Episode 1570: Cannot Be Shaken

===

Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 1,570 of the Inspired Stewardship

Robby Angle: Podcast.

I'm Robbie Angle. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out of your calling. Having the ability to lead others in ourselves in faith is key, and one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this The Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.

Scott Maderer: Faith allows us to see a God who no longer appears untouchable and unapproachable, but rather unshakeable in the promise that if we continue to go towards Christ justice and mercy will arrive. As well welcome and thank you [00:01:00] for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling.

In the inspired Stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself. Invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

In today's spiritual foundation episode, I talk with you about Hebrews chapter 12, verses 18 through 29. I talk about how this passage contrast how we can see God as unapproachable or approachable depending upon our relationship with Christ. And I also share how that doesn't make life smooth and easy, but it does give us the presence of faith.

Hebrews chapter 12, verses 18 through 29 says, you have not come [00:02:00] to something that can 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 not another word be spoken to them. For, they could not endure the order that was given.

If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned to death. Indeed. So terrifying 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 into innumerable, angels and festival gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven and to the God, the judge of all into 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.

See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking for if they did not escape, when they refuse the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject the one who warns from heaven? [00:03:00] At that time, his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.

This phrase yet once more indicates the removal of what is shaken that is created things. So that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude by which may we may offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe. For indeed our God is a consuming fire.

This letter to Hebrews. Is one of those things that there is actually debate about from biblical scholars. Is it actually a letter? If so, then who was it written to? Who's the audience? Who was the intended message for other people say maybe it's not a letter. Maybe it's a sermon or notes for a sermon.

And that can make some sense [00:04:00] because it appears to be both a treaties and an exportation. It does teaching and encouragement. And both of those side by side throughout it. It is something that could be used as the beginning of a good sermon, but yet it's also missing some things that we typically see in sermons in the Bible.

Maybe instead, it's part of the long history of many things in the Bible being poetry or song or works of art. Something that are taking something that's really hard to understand, something that's hard to describe, something that's hard to put into words, and trying to create poetic words around it so that our feeble human minds can begin to approach something that we have a really hard time understanding.[00:05:00]

Maybe it's supposed to be looked at more like. Shakespeare's King Lear or other stories and works of art than something that is just a letter after all. Previously, what we've been talking about in Hebrews, there's these texts that tell some real but powerful human stories that begin to allow us to see the human condition and how humans respond to remarkable experiences.

But now it turns to try to explain and allow us to begin to attempt to grasp something, not of the human condition, but something about the God that we worship and the faith that we follow. And because of that, regular words don't really do so well. And maybe we're turning to poetry. So if you think of this as having three stanzas or blocks or messages within this [00:06:00] passage, maybe four, depending on how you look at it, but it begins with you have not come realize too that punctuation is something that was added later to translations.

It's not inherent in the original messaging. So it's possible that was a complete. Sentence or that there the comma becomes a period. So instead it says, you have not come to something that can be touched, period. As opposed to what we read here. You have not come to something that can be touched a blazing fire, blah, blah, blah.

All of the rest of it. Because later it does say that it turns to neither have you come to something that is untouchable, a blazing fire, darkness, gloom, a tempest or the sound of a trumpet, or the voice that made heaven begged, not another word. Be spoken to them, except these aren't actually ORs in the original text.

They're ants. It. It's like trying to describe something indescribable by [00:07:00] t taking a bunch of different aspects or elements and putting them together into some sort of hole that is beyond understanding it. It's the description of the reality of God at a time when God was untouchable, unapproachable.

That's why it includes the little offset verse about Moses, where Moses is saying that he could not approach God, and then it turns to a second thought. But you have come, it begins. You have come. Something has happened. You've been given something, something has arrived, and you're now given special access a relationship.

Something that makes approaching this God the same God that was before. But it changes the experience from that which is gone before [00:08:00] instead of God showing up, burning, contemptuous, blaring, gloomy, instead, it's like arriving home. It's welcoming. You've been given a hug and had a robe put on you and a ring put upon your finger.

There's a party going on and you are invited. It's a welcoming place. The host is there and welcoming you at the door, and the host of course, is Christ Jesus. That's what's changed. According to this passage. That's what's changed from the first stanza. What has made the unapproachable approachable is that we've been invited in and given access by Christ.

It's changed the relationship. We're no longer strangers but family. That's the promise. That's what Faith is inviting us into. But then [00:09:00] the third stanza changes yet again, it, it shifts to. All of this stuff about shaking and whom might we refuse and these sorts of things. It seems to be a little puzzling because after all, we were just welcomed in as family.

Shouldn't everything be smooth and easy and welcoming? Now, we shouldn't have to endure hardship anymore, but that's not the promise we're given. The promise isn't an easy life. The promise isn't everything going your way. The promise isn't your better than anyone else. The promise is presence and access.

There's still gonna be a whole lot of shaken. And in fact, if you think about the world and you look around it often as Christians, there is a whole lot of shaking going on in our life. There is a lot of challenge. There is a lot of pain. And yet the truth is we weren't promised that everything would go our way.

[00:10:00] And honestly, when we fight to make it that way, we tend to push away the access of Christ. We tend to act less like Christ. We act more like greedy people. And in what Christ is inviting us to isn't an easy life. But it is a life where he will be there and continue to invite us into the presence of God over and over, and that as we turn our eyes that way, faith allows us to see a God who no longer appears untouchable and unapproachable, but rather unshakeable in the promise.

That if we continue to go towards Christ justice and mercy will arrive as well. Thanks for listening.[00:11:00]

Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen. But act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor. Go over to facebook.com/inspired stewardship and like our Facebook page and market that you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you to the best of our abilities.

With time and tips there. Until next time, invest your time, your talent, and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the [00:12:00] world.