'THE CONSUMING FIRE OF GOD'S LOVE'
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The above is complex and intense words that we will try to unpack as the message goes along. Continuing in verse 25, of the text, "see that you do not refuse him who is speaking for if they did not escape when they refused him and warned him on earth, much less shall we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. His voice then shook the earth but now he has promised once more, yet once more, I will shape not only the earth but also the heavens." This phase, once more, indicates the removal of what is shaken as of what has been made in order that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving of a kingdom that cannot be shaken and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire. For our God is a consuming fire! Let us Pray: Grant us open hearts and receptive minds, oh Lord, that we might hear your word of warning and grace this hour and that having heard, we might respond and make application. Amen It started as only a flicker ignited from a carelessly thrown out cigarette or perhaps as a result of wind blown embers from a not thoroughly drenched camp fire nearby. The wind picked up, fanning the flames in what started out as a tiny flicker, was now evolved into a major forest fire involving acres upon acres and threatening ridge lines and valuable timber resources and even perhaps homes upon distant mountains. If I were to say to you that God's love is a consuming fire, as the end of our text from Hebrew very clearly says, what kind of imagine might you form in your mind? You would probably conjure up visions of blazing heat and terrible destructive fire consuming all that gets in the way, perhaps much like that forest fire burning out of control. And perhaps even you might think of Moses and the burning bush or the terrible fire that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. It can be said that such awesome and terrifying images are definitely a part of Holy scripture, especially upon Old Testament pages.....and yes, they are a part of our text even in the New Testament and there will be something that must command our attention even today. But let it be known that a far more loving picture is painted by the whole of the gospel. A far more Christ like imagine is presented within out text as well but not without the background laid in tempest and turmoil, in fire and flames. For God's love is a consuming fire. But I pray that our text will reveal how the consuming fire of God's love lights the way that sin and the hatred and the evil and the gloom, and paves the way of the salvation and safety of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Our chief purpose this morning, at least in a theological sense as we unpack the meaning of Hebrews 12, the latter part of it, is to establish one of the fundamental differences between the old covenant and the new covenant between law and grace, between the Old Testament mediated upon a series of covenants between God and Israel and the new covenant mediated slowly upon the blood of Jesus Christ. There is some warning there, yes, there is judgment, there is bone-rattling, get your attention kinds of proclamations and we must hear them and heed them. Yes. But there is also over and against that, the sense of grace, a sense of forgiveness and acceptance and understanding. And through it all, our purpose is to clear the way for a closer walk with the Lord, a deeper communion with the creator and sustainer of all of life and a proper response to the love of God, which is indeed a consuming fire. It might be helpful if you would choose to pull out that pew Bible and turn to Hebrews 12 because we are going to spend a little time there. Now, we need to remember that Hebrews 11 is the faith chapter - all the hero's and heroines of biblical lore and then chapter 12 begins with 'surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses'. I've preached from this several times and I'm sure John and any other preacher of any experience has done that and loves those passages but I discovered again this week that Hebrews 12 doesn't end there. It goes on to paint some pretty graphic and realistic pictures of fire, of its destructive ability but also of its restorative nature as well. The beginning of our passage from 18-21 establishes the Old Testament idea of fear and trembling. The difference between Mt. Sinai, meaning where Moses was granted the law, and Mt. Zion, meaning the city of God, the New Jerusalem, the new covenant of the blood of Christ, if you will. And there is fear and trembling there. Our text tells us blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and a void that made the hearers tremble. "And even a beast touches the mountain. It shall be stone." This is so terrible in all of this. But then in verse 22, the scene changes. "But you have come to Mt. Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and all the angels in festal gatherings. In other words, all of this other stuff is a necessary prerequisite. It is a warning that New Testament Christians must hear and heed. Yes, indeed. But, because the blood of Christ is the sacrifice, once and for all, we live not by the law but by grace, of course. Maybe sometimes we tend to forget that. We tend to think of only judgment, only of condemnation, only hatred, only sin, only death, only law. Yes, those are still real and viable forces for those who do not know the saving love of Jesus Christ and we know that Christ came not only to destroy the law and prophets but also to fulfill them...to enhance them... to allow them to have their full witness in our New Testament being. But now, we have come to Mt. Zion, to the city of the living God and in verse 24 "and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, not judged by the harsh blood of Abel, so much, but by the cleaning, sprinkled blood of Jesus Christ. And then in verses 25-27, the middle of the text, there is sort of a mixture of warnings and teachings..."see that you do not refuse the warnings about what happens if you reject Him"....all of this ends with what cannot be shaken, may remain. In the final two verses of our text should be our appropriate and accurate response to God as a result of all this. "Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken". Think of the power of a 7.5 Richter scale earthquake and everything around you is trembling and stuff is falling off the shelves and buildings are crumbling and the earth is shaking below your feet, but if you have come to the consuming fire of God's love, created by the new covenant of Christ, then you have akingdom that cannot be ultimately shaken.....maybe on earth, but not in heaven, for all eternity. Therefore, our appropriate response is that we offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, and there's that phrase again, "for God's love is a consuming fire". In the light of this far-reaching passage then, what does it mean to say that God's love is a consuming fire, in the light of identifying the contrast between Mt. Sinai and Mt. Zion. In the course of understanding something of the fundamental difference between the tempest and turmoil of the Old Testament revelations and then the mediator of Jesus Christ and his blood of the New. What does it all mean? What are we all about when we talk about the consuming fire of God's love? Is it just another harsh, bitter Old Testament imagine. No, it shouldn't be. It shouldn't be this at all. Even though, to the reader under this concept, it may seem to be a tragic misinterpretation of the gospel message of the love of God. A broader, more fully biblical acknowledgement accepts this note of warning, yes, in due time, but sees the dominate theme of one of assurance, especially for those who know the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Well, the bad news is they've got a good starting pitcher going against our baseball team today, but the good news is we can manufacture some runs. Our defense is to hold them down and we can scratch out a couple of runs and maybe win the game in the bottom of the 9th. The warning, yes, it's a good starting pitcher - we must respect him with a sense of awe and reverence but you don't give him to him. Yes, there is a warning that there is blood and judgment and there is sin but if you have Jesus Christ as the one that is ultimately in charge of the game, ultimately in control of your soul and mind, your life and mine, then we can scratch out more than enough runs to win the game. One well respected commentator that I consulted this week puts it like this: We who have received the kingdom that cannot be shaken may rest in confident peace for even God's love, which is a consuming fire, destroys all transient and temporal things in order that that which is timeless and unchanging may immerge in full bore and we are those who have received these permanent home in the heart of the soul. My good buddy Don Weiller tells me, and all of us, that forest fires can be a good thing. Don even told me this morning that they ask home owners if they really want us to put it out? Nature needs to replenish itself and part of how he does this is with a good burn. Let us be reminded that if there is debris in the forest floor, then a lot of the light that some of the undergrowth needs cannot get through unless it is burned. Some seed pods are never opened fully and allowed to generate new life except by the heat which is created in the forest fire. Its only bad when we build our homes upon the edge of the wilderness and encroach upon Mother Nature and things are in harms way, which should not be. But nature has a cleansing effect that every so often, every few decades or generations, there needs to be a regeneration or a recurring which happens with a forest fire. There is both good and bad. The immediate bad is the judgment like this is awful, its charred and it's burned. The good is seen in future generations and good things that renew the earth, as long as human beings are smart enough to use it wisely. Yes, there is a consuming fire of God's love but we hope that it will burn away the evil debris in the forest floor or our souls....burn away the sin so that the true light of God's love might be allowed to shine in more fully. I guess the question is ultimately this.....do you possess the peace of a kingdom that cannot be shaken? Has the consuming fire of God's love burned away the sin and selfishness, hatred, prejudice of your life, and therefore cleaned a path for you to offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe. Is the God of Mt. Sinai and Mr. Zion the Lord of your life and mine? Do you know the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as your personal savior? Yes, there are forest fires, and they are initially damaging but ultimately they are healing and therapeutic and restorative to the balance of nature. Yes, there is consuming fire in the Biblical sense, Sodom and Gomorrah............ but yes, it needed to be burned in order to burn away the sin. There is the Moses and burning bush incident when he was told to take off his shoes but he was told to do that because this was holy ground. And then there are the tongues of fire that appear to us at Pentecost and this was the birth of the church and the igniting of the disciples to spread the resurrection power of Christ. The consuming fire of God's love can be such a good and helpful thing if you will allow it to burn to the floor of the evil of your hearts....burn it all away so that the sunshine of God's love might find it's place there. These words of Oliver Wendell Holmes seem appropriate as you meditate on your decision: Lord of all being thrown afar, thy glory flames from sun and star, center and soul of every sphere, yet to each loving heart, how dear. The consuming fire of God's love.....may it burn away the sin and the selfishness and may the blood of Jesus Christ and the blood of the new covenant find it's way to it's heart both now and for ever more. AMEN and AMEN. |