The Cure for What Ails You
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Intro
Intro
This year we’re studying the book of Hebrews, and we find ourselves in chapter nine tonight in the second part of a three-part series focusing on the superiority of Jesus’ sacrifice.
Set against the backdrop of the temple sacrificial system that his audience would have been all too familiar with, our author is reminding his readers that Jesus’ sacrifice is better.
13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
In our passage tonight, he continues this focus on the superiority of Jesus’ sacrifice by explaining how his death has provided the hope for our past, present, and future.
Cancer needs to be eradicated completely.
You don’t want the doc to tell you he got all the cancer you’ve had in the past.
You don’t want the doc to tell you they can guarantee you’ll be cancer-free for a few years
You want it gone, all of it that’s invaded already, all of it presently growing, and any of it that might come back in the future.
Our plight is worse than cancer, but Jesus has the remedy for us. His death has dealt with our past, present, and future, and we should love Him with our whole lives as a result.
Body
Body
Last week we left off with the author reminding us of how much greater the sacrifice of Christ was than the sacrifices of the OC.
15 Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
A mediator is one who mediates between two parties.
Usually this involves working toward the resolution of conflict.
A mediator will often try to get both parties to compromise a little to come to an agreement that both can live with.
That isn’t what our author means by mediator.
In Hebrews 7:22 Jesus is called the “guarantor of a better covenant.”
He is God’s emissary, a mediator sent from God to us with this covenant that our author again refers to, as the “new covenant.”
To have a new covenant, there must have been an old covenant, and that OC had something to say about you and me and what we owed. You know the verses, Romans 3:23 and Romans 6:23. We sinned, we owe death under the OC.
P1: Jesus’ Death Has Dealt With Your Past (v. 15)
Hebrews 8:13 “In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete”
The “first one” = Old Covenant
Full obedience = success (Deut 28:1-2; Lev 11:44)
Disobedience = failure (Deut 28:15)
Failure demanded death (sacrificial animals)
Hebrews 9:13
Hebrews 9:9-10 All of these sacrifices were necessary because of sin
How are you doing on that whole “be holy as I am holy” thing?
If your relationship with God depended on the Old Covenant, how would that relationship be doing tonight?
Y’all we can’t take for granted the great news that we’ve been freed from the demands of the OC.
These demands had to be satisfied though, and that’s our author’s whole point here in verse 15.
Hebrews 9:15 “since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.”
That death should have been our death, but Jesus took our place and died on our behalf.
Jesus offered Himself in order to satisfy the demands of the OC, in order to make “the first one obsolete.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 Explains how his death made the first one obsolete
Righteousness (Romans 8:4)
You and I can’t do this for ourselves.
Some of y’all are here still trying to get God to accept you because of your good works, but you can’t do it.
And that’s ok, because Jesus did it for you.
Death
Romans 3:25
Hebrews 2:17
1 John 2:2
1 John 4:10
Who else has done anything like this for you? Some of y’all are ready to devote your life to a boy because he smiled at you across the room last week. How about we devote ourselves to Jesus because He died for us and credited our account with His righteousness…because His death dealt with our past.
END P1
But this death not only fulfilled the OC, making it obsolete, it also inaugurated the NC.
Hebrews 9:15 “Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant...”
Hebrews 8:10-12 The new covenant [TURN]
New creations in Christ
Knowledge of the Lord
Mercy
Under the OC, things don’t look good for us, so any sort of NC should be good news, and it is, but it too depends on Christ’s death. Without Jesus’ death we’re still under the OC, and without Jesus’ death there is no NC.
16 For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. 17 For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive.
Any time a covenant was made, there had to be a representative death. This was realized in the substitutionary death of the animal.
Gen 15:10
Jer 34:18
The animals were sacrificed as symbols of what would happen if the ratifying party failed to keep the agreement.
18 Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. 19 For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 20 saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.” 21 And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship.
Exodus 24:3-8
Hebrews 9:15 “Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant…since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.”
Jesus’ death initiated that NC for us.
Notice that language from verse 15, “He is.” Not “He was.”
Presently, Jesus is our mediator. He has enacted the covenant that has present implications for us and our sin. He’s presently mediating on our behalf before the Father. Because of His death, he is the mediator of the NC for you and for me.
P2: Jesus’ Death Covers Your Present (vv. 16-26)
19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
These are encouraging verses to think about Jesus interceding for us right now before the Father. To sing about our sure and steady anchor is powerful, but do we realize that none of that is possible without Jesus’ death?
21 And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. 22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
The OT sacrificial system became a necessary and regular part of the Israelites’ existence with the continual reminder that God was graciously keeping them in His covenant love by accepting the animals as their covenant-substitutes rather than requiring their own death as the stipulations of the covenant required.
Every time Israel sinned they were breaking the Mosaic covenant and they should have died.
Instead, an animal died and the blood was the reminder of God’s mercy toward the sinner.
Every Year the high priest had to this bring blood with him to cleanse the sanctuary and to atone for the sins of the people.
23 Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
24 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, 26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
For you and me today, Christ has entered into the holy place, the heavenly sanctuary, to appear in the presence of God on your behalf.
Tonight, Christian, as you sit here, your savior sits at the right hand of the Father ON YOUR BEHALF!
The blessings of the NC are yours because Jesus died and brought His blood before the Father to atone for your sins.
I want you to put your name in there in verse 24. “now to appear in the presence of God on Nathan’s behalf, on Amy’s behalf, on Stephanie’s behalf, on Tiara’s behalf, on Daniel’s behalf, on Leo’s behalf.”
Feel that right now because Jesus has died to bring YOU into the blessings of the NC, and where you sit tonight, you are secure presently because your high priest is behind the curtain interceding for you with His blood.
Again, unless we have the sacrificial death of Jesus, there is no NC. There is no confidence in our standing before God. There is no eternal redemption. There is no church, there is no gospel. There is no Christmas and no Easter. We’re still going to the temple with our bulls and goats.
But as it is we have a better sacrifice and a better HP, and he’s not going to leave off interceding for us until He’s delivered all the Father has given to Him.
END P2
But Jesus will return from the heavenly sanctuary one day, and that’s where our author turns his focus toward next.
27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
The fulfillment of the OC was Christ’s life and death. The fulfillment of the NC will be our joining Him forever in the final realization of our glorification.
Jesus death has dealt with the penalty you owe, and it is dealing with your deliverance through this life, and it will ultimately result in your final salvation.
P3: Jesus’ Death has Secured Your Future (vv. 27-28)
Each year there was joy and celebration and relief when the hp would return from the holy of holies because it was a sign that the sacrifice had been accepted. How much more joy and celebration and relief will there be when we see our Savior return?
Again, like in the last point, I want you to personalize this.
Christ “will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save PJ who is eagerly waiting for him.”
Are you eagerly waiting for Jesus?
I remember my wedding day. We got married in an older church in SD that had a “hallway” off the worship center where I waited for the ceremony to begin with my groomsmen. I thought we would never get the nod to go out and take our place at the front of the church. Then, once I got there, I had to wait for the whole wedding party to come down the aisle and take their place. Then the doors in the back closed, and the longest 30 seconds set in.
That’s waiting eagerly.
Do you want to see Jesus come back? Are you eager for His return? Are you expecting, hoping, every day for Him to come back?
He’s died in order to secure that future for you and me. Do you want it?
Conclusion
Conclusion
If you had cancer, and a doctor offered you a treatment that would eradicate the cancer forever, my guess is you’d want it.
Do you want what Jesus died to offer you? Do you want your past sins forgiven, your present sins covered, and your future deliverance secured? But here’s one more thing, if you want all of that, you also need to want Jesus. Surrender tonight to Jesus and you will have all He died to give you.
If you’ve already made that decision tonight, be encouraged and reminded by this passage that we are to live our lives in full devotion to Jesus .
Application Questions
Read Hebrews 6:19-20 and Hebrews 7:25 and Hebrews 9:26. What confidence does this give you about this next week? How can we be sure that these passages don’t become a license to sin because of our confidence that Jesus’ blood has paid the penalty already?
Read Romans 8:30 and 1 John 3:2. How much thought do you give to being with Jesus some day? If that is the ultimate prize for which He died, why don’t we think about this more? If you could go to be with Christ right now, tonight, but you’d have to give up all of your future plans and ambitions, would you want to go?
Read Philippians 1:21. How does a passage like this one in Hebrews, where we’re reminded of the death of Jesus and all it means for us, cause us to embrace this mindset with Paul? What needs to change this week for you to align yourself more with this verse?