He Will Return

Hebrews 9:23-28

Therefore, it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves to be purified with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with hands (only a model of the true one) but into heaven itself, so that he might now appear in the presence of God for us. He did not do this to offer himself many times, as the high priest enters the sanctuary yearly with the blood of another. Otherwise, he would have had to suffer many times since the foundation of the world. But now he has appeared one time, at the end of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for people to die once—and after this, judgment— so also Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

This is the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

He is risen. He is risen indeed.

Last week we saw the author of Hebrews describe the ceremony where Moses initiated God’s covenant with his people. He took hyssop and used it to sprinkle blood on the scroll of the law and on the people. We saw how this sprinkling of blood was meant to purify the people and the articles of worship, making them clean in the Lord’s sight. And in the last verse of our passage last week we saw that without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness. The act of sin against a holy God requires the death of the sinner.

On Friday, Good Friday, we recognized the death of Jesus, how he paid the price for our sins, so that we could be made right with God. And today, we celebrate the day Jesus rose from the dead, showing that God accepted his sacrifice. The resurrection is the most important part of our faith, because without it, our faith is worthless.

Big Idea: The resurrection is the most important event in history.

Hebrews 9:23-24

Therefore, it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves to be purified with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with hands (only a model of the true one) but into heaven itself, so that he might now appear in the presence of God for us.

In the previous verses, the author describes the way the first Covenant was initiated through the sprinkling of blood. The blood was not only sprinkled on the scroll of the law but also on the people, the tabernacle, and the articles of worship. Blood was a symbol of the seriousness of the covenants being made. The law required blood to cleanse people and objects, making them right before God so they were now acceptable in God's sight. These Earthly objects were only copies of the ones in heaven.

This is what was so significant about Christ’s death on the cross. The Old Testament required a yearly sacrifice for the sins of the people. Death was required as the payment for sin against a holy God. Even the littlest sin is “Cosmic Treason” against the creator of the universe and deserves death.

I heard a great illustration about this a few days ago. If I go into a junk yard and scrape my key against the side of a rust covered Mazda…

…there is no punishment for that. Its a few hundred dollars worth of scrap metal, maybe.

If I go to a used car lot and scrape my keys against one of those cars, like a used Honda Civic…

…I have just become a criminal for damaging private property. However, being a used car lot, the punishment probably won’t be all that severe.

Now, if I go to an exotic car lot, and purposefully scratch my keys into the side of a Lamborghini Veneno (Photo credit: By Clément Bucco-Lechat - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25013558)…

…the punishment will be much more severe. Why? Why would it matter that I scratched a $4 million car, compared to a $4,000 car, compared to a few hundred dollars in scrap metal? Thare are all just cars.

Because the value of the car I scratch, or the person I sin against, matters. In damaging the Lamborghini, I am causing damage to something much more valuable than a used Honda Civic or a rusty Mazda.

The same is true of God. He is infinitely more valuable and more holy than you and I, or any item on this earth. So even a little white lie, deserves severe punishment. If we try to excuse our sin by saying, “It was only a little fib,” we are diminishing how holy and valuable the King of the universe is.

Now, that Lambo has no value compared to God. The things of this earth will be done away with when God brings the new heaven and the new earth. Similarly, the tabernacle and the artifacts of worship that were part of the Old Testament law, were made with human hands, as our passage says.

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Eight: The Superior Sanctuary (Hebrews 9)

Beware of trusting anything for your spiritual life that is “made with hands” (

Warren Wiersbe

Jesus did not enter the earthly temple because it was only a copy of the one in heaven. He entered into the heavenly temple, the throne room of God the Father. Christ did not enter the Earthly holy of holies, but entered into heaven as our Eternal high priest. there he intercedes for us.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 7

Hebrews 7:25

Our passage says that Christ's sacrifice purified the Heavenly temple. It may seem like that is a contradiction, that heaven could not need purification. What the author of Hebrews is referring to here is that Christians can now enter into the holy of holies of heaven. The high priest could only enter the holy of holies on earth once a year. But when Christ died, the curtain in the earthly temple was torn in two from top to bottom. It was torn in half by God to show that humanity was no longer excluded from entering into the presence of God.

Even in a spiritual sense, we could not do so before the sacrifice of Jesus. Again, the Old Testament sacrifices would go through the priests. But now, we have access to God because of the work of Christ.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 4

Hebrews 4:16

Hebrews 9:25-26

He did not do this to offer himself many times, as the high priest enters the sanctuary yearly with the blood of another. Otherwise, he would have had to suffer many times since the foundation of the world. But now he has appeared one time, at the end of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of himself.

The Earthly sacrifices of the Old Testament were a constantly repeated practice. Though the high priest only went into the holy of holies once a year on the Day of Atonement, the law still required that this be done every year. If we take the later date that many scholars believe that Israel left Egypt, with God instituting the sacrificial system shortly after the exodus, the Day of Atonement sacrifices would have been performed between 1100 and 1200 times. This takes into account the years of exile where Israel could not offer sacrifices in the temple, as well as the years that the nations of Israel and Judah were rebelling against the law of God and serving idols instead of God.

Even if I am over estimating the amount of times Israel and Judah properly observed the Day of Atonement, that is still a lot of sacrifices. This is because the first covenant was inferior to the new covenant we have in Christ. When I say inferior, I am not saying that there was anything wrong with the law that God established through Moses on Mt Sinai. But it was never meant to be the “final solution.” As we have seen many times in Hebrews, the sacrificial system, the tabernacle, and the articles for worship were only a copy, a shadow, a parable, of what would eventually come through Jesus.

When you make a xerox copy of a document, especially if you do it from a book, how many of you can tell that it is a copy and not the original? It is usually just a little crooked. It may have some shadowing on it because the book wasn’t pressed completely flat against the glass. It is not as clear as the original. This is how we have to view the Old Testament sacrificial system. It’s not as clear because it is not the permanent, final picture.

Jesus only needed to appear once to offer himself as the sacrifice for sins. Christ’s sacrifice did not just provide a temporary covering for sin that needed to be repeated, but it was strong enough, efficient enough, holy enough, to provide a once for all time sacrifice that removes the guilt of sin permanently.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 7

Hebrews 7:27

This one sacrifice was enough to atone for the sins of men. It was enough because mortal men can only pay for their own sins. I could not die as a sacrifice to redeem anyone else, because I am a sinful man. My death wouldn’t be enough to cover my own sins, let alone atone for anyone else’s sins. This is why Jesus had to come, the second person of the Trinity, entering into creation as the God-man. He was fully divine and fully human. He lived a perfect life according to the law, meaning that he had no sins that needed to be atoned for. Only he could give his life as a ransom for many. Only God could have enough holiness for his death to be sufficient to cover the sins of all mankind.

The fact that he only needed to die once is evidenced by Christ’s last words on the cross...

It Is Finished.

It wasn’t finished for then. It wasn’t finished for a little while. It was done. Complete. No other sacrifice was needed, EVER!

Hebrews 9:27-28

And just as it is appointed for people to die once—and after this, judgment—so also Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

The author states that we only have one life to live according to the way God designed us to be: in relationship with him. That is why were created. A lot of church traditions have “catechisms,” which are tools to help teach people the basic truths of the faith in question and answer format. Think of it like having flashcards in school to learn vocabulary words. In math class you would have something like, “Describe a dodecahedron.” The answer is, “A 3-dimensional object with 12 sides. When in its regular form each side is a pentagon.” In the Westminster Shorter Catechism, written between 1646 and 1647, the very first question is this:

Question: What is the chief end of man?

In other words, what is the purpose of man? What is our function? Why does man exist on this planet? The answer:

Question: What is the chief end of man?

Answer: To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

That is it. We were designed to give glory to the One who created us. We were put on this earth to glorify God, to praise God, to point everything and everyone around us to how great and awesome and loving and merciful He is! There is nothing better than we can do with our lives than glorify God. But that isn’t the end of our purpose. We are also made to enjoy God. We were created to experience God in a way that allows us to enjoy his presence, his love, his mercy, and his grace.

But we only get one chance to live out that purpose. Our passage says,

Hebrews 9:27 “...it is appointed for people to die once—and after this judgment...”

Once we die, there are no second chances to get it right. There is no reincarnation. There is no coming back in another life. We die once, and then we are judged for how we lived this life.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 5

2 Corinthians 5:10

But death and judgment are not things that we have to be afraid of. Hebrews 9:28 tells us why.

Here, the author shows the similarities that can be found between sinful humanity and Christ. Jesus came to this world to die for the sins of many. Just like man who only has one life to live and then we die, Jesus also died once. In that death, he suffered for the sins of you and me. He faced the wrath of God against sin so that those who call upon him for salvation can be saved from facing the wrath of God themselves. That is the hope that we have in Christ.

We can be sure of that hope because of Jesus’ resurrection. Many theologians call the resurrection of Jesus the “lynchpin” of Christianity. The apostle Paul tells his readers in 1 Corinthians 15 that the resurrection is essential to the faith.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 15

1 Corinthians 15:3-6

Paul tells the Corinthians that the most important information they could receive was that Christ died for our sins, he was buried, and that he resurrected. Paul goes on to explain all of the people that Jesus appeared to after his resurrection. To Paul, the resurrection of Jesus is part of the most important information we could ever receive as followers of Jesus. In the coming verses he tells us why:

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 15

1 Corinthians 15:12-19

Paul is telling his readers that if they claim to follow Christ but don't believe in the resurrection of the dead, their faith is worthless. The reason he gives for this is that if there is no Resurrection from the dead, then Jesus has not even been raised from the dead. And if Jesus has not been raised from the dead, then proclaiming Jesus as the savior of the world means nothing, and faith in Jesus means nothing.

Why would our faith mean nothing? Well, if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Jesus has not been raised, which means our faith is worthless, because we are still in our sins. The reason we would still be in our sins is that we couldn't know if God accepted Jesus’ sacrifice. If Jesus is not resurrected, it means that Jesus himself is a liar, because he himself said that he would be resurrected.

If Jesus is a liar, then he was not sinless, and his sacrifice would not be enough to pay for our sins. Paul says that those who had already died when Paul wrote this letter, even though they believed in Christ, still died in their sins. If this life is all there is and we put our hope in Christ, but nothing comes after this, we are to be pitied. And that is the claim from atheists, that they feel sorry for us for believing in God when, according to their view, this life is all there is.

This is also why atheists are so adamant about denying and disproving the resurrection of Jesus. Atheists have a materialistic view of this world. Now, by that, I do not mean that they like to spend a whole lot of money. By viewing the world materialistically, it means that you only believe in the actual physical materials that can be observed with the five senses. There is no room for supernaturalism for a materialist.

But this is why the resurrection is so important. If Christ did rise from the dead, as he told his disciples he would, then all of the other promises that he made will come true. It means that God the Father accepted the sacrifice of the Son, who took our place in bearing the wrath of God for sins. It also means that Jesus will come again. There is hope of life after this one for those who believe in Christ, because our last verse says that Jesus will return to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him!

Christ’s ability to bring salvation to those who believe in him rests on his perfect life, his atoning death where he faced the wrath of God for your sins and mine, and his resurrection, proving to the world that there will be a resurrection from the dead. That is why we are gathered here today, celebrating Easter. Christians gather on this day to celebrate the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. As I said earlier, Christians do not have to fear death!

The New Bible Commentary 9:11–28 The Achievement of Christ in His Death and Exaltation

There is ‘a fearful expectation of judgment’ for those who spurn the Son of God and his sacrifice (10:26–31). But for those who trust in him and eagerly await his second coming, there is the prospect of salvation—rescue from judgment and the enjoyment of the promised eternal inheritance (15).

The promised eternal inheritance is not just a New Testament idea. The prophet Isaiah, in chapters 52 and 53, describes the “Suffering Servant.” In this prophecy, Isaiah tells of how the suffering servant will be disfigured, despised, rejected, struck down, afflicted, pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins, cut off from the land of the living, and assigned a grave with the wicked. But in Isaiah 53:10-12, the prophet then says this:

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 53

Isaiah 53:10-12

Christ died as a guilt offering for sin, accomplishing God’s plan of redemption for mankind by giving justification to many in carrying the weight of their sins. In doing so, God gives Christ a people as his reward. When you submit your life to Christ, you are part of that reward that Christ has earned.

How do we submit our lives to Christ? Jesus tells us what it means to follow after him in Mark 8:36-38:

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 8

Mark 8:34-38

Submission to Christ requires walking away from your own life, putting your own wants, desires, and ambition aside. It means believing that Jesus is who he says he is. It means not being ashamed of who Jesus is, and being willing to proclaim to others the hope, peace, joy, life, and love that can be found in him alone.

Have you given your life to Christ? Have you realized the weight of your sin and that you cannot make up for it with your own good deeds? Today is the day ask God to forgive you of your sins and follow Jesus.

Next Step: I will repent and submit my life to Christ.