Knowing Where You Are — Encouragement for Endurance

Order of Service

• Scripture Reading — Hebrews 12:18-29
• Sermon
• Closing Prayer

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Sermon Title: Knowing Where You Are — Encouragement for Endurance

Scripture: Hebrews 12:18-29

I. You Have Not Come to Mount Sinai (Hebrews 12:18-21)

A. The writer draws from Exodus 19 — the terrifying scene at Sinai before the giving of the law

1. Blazing fire, darkness, gloom, tempest, trumpet blast, and a voice so fearful the people begged it to stop
2. Even Moses trembled with fear
3. No one — not even animals — could approach the mountain

B. Sinai represents the old administration of the covenant of grace under Moses

1. The law graciously reveals what God is like and exposes human failure
2. The law points forward, creating a longing for one who could keep it — ultimately Christ
3. It came with ceremonies, sacrifices, shadows, and types

C. Application: Believers are not to think of themselves as standing at Sinai

1. To come in one's own righteousness or goodness is to come to the wrong mountain
2. Drooping hands and weak knees may result from a false Sinai-posture before God

II. You Have Come to Mount Zion (Hebrews 12:22-24)

A. Mount Zion is first a physical place — the city of David, Jerusalem — but it is a type pointing to a deeper spiritual reality

1. The place where God came to dwell with man in the tent and then the temple
2. The Lord's presence departed from Zion in judgment in Ezekiel 10
3. Zion's fuller meaning: the eternal city where God dwells with his people forever

B. Scriptural testimony to spiritual Mount Zion

1. Psalm 2:6 — "I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill" — points ultimately to Christ
2. Revelation 14:1 — the Lamb standing on Mount Zion with the 144,000; the vision of the new Jerusalem

C. The great assembly gathered at Mount Zion

1. Innumerable angels
2. The assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven — the patriarchs and cloud of witnesses from Hebrews 11
3. God the judge of all
4. The spirits of the righteous made perfect — the whole church triumphant
5. Jesus — listed last as the one most desired — the mediator of the new covenant

D. The sprinkled blood of Jesus speaks a better word than the blood of Abel (Hebrews 12:24)

1. Abel's blood cried out for vengeance and resulted in Cain's separation from God (Genesis 4:16)
2. Christ's blood speaks a word of drawing — "Come to me" — forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace with God
3. The old administration on its own drove people away; Christ's blood invites them near

III. The Final Warning: Do Not Refuse the One Who Is Speaking (Hebrews 12:25)

A. God spoke in the Old Testament through prophets and Moses at Sinai; now he speaks in his Son — the final and fullest word

1. Those who refused the earthly warning did not escape; how much less will those escape who reject the heavenly word
2. The greater the manner of God's speaking, the greater the guilt of those who do not heed it

B. The word of salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone — heed it

1. Those tempted to return to ceremonies, works, or self-righteousness are called back to Christ
2. Matthew Henry: when God speaks in the most excellent manner — the gospel — he justly expects the strictest attention and regard

IV. The Already and the Not Yet of Mount Zion (Hebrews 12:26-29)

A. Believers have already come to Mount Zion — this is present reality, not merely future hope

1. Rick Phillips: "This is not merely a picture of your future reality. This is now your reality."
2. Eyes of faith are needed to see present circumstances — relational strife, hardship, health, news — through this already-perspective
3. Seeing fellow believers through this lens: "If you could see them now as they will certainly be in the city to which they belong, you would marvel at the glory God has prepared."

B. There is also a not yet — a shaking still to come, drawn from Haggai 2:6

1. The Lord's voice once shook the earth at Sinai; he has promised to shake heaven and earth once more
2. The phrase "yet once more" indicates the removal of all that can be shaken, so that what cannot be shaken may remain
3. The Mount Zion to come — after Christ's return in final judgment — will be fuller and better than what believers possess now

C. Concluding exhortation: let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken (Hebrews 12:28-29)

1. Offer acceptable worship with reverence and awe — now and into eternity
2. Our God is a consuming fire — he purifies all that sin has marred
3. The whole passage is meant as encouragement for endurance through suffering, discipline, and the not-yet-perfected present age