Heb 9:23-28 Come It's Time!
Notes
Transcript
23 Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
24 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own,
26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,
28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
If I would take each of you to our home every evening for dinner time, you would find that it often is a chaotic time. Kids are hungry and impatient, we are hungry and tired from the day with not a lot of patience. Kids are often impatient and when they want something like dinner, they want it now or better 5 minutes ago. Our little girl will be looking at the raw meat in the pan and upset that we are not feeding that to her right away. As they are waiting they start playing, 20 minutes later when everything is ready, and food is on the table we are ready to eat. We call our children and often one of them is so engaged in playing that he will not want to stop playing, he will often say “Just a minute let me finish this”
In the text we are going to study today we will see that there are two callings. While these callings are not to a dinner table, our responses are still important. God is calling us to come to His presence as filthy and unclean as we are, and God is calling us to be eagerly waiting for Jesus' second coming.
23 Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
When the author says “thus” he is making a reference to previous verses 18-22, when the author turned to the Old Covenant. The previous verses had told us that the Old Covenant was also inaugurated by blood, or by death. Everything, the Tabernacle and everything in it and all the people had to be covered by the blood of the covenant.
This description should have caused the first readers to recognize that the earthly replica, the Tabernacle, was inferior because it was built by man and had to be purified by an imperfect and insufficient blood of animals and that all the blood in the Old Covenant was pointing forward to the perfect blood of the lamb of God, Jesus.
The verses we are studying today start by saying “Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites.” Let’s start by asking why was it necessary for the earthly replica to be purified.
It had to be purified because it was built by human hands that are covered in sin. If you build something while your hands are filthy with grease and black ink, whatever you built is going to have marks and stains from your hands all over. In the same sense, the Old Covenant Tabernacle and all utensils were built by human hands, so they needed purification, it needed to be made clean.
If we consider this necessity for purification for the Old Covenant, we will be distressed as we try to understand the rest of v 23 because after saying that the earthly replica had to be purified, then it says “but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these” had to be purified.
When you first read v23 it seems to say that heaven needed to be purified. And if you study this in more depth, you will discover that is exactly what this verse is saying. This verse states that the heavenly Tabernacle had to be purified with Jesus' blood. When I first read it, I was troubled, the question we should be asking is why would heaven need purification? why is it necessary? heaven is perfect and unstained by sin. We can understand why the earthly replica needed purification, but the heavenly one was not made by human hands, it was created by the perfect and holy God, thus the defilement cannot and is not from the creator.
There is a hint in the next verse to understand the reasoning for this purification. Before we get there, let me attempt to explain it through an illustration.
Remember “long ago” when you were just a kid. Likely you loved to play and just have fun outside. Back then, you didn’t have pain. You could play hard for hours outside in the mud and in the dirt, but then you would go to your house and eat and sleep and be ready for the next day.
Let’s imagine that you are back in that time, and you are outside having a blast during the summer. Even better, it had just rained so there are mud puddles everywhere. You are playing with your dog in the mud, and you find it very refreshing to cover yourself with mud as it keeps you cool from the sun. Pretty soon you start throwing mud at your friends and a joyous “mud fight” ensues.
After hours of playing outside, you realize you are getting hungry. So, you want to go inside. However, while you were outside your parents were spending the whole day cleaning the house, not just cleaning, but deep spring cleaning which included some professional cleaning. There was a company that came to clean the carpets. Your parents moved all the furniture to clean. As a result, everything is as perfect as one germophobe or OCD person might relish.
You are ready to go in this “perfectly” clean house, but you are covered, from head to toe in filthy, thick, slimy, sticky, dripping mud. You are so dirty that the grass has muddy footprints from where you walked.
What will happen to the “perfectly” clean house if you go in? It will be ruined; your parents are NOT going to shout, “Come quickly my son/daughter into the house”. Rather, they will very firmly say “don’t you dare to come in you dirty little boy or girl.” You must wash outside with the hose before daring to step foot in this house.
In the same manner, the heavenly things had to be purified. Not because they are filthy and imperfect, but because of us. We have to be clean and made new to enter heaven, so heaven will not be stained by our sin. We have a glimpse of the same need for purification even in the Old Covenant purification.
It says in Lev 16:16 “16 Thus he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins. And so he shall do for the tent of meeting, which dwells with them in the midst of their uncleannesses.”
This verse tells us that the earthly replica had to be cleansed not only because of the imperfect builders but because of the uncleanness of the people. In the same manner, the Heavenly Tabernacle had to be purified because of us. There is a hint of that in the text we are studying today in Heb 9:24.
24 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
Here we see again the emphasis that the heavenly Tabernacle was not made with defiled human hands but by God, which Christ has entered as our High Priest. The end of the verse says that Christ entered heaven to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
It is because of our sin that heaven in a sense had to be purified, so it would not be defiled by us. Jesus came, lived the life we could not live, and died in our place. He executed and established the New Covenant. After three days He rose from the dead as the executor of His will. The New Covenant is dependent on the death of Jesus, or we could say all the promises of the New Covenant are dependent on the blood of Jesus.
The new covenant was inaugurated with Jesus’ blood. It is through Jesus' blood that we are purified and completely, perfectly cleansed so we can enter Heaven itself without bringing the stain of sin into paradise.
We are like the little boy covered in mud, but we are covered in sin, everything that we touch gets the stain of sin. Look at our world and how much the original sin affected all of creation. There are some here that might be hearing the devil’s voice of accusation, telling us to look at the stain of our sin, telling us that we are not worthy to come to church, there are some that are likely ashamed to even come here today because of the filthiness of sin.
It is true, we are covered with the stain of sin. We know God’s presence is so far greater than just a clean house, it is perfection to its fullness. The book of Revelation gives us this picture of this perfect city with gold and precious jewels and complete perfection. We know we are not worthy to come. But God is calling us, all of us filthy ones, to come, come into His presence and He will make you clean.
As we come with our unclean hands and hearts to Him, God takes us and plunges us completely in the blood of Jesus, where all, not just a little bit, but all our sin, is completely removed and taken away from us. Then He gives us new perfect clothes, Christ's righteousness to put on, so we can come into His presence and be free from the bondage of sin.
There is a day coming when Christ comes or we die. This is when we will experience complete separation from sin and we will experience physically this cleansing and entrance into God’s eternal house forever. But for now, we wait for it with patience.
Rom 8:18-25 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
This amazing hope we have that we patiently wait is only possible because of Jesus’ sacrifice. There are no works or deeds we can do to earn the precious blood of Jesus, we have to just accept and receive it by faith.
25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own,
26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
We have seen already that all the Old Testament sacrifices were to point to the perfect sacrifice of Jesus. However, Jesus’ sacrifice is unique in its singularity, the plurality of the Old Covenant sacrifices was only pointing to their powerless and the need for the perfect lamb of God.
The author here is arguing that if Jesus had to keep the same pattern of the Old Covenant of repeated sacrifices, He would have to offer himself from the beginning of creation to the end of time. But this thought is absurd, and offensive, and belittles the power of Jesus’ sacrifice.
Jesus’ sacrifice is so powerful that its power is not limited by time. It is applied to those that were alive from the beginning of creation until the last day of this fallen world. We could say that history hangs on one event in history when Jesus was hung on the tree. Those that lived before Christ are saved by faith, even though they had limited knowledge about the Messiah. Those that live at the end of the ages look back in time when the promised Messiah came, lived and died for our sins, and by faith alone, we are saved.
For Jesus “has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” Jesus came, live, and died at the perfect time, at the fullness of time, at the end of the ages to put away sin. There was the age when God created everything, then the age of the old covenant promises and waiting for the end of the age when God’s plan of salvation was coming to fruition. We are living at the end of the ages as we await Christ’s return and the revealing of the sons of God, when we will receive our full adoption as sons and daughters of the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God.
Right now, we live in a time where we don’t see completely the effects and how amazing it is that Jesus put away sin. We live in a time where we still see the effects of sin in our world, there is still death, sickness, disease, pain, and suffering. We know through Jesus' sacrifice He put away sin, however, we don’t fully know. We know in part, we know the forgiveness of our sins, we experience Christ's forgiveness in our hearts, and we have abiding in us God’s Spirit. However, there is a time coming when we will know fully what it means for Jesus to put away sin. It is about this time that the author focuses on next in the last two verses of chapter 9.
27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,
27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
As we read v27 it seems like it does not have anything to do with Christ coming back yet v 28 talks of just this promised event. Here the author is making a comparison, we see this when he uses the words “and just as” followed by “so Christ” at the start of v28. In the manner that it is certain we will face death and Christ died, we can be certain that we will face judgment and that Christ will return.
As a believer, there will be times when doubts come. In the midst of trials and suffering, the devil’s voice will be questioning you, trying to put you in a place of doubt, “Is this all worth it? Look at others and how they are happy and comfortable,” and so many other lies. But in those moments you appeal to your faith, that it is faith that we believe that Christ came and that He is coming back. While this is good, this verse here in Hebrews gives us an even more concrete ground to stand firm and remember the truth that as certain as death, so is certain of Christ’s return. Here we can bolster our need for faith with some concrete truth.
Before we dive into v28 and the amazing truth of Christ's return, let’s study v27. This is a short verse, but it teaches us some realities that depending on how we respond to this will define the reality we will face for eternity. And yes… there will be an eternity. We can be as certain of that as we are of the fact we will face death and that Christ lived and died.
It is appointed for man to die once. It says that we all will die once. That is a powerful word for those that are caught up in the false belief of reincarnation. It is death then judgment, with no second, or third chances. After death, there are no more chances, there is no return or other opportunities to turn to Jesus. In the same manner that death is certain the judgment that follows is as certain as death.
Notice that it doesn’t just say that we all die once, it says it is appointed. That means there is someone making the appointment for our death. We might not like to have to go to a dentist's appointment, but this appointment for death is not something we make, someone else made the appointment for you, and He, God will ensure that we will show up to that appointment.
God is the one who makes the appointment for our death, our days are numbered. Psalm 139:16 (NLT) “You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.”
Before we were even born, every one of our days was written down in God’s book. Furthermore, in another Psalm, Psalm 39, we are shown that wisdom is asking God to remind us how fleeting our days are.
What is the wisdom we gain from knowing our days are short? You will have the right priorities, things that matter eternally will have higher priority than things that are fleeting. This world, this life seems to pressure us all the time to put our focus on things that last only a moment.
Why do we succumb to worrying so much about what others think of us? Why are we so afraid to share Christ, the only hope there is, with those that are dying and heading to judgment?
Why do we knit-pick the little things with those around us? The clothes we are wearing or how well others drive or how well we care for the yard, etc. We are so often so focused on getting our way that we forget the need to put a priority on eternal matters. In those moments we need to ask ourselves if I die today does this problem, or this argument really matter?
This is a constant battle we all face, including me! In fact, I’m learning that in parenting there is so much I could stop fighting for. Most of the time many things that I want my way, toys perfectly put away, the bath being done at a certain time, etc have little to no importance if I have eternity in mind.
In this life, we wait patiently for our salvation to be revealed, for Christ to return and remove once and for all sin from our hearts and flesh, and our world.
28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
After the author brings this idea of the certainty of death and judgment he makes the point that as certain as that is, so it is certain that Christ will appear a second time.
Notice here in this description of Christ's returns, it makes it explicit that Jesus is not going to deal with sin, that was His mission in the first coming, He dealt with sin once for all at the cross.
What is Jesus’ mission in His second coming? It is to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. We might say wait a minute I thought I was already saved. In Scripture, there are 3 senses of the word salvation. We were saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved. When we first come to Christ we were saved, as we continue in our walk following Jesus and becoming more and more like Him we are being saved from our everyday struggle with sin. When Jesus returns we will be saved fully from sin. Sin will be completely and permanently removed from our hearts and we will receive bodies that are perfect and imperishable. Can you even imagine…a body that can NOT sin.. and it is yours…mine! Wow!
When Christ comes He is going to come for His bride, for us. Are you eagerly waiting for Him? And His calling… or when Jesus calls, are you loving this life and this world so much that if you could, you would say instead: “Jesus, not right right now, just wait a little bit, let me finish this task, let me enjoy this toy, this hobby, just a little bit more.”
What if Christ would return just a few moments before you would be enjoying something that you have longed for a long time, like holding your baby for the first time, what if Christ would return the night before your wedding day, before you could have intimacy with the person you love and cherish so deeply.
1 Cor 7: 29-31 “What I am saying, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; those who weep, as if they did not; those who are joyful, as if they were not; those who make a purchase, as if they had nothing; and those who use the things of this world, as if not dependent on them. For this world in its present form is passing away.”
The time is short, each day we are one day closer to Christ's return. Let us not get distracted by this world that when He calls us we are not ready. Are you ready?
When He comes today or tomorrow. Are you living in expectation of Christ’s return? Are you going to be ready when He calls? Or are you going to say “Just a minute let me finish this”