Jesus, the Source of Endurance

Good morning. The halftime speech, or the huddle, has to be one of the most intriguing, even if not prominent, aspects of athletic competition. The words that are spoken at a strategic time in the game can become a catalyst for a dramatic shift in the outcome. Sometimes it's basic adjustments that need to be made, seeing holes in the defense or things in the offense that need to be shored up. But the truly great speeches involve motivation. They inspire the team to persevere. To maintain a kind of intensity that keeps them on the top or even better maybe to respond to a poor first half performance with fresh resolve, fresh intention to keep fighting, keep working and sometimes even overcome that bad performance and win a victory. It's in those moments that coaches are able to speak to their teams at the very deepest level to remind them of what they play for. And so often it seems like the outcome of the game doesn't depend on who has the most talent, but who has the most resolve and grit, who has the most compelling reason to keep fighting for the victory. The letter of Hebrews, I think, is actually intended to function like that. It's to be like a halftime motivational speech. If you're new to the church this morning, we welcome you. I'm not the one who's preaching most Sundays, but on the occasion I do. I've been working through the book of Hebrews. Hebrews is a written sermon to a group of Jewish Christians in the first century, and they seem to be in danger of walking away from their faith in Jesus, losing it, going back to the faith of the Jews, the kind of worship they had done for hundreds of years before Jesus came. And so our author is writing them to remind them of who Jesus is, that he's the final revelation from God. He's the great high priest who actually brings his people into the presence of God. He's the fulfillment of everything the Old Testament was looking forward to. And so going back to the Old Testament, leaving Jesus to go back to old covenant worship was foolish and deadly. And in our text this morning, we're gonna see that our author is using this kind of athletic imagery to get this point across, to encourage, to spur his hearers on to endure. And what I want us to take away this morning is that Christians must strive to live lives of enduring faith in Jesus. We'll consider four points this morning, the motivation for our endurance, the purpose of endurance, the practice of endurance, and the necessity of endurance. So let's look first at the motivation for endurance in verses one to four. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood." So our author is comparing the Christian life to a race where we're called to run with endurance. And he's picking up from the last chapter where we looked at this great cloud of witnesses and what's kind of, we call a lot of times, the hall of faith. We looked at the lives and legacies of Abraham and Moses in a lot of detail, and then ended with a kind of highlight reel of all these Christians and saints, or not Christians, the saints who had gone before. And the author ends that chapter 11 with this compelling point that even though those Old Testament saints were commended by God through their faith, they didn't receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us, they should not be made perfect. So to kind of continue with the analogy, We're running a relay race. So those saints have already run, they've already completed their course, they've handed the baton off to us. And we're looking back on God's fulfillment of all of his promises and trying to learn from their example, be inspired by them to finish the course. It's our turn to run. The saints of old have finished their course and because they've gone before us, we should be inspired to keep running in faith. Now as we run, the author tells us we're supposed to give attention to how we run. He says we must lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely. If you think about runners getting ready for a race, you imagine them coming in, they show up with their warmups on, their bags, their headphones and all of that, but when it's time to run, they set all those things aside, right? They strip down to minimal clothing so that nothing can hinder their movement. And if we think about that in a broader sense, right, top athletes, they put everything about their lives, they put it off. They put all of their lives are considered in the context of their athletic competition. So they monitor their diet, their exercise habits. They want to maintain this optimal body weight and ratio of muscle and everything else. They get rid of every habit that would be destructive. Everything about their lives revolves around their ability to compete. And so that must be true for us as Christians. We have to lay aside everything that keeps us from running the race of faith. So the author describes every weight and sin which clings so closely. And it seems like sin maybe is that stubborn fat that just won't go away, no matter how hard we try, but it really slows us down. Sin is the enemy of our faith and we're called to cast it off through repentance, through changing our minds, which results in a change of our lives. We're also told to lay aside every weight, And I think here that it may not be things that are inherently sinful, but they're still not helpful to us. It may be not the same thing for each one of us, but just like competitive athletes, we have to be so committed to the cause that we don't let anything slow us down, anything distract us. So we're not just asking, is this thing sinful? But we're asking, is this helpful? It's going to be good for my faith to do this. We're called to run with endurance. which means we are not running a sprint, right? There's a measure of physical ability that's required in every race, but in distance running especially, it's the mental resolve to press on that plays a huge factor, and that's what we are called to as God's people. So we see that how we run is really important, but the emphasis in this section is not so much on how we run, but why we run. Everybody runs for something, right? Some people do it for health and exercise. Some people do it for the thrill of achievement, to set and accomplish a goal. Some people run for that runner's high that they get. Some people run for a cause, to raise awareness or money for something. Everyone who runs, runs with their eyes on the finish line, eyes on the prize. So we ask, what is the Christian's motivation for this race that we're running? Well, very clearly the author says our motivation is Jesus. It's Jesus. We run looking to Jesus. Our running, our motivation in this race of faith that is set before us is Jesus. As he says, he is the founder and perfecter of our faith. He's the pioneer who's gone ahead. He's charted the course for us. He's modeled a life of faithful trust in God all the way to the end. He is the object of our faith. But He's also the one who completes our faith. He perfects His people. He's opened the way to God. He started it, and He'll finish it. It says, for the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of God. It says He endured the cross. The cross was a brutal, torturing death reserved for the worst kind of criminals. Their hands and feet were pierced to die a slow death of suffocation in his own blood. It was a shameful way to die. It was public, and the crucified criminal was usually stripped naked to mock and to shame him, to embarrass him and to warn anybody else from ever wanting to commit a crime like that. But the text tells us that Jesus despised that shame. In other words, He didn't care so much about that shame that it would keep Him from following through and completing God's will. He despised it and therefore He allowed Himself to be subject to it. He endured to the very end of His life. He endured from sinners such hostility against Himself. Again, He never did anything wrong. He was perfect. He was righteous. He healed. He provided. He taught truth. But because he was light, shining in the darkness, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, they loved their evil, they rejected him, they opposed him, they falsely accused him, and eventually condemned him to death. But Jesus didn't stay dead. On the third day, he was raised because death couldn't hold him. He suffered in the place of sinners. He was raised because God had accepted his sacrifice, and now he reigns as king at the right hand of God. And friends, this is the good news of the gospel. If you're here this morning and you're not a Christian, this is what you have to understand. On the cross, we see what our sin deserves. Jesus was cut off from fellowship with God and he was left to God's righteous anger against sin. All of us were created to worship God, to honor him and give thanks, but instead we reject him and we go our own way. And this is treason. It's not a light thing. It deserves the worst kind of death for all eternity. And yet Jesus, the infinite son of the father, came to stand in the place of sinners. He offered his life as payment for our sin, his perfect righteousness to our account, so everyone who believes in Jesus can be forgiven of sin and be accepted by God. It's amazing news. And it demands us to believe, to trust in Jesus for our salvation, to turn away from sin, whether it's in our rejection of God and our outright rebellion against him, or in our attempts to be right with him on the basis of our own efforts. Please do not leave here this morning without talking to somebody about that good news. Now a question we should ask is why? Why would Jesus do all of this? Now I want to note that the answer is not simply because he's seated now at the right hand of the throne of God. Because if you think about the story of the Bible, you know that the son was with the father from all eternity. The son had the glory of the father and the angels before he ever left it. And so what was it then? What was the joy that was set before Jesus? What was the thing that he didn't have before? Brothers and sisters, it's us. It's us. And Christians, we need to feel the weight of that this morning. The reason that this world exists, the reason that Jesus came to suffer and die and rise again is so that you and I could enjoy fellowship with him. That we could worship him forever as our great and glorious king. That is what this life is all about. Jesus emptied himself of divine glory and came to suffer and die for you and me. He endured it all for us. And because of that, friends, we are called to endure for Him. We love because He first loved us. Our motivation to resist sin, to suffer persecution, maybe even to give up our lives is Jesus. He's already done it for us. So it'd be a small thing then to do it for Him. Jesus is far more than just a good example of faithful perseverance, though He certainly is that. No, He persevered so that He could have a relationship with us. The only natural response, then, is to persevere for a relationship with Him. And that's not to say that this is easy. The author is acknowledging this is a struggle. It's warfare. We are wrestling with sin. We grow weary and faint hearted, right? The hills are steep. The road is long. The finish line may be a long way off. We get tired and thirsty, but we must not lose sight of what awaits us on the other side. We are running to the one who has already run for us. Even if we're called to shed our blood, we're doing it for the one who has already shed his blood for us. So if you're struggling this morning, we're going to consider some other practical steps the author has laid out for us, but none of that is going to matter if you don't have this vision set before you. Nothing you put off or put on is going to matter if it's not out of a loving response to the one who has given himself for you. Self-discipline and holiness can too easily become self-righteousness. Fear of judgment will not change us on the inside, but love will. So as we consider the rest of this text, friends, don't lose sight of Jesus. He's why we run. Second, we'll look at the purpose of endurance. Verses five to 11. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. So he shifts his perspective a little bit from that of a coach to that of a parent. And we see the emphasis in this section that the purpose of endurance is discipline. Discipline is the unique responsibility of parents. Right? It's our role to know our children, to know where they need to grow. And the author says that's what God is doing. There are things about us that are wrong and need to be corrected. So discipline is corrective, but it's also formative. So we have tendencies towards certain sins. We need to learn that we shouldn't do or say or think in certain ways, but discipline is also formative. It may be something about us, not so much that's wrong, but just immature, right? We need to grow in certain areas. We need to be stretched and challenged. And so discipline is the act of a loving parent who wants what's best for his or her child. A failure to discipline is a failure to love. Leaving a child in his or her sin is the most hate-filled thing a parent could do, right? And we understand this as we get older. The author acknowledges discipline's unpleasant at the time. It's not fun. But as we get older, we come to appreciate it. We look back and see that it was helpful. We realize that we needed to be corrected. And we can actually be thankful for those who corrected us. We can respect those who loved us enough to do it. Earthly parents discipline to the best of our abilities, right? We try to get it right, but we are limited. But brothers and sisters, God is not limited. God's discipline is always perfectly crafted out of his absolute goodness and his limitless knowledge so that he does exactly what is right for us. And that's what God is doing through our suffering and trials. God is bringing us into circumstances that test us, that expose our weaknesses and sins so that we can repent and grow. The text tells us we must be holy. We must be holy. But without God's discipline, we can't be holy. It's not something we can manufacture ourselves. God has to make us like him by removing the things in us that aren't like him. And when this happens, we are trained by God's discipline. It produces the peaceful fruit of righteousness. The results are holy and good. Endurance is necessary to carry us through then, not to give up or give in because we are looking to Jesus, who though he was sinless, he was made perfect through his suffering. And so we have to be convinced that God is sovereign, that God is bringing these things upon us in order to refine our faith. And that's why James tells his audience to consider it pure joy when we encounter various trials, because the testing of our faith produces endurance. If we think about it, children should welcome discipline, right? Their posture should be, Mom, Dad, I know that you know a lot more than I do. I know that you see into my life better than I see. So please tell me what needs to be corrected. But sin keeps them from doing that, doesn't it? And it keeps us from having that posture toward our Heavenly Father. Mature faith sees God's loving hand in discipline and eagerly wants to learn and grow and change through it. That should be what we strive for, this posture of humility and submission, grateful that God loves us enough to want us to grow. Brothers and sisters, I know many in this room are suffering in various ways this morning, and I don't want to trivialize that at all. And I don't think the author of Hebrews does either. Discipline is hard. Endurance is hard. It is not easy. And yet God places his people into situations that are difficult for us because of his fatherly love for us. Discipline is difficult, but it's essential to forming us into people who are like God. Let me speak a quick word to children. So under the age 10, wake up, attention. Discipline is good. We have broken hearts. And God uses our parents to help fix them, right? So ask God to help you trust Him and trust your parents and learn from them as they correct you. Discipline is good. And let me say a word to parents. Discipline is good. Just as God doesn't give up on us, so we must not give up and grow weary in disciplining our children. The author says that discipline yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. And the hard thing about fruit is you can't manufacture it. You don't always see the process, right? There's nothing you can do. You don't see the steps. But in due time, if the conditions are right, God will produce fruit. So persevere, that's our goal. Third, let's look at the practice of endurance. Verses 12 to 17. Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled, that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears. So in verses 12 and 13, we return to this running metaphor. I'm told, haven't done this myself, but I'm told that in distance races, as runners get to a point where they start to get tired and weary, where they have to give special attention to their form or else they risk kind of being compromised and becoming susceptible to an injury. And so they know at certain points in the race to really concentrate, to really focus on how they're running. And that's exactly what the author is saying. The hearers of this letter are in danger of becoming weary and getting injured, and so they need fresh resolve to run for the prize. The goal of this correction is health and wholeness, that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather healed. And so the intent is to correct the athlete in that moment so he avoids a race or even career-ending injury. And this exhortation seems to address the whole church as a body and the danger that either a particular subset of the church or a weakness that's inherent to all of them that they're currently struggling with, something is wrong. And so they have to rally together with a fresh attention and a fresh resolve to keep their eyes on Jesus. And then from that point, he gets very practical. So verse 14 says, strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. So Christians are called to strive for peace and holiness. It's something that requires our effort. Peace, we just heard, characterizes the fruit of righteousness that God's discipline brings about in us. It's a state of unity and harmony in our relationships with other people, and especially in Christian community. Jesus has established our peace with God and each other through his sacrifice, and so we're called to live that out in our relationships. Holiness is a spiritual quality. It refers first to God and his purity, but then also to the character that we adorn as his people. It means that we're distinct from the world around us, that we're single-minded in our devotion to God. It involves casting off sin so that we become more like him. And he tells us the reason we must strive for holiness is that without it, we cannot see the Lord. And that's, again, why we're running, isn't it? We want to see Jesus. But if we don't pursue holiness now, we won't make it to the end. We won't see Him. So these commands have to do with our lives as individuals and how we pursue our relationship with God and how we conduct ourselves to other people. I just want to see the tension between holiness and peace. If you have holiness without peace, you just run out of the world, right? You don't have to engage with people. And if you have peace without holiness, then you have no conviction. You just compromise in your relationships. God's holiness and God's peace have to characterize us together as we endure the weight and the entanglements of sin in this world. So the author calls us to that individually, but then he immediately turns to how we live together in community and actually our responsibility to the people who are around us in this community. So the command of verse 15, see to it, ensures that peace and holiness are just as important in your lives as they are in mine. Endurance is a community project, is what he's saying. We need each other to endure faithfully. It's not a competition to see who crosses the line first. The goal is that all of us cross together. And notice here that he doesn't single anybody out in particular. It's not the job of the pastors or the deacons or the super gifted and super mature people. Everyone is responsible for this kind of watch care over the body. So he gives us three specific warnings. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled, and that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. To fail to obtain the grace of God is to miss out. It's to fall short. It's what happened to the Exodus generation who didn't enter God's rest, right? They were kept from doing so. Here, though, the author is talking about our eternal salvation. The root of bitterness is a reference to Deuteronomy where Moses is warning them about the temptation to turn away from God to idols, which is the same temptation these Christians are facing and struggling with as they consider abandoning Jesus to go back to the old covenant. Being sexually immoral or unholy like Esau is talking about his idolatry in a moment that can only be characterized as just insanity. He trades his birthright, this double inheritance of the firstborn son, to his brother Jacob for a meal, a bowl of stew and some bread. And these warnings are here because each of us are susceptible to the same danger. Our hearts are capable of growing just as cold and hard to God if we don't persevere. And we need each other to do this. So I want us to think about what this text teaches us about sin. Three particular points here. First, sin is disappointing. Sin always over-promises and under-delivers. And that's not to say that there's no appeal to sin, and if that were the case, we wouldn't need this warning, right? The author said before, the pleasures of sin are fleeting. It's always a losing proposition. There's no way to sin and come out ahead. And sexual immorality, sexual immorality captures this so clearly. Now to make sure we're on the same page, sexual immorality is talking about any sexual activity outside the relationship of a married man and woman. And when we commit sexual sin, we make the same trade that Esau made. Esau came in from the field, exhausted, and made an incredibly foolish trade. One meal, instant gratification for his birthright, for his inheritance, his future, all of it, gone. For a meal. And we trade a moment of pleasure, this temporary gratification, for a lifetime of guilt and shame and pain and emptiness. Sex is meant to be this physical expression of a whole life union, a one flesh union of marriage. And when we detach it from that, we distort God's gift of sex, we distort ourselves in the process, we dehumanize ourselves and those we participate with. The Bible speaks so clearly into the lie that our culture tells us all the time. That sex is just an appetite, just something to gratify. That as long as it's consensual, it's okay. That pornography really has no victims. No. Brothers and sisters, that is a lie. And I say this this morning to warn you and to protect you. There is no such thing as consequence-free sex outside of marriage. Sexual sin harms you. Sexual sin will kill you. Flee from sexual immorality to Jesus Christ. Now I know I'm looking in a room of people who have sinned sexually. And I want to offer you hope this morning that sexual sin is not the unpardonable sin. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. There is hope for everyone here this morning who would turn from sin to Jesus. Not just to be forgiven, which is amazing, not to have your sin counted against you, but to also be cleansed and purified through Jesus Christ. It's an amazing promise. So don't trade a moment of pleasure for an eternity of torment. Second, we see that sin is contagious. The root of bitterness can spring up and cause trouble, defiling many. And defiling, being defiled is the opposite of being holy. Sometimes it's easy to kind of sit back and look at somebody else's sin and see it as their problem, right? But that's not what the author is calling us to do. When you see sin in somebody else's life, that sin needs to be rooted out, not only for that person's good, but also because of how it affects other people in that person's life. Roots grow and spread, and if unchecked, a single weed will take over a whole field. And that's what the author is warning us about. Your neighbor's sin could become your spiritual demise. Your neighbor's sin could be your friend's spiritual demise. So we have to love God and His holiness and each other enough to pursue each other when we are in sin, to catch it early and cut it off before it spreads. Let's think specifically this morning about the sin of bitterness that he talks about. Now, Paul Tripp defines bitterness as confessing other sins to myself over and over again. So what we're called to do is confess our own sins to God. What bitterness is, is confessing someone else's sins to myself and just dwelling on it. Bitterness allows another person to be defined by his or her sin and not identity in Christ. It becomes the lens through which we view everything that person says or does. So bitterness is the exact opposite of Christian love and forgiveness. Bitterness doesn't allow for the offense of sin to be covered, to consider the possibility that the person has good and right motives. And so it stands as a barrier to living at peace with other people. Rather than being eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace, bitterness is eager to maintain the dividing wall of hostility, to hold your sin between us. Bitterness often comes out of our mouths as the spark that sets an entire forest ablaze. And we can even become bitter at God. We can charge God with wrongdoing for failing to meet our expectations. And so the warning here this morning certainly is don't be bitter and repent of bitterness. But it's not just that. It's also don't participate in someone else's bitterness. Recognize that somebody else's bitterness, bitterness in this community endangers all of us. People that you love can become bitter and hurt you. So when you see bitterness in somebody else's life, don't run away from it, don't hide from it, don't cover it up in their lives. Expose it, dig it up and help them to throw it away. Call people to repent of their bitterness, to look to Jesus Christ and allow the cleansing flow of mercy and forgiveness and joy to flow into that life. Because the good news is this morning friends, joy and mercy and forgiveness are contagious too. Third, sin is deadly. Just listen to some of the phrases the author uses in this section. Without holiness, we will not see the Lord. Some can fail to obtain the grace of God. Many become defiled. Regarding Esau, for you know that afterward when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears. Friends, that's terrifying. There is such a thing as too late. Esau gave up his birthright and he couldn't get it back. The Bible offers no comfort, no assurance to anyone who is in unrepentant sin. We cannot presume upon God's kindness thinking that we can sin now and seek his favor and forgiveness later. God's kindness now must lead us to repentance now. We see here that the consequences of sin are eternal. This isn't something to take lightly. Sin harms us, it distorts our view of reality, it weighs us down from running effectively, and ultimately, it kills us. And that applies to both spectrums of sin we see here this morning. The path of self-indulgence, like sexual immorality, and the path of self-righteousness, like bitterness, both lead to the same hell. There's only one solution for us, brothers and sisters, and that is to repent. to confess your sin to God where appropriate, go to others to make it right, cast it off, do whatever you need to do to get rid of it. Look to Jesus for the forgiveness you need and the motivation you need to get back in the race. Now again, I want us to see here that endurance is a community project. We are called to see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. And then consider the rest of the things he talks about in this section. He's talking about bitterness and sexual immorality. So be honest. Are you having conversations like that in the context of your relationships with brothers and sisters at Jefferson Park Baptist Church? Is there anyone in this room who knows the kind of things you struggle with, the things that are going on in your mind and in your heart on a daily, weekly basis? Do you know what somebody else in this room is struggling with? Brothers and sisters, if we are not known, and if we don't know each other, then some of us are not going to finish this race. Think about the people around you in this room. Don't you want all of them to be in heaven with you? Don't you want all of them to know and love Jesus? Don't you want to know and love Jesus better? Then friends, we've got to get real with each other. This means we have to do the hard work of spending enough time with each other to have these kind of conversations. It means we have to give up good things ourselves that are ultimately weighing us down and keeping us from running well, or they're taking up the time and energy we would have to invest in other people to help them run well. It's what Jesus did for us, and it's what he calls us to do for each other. Last, let's look at the necessity of endurance, verses 18 to 29. 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. So on the heels of this warning about the deadliness of our sin, we see the author reminding us of why the stakes are so high, because God's judgment is coming. This first section, 18 to 21, describes Israel at the base of Mount Sinai receiving the law, what we heard read earlier in the service. It was this overwhelming experience of the senses, everything that they saw and heard and felt. It was such a holy place that even if an animal touched the mountain, it had to be stoned to death. Even Moses, who was one of our heroes from chapter 11, he saw the holiness of God in response to the Israelites' idolatry, and he said, I tremble with fear. As the author said, so terrifying was the sight. I'm sure a lot of us have experienced kind of storms like that, where you've been out, caught, unexpected, and a huge storm comes up, lightning, thunder, wind, rain, hail, whatever it is, it's so powerful, it's so overwhelming, we feel small and helpless in those moments. But even those experiences are just a dim reflection of this storm that the author is describing, because this was a manifestation of the very presence, the holiness of God. But he reminds us this morning that that's not what we have come to. We're not just getting a second chance at the law. We, God's people now, come to Mount Zion. And so verses 22 to 24 show us we stand at the threshold of heavenly glory. So let's just consider some of these terms, what he describes here. Mount Sinai. This was the residence of King David. It became the site of the temple and throughout the prophets was the focal place of where God would restore his presence with his people. It's the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. It's where God dwells. We come to innumerable angels in festal gathering. These heavenly beings who were created first, who serve God perfectly, they are there in festal gathering. It's a party, it's a celebration of who God is and what he's done. We come to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven. That is all of the saints, Old and New Testament, who are identified by faith in Jesus. This includes Christians, brothers and sisters, you and me, right now, our names enrolled in heaven. We come to God the judge of all. And it reminds us that God is there at the center, his real presence in heavenly Jerusalem, in Mount Zion, and that his role as a judge is central to that. But just as a judge punishes sin, he also rewards those who are faithful. And we see the spirits of the righteous made perfect. Those saints who have died and been judged faithful, they are now perfect and complete in God's presence. The church is a great place now, but imagine how much better it will be when we are all made perfect. We come to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant. And that reminds us of, it's his identity, it's his work as our great high priest who makes our salvation possible. And we come now to him, our eyes are on him, we're running to him, we're coming to him. And to his sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. That reminds us that it is Jesus's sacrifice of himself that purifies us forever as God's people. Abel's blood cried out for justice, but Jesus's blood declares that justice has been satisfied. And so the physical phenomenon of Sinai was only a shadow of these spiritual realities in Zion. This is a place of jubilant glory, the very presence of God where we're enabled to participate with confidence through Jesus. And that's why the author is warning us not to refuse the one who is speaking. God spoke at Sinai, and now he speaks from Zion through Jesus. The stakes are so much higher because we have so much more to lose. Then he shook the earth, but now he promises to shake both the earth and the heavens. This is talking about the final judgment where God will remove everything that can be shaken, that needs to be removed, so that the perfect kingdom will remain. Eternal life is on the line, friends. It requires our full attention. What he's describing is scary and difficult, isn't it? It's not fun to be shaken, but the result of God's shaking is that the things that cannot be shaken will remain. And this is true for our lives and true for the kingdom that we will inherit and participate in. If we endure this shaking of the earth and the heavens, we'll live with God forever in an unshakable kingdom. Isn't that good news? The world that we live in now is so full of instability and uncertainty. Things can be shaken, right? Leaders fail. Wealth is unreliable. Health is fleeting. Even our own morality fails us. But there is a kingdom, brothers and sisters, that is unshakable. It is stable and secure. And every one of us who endure by faith can participate in that kingdom even now as we wait to receive it in full. And so the author leads us to the only proper response to this news. Let us be grateful. Let us be grateful. Thankfulness should be the hallmark characteristic of the Christian. We know we deserve to be shaken. We know we deserve to die that shameful death of a sinner, but we know that Jesus has taken that for us. We know what we've been promised, that we've been promised to share in his inheritance as beloved sons of God. And so our hearts must be filled with thankfulness. As some of you even remind me regularly, we are getting way better than we deserve. And so in thankfulness, we offer to God acceptable worship, right? Which is an interesting phrase. Under the old covenant, acceptable worship required the right sacrifice, the right priest, the right place and time, and it was never enough. Those sacrifices had to keep going and keep going. But brothers and sisters, Jesus has fulfilled all of that for us. And so under the new covenant, acceptable worship is a life lived in gratitude and in consciousness of God, remembering who he is, what our sin deserves, and what Jesus has already accomplished for us. The gospel then affects everything about how we understand ourselves, how we relate to other people, how we work, how we spend our free time and money. Acceptable worship is unhindered, single-minded devotion to God in all of life. That's what we're called to. We're called to worship with thankfulness, but also with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. And we remember that the same God who shook the earth at Sinai also shook the earth at Calvary. His wrath against sin was poured out on Jesus, and we see there that our God does not trifle with sin. And therefore, if we do not take shelter in Christ, if we do not endure by faith, the judgment that came down on Christ will come down on us and we will be consumed. But because of Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, the mediator of a new covenant whose blood has purified us, our worship can be characterized not only by fear, but also confidence and joy as we live by faith in God's promises, as we draw near and hold fast to him in faith. And so brothers and sisters, let us once again fix our eyes upon Jesus for the motivation, the confidence, the hope we need to keep running. And as we sing, so spirit come, put strength in every stride, give grace for every hurdle that we may run with faith to win the prize of a servant good and faithful. As saints of old still line the way, retelling triumphs of his grace, we hear their calls and hunger for the day. And with Christ, we stand in glory. Amen, let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we come before you this morning as our God, who is a consuming fire. May we not forget this. May we not forget what our sin deserves. May we not forget the cost of our redemption. And at the same time, God, we ask that as we remember that, we would remember and see in the shed blood of Christ, in his crucifixion on our behalf, we would see his love for us and your love for us. Give us hearts to accept and to love your word, not to refuse it. Give us strength to endure, to focus on what awaits us. Give us courage to stand together as your people, to help everyone make it to the end. And we pray this in the name of the one who endured for us, our great savior and priest and king, Jesus Christ. Amen.