Yet Once More – Hebrews 12: 18-29
Intro: This passage is about contrasts between old and new / old and new covenants. – So much material here that we will concentrate on only 2 verses. Read Verses 28 & 29
I. The writer contrasts the experience at Mt. Sinai with the giving of the new covenant in Jesus. Though different events, both begin the same way.
A. Taoism – Man name Lao-Tzu – wrote Tao-Te-Ching the Taoist scriptures 400 yrs before Christ. – Only one expression: “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
B. Earlier in his letter -- run with perseverance the race” --- Hebrew people were at Mt. Sinai beginning on a journey of many years that would call for perseverance.
C. By the end of chapter 12, the author reminds the readers that they have taken the 1st steps on their faith journey.
II. This letter was written about 60 A.D.. out of pastoral concern for a church plagued by neglect, apathy, absenteeism, and retreat.
A. 1st readers of Hebrews were weary of persecutions --- they wanted the comfort and safety of their old religion back.
B. Most of us run into obstacles & are ready at some point to throw up our hands in disgust, chucking Xianity along with everything else.
C. All of us grow attachments to incidental things—things that are temporal—things that are familiar and fail to venture forth where God leads.
III. “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but al the heaven . . . in order that what cannot be shaken may remain.”
A. Shaking is no pleasant process –hurts – pain – sometimes the only way God can get our attention and bring us face to face once more with the abiding realities that cannot be shaken.
B. To have faith in God means clearing the mind of lesser attachments, to be willing even to “let goods and kindred go” – to be grateful that God has given us a place in a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
C. People who live through earthquakes or natural disasters who say, at least we are OK.
Conclu: There is a choice before you. Remain unshakably true to God so that when our universe is shaken into destruction, you may stand safe and secure. For truly, nothing matters; only loyalty to God.
