November 24, 2024
Looking Forward with Thanksgiving
Hebrews 12:26-29
Thanksgiving is a little less than a week away and I’ve been looking forward to all that good food for quite some time now and I know many of you have been as well. With that being said, no matter the size of your turkey this year, today is the day to move it into the fridge to make sure it thaws in time so you can look forward to an unfrozen turkey this thanksgiving. We have not only been looking forward to the Thanksgiving holiday, but we have also been preparing ourselves to celebrate thanksgiving over the last few weeks. This wasn’t in preparation for the holiday itself, but rather the life of perpetual thanksgiving that Jesus has called all of His followers to live. We have done so by looking into our past and were thankful through remembering the goodness of God throughout our lives so far. Last week we looked at being thankful in the present, by metaphorically wearing the attitude and actions of Jesus in a world that is hard to live like Him. Since we have looked and found sources of thanksgiving in our part and in our past and present, there is only one more place to look toward and that is to look toward the future. So this morning I want to look at Hebrews 12 to help us understand that we are not just supposed to be looking forward to Thanksgiving. We are called to look forward with thanksgiving.
The 12th chapter of Hebrews has some very memorable imagery that the writer uses to teach us God’s truth. We see living our lives as Christians equated to a race where we are surrounded by fans cheering us on to run the race God has set before us and run it well. He also shows a beautiful picture of a father, who in love, corrects and disciplines His son. He shows us that is how our heavenly Father corrects us as well. It’s not out of anger but rather for our benefit and out of His love. Then the writer uses some imagery that the readers at the time would have been very familiar with and that was when God came down to Mount Sinai to meet with Moses and give him the law. He writes of the wonderful and terrifying things that the Israelites experienced in that encounter with the Lord. All of that was under the old covenant and the writer then begins to share how Jesus is the fulfillment of all the things that were promised to Moses and that He brought a new Covenant that was sealed with His blood. He tells them to look at the trouble the children of Israel had when they didn’t listen to God’s messages through Moses and to think of how much more trouble they will find themselves in when they don’t listen to God Himself speak. That is what happens when we don’t listen and obey when Jesus speaks. This is where we find ourselves as we start in verse 26. It seems this leaves us in a dire and dark place for this to be a sermon about thanksgiving, but we will see as we look forward and embrace the truths that the writer shared. We will find ourselves full of hope, thanksgiving, and worship.
Looking forward brings Hope. - Hebrews 12:26-27
When God spoke from Mount Sinai his voice shook the earth, but now he makes another promise: “Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also.” This means that all of creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain.
There’s an old story that was told back in the early 1990’s that many of us might be familiar with, but I love it and want to share it again. This story is about an HHT (home and hospital teacher) who was assigned a student who had recently had a rather serious accident, and she was to visit him routinely and teach him whatever he would be missing from school during his hospital stay. Once she was given the assignment, she contacted the boy's teacher and found out that she was to teach the child about nouns and adjectives. When she arrived at the hospital she was taken aback at the condition of the child. The boy had been badly burned and was in great pain. The teacher did what she could, but left feeling like a failure. The next day when she came back to the hospital a nurse pulled her aside and asked her, "What did you do to that boy?" The teacher felt she must have done something wrong and began to apologize. "No, no," said the nurse. "You don't know what I mean. We've been worried about that little boy, but ever since yesterday, his whole attitude has changed. He's fighting back, responding to treatment. It's as though he's decided to live." Two weeks later the boy explained that he had completely given up hope until the teacher arrived. Everything changed when he came to a simple realization. He expressed it this way: "They wouldn't send a teacher to work on nouns and adjectives with a dying boy, would they?" You see the teacher brought him something much more important than knowledge — she brought him hope. It’s been said that man can live about 40 days without food, 3 days without water, and about 8 minutes without air, but man cannot live a single moment without hope. It’s hope that the writer of Hebrews brings us as we look forward to the future that is in store for all followers of Jesus Christ.
The writer starts verse 26 with references to 2 Old Testament passages. The first is a reference to the encounter that Moses had on Mount Sinai with God when the power of His voice shook the entire earth (Exodus 19:18-19). The other is a prophecy from Haggai that promised that God would shake not just the earth again, but this time He would shake everything in judgment. This prophecy is one that still has not taken place even in our day and it is why the author mentions it in order to bring our attention to the future when this prophecy will be fulfilled. This time of judgment is spoken of many times in scripture. Jesus Himself even spoke of this time in Matthew 24:29 and we see it actually come to pass in the Book of Revelation when the Old Earth and the Old Heavens pass away. For a nonbeliever this does not bring the hope that I said the writer brings here in chapter 12 and that was the writer's point up to this part of the 12th chapter of Hebrews. He wants to make sure we understand the hopeless future of those who do not make Jesus the Lord of their lives and point out the future hope that all Christians have through Jesus. This hope the writer speaks of that only Christians have is revealed in Revelation 21. We are told by John “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.” This is the unshakable thing, the unshakable hope that the writer speaks of at the end of verse 27. The New Heaven and the New Earth will be the only things that will remain once the judgment and wrath of God is poured out upon all mankind. This is the promise we as followers of Jesus must look forward to because we have put our faith in Jesus Christ alone. Everything else is considered shakable and will be destroyed during that time. Now again that could seem discouraging, but Revelation 21 has a little something to say about the destruction of the shakable that will bring us hope as well. “I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” The things that will be gone during this time will be sin and everything sin brings with it — His enemies, the enemies of believers, pain, death, sickness, drudgery, poverty, famine, disease, sorrow, suffering, and persecution. All of it will be gone forever because they are shakable, and they will all be destroyed in God’s perfect timing. That should bring us great hope when we look forward to that day. Looking forward to that day should always bring us hope and should never bring us despair or discouragement. As followers of Jesus we know (not wish) what God has in store for us, and we should all be longing for that day. However, hope is not the only thing that the writer is calling followers of Jesus to do as they look forward. He knows that looking forward and embracing the promises that God has in store for us only has one logical conclusion and that is thanksgiving. It’s been said that there are no hopeless situations; there are only people who have grown hopeless about them. For a Christian this should never be a reality in our lives because of the treasures of riches that we have in Jesus Christ both today and forever.
Hope brings Thanksgiving. - Hebrews 12:28a
Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful …
When we look forward to the endless goodness that God has in store for us for all eternity, we can't help but respond with thanksgiving in our lives. That’s why the writer uses the word “since” to start this verse. It's to show the natural progression that happens in the lives of all believers when they go from hope to thanksgiving. The word for thanksgiving here also shows us that there must be actions involved with our response to this hope as well. We can’t just feel thankful, but instead this hope must spur us into action. The writer does not give any examples of what these actions could look like. To find some application, let’s briefly look at one of the most famous Psalms of thanksgiving, Psalms 100. It’s in this Psalm of thanksgiving that we see 5 practical ways to live out the thanksgiving in our lives that is produced by the hope Jesus brings. We are told to be thankful by making a joyful noise as we sing praises to the Lord. We can tell Him in song how grateful we really are. We are also told to express our thankfulness by coming into His presence and we can do that through prayer and by just telling Him of His greatness and our thankfulness for all His goodness. We are also to proclaim that the Lord is God. This means we proclaim His greatness and the best way we can do that is by sharing the Gospel with others. We are then called to serve Him in thanksgiving, and we can do that by using our gifts and talents to serve one another (1 Peter 4:10). Finally we are called to bless His name, and we do that by living an obedient life that will sometimes speak louder than our words. This is what the writer of Hebrews was getting at in the first part of this verse. As we begin to live out thankfulness in our lives for the hope we have in Jesus, there is something that will result that the writer of Hebrews mentions as we close out this chapter.
Thanksgiving brings Worship. - Hebrews 12:28b-29
… and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. For our God is a devouring fire.
When the children of Israel would bring an offering as a form of worship to God at the temple, it had to be in accordance with what God commanded in His law. Any worship that was brought outside of those instructions would be unacceptable to Him and sinful. This is what the writer of Hebrews is alluding to in the last part of verse 28. Even though we are no longer under the Old Covenant’s sacrificial system, when we bring our worship to God it must be pleasing to Him. One of those types of worship that is pleasing to God is thanksgiving in our attitudes and actions as we have seen in the previous verse. But worship is more than just thanksgiving. Worship is woven into all our daily tasks. Paul tells us in Colossians 3:23-24 that everything we do we are supposed to do as unto the Lord as an act of worship. That means that we don’t get to worship on our own terms but according to His in everything that we do. God has shown us in His word many acceptable ways to worship Him, all of those being with the reverence that He is due and that we are commanded to worship with here when the writer tells us to worship Him with holy fear and awe. When thinking about instructions on how to worship, one of the most important commands in scripture was given during a conversation that Jesus had with the women at the well when He tells her that those who truly worship God will do so in spirit and in truth. This means the worship we bring must be based on truth and as Jesus said in John 17:17, God’s word is truth. Our worship must line up with all scripture, not just how we are feeling in the moment. Not only are we supposed to worship in truth, it’s also a call to worship in spirit. This means that everything we do in our lives as an act of worship must be motivated from a deep and sincere love of God and not out of legalistic obligation. When we worship God, it’s not just going through the motions of a service on a Sunday. It’s not just singing a song; it’s not just giving some money and it’s not just saying a prayer. It’s doing all those things because we are totally sold out to God, and we respond in love to Him through obedience. That’s the kind of worship that is acceptable to a God who is an all-consuming fire and that is what our thanksgiving must be and must lead us into as we look forward to the hope we have in Jesus.
As we have looked at what it means to live a life of thanksgiving in scripture, we have seen that when we focus on the goodness of God in our past as well as the goodness of God that is guaranteed in our future. We will find that through the help of the Holy Spirit we will be able to live and think like Jesus in our present. That will lead us to thanksgiving in our Christian walks. So we need to ask ourselves: are we just looking forward to Thanksgiving or are we looking forward with thanksgiving like Jesus has called all His followers to?
