Last Thursday night we continued our trek through "Hebrews". The author is winding down as we near the end of this Epistle and here they contrast the 'Old Covenant' with the 'New Covenant' by an illustration using Mount Sinai and Mount Zion to represent the two.
Let us not jump to the conclusion that the 'Old Covenant' is bad or lacking. Too many times these verses and others have been spun to support an Anti-Semitic rhetoric.
It was not a long sermon, I tried to keep it short so we could come in near our goal of a 30-minute worship service. We've (I've) gotten a bit long lately and I wanted to keep closer to our original intention for Thursday nights.
Take a listen and please remember to...
Be a blessing to someone today!!
In Christ,
Roy
Hebrews 12:18-29 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
18 You have not come to something[a] that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, 19 and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them. 20 (For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned to death.” 21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.”) 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly[b] of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
25 See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking; for if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject the one who warns from heaven! 26 At that time his voice shook the earth; but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.” 27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of what is shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; 29 for indeed our God is a consuming fire.
Footnotes:
a) Hebrews 12:18 Other ancient authorities read a mountain
b) Hebrews 12:23 Or angels, and to the festal gathering 23 and assembly
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