I love learning new things from scriptures I’ve read many times before. Maybe you’ve had that experience, too. Suddenly, a verse you thought you knew shines with new meaning, and it feels like a fresh gift from God.
If you’re a student of the Bible, you know what I mean. And if you’re not, let me encourage you to become one. Find a trustworthy commentary. Find a Christ-centered minister at a Bible-centered church. Find a friend who loves the word and will read it with you. You’ll be amazed at the treasures God reveals.
This truth came home to me in my own congregation this Sunday.
We’ve been studying Hebrews, and our minister pointed out something in Chapter 12 that I had never considered. Once he read the passage, though, it was plain as day.
We began in Hebrews 12:18: “You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them.”
This evokes thoughts of the Israelites and Mount Sinai, of course. But if we haven’t come there, where are we?
Verse 22 tells us. “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.”
This, undoubtedly, is a spiritual, rather than a physical, place.
The verse continues: “You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”
I had never really let those words sink in. They seem to be linking angels with the assembly of believers, the worship service of the church.
Certainly, I already knew Jesus is always there when we worship. I knew that angels are, too. I had even sometimes pictured in my mind either an angel or Jesus sitting on the front row, and maybe another angel sitting on the rafter. But “thousands upon thousands”?
Maybe those thousands are spread out all over the world every Sunday – I’m not sure – but maybe it’s even better than that. Perhaps an innumerable host of angels are there – with us – every time we worship. How grand.
Even grander, though, is the fact that, as we said, both Jesus and God are there. Always.
Another part of the sermon brought a new thought. Our minister said to imagine Abraham, Isaac or Jacob sitting in the pew beside you. He even turned to one of our members and asked him to picture it – right then and there. That idea had never once crossed my mind, but Hebrews 12 does say we’ve come “to the spirits of the righteous made perfect.”
Naturally, we can’t see them. They belong to a different realm. But scripture makes clear that they’re part of this heavenly assembly. It deepens my sense of worship to know that, in some mysterious way, we’re connected – not just to the believers in our own congregation, but to the great cloud of witnesses across time.
And at the center of it all is the blood of Jesus. Not blood that cries out for vengeance like Abel’s, but blood that pleads for forgiveness.
Forgiveness that is free. Forgiveness that is offered to all.
As our minister concluded in his sermon: Please don’t refuse it.
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Sallie Rose Hollis lives in Ruston and retired from Louisiana Tech as an associate professor of journalism and the assistant director of the News Bureau. She can be contacted at sallierose@mail.com.
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