Sermon Notes (11/4) :: Consuming Fire

Hebrews 12:14-29

The author of Hebrews (we don’t know who it is) pens a text aimed at convincing his people not to turn back. The folks he’s writing to are Jews who have converted to this new way of Jesus. But they are tired of being the new kids on the block—the government doesn’t like them and neither do the Jewish people. The author tries to convince them not to turn back to a Jewish faith without Jesus by comparing two mountains—Mt Sinai and Mt Zion.

Mount Sinai is where Moses received the ten commandments. At this great event, the earth trembled, the mountain was covered in clouds and lightening, and the people were terrified. Hebrews presents us with a different mountain.

Mount Zion is one of the names in the New Testament for what is “up ahead”—heaven, the new Jerusalem, the new heavens and the new earth are other names for it. It’s important that we take this vision of Mount Zion and try to imagine it in our own heads—we have numerous visions of the future given to us every day by news and media. But the biblical vision of the future, presented in verses 22-24 needs to take root in our minds and guide how we live in the present. Take some time reading these verses and noting some of the characteristics of Mount Zion:

How do we, living between Mount Sinai and Mount Zion, connect with such a futuristic and utterly different vision than the world now we’re living in? Hebrews speaks of God “shaking” the earth and the heavens (12:26). The point of this shaking is that “what cannot be shaken may remain”. This tells us that these future realities are present now, but there is other distracting stuff alongside them. God will shake that stuff away in the future, leaving what “cannot be shaken”. So…
• Don’t give up! We all go through periods of doubt or questioning or syncretism (making up our own hybrid-Christianity) when we think things in our religious life have gotten stale or unsatisfying. Don’t give up! We have hope in a future beyond description!
• Fight against the things that are not part of this future—in our lives as individuals and in the world.
• Look for signs of the “shaking” happening even now. 12:28 tells we “are receiving” a kingdom that cannot be broken. Not “will receive” sometime in the future. The things of God are present now – a firm foundation; vibrant human community; joyful angels; the believers of previous generations; people transformed from distorted humans into their true selves. Look for them and hold onto them. Look for the shaking!

Matthew Koenig