsome motive to melt the heart with love, it is very important that we know what a fearful thing it is to spurn those tender, winsome words that the blood of Jesus speaks to the heart. Fear may not awaken faith and love directly, but it may so shake us from our love affair with things that we can look into the eyes of the One who can.”
As Oswald Chambers put it – “The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else.”
The threat of verse
25 is followed by the promise of verses 26-27 (including a quote from
Are you standing on shaky ground, or on the solid rock of Christ? The ground is always shaking isn’t it? Just when you think you’ve got solid footing a loved one dies, you lose your job, you get sick, or something breaks.
The things of this world are temporary and we must not put our hope in them. And yet, that is our natural inclination. That’s why we are so shaken when those things are shaken.
You’re diagnosed with cancer – your body has failed you, but the Lord will never fail you.
You’re car breaks down, again – your car has failed you, but the Lord will never fail you.
You’re laid off – your job has failed you, but the Lord will never fail you.
People fail you, but the Lord will never fail you.
Someone asked C.S. Lewis, “Why to the righteous suffer?” He said, “Why not, they’re the only ones who can take it.”
It is the goodness of God that continually shakes the temporary things, so that we would not put our hope in them. Sometimes we find ourselves putting our hope in one earthly thing after another – so God keeps shaking.
I put my hope in people and they let me down; so I put my hope in some cookies and a coke, and my body lets me down; so I put my hope in busyness, and all of my activities let me down. God keeps shaking until I finally come to him.
III. Consuming Fire (verse 28-29)
And so we come to verses 28-29
– the unshakable kingdom and the consuming fire. READ
Throughout the book of Hebrews God is motivating us to draw near to him, to follow him, to love and serve him, to repent of sin and run with persevering faith.
John Piper asks if this final motivation is one of fear: “It depends. If you trust the promise of his unshakable kingdom, and set your heart on it, and lay up treasure in the unshakable kingdom, then the fire of God will consume your adversaries and refine your gold (2 Thessalonians 1:6-9). But if you reject the one who speaks from heaven and, like Esau, prefer the fragile, shaky kingdom of this world, then you will meet the consuming fire of God as destruction and not deliverance.”
Jack Kemp said, “People obey the law for one of two reasons: they either love (fear) God or fear punishment.” Verses 28-29 call us to consider why we would obey God’s law: fearing his wrath, or feeling his grace.
The person who just fears God’s wrath will ultimately face God’s wrath, while those who have received Christ will receive the kingdom that cannot be shaken – saved from God’s wrath.
But notice that receiving the kingdom that cannot be shaken doesn’t leave you with a ho-hum attitude – “I can do whatever I want, whenever I want.”
No, the one who knows they are saved from God’s wrath – receiving the eternal kingdom – are thankful and worship God with reverence and awe. Instead of fearing God’s wrath, we fear God himself – worshiping in reverence and awe.
We fear God because he is holy, awesome and powerful; and we fear God because he is loving, faithful and forgiving.
In fact, we cannot know how loving, faithful and forgiving he is unless we first see that he is holy, awesome and powerful.
That is why Mount Sinai preceded Mount Zion. We must see God’s holy wrath to appreciate fully that we have been saved from God’s holy wrath by Jesus – and are changed by him.
And then the consuming fire makes sense. The fire of God consumes the dross and refines the gold. When we come near to the Lord, he will consume the sin that dwells within us; so that we can live in the freedom of faithfulness.
We must come again and again and again, because our sin never lies dormant. It must be consumed again and again. And it can be, because of the blood of Jesus.
Listen to the voice of God who speaks by the sprinkled blood of Jesus saying, “I love you, I forgive you, I will cleanse you, I will give you an unshakeable home, I will always be there for you if you trust me, if you come to me. Come to me.”
MAY THE TRUTH SET YOU FREE – AMEN!