Jesus: The Greater Sacrifice

Faith Made Complete

With everything that has been going on this last week, up to the second updates on the spread of the virus, up to the minute updates on government action trying to stop the spread, up to the day updates on the how to survive being locked in the house, there was a weight on my heart on what to preach. Should I abandon the series that we are in to preach a message about fear or God in the storm? What does God have for His people this week? And then the Holy Spirit made plain to my heart the convictions upon which we stand as followers of Christ. Everything that happened this week did not come as a surprise to the Lord. He knew full well of every second of this outbreak and our response before we even knew what the coronavirus was. Our God is sovereign and nothing catches Him by surprise. Here is where faith becomes reality. If my God is sovereign, then way back in the fall when He put Hebrews on my heart to preach out of for the sake of New Hope. He knew this series would move through March and April. He knew this would be the time that this viral outbreak would happen. So might the perfect message be exactly where we are at in the Scriptures to hear at this time?

This morning, we will be in -the end of the chapter. Before we dive into our text, I want to go back to an earlier part of chapter 9 to set the stage.

Hebrews 9:11–14 NIV

But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

Hebrews 9:

Last week we looked at verse 15-22. This served as an interlude to the writers message of the work of Christ. Our passage today is a continuation of the writers thought from what we just read.

Hebrews 9:23–24 NIV

It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence.

Throughout Israel’s history, they have engaged in a continual cycle of turning the things of God into gods to be worshipped. This happened in very visible, literal ways as well as through subversive shifts. When the Lord brought them out of Egypt, He blessed them with a great bounty that was collected from their neighbors. While waiting for Moses at the foot of Mt Sinai, they melted the things that God had given to them into a golden calf to worship. During the time of Samuel, being led by their King, God on the throne, the Ark of the Covenant, they began to treat the ark like a weapon they could control and not the seat of their king. The Tabernacle and the temple to follow became mere buildings to appease an angry God rather than the house to come and meet the Lord.

As this shift occurred, the Israelites began to place their faith in the man-made creations, the copies of the heavenly things. Through this, they failed to see the true meaning and purpose behind these earthly copies, they were to point us toward their heavenly counterparts. In Christ, we see that His work was not accomplished in the tarnished remnant of the heavenly temple, but rather His work was done in the very presence of the Lord. He did not make his sacrifice before men, but rather in the very presence of the Lord.

The church today can not fall into the same trap. We have been given an opportunity to live out this foundation of our belief. Christ has made us the temple of God.

Honoring His Work

Hebrews 9:25-

Hebrews 9:25–26 NIV

Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.

Christ’s sacrifice was all sufficient. He took care of it all.

His sacrifice was greater than that of the priests for his sacrifice was once and for all and his sacrifice covered intentional sin. His sacrifice was final and complete.

The Promise of Christ

Hebrews 9:27–28 NIV

Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

Hebrews 9:

Christ bore all of our sin and shame and shortcomings. Will you live in this truth? Will you let his sacrifice be enough?

Christ did this to bring salvation. Will we declare this hope and promise? We so often focus on the judgment of the Lord, but we have no part in that. Jesus is the judge, we have been commissioned to be the instruments of life. Judgment and condemnation when clinged to paralyzes us in seasons like this, but the promise of salvation mobilizes us to walk without fear and boldly in obedience.