Hebrews 12:18-29 - Is The Path We Are On Promoting Acceptable Worship, Reverence And Awe?
Let’s read Hebrews 12:18-29 which says, “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.” 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.
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. 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. 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.”
As we begin this morning I would like to consider Psalm 81 because it addresses some things that will help us to appreciate our text this morning. Psalm 81, like our text this morning, has exhortations and warnings for God’s people. If they will hear the Word of the LORD and respond in obedient faith God’s people will be blessed and their hearts will be drawn to worship the LORD.
When we read Hebrews 12:28-29 we were told that there is a way for us to run the race that is before us which will enable us to be grateful as we offer acceptable worship with reverence and awe to God.
Psalm 81 begins in vv. 1-3 with a declaration for all of Israel to worship the LORD and to hold Him in the highest reverence and awe for all that He has done and for all that He has promised to do. And yet, surprisingly, we discover that there were so many who never attained to this type of worship. Instead, they did not listen to God and they became an idolatrous people who worshiped strange foreign gods and lived by their own counsels.
From the very beginning Psalm 81 calls God’s people to worship. We read, “Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob! Raise a song; sound the tambourine, the sweet lyre with the harp.”
At the end of verse 3 we read, “Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on our feast day.” A trumpet was often used to gather God’s people on special occasions. For example, the author of Hebrews speaks about how God’s voice sounded fourth like a trumpet on the day that He gathered His people before Him at Mt. Sinai.
As I consider this trumpet call I am reminded of one of the memories that I have had from my childhood. When I would go to visit my grandparents in a small rural town in Kansas it was not uncommon to hear the church bells ringing to announce that the people of God were about to gather for Sunday Worship.
Whenever I heard the church bells ring I had a sense of excitement about what was happening. The community was receiving an invitation to gather together to worship the LORD and to hear His Word. Soon you would see people arriving to church with smiles on their faces as they wore their best Sunday clothes. We don’t do these things anymore.
This is what is happening in Psalm 81. The trumpet was being blown so that all of God’s people would gather to worship the LORD. This call to worship the LORD should not have been an inconvenience or a burden for God’s people because we are told in these verses that they were to do this because God had been their strength (1). This means that God’s great strength had relieved them from their burden and freed them from their bondage in Egypt (5-7). And yet, as we continue to read this psalm we discover that the majority of God’s people throughout Israel’s history did not respond to this call to worship. Like Esau, there were many who did not listen to God or walk in God’s ways. (11-13)
In vv. 4-5 we read that the people were to remember what God had done. To help with this God had made it a statute, a rule and a decree (4-5). God had given this command when His people cried out to Him and He delivered His people from bondage. The LORD said to them, “I relieved your shoulder of the burden; your hands were freed from the basket.” (6)
{If the Israelites, who had been given so many earthly blessings and physical promises were to praise the LORD, then how much more should we praise the LORD for all that Christ has done in providing eternal blessings?}
After the LORD had done all these things for Israel He gathered His people at Mt. Sinai and we are told that He answered them ‘in the secret place of thunder’. (7)
When I was younger and I heard those church bells and I smiled. That sound was not scary or intimidating at all. But when God revealed Himself in thunder on Sinai and the people were terrified. Exodus 19:16-19 describes it in this way, “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.”
{Is not Mt. Sinai meant to provoke sinners to great distress so that they will call out to the LORD for mercy and an acceptable mediator (Ex. 20:17 the people were afraid and trembled)?}
Exodus 20:18-19 shows us how the people responded to all of this, “Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, ‘You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.’”
This was a defining moment in Israel’s history. And yet, we can also say that this was also a dividing moment in Israel’s history as well. It still divides people as we will see in Hebrews 12:18-29. Some will choose to approach God at Sinai. Others will choose to approach God through Jesus at Mt. Zion.
After the LORD did this we see that Israel responded in these two ways. Those who experienced these things and had faith responded by looking for an acceptable mediator to speak to God on their behalf. And even though they chose Moses as the mediator of this covenant the faithful, including Moses who himself trembled in fear at Sinai, knew that a better and more perfect mediator would have to come.
There were others, the majority of them, would not listen to God or seek an acceptable mediator to act between themselves and a holy God. Instead, they would put their trust in Moses, or in themselves, or in foreign gods, or in strange gods (9). They failed to see by faith that it was the LORD who had brought them up out of the Land of Egypt and it would have to be the LORD who would save them from their sins and give them salvation.
Through all of these things the LORD tested His people to see if they would fear Him and not sin against Him and His Word. (Ex. 20:18-19) Almost immediately, Israel did sin against the LORD. Psalm 81:7 says that God tested them in the wilderness at the waters of Meribah and they failed the test. God had promised to provide for them but His people were faithless and ungrateful (81:10). They immediately forsook the LORD. They would not listen to God (11,13); therefore, He gave them over to their own wicked hearts and to their own counsel (12).
Psalm 81:11-16 continues, “But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels. Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways! I would soon subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes. Those who hate the Lord would cringe toward him, and their fate would last forever. But He would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”
God had given His people the Law at Mt. Sinai and promised that if they would listen to His voice and obey Him that He would provide for them, He would remove all of their enemies, He would give them a land from which they would never depart. However, generation after generation, Israel failed miserably to obey the LORD. Israel could not stay in God’s presence by means of the law. They could not earn life with God. This should have made it clear that there had to be another mediator who would be born under the Law of God and who could fulfill all of it perfectly on their behalf.
Many have sought to receive the blessings and promises of God through the covenant of Sinai and all have failed to do so. Only God’s Son, Jesus Christ, has obeyed the Law perfectly externally and internally. Therefore, those with faith look to Jesus and receive these blessings through Him.
The author of Hebrews is coming to the end of this letter and he is making these believers choose which path they will take. One path would take them to Sinai where as sinners they would tremble before the unmediated holiness of God. Others would choose to look to Christ for mercy and grace so that through Him they could receive every blessing that God has promised.
In Hebrews 12:1-2 the author of Hebrews encouraged these Jewish believers to ‘run the race that was set before’ them. We should be asking ourselves a question as we consider these things, ‘What is this race that God has set before us?’ Or, ‘What is this race that has been marked out for us by God that we are to run?’ As the author of Hebrews begins to conclude this letter he answers these questions in Hebrews 12:18-29. We will consider this text over the next several weeks.
In these verses he tells these struggling Christians that if they are to run this race well, if they are to enter into the promised rest, and if they are to see to it that no one fails to receive the grace of God; they will need to run away from the old covenant which Moses mediated and run towards the new covenant of grace that Jesus now mediates. They are to run away from Sinai and run towards the heavenly Zion.
The Christians who received this letter lived among Jewish families and Jewish communities where Jesus was being vehemently rejected. These Christians were being pressured by almost everyone around them to abandon their faith in Jesus Christ and to disassociate from the church. We have seen that these believers were being scoffed at, some had been thrown in prison, some lost their earthly possessions. In these ways they were being pressured to return to Moses, to the Temple worship, and to Mt. Sinai.
I would imagine that every discussion that these Christians had with their families, friends, and with the religious leaders of their day were full of advice that would be completely rejected and fiercely opposed by the author of Hebrews who had faith and was looking to Jesus. We learned in Psalm 81:12 that when people reject God’s word that they are given ‘over to their own stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels’. As these Christians came to the end of this letter they had a choice to make, ‘Will they listen to the unbelievers around them, or will they listen to the Word of the LORD and receive every blessing and every promise through Christ?’
The author of Hebrews exhorts them, “See that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused Him who warned on earth, much less will we escape if we reject Him who warns from heaven.” (12:25)
The author of Hebrews has warned them over and over again in this letter that if they were to return to the Law and the covenant at Sinai after they had received the knowledge about Jesus and the Gospel they would be like faithless Esau who despised his birthright and sold it for a bowl of soup. If they did this they would not be like all the faithful saints in Hebrews 11 who finished their race and received their eternal reward.
The church has always had to confront the fact that so many people are foolishly choosing to approach God by Sinai, by the Law, through Moses. Paul addressed the need for faithful teachers to do what the author of Hebrews has done here when he wrote to Titus about the responsibilities of an elder in the church. He told him that an elder has to ‘hold firmly to the trustworthy word taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also rebuke those who contradict it.’ Paul continues by saying, “There are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families…”. (Titus 1:9-11)
The author of Hebrews has been a good elder within God’s church by encouraging the saints in sound doctrine. He has not tried to encourage these suffering Christians to find a quick and easy way out of their trials; rather, they are to endure under these things because God disciplines His people and He trains them through these ‘difficult providences’.
What a blessing it would have been for this divinely inspired letter to have come to these struggling Christians in this critical hour. Hopefully it has been a similar blessing to us. We also are being called as we come to the end of this letter to make a choice. Will we choose to stand before God at Sinai? Or will we choose to come before the throne of grace through Christ to receive mercy and find grace?
This letter speaks clearly, powerfully and authoritatively not only to the original audience but to us as well. We learned in Hebrews 4:11-13 that this letter, because it is inspired Scripture, ‘is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to they eyes of Him to whom we must give account’. The Word of God should always bring us to a point of decision. Will I choose to stand before God by the Law or by Grace? Will I look to Moses, or will I look to Christ?
Because the Word of God is ‘living and active’, because it is ‘sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart’, there is ‘no creature hidden from God’s sight’. There is nothing that can be hidden from God. Our hearts are standing naked before God. We are standing exposed before the one to whom we will give an accountable (9:27). This is terrifying because ‘our God’, the God of the Old Testament and of the New, ‘is a consuming fire’ (Hebrews 12:29).
Hebrews 12:18-24 reminds us that there are only two options for us to consider when the Word of God exposes our hearts like this. One path will lead us to Mount Sinai. Mt. Sinai is a terrifying experience for sinners. We are told that when God descended upon this mountain it was ‘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.’ So terrifying was this experience that the hearers ‘could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.’ It was so terrifying to look upon this mountain that even Moses said, ‘I tremble with fear.’
Imagine if you were there that day and you saw all of these things. And then on top of all of this you saw Moses, your leader, your mediator, confessing, “I tremble with fear.” (18-21)
Because of Jesus Christ there a new path that we can take which the Law and the prophets all spoke about. We can come to the Heavenly Mount Zion where we find that we have Jesus as a mediator of a new covenant and He is now sitting at the right hand of the throne of God. The author of Hebrews has already encouraged us to come to Jesus when the word of God exposes us before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. He has encouraged us to come to Jesus as our mediator when we come before God who is like a consuming fire. He has said, ‘we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need.’ (Hebrews 4:14-16).
If we will entrust ourselves to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant we can have an altogether different experience then those who come to God through Mt. Sinai in Exodus and Psalm 81. Those who come to the Father through Jesus can ‘be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.’, And we can ‘offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe...’
If we are sluggish and lazy in our faith, if we are tempted to disassociate from Jesus and His people, if we are unwilling to listen to the Word of God and respond to it, if we are struggling to worship the LORD with joy and reverence; it could be that we are trying to approach God at Mt. Sinai (10:23-25).
It is a terrifying thing for a sinner to stand before the LORD, who is a consuming fire. Our natural reaction would be to do what Moses and the Israelites wanted to do. They wanted to flee, to shrink back, from the holiness of God and from His Word.
If, however, we are lifting our drooping hands, if we are strengthening our weak knees, if we are making straight paths for our feet, if we are striving for peace with everyone, if we are striving for holiness, if we are obtaining the grace of God, if we are not allowing any bitter root to grow among us; then it is a sure indication that we are looking to Jesus and to Mount Zion while we are running this race.
There is no need to hesitate as we approach Mt. Zion by faith in Jesus Christ because we are approaching ‘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.’ (12:22-24)