27) Hebrews - The Perfect Sacrifice
Notes
Transcript
Teach God’s Character and Work. (The Word)
So that the people may turn from a rebellious Heart (Root) Sins of “Unbelief, Pride, Selfishness” (Repentance)
and “Be Reconciled to God” (Justification)
Resulting in Transformation - behavioral change of the work of the HS (Sanctification)
Which is obedience to the will of God (The Word)
Resulting in being encouraged by God’s Character and Work to hold fast to the Promise of Hope. (Faith and Belief)
Resulting in Eternal Rest, Joy, Peace, Worship (Glorification)
For His Glory
Gathering - Community Announcements
Welcome Folder
Call to Worship
Psalm 40 (CSB)
For the choir director. A psalm of David. 1 I waited patiently for the Lord, and he turned to me and heard my cry for help. 2 He brought me up from a desolate pit, out of the muddy clay, and set my feet on a rock, making my steps secure. 3 He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and they will trust in the Lord. 4 How happy is anyone who has put his trust in the Lord and has not turned to the proud or to those who run after lies! 5 Lord my God, you have done many things— your wondrous works and your plans for us; none can compare with you. If I were to report and speak of them, they are more than can be told. 6 You do not delight in sacrifice and offering; you open my ears to listen. You do not ask for a whole burnt offering or a sin offering. 7 Then I said, “See, I have come; in the scroll it is written about me. 8 I delight to do your will, my God, and your instruction is deep within me.” 9 I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; see, I do not keep my mouth closed— as you know, Lord. 10 I did not hide your righteousness in my heart; I spoke about your faithfulness and salvation; I did not conceal your constant love and truth from the great assembly. 11 Lord, you do not withhold your compassion from me. Your constant love and truth will always guard me. 12 For troubles without number have surrounded me; my iniquities have overtaken me; I am unable to see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my courage leaves me. 13 Lord, be pleased to rescue me; hurry to help me, Lord. 14 Let those who intend to take my life be disgraced and confounded. Let those who wish me harm be turned back and humiliated. 15 Let those who say to me, “Aha, aha!” be appalled because of their shame. 16 Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; let those who love your salvation continually say, “The Lord is great!” 17 I am oppressed and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my helper and my deliverer; my God, do not delay.
Corporate Prayer -
Worship through Song
Worship through Song
Scripture Every Man:
31 “Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—my covenant that they broke even though I am their master”—the Lord’s declaration. 33 “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.
Worship through Song
Prayer
Sermon
Introduction
Introduction
We continue today in the second major section of Hebrews. The first 4 and a half chapters focused on the superiority of Christ. It focused on the position of Jesus compared to the things that were held in high reverence in the Jewish tradition. Comparisons between entities like the angels and people like Moses.
God demonstrated the high position that Jesus sits through the words of the author of this book.
We have three more sermons in the second major section. The section filled with rich teaching on the plan of redemption through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. The Messiah. The Savior.
The author will spend nearly 6 chapters on the amazing will and plan of salvation that God established before the world was ever created. And the ministry of Jesus as he sits at the right hand of the Father. The Author uses a teaching style of repetition and many other devises that do not translate well into English but we see the care that the author has taken to make sure there is absolute clarity about the life and relationship of a believer to the living savior.
As we have discussed the Jews that had come to be a part of the body of Christians were struggling to fully understand the new world. The central event of all of humanity hung on the cross that day. The promises of the redemption of fallen man and women would be fulfilled and a new covenant is established.
The author has focused on the words of God recorded in the Old Testament to reveal what has changed through Jesus from the old covenant that was given to Isreal after they had been saved from slavery in Egypt.
There has been an emphasis on the shadows and types of the old testament and explanations of how they pointed to things revealed in the New Testament. This shadows were ment to point and draw people to looking forward to the coming savior.
The old was shadows the pointed to the substance or the reality of what was to come. We get the privilege to live in the reality and focus on the substance of the new testament and we get to look back into the pages of the word of God and be encouraged and enlightened by the thousands of ways that God shows that he is in control and loves you and me.
Shadow of the High Priest
We have seen the shadow of the high priest who was appointed by who he was born to, by heritage. Who had to present sacrifices for himself before he could perform his ministry on the day of atonement.
Where Christ is the reality and true substance that the high priest was a shadow of. He was qualified and appointed directly by God. One who was sinless and because of this death could not hold him.
14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens—Jesus the Son of God—let us hold fast to our confession.
Earlier we saw that he is sympathetic to our weakness, temped in all ways that we are yet without sin. And because of Him we can draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and grace. Since he is perfect and sinless became the source of eternal salvation.
The high would enter the earthly shadow the tabernacle and then enter the holy of holies to atone for the sins of the nation of the previous year but Jesus entered the true tabernacle into the presence of God and atoned for once for all time.
We have this type of High Priest Holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Therefore he does not have to offer sacrifices daily like other priests.
1 Now the main point of what is being said is this: We have this kind of high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a minister of the sanctuary and the true tabernacle that was set up by the Lord and not man.
Shadow of the Priesthood
The Levitical Priesthood was temporary but Jesus is a permanent one and continues forever because he continues forever.
God’s Promise
We looked at the better promise. His promise and his oath bring confidence to the believer. Since God does not lie or change. An anchor to our soul.
Better - New Covenant
And a better covenant. One where Jesus is the guarantor. The covenant that was prophesied in Jeremiah among others that would cause God’s laws to be written on the hearts and remove sin. Which was not accomplished under the first covenant.
Shadow and Substance
Melchizedek -> Christ High Priest
Shadow of Mediators
Always lives to make intersession for the people.
Resulted in redemption from transgressions committed under the first covenant
Inaugurated with death and a will the promise becomes effective.
Sins were forgiven but not forgotten
There are more that have been spoken of but we today we are in Chapter 10 verses 1-18. Where the author is going to develop further the reality and substance of the sacrifice of Jesus as the perfect sacrifice.
1 Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the reality itself of those things, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year. 2 Otherwise, wouldn’t they have stopped being offered, since the worshipers, purified once and for all, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? 3 But in the sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 5 Therefore, as he was coming into the world, he said: You did not desire sacrifice and offering, but you prepared a body for me. 6 You did not delight in whole burnt offerings and sin offerings. 7 Then I said, “See— it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, God.” 8 After he says above, You did not desire or delight in sacrifices and offerings, whole burnt offerings and sin offerings (which are offered according to the law), 9 he then says, See, I have come to do your will. He takes away the first to establish the second. 10 By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time. 11 Every priest stands day after day ministering and offering the same sacrifices time after time, which can never take away sins. 12 But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. 13 He is now waiting until his enemies are made his footstool. 14 For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are sanctified. 15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. For after he says: 16 This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, the Lord says, I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds, 17 and I will never again remember their sins and their lawless acts. 18 Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.
The Shadows
The Shadows
1 Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the reality itself of those things, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year. 2 Otherwise, wouldn’t they have stopped being offered, since the worshipers, purified once and for all, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? 3 But in the sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
The Law contained only a shadow of the good things to come. They were not the substance and reality of what they represented.
Here is a shadow. What does it represent. Is it clear enough to tell yes. If I told you it was a mountain dew would you agree. But the thing is no matter how many of them that I print they will never add up to the real thing. They will never have a true substance. They will never accomplish relieving my thirst.
Here is another shadow or type it is much clearer but is is not real thing. what if I was told that every time I was thirsty that I was to print one of these. I can print one of these for the rest of my life but it cannot resolve my real need. It will not quench my thirst. It is not effective. It is symbolic.
In a way the Law was the same. They sacrificed in the morning and in the evening. They scarified day after day and year after year. In the end the sacrifices could not ever accomplish what was truly needed. It could not perfect the worshiper.
If at anytime time they were perfected they would have stopped. It did not matter if they performed every possible sacrifice that is possible in the life span of a person the shadows will never add up to the substance.
If they ever could the a worshiper would have had their conscience cleansed and they would have stopped. If they could be fully purified then there would be no need to ever sacrifice again.
But there is a purpose to the shadows. If I were to print one of these every time I am thirsty. Would it quench my thirst. Absolutely not. It would only remind me that I get thirsty.
So it was with the sacrifices.
3 But in the sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year.
Each and every time they went to the priest and had a guilt and sin offering offered they were reminded of the dire state they were in. They were slaves to sin. If they were honest they found themselves breaking the law and never were they cleansed. They were forgiven of sin. There iniquity was covered but it was not removed. Sin was still there.
Because
4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
A living animal was given to the priest to remind the people that the wages of sin is death. No matter how many sacrifices were given the worshiper’s true need was never resolved. The need for their sin to be removed. To be made clean, to be purified. For without that they had no hope of ever standing before a just, righteous and good God. The ultimate need of you life is to have the curse of sin removed. To no longer be at enmity with God. To be at peace with him.
All earthly needs pale in comparison to dealing with sin. This is the greatest need in your life, in your child's life, in your spouses or coworkers life. Bulls and goat could not meet this need. It reminded them of that need.
There was no substance. Therefore there is no resolution to the need. If I am thirsty I need the real thing. Not a shadow.
Open the mountain dew.
16 Therefore, don’t let anyone judge you in regard to food and drink or in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of what was to come; the substance is Christ.
The substance, the reality of the true and perfect sacrifice is in the reality of Christ on the cross. All of man’s need relating to sin was hung on the tree as the perfect sacrifice.
A real sacrifice had to come.
Psalm 40
Psalm 40
5 Therefore, as he was coming into the world, he said: You did not desire sacrifice and offering, but you prepared a body for me. 6 You did not delight in whole burnt offerings and sin offerings.
The author then does what he does so well. He goes to the truth of God’s word and quotes a section of Psalm 40. Verses 6 thru 8. I really like the clarity of the ESV on this verse.
5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; 6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. 7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’ ”
God does not desire sacrifice and offering. With all of the emphasis on the old testament sacrificial system why would Jesus be quoted as saying that God dis not desire these. It was never about works. The sacrifices were to aid in the worship and focus on God.
Just like the passover, festival of booths, tithe, Sabbath, marriage and many other things that God established. They were ment to help the worshiper keep their minds focused on God and God alone. However we find in scripture all of these things perverted and profaned to men’s evil ways and selfish motives.
The worshipers would come to put trust in the ritualistic actions instead of who the rituals and ordinances were supposed to represent. The sacrifice was never what God desired.
They were to be an act of willing obedience.
22 Then Samuel said: Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? Look: to obey is better than sacrifice, to pay attention is better than the fat of rams.
The sacrifices were supposed to be motivated by obedience. In the first covenant God promised to bless or curse based on Israel's obedience. The people were to follow their word when they said they would obey the laws of God.
They were to come from a contrite heart
10 Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah! 11 “What are all your sacrifices to me?” asks the Lord. “I have had enough of burnt offerings and rams and the fat of well-fed cattle; I have no desire for the blood of bulls, lambs, or male goats. 12 When you come to appear before me, who requires this from you— this trampling of my courts? 13 Stop bringing useless offerings. Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons and Sabbaths, and the calling of solemn assemblies— I cannot stand iniquity with a festival. 14 I hate your New Moons and prescribed festivals. They have become a burden to me; I am tired of putting up with them. 15 When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will refuse to look at you; even if you offer countless prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.
They were to come from a place that honored God and not themselves.
They were to come from a place of humility.
10 God, create a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not banish me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore the joy of your salvation to me, and sustain me by giving me a willing spirit. 13 Then I will teach the rebellious your ways, and sinners will return to you. 14 Save me from the guilt of bloodshed, God— God of my salvation— and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. 15 Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. 16 You do not want a sacrifice, or I would give it; you are not pleased with a burnt offering. 17 The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. You will not despise a broken and humbled heart, God.
It was a life lived for God that they were to bring with the sacrifices.
6 What should I bring before the Lord when I come to bow before God on high? Should I come before him with burnt offerings, with year-old calves? 7 Would the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousand streams of oil? Should I give my firstborn for my transgression, the offspring of my body for my own sin? 8 Mankind, he has told each of you what is good and what it is the Lord requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God.
It was the heart of the person that mattered and it was God’s desire that the worshiper would be motivated by their love for God and their knowledge of him.
6 For I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
Love. In the end it all boils down to Love. Love of God should have been the motivation for bringing and obeying the law.
33 And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, is far more important than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
But unfortunately. This is not what happened. Over an over again the sacrifices and other institutions would become God less acts of duty and not love. Their hearts were empty while they performed the actions. They even believed that they were in the right as they ignored God the entire time.
Malachi is believed to be the last book written of the old testament. Isreal has come out of exile and come back together. They have this rich history of God at work in their nation and God rebukes them for their offerings.
Your homework this week is to read Malachi and mediate on the hearts of the people. Malachi brings forth the heart of the people with seven questions.
“How have you loved us?”
They have come to a place as a people that they no longer recognize the love of God.
“How have we shown contempt for your name?”
They provided what God called polluted offerings. They were bringing the blind and the lame to be sacrificed. They were bringing offerings that God asks. Would you even bring that to the governor for taxes. If the governor would not take it they why to you think I would. They had defiled the worship of God.
10 “I wish one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would no longer kindle a useless fire on my altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord of Armies, “and I will accept no offering from your hands.
And what was their response
13 You also say, ‘Look, what a nuisance!’ And you scorn it,” says the Lord of Armies. “You bring stolen, lame, or sick animals. You bring this as an offering! Am I to accept that from your hands?” asks the Lord.
Then he rebukes the preists
7 For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should desire instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord of Armies. 8 “You, on the other hand, have turned from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have violated the covenant of Levi,” says the Lord of Armies.
“Why do you not accept our worship?”
They are faithless to each other by having marriages that do not honor God. They were leaving their wives to go and marry women of foreign nations.
“How have we wearied Him?”
They doubted God’s justice. They compared themselves to the world around them and they have the nerve to ask why to they get blessed and we do not.
“How are we to return?”
The Old testament was very clear on how to return to God. Repentance and obedience. But they wanted neither of these. They did not want to turn from their ways or to God.
“How have we robbed you?”
They not only were bringing blemished sacrifices, destroying marriages, causing people to stumble, challenging God's justice, they were also not fulfilling the law’s requirements for the tithe to the storehouse.
“How have we spoken against you?”
They served God only for their own personal gain. The question “what’s in it for me” is not a new concept.
14 You have said, “It is useless to serve God. What have we gained by keeping his requirements and walking mournfully before the Lord of Armies?
The entire community of God’s chosen nation had turned their hearts away from God to their own ways. They still did the actions. They sacrificed, they married, they gave tithes, and they served God but they were far from God and what all of these were to point to.
It is super easy for men and women to look at this things we are called to do and to continue to perform the actions and be far from God.
We are to pray. Why? for our wills to be aligned with his. For our minds to be shifted into clarity of what he wants for us. But what do we do. God change your will to mine. Give me this or that in this world so that I can have an easier life. An easy life is not what we should desire. A holy sanctified one is what we should be speaking to God about. For ourselves and those around us.
Marriages are not just for our temporary pleasure. They are representations of Christ and the church. They are to be growing to raise godly offspring. They have solemn vows that are before the Lord. They are not perfect and we have to deal with past mistakes but marriage is important to God and should be important to us.
What we do with our resources is important to God.
What we sing. We can present beautiful melodies and not mean a single word of it. Where is your heart when you sing to the Lord.
The Lord’s Supper. It is not a ritual. Jesus said do this in remembrance of me. Let us never grow weary of the table of God. Let us always come humbly, in obedience, and motivated by our Love of God as we approach the table.
The old could never produce this in our lives. Christ must come.
7 Then I said, “See— it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, God.”
Jesus proclaimed this truth himself.
44 He told them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
The will of God
8 After he says above, You did not desire or delight in sacrifices and offerings, whole burnt offerings and sin offerings (which are offered according to the law), 9 he then says, See, I have come to do your will. He takes away the first to establish the second.
Jesus simple came to do the will of God. It was all that Jesus wanted to do.
34 “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work,” Jesus told them.
It was always the will of God to send Christ as the perfect sacrifice. To redeem men to himself. To remove sin from people. It wasn’t an accident. Men did not figure a way out from under God’s judgement. God’s judgment is met completely as he is the judge and the justifier of his saved people.
This is how men and women are perfected. Not by the shadows but the truth.
Sanctified Positionally
Sanctified Positionally
10 By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.
By God’s will we become dedicated to God, made perfect through the body of Jesus Christ. The bread of life. The bread broken at the Lord’s table.
Sanctified positionally verses progressively
11 Every priest stands day after day ministering and offering the same sacrifices time after time, which can never take away sins. 12 But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. 13 He is now waiting until his enemies are made his footstool. 14 For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are sanctified.
The priestly shadows could not complete what the true sacrifice could accomplish.
He concludes this by quoting Jeremiah one more time.
The One Sacrifice
The One Sacrifice
15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. For after he says: 16 This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, the Lord says, I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds, 17 and I will never again remember their sins and their lawless acts. 18 Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.
And as Paul says.
27 And this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.
Conclusion
Conclusion
The primary need for all men is to have their sin dealt with. And once it has been resolved we are to live as Paul teaches.
1 Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children, 2 and walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.
We should be warned today about wandering hearts and religious idols.
We should be wary of past ideas and philosophies that we are hanging on to. Behavior saves, other religions.
We should rest assured in the work of Christ and the saving grace and the removal of our sins by the perfect sacrifice of Jesus. Fulfilling the perfect will of the Father.
Let us pray.
Prayer
Communion
Warning
Children, Lost, Sin
19 And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
27 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he gave it to them and said, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Prayer
Song
Closing
Blessing/Benediction
20 Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus—the great Shepherd of the sheep—through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 equip you with everything good to do his will, working in us what is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.