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REVELATION OF GOD
THROUGH
HIS SON
1:1–2:18
THE HIGH PRIESTLY CHARACTER
OF
THE SON
3:1–5:10
THE HIGH PRIESTLY OFFICE OF THE SON
5:11–10:39
LOYALTY TO GOD THROUGH PERSEVERING FAITH
11:1–12:13
ORIENTATION FOR LIFE AS CHRISTIANS IN A
HOSTILE WORLD
12:14–13:25
.
Five warnings
•The Peril of Ignoring the Word
Delivered by the Son (2:1–4)
•The Peril of Refusing to Believe God’s
Word (3:7–19)
•The Peril of Spiritual Immaturity (5:11–6:12)
•The Peril of Disloyalty to Christ (10:19–39)
•The Peril of Refusing God’s Gracious
Word (12:14–29)
.
Seven
“Jesus is better than….
I Better
than angels as Son of God
II Better
than angels as Son of Man
III Better than Moses
V A better sanctuary in heaven
VII The
better Sacrifice
THE
HIGH PRIESTLY OFFICE OF THE SON
(5:11–10:39)
pages 1204-1209
We do have such a
high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in
heaven
Jesus is a high priest. He is the presence of God speaking on our behalf. He speaks to us the word of God , in fact he is the word of God himself which means he is the revelation of all that God is.
He has sat down. The work of salvation is complete. He taken his place as the centre piece of heaven. He is at the right hand. There is no one else that close to God. So no saint of angel can better serve as our advocate. He is the one we pray to because has the ear of God.
who serves in the
sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord,
Jesus is not passive in heaven. Heaven is
not standing around doing nothing. It is active as a place where God is
worshipped and prayers are offered. Sunday mornings are a poor sample of
heaven, but there are connected as our worship and our prayers are presented by
Jesus to the Father. Do not despise our worship, however badly we do it. What
matters is whether your heart was singing the praises.
How he serves
You are the gifts that Jesus offers to his
Father. You can read about that in John 17. And he has offered himself as the
one and only sacrifice.
V
A better sanctuary in heaven
Sanctuary
and Covenant (8:1–13)
.
We will come back to this in chapter 9.
A New Covenant
READ v7-13. Under the Old Covenant, Moses spoke to God, the people listened to
Moses, the Priests took the sacrifices and then went into the Holy Place to
offer their prayers. God was at least
two stages away from the people. If you wanted to know what God’s rule was, you
asked a priest to tell you, just as today, a Muslim would ask a Mullah. And he
would tell you what the law said. However, as we know the Pharisees added all
sorts of extra laws to make sure you did not disobey God’s law. But the new Covenant is different. God
writes the law in your heart. The Holy Spirit is in you brain, guiding your
conscience so that you know what is right and what is wrong.
Know
the Lord
This is where we
are. I am not here to tell you some mystical way to invoke the almighty, I am
hear to beg you to listen to Jesus. Listen to the Holy Spirit in your heart and
mind. Respond to him and his word. And that is the same reason you read the
Bible. So that you are encouraged each day to listen to Jesus and talk to him.
Now we get to the Old
Covenant bit.
Rather than read the text let me talk through
the tabernacle . You will see that the text of verse 1-10 does just that.
So
the tabernacle looked something like this:
If
you wanted to do business with God. To ask his forgiveness, thank him for his
goodness, or just give him praise you came to the outside of this enclosure
with your sacrifice.
You
may have been allowed into the courtyard to watch your sacrifice being made on
the altar. Just beyond is a huge water tank, which was used so the priests
could wash, all very hygienic! And that was about it. You could go no further.
Only
priests were allowed in the tent.
READ verses 1-2. The contents speak of the priests purpose to enter to be in the
presence of God and to offer prayers of behalf of the people.
READ
verse 3-5. This is the veil or curtain we spoke of last week. Only the High Priest entered into the Holy
of Holies and that only once a year. God’s presence was above the ark. The only
light was the presence of God. In case something happened to the High Priest,
they tied a rope round his ankle so he could be pulled out without anyone
seeing inside. God is so holy.
The temple of Jesus’ day was just the same
setup except women were kept further away and Gentiles even further. Racism and
sexism are not new!
Verses
6-10 reiterate the fact that the Tabernacle was a copy of the heavenly there to
show what the New Covenant would be like.
READ
Hebrews 9:11-14: Sacrifice for forgiveness
V New
Covenant
1.
The greater
and more perfect tabernacle – heaven
2.
Offered his
own blood once for all – eternal redemption
The Old
Covenant sacrifices were ritual cleansing. They meant that the worshipper was
forgiven for particular sins on a particular occasion.
.
How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who
through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our
consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
This is important stuff. You struggle with your
guilt, the conscience of knowing you have failed and failed again and will
probably fail again. Our gospel is that Christ’ cleansing was once for all
giving eternal redemption. Guilt is now an unnecessary residue, repeated
failure is more than matched by an eternal redemption.
15 For this reason
Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive
the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them
free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
The word mediator maybe more familiar to us than
priest but in relation to God, Jesus the mediator is Jesus the High priest.
Eternal redemption means eternal inheritance. And the writer points out, is
retrospective – it sets free those who sinned under the Old Covenant.
Time does not allow us to go into detail on verses 16-23.
Sufficient to say that couples together two well-known principles. That a will
only applies when there is a death and that the shedding of blood ratifies
covenants. And in Jesus both are satisfied. In conclusion we read:
24 For Christ did not enter a man-made
sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now
to appear for us in God's presence … But
now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by
the sacrifice of himself.
27 Just as man is destined to die once, and after that
to face judgment, 28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away
the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but
to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
The writer doe not stop there , he has more to say about
The Ultimate
Character of Christ’s Single, Personal Sacrifice for Sins (10:1–18)
•The
Sacrificial system did not bring permanent forgiveness 1-4
•Jesus
replaces the sacrifices by willing obedience to die for us 5- 10
•Jesus death
is once for all, complete and sufficient
11-17
Finally in verse 18 he makes the point that the New
Covenant ends sacrifice for sin. That is a fundamental unique aspect of our
gospel. There is no action or sacrifice that you can do to obtain forgiveness.
God, in Christ, has done it all. Salvation or redemption is to be received by
faith as a gift. In a few minutes we will celebrate the death and resurrection
of Jesus. It is not a sacrifice to somehow win our salvation, it is a reminder
that Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given
thank broke it and Said “This is my body, given for you.
In the same manner he took the cup, and when he had
given thanks he gave it to them saying “This is my blood, the blood that Seals
the New Covenant poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins. Receive it. We
do not offer it, we are here to receive it as from the hand of Jesus.
The Fourth Warning: The Peril of Disloyalty to Christ (10:19–39)
As with all the warnings, they are there to direct us to act positively, rather than to engender fear.
READ 19-22
.
Enter with confidence (10:19-21) All we have read today is intended to assure us that the Jesus way of salvation is true and secure and safe and the only way. So Enter in with confidence
.
Enter with sincerity (10:22) humble, repentant, in full assurance of faith, knowing that our conscience is cleansed. Guilt has been removed.
2.
.
Personal
confession (10:23)
put in a negative way, don’t play around two timing God. Trust him and him alone, hold unswervingly translates rather well to stay in lane. Be true to God, or as Jesus put it “Follow me”
Mutual encouragement (10:24–25a) This is why we meet Sunday by Sunday and every Thursday, House Groups days and some of us Tuesdays as well. Because it is a means of holding fast to the faith we have.
.
Spiritual incentive (10:25b) The day is the return of Jesus or the day of your death, which ever comes sooner. You are on your way to be with Jesus, Hold fast, its not so far to go now!
.
.
A
warning—remember those who fell (10:26–31)
This is
very much like the previous warnings. If you walk away from the once and for
all sacrifice for sin there is no forgiveness and only hell and the wrath of
God to look forward to. SO Keep the faith, stay on the way.
.
An
encouragement—remember those who endured (l0:32–35) So says verse 35 do not throw away the
confidence of verse 19.
.
. This
is no time for giving up (10:36)
. or shrinking back (10:38–39)
It is time to fix your eyes on Jesus (12:2)