Unshakable Hope: Finding Strength in Christ’s Mediatorship

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:00:00] Ctk the time has come for us to begin our service if you would stand and join us for this song of gathering hi I'm Kevin Gray Beale and I serve as an elder here at Christ the King and whether you've worshipped with us for years or this is your first time or you're somewhere in between we welcome you to this time of worship if at any point you need a restroom that can be accessed through these side doors to the sanctuary the women's restroom is closest to this side your left and the men is closest to the right
[00:09:24] nursery in a time of children's worship during the sermon. Kids pre-k to third grade will be dismissed during gospel hospitality. Parents can walk those children through these doors, and you'll find your way to the chapel. Younger children are welcome in the nursery. If that's
[00:09:42] helpful to you, please go ahead and proceed through the door on the right and up the stairs.
[00:09:46] You'll find where you're headed. God calls us to worship him. Would you join me in this call to worship from psalm 24 who may ascend the mountain of the lord who may stand in his holy place
[00:10:01] the one who has clean hands and a pure heart who has not appealed to what is false and who has not sworn deceitfully he will receive blessing from the lord and righteousness from the god of his
[00:10:17] salvation. Such is the generation of those who inquire of him who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah. Would you pray with me? Holy Father, we come now to worship you, inquire of you, and to
[00:10:34] seek your face. Would you come and meet us here, Lord? Would you help us to seek you with whole hearts? Lord Jesus, as we fill our lungs to sing to you, comfort us with the knowledge that you
[00:10:46] know what it is to take a deep breath. May we seek your face. Holy Spirit, would you come in our midst. Bring us encouragement and guidance. Spirit, make us to know our sin and your mercy
[00:11:00] better as we worship today. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Please join in singing this

[00:11:07] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:11:07] hymn of praise. Be seated. We're now going to continue our worship with the time of confession

[00:15:21] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:15:21] of sin. God is glorified when we turn from our sins and lean on him for mercy. Please hear this call to confession from Isaiah chapter six. Then I said, woe is me for I am ruined because I am a
[00:15:37] man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips. And because my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of armies. So please join me in reading this corporate confession of sin, which
[00:15:49] we will follow with a time of silent confession. Lord, we confess that we have often preferred a manageable God, one who stays at a distance. But you are not that God. You are holy, dangerously,
[00:16:15] beautifully holy, and we are not. We have trusted in things that tremble and shake.
[00:16:23] our reputations, our control, our comfort. We have built our lives on what cannot last and then wonder why we feel unsettled. Forgive us for shrinking your glory and inflating our goodness. Forgive us for approaching you casually or avoiding you entirely. Yet even now you invite
[00:16:49] us, not to Sinai's fear, but to Zion's joy. You invite us not to condemnation, but to cleansing. So we come honestly. Strip away what can be shaken. Expose what is false.
[00:17:08] And by your mercy, rebuild us on Christ alone, the one whose kingdom cannot be moved. We ask this in his strong and saving name. Amen. Fellow sinners, look up and hear this assurance of pardon from Hebrews chapter 10. Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have boldness to
[00:17:55] enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus, he has inaugurated for us a new and living way through the curtain, that is through his flesh. And since we have a great high priest over the
[00:18:06] house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, with our heart sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. Let us hold on to
[00:18:19] the confession of our hope without wavering, since he who promised is faithful. And everyone said, thanks be to God, in Christ we are forgiven. Now please stand and join in singing this song of

[00:18:32] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:18:32] thanksgiving we're now going to continue our worship with the time of giving tithes and

[00:20:48] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:20:48] offerings if you're a visitor please feel no compulsion to give we would love to follow up with you and help you connect to the life of our church and a great way to do that is to fill out
[00:20:57] a connect card you can find them in the pews fill it out and drop it in the offering basket or you can fill it out electronically via the qr code now would you pray with me father god we give of
[00:21:09] what you have given to us. Please bless this offering that it would be stewarded and used to your glory and honor. Grant that our hearts and affections would be stirred towards you as we consider that all we have comes from you. We thank you in Christ's name. Amen.

[00:21:29] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:21:29] We'll stand and sing as we collect the offering. Have a seat. My name is Matt Brower. I'm the youth

[00:24:34] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:24:34] director here, and I've got a few announcements for us. First one is that there's a new Sunday school class that started this morning and is going for several weeks, and that Sunday school class is going through the question of infant baptism, and James is leading us through that.
[00:24:53] We want to bring clarity to our church's conviction regarding baptism, and infant baptism in particular, as well as just have an open-handed discussion on different views and different convictions on this throughout Christian history. So bring your questions, bring your curiosities,
[00:25:10] bring your infant if you have one. It's going to be a great class. Next announcement, the women are getting together for lunch today at Little Ray after the service.
[00:25:23] Women's ministry is providing the meal, so just come and enjoy the food and fellowship. If you haven't signed up, that's okay. Just join in. Last announcement is CTK is hosting a book event this Friday evening. So it's May 1st. Marty Solomon has written a book called The Gospel
[00:25:43] of Being Human, How Asking Better Questions of the Bible Reveals Who We Are. There's a beautiful truth that as we engage God and his word, this helps us know ourselves better. If you want to
[00:26:01] get to know yourself better, get to know how God views you. The Bible has a layered, robust, and honest take on the complexity of being human. So this book and this event is an encouragement
[00:26:15] to see the beauty in that. The event is free, but space is limited, so please sign up to reserve your spot. Now I'd like to invite Kevin back up for a pastoral prayer. Thanks, Matt. It's right

[00:26:30] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:26:30] for us to bring our needs to God and come to him. So would you pray with me? Father, we come to you now longing for your presence and comfort. So many different experiences and feelings are represented
[00:26:44] in this space right now. Many of us are excited about the spring and the joys that come with finishing a school year. And others of us barely remember school. They're the joys of success in
[00:26:58] school or work. And there's also very real sadness tied to the ongoing hardship of on or under employment. And many of us are anxious, father, anxious due to a world that seems to have gone
[00:27:11] crazy, anxious about political violence at home or abroad and anxious about our own needs or anxious from a diagnosis or upcoming procedures. Father, would you help us to turn to you?
[00:27:26] May we turn to you in our joy and in our sadness. Help us to turn in our hardness and loss. Grant that we might cast our anxieties on you, Lord, because you care for us. And Father, would you
[00:27:40] help us as your church? In 1 Corinthians 12, we see that we are all members. We are all parts of the same body, your church.
[00:27:51] And if one member suffers, the others are to suffer with it.
[00:27:55] Please, Lord, would you help us to love and care for each other in that way?
[00:28:01] Would we live and function as your body, the church, in a way that brings you glory and honor?
[00:28:07] Would you help us to connect to each other in this way, as you've called us?
[00:28:13] And now, would you all join your voices with mine as we pray as Jesus taught us?
[00:28:18] Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
[00:28:23] Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
[00:28:29] Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
[00:28:37] And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
[00:28:42] For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.
[00:28:48] Amen.
[00:28:49] And now we're going to continue our worship with a time of gospel hospitality, and children are dismissed to their teaching time.
[00:28:55] The peace of Christ be with you all.

[00:28:57] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:28:57] Good morning, CTK.

[00:36:21] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:36:21] My name is Chuck, as some of you all have just heard, and I'm a campus minister for Reformed University Fellowship.
[00:36:29] It's a campus ministry at NC State that's a part of this church's denomination, and I'm a longtime member, so I know many of you all well.
[00:36:36] But if I don't know you, let me add my greeting to you and would love to get to know you better.
[00:36:43] Today we're going to continue looking at the book of Hebrews, which really revolves around a question that I want you all to consider. Would you trade this for this? I hear those.
[00:37:02] Yes. And the reality is, is that there is a part in almost all of us that wants to say yes, but you still have this, don't you? The reality is that a lot of people are considering
[00:37:17] that. In a recent survey, 38% of smartphone users said that they're seriously considering the downgrade, but yet they don't pull that trigger. But why is it that they are like this?
[00:37:30] It's because there's problems that come with our smartphone, where the constant pings feels like it's pulling us from being present away from the people we are with to something ephemeral, absent.
[00:37:43] We have the trouble with mental health that is connected to this constant scrolling on social media, and we see all the problems, and we wonder if this is the better way. But the reality is, is that
[00:37:58] most people that consider changing never follow through. And even those that do go back to a dumb phone end up turning back to their smartphone because there's something that is greater about it that they just can't let go. Now I'm asking you to think about this, not as a ploy to have
[00:38:20] you consider your technology uses, but to invite you into the question that the book of Hebrews is about. The book of Hebrews is about a group of people that have been following Jesus and they're
[00:38:35] beginning to experience problems, persecution, pressure against them for their faith that is causing them to wonder if they should turn away from following Jesus and go back to the old life they had in Judaism. They're considering a downgrade. But the author of Hebrews writes this
[00:38:58] book because he doesn't want the people to turn away from what they have in Jesus, but to hold on to the good that they've experienced in him. And you may not be here considering whether or
[00:39:13] not you should switch from Christianity to Judaism, but I do wonder if you sometimes have that same inclination, that same question, that as you look at the circumstances of your life, if you wonder, wouldn't it just be easier to quietly stop following Jesus, where I no longer have to feel
[00:39:37] that guilt for this sin that everyone else thinks I should just embrace. When I no longer have to spend my Sunday mornings wrestling the wee ones into worship, but could go have brunch with my
[00:39:52] friends. When it seems like all the efforts that I'm giving towards this faith aren't really bringing me where I want to go. When you see those problems, those challenges in your life, Do you wonder, would it be better to turn back? Would it be better to stop listening to Jesus?
[00:40:19] That is the question that the author is answering in this passage. That is the question he wants you to consider. Because what he wants you to see in this passage is that what you would trade away
[00:40:35] is so much better than anything that you could gain if you were to stop following Jesus.
[00:40:41] us. Because what you have in him is an unshakable life that you would never want to lose. Today as we look at this passage, our outline is this, a greater choice for a greater voice. A greater
[00:40:58] choice for a greater voice. But keeping it in mind, I'm going to invite you to, as is our custom, to read aloud God's word. You can find it behind me or if you'd like to follow along in the Pew
[00:41:10] Bible, you can on page 1069. But let us now read together God's Word, the Word of God for the people of God. For you have not come to what could be touched, to a blazing fire, to darkness, gloom,
[00:41:28] and storm, to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words. Those who heard it begged that not another word be spoken to them, for they could not bear what was commanded. If even an animal
[00:41:44] touches the mountain, it must be stoned. The appearance was so terrifying that Moses said, I am trembling with fear. Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to myriads of angels in festive gathering, to the assembly of the
[00:42:07] firstborn whose names are written in heaven, to God who is the judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus, mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which says better things than the blood of Abel. See to it that you do not reject the one who
[00:42:31] speaks. For they did not escape when they rejected him who warned them on earth, even less if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven. His voice shook the earth at that time, but now he has
[00:42:49] promised, yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven. Yet once more indicates the removal of what can be shaken, that is, created things, so that what is not shaken
[00:43:08] might remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful.
[00:43:17] by it we may serve God acceptably with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire amen the grass withers and the flowers fade but the word of our Lord stands forever it's right for us to
[00:43:32] pause and pray that he would bless it play along with me in your hearts father we do thank you for the blessing of your word and that you speak in real ways through it and we pray that you would
[00:43:45] give us eyes to see and ears to hear all your glory and beauty in this passage. We pray this for Jesus's sake. Amen. So this passage holds out to us a choice. And the way that the author does
[00:44:02] it is by doing a direct contrast of two mountains. And the contrast is seen in the fact that each mountain has seven descriptions that are given about that mountain to help you to taste, to
[00:44:16] experience what it's like to enter into God's presence. Each mountain is a glimpse of what it looks like to come into the presence of God in light of a mediator. And so the first mountain
[00:44:30] that he gives us is drawn from the experience of the people of Israel when they were in the wilderness. As we see in Exodus chapter 19 and 20, when the Israelites had left Egypt, they arrived
[00:44:43] at Mount Sinai. And there in the wilderness, God says, I'm going to come and I'm going to meet with my people. But there was preparation that would take in order for God's presence to come. And so
[00:44:57] God told Moses to set up a perimeter all around Mount Sinai, to make a line that no creature could cross. And as verse 20 points out, that perimeter was one that had a death threat around
[00:45:14] it. That even if an animal were to cross that perimeter and touch the mountain, they would be stoned. And this gives us a glimpse of what it means to enter into God's presence in this first
[00:45:27] mountain. And perhaps that seems harsh, that God would establish this perimeter and there'd be a threat of death to touch the mountain. And you're wondering, is God perhaps insecure? Does he need a security detail to protect him from the people? No, that's not why God sets the perimeter to
[00:45:46] protect himself from the people, but it's to protect the people from himself. Because to enter into God's presence in this picture is to enter into something that would overwhelm you, consume you, undo you. Now let me give you a glimpse of what that could look like. Perhaps
[00:46:10] some of you were very good in math in high school. Like you were the top of your class all throughout high school. And then you get to college and you're sitting in calc three and you're struggling
[00:46:22] through that first problem. But then this girl gets up after 20 minutes. She turns in her exam and she walks out with confidence.
[00:46:31] How do you feel at that moment?
[00:46:34] Exactly.
[00:46:35] Pretty terrible, right?
[00:46:37] You thought you were great until you realized who actually is great.
[00:46:43] And you feel humbled.
[00:46:44] You feel a little bit smaller.
[00:46:47] Now that's a touch of what it is like for a human to enter into the presence of God.
[00:46:53] To enter into the presence of God is to realize just how un-great you are.
[00:46:59] The Apostle Paul puts it this way, that God dwells in unapproachable light.
[00:47:06] Unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see.
[00:47:11] In other words, his glory is so immense, it's so remarkable, it's so compelling, it's so unseeable, that when we catch a glimpse of it, we feel like we should die.
[00:47:25] This is what we actually use in our liturgy from Isaiah chapter 6, that when the great prophet Isaiah saw a glimpse of the glory of God, he says, Woe to me, I am ruined. Woe to me, I am undone. To be around the infinite light of God's perfect
[00:47:45] holiness is to realize just how dark your soul, just how dark your life actually is.
[00:47:54] which is the interesting way that we see this described in verse 19. Look at how the presence of God is described. It's a blazing fire. But what accompanies that blazing fire? It's not what you
[00:48:09] would expect, right? The blazing fire descends onto the mountain, but what comes with it? Darkness, gloom. Isn't that the opposite of what you would expect? If you've ever been around a fire, you You know the fire casts light, it casts warmth, but the presence of God, this fire descends on
[00:48:30] the mountain and there's darkness and there's gloom. Now why is it? Because that is what it's like to be around the unapproachable light of God. It's like when you've been out on a sunny day
[00:48:46] and then you walk into a dark room and it seems like the room is so much more darker until your eyes adjust. Why? It's because of the contrast with the brightness that you have left. This is
[00:48:58] what it's like to experience God's glory, to be in your presence. It reveals just how dark you are.
[00:49:05] To be in the presence of his power reveals just how weak you are. And this is why, as verse 19 points out, when God speaks, they say, I cannot bear to hear that voice. Haven't you ever wanted
[00:49:21] to hear God's voice? Haven't you ever thought that hearing God's voice might deal with your doubts or your questions or concerns and give you confidence? But here we see in this passage what happens all throughout scripture, that when people actually hear God's voice, they tremble, they fear,
[00:49:40] and they say, I don't want to hear it again. And what this mountain is showing us is the reality of what it's like to see and hear the living God. That to see and to hear him as he is as we are
[00:50:00] creates fear, creates trembling, creates a sense of darkness and gloom and a tempest, a storm.
[00:50:16] But the scariest thing about this first image, this first mountain, is not all the images as terrifying they are. But is what we see happen to the mediator, to Moses? Moses was the mediator between God and man. He was the one that would go and speak God's word to the people. He was the one
[00:50:40] that helped the people feel like they could come and be safe around God. He is the mediator. But what does it tell us that Moses was like when he sees the glory of God? He trembles. He's afraid.
[00:50:55] And think with me what that would be like.
[00:50:57] Let's say that you go on a field trip to Sharon Harris, to the nuclear power plant that's just south of our city.
[00:51:04] And as you're there, your tour is being led by the safety inspector.
[00:51:08] And it's going great.
[00:51:09] You're enjoying it.
[00:51:10] But then you begin to notice the safety inspector start to kind of look around, a little bit confused.
[00:51:15] And he starts kind of checking his phone like almost incessantly.
[00:51:20] And you begin to see like a little bit of sweat build up on his brow.
[00:51:24] and then all of a sudden he takes off for the door.
[00:51:28] What do you do?
[00:51:29] You run.
[00:51:31] You try to get out that door faster than him, right?
[00:51:34] Why?
[00:51:34] Because if the mediator is afraid, how much more should you be afraid?
[00:51:40] And that's what the author of Hebrews is wanting you to taste.
[00:51:44] That in the presence of God, if the mediator, the go-between, the one who is there to keep you safe is trembling, how much more should you?
[00:51:55] And what he's doing in all these things is saying that this is what your life is like if Jesus is not your mediator. This is what your reality is like if Jesus is not the one who keeps you safe before God. And that's why there's a
[00:52:17] beautiful word that the author gives to us in verse 22. Instead. Because this is what the Christians have, instead of their experience of the presence of God being like the first mountain, instead they have the experience of God of the second mountain. And so he describes the seven blessings
[00:52:44] that come with this second mountain, which he tells us is actually Mount Zion, which is a reference to Jerusalem, which was situated on top of this mountain. And so he's saying the second mountain that the people of God can be brought to
[00:52:58] is into the presence of Jerusalem, but not the earthly Jerusalem, but the heavenly Jerusalem.
[00:53:07] And the author here is saying that instead of a mountain where God comes and visits his people, in the second picture, you come to live in the presence of God.
[00:53:21] Instead of God making a quick stop to say hello, oh, your new address, your new home is in his presence.
[00:53:32] And instead of the darkness and gloom that we see in the first mountain, what is the sense, the feel, the existential experience of being in the presence of God?
[00:53:44] Verse 22 tells us it's a myriads of angels in festive gathering.
[00:53:49] That word festive gathering in the Greek is the word actually used to describe the Olympics.
[00:53:56] It's a nationwide festival.
[00:53:59] One commentator, I love how he puts it.
[00:54:02] He says that this word means a rager, an all-out party.
[00:54:08] When I think about this image, the thing that comes to my mind is what happened when NC State won the game that put them into the Final Four back in 2024.
[00:54:22] and my family got in the car and we drove down to see the bell tower lit up in red and it was pandemonium. It was beautiful. There were cars honking and people were more out of the car than
[00:54:38] in the car. There's sidewalks were crowded. Vuvuzelas. Who has a Vuvuzela? They were everywhere.
[00:54:44] There were people that were freestyle rapping about NC State all over the place.
[00:54:48] it was beautiful. That is what this is describing. An intense joy that everyone is caught up in, an eruption of excitement to be in the presence of God in this mountain is a rager like that.
[00:55:06] So different than darkness and gloom, but a delightful rager. And he continues. He wants those who are reading this to know that this is their forever and permanent home. So he describes why they belong there in verse 23, saying that all those who are gathering with the angels are
[00:55:29] the assembly of the firstborn whose names have been written in heaven. The firstborn in this culture received everything. They had all the rights and the privileges of the family name and the fullness of the inheritance would go to them, and it was something that was guaranteed for them.
[00:55:46] And the author says that here on the second mountain, all those who dwell there have the right of the firstborn. They belong there. They even own it. And we know that this is something that can't be taken away, because as the author says, the name is written down in heaven. It's
[00:56:07] like when you don't just get that acceptance letter to college, but you step onto campus knowing your class schedule, knowing where you live. You are enrolled. And that's the sense that the author is describing, that it's not just that you've been accepted into heaven, but even
[00:56:23] now you are enrolled. You are present. It is where you belong. And this is something that you cannot lose, the author says, because it's something that comes with the fact that no longer are you
[00:56:40] worried about your own darkness. No longer are you worried about your own sins or things that could take you away from God's kindness and love because he says that it is filled with the spirits of the
[00:56:53] people who have been made perfect. The spirits of righteous people made perfect in the presence of the judge of all. What a sharp contrast. That even around the judge of all, you don't break a sweat.
[00:57:09] You don't worry because you have been made perfect. It's not that you made yourself perfect, but you have been made perfect. And so you can stand there before the judge without any thought, without any
[00:57:22] worry, without any fear, that someone's going to kick you out of the party, that someone's going to discover you actually don't belong, that something's going to be dredged up from your past that means you have to leave. No, because you will have been made perfect and you will be
[00:57:44] righteous. Now the author gives us these pictures of what this second experience is like because he wants you to long to have that, and he wants you to long to have that so that you hold on to what
[00:57:58] gets you there. He wants you to long to have it so that that you hold on to the voice that invites you. Because the difference between these two pictures is not that God has changed. It's not
[00:58:16] that God in the Old Testament was kind of like a mean dad, and now he's doing the gentle parenting think, it's not that God has changed. And it's not that you have changed. You're still the same person
[00:58:29] of darkness and gloom. But what changes is the mediator. The first picture, what stands between you and that God is Moses. But in the second picture, what stands between you and that God is Jesus. And that makes all the difference in the world. And this is what the author wants us to
[00:58:51] understand is he wants to show us the power of Jesus as our mediator and the power of what his sacrifice does to us. Because when Jesus's sacrifice is for you, when Jesus's sacrifice is on you, then the consuming fire that comes doesn't bring darkness and gloom, but warmth and light.
[00:59:11] That when your mediator is Jesus, you don't have to fear in the presence of God, but you can rejoice and the presence of God. And so in verse 24, the author points to how Jesus's sacrifice was better
[00:59:29] by mentioning the sprinkling. You see, after the great experience of the people in the wilderness at Mount Sinai, Moses comes down from the mountain and he sprinkles blood onto them, a blood that shows that you are accepted into God's covenant and that because of that you are okay. But do you
[00:59:51] know what the problem with that sprinkling was? It didn't last. It didn't endure. It had to be done again and again and again. And so think about that, that if what keeps you safe has to be
[01:00:11] regularly repeated, how safe do you really feel in the presence of God? You only feel as safe, as secure, as long as that sacrifice seems to hold, but it doesn't seem to last. And so you
[01:00:25] don't really feel that safe. But what the author of Hebrews wants us to see is that the sprinkling that comes from Jesus is different. The sprinkling that comes from Jesus is not like Moses, a
[01:00:39] temporary sprinkling to make them know that they are okay for the moment, but a forever sprinkling that causes the people to know that once and for all, they are safe. Once and for all, they are
[01:00:51] secure. Because what Jesus did in his sacrifice was not what Moses did. Moses came down from the mountain. He came descending from God's presence, carrying the law. He came descending from God's presence to apply the blood to the people below, away from the mountain. But what does Jesus do
[01:01:12] as our mediator? He doesn't go down the mountain, he goes up. He goes up to the top of Mount Zion, up to the hill of Calvary. And there he goes and he sees the darkness. It's at the cross at noon,
[01:01:28] at the brightest moment of day, darkness descends over the entirety of the scene of the cross.
[01:01:37] He experiences the darkness. He experiences the gloom. The direction is reversed. Moses goes down, but Jesus goes up. And as he hangs there, the consuming fire comes down upon him. And that darkness and that gloom. And he stands in the fire and is consumed for us. And because he took
[01:02:04] the consuming fire on himself, we no longer have to fear it. You see, that's the difference between Jesus and Moses. Moses saw the fire and provided a sacrifice that would help the people to feel
[01:02:21] safe around that fire. But Jesus took that fire onto himself to bring us into the fire.
[01:02:28] so that we are not forever held away from God's presence with a perimeter that says, do not cross or you will die. But Jesus went into that presence and died so that we can be brought
[01:02:41] in. This is what the author wants you to realize, that you have in Jesus, you have in him not just a great teacher, not just a great example, but you have a mediator that has forever made you safe
[01:02:59] in the consuming fire of God's holiness so that what you experience around that holiness is not darkness and gloom but warmth and light. And he wants us to understand that this is something that endures, so he uses an analogy to draw out how Jesus's sacrifice continues to care
[01:03:23] for us in verse 24 when he says that his blood says better things than the blood of Abel. This is a flashback to the book of Genesis, where Cain and Abel, brothers, end up in a horrible situation
[01:03:38] where Cain murders his brother. And Abel, the text says, had his blood speak out to God, crying out for justice. And God, the judge of all things, had to come and bring justice against Cain to honor the
[01:03:55] blood of Abel. But the author of Hebrews said, likewise Jesus's blood speaks. Likewise Jesus's blood calls God to act. But Abel's blood was always calling for justice. But Jesus's blood is always proclaiming forgiveness. That we don't have to fear the judge of the universe because we
[01:04:26] are the souls made perfect by his righteousness. And the author uses the present tense to describe that that blood is still speaking even now, is still speaking to that sin that you have in your
[01:04:44] mind that you just can't really feel forgiven for. The sin that you feel is an indelible stain on your soul that means that God will never really love you fully, but there'll always be a little
[01:05:00] bit of distance between you. His blood does not condemn you to God, but it commends you to God.
[01:05:13] Charles Wesley puts it this way in a hymn. He says, Five bleeding wounds he bears received on Calvary. They pour effectual prayers, they strongly plead for me. Forgive him, oh forgive him, cry, nor let that ransomed sinner die.
[01:05:30] That's capturing what Jesus' sprinkling blood is like.
[01:05:34] It's a constant intercession on your behalf that cries out to the God of the universe, the judge of all things, that you are fully and forever forgiven.
[01:05:45] And death shall never be what is due to you in the presence of God, but only warmth and only life.
[01:05:55] But this comes from the voice of the mediator.
[01:05:59] And this is why in verses 25 through 27, he says, this is the voice that you want to continue to hear. Do you want a different voice speaking for you? Do you want a different voice to represent you? Don't you want this voice?
[01:06:16] But listen to how he describes it. It says, time, but now he has promised, yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.
[01:06:42] Whenever God's voice speaks, it shakes things. And shaking throughout the Old Testament is connected to God being the judge of the universe, that his voice and his power exposes. Being around his holiness and his greatness exposes everything that is not built upon the foundation of him.
[01:07:01] We see this in Isaiah when Isaiah sees him.
[01:07:04] We see it in Amos.
[01:07:05] We see it in Joel.
[01:07:06] The prophets always see a shaking coming, bringing justice and undoing anything that is not built on God.
[01:07:18] But this verse speaks of a shaking still to come.
[01:07:22] This verse, which is a reference to Malachi, is saying that there is a shaking yet to come that will still shake everything.
[01:07:31] think. And the author wants you to consider this, because he wants you to say, what is it that I am listening to? And when that shaking voice comes, will it undo what I am trusting? Will it undo what
[01:07:49] I am hearing? Will it undo the things that I think can bring me security, that can bring me comfort, that can bring me joy? The author of Hebrews is wanting, in particular to the people of Hebrews,
[01:08:05] who are considering whether or not they want to follow Jesus to say, stop and think about the things that are causing you to question Jesus.
[01:08:14] As you're experiencing these persecutions and these hardships, you're experiencing things that will be ultimately shaken by God's voice.
[01:08:23] But are you going to allow those experiences to preach to you a message that says, leave Jesus?
[01:08:30] Are you trading for those things that the shaking will show are not secure for what you have in Christ, which he calls a kingdom that cannot be shaken, a life that is secure, something that gives you confidence,
[01:08:51] not just in the moment of your circumstances, but for the totality of your eternal existence.
[01:09:02] You see, what the author of Hebrews realizes is that when we trade away Jesus for anything else, we are trading what is unshakable for what can be shaken.
[01:09:13] We're trading away what has already been judged by God and proved acceptable to things that will be judged by God and proven insufficient.
[01:09:26] The author of Hebrews wants to see that holding on to the mediator, listening to his voice, is going to invite into your life shaking.
[01:09:40] Just as the people that this letter was written to were experiencing it in their life.
[01:09:48] But what he wants us to understand is all of that shaking in the life of a Christian is not a judgment. It's not a condemnation. It's not a way that God is shaking people from him,
[01:10:06] but it's a shaking to him. It's a way that he shakes out of our hands all the things that we would trust in or listen to other than himself, so that in the end, all that we are left with
[01:10:18] is what will never be taken away from us.
[01:10:23] So that as we approach the consuming fire of God, all that it is doing is refining away all that is dross so that all that is left is gold.
[01:10:35] So the author wants us to be thoughtful about continuing to listen to Jesus's voice even when that shakes into our life and challenges our idols, challenges our dreams, challenges the sins that we don't want to let go of,
[01:10:51] challenges the life that we want to live, to bring our whole self into the presence of the Lord, knowing that he will shake our very foundations, but not to destroy, but to refine, so that all we have left is what is truly unshakable,
[01:11:13] a life that is built on him.
[01:11:16] And what does this look like?
[01:11:18] The author gives us two quick glimpses of what this looks like.
[01:11:22] The primary drive of this section of Hebrews is endurance.
[01:11:27] It's endurance when the shaking happens.
[01:11:29] It's endurance when the things get hard.
[01:11:31] It's endurance to continue to listen to the voice of Jesus, even when other voices are calling you to give up.
[01:11:37] It's too hard.
[01:11:40] And we endure because we know the sweetness of that voice.
[01:11:45] We endure because we know the gift of that voice.
[01:11:48] We endure because that voice is the one voice in the world where we can go and have security knowing that there's nothing that will cause that voice to change its thinking, its feeling, its expression of love for us
[01:12:09] because it's grounded on the completed work of the mediator.
[01:12:15] But the second thing that the author wants us to do is to worship.
[01:12:20] This is where our text ends in verse 28.
[01:12:22] Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful.
[01:12:27] By it, we may serve God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.
[01:12:36] This passage begins with fire and it ends with fire. And the author does that to say that the beautiful thing about the picture of the first mountain is we no longer fear that fire, but we
[01:12:52] welcome it. We no longer stay away from that fire. We go towards it for the refining, for the heat, for the warmth that it offers, and that is what we do in worship. In worship, when we gather, what
[01:13:04] we're doing is trying to get into our hearts the greatness of God so that we can see the ungreatness of ourself, so that we can see the glory of our mediator of Christ. And so when we gather for
[01:13:17] worship, in a sense it should always be a shaking as we hear the God of voice, God of heaven speaking his voice into our life, shaking the foundations of our life and the hopes that we have, so that
[01:13:28] all that is left in our hearts and the voice that we are most attuned to is his voice. The author wants us to endure with a heart of worship that doesn't fear the consuming fire, but draws close.
[01:13:50] I was reading in Revelation 1 recently, my own Bible reading, and there's a picture that I think encapsulates what this looks like. And it's the picture of the apostle John as he encounters the glorious Jesus. And what's remarkable about it is that John, as you may remember,
[01:14:11] was the beloved disciple. And one of his last moments with Jesus is reclining up against Jesus, his head on Jesus's chest. He was close and felt safe with Jesus. But in Revelation 1, he sees Jesus in a new way as the consuming fire who comes into his presence. And what does John do
[01:14:33] when he sees the glory of God? He falls down. He can't take it in. It's overwhelming. He worships.
[01:14:45] But then what does Jesus do? He goes, finds John on the ground. He touches him. Do not be afraid.
[01:14:59] it is I, and he lifts them up to see him. That is what this passage wants for us to experience, to see the glory of Jesus in a way that slays us, and then to feel him lift us up and welcome us
[01:15:17] into his glorious presence. If you see that, if you hear that, then you want to always follow that voice. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for your word and the way that it speaks more
[01:15:38] deeply than even our own words. And we pray that your Spirit would use it to write the truths onto our heart that we're so prone to forget, yet so desperately need to hear. We pray these things

[01:15:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[01:15:56] for Jesus' sake. Amen. Let's stand and sing together.

[01:16:09] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[01:16:09] please be seated each week we have the joy and the blessed opportunity to come

[01:19:51] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[01:19:51] and to partake of this meal and this isn't a separate part of our worship service but this is the crescendo of our worship service and even in particular this day the beauty of what we're
[01:20:04] doing is something that was glimpsed in the story of Mount Sinai. After Moses sprinkles the people with blood, do you know what happens next? The elders and Moses and Aaron are invited up the mountain to have a meal with God. And you see, that's what we do every week. They got to do it
[01:20:33] once. But Jesus tells us, as often, every time you get together, this meal is your right. Why?
[01:20:44] Because your mediator has secured it for you. That's what we do in this meal. Because of the work of the mediator, we are invited into the presence of God to dine with him, to prepare
[01:21:01] our hearts for this act of worship. We're going to use the liturgy. I will read the minister. You may respond with the people. Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body.
[01:21:17] We, though many, are one body in Christ. Let us love one another, for love is from God.
[01:21:31] Amen. On the night that Jesus was betrayed, he took bread and he broke it. And he gave it to his disciples saying, this is my body broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same
[01:21:48] manner he took a cup and he gave thanks for it and he gave it to his disciples saying this cup is the new covenant which is in my blood shed for many for their mission of sins drink from it all
[01:22:00] of you in remembrance of me this table is provided for us by the lord jesus christ and so on his behalf i invite all of you who are his people all of you who have put your faith in him and have
[01:22:17] joined his church through baptism to come and to partake freely and joyfully. But if you are here and you haven't yet accepted Jesus as your mediator, may this time be an opportunity for you to reflect, to pray, to consider Christ, and I hope bring him into your life. I'd love to invite those
[01:22:40] helping serve the elements to come forward, and as they come forward, let me remind you or let you know about how we do communion here at ctk for those of you who are on the floor you will come
[01:22:51] forward down the center aisle and you will find people up here at different stations holding a bread and a tray and as you come up we'd love for you to tell them your name so that way they can
[01:23:02] offer you the bread and the cup personally using your name the clear cups on each tray contain wine and the tinted cups contain grape juice as you would like to partake and in the middle i will
[01:23:15] have gluten-free crackers and pre-packaged communion supplies. For those of you that are up there on the balcony, hello again. You will head to the doors where there will be a server by each door with a loaf and a tray. And there will also be pre-packaged communion supplies and
[01:23:32] gluten-free crackers on the wall by the sound booth. While we're partaking communion, there's two things that will happen. First is that we will continue to sing and to worship so that we're not just standing there awkwardly waiting, but sing joyfully as you remember the sacrifice of Christ.
[01:23:48] But also in the back, in the narthex, there's going to be people that are there to pray with you so that if there's something that is a burden on your heart, a sin, a struggle, a concern,
[01:23:59] or a desire to embrace Jesus by faith, there will be people there gladly to pray with you and to care for you. But now let us pray as we prepare our hearts to come and receive
[01:24:11] as from Christ's own hand.
[01:24:16] God of fellowship, you have made us one body in Christ.
[01:24:21] Unite us in love.
[01:24:23] Strengthen us in fellowship as you prepare us to be witnesses of your reconciling peace.
[01:24:30] Amen.
[01:24:32] Now please come forward and receive.

[01:24:34] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[01:24:34] The gift of grace is Jesus.
[01:25:51] He is no more my child.
[01:26:00] He writes to give his children good gifts.

[01:31:03] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[01:31:03] and it is right for us to end our service by him giving us a good word, a benediction.
[01:31:11] And then responding with the doxology as we praise the consuming fire who draws us close into his presence.
[01:31:19] Receive this good word from your father.
[01:31:22] May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all now and forever.
[01:31:32] Amen.
[01:31:32] Praise God from all blessings flow.

[01:31:45] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[01:31:45] Praise Him, all creatures here below.
[01:31:54] Praise Him above ye.
[01:32:00] Go in peace.