March 5, 2017 Hebrews 9:16-28 Pastor Larry Adams Remember His Sacrifice

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1 March 5, 2017 Hebrews 9:16-28 Pastor Larry Adams Remember His Sacrifice Hi Everyone. My name is Larry Adams and I want to take a moment to thank you for reading this message. At Golden Hills we are committed to exalting Jesus and preaching the Word. Your downloading of this message is a great encouragement to us, as we know that our ministry is going out to spread God s Word all over the world. We want you to know, too, that in no way do we intend these messages to be a replacement for your involvement in a good local church, where, sitting under the authority of pastors and other teachers, you can learn to worship, grow and serve and be engaged with a body of believers where you can grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. We realize also, that some of you may be in areas of the world where there is no local church. Therefore, we hope these messages you are using, to gather with your family or other believers, or people from the community that it will be a great encouragement to you, as you hear God speak into your life, helping you to become disciples who are true, reproducing followers of Jesus Christ. * * * * * * * * * * * * * If you have your Bible today, I d like you to turn with me to the book of Hebrews, chapter 9. We re going to be looking at remembering His sacrifice. Communion is a very special time. I get to do it four times on these Communion Sundays, and they never get old. Every one is special. Hebrews is a book, like a running commentary on the Old Testament. It helps us to understand the many feasts, festivals, sacrifices, and rituals and why they have all culminated in the person of Christ. When you get to Hebrews 9, the writer is telling us about the blood of Christ and why it is that we don t need a sacrifice anymore. Jesus is our sacrifice. Here is the way he puts it in Hebrews 9: In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, 17 because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. 18 This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. 19 When Moses had proclaimed every command of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. 20 He said, This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep. 21 In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. 22 In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. 23 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. 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

2 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. Let s pray together: Father, these words are more significant than we can imagine. A sacrifice so powerful, it saved us from our sin. It brought us from death to life, and gives us the hope of an eternal heaven with You. God, as we open up these words today and as we come to this table, help us to remember. We ll thank You, God, in Your precious name, Amen. You probably didn t notice, but when you came in today, none of you brought a lamb. None of you brought an ox or a bull, or a goat or a bird. In fact, if you had brought those things, our ushers would have rightly greeted you, told you that you are very, very welcome, but your barnyard animals probably need to stay outside. You see, we would think it really strange for people to come to a worship service, pulling in bulls and goats and oxen and other barnyard animals. But, for centuries, people could not have imagined coming to worship God, without bringing those things. Today we came to worship, yet we gave no thought to animal sacrifices, no altar, no priest, no blood being spilled. Yet, God requires all of these things for any of us to approach Him. Sinful man cannot approach a holy God, unless there has been a sacrifice and unless there is blood that is spilled, to pay for that sin. Even Moses had to have blood. That s why it says in verse 19-22: 19 When Moses had proclaimed every command of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. How would you have reacted today if our ushers greeted you at the door, sprinkling you with calves blood as you came in? That was a part of worship once. 20 He said, This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep. 21 In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. 22 In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. So, where is our blood today? The blood we need has already been poured out. It has been poured out at the altar in heaven, in God s presence. God has accepted it. That blood has been sprinkled over the life of every single person who has come to embrace this sacrifice. That sacrifice is none other than Jesus Himself. That s what we re remembering every time we come to Communion. Communion is a remembrance of the death of Jesus as our sacrifice. The writer said (Hebrews 9:26), 26 he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Jesus gave His sinless life in payment for your and my sinful one. It s here at Communion that we remember that. This is a memorial. We re careful to say at each Communion that eating this will not make you a Christian. This will not get your sins forgiven. It will not earn you grace or get you into heaven. The only way to be saved from what sin has done to separate us from God, is by faith, coming to embrace the sacrifice of Jesus Christ: that He died on a cross for our sins, that He was buried in a tomb, that He was raised the third day, that He conquered sin, death and the grave and He is alive. He is offering hope and forgiveness and eternal life to all who will believe and receive Him. Being religious,

3 being good, going to church, going to Sunday school, taking Communion, getting baptized they re all good things but none of them can save you. We need a sacrifice. We need blood. In Jesus, we have it. Eating this meal reminds us that no one comes to God without the blood of a sacrifice. Communion reminds us that Jesus is that sacrifice. So what did He do? Why did He offer Himself as that sacrifice? He did it as payment for our sin. This is why the writer put it like this in Hebrews 9: 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. 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. A picture, a copy, is not the real thing. Over the years, my family and I have travelled to meetings of our denominational movement, called Converge Worldwide (Baptist General Conference). Each year, when we met, we met with missionaries and pastors from all over the globe as we talked together about the work we share, our mutual goals, church planting, new missionary assignments, fields that needed to be opened up, spending time worshipping and praying together as those goals were established. Over the years, driving with my family to and from those meetings, we have gone and visited probably more than 40 or our 50 states. Along the way, we have taken pictures of some of the most beautiful scenes and settings and storms, and sand dunes and mountain ranges and rivers that God has ever put on planet Earth. And every time we got home to look at the pictures, it was like, nyaa it s just not the same. It doesn t look as good. I don t care how good your cell phone camera is, or what kind of a 35 millimeter with power lens you ve got no matter what picture you take, the picture is not as good as the reality. People, that s what we need to remember about what the writer of Hebrews was describing when it comes to worship. There is a worship in heaven that, on earth, we only have a copy, or a picture of in many ways. Our worship here is real, but it pales in comparison to the worship we re going to experience then. You see, there is a real temple, a real throne, a real altar, a real high priest, and a real sacrifice in heaven, of which the ritual on earth was only a picture, only a shadow. That s what the whole Jewish sacrificial system, instituted by God through Moses, was all about. The whole system was simply a picture on earth of the reality that would one day happen in heaven. So God told Moses, build a tabernacle, build an altar, establish the priesthood, arrange the sacrifices and all the accessories, according to the pattern that I give you. Remember when God met with Moses about all of this (Exodus 25:9): 9 Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you. So God told Moses that there is a real temple, a real priest, a real altar here in heaven, which will be the place of an ultimate sacrifice. But for now, the temple you serve in, the altar you approach, the

4 sacrifices you bring and the blood you sprinkle will be a picture of them. It will sanctify - temporarily - the people. It will point the way to the moment when the ultimate sacrifice, Jesus Christ, will come to pour out His blood in heaven and pay for sin for all time, and bring you eternal redemption. That s why (Hebrews 9:8-12): 8 The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still functioning. 9 This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. 10 They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings external regulations applying until the time of the new order [New Covenant]. 11 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. 12 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. So, according to the pattern, every year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the high priest for that year, perfectly washed, ceremonially cleansed, and dressed according to the pattern God gave Moses would then go and take an animal, over which he would confess his own sins. The animal would be slaughtered. The blood would be spilled out. He would take a bowl of that blood, along with a branch of the Hyssop plant, and go to the temple, through the Holy Place, before the curtain and behind, into the Holy of Holies (the Most Holy Place). Inside there would be the Ark of the Covenant, inside would be the cherubim with their outstretched wings, on top of the Covenant Mercy Seat. The most powerful and pressing reality of the Holy of Holies was the presence of God. God s Shekinah glory (His presence) was in that room. So this priest went in with very little confidence. Because he knew that if it wasn t done exactly according to the pattern, if he wasn t just right in the ceremonial washing, if the sacrifice he brought was in any way insufficient or blemished, or if the blood he brought was impure, or if he came into the presence of holiness with any of those things out of place the priest would die and the sacrifice would be rejected. Sinful man cannot approach holy God, except exactly according to the pattern he has been given. There are not many ways to God. There is only one. This had to be repeated year after year after year after year because this was not the reality. It was just a copy of the reality. The blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer can t cleanse sin. But the blood of Jesus can. The blood of Jesus has. That s why the writer said (Hebrews 9:12-14): 12 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. 13 The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them [set them apart] so that they are outwardly clean. [In other words, they are allowed to participate in the worship, but it doesn t cleanse their sin.] 14 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! He went on to say in verse 23-28: 23 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.

5 You see, Jesus didn t offer His blood at an earthly temple. He entered heaven itself. When He died, He poured His blood out at the altar in heaven and it was received by God. This is why we didn t bring an animal sacrifice to worship God today. Because Jesus, your perfect sacrifice, has already been offered. He is the great High Priest, who came with blood that was His own, poured out at the real temple, on a real altar in the very throne room of God. Now, you and I, who are covered in that blood (when you became a Christian, you were covered in that blood), when we come, we can come in complete confidence. You see, your high priest is perfectly dressed, and you are clothed in His righteousness. We don t need a priest on earth any more because Jesus, living in us, has made each of us our own priest. So we can come through the blood of His sacrifice, into His presence, at any time and know that we ll be accepted. This is why, since we have Jesus as our high priest, we never have to worry about being turned away. Someday, you and I who love and trust Jesus are going to stand in that heavenly reality. You and I are going to walk with confidence into the throne room of God. We are going to look, and see what John saw and what everyone who has gone before us has seen, what the angels in heaven see every day. You re going to see the Lamb, seated on His throne, high and exalted and lifted up, and the train of His robe fills the temple. He is surrounded by 24 elders, who are seated on their thrones. They take off their crowns and lay them at His feet. Angels are there in His presence, leading the worship, crying out, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty. The Bible tells us in Revelation that all the earth, all the creatures of the earth, begin to sing His praise. You and I will be a part of that, because we are covered in His blood. (applause). So, whether we physically die and go to be with Jesus, or whether we re alive when He comes back in His glorious return He is coming for us. He is going to bring us to the completion of the salvation that we re all waiting for. That s why the writer said (Hebrews 9:27-28): 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. I can hardly wait. You know, when I was growing up in New England, I never got out of New England. We might have gone to New York a couple times, but people think New York is New England. Anyway, so my travel in those days, was all through books. So I looked at pictures of some of the great formations and geologic formations and National Parks and all kinds of things, all over the country. Never believing that I d ever get to see them. One of the ones I was awed about was the Grand Canyon. I couldn t imagine a canyon that wide and deep and long, could actually exist with the kind of color and beauty and majesty that were in these pictures. But I can tell you, that of all the pictures I looked at, not a single one of them did justice to the reality, when I stood on the South Rim of that canyon for the first time and gazed in awe at what God had done. A picture is not the same as the reality. We worship Christ on earth, and no matter how meaningful and beautiful, it cannot compare to the breathtaking reality that awaits us because of our sacrifice.

6 Elvina Hall was a woman who saw a lot of blood. She lived during the time of the Civil War in the United States. 600,000 Americans died. Many more injured or maimed for life. There were fields of blood. It was a bloody war. She saw much of it. She realized, in 1865, that all of that blood was a sacrifice, paid for freedom. It reminded her of another s sacrifice, who gave His blood for her freedom. So she wrote a poem, which became a hymn. This is what she wrote. I m not much of a singer, so if you laugh during this, I ll totally understand. Listen to what she wrote (singing): For nothing good have I Whereby thy grace to claim, I will wash my garments white, In the blood of Calvary s lamb. And when, before the throne, I stand in Him complete, Jesus died, my soul to save And my lips shall still repeat: Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow. This is why we can come to worship without a blood sacrifice today. Because we already have one. That s why we can come and never fear being turned away. Because the sacrifice was accepted. We have Jesus. He has taken away our sin. This is the sacrifice we re remembering today. This is the sacrifice of the New Covenant. This bread is My body, He said. This cup, by blood, given for you. So whenever you eat it, remember Me. Lord, how do we tell You thanks for this? It s bigger than we know. Greater than we could imagine. More complete than we could ever hope. You saved us by Your sacrifice. We re going to have all of eternity to worship. Thank You today for the worship we can offer You. We hope that, through our lives, You have heard the sound of worship, and You hear it everyday. And as we eat this bread and drink this cup, please know that we re doing it today, because we remember You. We thank You, in Your precious name, Amen.