[Machine transcription]
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Dear Saints of God, we rejoice this morning, especially in the gifts that Jesus gives us in His Kingdom, in His Church, in what is said in the Sermon of Hebrews is Mount Zion.
But first, I don’t want to skip over the Gospel, because it’s a tough one, and we want to think about it a little bit, because Jesus is walking to Jerusalem, and someone in the crowd says, “Lord, is it true that there’s only going to be a few who are saved?” And Jesus responds and says, “Enter through the narrow door.” In other words, yes, the door is narrow. There are few who come to salvation and many come to condemnation and hell. And the only escape is Jesus.
Now, these are two tough doctrines, by the way, tough Scriptures. The doctrine of condemnation, that there will be, as Jesus says here, those who knock on the door and He says, “I don’t know where you came from.” And for them, there’s weeping and gnashing of teeth. That’s the doctrine of hell, the eternal suffering of those who do not belong to Jesus. And then there’s the doctrine of the exclusivity of Christ, that the only way, in fact, into His Kingdom and into His kindness is through Jesus, as He says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father apart from me.”
These two doctrines are some of the most difficult of all the doctrines of the Holy Scriptures. Difficult for us and especially difficult for the world. We just want to recognize them and see them here, and I think, and I was reflecting on it this week, realizing that there’s really two totally different ways of looking at both of these doctrines: the worldly and unbelieving way of looking at them, and then the Christian way of looking at them.
For example, when we consider the doctrine of hell, I think the way that the world sees it is that we’re all kind of standing on the edge of the pit, and the Lord comes along and shoves us down. That’s the Lord condemning people to eternal life. And the world says, “How could a loving God do such a thing, throw people into hell?” But we know that the biblical doctrine is different, that we, by our nature, by our birth and by our own fault, are born in the pit. We’re already there. We start condemned.
Like King David says in Psalm 51, “In sin my mother conceived me.” And we add to it. Instead of trying to climb up, we’re trying to make the pit deeper. And the Lord looks down in sympathy, in love, in mercy, and He goes down into the pit and He throws us up out of it, so that the gospel tells us that the Lord is on a rescue mission for those who are lost and condemned persons. He’s coming to rescue us. In other words, it’s not that the Lord is sending us to hell; the Lord is redeeming us from hell. He’s rescuing us from hell. That He likes hell even less than we do, not just the doctrine of it but the reality of it.
Paul says to Timothy that the Lord desires none to be lost, but all to come to salvation. So, while it’s true that not all do reach the Lord’s gift of salvation, we rejoice, well, for us, that the Lord has called us and given us His gifts and forgiven our sins, and that He uses His church and the preaching of the gospel and His Christians to go out and gather up more and more people into His goodness.
And then there’s the doctrine of the exclusivity of Christ, the doctrine that there’s not many ways to salvation, but in fact only one, as Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father apart from me.” It’s an amazing thing to me, and I think we were talking about this not long ago, that that one verse is so beautiful to Christians and so offensive to the unbeliever, because those who do not believe in Christ want there to be many ways to heaven. All roads lead to eternal life. They’re desiring some sort of universalism.
We can all end up in the same place. And the idea that there’s only one way to be saved, that there’s only one door into the eternal Kingdom, that there’s only one name under heaven by which we must be saved seems tiny and small. But here’s the picture, I think. Can you imagine a walled city? Remember in the old world, the cities would have walls around them to protect them, and some people live outside the walls. But if an army was invading, then you’d want to get inside the walls to be safe. And can you imagine that you hear the armies coming and they’re blowing their trumpets and they’re going to come and kill and burn the houses and do all this plundering and everything and so you’re running for the castle, for the city with the walls in it, and you say, “I wish there was a gate here and not a gate over there. I’m sad that there’s only one way to get into the city. I want the gate to be over here closer to my house instead of having to go all the way around to get in.”
No, you’re just happy that there’s a gate at all and you can get in there. Well, that’s a joy that we have in Christ. There is a door. It’s a narrow door, but there’s a door, and there shouldn’t be. I mean, that’s the point, isn’t it? None of us deserve life. None of us are worthy to stand before the Lord in His glory. None of us should be able to look upon His face and live forever before Him. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. It’s true for me. It’s true for you.
And yet the Lord, in His kindness and in His love and in His great humility to be incarnate into our flesh and to suffer and die for us, that He has rescued us. He snatched us away from condemnation and brought us into life and into His church, and that’s what’s being described in the epistle lesson.
So I want to put our attention, especially on the last half of the epistle from Hebrews chapter 12, because Paul, or whoever’s preaching this sermon of Hebrews, is going to describe the Lord’s church, what it’s like when you’ve come through that narrow door and you’re in the Lord’s church. He’s going to describe it with eight beautiful words or descriptions that are there. And he’s contrasting the church with the Old Testament law. In fact, he calls the church Mount Zion, remember? That’s the hill that Jerusalem was built on. So the church is like a spiritual Mount Zion, and he’s going to contrast it with Mount Sinai.
In fact, not just with Mount Sinai, he’s going to contrast it with the Lord giving the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai. The text makes reference to the story from Exodus chapter 19. This is what happened, remember the Lord’s people were slaves in Egypt and the Lord sends Moses and the ten plagues, and He rescues them and they cross through the Red Sea and they come back to Mount Sinai. That’s where Moses saw the burning bush, but now when they get back there, the whole mountain is on fire, and the Lord says to the people, “Don’t come to the mountain, don’t even touch it, not you or any of your animals. If you touch the mountain, you’re going to die.”
And then from that mountain, like a pulpit, the Lord preaches the Ten Commandments. It’s the only time in my reading of the Old Testament, especially the first five books of Moses, that the Lord speaks directly to the people. Every other time He says, “Moses, you tell them,” or, “Aaron, you tell them,” or, “Moses and Aaron, you tell them.” But when the Lord gathers the people to the base of Mount Sinai and there’s this huge pillar of fire there, the Lord Himself preaches, and He preaches the Ten Commandments.
“I, the Lord your God, have brought you out of the land of Egypt. You shall have no other gods. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Honor your father and your mother. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house or your neighbor’s wife or manservant or maidservant or ox or donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
The Lord Himself preaches that sermon, and the people tremble, that Moses himself trembles, and they back away from the mountain. They’re afraid, and they’re right to be afraid because that is a fearful doctrine. The law reveals the guilt of sin and makes us conscience-stricken. The law shows us that even if we think that we’re trying to be pleasing to God that we failed. The law shows us that we’re sinners in what we do, in what we say, in what we think, in what we want.
And not just that we’re sinners, and here’s the real thing that the law, the real reason why it’s such a terrifying doctrine, why Mount Sinai is such a terrifying place. Because the law not only shows us that we’ve broken God’s law, but that we’ve deserved from that His wrath, His anger, His temporal and eternal punishment.
But you, says Paul in the text, have not come to that mountain. You’ve not come to Mount Sinai. When you come into the door of the church, I’m not sure what people think that we do when we come in here who are out there, like people in the apartment next door, like why are they ringing the bell so early in the morning? What are all those people doing in there? But I think, if I were to guess, I would guess that they think that we’re coming to hear Moses, that we’re coming to hear Mount Sinai, that we’re coming to hear the Ten Commandments, and probably that we like to hear the Ten Commandments because it tells us how good we are and how bad everyone else is.
But that’s not what the church is. Listen to what it says: “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 the voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further message would 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 himself said, “I tremble with fear.” That’s where you haven’t come.
Where have you come? But you have come to Mount Zion. It’s a completely different mountain, a completely different place with a completely different word and a completely different purpose and a completely different preaching. In fact, eight things are going to happen in Mount Zion. This is talking about the spiritual church, the New Testament, in fact, it’s talking about being in worship and being in the Lord’s liturgy.
You have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem. There was no city on Mount Sinai. In fact, nobody could live on there. Moses was there for 40 days and everyone figured that he died. No one could live there. But you can live on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, that’s where we live, it’s where we dwell, it’s where the Lord lives with us. Remember the name of Jesus, Immanuel, God with us? That the Lord is with us, that He’ll never leave us or forsake us? On Mount Sinai, the Lord said to Moses, “I’m going to destroy the people and make another one.” But on Mount Zion, the Lord says, “I’m going to save the people, rescue them, and deliver them.” Mount Zion, the city of the living God.
And then look at – here’s the third thing that we’ve come to, the innumerable angels in festal gathering. I don’t know if you think about this often. We probably should. We are always surrounded by the angels, but especially when we come to church, that the angels are gathered all around us. They’re in here with us. We can’t see them and we can’t hear them. Oh, I mean, it’s one of the great gifts that the Lord will give us in death. And when we close our eyes to sleep, to sleep of death, that our eyes will be opened to be able to not only behold the face of God, but also to see the angels and to hear their song.
They’re all around us now. They’re surrounding us even here. When we sing “Holy, holy, holy,” we’re singing with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven. But unlike the angels that were there at Mount Sinai who were decked up as soldiers with shields and armor and swords, when we come to church, the angels are dressed in their party clothes. That’s what it says, to an innumerable company of angels in festal gathering. The angels are not here with us fighting—I mean, maybe they are, but they’re especially here with us rejoicing. Remember how Jesus tells the parable that the angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner who repents? So the angels are rejoicing together with us.
And then point four: you have come to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven. The word assembly there is the word for church, and the idea of being firstborn means that you are the inheritors. And this is what it talks about. This is how the text talks about you. You are this assembly of the firstborn. You are the ones who will inherit eternal life. You are the ones whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life, so that you’ve been made acceptable in the Beloved.
I was in Annapolis at the Naval Academy this week, and one of the things that happened was they said, “We’ve given them your name,” so that I went to the security checkpoint, and the guy gave me the stink eye. You know, he’s there with his military and dog, and he says, “Who are you?” And I gave him my ID, and I said, “I’m Brian Wolfmüller.” He says, “Let me check the list.” And he checked the list, and there was my name, and he says, “Welcome, Mr. Wolfmüller, come on in.” Now that’s the idea here: the text is telling you that your name, your name is on the list of heaven, written with the blood of Jesus, that the place is reserved for you, the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and fifth, to God the judge of all.
When we come into church, we’re coming into the judgment seat of God. He sits on the throne to make a judgment, and that seems to be frightful for us because we know that we’re guilty, and so we know that He should judge us as guilty and condemn us. But He does not. The judgment that the Lord speaks, I mean, it already happened already in church today. We said, “Lord, I’m guilty. How do you plead?” “I plead guilty.” And what’s the Lord’s judgment? “Your sins are forgiven. You’re righteous. You’re holy. You’re acceptable. You’re covered in the blood of Jesus. You’re not guilty. You’re innocent.” The Lord is judge of all, and He has judged you not based on your own works, but based on the blood of Jesus, and He has declared you worthy to stand before Him forever. It’s unbelievable, unless it were written down here and promised for us.
And then the sixth point, and this is an interesting one. You’ve come to the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, you’ve come to God the judge of all, and you’ve come to the spirits of the righteous made perfect. The best I can sort out is that means that you are, when you come to church, that you are worshiping the Lord with those who have already died and gone to heaven. Those are the spirits of the righteous made perfect. That the church militant, that’s us in this life, and the church triumphant, those who have gone before us, that we worship the Lord together.
Now, I’ve talked to a lot of people who have told me that they have a hard time coming to church, especially after they’ve suffered the loss of a loved one, and they said, “Pastor, I can’t, I just don’t like to come to church because I come to church and I remember the casket right there, and I remember the sadness, and I remember the mourning.” But this text—and I think it’s the closest text in all of the Scripture that gives us this doctrine—that when we gather together in the Lord’s church, and especially when we gather together to worship, that when we’re worshiping, we’re not worshiping alone, but the angels are worshiping with us, and also those who have gone before us.
Our grandparents, and our parents, and our children, and our brothers and sisters, and our friends, and all those that have died in the Lord’s name, that they’re also worshiping the Lord with us. And listen to how they’re described: the spirits of the righteous made perfect. It’s beautiful. And then seventh, and this is the whole point, you have come to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant.
And eighth, to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. You’ve come here not to hear Moses, but to hear Jesus. Abel’s blood, remember, the blood of Abel—Cain killed his brother Abel, and his blood cried out from the ground for vengeance. But this speaks of a different blood with a different sermon. It’s true that Jesus was murdered by his brothers, by the soldiers, etc., and that his blood was spilt on the ground, but his blood does not cry out for vengeance, but for forgiveness. Remember how Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.” His blood cries out for forgiveness also for you, so you’ve come to hear Jesus, and this is what He says:
“All your sins are forgiven. All your guilt is forgotten. All your shame is covered. All your condemnation I’ve suffered already. All the wrath of God that you deserve I have carried. All your sin, I’ve taken away, so that you can live forever with me.”
This is the good news of the gospel, the preaching of Mount Zion, where we come not trembling with fear, but rejoicing with faith. So may God grant you, not only today, but every time you come into church, this confidence. Listen to the verse. I’ll read it one more time.
“You have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels in festal gathering, to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of this New Testament, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”
May God grant you this joy and peace in the name of Jesus. Amen. And the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
