A Trip through the Mountains
Text readings: Hebrews 12:18-29
Luke 13:10-17
A lot of us have been taking trips through the mountains of North Carolina and Virginia this summer to try to escape the heat and soon more will be heading out to see the fall leaves. But this morning we are going to take a Bible tour through the mountains spanning from the earliest revelation of worship until the present day and even into the future.
So grab your guidebook (our Bible is the map) and let’s go.
Let’s look first at Hebrews verses 18-21
”You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them because they could not bear what was commanded.”
Whoa! What on earth is the writer talking about here?
A good guide gives some background and historical facts.
He is reminding them of Mount Sinai, when God gave the law to Moses.
That was a mountain that they could have physically touched but were told that if even an animal touched it, the animal must be stoned. The whole sight was so terrifying that even Moses was trembling with fear.
What would our faith be like if all we knew of God was His thundering, commanding voice and His control of nature?
We would constantly be pleading with Him or trying to placate Him.
At first God is unapproachable, terrifying, things look dark and bleak, and all we know is that the law is so strict we can never live up to its demands. We can’t even come close and plead our case to this God in the sky with the dreaded voice.
But that was thousands of years ago and a lot has happened as far as God’s dealings with man and His revelation of himself to His people. There have been more mountains.
Verses 22 to 24 explain to the New Testament Christians just how far they have come in their understanding of God and worship.
(I love it when a verse begins with the word “But.”)
It means here comes a “God intervention”…a special action or disclaimer aside from the usual. Look at what it says.
“But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God.
You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven.”
Now our writer-guide brings us right up to the present time and hints at a future place we can’t quite find on our maps.
(The concept of Zion is congregational, not geographical.
It represents the gathering of Jesus with His people through all the ages.)
“You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the word of Abel.”
Say what? We are getting lost in the translation of all this now. He says we have come this far but we missed a few markers along the way evidently.
Now the assembly is joyful, and we come to the judge unafraid because we have been made “perfectly righteous.”
Jesus is the mediator, the advocate protecting us with a covenant ratified by His blood.
What happened between Mount Sinai and Mount Zion?
It sure has made a lot of difference.
There was the mountain in the middle.
Which mountain was that?
It was Mount Calvary.
That is where the innocent blood of Holy God was spilled to pay for guilty humanity’s death sentence
When it says His blood “speaks a better word than that of Abel,” what does that mean?
Well, Abel was murdered by his brother Cain and his blood cried out for revenge.
But Jesus’ blood was shed for redemptive purposes and it cries out for mercy.
Now God has spoken through His son!
We certainly don’t want to miss that historical fact.
Hear Him!
In verse 25 the Hebrew writer warns us not to refuse to listen to God’s voice.
If Moses’ warned that failure to heed God’s instructions would carry the death penalty, how much more now does the failure to listen to the merciful plea of Jesus bring an even stiffer penalty of eternal death and separation from God?
Then verses 26 and 27 go on to further compare the past and future actions of God.
At that time (on Mount Sinai) the earth shook, and eventually it will shake again so that only what cannot be shaken will remain.
Think of this “shaking” idea as representing winnowing or sifting wheat from tares. The women would shake huge sieves to separate the wheat from the chaff and the Bible says in (Luke 3:17) that in the end times God will effectively do the same thing with people.
What is the only thing that cannot be shaken?
It is your relationship with God.
God has put a mountain and a mediator in the middle between you and judgment.
Just as surely as sin must be punished, righteousness must be rewarded.
Once you are His blood-covenant child you are forever sealed in the kingdom. You remain and receive the inheritance of the saints.
Therefore, the writer reminds us to “be thankful and worship God acceptably in reverence and awe.”
Then he seems to tack on a puzzling statement at the end there in verse 29.
“For our God is a consuming fire.”
Just when we thought it was safe to approach the loving Father God, now we see that God is the same yesterday today and forever.
He burns with a fiery fervent passion!
Fire refines gold but burns up hay wood and stubble.
When Moses saw the burning bush, the thing that made him go over and take a closer look was that it was not consumed! God was giving instructions.
When the Hebrew children were in the fiery furnace they were not consumed because of the fourth man in the fire!
That fourth man was Jesus, and He takes the heat for you, too.
We now have a better covenant, a better priest and a better hope and there is a sharp contrast between the two alternatives of faith versus unbelief.
God can speak a word of warning or a word of forgiveness or a word of commissioning. He spoke in the past and He still speaks today. To refuse to hear and heed is always a danger.
In the end, we become either golden trophies of His grace, or the burned ashes of His judgment.
So our trip through the mountains has taken us from a trembling fear of God at Sinai to a Holy worship of Him today at a mountain which cannot be touched because it is spiritual in concept.
Remember when Jesus explained to the woman at the well
(in John 4:21-24) that there would come a time when she wouldn’t need to worry about which mountain she should worship in? He said the true worshipers would worship the father in spirit and in truth.
Did you know when you worship at Weavers or some other church out of town with your friends or relatives, you are worshipping in spiritual Zion and accompanied by angels and friends and relatives already in heaven? That’s right. That’s how far we have come by faith!
Now, sometimes it’s hard to see how the two lectionary passages we read each Sunday morning are connected, but I love to see if I can figure out the connection. So hang with me here just a few minutes longer and look at something I found very interesting.
I want to take just a brief look at the passage in Luke we read this morning, to see how the Old Testament demands compare to the New Testament allowances with the benefit of our hindsight.
When Jesus was accused of breaking the Sabbath law by healing the crippled woman, he explained that even the animals were allowed to be loosed and watered on that day.
Now do you remember that the animals would also perish if they had touched Mount Sinai?
It seems to follow that Adam’s sin set all of creation in enmity with God, but Christ came to set it all back right.
(See it’s that important mountain in the middle that made all the difference!)
This woman was “unable to straighten up.”
This is normally what sets humans apart from animals.
Now God has compassion on both!
Those who could not approach God or touch anything near Him were now being touched and brought near to Him.
Jesus is the one who reached out to touch her.
I don’t know about you, but finding stuff like that in the Bible and all of a sudden really seeing it for the first time just winds my clock!
So keep reading now, there’s more!
The Sabbath was not set aside to reward Adam with rest after working, but rather to remember that God worked in creation and now Jesus works to make all of creation free.
In Exodus 20:8 and in Deuteronomy 5:12-15 they were told not to work and not to let their animals work either on the Sabbath because they were to remember they had been slaves in Egypt and God brought them out.
What an illustration of KEEPING the Sabbath when Jesus released this woman from suffering the same way He was about to release all creation from the grip of sin.
(Remember he told them that Satan had bound her for
eighteen years!)
In the new Jerusalem we won’t have human suffering or animal suffering either, because Satan will be bound and we will be free.
Coming to the mountain of God has always been a reference to worship.
Our “Sabbath Sundays” are set aside to worship and proclaim God’s liberating power.
We have come from the law at Sinai through the blood of Calvary to the grace in Zion
There should be smoke on the mountain from our fiery zeal!
Amen.
Closing hymn: “O Zion Haste” (page 573 UMC hymnal)
