Hebrews 12:14-29

"The Better Worship"

Children,

where are you?

In church, right?

Well, where is that?

Um, sitting here in my pew, next to my parents!

Well, that's what you see with your eyes.

I asked you a few weeks ago whether you can see Jesus.

Can you see Jesus with your eyes?

How do you see Jesus?

By faith.

With your eyes, you see a church building.

With your eyes, you see your pastor.

With your eyes, you see a few dozen people.

What do you see by faith?

What does "church" mean?

It doesn't mean a building.

It means "an assembly."

What assembly do you see by faith?

By faith, you see the heavenly assembly,

gathered in the heavenly temple,

and by faith you have come to this glorious assembly

By faith, the church gathers for worship at the throne of God.

We have come to the last section of the book of Hebrews.

It consists largely of pastoral directives to the church.

Most of these directives are well-known exhortations to the church,

and so do not have lengthy expositions connected to them.

Since the church already knows these things,

there was no need to argue for them.

The basic theme of this last section is the idea of the distinctive character of the Christian life

as a pilgrimage to the heavenly city

lived out in the context of our covenant privileges and obligations.

That's a mouthful!

13:14-"For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come."

12:28-"Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken"

Having heard in chapter 11 the call to faith-to believe that which we cannot see with our eyes-

it is fitting that the focus in the concluding section remains fixed upon that heavenly city.

But chapters 12-13 make explicit the implications of the call to faith in chapter 11:

faith is not just a warm fuzzy feeling.

Faith is not an intellectual conviction.

Faith is a whole-souled commitment to Jesus.

1. Pursue Peace and Holiness (12:14-17)

And this is expressed in our pursuit of peace and holiness.

"Strive for peace with everyone."

This section is focused on the life of the community,

and so the "everyone" is particularly focused on "everyone in the church."

Certainly you should strive for peace with all people,

but the focus is on the church as the community of peace,

the place where peace and holiness dwell in delightful harmony.

Peace and Holiness.

You can counterfeit peace.

It's called "tolerance."

Counterfeit peace is when everything is permitted.

Everyone is allowed to do whatever they want!

There is no discipline-no allegiance to God's law.

This is common in liberal churches.

They have "peace" without holiness.

You can also counterfeit holiness.

It's called "legalism."

Counterfeit holiness is when the church comes up with strict rules

that everyone has to follow.

Outward conformity to manmade rules may produce the appearance of holiness,

but there is no love-no peace, only law.

This is common in fundamentalist churches.

They have "holiness" without peace.

But you cannot counterfeit both peace and holiness at the same time!

You can be tolerant, or you can be legalistic,

you can be all warm and fuzzy, or you can be straight and narrow.

But true peace and true holiness go hand in hand.

Also note that Hebrews says that we should strive for

"the holiness without which no one will see the Lord."

Holiness is not optional to the Christian life.

We are justified by faith.

But we are also sanctified by the same faith.

And that faith is a living and active faith that wholeheartedly obeys God!

Therefore without holiness, no one will see the Lord.

What does this mean?

This is expanded in the following verses.

Verses 14-16 is all one sentence in Greek.

"Pursue peace and holiness,

watching diligently that no one fails to obtain the grace of God"

The warning of verses 15-16 is grammatically a dependent clause-

it is a participle that refers back to the main verb in verse 14-

"pursue"

In your pursuit of peace and holiness,

watch out for three things:

1) that no one forfeits the grace of God

2) that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble

3) that no one is like Esau-a spiritual adulterer

How can you "forfeit" the grace of God?

("fail to obtain" is an okay translation,

but it should be clearer that the reason why they fail to obtain the grace of God

is their own fault!)

By now we should be used to the way in Hebrews speaks of apostasy.

All those who are baptized are "sanctified by the blood of the covenant" (10:29)

and made "partakers of the Holy Spirit." (6:4)

In other words, all those who are baptized share in the blessings of participating

in the eschatological community-namely, the church.

The church is the last-days people of God,

the place where the word of God and the powers of the age to come are revealed.

And so therefore all who are baptized into Christ and his church

share in these covenant blessings.

But there are some who only partake of these blessings partially and temporarily.

They are those of whom Jesus says that they receive the word with joy,

but they wither and die because they have no root.

The idea of the root is also key to Hebrews.

Because Hebrews says that the apostate have an entirely different root-

a "root of bitterness."

The "root of bitterness" is a quotation from Deuteronomy 29:18

"Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe

whose heart is turning away today from the LORD our God

to go and serve the gods of the nations.

Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit,

one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant,

blesses himself in his heart, saying,

'I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.'"

The root of bitterness is found in those who hear the words of the covenant

and outwardly conform-but inwardly they only care about themselves.

The root of bitterness is deadly because it is masked with outward piety.

But it is rotten to the core.

The root of bitterness is the very opposite of

the "holiness without which no one will see the Lord."

The root of bitterness says, "hey, I'm part of the covenant, therefore I can do what I want!"

Holiness says, "hey, I'm a part of the covenant, therefore I am God's son,

and he is training me to become like him!"

The fruit of this root of bitterness is "the defiling of many."

The image of the "root" is crucial.

I was cutting down poke-berry plants on Friday.

It does no good to take out the plant unless you get the root-

otherwise it just comes right back next year!

Think of "creeping ginny"-a plant that can send its roots out for 40 or 50 feet,

only to send up new plants in every corner of your yard!

Perhaps you've seen churches where outward conformity is the watchword.

Everyone "does what is right" on Sunday morning,

but then they follow their own desires for the rest of the week.

And what is the result?

The church becomes a social club

and the pursuit of peace and holiness falls by the wayside.

The third thing that you are to "watch out for" is that no one be a spiritual adulterer.

Some translations say "sexually immoral" which is an accurate translation,

but "adulterer" would probably work better because of the connection

between adultery and idolatry.

The example given is Esau, "who sold his birthright for a single meal."

This is a perfect example of a man who lacks faith.

He does not see by faith the heavenly city,

He does not recognize that the inheritance is all about eternal life.

He sees with his eyes, and his god is his stomach.

Esau had been circumcised.

As Isaac's firstborn, he was the heir of the covenant promise.

And yet he traded his inheritance for a bowl of stew!

And this is called "adultery" and "unholy."

And when Esau later changed his mind and decided that he wanted his inheritance,

he was rejected, "for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears"

Why?

Because Esau's inheritance was not just a piece of real estate in the middle east.

Esau's inheritance was the heavenly Mt Zion.

And if you reject the heavenly city,

then there is no other city for you to inherit.

When the covenant blessing had been given to Jacob,

there was no longer any other covenant blessing to give!

In other words, "judgment day" for Jacob and Esau

was the day when Isaac pronounced his blessing-his one and only blessing.

Once the blessing was pronounced, there was no way for Esau to be blessed.

As Isaac said, "I have blessed Jacob, and he will be blessed."

The point is NOT that there are some people who would like to repent but God won't let them!

The "it" that Esau was seeking was not a chance to repent,

but the blessing itself.

The point is that if you reject the covenant blessing,

there is no other blessing,

so don't be like Esau who waited until it was too late!

2. Because You Have Come to the Heavenly Jerusalem! (12:18-24)

But having shown the similarity between the Old and the New,

Hebrews then explains the difference: (read 18-21)

You have not come to the darkness, gloom and tempest of Exodus 19!

You have not come to the terrors of the law from Mt Sinai!

Sinai was the central, formative experience of Israel.

All of Israel's history was rooted in the covenant established on Mt Sinai-

the place where Israel worshiped God together for the first time.

Remember that Exodus 24 is the first corporate worship service recorded in the Bible.

God had called Israel out of Egypt into the wilderness for what purpose?

To worship me!

And all of Israel's history echoed with the proclamation of God's law from Sinai.

But that is NOT the central, defining experience for the Christian.

No, (read 22-24)

The central defining experience for the Christian is the exaltation of Jesus Christ.

"We see Jesus, crowned with glory and honor, because of the suffering of death"

In chapters 7-10 Hebrews told us about the better priesthood,

the better covenant, and the better sacrifice.

Now we hear the result of this: that we also have a better mountain-a better city.

In the same way that Jesus entered the heavenly sanctuary, as we are told in Heb 9-10,

so also now we enter a heavenly assembly in our worship.

Israel pursued peace and holiness, but never achieved it,

because the law was weak and unable to establish true holiness.

But Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, has established peace and holiness,

and so we come to Mount Zion-

we come to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem!

This is what the prophets dreamed of!

Ezekiel imagined the day when a glorious temple would be built on Mt Zion.

Ezekiel's temple was never built on earth,

but it has been established in the heavens!

And you have come here.

This is what Heb 11:40 said:

"God had provided something better for us,

that apart from us they should not be made perfect."

You have come to the heavenly Jerusalem.

You have come the assembly of the firstborn,

enrolled in heaven.

This is the language of the book of life-

these are those whose names are inscribed in the Lamb's book of life.

This is the same verb "to draw near" that generally refers to the priests drawing near in worship.

We are now a kingdom of priests in Jesus.

In Exodus 24 only 70 elders joined Moses, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu

in coming partway up the mountain to worship God.

Today we all get to come with Jesus!

We all come before the living God and enter his heavenly city.

And the reason why is given at the end:

Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant.

Remember how chapter 11 started-with the blood of Abel,

who "though he died, he still speaks"?

Well we have come to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel!

Abel's blood may still speak to us of our call to be faithful unto death,

but Jesus' blood speaks a better word,

because it calls us through death to glory!

3. Therefore Do Not Refuse Him Who Warns from Heaven! (12:25-29)

But if Jesus' blood speaks a better word than the blood of Abel,

then "see that you do not refuse him who is speaking."

The word at Mt Sinai came to all Israel.

All Israel was called to walk by faith,

but Israel chose to walk by sight-they saw the power of the nations

and did not believe that God would give them the land.

Now the word has come to you from the heavenly Mt Zion.

Jesus speaks from the city of the living God:

"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."

God warned our fathers at Sinai through the voice of Moses-

and those who refused to walk by faith perished in the desert.

Now God warns you through the one greater than Moses-

Jesus-who has declared the message of salvation to us from heaven.

And as God spoke at Sinai through Moses,

so now Jesus speaks from heaven through the voice of the preacher.

Jesus calls to you today:

What matters more to you?

The things you can see with your eyes?

Or the one whom you see by faith?

Where is your heart?

Do you endure patiently through discipline?

Or do you shrink back?

Do you use your covenant-status as a cloak for your own selfish agenda?

Or do you behold the glory of the heavenly Jerusalem,

and live as one who has an inheritance that cannot be shaken?

The OT is full of the language of "shaking."

Sinai shook when God appeared in glory on the mountain.

The Song of Deborah says that the "mountains quaked before the LORD"--

that when God arose to deliver his people, the earth shook. (Judges 5)

Joel 2 speaks of the earth quaking before the coming of the day of the LORD.

And when Jesus died on the cross, the earth shook.

When God does something new in redemptive history, the earth shakes!

In verse 26 Hebrews cites Haggai 2:6,

"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.'"

Haggai was speaking to those who had returned from exile.

Haggai calls Israel to be strong and work, and rebuild the temple,

because God will soon shake the earth once again.

And when God shakes the earth, he will overthrow the nations,

and the glory and wealth of the nations will fill his house.

Hebrews tells us that this is what God will do "yet once more!"

And that this means "the removal of things that are shaken."

The shaking of the earth and heaven will separate the "movable" from the "immovable."

All that seemed firm and stable-the heavens and the earth-will be shaken.

All that you can see with your eyes will be shaken.

And only the things that cannot be shaken will remain.

And to remove any doubt what that is,

Hebrews says, "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."