Sacrificially Thankful (3)
Notes
Transcript
Doxology:
This is my Bible. It is God’s Holy Word. It is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path, and I will hide its words within my heart, that I might not sin against God. Amen!
Scriptural Reference: Hebrews 13:8-16
Context
Context
Over the past couple of weeks, God has been leading me to this text. I love the time of Thanksgiving. It just seems to put everyone in a better perspective. It is a time we are to reflect on how good God is.
And to be quiet honest with you, I think that Black Friday is a work of Satan. I really believe that. I honestly don’t know where it came from, when it started, or anything else, but I do know this. Our forefathers set aside a time for us to look up towards the heavens and be thankful for what we have, and Black Friday has become a time where we look at everything we want and don’t have and how cheap it will be to go get it. A time that should be spent in fellowship with family and loved ones is now spent at a store fighting with other people over trivial things that won’t make a hill of beans in terms of eternity.
You may think differently on it, but I can’t help but to think that it is nothing more than a ruse of Satan to shift our focus off of where it should be and place it elsewhere. I do not mean to offend anyone, but I have to call it as I see it, and that is the way I see it.
With that being said, Thanksgiving comes and goes to quickly. We set aside a week or two to be extra thankful for God’s blessings in our lives, but then too quickly we lose focus on that.
It is great to be thankful, but how do we show that thankfulness? True thankfulness will spring forth into action. True thankfulness will respond in some manner to let the other know how thankful they are.
I want to speak to you today on being “Sacrificially Thankful”.
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
9 Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them.
10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.
11 For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp.
12 Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate.
13 Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.
14 For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.
15 Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
16 But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
Content
Content
His Perfect Consistency
His Perfect Consistency
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Is there anyone here who can relate to this verse in a personal way? I mean, we live in a world that is constantly changing.
The fads of today are gone tomorrow.
Emotions are great one day and horrible the next.
Relationships come and go.
Wants, desires, and dreams are ever-changing.
Truth is relative to most people and nothing is absolute anymore.
Churches are on every corner of every street, but all of them are teaching something different.
and the list could go on and on.
Can anyone relate to what I am saying?
It seems as if there is plenty of movement in our culture today, but not a lot of progress.
It seems as if everyone is standing on something, but no one is standing strong.
It seems as if everyone has an opinion, but no one’s opinion really matters.
I don’t know about you, but I am thankful that I have a God that never changes. He is the same today, as He was yesterday, and as He will be tomorrow. He is a consistent God. Not only is He consistent, He is perfectly consistent in all things. He never changes.
What a blessing! In a world that is constantly changing and unsure of anything, we have a God that never changes and is sure of everything. Amen!
His Mercy is Consistent
5 For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.
His Truth is Consistent (Also Psalm 100:5)
25 But the word of the Lord endures forever.” Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.
6 Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people—
His Righteousness is Consistent
142 Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, And Your law is truth.
His Love is Consistent
3 The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.
His Power is Consistent
16 who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.
His Reign is Consistent
13 And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: “Blessing and honor and glory and power Be to Him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, forever and ever!”
Our God is perfectly consistent in all things.
His Propitiating Contribution
His Propitiating Contribution
12 Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate.
This word sanctify carries with it various meanings, and I think more than one applies here in this verse.
22 And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.
When we apply this biblical truth to this verse, we now understand what is meant by the word sanctify in the text. It speaks of a purification or cleansing from sin. It speaks of not just a cleansing, but a necessary cleansing that brings us into fellowship with Almighty God. But notice how it brings us there, through the blood. Who’s blood? Jesus’ blood. Jesus Christ gave His life on the cross at Calvary that it might cleanse the sin of all of those who might believe on Him. What a contribution!!! Not just a simple contribution or a standard contribution, but the ultimate contribution that has propitiating qualities.
What do we mean by propitiation?
17 Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
Propitiation speaks of the substitutionary sacrifice that Christ made for us. It speaks of how He gave His life in our place. He substituted Himself for us. The word literally means to appease, or to satisfy. It means that the offering Jesus made, His precious life’s blood that was free from the stain of sin, appeased or satisfied the wrath of God against the sin of all those who would believe and trust in Him.
2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
Jesus made the ultimate contribution to mankind. He took the punishment against our sin upon Himself. He hung in our place. He died in our place.
Everything that Satan thought he would accomplish in killing Jesus actually had the opposite affect.
It was an act of war, but it brought about peace.
It was an act of hate, but it showcased the love of God.
His death was gruesome, but it magnified God’s grace.
His death was unjustified, but it brought about justification.
His death was inglorious, but it showcased the glory of God.
Praise God for what He has done for us!
His Persistent Cultivation
His Persistent Cultivation
12 Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate.
As we continue to examine the meaning of sanctify in this passage, we find that it carries with it a meaning that is broader than that of just cleansing. It goes beyond a one-time event. It goes beyond a single moment.
It speaks of a cleansing that brings one into purpose. It is not just so that one can be cleansed of their sin, but also that one can, form that moment forward, live an exchanged life through the presence of God in our hearts.
9 Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them.
Notice here in verse 9, that it says the heart is to be established by grace. This means that we not only trade in our sin for salvation, but it moves forward from salvation into sanctification.
This means that this word sanctify is not just a one time act, but a continuous act. It is not just a one time forgiveness of sin, but a continual cleansing that takes place as we lean into Christ.
10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.
This verse says we have an altar through Christ that we are to eat from. This altar is not filled with physical food, but spiritual. We are to spiritually feast on the goodness of Christ for the rest of our lives, and as we do so, we are forever changed by what we take in.
But notice what must happen in order for this to take place:
11 For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp.
There were two types of sacrifices in the OT that were offered up on the altar. There were those that were a sweet smelling savor unto God, and then there were sin sacrifices. Those that were offered up unto God as a sweet smelling savor were to be used by the priests for food, but those that were offered up as sin sacrifices were to be discarded of. The bodies of those animals were to be discarded and burned outside the camp in a place that was deemed as unholy.
12 Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate.
Notice what this verse says. It says that Jesus “suffered outside the gate”. Jesus came unto His own but His own did not receive Him. The implication here made by the author of Hebrews is that Jesus was a sin sacrifice. His body suffered outside the camp. He was taken to the “unholy” place to be discarded of.
But notice what the first part of the verse says, “that He might sanctify the people with His own blood”. This means that Christ went to the “unholy” as the most Holy of all. He went there to cleanse those who had been discarded by the religious system so that they might be redeemed.
This is one of the greatest pictures of God’s grace in all of Scripture. The Jews trusted in the commandments and ordinances of the law to save them. Jesus tried to show them a better way, but they chose to stick with law and refused grace. This symbolism shows us that Jesus renounced this system by suffering outside the gate.
The temple, the altar, and the entire sacrificial system was inside the gate, inside Jerusalem. By Jesus suffering outside the gate, it shows us that Jesus came to those outside of the law, the Gentiles, and made a new way to reach glory. It was through the grace of God. He came to where we were, did what we could not do, achieved what we could not achieve, took the reproach as if he were one of us, and then died in our place. He died in the place of the “unholies”.
13 Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.
Now here is where we come in. This verse tells us that we are to “go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.”
Jesus was willing to go against the grain. He was willing to be different. He was willing to stand in opposition against those things that stood in opposition to God. He put God first, even if that meant that He would be considered an outcast.
Now I know we are not living in the 1st century anymore. There is no temple with an altar where sacrifices are being made today. But this text still has application to us here and now. There are a lot of things being done today in the name of Jesus that have nothing whatsoever to do with Jesus.
Out culture is doing a whole lot of bad in the name of something good. We, as children of God, are not to participate in these things. We are called, first and foremost, to be obedient to the God of heaven. We are to stand against these hypocritical, cultural ideologies and proclaim the truths of God’s word. If this causes us to be an outcast, then it simply puts us right where they put Jesus, and that is OK. Matter of fact, that is exactly where this text tells us we are to be. We are to go to Jesus, outside of the camp, and bear the reproach that He also bore.
Our allegiance is to Christ above all else.
14 For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.
He is saying that this world is not our home. We have no place in this world where we are going to fit in as Christians. Do you realize that? He plainly says that our hope is not in this life, but in the one to come. Our hope is in glory, where Christ dwells.
We have so much to be thankful for in Christ.
He also goes on in the next two verses and provides two examples in this text of what this looks like:
15 Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
We are to give God praise.....no matter what.
16 But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
We are to do good and share. We are to abide in Christ so that He might cultivate a right spirit within us. We are to love others and share in God’s goodness.
These things please God.
Yes, we are to say how thankful we are for what Christ has done and is doing, but we are also to show how thankful we are by how we live for Him.
Let us be sacrificially thankfully!
Commitment
Commitment
