When you are climbing a mountain there are times that it might look like you have reached the top only find that there is more mountain waiting for you. This is called a false summit. The writer to the Hebrews doesn’t want us to set our goal for a false summit – the wrong mountain.
We continue our sermon series this Sunday, Weeks of Warning. In the Gospel lesson this Sunday, our Lord Jesus warns us to enter the narrow door. This was also Back to School Sunday. Do we really need yet another theme on top of the first two? No need to worry. It all fits together like a puzzle.
Don’t pick the wrong mountain is the admonition from the writer to the Hebrews. The narrow door isn’t entered by our efforts or hard work. However, I think that as we watch our children head back to school, our prayer is that they do work hard! Indeed, God wants all of us to work diligently with the gifts that he has given us – to His glory!
The temptation for God’s people in the early Christian church was to abandon the young Christian Faith. Judaism was a protected faith in the Roman Empire. Christianity was not. Judaism was the faith of the previous generation. There was a comfortable familiarity, like an old jacket that felt good to wear. The problem was that Judaism lead the Jew to Mt Sinai. There was nothing there besides God’s Law along with the fear that goes along with it. Jesus takes us past Mt. Sinai to Mt Zion our heavenly home. It is there, and only there, that we find forgiveness for our sins. There we find peace for our souls.
Want to see what the journey looks like? Watch HERE.
Topic(s): Cross BearingBook(s): Hebrews
Series: Weeks of Warning
Tag(s): Moses, Work Righteousness
Speaker(s): Fred Guldberg