Sermon Tone Analysis

NOT FINAL DRAFT

Introduction

Good morning and once again let me welcome you to Hope Bible Fellowship.

If you have a bible with you or a device to look up scripture, turn to Hebrews chapter 9.

I use the English Standard Version in case you want to match that up.

As you’re finding that chapter I want to tell you about one of my prior life experiences.

When I was young in youth ministry I became a show promoter.

That means I held concerts.

I booked them and advertised them and ran them.

It was a lot of fun, a little stressful, but a lot of fun.

I had some really cool interactions with some pretty great musicians.

No one really taught me how to do it, I just sort of had to learn.

You may not know this but if you want to book a band for a show, if they are a known band or a national touring band you can’t just call the band up, at least not back then.

You have to go through their booking agent.

And even then, the booking agent worked through the band’s management to get them to check with the band and make final approval for the show.

You didn’t get full access to the band.

But then, when the contract was signed and the band showed up to load in on the day of the show, generally they were pretty cool and would hang out with you and with any fans who showed up.

My point is, there was a mediator and I couldn’t just go straight to the band.

That’s a light illustration of what we are looking at today in Hebrews 9. We want to find out about what this says about the access the old covenant people had to God and the access that we have today under the new covenant.

The author of Hebrews wants to help his audience understand these theological concepts so that they will not give into the temptation to revert back to their old covenant Jewish ways.

He does something really helpful in chapters 9 and 10 in which he uses them as a summary of what he had said in the previous chapters.

Think of school.

When you learn something during the year and then come back after summer break, the teachers will sometimes summarize concepts that you already learned to remind you and prepare you for new material.

That is sort of what is going on here.

Let’s look at the text and see what God would say to us this morning in His Word.

READ Hebrews 9:1-28

- This is the Word of the Lord.

Let's pray and ask God to help us understand and apply it to our lives.

PRAY

I. Our Starting Point - Access Restricted (v.

1-10)

The place - The Earthly vs the heavenly tabernacle.

v. 1-10

There were regulations for worship in the old covenant.

The rules for worship were specific and the earthly place of holiness was elaborate.

There was a place where they were supposed to worship.

The tent or tabernacle was Israel's mobile tent of meeting with God and was divided into a couple of different sections.

(show diagram of the tabernacle)

Inside the Tabernacle -

We have a recollection of what the holy place and the most holy place in the tabernacle contained.

You have probably seen pictures of the lamps stand.

It was a menorah.

There were seven branches with cup-shaped oil lamps at the top.

Exodus 25:31-40

A priest was to make sure that this light never went out in the night.

The bread of the Presence was not one loaf but twelve loaves.

It was baked fresh every week.

When the new loaves were placed the old ones would be eaten by the priests.

The bread was always there but it had to be replaced all the time to keep it fresh.

Both of these physical objects point to Jesus Christ.

In John 9:5, Jesus calls himself the light of the world and in John 6:35, the bread of life.

He's the new temple in John 2:21 and the new bread of the presence.

And this bread never needs replacing.

In fact, it can't be replaced.

When we put our trust in His broken body (symbolized by eating this bread), followers of Christ get to enjoy access to holy places.

So only the priests could go in and see these pointers to Christ.

Everyone else who worshipped had to stay outside in the courtyard area.

There was a separation.

Not everyone had access.

The inner section was more special though.

This was blocked by a curtain.

The writer points this out to us.

Here in the Most Holy Place we find the ark of the covenant.

The ark was like a sort of history box containing reminders of what God had done for His people.

Think of it almost like a time capsule that they carried around with them to remind them of what God had done.

It was more than just this because of what the scripture calls the mercy seat.

On the lid of the ark was the mercy seat and it was a picture of God's throne.

It was where His presence dwelt.

Entering this place was reserved for the high priest once a year.

It would have been terrifying.

This was only a symbol of what God's real throne room in heaven is like.

Regarding the high priest, Michael Kruger writes,

"Imagine that you are the high priest and you are about to pull back that curtain.

You would be thinking, “How did my week go?

How obedient have I been?

How holy am I? Is this sacrifice going to be enough to clear my sin?”

Even the high priest was an earthly person.

He was still limited.

So, he entered with trepidation.

All this tells us is that you cannot just stroll into God’s presence in your current sinful state.

You need someone to fix that problem."

The Jewish priests of the tribe of Levi did their duties regularly... they repeated them over and over the same ritual...

But the problem of sin was not solved by any of this.

Verse 9 tells us why they didn't solve the problem of sin...

They were provisional regulations for the body until the one who could solve the problem of sin would come into the world.

This arrangement could not perfect the conscience of the worshipper.

Verse 10 tells us they only deal with food and drink and various washings.

They deal with the outward body and action but it can not cleanse the inside to the heart of the person.

II.

Once and For All Time - Atonement Accomplished (v.

11-22)

Back in verse 7 we read that the high priest only entered the Most Holy Place and went with blood to offer for the unintentional sins of the people.

We can divide sin into three categories.

Sins of commission, sins of omission, and unintentional sins.

Sins of commission are sins we commit.

It’s when we do what scripture prohibits.

Secondly, we have sins of omission.

These are sins where we neglect to do that which scripture commands.

For example: when we neglect the gathering of the saints for worship.

But here we have mentioned the unintentional sins of the people.

Albert Mohler explains it this way: “Unintentional sins are those we commit without realizing we are committing them.

Due to the pervasive and insidious effects of sin on our entire beings, we can’t even recognize the times we’re unaware we’re sinning.