Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

COVID is making a lot of things pretty difficult these days.

Here is what is required to enter the LA Rams stadium for a football game:

Proof of vaccination

Negative PCR test within 48 hours

Negative antigen test within 24 hours

Photo ID

Mask

Here is what you need to travel to Israel:

Entry permit application filed 36 hours prior to travel

PCR test no more than 72 hours prior to departure

PCR test upon arrival in Israel

2 Vaccines with 2nd no more than 6 months from departure or you’ll need a 3rd

Here is what we got from our kids’ school district recently:

Covid positive staff and students can

Body:

Hebrews 9:1-5

Hebrews 9:1

The earthly place of holiness should call to mind the contrast with the heavenly tabernacle referenced earlier in Hebrews 8:2, 5

Hebrews 9:2

The designation of first and second was a common way of referring to the various parts of the temple.

Hebrews 9:3-4

The altar of incense was most likely located outside of this second section, but the author may have been following a Greek translation that placed it in the holy of holies.

The items listed as being inside the ark include two which were only said in the OT to have been placed before the ark.

They would be the urn holding the manna and the staff of Aaron.

Only the tablets were truly said to have been placed in the ark.

Hebrews 9:5

The mercy seat is where the blood of the sin-offering would be sprinkled on the Day of Atonement

Hebrews 9:5b

The author’s concern was less about the symbolism of all of this and more about the two-fold division of the tabernacle/temple.

Verses 6-7 set out some contrasts between the two sections to help drive this home even further.

Hebrews 9:6-7

The common priests enter the first section (6)

The high priest enters into the second section (7)

The common priests enter repeatedly (6)

The high priest enters once a year (7)

The common priests enter without requirement to discharge their duties (6)

Trimming the wicks of the oil lamps

Burning incense at morning and evening

Replacing the bread of the presence

The high priest enters only with the blood of the sin offering that is for him and the people (7)

This bifurcation of the temple sanctuary held significance for Israel, and it holds a significance for us today.

For the Israelites it was a continual reminder of the holiness of God and the sinfulness of men.

It was a constant reminder of the separation that sin had brought between God and man.

The average Israelite couldn’t even venture into the holy place as there was a wall of separation between the Israelite men and the place where the priests would offer the animals.

But beyond that only the high priest was allowed beyond this first section into the Most Holy Place, and that just once a year!

The whole temple layout was a huge reminder of the holiness of God.

For you and me it’s still a reminder of God’s holiness and the separation we experience from Him because of our sin, and like the Israelites, we need a high priest to go in and represent us before a holy God.

But unlike the Israelites, we have a high priest who has gone in once and for all to do away with this division, this separation.

P1: Trust Christ’s Work Not Yours // Remember the Gravity of God’s Holiness (vv.

1-10)

God is holy.

RC Sproul: The human dilemma is this: God is holy, and we are not.

“Right now it is impossible for us to see God in His pure essence.

Before that can ever happen, we must be purified.

When Jesus taught the Beatitudes, He promised only a distinct group the vision of God: ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God’ (Matt.

5:8).

none of us in this world is pure in heart.

It is our impurity that prevents us from seeing God.

The problem is not with our eyes; it is with our hearts.

Only after we are purified and totally sanctified in heaven will we have the capacity to gaze upon Him face-to-face.”

(The Holiness of God, 28)

Thus the separation is still felt by you and me today, even after we have been saved!

There’s a very real sense in which we’re still in the first section, waiting access to that second section.

But, we have a High Priest who has gone into that second section, a High Priest who has gone behind the veil (Hebrews 6:19-20), a High Priest who holds His priesthood permanently (Hebrews 7:24), a High Priest who always lives to make intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25), a High Priest who is able to save to the uttermost.

Hebrews 9:8-10.

As our author was writing to a group tempted to go back, tempted to want the rituals and cultic system again, he reminded them once more of the futility now that Christ has come.

You may be thinking you’re good because you don’t live in the temple-age.

You don’t bring any animals for sacrifice.

But what are some of the rituals we can tend to trust instead of trusting in Jesus.

Your prayer journal, apart from Jesus, doesn’t accomplish anything.

Your worship playlist, apart from Jesus, doesn’t make you closer to God.

Your morning quiet time, apart from Jesus, won’t please God.

Your accountability groups, apart from Jesus, won’t make you more holy in the eyes of God.

“According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper.”

Amos 5:21-27

Isaiah 1:10-15

Isaiah 29:13

Make sure your worship isn’t futile by ensuring that your trust is rooted in your High Priest and not your offerings.

2 Timothy 1:12 whom I have believed

App: What are some of the “rituals” you tend to use to measure your spiritual vitality?

When utilized in the way God wants them to be used, how can those be helpful for your walk?

How can they become dangerous to our walk if we were to use them to feel confident about our relationship with God?

END P1

Before Christ, an Israelites entire worship system centered around the temple and the sacrifices, the shadows of the substance that was yet to come.

Their obligation was the same as ours, they were to trust God and not their worship, but they didn’t know anything remotely close to what you and I know today.

Hebrews 9:11

“of the good things that have come”

These good things are all of the benefits that we enjoy as Christians that the Jews could only view dimly through eyes of faith as they continued in the ritualistic practices of the temple system.

Christ is a High Priest now of these good things:

Complete access to the Father through the intercession of Jesus for us (Hebrews 4:14-16)

Complete confidence that we will be saved and delivered from our sins (Hebrews 7:25)

Complete confidence that our redemption is an eternal redemption because His sacrifice has paid for every sin (Hebrews 9:12)

Most of you in this room were born somewhere around the turn of the last century, and none of you had anything to do with that.

A lot of times we are challenged to think about the privilege of living in a time like this, and rightly so.

You can watch a baseball game on your phone.

If you have a question about something, you can google it and get an answer in seconds.

It really is amazing.

But have you ever stopped to consider the enormous privilege of our position when it comes to God’s plan for salvation?

You and I know what the temple was designed to point to.

We know the cross and the empty tomb.

We know about salvation by grace alone through faith alone!