Hebrews 12:25-29 Easy-to-Read Version
25 Be careful and don’t refuse to listen when God speaks. Those people refused to listen to him when he warned them on earth. And they did not escape. Now God is speaking from heaven. So now it will be worse for those who refuse to listen to him. 26 When he spoke before, his voice shook the earth. But now he has promised, “Once again I will shake the earth, but I will also shake heaven.” [a] 27 The words “once again” clearly show us that everything that was created will be destroyed—that is, the things that can be shaken. And only what cannot be shaken will remain.
28 So we should be thankful because we have a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And because we are thankful, we should worship God in a way that will please him. We should do this with respect and fear, 29 because our God is like a fire that can destroy us.
The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.
Buildings will eventually crumble, countries will rise and empires will fall; truth: nothing in this world is permanent and it will one day come to an end.
As Christians, as the Body of Christ, as God’s Church, however, we have something which will never come to end; we have the kingdom of God.
Let us be thankful for this!
Let us be thankful that whether we live or die, we have an imperishable, inheritance in an unshakeable kingdom to come (Hebrews 13:14).
Let us be thankful that this unshakeable imperishable kingdom was designed by the great designer, God himself (Hebrews 11:10).
Because of all of these truths, we can be infinitely thankful for a kingdom that cannot be shaken (Hebrews 12:28).
The kingdom of God will always be, no ruler or natural disaster can destroy it.
Think about this in relation to all the turmoil that is happening in the world with wars, socio-cultural-economic problems, and great natural disasters.
Our only innate, instinctive response to this amazing truth is one of worship!
Let us worship with reverence and awe because our God is a consuming fire.
Our God is bigger than any skyscraper touching the tip of the sky.
Our God is more powerful than the mightiest ruler.
Our kingdom is ruled by the King of kings and Lord of lords.
Our temporary home may be breaking, quaking and shaking under us right now, but our soon to be permanent home is always standing as firm as ever.
Hebrews 12:28-29Authorized (King James) Version
28 Wherefore we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: 29 for our God is a consuming fire.
Wherefore we are receiving a Kingdom ….
https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/heb/12/28-29/t_conc_1145028
We are Receiving ….
https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g3880/kjv/tr/0-1/
A Kingdom ….
https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g932/kjv/tr/0-1/
Which CANNOT be moved ….
https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g761/kjv/tr/0-1/
Immovable!
Unshakable!
Unshaken!
“A kingdom that cannot be shaken.”
“We are receiving a kingdom.”
Please exercise careful notice of how the anonymous author wrote this.
This present participle in the Greek emphasizes followers of Jesus Christ are now in the process of receiving this gift, that this process will continue into the future.
This unshakeable kingdom is not the gift of a constitution, or government or any other human institution or process—it is the gift of God.
It is a continual, continuing gift of God, who is “a consuming fire” —literally, one whose indescribable, unviewable glory would consume us as he warned Moses and others if we ever looked upon him directly.
This continual, continuing gift of an unshakable kingdom, whose giver is God himself, and whose incarnation is Jesus Christ, is a gift that comes with power.
It is an awesome power and an undeniable glory which sends us to our knees in humble prayer, thanksgiving, praise and worship, with maximum reverence and maximum awe. That’s the only natural posture appropriate to such a great gift.
The unshakable kingdom we are receiving as followers of Jesus Christ, as the Body of Christ, is not any single global movement or a global church denomination.
It is quite literally, an quite awesomely, quite magnificently: the reign of God.
American philosopher also known for his writings on Christian spiritual formation Dr. Dallas Willard captured the Biblical essence of this “kingdom” as
“the range of God’s effective will, where what God wants done is done.”
Therefore, it is defined by the clarity, authority and inspiration of God’s revealed word, the Bible.
The unshakable kingdom is summed up:
in the person, reign, and ministry of Jesus Christ, in whom “all things hold together,” “all the fullness of God dwells” and through whom “all things in heaven and on earth” are reconciled to God (Colossians. 1:17-20).
In other words, wherever Jesus Christ reigns as Savior and Lord—in our lives, our friends, our workplaces, our neighborhoods and our communities—now, and with increasing reign, there we’ll find and receive the unshakable kingdom.
A dear brother in Christ reminded me of these verses as together we have faced this question:
What is at stake for followers of Jesus Christ as we face a culture conflict that is increasingly shaped by the forces of aggressive secularism, moral relativism, religious pluralism, individual autonomy, a utopian hope in secular authority (however repressive it may need to be)?
A people with a Kingdom focus, called to be an instrument of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit for the healing of communities, and nations.
If you dwell on that whole statement as I just did—with the whole Body of Christ in attendance at one time—you realize this is a GARGANTUAN picture.
The man, Master Rabbi Jesus said, “But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you.” (Luke 11:20).
The ‘finger of God’ is a phrase that is also used in Exodus 8:16-20 by Egyptian priests referring to the plagues that God sent upon their whole entire nation.
In Deuteronomy 9:10
it refers to the method by which God himself inscribed the Ten Commandments on the tablets of stone that Moses brought down after 40 days, from Mt. Sinai.
During our prayer times, during the course of our praise an worship times, we welcome “the imperceptible touch of the finger of God” in healing ministries to the whole person (body, soul and spirit), in deliverance ministries (following Rabbi Jesus’ example) and in many patient, caring, quiet counseling and small group venues where we witnessed real people changed by real the power of God.
Contemplate this if we dare to:
Human dignity is restored—in the image of God.
Not in the image of any faith Denomination
– but in the IMAGE of GOD ALONE!
You see, a people who are receiving that unshakable kingdom of God, who have that exclusive, unshakably prioritized kingdom focus, will, with all eyes on God
unhesitatingly welcome and invite that power beyond ourselves to change ourselves—through the utterly unshakable power of the intercessions of God, the Holy Spirit.
This Biblical world view is a sharp, stark alternative to the materialism that omits the sovereignty of God entirely in the secular utopian (even culturally Marxist) world views dominating our global socio-economic-culture wars.
If we think and ponder and prayerfully meditate: Frankly, a people with this kingdom focus will be the only ones who can offer true hope to people in need.
In Romans 14:17, the Apostle Paul hints at this when he writes to the followers; “for the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but a matter of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
In keeping with such joy and peace,
he then prays
“May the God of hope fill you with great joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Rom. 15:13).
As the Body of Christ, this kingdom focus is meant to create a culture that is supposed to be overflowing with hope precisely because of our confidence in the matchless and unshakable power of God—not in our limited weak kneed selves.
It is supposed to be highly contagious.
In my days of working with homeless veterans I heard so many testimonies of people who walked off the street because of a personal invitation into program.
Meetings and small groups were overcome by the love of God, overflowing with hope, and led into the gentle and redeeming reign of Jesus Christ in their lives!
But we have such hope to offer in and through the reign of Jesus Christ and the unshakable kingdom of God.
The Body of Christ, the Church in the world, even as we try to diagnose all of the problems and try mightily to engage our dying culture in praise, worship and in prayer, we must do so with the Gospel – Good News of our only Savior Jesus Christ.
What needs to come from our testimonies is this: There is an alternative, a world-view where Jesus Christ reigns as Lord and Savior, where the poor are lifted up, prisoners set free, people healed, the oppressed released, human dignity restored and God’s favor poured out in abundance (Luke 4:16-21).
Isaiah 2:1-4 AKJV
2 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 And it shall come to pass in the last days,
that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established
in the top of the mountains,
and shall be exalted above the hills;
and all nations shall flow unto it.
3 And many people shall go and say,
Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob;
and he will teach us of his ways,
and we will walk in his paths:
for out of Zion shall go forth the law,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 And he shall judge among the nations,
and shall rebuke many people:
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruninghooks:
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.
The Body of Christ, Children of God with a Kingdom of God focus, called to be an instrument for the healing of all the diverse arrays of local communities, for the healing of all worlds nations – swords into plow shares, learning Shalom alone?
What an incredibly unshakeable theology for the Body of Christ to LABOR for!!!
Steadfastly and Immovably and Unshakably, Do We Dare to Go Where God IS?
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Heavenly Father, thank You that I have been saved by grace through faith in Christ. Thank You that His kingdom can never be shaken and that in my Savior Christ Jesus, this kingdom is my inheritance. Accept my humble praise and everlasting gratitude for all that Christ has done for me. May I live my life in reverence to You and may the things I do, and say, be acceptable in Your sight. I ask this in Jesus’ name, AMEN.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 