Hebrews 12 - Worship Jesus with Fear and Awe

Jesus reigns in heaven indeed.  He is alive, resurrected, and ascended to heaven.  Yet, do we as His people follow Him as commanded in this chapter?  Are we burdened by our sin, the church's greed and gluttony, and the detestable sins committed in our communities?

God showed Ezekiel the depth of the depravity of idolatry, disdain for God, and open rebellion.  The so-called leaders were even worshiping the sun with their backs to God right in the Temple.  How is that even possible?  Easy for us to ask of others, but again, what about ourselves.

        And God brought justice (Ezekiel 9).  Likewise, we hear a lot of so-called Christian leaders bemoan the state of America and the blasphemy of our political leaders - and rightly so to a large degree.  But culture starts in the hearts of men and women, right in our homes.  Many of our leaders, just like the ancients in Ezekiel, don’t even try to hide their rebellion against God.  They amass mansion after mansion.  Their hearts follow their treasures.  They openly jockey for power.  They brazenly fleece the sheep, care nothing for the poor, and show by their actions, ambitions, and appetites that they do not revere God.

Easter is a day of celebration, so let’s celebrate well.  But don’t lose sight of the warning in this chapter.  Every day for the Christian is a day of joy in our reigning King.  We are warned to “be careful not to refuse to listen to the One who is speaking.  For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, we will certainly not escape if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven!”  (Hebrews 12:25)

        God sees it all.  God will repay people for what they’ve done (Ezekiel 9:9).

As we celebrate this Easter let’s remind each other that we have to take care of each other - may none of us fail to receive the grace of God (12:15).  The Christian life is hard.  And it should be.  No one said it would be easy.  Jesus lightens our burden and he expects us to fight His battles well.  But He makes no bones about it.  Life’s tough.  But we have everything we need to succeed, each other and our King, Jesus Christ.

Yes, we know that people can be difficult, petty, unjust, rude, manipulative, cruel and depraved.  Not only do we have to deal with wicked people inside the church and out, but we are also subject to God’s discipline and punishment (12:6).  Discipline is not enjoyable.

We endure God’s disciple so that we may share in God’s holiness.  There is a point to God’s training.  He wants us to live a peaceful harvest of right living (12:11).  Yes discipline is painful.  But God’s discipline is always Good.  God, our Father wants us to be spiritually strong and holy.

We must strip off our sins.  Our bitterness and our selfish ambition  We must keep our eyes on the One, the only champion who initiates and perfects our faith, Jesus Christ.

It is a life of work, not idleness.  We work at living at peace with everyone (12:14).  Be a peacemaker.  And work at living a holy life.

God’s promise of eternal rest in His holy city comes with the warning of Hebrews 12.  If you are not holy you will not see the Lord God (12:14).  So, are we holy?  Are we really working at living a holy life?  Are we really looking after each other and doing all we can to help the people in the church?

Are we really working at ensuring that no one is immoral or godless?  This passage encourages us with spiritual reality.  We are in the presence of a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith.  Thousands upon thousands.  And thousands upon thousands of angels.  We trust this by faith in Christ.

We must worship God with holy fear and awe.

We stand now at Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.  We are a holy assembly - an assembly of God’s prized possession - his first-born children!  As we gather this Easter to celebrate let’s remember how important it is to heed God’s call to holiness.

We stand before the judge, God Himself.  We are in the presence of the spirits of the righteous ones - Abraham, Moses, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets.  And the spirits of John, Andrew, James, Peter, Paul, Thomas, and all the holy ones of Jesus.  God's people.  Our brothers and sisters in Christ.

We stand before Jesus, whose blood speaks forth our forgiveness.

God is speaking to us now.  We must listen to Him, and we must not reject the Holy One.

Lord God, in your holy presence may this be a day of great celebration, listening, unity in Christ, rejection of anything unholy, and worship of who You are and what You’ve done and prepared for us.  Amen.

Our grandsons, March 2024, Bedford, VA.