[00:00:00] Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 5pm or Wednesdays at 7pm if you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, you can find us
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[00:00:38] Well guys, we are ready to begin our ninth class together.
[00:00:44] We are going to try to bring the Bible home tonight. I've got my finger here in Matthew chapter 17, so we've covered everything to the left of my finger for the first part of the semester, a quarter. And now for the last night we've got everything to the right of my finger. So we might have to put on our, I don't know, speed boots or something to get through it all. But I don't think it'll be too bad.
[00:01:10] We are in Matthew chapter 17 to start out tonight.
[00:01:15] So last week we talked about Jesus on the mountain in the Gospel of Matthew. Specifically, we talked about how he was tested at a high place and on a high mountain itself on the third temptation, and the motif of working his way up in elevation as the tests progress. Then we had the Sermon on the Mount, which was a re envisioning of the law given by Moses. And so you can imagine Moses gave the law at Sinai, or rather God gave the law to Moses to give to the people at Sinai. Then that happened again at Deuteronomy and Deuteronomy right before they entered the Promised Land. And now we have it again, this reimagining of the law here with the Sermon on the Mount. We also talked about how Jesus fulfilled Israel's role to the nations. One of the books that I'm reading right now is by Mike Goheen. It's called A Light to the nations. And if you're interested in that, he has several chapters dedicated to missional ecclesiology, which is the idea of what the church should be. And he starts with what Israel was supposed to be. And Israel was supposed to be a light to the nations. It was supposed to be one to welcome people in, to heal diseases, to give them the instruction of God And Jesus himself is doing that on a mountain in Matthew chapter 15. And we are ready for Matthew chapter 17.
[00:02:42] And there is so much to unpack here.
[00:02:47] I actually will not get to all of it tonight, but in the Google Drive.
[00:02:52] The third, no, second paper I wrote for the class that I was in last semester, I wrote on the Mountain of Transfiguration. So if you really want a deep dive on the mountain of transfiguration, you can pull up paper number two in my Google Drive. But some things that I would like to at least pull out here back up one chapter to Matthew chapter 16. So starting in verse 13. Now, when Jesus came to the district of Caesarea Philippi, I believe that's in the northeastern region, he asked his disciples, who do people say that the Son of Man is? And some say, the apostle said, some say, you're John the Baptist, other Elijah, others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. But he being Jesus, said to them, who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter said, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered, blessed are you, Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood have not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven, and I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
[00:03:52] I will give you the keys to the kingdom. And whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. And he strictly charged the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.
[00:04:03] And with this.
[00:04:08] With this high point of the narrative of Peter finally getting it right as to who Jesus is, he immediately follows it up with verse 21, saying, and by the way, I have to go.
[00:04:21] I have to die.
[00:04:22] There's some things here with the mountain transfiguration. Traditionally, in Jewish literature, the mountain of transfiguration was said to have taken place Mount Tabor, which I believe is in the northwest of Israel. But what a lot of scholars believe now is this was actually Mount Hermon, which was on the northern end, which is much closer to Caesarea Philippi, which is where this story takes place. And the reason that that's important is because if you read, I think it's the cultural Bible commentary, I can't remember which one it is, says this idea of the rock, what this Bible commentator posits is that this story right here takes place at the base of Mount Hermon. And the reason that he says that was because there was a cave at the base of Mount Hermon. And at the base in this cave was a shrine to the God Pan. And it was seen sometimes as the gateway to hell. And so the gates of Hades will not stand against it. Maybe this is taking place at the base of Mount Hermon in front of the cave. And saying that this pagan deity that people are talking about, nothing can come at us as long as you know that I am the Christ. And so Jesus goes into saying, listen, I have to die, but I will be raised again. That's verses 21 through 23. And then he invites the disciples in verse 24 and following to say, hey, this death that I have to undergo, you should undergo it with me.
[00:05:59] Take up your cross daily and follow me.
[00:06:03] And then we get in chapter 17, verse 1, after six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
[00:06:16] After six days, presumably, is after these events that just took place. At the end of chapter 16, Jesus has just been declared the Christ.
[00:06:27] He has told his disciples that I am about to die, and you should take part in that death with me. And now, six days later, which the motif of the number six is popping up as well. So we have six popping up again. There are different ideas of what six could be, but some say that we're tying back to the idea of the six days of creation.
[00:06:47] There are several different interpretations, but be that as it may, we find ourselves on a high mountain with Jesus.
[00:06:54] And verse two, he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared with him Moses and Elijah, both who stood before God on Mount Sinai. So now they are standing here before God at Mount Sinai, and they were talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, lord, it is good that we should be here. And if you wish, we should make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah. He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. And a voice from the cloud said, this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, arise and have no fear. And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus.
[00:07:46] And so here in this passage, we have a lot of different things going on. We have the motif of six. We've got Elijah and Moses, who appeared before God at Sinai. We also have, this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased, which was also declared before or to Jesus. Where else in the Gospels? Does anybody remember where else this phrase specifically pops up? This is my son, with whom I am well pleased.
[00:08:15] The baptism of Jesus. So we have the reaffirmation there with the baptism of Jesus happening.
[00:08:22] And we also have Peter spouting something off like he normally does. And most of the lessons that I've ever heard when they talk about Peter here, talk about Peter being his impetuous self who has nothing better to say. So he decides to say something. So let's erect three tenths, or as it's said in the Greek version, which is akin to the Septuagint, let's build three tabernacles, right? Like, this must be a holy place, right?
[00:08:53] One of the more favorable books that I read when I was writing that paper back last semester actually took a more favorable approach to Peter and said, actually, there's a lot of things happening here. The idea of erecting three tents was not him saying, I don't know what to do. Let's just do something. This author took the opinion that instead, what Peter is trying to say is all of this was taking place around the time or calls upon the idea of the Feast of Booths. And in ancient Near Eastern culture, the Feast of Booths was held not for Israel necessarily, to live out in the desert like they did in the wilderness, but it carried ideas of enthronement. And so what Peter is trying to say, like, yeah, I just called it, you're the Christ, you're the son of the living God, and it's the Feast of Booths. We got to build a tent because you're the Christ. You're being enthroned on high. We can see your godliness. And so it's not quite the same.
[00:09:53] The, oh, impetuous Peter. How dare you say it like. But there's actual purpose to what he's saying of, yes, I will crown you now if nobody else will, because you are the Christ. You're the Son of the living God. And so when you read the commentators and books about what does it mean that his face was transfigured? And one of the motifs they talk about is the fact that I think it's more spoken of in the Gospel of Mark, that his clothes became white and his face was white and it was radiant. And it. It kind of feels like when you're reading the Book of Revelation, of the language of, like, I was there, and I'm trying my best to describe it to you, but I can't.
[00:10:31] But it was so pure of color.
[00:10:34] It was like they were White, and his face was white. And there was.
[00:10:39] I don't know what. How to. I can't put it into words. But what these authors will say is there are several different takes. And I'm just warning you in the paper, I kind of give a brief overview of these. But you dive way down into the rabbit hole in terms of Christology, meaning what does it mean for Jesus to have been man and God? And you get all different takes of what that means here. But one of the ideas is not necessarily that if you listen to some people, that this was Jesus being like his radiance, his divine radiance shining through. You have other people who take the approach that Jesus was not the Son of God in the divine sense. He was just appointed as the Son of God, but this was God imparting his spirit on him. But a lot of people have issues with that. That's not one of the more popular theories, but one that does tend to pop up is the idea that following this, what Peter is saying here, the idea of enthronement, that what is happening here with his face being changed and being changed into some white radiance, is that what is happening is God is. Peter does not have to build tents, nobody has to crown Jesus king because God is showing with his own light, which pops up all the time throughout the Old Testament in terms of the light of God, the fire of God, that God is showing his light on Jesus, saying, you're right, Peter, this is the Christ. You nailed it on the head. This is my Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. And so here all of the things that we've seen back from Genesis chapter two onwards, in terms of things that happen on the mountain, Jesus is being crowned king in the throne room of heaven, as it were, with Moses and Elijah, Peter, James and John there to bear witness.
[00:12:45] So I know I've gone into extreme detail on this one, but being that I did write a paper on it, it's all fresh on my mind. But any thoughts or any other things that come to mind when you think about the story of Jesus being transfigured before the disciples on the mountain, it's a fun story. There's a lot to be said here.
[00:13:14] When they come down the mountain, a different author. This didn't go in my paper, but it's one that I had never like, they're right next to each other in Scripture, so it feels like it should have been obvious, but it wasn't. So that one's on me. But they come down off the mountain. And there's a guy there who says, you have to heal my son.
[00:13:34] You must heal my son. Your disciples couldn't heal my son.
[00:13:38] And Jesus heals his son, casts the demon out.
[00:13:43] And it's interesting that the thing that popped out to me I'd always focused on if your faith was as strong as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there. But what mountain is he likely talking about with these two stories being put right next to each other?
[00:13:59] That mountain where I was just crowned king, Mount Hermon, which is a pretty big mountain. That's the one. And the sea is not close to Mount Hermon. Right.
[00:14:08] It's miles away.
[00:14:10] If you have faith even as small as a mustard seed, then the power of the king is with you. And what Donaldson, Terrence Donaldson, the book who points out these six mountains here.
[00:14:23] He says that all of these mountains that we've been talking to to date come down to the mountain of commissioning, which is the one we probably know best in our tradition of the Churches of Christ. But we'll get there in a second.
[00:14:35] If you go to Matthew 24:3, Matthew 24:3, they're standing on the Mount of Olives, so you would be able to see the temple from here.
[00:14:49] And I'm not going to read the whole of these two chapters, but it is interesting. This is a teaching block in the book of Matthew. And if I were to put these mountains side by side, having three and three, the mountain of eschatology does a great job of paralleling, if I can borrow a verb there, of going in parallel to the Sermon on the Mount, meaning that in Matthew 24:3, as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately and said, when will all these things take place? Meaning, when is the temple going to be destroyed?
[00:15:28] And Jesus said, see that no one leads you astray. Many will see my coming. And he goes into a discussion of the abomination of desolation is one of the titles here, of all the bad things that will happen as the end times come. And in verse 29, the coming of the Son of Man, and a lesson about the fig tree. And no one knows the day or the hour. And here's a parable about 10 virgins, some who were ready and some who were not. Here's some parable about talents and whether you use them or not. And here's a parable about the sheep and the goats being separated from each other.
[00:16:04] And then we end up, I think, finishing that chapter. But my fingers have Stuck here. Yeah, finishing that chapter. And then we go into the Passion Week.
[00:16:14] And so we parallel here on the mountain of eschatology. The eschatology is eschatology means the study of the end times. And so when scholars call it the mountain of eschatology, this is Jesus take on the end times. And where it parallels the Sermon on the Mount is here's what the community of God looks like.
[00:16:37] And here we have superimposed those who live in the community of God and what is awaiting them at the end of time, and those who do not live in the community of God and what waits them at the end of time. And so the idea is, live in this community now.
[00:16:54] Do it while you can, because God is rewarding those who diligently seek him.
[00:17:03] From Hebrews 11, 6, that the mountain of eschatology is just giving us.
[00:17:12] Several authors call it the ever present future. Right. If you live in the community of God, what our community is supposed to look like is what the community of heaven is supposed to look like. If we can get rid of all of the sin that so easily entangles us, and if we can throw that aside, then what else are we living other than in the direct presence of God in his community, in his heaven?
[00:17:42] So the idea of this is preparing us for this.
[00:17:47] And all of these tie into Matthew chapter 28.
[00:17:51] If you'll go to Matthew 28, if you've grown up in the church of Christ, then you are probably very familiar with this passage.
[00:18:00] But even still, it is a good passage to be aware of.
[00:18:06] So Matthew chapter 28.
[00:18:10] Now the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.
[00:18:17] So now back again on a mountain, when they saw him, they worshiped him.
[00:18:23] But some doubted, and Jesus came to them and said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even till the end of the age. And what Terence Donaldson likes to suggest is all five of these mountains are just giving you a precursor to the mountain of commissioning that what Jesus is doing in his own life is reliving the story of Israel as it was supposed to be. He is passing the test on the mountain. And so he's telling his people, listen, when you were tested, listen, I'm with you forever, even till the end of the age. The Sermon on the Mount Go and tell everyone everything that you remember that other mountain that we were on. Tell them about that.
[00:19:18] This is what it looks like to live in my community. And as you do so, when you disciple them, give them something to eat, give them something to drink, heal the diseases and remember the enthronement. Because all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. You heard my Father in heaven say that I am his son and he is well pleased with me. He crowned me king before you, and I've shown you what it will look like if we can live this out.
[00:19:45] So what Terrence Donaldson suggests is this is at least my take on it, that right here in the center, you've got the mountain of commissioning. Start up here from the previous slide, the mountain of testing, Sermon on the Mount, mountain of feeding and healing, transfiguration and eschatology. But remember what we talked about all through this is that the mountains from our Old Testament, Abraham at Moriah, is the mountain of testing, also the mountain of commissioning, because the promise is reaffirmed to Abraham. There you've got Elijah, Carmel, and Horeb is also the mountain of testing. The Sermon on the Mount comes back to the mountains of Psalms. How good is your word? How good is the word that you speak? It's also Mount Sinai. This is where the law is delivered. You've got the mountains and the prophets, because they said up here on the mountaintop is where God lives and his instruction comes down again. And so the mountain of the prophets comes down from the Sermon on the Mount. You also have the mountain of feeding and healing is the mountains and the prophets. Because on God's mountain, the lion and the child can walk together and you have the wolf and the lamb can lay down together. You've also got the mountain of transfiguration points towards the new Zion. That's where we're going to end up tonight in Revelation.
[00:21:09] You've also got the mountain of Eschatology points to this End times mountain and the prophets of here's where we are going to end up. But all of this, again, we said on the first class that if we take the idea that, yes, the gospel writers, the Bible writers are writing things as they happened, but they're writing them in such a way that what you should read when you read these things is this intersection of all of the we talk about all the times that Matthew said, and Jesus did this so as to fulfill the Scripture.
[00:21:44] But maybe in the background, even when he's not making it explicit to his readers, maybe what Matthew is saying is he did these Six things right here so as to fulfill the scripture and show you what the scripture fulfilled looks like. And the implication is. And the reason that Donaldson and the churches of Christ bring so much attention to that last mountain is one thing that sometimes we forget is the idea that what Jesus did in fulfilling the purpose of Israel is exactly the same purpose that the church today is supposed to fill.
[00:22:22] That when you are tempted, remember Jesus words on the mountain. I'm with you always till the very end.
[00:22:34] And remember my teachings. And don't just remember them, but take them with you. We go up the mountain to receive the instruction to take it back down into the world so that way they can know their way up the mountain too.
[00:22:48] That we as the church are supposed to be fulfilling the role of Jesus in this world.
[00:22:54] Not that he's incapable of doing so because he is God, but because he has invited us to partner with him in this journey.
[00:23:01] We also have that when we go give people something to eat, help heal the maladies that the curse has brought on this world. A lot of people who focus on eschatology, the end times, is all the language of reversal that happens in Revelation.
[00:23:20] In fact, we'll talk about that in Revelation, chapter 21, that what is accursed is no more.
[00:23:28] And so what they say is, by doing these things here, by acknowledging Jesus as king, by feeding people and healing them, by going and preaching the year of jubilee, that we are helping reverse the curse. Romans, chapter eight talks about even creation itself is groaning with the childbearing pains of the curse.
[00:23:52] So help make it better Church, we say be the hands and feet of Jesus, but quite literally, we're supposed to embody Jesus here, not just so we can all get to heaven as we sing, but so that way we can help bring it to earth now so we can live that community out now.
[00:24:16] And so I don't know what that looks like to you, but whether that's the person who sits in the cube next to you, or whether that's the person that you pass on the way to work every day, or whether that's the person in your class or whatever else it might be, but what do they need?
[00:24:36] I was at a lunch meeting today with some of the folks from the University Christian Student center, and we're talking about, like, sometimes talking with college students, it feels like the only thing they need in that moment is hope. If I can just give you an ounce of hope, and hopefully that leads to a conversation where that ounce of hope is more than just the present hope, but an ever present Hope that is always before you, that just like Israel when it says, I'm doing this so that way you can bless the lands.
[00:25:13] I'm doing this so that way you can be a light to the nations. I'm doing this so that that is what we are supposed to do.
[00:25:21] That is what going up the mountain and coming back down looks like is bringing that community to life here.
[00:25:31] And I don't know what that looks like to you.
[00:25:35] That's one of the areas that I struggle with, is knowing how to execute that here on earth.
[00:25:41] Because you get some people who say that group's a cult and that group has gone crazy or that what. But not suggesting that we go and wall ourselves off to where we don't talk to anybody. But probably if we look at this In Deuteronomy, chapter 4, it talks about people are going to notice you're living a different lifestyle to catch people's attention.
[00:26:07] And some people are going to call you crazy for it. But some people who are really actually looking for that, someone who's seeking something other than money or sex or drugs or pride or the next big job at their company or this major break in their work, or there's something else that I hold onto, it all comes back to this. I believe that if we live this community, then we get to live it forever. Believe that that's true because we crowned Jesus or God crowned Jesus King. Believe that's true because we can fulfill all of these things. Because we go into the world and take the gospel. Jesus is pulling the strings of Isaiah, chapter two, where we were last week or the week before, carry this into the world.
[00:26:59] So we can't end there because we still have 20 minutes left. But if ever there was a good place to end a class, it would be there.
[00:27:07] So instead let's look at Hebrews chapter 10 and look at, well, if we can live this out and if this can be our ever present future, what does that look like?
[00:27:26] Hebrews chapter 12 is, excuse me, 10. Well, just the whole book of Hebrews is, I don't know all of these motifs that we have been talking about to date.
[00:27:43] The mountain is included, but the temple and Eden and all of these things are happening here. But some things that I would like to pull to your attention is if you consider an outline of the book of Hebrews. A lot of what we will look at here in chapter 12, I don't want to start until chapter 10.
[00:28:04] But this, how can I say it? This movement in the book of Hebrews kind of starts in chapter eight. And in chapter eight, what you will find is, hey, we're a royal priesthood, which is exactly what Israel was supposed to be. Again, trying to reinstill the idea that what the church is, is participating in the mission of Israel, which is participating in the mission of God.
[00:28:34] You are a kingdom of priests, a royal priesthood, a light to the nations. And so that's back in chapter eight.
[00:28:44] Then you have this superposition of the old covenant versus the new covenant. And the old covenant was there to prepare the way for things, but it was not perfect. And so the new covenant is born at the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. You have Jesus sacrifice was perfect back in chapter 10. I believe that's actually the beginning of chapter 10. Maybe that's chapter 9.
[00:29:11] But the gift of Jesus sacrifice is permanent, whereas the previous covenant was not permanent. You also have the temple and the most holy place showing up here. And you come to chapter 11 and you get all of these people who on their good days lived out this community. Well, and what is that community in chapter 10 we can look starting in chapter 10, verse 19. Therefore, brothers, since we have the confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened up through the curtain, that is through. Through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith. With our hearts sprinkled clean from the evil conscience of our body washed with pure water, let us hold fast to our confession of hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir one another up to good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
[00:30:20] So what has Jesus done for us?
[00:30:24] For those who've already looked at the quiz, there have already been a few responses. But if you look at the quiz, one of the things that I say is what does the mountain symbolize in the Bible? And one person, everyone who's answered so far has said something to the effect of this is the throne room of God. This is where heaven meets earth. This is the footstool of God. Those things are true.
[00:30:48] And if you remember on Mount Sinai, that was a big scary place.
[00:30:54] You don't go into the holy place. In fact, there's one person who gets to enter the most holy place once a year only after going through several rites of passage.
[00:31:05] And then you are holy enough just to go in. But let's tie something to your Ankle to pull you out in case something goes wrong in there, because you were before the presence of God, and that's scary.
[00:31:17] But we, through the blood of Christ, we have the confidence to enter that temple. We can go on that mountain.
[00:31:25] It was funny. I was, this is. This is Zion National Park. You never know what you're going to get when you're looking for mountains. I was trying to get like some cosmic new Zion revelation kind of thing. And no matter how I worded the search, it came up as Zion National Park. So I thought, if you can't beat them, join them. So maybe it's here. But be that as it may, the idea is that if you could place yourself here and if you could imagine God's temple, and I don't mean like a building with four walls, with a holy place and a most holy place, and you could put that cloud up there and the lightning and everything else, then be not afraid.
[00:32:07] This community that we live in is not one of fear. It is one of power and strength through the blood of Christ. And we can enter the holy place because Christ has already done so for us and he's taken the curtain down.
[00:32:20] And we can do this with a heart full of assurance, of faith, heart sprinkled clean. And what's interesting here is, you know, in the church of Christ growing up, I've always heard Hebrews 10:25, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of Sunday some.
[00:32:37] And that's good, that's a good verse to focus on, but its need is to be focused on in context. Why? Because this is something we do, yes, as individuals, but as the community of faith that don't do this walk alone. All of this is meant to be done in community. So be together, strengthen each other, build each other up as iron sharpens iron, as one of the proverbs says, make each other stronger, make each other look more like the community of faith that we're supposed to be living every single day so that people can look and say, yeah, you're living differently.
[00:33:24] I want that.
[00:33:27] I'd like to come and join you because I'm interested. And it's harder to live that out when you're just living that as an individual. And this is being said in 21st century America where all we know is individualism. The focus is individualism. What are you doing in your Christian walk? What are you participating in? Did you do this? Did you not do this?
[00:33:51] And that's. Yes, you are accountable for your own lives. But we can't preach that message without Being aware of what we are supposed to look like as the community of God. So don't do this alone. And by the way, if we jump down into Hebrews chapter 11, we've got that. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. And if you need an example of what that looks like, hey, you remember Abel, he gave a good sacrifice. And Enoch was taken up with God and Noah listened to God and built the ark, and Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son on a mountain. And all these died in faith, not having received the promise. Verse 13, you've got Abraham and Moses and they cross the Red Sea and there's Samuel and David and all of these other people.
[00:34:45] And verse 39, all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive the promise since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us, they should not be made perfect. Chapter 12. Therefore, since we are surrounded by all of these people that we have seen all through the Old Testament, who lived without or lived with faith without having Christ visible before them, since we're surrounded by these witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily clings to us. And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter, or founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross despising its shame, and is seated on the right hand of God. He is enthroned on high. He is the king.
[00:35:34] And where this intersects the mountain after this four chapter movement here is in Hebrews, chapter 12, verse 18.
[00:35:46] The Bible project team, when they go through this on their podcast, say that what should be coming to our mind is all of these things that have been discussed so far from chapter eight onward are things that take place on a mountain. And what they say is, well, the author makes it plain to us, in case it hadn't been plain so far.
[00:36:06] Chapter 12, verse 18. You have not come to the mount. Excuse me, you have not come to what may be touched. A blazing fire, and darkness and gloom and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages should be spoken to them.
[00:36:23] This is Exodus, chapter 19.
[00:36:26] This is Mount Sinai. For they could not endure the order that was given, that even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned. So there's the reference there. My Bible says that that is coming from.
[00:36:39] Let's see, Exodus 19:12.
[00:36:43] Indeed. So terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I tremble with fear. I'm afraid.
[00:36:49] But you, the community of God Today, post Jesus, you have come to Mount Zion.
[00:36:58] You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God that is the heavenly Jerusalem. Remember, Zion is the Temple Mount.
[00:37:08] So you have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, but not Jerusalem. That is west of the Jordan river in the Dead Sea.
[00:37:18] You've come to New Jerusalem, which some commentators call out. You should look back to 2nd Corinthians 5:17, where it talks about, if anyone is in Christ new creation, he is a new creation, she is a new creation.
[00:37:37] That you're one of these people to be in the heavenly Jerusalem. And to the innumerable angels in festal gatherings and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enthroned in heaven. And to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect. And to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. And to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
[00:38:03] That last phrase. To say that if Abel was pure in his death, how much more so was Jesus pure in his death? How much more so is this blood, a cleansing power that lets us enter this throne room? If you look back to Psalm chapter 15, who can ascend? Who can dwell on your mountain? Who can live in your tent, in your tabernacle?
[00:38:30] Well, Jesus did it. And what is being suggested here, calling back to Psalm 15 and Psalm 24, is you too, as believers in God, you can live on the mountain of God.
[00:38:45] We should be enacting the community of one that lives on the mountain of God.
[00:38:52] I don't know how to explain it to you back in Isaiah, but they'll beat their swords into plowshares and there will be no more war and all of these things.
[00:39:05] I'm asking you to show people what it's like to live in heaven today, is what the Hebrew writer is saying.
[00:39:13] And as if that wasn't enough, if you go to Revelation chapter 21, Revelation chapter 21.
[00:39:23] So we've made it all the way through.
[00:39:26] And we are at the tail end of the Bible here.
[00:39:30] And in Revelation 21, we have creation and Eden and all of these motifs present as we dive into this last little section of the Bible here.
[00:39:43] Revelation 21, I saw a new heaven, which we just talked about in Hebrews chapter 12, and a new earth. For the first heaven and first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more, which is Genesis 1, verse 1, 2, 3 and 4.
[00:40:00] The sea has been calm. The sea has been separated, it has been tamed. The sea, the chaos, it's not even something to be separated away. It's gone now.
[00:40:10] And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem coming down from heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. Which is exactly what the tabernacle was in Exodus, chapter 40. This little mobile mountain that traveled with Israel was God being with his people. And then we even had God dwelling in a human tent, that is the body of Christ being Jesus, that now we have God dwelling with his people, just in his full glory, without any shroud.
[00:40:51] He will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear. So there's Isaiah, chapter 56, maybe I don't remember which chapter that was. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be no mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore. The former things have passed away. This is what Jesus did on the mountain of healing. This is the life that we are living here today, or supposed to be living here today.
[00:41:23] He who was seated on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new. Also he said, write this down. These words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me, it's done. I am the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty, I will give from the spring the water of life without payment.
[00:41:40] So there's the river flowing out of the temple that we had back in Ezekiel, the end of Ezekiel.
[00:41:47] The one who conquers will have this heritage. And I will be his God, and he will be my son. So we get to be heirs in this sonship with Christ.
[00:41:56] But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death, verse nine. Then one of the angels came with the seven bowls of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city of Jerusalem, coming down from heaven and meeting this mountain, having the glory of God, its radiance, like the most rare jewel, and labels all of these. By the way, what this temple looks like, the city looks like in verse 13.
[00:42:38] It's square, and it's as tall as it is long. And so it's 12,000 by 12,000 by 12,000 stadia, which is not Exactly. The dimensions of the tabernacle, a stadia is much larger, but it's to scale what the most holy place in the tabernacle, the most holy place was a cube. And so we've got this here, that the temple, God's dwelling place. What I'm trying to get you to see is now it's not just that you have the confidence to enter the holy place, but now you live there forever and ever.
[00:43:14] For the rest of your lives, you live in the most holy place. It's not something that here on this earth where we are supposed to go up the mountain to receive the instruction and carry it back down, but that at the end of our lives, what we do is we live in that temple forever.
[00:43:34] And this is happening in a new heaven and new earth, in a new Jerusalem, in a new temple where it is not touched by the curse.
[00:43:48] I can't remember if I made a note of where that popped up or not, but all of these things are intersecting where.
[00:43:55] If you read a little bit further, what you will find is.
[00:44:01] Let's see, I think it's starting in 21, 22. No, no, no. Excuse me.
[00:44:09] Lost my place. Let's see, let's start in chapter 22. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of Life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God. So again, there's Ezekiel's Water of Life.
[00:44:24] If anyone listens to my teaching, it will be as if they have a spring of water welling up inside them. Jesus says to the woman at the well, and through the middle of the street of the city, also on either side of the river, the tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit, yielding each fruit its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree for healing the nations. Exactly what Israel was supposed to be doing, exactly what Jesus did, and exactly what we are supposed to be doing.
[00:44:53] No longer will there be anything accursed. There it is. I knew I could find find it somewhere. No longer will anything be accursed. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads, and the night will be no more. And they need no lamp of the sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign there forever and ever.
[00:45:16] And all God's people said amen.
[00:45:19] Thank you all for a great class. Remember that next week. I'm hoping that we can kind of do this discussion style of being able to talk this out. If you would like to participate in the quiz or survey. Again, it is anonymous, but I do have the QR code up for the quiz this time. So even if you don't answer it, if you'll at least look through it and think through it so that way it's not just me standing up here silent the whole time. Please take a look at that and I'll toss you all a few softball questions in terms of getting us started with discussion. Might even sing some songs that have to do with mountains and have a prayer at the end. But next week is going to be a lot of focus on okay, practically speaking, how do we in Madison, Alabama in 2026 live the things that we have studied this semester? So y' all have a great week and I will see you for our last class next week.
