As God’s people we need to be aware of where we stand before God. We are all convened to gather in the assembly of heaven! The writer to the Hebrews in our passage this morning does this by contrasting two very different visions of where we all are before God and it’s all because of the new covenant that Jesus inaugurated through his death on the cross, that we can distinguish the difference.

Verses 18 to 24 in this passage from Hebrews is a contrast between the old and the new. It is a contrast between the giving of the law on Mount Sinai and the new covenant of which Jesus is the mediator. We need to bear in mind that this is a reminder of all that has been said in this letter – the supremacy of Jesus as our great High priest who has inaugurated a new covenant. As ch 8:6 says, the ministry Jesus has received is superior to the old covenant instituted under Moses and Jesus has become the mediator of a new covenant established on better promises. These “better promises” of the new covenant centre on an internal transformation and a deeply personal, intimate relationship with God, contrasted with the external focus of the old covenant.  God now writes His law on believers’ hearts, leading to internal obedience and a new nature, rather than an external adherence to rules; we have complete and permanent forgiveness of sins, where God remembers them no more, unlike the temporary atonement of the old covenant; and a direct, personal knowledge of God through the indwelling Holy Spirit, eliminating the need for intermediaries.

So down to verse 21 it has echo after echo of the story of the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. Deuteronomy 4:11 described that first law-giving: “And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain; while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud and gloom. And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire.”

Exodus 19:12, 13 tells of the unapproachability of that awful mountain: “And you shall set bounds for the people round about, saying, ‘Take heed that you do not go up into the mountain, or touch the border of it: whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death: no hand shall touch them, but he shall be stoned, or shot with arrows; whether beast or man, he shall not live: When the trumpet sounds a long blast they shall come up to the mountain.’”

Deuteronomy 5:23–27 tells how the people were so afraid to hear the voice of God for themselves that they asked Moses to go and to bring God’s message to them. “If we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, we shall die.”

The whole passage down to verse 21 is a pattern of reminiscences from the story of the giving of the law at Mount Sinai. All the terrifying things have been gathered together to stress the awfulness of that scene.

 In the giving of the law at Mount Sinai three things are stressed.

• The sheer majesty of God.The story of Sinai stresses the shattering might of God as well as the holiness of God along with the righteous jealousy of God and His demand for the total allegiance of His people.
• The absolute unapproachability of God. So far from the way being open to God, whoever tries to approach him meets death. Paul describes the old covenant in 2 Cor 3 as the ministry that brought death and condemnation. Romans 3:20.
• The sheer terror of God. Here is nothing but an awe-stricken fear which is afraid to look and even to listen. In Exodus 20:19 the children of Israel told Moses after the giving of the law “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.”

But then at verse 22 comes the difference. The first section deals with all that we can expect under the old covenant, a God of lonely majesty, complete separation from man, and prostrating fear.

But to the Christian there is a new covenant and a new relationship with God. We have not come to a setting that instills fear.

 Theologians have struggled with these contrasting and we might say absolute opposites in how we see God.

Some emphasize the aseity of God, by which they mean that God is self-existent and necessary by His own very nature so there is a distinction between God’s self-existent nature as the “one true living God” and humanity and the material universe surrounding us.

We often talk about the transcendence of God how He is above us and beyond our reach and we do acknowledge in our worship that we come before a Holy God, who is described in verse 29 as a consuming fire and in Ch 10:31we are reminded that “it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God”.

But that is only one side of the coin because God is not just above and beyond us that is – Transcendent but also Immanent, which is the wonder and the mystery of the incarnation, and that God has come so close to us in His Son. He has shared our humanity.

 Karl Barth, the great Swiss theologian in his later life penned a great little book called’ The Humanity of God’. This was quite a contrast with what he had tended to emphasise in his earlier works. Barth had seen, after his esteemed professors had backed the Kaiser’s War Policy at the outbreak of WW1, that God was “wholly other” meaning that God’s reality is radically different from and cannot be captured by human thoughts, words, or concepts, emphasizing God’s complete transcendence and freedom. This “otherness” is not a philosophical abstraction but a practical rejection of idolatry and the “domesticated” God common in his time, highlighting that God’s reality is only revealed through the unique event of Jesus Christ.

But he stated in The Humanity of God that God’s high freedom in Jesus Christ is His freedom for LOVE. The divine capacity which operates and exhibits itself in that superiority and subordination is manifestly also God’s capacity to bend downwards, to attach Himself to another and this other to Himself, to be together with him. This takes place in that irreversible sequence…which arises and continues in Jesus Christ – the highest communion of God with man.

God’s deity is thus no prison in which He can exist only in and for Himself. It is rather His freedom to be in and for Himself but also with and for us, to assert but also to sacrifice Himself, to be wholly exalted but also completely humble, not only almighty but also almighty mercy, not only Lord but also servant, not only judge but also Himself the judged, not only man’s eternal king but also his brother in time.

And all that without in the slightest forfeiting His deity! All that, rather, in the highest proof and proclamation of His deity! He who DOES and manifestly CAN do all that, He and no other is the living God.”

 Our passage in Hebrews makes a kind of list of all the privileges and glories that are ours as Christians.

This is where the tension of what has been described as the ALREADY but NOT YET aspect of the kingdom of God is played out. All these privileges are ours now, but they are still to be fulfilled in all their fulness when Jesus returns.

1. I want to suggest to you today that we have already arrived at our destination – Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God.

What could be clearer than this strong affirmation of where Christian believers find themselves because of the work of Christ – his death, resurrection and ascension and his current ministry at the right hand of the Father interceding for us and that ‘in the Spirit’.  We are already there with Him – raised up with Christ seated in the heavenly places (Eph 2: 1-7; 1 Cor 2: 9-10)

2. The angels join us in joyful assembly.The word used for joyful assembly related to a joyful national assembly in honour of the gods. To the Greek it described a joyful holy day when all people rejoiced. The joy of heaven is seen when the angels break into rejoicing and surely, we are called to join in!!
3. God’s people or saints welcome us.The writer to the Hebrews uses two words to describe them. He says literally that they are the first-born. The characteristic of the first-born is that the inheritance and the honour are theirs.

He says that they are those whose names are written in the registers of heaven. Luke 10:20. “…do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

This reminds me of French Christians during my ten years of missionary service who delighted in knowing this declaring in praise “I praise you Lord that ‘Mon nom est inscrit dans le livre de vie’”.

But we are still reminded here that God is the Judge of all.  It’s good to remember that the writer to the Hebrews never forgot that, at the end, the Christian must stand the scrutiny of God. The glory of all our privileges is there; but the awe and the fear of God still remain. William Barclay once said that that “The New Testament is never in the slightest danger of sentimentalizing the idea of God”.

We are also associated in our worship with the spirits of all the righteous; those who have achieved their goal. They encircle us in the unseen cloud; we are one with them. We are on our way to join them in blessed reality on that day when faith will give way to sight!!

Finally, the writer to the Hebrews says that it is because Jesus initiated this new covenant that He made this new relationship with God possible. It was he, the perfect priest and the perfect sacrifice, who made the unapproachable approachable and he did this at the cost of his blood. So, this section ends with a contrast between the blood of Abel and the blood of Jesus.

When Abel was slain, his blood upon the ground called for vengeance (Genesis 4:10); but when Jesus was slain, his blood opened-up the way of reconciliation. His sacrifice made it possible for us to be friends with God.

Once we were under the terror of the law; the relationship between us and God was one of unbridgeable distance and shuddering fear.

But after Jesus came and lived and died, the God who was far distant was brought near and the way opened to his presence.  This is the very heart of the Christian faith – not that we have discovered the way to God but that in the words of the ancient Christian hymn the ‘Te Deum’, Jesus has opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.

 Heavenly Father, we thank you that your holiness has not hindered you in making a way for us to approach You through your Son our Lord Jesus Christ. We praise You for Your mercy and grace, which allow us, though imperfect, to come before Your throne of grace. We are so grateful for the sacrifice of Jesus, which has opened the door for us to have a relationship with You. Thank You for Your love, Your provision, and the countless blessings You pour out on us daily. We offer You our praise and thanksgiving, recognising that You are worthy of all glory and honour. In Jesus’ name we pray Amen.”