HEBREWS 12:18-24

March 10, 2019
Life is full of choices.  This morning, you decided whether to get up early or sleep in – after losing an hour of sleep.  Whether to eat breakfast or not. What to eat for breakfast. Caffeinated or decaf. Whether to go to church or not.  The 8:15, 9:45 or 11:15 service. Whether to go out for lunch – and if so, where. I don’t know about you, but that’s always the biggest challenge for my family.  We go out on Sundays, but where to go? No one wants to make that decision. Then when we get there, what to choose from the menu. When we get home – to nap or not to nap.  Greenway to walk or run? Or ride on the Parkway? Too many choices.
Life is filled with choices every day.  Some are more significant than others. Some actually carry eternal consequences.  I’m reminded of when the children of Israel finally made it to the land of promise.  You see, they had spent 400 years in Egypt, were delivered by Moses, and made their way to the land.  Moses sent in 12 spies. When they returned, two said, let’s go, ten said, no way. To whom did they listen?  They had a choice to make – and you know they listened to the ten. The majority is not always right. So, they had to wander in the wilderness for 40 years.
But finally, it’s time.  Joshua leads them in conquest of the land.  You can read about it in the first 12 chapters of the book of Joshua.  The next 12 chapters largely talk about the division of the land. But you get to chapter 24 – the last chapter, and Joshua is about to die.  So he gives his moving farewell speech. Part of that speech is on plaques in Christian homes all around the world – maybe even your home. “Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve…as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”  
2 Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘From ancient times your fathers lived beyond the River, namely, Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods.
3 ‘Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River, and led him through all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his descendants and gave him Isaac.
4 ‘To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau, and to Esau I gave Mount Seir to possess it; but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt.
5 ‘Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt by what I did in its midst; and afterward I brought you out.
6 ‘I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea; and Egypt pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea.
7 ‘But when they cried out to the LORD, He put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them and covered them; and your own eyes saw what I did in Egypt. And you lived in the wilderness for a long time….
11 ‘You crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho; and the citizens of Jericho fought against you, and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Girgashite, the Hivite and the Jebusite. Thus I gave them into your hand.
12 ‘Then I sent the hornet before you and it drove out the two kings of the Amorites from before you, but not by your sword or your bow.
13 ‘I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and cities which you had not built, and you have lived in them; you are eating of vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.’
14 “Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.
Can you believe it?  We leave out the middle part of that verse – but it’s important for context.  After all the Lord had done for them, they were still carrying around the gods of their forefathers, from beyond the Euphrates, the gods of the Egyptians and the Amorites.  Make a choice. Choose today whom you will serve. That always seemed to be problem for then. It’s why we have the awful book Judges. It’s why they eventually end up in captivity some years later.  
And yet, all along, God promised to redeem them.  There would come a seed of the woman who would crush the serpent’s head.  There would come a descendent of Abraham, through whom all the nations of the world would be blessed.  There would come a descendent of David who would sit on David’s throne forever. He would be the Anointed One – the Messiah.  And He came, but they largely missed Him.
But good news, some believed.  And we’ve found, in our study of Hebrews, it was costing them.  The book was written to Jewish believers – those who had believed in Jesus, but were now facing severe persecution.  And as a consequence, they were considering quitting and returning to Judaism. Leaving Jesus and returning to the old covenant.  Choose you this day, whom you will serve.
So, the author writes to both encourage and warn them.  And as we arrive at our text in Hebrews 12, his encouragement is to choose Jesus and the New Covenant He brought – not return to the Old Covenant.  Because as he’s been arguing through the book – there remains no sacrifice for sins there. Jesus has come – and He and He alone is the way to be reconciled to God – He alone is the way to forgiveness and eternal life.  You cannot return – there’s nothing there. Make a choice. And now he highlights the significant differences between the Old and New Covenants. There’s a sense in which he summarizes many things he’s already said – but it’s so important, he says it again.
The Old Covenant of Mt. Sinai (18-21)The New Covenant of Mt. Zion (22-24)
18 All the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance.
19 Then they said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die.”
22 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘You yourselves have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven.
23 ‘You shall not make other gods besides Me; gods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not make for yourselves.’”
11 “You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the very heart of the heavens: darkness, cloud and thick gloom.
12 “Then the LORD spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but you saw no form – only a voice.
13 “So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone.
14 “The LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might perform them in the land where you are going over to possess it.
15 “So watch yourselves carefully, since you did not see any form on the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire,
16 so that you do not act corruptly and make a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure…
First, you’ve come to a mountain that can be touched.  The idea is, it was physical.Second, there was blazing fire – both Exodus and Deuteronomy talk about fire on the mountain.Third, there is darkness.  I want you to note the fear and trembling this event brought.  The people were scared to death. They told Moses – you talk to God, and tell us what He says.  We cannot approach Him. This whole awesome event, and as we’ve seen even the Tabernacle setup, spoke of God’s holiness, His otherness, that He was unapproachable.Fourth, there was gloom, a word which intensifies the foreboding experience.  It did not bring hope and joy – there is a sense in which it brought dread and gloom.  Fifth, there was a whirlwind – this speaks of a mighty, howling wind stirring up the dirt.  Again, a terrifying event.Sixth, there is the blast of a trumpet.  Now this likely refers to a shofar or a ram’s horn.  But this is a loud peel like thunder. So loud a couple million people hear it.And seventh, there was the sound of words – we’re not sure if they understood the words – but they were clearly words.  And remember, they came out of the gloom and darkness, such that they begged Moses that God not speak directly to them – lest we die.
At this awesome theophany and the giving of the Law, there was great fear.  They felt it, they saw it, they heard it. They could not bear the command – don’t break through and touch the holy mountain.  If you do, you will be killed. And if an animal happens to wander off, even the beast is to be stoned. Again, the whole event spoke of no access.  You cannot approach God.
18 “I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD to provoke Him to anger.
19 “For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the LORD was wrathful against you in order to destroy you…”
Here’s the point.  When they turned from the true God to follow a false God, one they fashioned, Moses was afraid.  You see, he too remembered the terror at the giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai – the first three commandments of which say you will not have other gods before Me.  No taking My name in vain. No graven images. Moses was afraid because they had already broken the Law. He was fearful of the hot anger and wrath of God.
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.
2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them…”
Do you see, that’s where we are headed.  And notice, we will dwell with God. He will no longer be separate and aloof – transcendent.  Not that He’s changed. But having redeemed us, purified us through the work of His Son, we are now fit to live in His presence – for Him to be our God, we to be His people.  No more fire, darkness, gloom, terror. Do you see the contrast?
Third, we have come to the church of the firstborn.  We are part of the church which belongs to God. Now, the word firstborn is used to speak of Jesus – the firstborn or first in rank.  But the word here is in the plural, and likely refers to the truth that we belong to the assembly, the church of all those who are coheirs with Christ and have inherited the firstborn blessing as sons and daughters of God.  We see further their names, an our names, are enrolled in heaven. Our names are written in the Lambs book of life – written from the foundation of the world.
Fourth, we have come to God Himself – the judge of all.  Remember, under the Old Covenant, access to God was restricted.  But because of the New Covenant, we have access to God. We’ve been told through this book we can draw near to God – approach the throne of grace – something unknown in the Old Covenant.  Yes, He is the judge of all – but as we have received Jesus, we need not fear His judgment – for our judgment was laid on Christ.
Fifth, we have come to the spirits of the righteous made perfect.  Lots of discussion about that, but most agree this referring to all those – under the Old Covenant and the New Covenant who have been made perfect because of the work of Christ.  Those who are now in heaven, spiritual people awaiting the future resurrection of their bodies. We remember from the last verse of chapter 11, that those in the Hall of Faith were not made perfect apart from us – from those who believe in Christ and His work on the cross.  You see, the author has argued, the Old Covenant made no one perfect. It took the work of Christ.
Which brings us sixth, incredibly, we have come to Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant.  He’s been saying this over and over. In chapters 7 & 8, Jesus mediated a better covenant than the old.  In quoting Jeremiah 31 in Hebrews 8, it’s called a New Covenant. He calls it a new covenant again in chapter 9.  Here’s the point. The New Covenant is better because it is the fulfillment of all the Old Covenant promised and to which it pointed.  It gave what the Old Covenant could never give – full forgiveness of sin and perfection.
How?  Because seventh, we have come to sprinkled blood.  Blood infinitely greater than the blood of bulls and goats that could never take away sin for good.  We have come to the very blood of Christ. Which finally we see is better than the blood of Abel. What does that mean?  Well, besides taking us back to the beginning of chapter 11 and the first one named – Abel’s blood cried out for divine justice.  Jesus’ blood met the demands of divine justice, and therefore provided forgiveness forever. It’s better.
So, while our author does not ask his readers to make a choice like Joshua, clearly this is his concern.  Joshua said, will you choose the false gods of Egypt and the nations around you? Or will you choose to serve the Lord?
So make a choice.  Who will you follow?  The empty promises of the world, its false religions?  Even the old religion of Judaism, which denies Jesus is the Christ.  Will you return to that terror, or other religions of hopelessness? Or will you follow Christ, and inherit the joys of heaven to come?