Hebrews 9

Introduction

My first real job out of college, I worked for a company in Denver, Western states reclamation

we did a a lot of things, we went in after construction companies and oil and gaas companies and we restored the area they were working in.

when you drive down the road, after a highway gets paved, and you look along the side of the road, someone goes in and re plants all the grass, and puts the dirt back where it goes.

someone goes in and makes sure the water drains properly

we did that

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Or we would go in after a big flood, when the river floods and all the habitat arouund the river got washed away, we would re plant the trees, move boulders around, and put the river bank back to the way It was..

we did commercial projects, if they wanted to build a park, we would do the landscaping, and the irrigation.

my boss used to say, at the end of the day we do whatever it takes to make the grass grow.

after a few years there, i got promoted to foreman.

and I got the pleasure of working with a lot of migrant workers from Mexico.

these guys all went through t the work visa process, they went through the legal Channels.

and a lot of these guys had been in this line of work for over a decade.

I the foreman position because I went to college, I had a degree in ecology, I knew what the text books said about how natural habitats grow, and the life cycles of different plants

i knew how to do the math behind how much grass seed you needed per acre in order to get a certain yield.

but most importanty, i knew how to read plans….blueprints…

Now I’m not sure if you know anything about hubris.

But there is nobody who has more hubris than a 24 year old college graduate who is made foreman, and knows how to read a set of blueprints.

A college graduate with a set of blueprints thinks he knows more about things than the 45 year old from mexico who has been doing this kind of work since he was 14 years old.

I had this one guy, his name was Jesus, but everyone called him chewy. and I’m pretty sure he only knew two English words. No, and good.

We would get on the jobsite, and I would look over the plans, and I would explain to the guys what they needed to do, and how they needed to do it.

And chewy would inevitably look at me and say “no good” and “ok boss”

I’m like what do you mean “no good” ? I’m the foreman, I went to college, the plans say this, you need to do the job this way.

And I would insist, because I know how to read the plans.

And he would go “ok boss”

and he would do it the way I told him, and after about 4 or 5 hours, guess, what.

Chewy was right.

I’d have to stop what the crew was doing, and be like, oh no, we need to do this over, it didn’t work.

and chewy would just shake his head. No good boss.

Here’s the thing. I understood the plans. I understood what was written on paper......

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Transition

Last week we looked at Hebrews Chapter 8, and this idea that we are covenant people.

We looked at the covenants that God made with his people throughout history, and showed how all of these covenants ultimately point to the new covenant in Christ

and I want to back up and pick up on a point that we didn’t have time to go into detail about

In chapter 8:5, Hebrews is explaining the old covenant system, and the priestly system. And he says

Hebrews 8:5 NET 2nd ed.

The place where they serve is a sketch and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary, just as Moses was warned by God as he was about to complete the tabernacle. For he says, “See that you make everything according to the design shown to you on the mountain.”

Roadmap

The purpose of the old covenant was to serve as a blueprint. Not for us to focus on the details. Not to focus on this animal or that animal, or this festival or that festival

But to peel back the layers and get to the intentions of the architect. To understand what exactly it was that God was getting at. What was the “why” behind all of it.

As we look at Hebrews chapter 9, we’re going to see the design of the old covenant system, and see how God desires to be close to his people. We’re going to see that God desires to make atonement for The sins of his people. And we’re going to see that God desires us to approach him with a clean conscience.

Point

Explanation

Hebrews 9:1–5 NET 2nd ed.

Now the first covenant, in fact, had regulations for worship and its earthly sanctuary. For a tent was prepared, the outer one, which contained the lampstand, the table, and the presentation of the loaves; this is called the Holy place. And after the second curtain there was a tent called the holy of holies. It contained the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered entirely with gold. In this ark were the golden urn containing the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant. And above the ark were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Now is not the time to speak of these things in detail.

POINT

For the people of israel, when they were brought out of Egypt, this was for many of them, the first time in their entire lives that they had ever been close with God

We see God’s intention with this tabernacle system, his desire is to be close to his people.

This tabernacle system, this sketch of what true worship should look like shows us Gods desire to be at the center of our lives

inside the Hebrew camp, and then later on when the temple was built in the city of Jerusalem, the place of worship was the center of everything

The way the camps were set up, the way the army’s were arranged, everything revolved around the tabernacele at the center

And inside the main fence was a tent

and inside that tent was another place

there were these concentric circles of closeness to God

It’s meant to paint the picture for us that there is such a thing as close to God and far from God

And the intention, is for us, the worshipper, to always want to place God at the center of Our lives in worship

It says there were regulations for worship

God is at the center, yes.

As you go closer in toward God, you have the loaves, and the holy place

As you get into the closest place, I think it’s no mistake that God’s word, the stone tablets was at the central most point.

The picture God is painting with this setup is that we Come to God on his terms.

That might be a hard pill to swallow

Because we want to approach God on our terms. And the tabernacle sketch says, no. you don’t set the terms of the agreement

Because God wants our hearts to be oriented toward him

Argumentation

to the modern reader this sounds strange. why would God do that. Why would God set up such a convoluted system. Wouldn’t it be better if we could just have access to God 24 hours a day, seven days a week? And if you're wondering that, good.

Because that is exactly the point that the author of Hebrews is trying to make.

The old system was good for its time, but when Christ came, there was no need for the old system.

And yet, the problem that was going on in the early church was that these New believers in the messiah kept going back to the old system.

They were like, Jesus is great, but also, I need to go to the temple to give up my sacrifices

Jesus is the messiah, but also, I need to follow the teachings of the pharisees and Sadducee.

They were having a hard time letting God of the old ways.

Part of me gets it. Part of me understands how hard that must have been.

For a people group to have been doing something a certain way for over 1500 years.

Illustration

But the moment we start doing things because “that’s the way it always worked in the past” without thinking critically, that’s the moment we get into trouble.

Einstein said insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results

In this case, I think we might modify that to say “doing the same thing over and over again, even when that thing stops being effective”

You see this a lot with addicts.

The way addictions work, the thing that gets people hooked, is t he fact that that first high is always the best high

And then they keep chasing after that first time.

And they end up always looking back. Chasing after that high, even though they never get there

And they can’t open their eyes to see that the way forward, the way to that happiness is not by doing the same thing again and again and again.

Application

But isn’t that the way we can be sometimes?

We get caught up in sin, we get caught up in our own desires

We get caught up in wanting to approach God on our own terms instead of his terms

We get caught up in relying on our own understanding

And it stands between us and closeness with God.

And that looks differently for everyone.

Transition

For us, that thing that is standing in between us and closeness with God might be leaning on our own understanding. Failing to put God at the center of our lives

For the early Church, the thing that was standing between them and closeness with God was their inability to let go of the old sacrificial system

For the Jewish people at the tabernacle, the main thing that stood between them and closeness with God was their sin.

Which brings me to my second point, God desires to make atonement for his people

Point

God’s desire is to make atonement for his people

Explanation

Hebrews 9:6–7 NET 2nd ed.

So with these things prepared like this, the priests enter continually into the outer tent as they perform their duties. But only the high priest enters once a year into the inner tent, and not without blood that he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance.

In order for this closeness to happen at the tabernacle, God set up the mechanisms for his people. The sacrificial system.

and a lot of times I think we think of the sacrificial system as only for forgiveness of sins.

But it was a lot more than that.

You made sacrifices to God in order to commemorate holidays

you made sacrifices to God in order to confirm covenants

you made sacrifices as a form of worship

There were peace offering sacrifices

therre were sacrifices made especially for the priests

there were sacrifices for the birth of a child

And the idea was not that you were appeasing God. Or that you were bribing God. That’s the way the pagan nations thought of sacrifices

The jewish people viewed these sacrifices as a form of worship. An act of Giving God your best.

And yes, some of those were sin offerings.

But God knew, and the people knew that there was no way you could sacrifice enough to cover every single sin. It just isn’t possible.

What do you do about the sins you didn’t even know you committed? What about the sins that were committed by people who didn’t get caught?

That stain of sin infects the worship place.

So once a year they celebrated the day of atonement

it was a place where once a year, the priests would enter into the holy of holies, and offer a sacrifice to cleanse the sins of the entire camp. A fresh start

They would make atonement.

And I think it would help for us to understand this idea of atonement. The simple version of atonement is “forgiveness” of sins.

But the Hebrew word Atonement has a very rich meaning

It has the sense of Covering. When Noah built the Ark God told Noah to “atone” the ark with pitch. To waterproof it. To cover the ark with something to make it seaworthy

It carries the sense of payment. If you owe a debt, or if you’ve wronged someone financially, you made atonement, you paid for it. You made it right

It’s even used sometimes in a negative sense, like “paying a bribe”

It’s used in a positive sense. Paying a ransom. Paying money to free someone from slavery.

it carries the sense of purifying something.

If something was made unclean, the priests would “atone” it. They would cleanse it.

Illustration

Lindsay is taking a theology class at Grand Canyon University

And this week they are talking about the different theories of atonement

When Christ was on the Cross, what exactly was it that made it so that our sins were gone?

We all understand the phrase “Jesus died for my sins” he made “atonement” for our sins…but how…

And you’ve probably heard some version of these

There’s the idea that we were held in slavery by our sin. like the people of egypt

And Jesus gave his life as a ransom. Jesus gave his life in order to make payment for us, and free us from slavery

Or there’s the courtroom example. The idea that we were under punishment, we were guilty of sin.

And Jesus on the cross pays the punishment we were supposed to receive.

He satisfies God’s justice, and takes the punishment. The wages of sin is death.

Or maybe you’ve heard the one that says Christ on the cross almost “switches places with us.” His blood covers us. So that when God looks down on us they don’t see us, but they see Jesus, who was perfect.

And the question for her class was, well which one is it?

And I think the answer is…yes. They all are different ways of understanding Christ’s atonement. They all have this scriptural basis

And part of it comes from the fact that the word “Atone” carries such a rich meaning.

And it was the same way with the sacrificial system in Israel

Application

Our sin is atoned for in Christ

It’s paid for, it’s been covered, we have been ransomed, we have been substituted by Christ

It’s been taken care of once and for all

The Israelites were constantly in a state of needing atonement

And because of that, only the priests were able to be in the closest place—not because they were any better, but because they had a job to do

they had to do extra atonement sacrifices for themselves, just so they could get into the inner place to do their ministry

But in Christ we are all cleansed

We all have opportunity to be in that closest place with God

And I think much like the priests of Israel, because we have that closeness, we should take advantage of that opportunity to do service. To do ministry and service for God’s kingdom.

Argumentation

On the day of atonement, the priests would cover the tabernacle with blood…the source of life

it acted as a spiritual disinfectant. to remove all of the death and sin, and cover it, and cleanse it with life, represented by the blood of the animals

And they would take two goats. One was the sacrifice. It was the payment made for price of sin. It was the one who’s blood was used to make purification

And then the priest would “place” all the sins of the people on the second goat, and set it loose outside the camp

The scapegoat. Almost as a subsitution. We’re going to place our sins on this animal, now they’re no long er with us, and god can look down on us and see that we’re clean

And again I think we have to ask the question, why would God make such a convoluted system.

Why can’t God just forgive sins, why do we have to do this, every single year?

And again, I would tell you, that’s exactly the point that hebrews is trying to make. The temporary system, the sketch of God’s fuller intentions was always meant to point to Christ to pave the way for him .

And the author of hebrews is trying to tell the audience. Stop it. Stop going to the temple to make sacrifices. Stop trying to rely on the priests.

They were a bandaid.

They only treated the superficial aspects of sin temporarily.

Transition

What they can’t do is cleanse your heart. What they can’t do is cleanse your conscience.

God desires to be close to his people. God desires to make atonement for his people

And God desires to cleanse the conscience of his people

Point

God’s desire is to cleanse the conscience of his people

Explanation

Hebrews 9:8–10 NET 2nd ed.

The Holy Spirit is making clear that the way into the Holy Place had not yet appeared as long as the old tabernacle was standing. This was a symbol for the time then present, when gifts and sacrifices were offered that could not perfect the conscience of the worshiper. They served only for matters of food and drink and various ritual washings; they are external regulations imposed until the new order came.

Illustration

During my training over the summer, one of the coolest things we got to do was combat medical training

The army has a systematic way of treating battlefield casualties

Step one is called care under fire

this is where someone has been shot, they’re in a dangerous area

and the shooting has been suppressed long enough for you to get to the person, and get them to safety

During this phase the only medical care you can do is what’s called a hasty tourniquet.

You have just enough time to check for bleeding on the extremities and apply a tourniquet, and get them the heck out of there.

And for sure this can save a life. But it’s not comprehensive medical care. It’s a “hasty” tourniquet

As soon as they’re out of a dangerous area, the expectation is that you would give them a more thoorough examination.

You stopped the bleeding in the leg, but now you need to deal with the bullet wound in the chest.

Now you need to deal with the airways, now you need to deal with whehter or not they’re going into shock.

And when that’s all done, if possible you need to get them to the medics who can do field care.

And the medics can get them evacuated to advanced care.

the sacrificial system is a hasty tourniqet.

It stopped the bleeding just long enough. But it didn’t get to the root of the issue

It made a superficial cleansing for sin, but it didn’t deal with the sin problem .

Argumentation

Hebrews 9:11–14 NET 2nd ed.

But now Christ has come as the high priest of the good things to come. He passed through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, and he entered once for all into the Most Holy Place not by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood, and so he himself secured eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow sprinkled on those who are defiled consecrated them and provided ritual purity, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our consciences from dead works to worship the living God.

the new covenant is eternal

the temporary system made cleansing for the earthly tabernacle. The earthly problem. The superficiial problem

Hebrews 9:22 NET 2nd ed.

Indeed according to the law almost everything was purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

Hebrews 9:23 NET 2nd ed.

So it was necessary for the sketches of the things in heaven to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves required better sacrifices than these.

If the sacrificial system is a hasty tourniquet, the blood of Christ is water reed medical center

Hebrews 9:24–26 NET 2nd ed.

For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with hands—the representation of the true sanctuary—but into heaven itself, and he appears now in God’s presence for us. And he did not enter to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the sanctuary year after year with blood that is not his own, for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the consummation of the ages to put away sin by his sacrifice.

Application

Notice how Christ is described as both the sacrifice, that makes payment for sin

and also the priests who enters into the tabernacle to mediate for the people

I think that’s an important think to take note of when we think of our relationship with God

because the idea is that Jesus is continually in the holy of holies. Not the earthly version in the tabernacle, but truer, more real holy of holies, at the right hand of the father in heaven

And unlike the priests who were unpure, who had to go in and come out year after year to mediate for the people

Jesus is continually mediating between you and God

Our atonement is not an event. It’s an ongoing process.

1 John 1:7 NET 2nd ed.

But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

It doesn’t say the blood of Jesus “cleansed” us from sin.

It says it cleanses us.

As long as we are walking in the light, as long as we are in relationship with Christ, his blood is continually cleansing us

christ is our high priest in the tabernacle, continually making atonement for us.

That’s freeing

Because now all of a sudden, when we realized we are being cleansed, we are being mediated for right now,

it frees us to do the work of the gospel

I don’t need to spend my time worrying about whether or not my sins are forgiven, whether or not I’m in right standing with God

I can stop focusing in, and stop worrying about my standing with God, and I can focus that energy out

I can focus on my brothers and sisters, and how I can be a blessing to them

I can focus on showing other people the good news of Christ

I can focus on worshipping God with a clean conscience.

Conclusion

God wants to be close to you. He wants to make atonement for you. He wants to cleanse your conscience.

Those are his intentions, those are the intentions of the architect.

I think far too often we can get caught up in trying to understand the details of the old testament and the sacrificial system.

Because it all seems weird to us. It’s so far removed from us culturally, and historically, that it just get’s almost impossible for us to wrap our minds around.

But as soon as we realize that the old covenant, the old system was God working in that time and sketching out, drawing up blueprints of what his intentions are for his creation, it helps the entire thing come into play.

I want to read our last two verses

Hebrews 9:27–28 NET 2nd ed.

And just as people are appointed to die once, and then to face judgment, so also, after Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many, to those who eagerly await him he will appear a second time, not to bear sin but to bring salvation.

Isn’t that great news? WE can have hope in knowing that our Lord, who wants to be close to us, and atone for us, and cleanse our conscience, will one day come back, and bring final salvation to the world. Amen?

Let’s pray.