Message
Worship God Acceptably
Hebrews 12:1-29
Key Verse 28-29
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our "God is a consuming fire."
Much has been said concerning worship throughout this conference. But now we want to think about acceptable worship. What makes our worship acceptable? Our worship is pleasing to God and therefore acceptable to him when it flows from sincere adoration of him. And this love flows from faith – the faith that grasps and comprehends the supreme worthiness of God in terms of his goodness, love, splendor, and power. But, as we know, this acceptable worship does not just flow into our life effortlessly. Sins are blocking in the way. So we must fight these sins. And this chapter of Hebrews is intended to equip us with marvelous wisdom that can empower us to fight. Our goal is to grab this wisdom. Let's pray based on this point...
Part 1: Let us fix our eyes on Jesus (vs. 1-2)
This part is about getting the power to worship acceptably by turning our eyes to the right place.
The first part of verse 1 says, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses". The word "therefore" refers to the previous chapter which introduced us to many heroes of faith. So we are depicted here as being in a stadium surrounded by these many heroes. They are sitting up in the stands and cheering us. They cheering us on in the sense of encouraging us. And they're doing this through their life testimonies written in the previous chapter. Whenever we prayerfully read and meditate upon chapter 11 of Hebrews, the lives of these heroes stir up faith in us and we feel courage and strength rising up inside of us.
The second part of verse 1 says, "let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us". This depicts our faith life as a foot race. And we are depicted as the runners in this race. The expression "run with perseverance" alludes to an endurance footrace. There were no marathons in the ancient Greek and Roman games. (Marathons weren't introduced until the 1896 Olympics.) Instead, what they had was the dolichos (or "long") race. It was a track race of at most 2.52 miles. By the clock, it lasted only 12 minutes or so. But to the runners, it seemed "long". Physically, they battled oxygen debt, fatigue, and cramps. Mentally, they battled thoughts giving up or slowing down. They battled to shut out the pain and concentrate on their goal and keep going. So this is what our Christian life is like. It is a lifelong battle and it is not easy, yet we must "run with perseverance" to the end. However, this shouldn't discourage or deter any of us. Actually, with respect to our fellowship with God, our life of faith is like a pleasant, restful walk with the Lord. But with respect to the counterforces working inside and outside of us, it is like a tough endurance race.
With this in mind, we need to "throw off everything that hinders". This alludes to the practice of the runners in ancient Greece to literally throw off everything before the race. They stripped off and threw aside their footwear and all their clothing, and they ran completely naked. This seems rather exotic, but behind it was wisdom. We don't want to carry any extra, unnecessary thing in our race that hinders us. We want to feel as light and as comfortable as possible so as to perform our best. John the Baptist set a great example. He stripped down his life to the essentials. He lived a simple life in the desert with simple clothing and simple food and one Bible. The outcome was that God's power flowed unhindered into his life and he became a champion in the faith race. To "throw off everything that hinders" is a matter of first adopting a runner's philosophy and passion. We want to unleash our maximum spiritual performance. We want to get that power from above to "run with perseverance". We are serious about it. And we fix it as our top priority. Any item that gets in the way has a minus value, period. That item may have plus value in terms of it bettering our physical life. But we don't care about that as spiritual runners. Our philosophy is that all such items in our life are disposable junk. "Everything that hinders", we dump.
Sin is another thing we need to throw off. Sin has a power to entangle and ensnare us. The tentacles of sin so easily and smoothly wrap around us; they hold us in a tight grip aiming to imprison us. Hence, sin is dangerous and we must get rid of it. But the tricky thing is that, if sin is in our life, we are already semi-entangled and semi-gripped by it. In a sense, it is semi-attached to us and is sort of a part of us. Stripping it off can be like extracting a bad tooth without pain killers. It involves agony. It requires courage. But we've got to do it.
Verse 2 gives us some help. The first part reads, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus". The phrase "fix our eyes" means to turn the eyes away from other things and fix them on something. But figuratively, it means to shut out the consideration of other objects of thought, and fix the full and earnest attention of the mind on one thing. So, this is what we need to do with Jesus. We need to turn our attention on him. We need to study him, blocking out everything else, and concentrate on him. This is necessary so that we may have a steady, uninterrupted connection with Jesus, and so that his power may flow into us, and so that we may have the courage and strength to overcome problems and sins and run as conquerors. This connection is so vital. Our spiritual batteries are limited and we cannot get far without him. As we run our race, we are bombarded by allurements, distractions, troubles. And it is so easy to lose our focus on Jesus. Yet, Jesus is captivating. As we focus on him, his wonderful qualities attract our mind in fascination and our heart in adoration, making the time with him most delightful. There is a window called the Bible through which we may see the Lord. Let us gaze into the Bible, studying it daily and meditating on it and even memorizing it. Then mysteriously, the Lord will show the light of his glory to us and he will catch the eyes of our mind and heart and kindle the flames of our love.
There's another reason to fix our eyes on Jesus. Can we read the latter part of verse 2 starting with the word "Jesus"... Here, Jesus is presented as the author of our faith in the sense that he sparked it. He fired the starting gun <pow> and our chains of sin were snapped. Instantly, we sprang forward and we started our race for heaven. But can think of Jesus as our faith coach. Like a tough coach, he's not satisfied with mediocrity. He aims for perfection – the perfection of our faith. So, as we run our faith race, he is giving us correction and rebuke and encouragement. He's training us to bring our faith to the highest level, the level of champions. The best running coaches are those who have themselves won the gold. Jesus is such a coach. He knows what the race is about. Victoriously, he endured the agonies of the cross. And, by doing so, he pioneered the race to heaven, opening the way to heaven for all of us to follow him there. He was crowned with the gold and now sits in triumph at the Father's right hand.
Therefore, let us run the race for heaven, fixing our eyes on Jesus. Let us gaze at the dignity with which he ran his race to Calvary and the majesty with which he endured the cross, scorning its shame. Let this picture of our Lord's supreme example inspire us to our highest, finest performance. Let's throw off everything that hinders, but not our crosses. We have earthly duties and divine obligations that are an encumbering, even agonizing, burden. Let's carry these crosses, and follow our Lord and his marvelous example. Why? Because of the "joy" set before us. Sure, our race comes with one "agony" after another, but it is all counterbalanced by the wonderful joy of the race. It is a joy better than the joys of this world – more lasting and satisfying. This joy flows from knowing the Lord, knowing his glory and worshiping him. It is a foretaste of heaven. Let us run the race for heaven for the joy and crown of victory and inexpressible joys that we will share with Jesus for eternity!
Part 2: Make every effort to be holy (vs. 3-17)
In this part, we're going to learn "how" we must cooperate with God to bring about holiness in our lives. And also we're going to think about "why" we ought to do this in terms of the benefits we derive from it. So God is like our holiness coach who sends us tough trainings, not to burden us, but benefit us with holiness. And now let's consider how we ought to cooperate in this process:
First, we need spiritual toughness. The trainings God will send our way to make us holy are going to be tough and to handle them rightly, we must be tough. If you looking for a movie to really inspire you to be tough – and inspire you so powerfully that shivers and tingling sensations will run up and down your spine – then go rent the movie called "Missing in Action", starring karate champion Chuck Norris. In this movie, Chuck is so tough and his moves are so awesome that he makes Sylvester Stalone look like a sissy. But actually, don't rent that video: There is a tougher and far more inspirational figure than Mr. Chuck. Verse 3 reads, "Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.". To avoid wimping out during God's vigorous holiness exercise program, we need to fix our thoughts on the perfect example of Jesus. We should consider how he performed at Gethsemane and Calvary and struggle to copy him. Then God will help us. Faith and strength will arise to in us to handle our difficulties, and unbeknownst to us, we will resemble Jesus more and more. Inside, we will shine with his glory!
Second, we must struggle against sin, not people. Verse 4 reads, "In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood." The phrase "shedding your blood" refers to the blood shed by violence and by killing. But, it is also an allusion to the blood shed by Jesus on the cross. The recipients of this letter, the Jewish Christians, were on the verge of turning back to Judaism because of small persecution from their fellow Jews. So here the Lord was telling them to stop their pity party. Their suffering was not that bad. The persecution did not yet reach the point of shedding even a drop of their blood; it was nothing compared to what Jesus suffered on the cross. So they should be thankful. As we run our race, God will train us to be more like Jesus by allowing certain people around us to act a little unfriendly toward us. They may not be doing this to "persecute" us. They may have no idea why they're doing what they do. But they will provoke us to sin by their unkindness, glaring looks, de-constructive criticism, subtle insults and so forth. But our struggle is not against such people, but against the sin we are provoked to commit. In all such cases, let us not overestimate the suffering in our race. Rather, let us consider how Jesus shed his blood on the cross. This will bring us great strength and our crosses will seem so light compared to his.
Third, we accept God's discipline as his love. Can we read verses 5-13 responsively? We will face afflictions and difficulties. At times, our life will resemble a Boeing 747 tumbling down out of control down out of the sky. But the lesson here is don't worry. God is in the cockpit. Everything is under his control. He loves you and is treating you as a beloved child by giving you some tough training. But it is all for a good purpose for a good effect: To help us share in his holiness (v. 10), to produce a harvest of righteousness and peace in us (v. 11) and to even give us his healing touch (v. 13). So just relax and enjoy the ride.
Fourth, we have a responsibility to make "every effort" train ourselves to be holy. Verse 15 says, "Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord". This is not talking about perfect, sinless holiness. We are to be holy in the sense of having been cleansed by the Holy Spirit of the pollution of sin. We are to be holy in the respect of hating sins and warring constant against them, making "every effort" to annihilate them by the Spirit completely from our life and our mind and heart. We are to be holy in the respect of being captured, heart and mind, by the joy of worshiping of him. Anything less than this is not "holiness". The benefit of holiness is that we can see the Lord; we can enjoy an intimate, face-to-face relationship with him now and forever (Rev 22:4). But "without holiness no one will see the Lord" That person will be eternally shut out from the brightness of the Lord's presence.
Fifth, we must practice being holy in our relationships with others. And this means living in peace with "all" men with no exceptions. To live in peace with those who are near to us is particularly difficult for in these close relationships ugly sins problems are more easily exposed. But the secret to attaining peace with all men, paradoxically, is a matter waging war -- a war directed at our sin. We must make "every effort" to crucify our sins: Our pride, irritableness, impatience, and rudeness. But peace is not always broken by our sin. What should we do when it is the other person's sin that's causing the problem? Still, we must make "every effort" to live in peace with that person. We must make "every effort" to get power from above to practice forgiveness, humility, and love to bear with the person's weaknesses, as Jesus bore with ours. Then we will enjoy the benefit of peace in our hearts and then that peace will flow from our heart into that conflict relationship.
Sixth, we must practice being holy in terms of caring for others spiritually. Verses 15 and 16 contain commands in the form of "See that no one...". This indicates that we have an important duty of love to fulfill. If we see that our brother or sister is suffering from spiritual sickness, we should help them. We should respond like they are sick with a high fever. We compassion, we should ask them how they feel, give them gentle words of sympathy, encouragement, maybe some soup, and then give them medicine by rebuking them with the word of God to repent. Verse 15 suggests that, when one person becomes infected with a highly communicable type of sin, it is not a private matter. It is a serious health risk to the whole church community. We must "See to it that ... no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many". Pride, hatred, rivalry and other sins can grow in a person's heart. Before it is too late for that person, we must practice love and try to help. Otherwise, his or her problem may spill out and cause trouble and infect others.
Seventh, we must avoid sexual immorality. Verse 16a reads, "See that no one is sexually immoral". Any sex-related intimacy and activity outside of marriage is sin. In cutting-edge women's fashion and in many advertisements and in the media, we see the trend to reveal more of women's body and to present their features so deliciously. In a way, sex itself is being exalted in our culture as a god who provides the highest pleasure in life, a sensual delight that no one should deprive themselves of. As a result, so many are involved in sex worship in their mind and heart. And so many invite filthy sexual sins into life with continual craving for more. But we must be holy -- and we can be holy when we know the joy of intimacy with the Lord and the "high" of worshiping him. Verse 16a reads, "See that no one is sexually immoral".
Eighth, we must avoid the problem of godlessness, v. 16b. The dictionary definition of "godless" is "Recognizing or worshiping no god". Godlessness arises when people are unenlightened concerning the Lord's worthiness of our worship. Esau had this problem. He grew up in a family that worshipped God, but he himself had other values and priorities. He was a hunter, a mighty outdoor sportsman. This is good. But tragically, he never figured out what was truly worthy of his worship. What happened to him? Can we read verses 16 and 17 together? This is a great warning. Esau's birthright carried the covenant blessings of Abraham. Through this birthright, he was entitled to special privileges in God. But it was of little worth in his eyes because he did not know the worth of God himself. So he exchanged it. He exchanged his priceless birthright for a quick gratification, a mere bowl of lentil soup. Incredible! If we do not know the value of God and of being in God, it is entirely possible that we can exchange our infinitely priceless salvation for some goodies in this world to gratify one craving or another. Verse 16 says, "See that no one... is godless like Esau".
Part 3: Worship God Acceptably (vs. 18-29)
In this part, the Lord is working hard to open our eyes concerning his worthiness of being worshipped so that acceptable worship may arise from within us.
Verses 18-24 present an impressive contrast between Mount Sinai and Mount Zion. The Hebrew Christians, to whom this letter is addressed, were ready to retreat from Mount Zion, representing Christianity, and go back to Mount Sinai, representing Judaism, only because of some persecution. This was so foolish. They were blind to the blessedness of Mount Zion and the terrors of Mount Sinai. So verses 18-24 were intended to open their eyes. Let me recite these verses to you dramatically...
Wow! What a spectacular place Mount Zion is, especially compared to the horrors of Mount Sinai. God gave his law to the Israelites at Mount Sinai with such an awesome and terrifying display to let them know what was in store for them if they disobeyed. When we did not know the grace of sin-forgiveness in Jesus, we also were at Mount Sinai. We were shut out from the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. In the darkness of spiritual ignorance, we lived in frenzied worship of worthless things, of ourselves, of our dreams and of our dark passions. Because we lived in disobedience of God's laws, we were under the storm of his wrath. The flashes of lightning signified his great fury at our sins. The peals of thunder signified his warnings of impending judgment. But thank God! In his great love and mercy, he has invited us to escape the terrors of Sinai, through repentance and faith in Jesus, and has invited us to come to the radiant brightness of Zion. We have come to Mount Zion where we are sprinkled with the blood of Jesus and forgiven of our sins and where we enjoy sweet fellowship with God and join with the choirs of angels in worshipping him in adoration and joy.
But the spiritual battle is not quite over. So verse 25 gives us a solemn warning. It reads, "See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven?". This verse doesn't say, "do not refuse him who speaks". Rather, it says, "See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks". We are still not safe at Zion from the reach of sin. So we must exercise diligent effort and caution to stop the tentacles of sin from reaching into our life and pulling us right back to Sinai. This requires that we listen daily to God's voice. He warns us in the Gospel through the Word to fight a daily battle against sin and build our love relationship with him. Yet, his voice is not thunderous like it was at Sinai. Instead, he speaks to us from Zion in a softer, gentler and more loving tone. And as we listen to his sweet voice, it is so easy to refuse him, taking his grace of sin-forgiveness lightly. It is so easy to flirt with our old lifestyle and flirt with new sins, and let the flames of thankfulness and love toward God die down, and then retreat step by step back into those dark shadows of Mount Sinai. Even as he pleads for us to come back with a broken heart and with stern warnings of punishment, we can so easily ignore his voice. We can easily devise various theological fantasies, assuring ourselves that we will be saved purely by faith in Jesus alone and thereby escape his punishment. But, for all who might be considering this option, there is bad news. The Israelites who refused to obey the voice of him who spoke to them from Sinai, all died. Their corpses, over a million of them, were scattered over the desert. They did not escape God's punishment. How much less will we, if we treat with contempt so great a gift of grace that was purchased at so great a price on Calvary. Nothing less than eternal torment in the fiery lake of burning sulfur is in store for anyone who, by continual and deliberate sinning, rejects God's gift of salvation. There is surely no escape!
Verses 26-27 teach us that we must give our full and reverent attention to God's voice from Zion. His gentle voice still carries formidable power. At Sinai, his thunderous voice only shook the earth like a familiar Southern California earthquake. But one day his voice from Zion will shake, not only the earth, but also the heavens. Everything will be shaken to pieces until nothing remains except his kingdom which cannot be shaken. This world with all its splendors will pass away. Those whose hopes are in this world will perish along with it. But we are receiving something that will last forever – a glorious kingdom in the new world that is yet to be revealed.
Can we read verses 28-29 together in a loud and thankful voice? We are "receiving a kingdom" in the sense that we are royal sons and daughters who are to receive thrones and dominion in the unshakable, eternal world to come. Our Father and King has designated certain positions for us to fill in this glorious future world and he is presently preparing us for them. He is inscribing royal character into our hearts through his Word and Spirit and through many trainings. Because of this great privilege, we ought to be deeply thankful and express our gratitude suitably through obedience and worship. Let us be thankful! Let us drive out all hints of complaining from inside. Throughout our days here on earth, let our worship to God our Father and King be an expression of our thankfulness for redeemed us, loving us and having great plans for us. Let us express our thankfulness for these gifts by seeking to know the gift Giver. Worship flows, not only from the appreciation of his great mercy and from thankfulness for the gifts he has lavished upon us, but also from the knowledge of who he is. Therefore, let us get to know him better by accepting him into our lives Word by word from the Bible.
As a computer programmer, I work all day long in front of a computer monitor, peering into the world of Windows XP professional and the world of C++ programming instructions and sophisticated software development tools. But the splendor of that world shining through these application windows does not compare with the glory of Him who shines through the many passages of Scripture. I have fallen in love with many of these windows of the Bible and I have memorized them very deliciously, just like I did this passage.
But worship is something we do with our whole person – our heart, mind, and bodies. God does not want us to worship him with just our heart, or with just our mind, or with just our strength. And we have a divine duty to develop a hunger, delight and excitement for worship with our whole person. This does not come from ourselves. Rather, it flows from God's Spirit. So, first, let us worship him with all our heart. We need to fan our adoration of God into a mighty flame by spending time with the Lord before his words and in prayer. Second, let us worship him with all our mind. This kind of worship flows from intellectual curiosity and fascination with God and the things of God. To acquire this, we must discipline ourselves to study the Bible daily and investigate it with a scholarly attitude, digging deep into its personal, spiritual, theological, and historical meanings. And finally, let us not fail to worship him with our services with all our strength. We must express our thankfulness to God for his grace and fan it into mighty flame by doing various works of service, such as through playing a musical instrument very beautifully for the glory of God or singing in the choir. We must develop a love and delight in serving God's mission and feeding his flock, and express our thankfulness for his grace by exerting all our strength to expand his kingdom. Until we do these activities with a thankfulness, willingness, eagerness and pleasure, it is not yet the worship that God accepts, the worship that pleases him and flows from him.
There is one more ingredient of acceptable and pleasing worship. It says that we must worship him "with reverence and awe". Our worship must contain reverence – a deep respect arising from a deep consciousness of our own unworthiness and sinfulness before Him who is worthy and who is full of majesty and holiness. Our worship must contain awe – a serious awareness of his holiness in his presence, and of his sensitiveness and hatred toward any hint of sin in our lives. This awe causes us to be watchful and cautious not to sin. We can enter with boldness into the holy presence of God by the blood of Jesus. But this boldness must be tempered with reverence and awe because he is a "consuming fire". He is not a warm and cozy fire, but a "consuming" fire. Why is God described this way? It is because his love is so hot – so passionate – and because his love is so consuming – so possessive. In a word, he is a jealous God. He wants us as his precious and holy bride with all our attention and affection directed at him. He cannot stand it if we should flirt with another lover. The fires of his jealous love become a fire of rage toward those who reject him. And this fire will consume his enemies for eternity in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. Let us "worship God acceptably with reverence and awe". Let us give him the acceptable worship he is worthy of.
One Word: Worship God Acceptably.
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