Opening Illustration: There are two ways to shake things:

1. The first way is the fun way – it’s the shaking a 2-liter and then handing it to someone for them to open it up.
2. The second way is that the not so fun way – it’s when the thing you are holding onto for security begins to shake.
   • I’m in this in-between stage of life where I have kids that are able to do all the fun, athletic kid things and I think I can do them too.
     • But I can’t…
       • The lily pads at a waterpark
       • The first time on a hoverboard
       • Paddleboarding
     • It’s one of the most unnerving feelings when the thing you are standing on for security is anything but secure.
     • The older I get, the more I enjoy the solid ground.

We may not be standing on a hoverboard, but we are all living – or have lived our lives like we are. 

1. We are all living our lives searching for safety, for permanence, for prosperity.
2. We are looking for things that we believe will keep our lives secure and unshakable.
   • It’s why we are trying to get the degree.
   • It’s why we are trying to the job or the promotion.
   • It’s why we are trying to reach that retirement savings goal.
   • It’s why we are trying to get that house.
   • It’s why we are trying to make sure our bodies are in the best health.
   • It’s why we are trying to give our kids all that we think they need.
   • It’s why we are trying to form those relationships.
3. We are all searching for what’s unshakable.
   • Why is that?
     • Because you are doing what you can right now to control your future.
     • There is a part of all of that believe if we can do the right things then maybe, just maybe, the bad things will stay away. 

Today, in the book of Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews wrote 11 chapters to build up to one point. 

1. The only thing that matters is Jesus
2. The people who first received this letter were struggling greatly
3. Their lives were falling apart in many ways and they wanted to turn back to their old living apart from Jesus
   • The temptation is the same for us
   • Life gets hard and we turn to something other than Jesus
   • So, the writer of Hebrews points everything back to Jesus and tells us this:
     • Jesus is the unshakable.

Let’s see what happens to our lives when we believe that truth. Open up your Bibles to Hebrews 12. We are continuing our Sermon Series: Hebrews.  We are in the final few weeks – come expectant every week! Read Hebrews 12:22-29. Pray. 

The writer of Hebrews has been building up to the verses we are looking at today. He spent a lot of time building theological reasons why Jesus is better than anything else in the world. Even in these final chapters that have a lot of call to action, the writer of Hebrews is still making sure we know why we have these call to actions. I want us to start with verse 18. Here’s where we start: You have come to Jesus, so enjoy Him.

1) You have come to Jesus, so enjoy Him. (vs. 18-24) If you remember, the original audience of this letter were Hellenistic Jews. These were Jews who found the hope of Jesus. Most of their lives were focused on following the Jewish laws, but now they were focused on following Jesus. But they started to encounter some hard times – persecution and suffering – so they were thinking about leaving Jesus and going back to their old lives. What the writer of Hebrews starts doing in verse 18 is remind them of where they came from. Starting in verse 18, the writer of Hebrews starts to paint a wonderful picture. It doesn’t seem wonderful at first, but it’s a beautiful picture. Look at verses 18 – 21: ¹⁸ You have not come to a physical mountain, to a place of flaming fire, darkness, gloom, and whirlwind, as the Israelites did at Mount Sinai. ¹⁹ For they heard an awesome trumpet blast and a voice so terrible that they begged God to stop speaking. ²⁰ They staggered back under God’s command: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.” ²¹ Moses himself was so frightened at the sight that he said, “I am terrified and trembling.”

Now, I get this doesn’t seem like a wonderful picture at first, but stay with me, The writer of Hebrews reminds these new Christians what life was like before Jesus. Mount Sinai was the place where Moses received the Old Testament law. When God’s presence was on the mount, it was quite the scene. God’s glory was so powerful that it created fear among the people. God’s voice alone was so powerful that they couldn’t handle it. And then, if an animal would touch the mountain, it would have so much holiness, it was dangerous. They would kill it so it wouldn’t kill them. The way to relate to God on Mount Sinai was terrifying and distant. We’ve spent months reading through the book of Hebrews looking at how the old covenant never gave us what we needed – direct access to God.

But then we see the other side of this painting starting in verse 22. The writer of Hebrews contrasts the physical Mount Sinai with the coming heavenly city. And five times in these three verses, the writer of Hebrews reminds them they are no longer under the old covenant, but now, they come have to Jesus. ²² No, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless thousands of angels in a joyful gathering. ²³ You have come to the assembly of God’s firstborn children, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God himself, who is the judge over all things. You have come to the spirits of the righteous ones in heaven who have now been made perfect. ²⁴ You have come to Jesus, the one who mediates the new covenant between God and people, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks of forgiveness instead of crying out for vengeance like the blood of Abel.

I love verse 22: No, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless thousands of angels in a joyful gathering. Some scholars believe you can translate the last part of this verse as “angels in party clothes!” Which is a reminder that heaven isn’t sitting around on a cloud playing a harp! And verse 24 reminds us that the only reason we have access to heaven and the Father was because Jesus’s blood is a blood of forgiveness and not vengeance: You have come to Jesus, the one who mediates the new covenant between God and people, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks of forgiveness instead of crying out for vengeance like the blood of Abel. The thunder of the Old Testament law was silenced by the blood of Jesus.

I wanted to start off with these verses because I want you to see the beautiful picture of Jesus. I want you to see you get to walk into the presence of the Father and stand on the unshakable ground of Jesus. I want you to see the joy of the angels around you. I want you to see those who have finished the race and gone before you. The world around us is shaking – it’s chaos. But the unshakable joy of Jesus remains. When we stand on the unshakable Jesus, we stand in His joy. Don’t lose sight of the joy of Jesus. Illustration: The Tractor Keychain: When I Rachel first started dating, she gave me this red tractor keychain. And if you know anything about tractors, like I do, it was a Case tractor, which is her favorite brand of tractor. Over the years, the keychain got beat up and eventually I took it off. The other day, one of my kids was going through “That Kitchen Drawer”. The one with all the random things in it. I always find a Culvers Ice Cream coupon when I go through it. This kid found that old, beat up tractor keychain. The moment I saw it, all those memories and love from when we first started our relationship came running back. It was a small reminder of how our relationship started.

Don’t lose sight of the moment you met Him as Savior and Lord for the first time. Don’t lose sight of that joy you received – find your “keychain moment” with Jesus. Live in that joy – even when your life feelings like it’s shaking and crumbling all around you. You are no longer in fear, you’ve come to Jesus, so enjoy Him! The writer of Hebrews doesn’t let us sit too long in this moment though! Let’s go back to verse 12 – these verses were fresh on the writer’s mind as he was reminding us of the joy we have in Jesus. He knows there is an enemy that wants to rob you of that joy. Which is why you must protect your position.  

2) Protect your position. (vs. 12-17) One of the commentaries I read this week provided a title for this section of verses. The title was “Let us then be up and doing” When we stand on the shakable Jesus, we don’t stand idle. We can’t stand idle because we have an active enemy doing whatever he can to lure us away. Those who stay in the presence of God are those who are active in the presence of God. So, what does it look like to protect your position? Verses 12 and 13 tugged on my heart a little this week: ¹² So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. ¹³ Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong. Have you ever been working outside with rake or a shovel or a broom? The longer you work, what happens to your hands? They get more and more tired. It becomes a lot harder to hold on and to keep working. I know some of you spiritually feel that way right now. It feels like you’ve been working the ground and all you want to do is stop. I want to remind you of something: rest is coming. The verses right before verse 12 were talking about the hard seasons of suffering. It may not feel like, but rest is coming. I don’t know when, but I know the truth that rest is coming. So, while you are working, let Jesus enter the work with you. Let him hold the shovel with you. For those of you who feel light right now, love and encourage those around you. Quote: “One of life's greatest glories is to be an encourager of the man who is near to despair and a strengthener of the man whose strength is failing.” – William Barclay.

Even though we have seasons of tiredness, we still have to protect our position in Jesus. How do we do that? Let me quickly point a few ways in these verses.

• Verse 14, work at living with peace. 
  • ¹⁴ Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord. 
  • Seeking peace is offering forgiveness first
    • It means letting go of where you feel justified in your anger and choosing peace
    • It means grabbing the towel and washing their feet
• Work a living a holy life
  • ¹⁴ Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord. 
  • To put in the negative, don’t pursue the things of the world
  • We are to pursue the things of Jesus
    • There is no middle ground with this one
    • You are either pursuing Jesus or you are fading away from him
    • I heard one pastor describe it as peddling a bike uphill[1]
      • If you stop peddling, it’s all downhill
    • Quote: “You will never gain holiness by standing still. Nobody ever grew holy without agonizing to be holy. Sin will grow without sowing, but holiness needs cultivation.. Follow it; it will not run after you. You must pursue it with determination, with eagerness, with perseverance, as a hunter pursues its prey.” -- Charles Spurgeon
• Let me give you one more way to protect your position: no bitterness
  • Look at verse 15:
    • ¹⁵ Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many. 
  • Bitterness might be the most detrimental to church life.                                                                                                       
    • Bitterness grows slow and deep.
      • Illustration: I have a hole in my ceiling. About a week ago, Rachel came to me and said the drywall in our upstairs ceiling was coming apart. This was the day after we had a big rain, so my mind went a roof leak, followed by water damage, followed by mold. I went up into the attic and it was dry as a bone up there. But there was a something wrong. One of the bins in our attic had for some reason fallen over and into the insulation. One of my family members then said, “Oh yeah, I heard a big boom in the attic about a week ago!” The weight slowly pushed down until the ceiling cracked. 
      • That’s bitterness.
        • The longer you let it sit and push down into your heart, the sooner it will crack open and cause way more damage than you ever intended
        • The antidote to bitterness is live in the grace of God
          • That’s exactly what the first part of verse 15 says
          • When you realize it was your sin that put Jesus on the cross, and there was no bitterness in Him, how much more can you let go of things that offend you

You’ve come to Jesus, so enjoy Him. Live on that unshakable foundation. Protect that position. And finally, worship with your secured soul.    

3) Worship with your secured soul. (vs. 25-29) We get one more warning in our passage today. Take a look starting in verse 25: ²⁵ Be careful that you do not 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!  This verse brings us back to the comparison of Moses and Mount Sinai with Jesus and Mount Zion. The people in the Old Testament didn’t listen to Moses and they were punished. The writer of Hebrews is asking how much more will punishment come to those who don’t listen to Jesus.

And then, starting in verse 26, we are pointed to the day when Jesus will come back: ²⁶ When God spoke from Mount Sinai his voice shook the earth, but now he makes another promise: “Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also.” ²⁷ This means that all of creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain. Jesus has already come to earth one time. Jesus’ first time on earth was to provide salvation for us. We had no way to access the Father, so Jesus died on the cross for our sins to provide that way. GOSPEL PRESENTATION. Jesus is coming back a second time. But the second time is the finality of our world as we know it. When He comes, there will be no more time for salvation and redemption because He’s coming to shake the earth. He’s coming to get rid of all the things that don’t belong to Him. That’s why we stand on Jesus because everything else will be shaken and destroyed. Once we stand on Jesus, our souls are secured with Him. There’s nothing that can take us away from Him.

When He comes back, He’s not just shaking up this world, but He’s also bring a new Kingdom – a new heaven and earth. That’s what we talked about last week – our faith has a destination, which is a new heaven and earth with God for all eternity. Look at verse 28 and 29: ²⁸ Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. ²⁹ For our God is a devouring fire. What the writer says that are only response to this reality is for us to worship! When we realize that what we are spiritually standing on for all eternity is unshakable, our only response is to worship. When we realize that we no longer have to stand in fear of God like the Israelites did with Mount Sinai, but we can stand in awe on Mount Zion, it’s should bring us to worship. Illustration: My kids are still at the age where they think Dad can do anything. Well, at least one of my kids still thinks that. It doesn’t matter how tight that lid is on the jar, they believe that dad can open it. It doesn’t matter how shattered the little glass piggy bank is, dad can fix it. In a sense, my kids see me as strong and powerful. But at the same time, when that thunderstorms comes rolling in, they have no problem crawling in bed next to me. They have a dad that is (they believe) is strong and powerful, but have an intimacy where they can come right into my arms. God’s power from Mount Sinai didn’t lessen or go away, but Jesus came so that we can now crawl into the Father’s arms for all eternity.

That unshakable position should make you cry out in worship. You get to experience the joy of Jesus. You get to fight alongside Jesus against the enemy. You get to experience the power and the intimacy of the Father. That should make you worship Him with every ounce of breath in your lungs! We are about to spend some time in prayer and then we have one more worship song to sing. I typically like to give you a challenge for the week, but today, I want to give you a challenge for the next 7 minutes.

I want you to meet with God and then worship Him in a renewed perspective. I want you to enjoy His presence. I want you to go back to the place where you first met Him. I want you to run to Him with your weak hands and feeble knees and be strengthened. I want you to see that you no longer have to approach in fear, but you can worship Him in awe. I want the gratitude of your hear of what you have in Him – the unshakable – to pour out. And then I want you to sing with every ounce of your lungs. I don’t want your soul to get shy because you a lion inside of those lungs. Throw those hands up and sing. I am going to pray, after I do, you take a few minutes to see run to Mount Zion. See Jesus. Enjoy Jesus. Rest in Jesus. Be thankful for Jesus. And then we worship with a heart of gratitude. Let’s pray.

[1] https://summitchurch.com/GetFile.ashx?Guid=aafd56b3-e370-4b84-a486-68d87db8cd16

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