I’d like to ask you a question. Do you
fear God?
It’s an idea that shows up all over the Old
Testament. The psalms and the proverbs especially mention it over and
over again. So do most of the Old Testament prophets. Phrases like “the fear of the Lord”
“fear the Lord your God”, and similar things pop up repeatedly in the Old
Testament.
And you know, it’s not hard to understand why. God is
very powerful. And the Old Testament is
full of examples of God using God’s power. Our reading from Hebrews today
references the appearance of God on Mount Sinai. It was a mountain that appeared to be burning
with fire because of the presence of God. It was a mountain that was
covered with clouds and deep gloom and darkness because of the presence of
God. The people were told that they were
not to touch the mountain or even approach it, or they would die.
The people back then were scared to death of being in the
presence of God. They told Moses, you go talk to God for us and tell us
what God says. We’re not going anywhere
near God. And in fact, even Moses himself was scared of being in the
presence of God. He did it, but as our
reading from Hebrews tells us, he was trembling with fear when he did.
It’s an idea that seems strange to us now, being that
scared of God. We think of God as our friend. One of our favorite hymns, one that many of
us learned when we were young, is “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.”
Another hymn, “Jesus is All the World to Me”, repeatedly says that Jesus is our
friend. We’re used to thinking of a
friendly, loving God, not a strong, powerful, terrifying God.
So what happened? How did all that change? How
did we get from being scared to death of God to thinking of God as our friend?
The answer, of course, is Jesus. Jesus came, and he
told us more about God. Jesus told us that God loves us. Jesus told us that God forgives sins.
Jesus told us that God has opened a door to salvation and eternal life for
us. All we need to do is accept Jesus as the Savior.
Our reading from Hebrews tells us that we have not come to
Mount Sinai. We have not come to a mountain of fire and darkness and terror. Instead, it tells us we have come to “Mount
Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.” We have
come “to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly.” We have come “to God...to the spirits of the
righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the
sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”
That’s pretty awesome, right? I mean, by our faith in
Jesus Christ as the Savior, and by God’s incredible love and grace and mercy,
we don’t have to be afraid of God any more. Jesus, “ the mediator of a
new covenant”, goes to God the Father on our behalf, and by his sacrifice our
sins are forgiven. It is absolutely
incredible that the Lord would do that for us. We have not earned that. We don’t deserve it. And yet, God loves us so much that God does
it for us anyway. We are allowed into
that heavenly Jerusalem, that city of the living God. It’s such a wonderful, incredible thing that
God has done for us.
I hope we all feel incredibly grateful to God for the
chance for salvation that God has given us. But the problem is that we’re
tempted to stop our reading right there.
We want to say, okay, God loves us and God forgives us, and just leave
it at that.
But our reading from Hebrews does not leave it at
that. It goes on. After it says
that the blood of Christ speaks a better word, it says this. “See to it
that you do not refuse him who speaks.”
Because when I was going through that description of Mount Zion that our
reading gives us, I left out one thing. Maybe you caught it. Here’s what I left out: after telling about the thousands of angels
in joyful assembly, it says, “You have come to God, the judge of all.”
That’s the part we want to leave out. We don’t want
to think about the judgment of God. We’d like to think that because God
loves us, God will forgive us no matter what we do and allow us into heaven no
matter what we believe. And as I’ve said before, I’d like to think that,
too. I know people who have not accepted
Jesus as the Savior. Some of them are my
friends. Some of them are in my family.
I don’t like to think that they may not receive salvation and eternal
life. And don’t take that the wrong way,
I’m not judging them. It’s not my job to judge anybody. But it is God’s job. And as we read in Hebrews, and as the Bible
makes clear in other places, God is going to do God’s job.
So, just who is God? And how should we react to
God? Should we be afraid of the Lord?
Or should we think of the Lord as our friend?
Well, to me the answer is: yes. Yes, the Lord is our friend. And yes,
we should feel some fear of the Lord. Because God is bigger and greater
and more of--well, everything, really, than you and I can ever even begin to
understand. God is all-loving and all-caring and all-compassionate. God is all-gracious and all-merciful. And God is also righteous and holy. And
God is also all-knowing, all-seeing, and all-wise. And God is also almighty and
all-powerful. God is all those things
and more, besides.
And so as we think of God, and we think of how we should
react to God, we need to remember all those things. But there are other
things we should remember, too. We
should remember that God is, above all else, good. Remember, Jesus said in Mark Ten “No one is
good except God alone.” And Jesus said in Matthew Seven that God will
give good gifts to those who ask him.
And the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans Eight that in all things God works
for the good of those who love him.
God is not looking for reasons to punish us. God
wants to forgive our sins and give us salvation and eternal life. That’s
the whole reason Jesus came. God knew
that, on our own, we could never gain salvation and eternal life. None of
us could ever be good enough or righteous enough to earn our way into
heaven. The only way we could do that
would be to be as good and righteous as God, and that’s not possible for us.
And so, God sent the divine Son, Jesus Christ. As it says in John Three, Sixteen, “God so
loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall
not perish, but shall have everlasting life.”
Everlasting life is available to everyone. But not
everyone will received it. It is only
received by “whoever believes in him.” Our reading from Hebrews reminds
us that there will be no escape if we turn away.
So, how should we react to God? Our reading from
Hebrews tells us that, too. It says, “let us be thankful, and so let us
worship God acceptably, with reverence and awe.”
Reverence. Deep respect. Awe. Respect mixed with wonder. That’s how
we should react to God. That’s what we
should feel for God. That’s how we should treat God.
Yes, God is our friend. But God is not our buddy or
our pal. God is someone we should treat with the utmost respect and
admiration and wonder.
We should be amazed at God. We should be amazed,
really, that God takes any notice of us at all. But we should be even
more amazed that not only does God notice us, God cares about us. And we
should be even more amazed that not only does God care about us, God loves us. And we should be more amazed still that God
loves us so much that God gave us the chance for salvation and eternal
life. And all we need to do is accept Jesus as the Savior. All we need to do is love God, love other
people, go and made disciples, and do all the other things that Jesus told us to
do.
And when, despite our best intentions, we fail to do those
things--because we’re all human and we all fall short--all we need to do is
sincerely ask God for forgiveness and another chance. And God will give
it to us. Every time. That’s something else we should be amazed
about, too.
If we have faith in Jesus, we don’t have to be afraid of
God. But we do need to take God seriously. We need to take our Christian faith
seriously. We need to give God all the respect and reverence and wonder
and awe that God deserves, simply because of who God is.
We have come to Mount Zion. We can take our place in
the heavenly Jerusalem. Not because we deserve it. But by our faith in Jesus Christ, and by
God’s incredible love and grace and mercy. We should always be amazed at
that.
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