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So Great a salvation - a greater sacrifice
Hebrews 8-10

Sunday, 22nd November, 2009

Outline of book:

 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

 

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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)

 

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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

IV      Better than Aaron

V                 A better sanctuary in heaven

VI      The better covenant

VII The better Sacrifice

 

 

THE HIGH PRIESTLY OFFICE OF THE SON

(5:11–10:39) pages 1204-1209

READ 8:1-6

Who Jesus is

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.

What he does

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

Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices

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)

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The Old Tabernacle is a copy of the heavenly one 5-6

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

Old Covenant

 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.

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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.

 

  1. Enter in (10:19–22)

 

READ 19-22

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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

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Enter with sincerity (10:22)  humble, repentant, in full assurance of faith, knowing that our conscience is cleansed. Guilt has been removed.

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  1. Hold fast (10:23–25)
READ 23-25

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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.

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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!

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  1. Keep the faith (10:26–35)
READ 26-35

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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.

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An encouragement—remember those who endured (l0:32–35) So says verse 35 do not throw away the confidence of  verse 19.

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  1. Press on (10:36–39)
READ 36-39

. 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)

  • Enter in! Hold fast! Keep the faith! Press on!
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