Just One time

Good morning and welcome to another week of church online here at the bridge. I am so glad that we can be joined together here and worship together.

One of the joys of ministry is being a part of a church. Now i have to be honest this isn’t just a joy of ministry for the pastor this to me is the joy of being a member or attender in church. We love our church buildings. It doesn’t matter what the building looks like we love our buildings. Now i know we talk about it all the time, or at least we like to say it the church building isn’t the church but we can’t deny that we love the place that we gather often because it sparks in us a lot of emotions and memories which is why we are so attached to these places.

When it comes to church though I always thought there were some funny things that we did. I remember when i was working with the teens at our church in Kansas City the teens would be engaged in an activity and someone might accidently slip and say something they shouldn’t. It might have been a bad word or a mean name to someone but i always laughed when the other teens would get on them and act like it was suddenly worse because it was in Church.

It is funny that we sometimes view church that way. We view church as a holy place and that we can’t do certain things there. Now the reality is that some of the things that we are shocked someone would say or do at church if we are honest should shock or surprise us outside of church too.

Of course we should consider this a holy place because it is a place that we meet the presences of God. Maybe that is where we should begin. By seeing the importance of the presence of God and what that means to us. Let’s turn to the word this morning and see what it has for us.

Hebrews 9:24–28 NIV

24 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. 25 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. 26 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. 27 Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28 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.

Sanctuary or Presence of God?

This opening verse is very interesting to me because it presents us the reality that Jesus in his sacrifice for us was changing the very nature of the way that the world would be able to worship God. For the Jewish people they had the sacrificial system and relied on the High priest to enter into the Holy place to present the sacrifice for the people. This is the image we get for Jesus when he offered himself as the final sacrifice, but he did not enter into a place built by human hands but instead to Heaven.

This is important because it allows us to see that the power or significance of worship is not about a physical place but it is about being in the presence of God.

Think about it. What makes a Church a Holy place?

Is it simply because its a church?

Is it because we do something to make it Holy?

What makes it Holy?

It is the Presence of God. That is the importance of Jesus entering into Heaven. He is entering into the most Holy place to present to God on our behalf.

Earthly High Priest or Heavenly High Priest

One of the other insights that we gain from this passage is the power of the difference between the Earthly priest and Jesus our Heavenly High Priest. When read this passage an idea captured my attention that I thought was a very interesting one that we needed to look at. We can see it in v. 25

Hebrews 9:25 NIV

25 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.

I thought about this and I kept asking myself this questions.

What does it mean Offer himself again and again?

Now obviously we see the comparison to the High priest who has to continuously enter into the Holy place every year to offer the sacrfice on behalf of the people. Yet what does this mean for Christ? It is an interesting thought to see how people could think that Jesus’ sacrifice would mirror the sacrificial system and that he would have to enter into heaven over and over and suffer over and over.

Could you imagine that existence?

Yet this passage tells us that is not what is happening. In fact, it become clearer in the next two verses.

Hebrews 9:26–27 NIV

26 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. 27 Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,

Jesus Broke the sacrificial system. He fundamentally changed it.

This one time that the sacrifice was offered was all it took to end it and change it.

I thought about this long and hard and i couldn’t help but think of other examples of great one time speeches. You know the ones i am talking about. The moment in the movie that the coach, president, lawyer, or some other character makes this grand monologue about this one time and how after this one moment everything will change. Its always the most dramatic moment and it stirs the heart and gets you excited as you know the climax of the movie or the moment is coming.

In many ways this verse references that dramatic moment for Jesus. Its funny but as i was watching some clips of movies with great motivational moments thinking about this section of the sermon i ran into a quote that i think fits this idea of what Jesus did for us on the cross.

Great Moments are Born with great Opportunity

Its not a perfect quote but it helps us remember that this moment was the most important moment in this history of the entire creation. This is the moment that Jesus changed the very nature of our world. God used this moment to enter into the world and it was at this point that we see the culmination of the ages into this one moment and Jesus used the opportunity presented to him to capture it and to create not just a great moment but the greatest moment.

Hebrews 9:26 (NIV)

26 But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.

IT was this moment that Jesus truly fullfilled the special calling he had on him. It was in this moment that we see Jesus was so much more than we could have ever imagined. It was in this oment that we have to recognize that Jesus was not just some man or a prophet or a great teacher but he was the Son of God, both fully man and fully human. Come down to earth to transform the lives of all. He did all this in his death.

Looking to the Future

We know this about the cross we know that this is the hope of the cross and this is what gives us the courage and the motivation to know what Jesus has planned for us is something far greater than anything we could possibly imagine. yet we have to look to the future and hope and long for when Christ will come back.

That’s the thing that is difficult sometimes for many people. We have been waiting for what 2000 years now for Christ to return. It feels like when is it going to happen? Meanwhile we sit here and we have to face the reality that we will one day face death and judgement. That is the one thing that none of us can escape. That is a truth that we will all face one day. Yet, that isn’t a reason to lose hope.

Hebrews 9:27–28 NIV

27 Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28 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.

The hope is that the future holds for us the salvation. The joy is that though we may die Jesus already did and because he did so willingly we can have joy in the knowledge that when he returns it will be to bring salvation to us. That those of us still waiting for him will be wrapped in his arms and will experience the salvation of God in that moment.

This is a great hope this is the joy we get to look forward to. This all happened because of that one moment that Jesus came back.

Thanksgiving

We enter into the season of thanksgiving and this is the challenge that we are presented with. This is the opportunity hat we have to be thankful for what he has done for us. This morning i want to challenge you to think about that. To realize that Jesus has done something amazing for you on the cross. The challenge than is this. Each morning this week i want you to wake up and thank God for what Jesus did. The first thing you do. Before you get out of bed. Lay there for a moment and simply say a short prayer of thankfulness to God for the gift of Jesus and the salvation that he is providing us. I don’t know about you but i look forward to seeing what he might do in our lives if we reminder ourselves of that hope we have each day.

Let’s Pray