Honor Jesus by Cherishing His Church

In this final chapel of the school year, I get the joy to commission you into exam week and into the summer with a final word from Hebrews. And in this final chapel, we come to Hebrews 12:18–24 and the final use of the word better (kreittōn). Verse 24 says Jesus’s “sprinkled blood . . . speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”

What did Abel’s blood cry out for? In Genesis 4, God says to Cain,

What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. (Genesis 4:10–11)

Abel’s spilled blood cried out for justice, for righteous retribution, for a curse on the one who murdered him. And Jesus’s blood, says Hebrews, speaks a better word: not curse, but blessing; not condemnation, but sanctification; not justice, but mercy.

Before getting into the rest of our passage, an important reminder is that the repeated line of comparison in Hebrews is not bad versus good. Hebrews is not saying:

• The old was bad; the new is good.
  
• Abel’s blood speaks a bad word; Jesus’s blood speaks a good word.
  
• Sinai was bad; Zion is good.
  

The line of comparison is good then better. That’s the repeated theme: Jesus is better.

• Abel’s blood speaks a good, just, reasonable word, and Jesus’s blood says something better.
  
• The old was holy and righteous and good; receiving oracles and a gracious covenant from the living God was good; and the new covenant is better, even far better.
  
• Mount Sinai, compared to Egypt, was good. And Zion, the heavenly city and people, is far better.
  

The paradigm of comparison in our passage is not bad versus good, but good then better. To belong to the first-covenant people was better by far than unbelief. And brothers and sisters, to belong to the new-covenant people is better by far than the old.

Glorious Lists

Another feature of our passage is that this is the grand finale of Hebrews’s glorious lists. Oh, the writer of Hebrews is such a preacher! And he knows how to pile on wonders or terrors at the right time to help move the heart into the awe, into the serious joy that it should feel.

• Chapter 1 begins with the sevenfold cascading glory of the Son in verses 2–4;
  
• the rest of chapter 1 piles up seven Old Testament quotations celebrating the glory of the Son, whose excellence far outstrips the dignity of angels;
  
• and of course we have the great sermonic flourish in the grand tour of faith in chapter 11.
  

Now we come to the last two lists of Hebrews. The first is the sevenfold frightful greatness at Sinai, which sets up the final magnificent list: the sevenfold thrill of Zion’s glory in verses 22–24.

One last feature to mention at the outset: Hebrews loves to argue from the lesser to the greater. This helps put our passage into context. The for that begins verse 18 grounds the imperatives of verses 12–15:

Lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God.

The intended effect of verses 18–24 is to astound us, to overwhelm and thrill us, to awaken us to the fearsome privilege and joy we already have in being included in Christ’s new and better people. And in that joy, we gladly obey the commands of verses 12–15. (How could you not run toward Jesus and love others when you have company like this?)

To Make You Marvel

Simply put, what Hebrews is trying to do in verses 18–24 is make you marvel. He wants you to stand in awe of being part of the church, the heavenly assembly, the new and better people of God. He wants us to be overcome with the joy of having Jesus and having his people.

So, my hope in this final chapel is that you might freshly marvel to be part of the new and better people of God. As distant as these verses may sound, this vision does not only anticipate the future; it shows us what is already. If you are in Christ, these are right-now verses. This is a glimpse into what it means now, already, to be “seated . . . with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). I wonder how many of us are awake to this like we might be.

How might we freshly marvel to be part of the new and better people? I have three wonders. The first one is the longest; the last two are short. With each, I’d like to cast it in the form of an exhortation for you to commission you into the summer.

1. Realize the far greater majesty of your people.

This is the main thrust of the passage in its two parts: verses 18–21 and 22–24. The main verb “have come” leads both parts. First is what we have not come to; then what we have come to. And in the comparison, we’re meant to experience increased marveling at the second. Let’s look at verses 18–22:

For you have not come [here’s the first list:] to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” Indeed, so terrifying [or frightful — key word] was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.

Zion is the name of the hill David captured from the Jebusites (2 Samuel 5:7). Over time it became the poetic name or term of endearment that was symbolic for the whole of Jerusalem as God’s chosen city.

Now Hebrews reaches for this exalted term and makes it Christian. In contrast to the earthly place of the past (Mount Sinai) where God gave Israel his first covenant, Mount Zion now takes on Christian significance — and not only as the great city to come, but even as the heavenly assembly of the angels and the people of Christ right now.

When Hebrews says “city,” his focus is personal: not buildings and streets and walls but persons. What’s definitive of this city is not geography. That’s clear from the seven very personal glories that follow in verses 23–24 (which we’ll get to).

Already in the Assembly

The reason I say “realize the far greater majesty of your people” is this vision is already true of those who are in Christ. The perfect verb is significant: We have come.

But how is it that we have come? Our bodies are down here on earth; we’re not in heaven. How can we have already come to this city above?

As spatially bound as we are, the Holy Spirit is not. Our union with Jesus by faith is not restricted by our finitude but real and near by the trans-spatial power of the Spirit. Even with Christ’s glorified body in heaven and with our humble bodies down here, we are truly united to him by faith and the Spirit.

“Now we know ourselves safe with the living God.”

Faith, we might say, extends our spirit Christward. Even more significantly, Jesus extends his Spirit toward us, who is the Holy Spirit, who awakens faith and indwells us and sustains our spiritual life and faith and woos us toward God’s word and draws us toward his people and prompts us in prayer.

So, by faith, and in the power of the Spirit, there is a profound sense already that we have come, through union with Christ, to this assembly, to be seated with Christ in the heavenlies.

When we pray, and when we gather in worship, and when we hear the word preached, and when we come to the Lord’s Table, we do so as those who by faith have come already to the city of the living God. We are already part of the assembly. Already our spirits have set their feet, through faith, in heaven.

• We stand by faith around the throne,
  
• and hear from our King through his word,
  
• and he hears and delights in our prayers and praises.
  

Someday, in our glorified bodies, we will be present in body with the Lord. But right now, by faith and in the Holy Spirit, we are already enrolled and present in spirit when we draw near. Most of us don’t realize this in our secular age. We need to newly realize it or be reminded of it.

And the reason I say “far greater majesty” goes back to our paradigm about good then better. The sevenfold description of Mount Sinai is not bad. It’s awe-inspiring and intentionally frightful:

blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. (Hebrews 12:18–19)

Hebrews is drawing on Exodus 19–20 and Deuteronomy 4 for this fearsome picture of God’s people receiving the first covenant. And it is intimidating! They are seeking to draw near to — to be in covenant relationship with — the living God, and they are a sinful people.

Safe with the Living God

So, we might wonder, if the people (and Moses himself!) were terrified and trembled at the first covenant, does that mean then, by contrast, that there is no fear in the new?

It’s not so simple. Zion is the city of “the living God” who is “the judge of all” (verses 22–23). Verses 28–29 say we worship “with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire”!

The contrast is not between fear and no fear but between frightful majesty and thrilling majesty, between dreadful greatness and delightful greatness. It’s not that fear is dispelled from Sinai to Zion, but that grace upon grace in Christ streams in and turns terror into thrill. God is no less awesome in the new covenant; we worship the consuming fire with reverence and awe. But now, he has shown us his grace and mercy in Jesus and his redeeming blood. “Serious joy” would be a great way to say it.

The far greater majesty of Zion is in what we now know about the living God, what he’s revealed in the life and death and resurrection of his own Son. Now we know ourselves safe with him and can marvel with joy at him in Zion in a way not yet available at Sinai.

So, whether you stay in the Twin Cities this summer or head home, I exhort you, in light of Hebrews 12, not to think small thoughts of assembling together to worship with the new-covenant people of God. Have a big-church theology or a big-God ecclesiology. Yes, have a modest view of your own local church compared to others, but get a grand, majestic, Hebrews 12 vista of the church into which your little local church is drawn up as you assemble each Sunday to worship in reverence and awe.

2. Know yourself personally loved and registered.

Now, let’s pick up the list of seven in verse 23 and locate where we the church come along in this vision.

You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering [festal compared to the fright of Sinai], and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven. (Hebrews 12:22–23)

Assembly is the same word we translate church elsewhere (ekklēsia). And firstborn here is plural. Jesus is the singular firstborn, and in him we his people are the plural firstborn. We his church share in the rights and privileges of his firstborn sonship.

And in this grand vision of God’s new and better people en masse, there is enrollment. This is like Luke 2 when Joseph and Mary go to Bethlehem to be registered — that is, to be documented.

Exodus 32:32 is the first mention of God having a registry. Moses talks about his name appearing in “your book that you have written.” In Psalm 69:28, David prays that those who hate him would be “blotted out of the book of the living; let them not be enrolled among the righteous.” Daniel 12:1 foretells that a time of trouble will come and “your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book.” God not only has a great people, but he knows and enrolls them all by name. (And the great Zion song of Psalm 87 says in verse 6, “The Lord records as he registers the peoples, ‘This one was born there.’”)

Do you remember the words of Jesus to his disciples when they return from a fruitful training mission in Luke 10:20?

Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

Brothers and sisters, if you are in Christ, if the Spirit is at work in you to give you love for and delight in Jesus, know yourself to be enrolled in the book of life. Your name is written down by the hand of God. His sovereign, specific, electing love has personally accounted for you. You are documented in heaven. You have not just wandered into a massive assembly. You are specifically enrolled in heaven.

Yes, you belong to a great people — and you are not lost in the crowd. God has registered your name in writing. You are welcomed specifically, not just as part of the people, but as a dearly loved son or daughter.

So, brothers and sisters in Christ, as you head into this summer, know yourself to be specifically enrolled. Just as you are personally enrolled at BCS and belong here, with all the rights and privileges and responsibilities of a student, so far more, your name is known and recorded and accounted for in the book of heaven.

3. Enjoy the person at the center of it all.

The glorious list culminates with Jesus and his blood, his person and his work. Hebrews opened with Jesus on heaven’s throne: “He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3). Now, let’s read one last time through Hebrews 12:22–24 and hear the mounting force of the series coming to its high point with Jesus:

You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

The Sinai vision ended with an ominous voice thundering from above. Now the Zion vision ends in heaven with the specific Voice of God incarnate, the capital-W Word of God, who has now revealed the mystery of God’s purposes and his grace for all those enrolled in heaven.

The star of verses 22–24 is not the buildings and infrastructure of Zion. Nor is it the angels. Nor the church of privileged sons. Nor the spirits of the righteous made complete (those who have died before us). Nor even God in his function as judge of all. The star, the grand finale, is the person and work of Jesus, the one whom the Father appointed heir of all things (Hebrews 1:2).

And like he does elsewhere in the letter, the writer of Hebrews treats the name of Jesus with special reverence and awe and holds it back for effect. I count at least nine places Hebrews does this (2:9; 3:1; 4:14; 6:20; 7:22; 10:19; 12:2; 13:20; and here in 12:24). This one sentence begins in verse 22, and continues into verse 23, and into verse 24, and then (35 words into this glorious, expansive, single proposition about Zion’s glory) comes the name that is above every name. And then, with the mention of Jesus, eight final words describe his atoning blood that speaks a better word than Abel’s.

Celebrate the Bride

I close with a final exhortation before our final hymn.

The exhortation is to those who love Jesus and live in a world that often veils its hatred for him by channeling it toward his church: Don’t insult your Savior’s bride.

One way to honor a groom you admire is to honor his bride, despite her flaws. Jesus himself is the zenith of the list of glories; he is the final treasure of this vision of the heavenly city. And the groom is not honored when we tear asunder what God has put together by pretending to admire Jesus but being relentlessly cynical toward his church.

Sure, too many pastors and ministers and individual congregations have besmirched his name. None of us has ever attended or been members of a perfect local church. Jesus is still working on his church, building her, beautifying her. She’s emphatically not perfect yet.

And he has given us this stunning vision of Hebrews 12, which is true already of his true church, gathered right now in spirit by faith and through his Spirit. Brothers and sisters, it is an awesome privilege and fearsome delight to be enrolled in this assembly, to be part of this people.

Celebrating Jesus and celebrating his church go together. And so, I want to end the school year with our doing just that.

John Newton’s hymn “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken,” inspired by the Zion song of Psalm 87 and Hebrews 12, honors both the church and, at the same time, the one who formed her and founded her and keeps her and speaks well of her.

In the second verse, he quenches her thirst with streams of living waters. And the third verse, like Hebrews, reveals the carefully handled name above all names. And finally, verse 4 makes it personal and ends with the solid joys and lasting treasure I pray you will know this summer:

Savior, if of Zion’s city
I, through grace, a member am,
Let the world deride or pity.
I will glory in Thy Name.
Fading is the worldling’s pleasure,
All his boasted pomp and show.
Solid joys and lasting treasures
None but Zion’s children know.