Sermon Tone Analysis

My dad is retired now, but back in the day he worked as a medical technologist in a laboratory.

I know that was his job, but I really couldn’t tell you much about what exactly he did.

I just know he went to work every morning as a medical technologist.

It is the fifth Sunday of Lent.

In this journey we have been making through the book of Hebrews there has been a pretty big connection made between Jesus and the role of the Old Testament Levite priests.

We have established that Jesus takes on the role of a priest.

But up to this point, we have not talked much about exactly what it was that those Levite priests would do.

Today’s passage gets us into some of that detail.

Jesus: fully human, fully divine, priestly mediator

We are several weeks into this series on the book of Hebrews.

We have seen how Jesus is presented as fully divine; we have seen how Jesus is presented as fully human; we have seen how Jesus is presented as our priestly mediator.

Today we are well into the second half of Hebrews, but the topic stays the same.

There is so much depth in the Old Testament rituals and work of the Levite Priests.

Last week we saw that Jesus is a priestly mediator whose intercession and atonement have eternal lasting effect—just like the priest named Melchizedek from Genesis 14.

Today we turn our attention back to the particular habits of the Levite priests.

the work of the priest: Tabernacle, Most Holy Place, blood

These few verses from Hebrews 9 are packed with references from the Old Testament.

It talks about the tabernacle, and something called the Most Holy Place.

And it might seem kind of icky, but this passage seems to focus quite a bit on the meaning of blood.

There is background information that is necessary in order for these things in Hebrews to make sense.

The Jewish audience of this book would have known all this information already as it was a regular part of their Old Testament customs.

tabernacle layout and explanation

Let’s talk about the tabernacle.

This was a giant tent that was built by the Israelites at Mount Sinai.

God gave instructions for the tabernacle to Moses, and the people assembled this tent before they left Sinai.

The very presence of God came and descended upon the tabernacle in the form of a cloud.

If the cloud moved, the Israelites would pack up everything and move along with it.

For all of the 40 years that the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, this is how their location was determined.

God dwelled in the tabernacle, and the tabernacle was at the center of the Israelite camp.

In later years, king Solomon had the temple built in Jerusalem with the same layout as the tabernacle.

When Solomon had the temple dedicated, the presence of God moved from the tabernacle into the temple.

But the temple in Jerusalem was always meant to be something which pointed the people back to the tabernacle and reminded them of their ancestors at Mount Sinai—the place where God first came to dwell among his chosen people.

The tabernacle was laid out with large curtain wall that enclosed an outer courtyard.

This is where the alter was located and the sacrifices were offered up to God.

The entrance to the tent was covered by a veil.

Inside the tent was a main room called the Holy Place.

The alter of incense was there along with a large gold lampstand and a table on which bread was placed.

Then there was another inner room at the back of the tabernacle separated by another curtain.

That room was called the Most Holy Place—it is mentioned here in Hebrews 9. Inside the Most Holy Place was the ark of the covenant.

This was the room in which the very presence of God resided.

The only person who was allowed to go inside the Most Holy Place was the high priest.

And the high priest was only allowed to go in this room one day each year.

It was a special day called the Day of Atonement.

We find the instructions for this back in Leviticus 16.

Leviticus 16:3-5, 11-17

That’s a lot of blood getting sprinkled around inside the tabernacle on the Day of Atonement.

The explanation comes a little bit later in Leviticus 17.

being a priest was messy work — involved a lot of animal slaughter and a lot of blood

Blood represented life.

The Israelites did not take this lightly; it was a big deal for them.

I wonder if we in our day have lost sight of this significance.

Violent video games and movies portray blood with special effects, but we know those things are all fake.

Perhaps we have become a bit desensitized to the connection between blood and life.

But for those Israelite priests back in Old Testament days, being a priest was messy work.

It was a job that involved a lot of animal slaughter and a lot of blood.

Perhaps that strikes us today as a bit barbaric and uncivilized.

We don’t walk into church on Sunday expecting to find something that looks like a chainsaw massacre horror movie, but that’s pretty much the scene inside the tabernacle.

connection between the tabernacle as the presence of God among his people and the tabernacle as a place of atonement for sin

There is a connection to be made here between the tabernacle as the presence of God among his people and the tabernacle as a place of atonement for sin.

We cannot understand this part of Hebrews if we do not understand these connections—that the tabernacle is the connection point for the presence of God and the atonement for sin.

Perhaps we have lost sight of that in our day as well.

We think of going to church to worship and in the presence of God in many ways: perhaps we think of it as a privilege we enjoy, perhaps we think of it as an obligation to perform, perhaps we think of it as a necessity for discipleship.

But I doubt many of us think about going to be in the presence of God as a place of atonement for your sin.

We get occasional glimpses of it.

Whenever our worship service liturgy includes confession of sin and assurance of grace, it is a reminder that atonement has been made for our sin.

Whenever we celebrate the sacrament of communion, it is a reminder that Christ shed his blood for the atonement of our sin.

Old Testament: making atonement for sin was the center of faith

New Testament: Jesus makes eternal atonement for sin

result: Jesus has become the center of our faith

Let’s put some of these thoughts together in a way that gives us a helpful application.

It seems obvious that the author of Hebrews is again telling us the way that Jesus is the complete fulfilment of the first covenant in the Old Testament, and has established a new covenant in which Jesus has become the center of our faith.

Jesus himself became the tabernacle, the representation of God’s presence

In the Old Testament, the tabernacle was a place.

In the wilderness, it was represented by a tent in the center of the Israelite camp.

In Canaan, it was represented by the temple in the highest point of Jerusalem.

Hebrews 9 tells us that Jesus went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle.

Jesus himself became the tabernacle.

The tent and the temple were built by human hands as representations of God’s presence among his people.

Jesus came as the actual representation of God’s presence among his people.

Jesus himself became our mediator who provides atonement for sin on our behalf

In the Old Testament, the high priest was the one who would make atonement for the sins of the people on their behalf.

Hebrews 9 tells us that Jesus himself became our mediator who provides atonement for sin on our behalf.

The Levite Jewish priests would have to continually purify and atone for themselves before they could atone for the people.

Atonement through Jesus comes as unblemished, already perfectly pure and righteous in every way.

Jesus himself gave his own blood once for eternal redemption from sin

And in the Old Testament, blood represented the sacrifice that was necessary for atonement to be made.

The Levite priests would use the blood of animals when the high priest would annually enter the Most Holy Place with the blood.

Hebrews 9 tells us that Jesus gave his own blood once for eternal redemption from sin.

It is an atonement for sin that has lasting effect.

Jesus himself became the tabernacle, Jesus himself became the high priest, Jesus himself became the atonement for sin by his own blood.

the cross where the presence of God signified by the Most Holy Place, the high priest who intercedes on behalf of the people, and the blood of atonement all come together

All of this came together in one place: the cross.

It is at the cross where the presence of God signified by the Most Holy Place, the high priest who intercedes on behalf of the people, and the blood of atonement all come together.

The cross of Jesus is the very center of our faith as people of God.

This passage from Hebrews 9 if filled with all the things that Jesus has done and accomplished.

The old covenant arrangement from the Old Testament was filled with activity that the people needed to do and that the priests would have to continually accomplish.

But because of the cross of Jesus, that atonement for our sin is complete.

I suppose that left those first generations of Jewish Christians with a bit of a question.

If coming before God in worship was no longer about having to make continual atonement for sin, then what is supposed to happen now when we come before God in worship?

Hebrews 9 tells us about all that Christ has done.