|
|
HOLY HELP FOR THE HOPELESSGIVES US EVERY GOOD THING GOD HAS PROMISEDHebrews 9:11-15INTRODUCTION Every person in here, indeed, every person in the whole earth is always living by faith. Each one of us, at every moment of every day trusts someone or something to support us, to supply what we believe we must have to be happy. For example, there are many parents in here who are depending upon, trusting in the obedience of their child to feel good about themselves as parents. There are many husbands and wives trusting their spouse to treat them with respect and affection so that they can feel worthwhile. There are many teenagers trusting in the approval of their friends so they can feel good about themselves. There are workers who trust in their jobs to provide them with security and the possessions they also trust to give them pleasure. Most human beings trust in themselves and their ability to perform certain religious duties in order to be accepted by God. Most of us, when we are sane and thinking straight, recognize that people, including ourselves are highly unreliable saviors. Most of us recognize that trusting in money or vacations or obedient children is foolish because none of these are permanent or can deliver what we trust them to deliver. Our contentment and happiness is always short-lived when our faith is in created things. Feeling good about yourself as a parent based upon the performance of your child will only last until the next time there is a fight. Feeling secure because your retirement account is doing well only lasts until the next dip in the stock market or the next hike in gasoline prices. When you die what will your trust have gained you? The Bible is quite clear that God’s goal for your life is to shatter your faith in every created person and object and to convince you that only Jesus is worthy of your trust (see 1 Peter 1:6-7). This is the aim of this letter to the Hebrews. It is the author’s objective to convince these people that trusting in their performance of the religious rituals of Judaism is absolutely fatal and that only Jesus is a reliable savior. Now I know that there are few, if any, in this room that are tempted to trust in Jewish religious rituals but everyone in here is inclined to trust in other saviors and look for other salvations apart from Jesus. So this morning it is my goal, by means of this text, to convince you and I that only Jesus is worthy of our trust. MAIN POINT Jesus Christ alone is worthy of all your trust because…I. Only Jesus earned the right to enter heaven (vv. 11-12) We saw last week in vv. 1-10 how the author showed the inadequacy of the regulations for worship and the tabernacle to bring people to God. In v. 8 we observed that the reason God gave the regulations and the tabernacle to the people of Israel was so that the Holy Spirit could speak through these symbols to show that the way to know God required someone and something superior to the priests and food laws and sacrifices and tent. The entire system God gave Moses on Mt. Sinai daily bore witness to the fact that God could not be known through these things but a better priest, tent, sacrifice, cleansing, etc. was required. Verse 11 begins with a strong word of contrast: “But when Christ came…” In other words the point that the author means to make starting in v. 11 is that Jesus is the superior someone and his service as priest and sacrifice is the superior something to which the Law pointed. The first point of contrast is that the human priest merely enters and goes through a tent that is man-made and then into that inner room that is also man-made. However, when Jesus came as high priest he entered the more perfect tent that is not part of this creation, that is into heaven itself. The perfect tabernacle of which the imperfect, earthly tabernacle is but a symbol is not part of this material, matter and energy, universe. There is a place that is outside of this physical universe in which God dwells and into which Christ has entered which is what v. 12 means when it says he entered into the Most Holy Place. What difference would it make in your life if there were no world beyond this world? What if there is no heaven, as the Beatles asked us to imagine in their song back in the 1970's, "Imagine there's no heaven; It's easy if you try. No hell below us; Above us only sky. Imagine all the people; Living for today..."? It would mean there is no meaning or purpose in life. You and I are simply bags of chemicals. There is no purpose, no moral order, no hope, no reason for you or I to do anything but fulfill our own desires. But you see the coming of Jesus Christ into the world; his living a life of perfect obedience and love to his Father; his willing death on the cross, his resurrection and now his passing through that greater and more perfect tent into the Most Holy Place shows us that this creation does not exist by random chance. We are not in a meaningless universe. One day we all will have to answer to the God who rules from heaven for what we have done here. One day all that is wrong with this creation will be made right. Prior to the coming of Christ the door to this heavenly Most Holy Place was locked. What was the key that opened that door? The point of the contrast in v. 12 is the answer to that question. The means by which Jesus was able to enter heaven is compared to the means the high priest used to enter the Most Holy Place in the earthly tabernacle. The high priest entered into the earthly Holy of Holies for a few moments, once each year on the Day of Atonement, the 10th day of the seventh month of the Jewish calendar. He entered by means of the blood of a bull that he killed to cover over his own sins and the blood of a goat he killed to cover over the sins of the people of Israel. But Christ entered into God’s heavenly throne room by means of his own blood, that is, by means of his own death. Just as the high priest gained the right to enter the earthly Holy of Holies by killing a bull and a male goat, so also Jesus earned the right to enter God’s very presence by dying, by spilling his own blood. The earthly tabernacle with its regulations regarding the Day of Atonement sacrifices showed that entry into God’s presence required a death. So Christ died in order to gain entry into God’s very presence in the true sanctuary that is not part of this creation. Jesus is the priest and he is the sacrifice that the priest offers. Unlike the human high priest who can only remain in the Most Holy Place for a few moments each year Jesus entered heaven permanently. His death earned him the right to sit at God’s right hand forever. He is permanently in God’s presence because God is delighted with the obedient death of his Son. He never has to leave. He never has to make another sacrifice. His death on the cross is sufficient to gain entry into God’s heavenly sanctuary forever. If you are trusting in Jesus Christ you have a friend in the highest of all places. He has earned the right to live in a place that is beyond and above this creation. He lives in the place from which this creation came and by which this creation is sustained. He is not just any friend but one who was willing to pay the ultimate price to gain access to the ultimate center of all goodness and power. You and I don’t know anyone else who has come close to doing what he has done and who lives where he lives or has access to the kind of power and goodness to which he has access. There is a reason to get up every morning and to love your family and to do your work cheerfully and to deny your own passions and desires to find life here. There is a reason to not lose heart, to not give up when trouble comes because this Lord Christ has entered the more perfect, not man-made tent by his own blood, once for all. Let me say a word to those of you who are living as if there is no heaven. You are living in a fantasy world of your own imagination. Heaven is watching and waiting and if you do not embrace this Christ with your whole heart you will suffer unimaginable horror's when the king of heaven, whose shed blood you have rejected, returns. Jesus Christ alone is worthy of all your trust because…
II. Only Jesus has solved your biggest problem (vv. 13-14) Verses 13-14 are a form of comparison called the lesser to the greater argument. Here are a couple of examples of this form of comparison: if a .22 caliber gun can put a hole in a metal can how much more will a .50 caliber machine gun with armor piercing ammunition put multiple holes in your car. Another example: if a high school diploma can get me a job that pays $30,000 a year how much more will a PhD get me a job that pays $200,000 a year. The two halves show that the objects being compared share things in common but the second half accentuates the massive difference between the two things being compared. What do the two halves of the comparison in vv. 13-14 share in common? In both halves there are unclean or defiled persons, that is, people unfit to be in God's presence, who are made clean by the application of the blood of undefiled victims. The defiled ones are sanctified or cleansed through the death of an unblemished victim in their place. Those who are made clean then participate in service to God. Notice in v. 13 that he refers to "the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer." This refers to the cleansing ritual described in Numbers 19 where a red, unbred, female cow is killed and its body completely burned to ash in a place outside the camp. The ashes are then mixed with water and sprinkled on people who have touched a dead body to sanctify them so that they can enter into the camp and into the tabernacle. The author includes this ritual in order to expand the rituals he is referring to from just the Day of Atonement to encompass all the cleanliness laws and all the rituals. All the acts of cleansing were done to cleanse people who were physically defiled in a variety of ways so that they could participate in the worship of God in the tabernacle and live among the people of God. In the same way Christ's offering of himself cleanses people to worship God and live among the people of God. But how are they different? First, the blood and the ashes in v. 13 belong to animals who do not choose to die but who are killed by another whereas Christ offers himself up to death. Second the animals are only physically unblemished whereas Christ is morally and spiritually unblemished. He is sinless and actually holy because of his active obedience to God’s will whereas the animals are innocent only because they are irrational, amoral creatures. Third, the animals only sanctify people in an outward way so that they can participate in the acts of worship in the earthly tent. However Christ’s offering cleanses the internal life of the worshipper. His death changes the very nature of the one who trusts in him so that we can participate in the actual worship of the living God, not merely participate in copies and shadows of that worship. The implication is that we are made fit for entry into the same place that Jesus has entered, the heavenly Most Holy Place. In the language of this letter the thing that defiles human beings and thus prevents them from entering into heaven is the fact that we each, by nature, possess a (literally) "a conscience of works of death." This is to say that we each have a heart, an interior part of us that produces actions which are in every sense dead and which inevitably result in our death. If your conscience, your heart has not been sanctified or cleansed by the blood of Jesus, then every action you perform is leading you to death. Every action of every person whose conscience has not been cleansed by the death of Jesus is worthy of the death penalty. Every action of every person outside of Christ is a criminal act against God. This phrase is a description of that historic Christian doctrine called total depravity. It is saying what God says in Genesis 6 just before he wipes out the earth in the flood, "The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time." It's what Jesus said in Matthew 12, "You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good?" It is what Paul said in Romans 3:10, "There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands. No one who seeks God. All have turned away, together they have become useless. There is no one who does good, not even one." And then in Romans 8:6-8, "The mind of sinful man is death…the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God." Every action of everyone who is outside of Christ is an affront to God and worthy of his eternal anger, of death and hell. If you have not had your heart made clean by the sprinkling of Christ's blood, shed upon the cross, then your conscience is not clean and you are not fit for heaven but are headed for eternal death. You and I have no greater problem than this: we all, by nature, have a conscience, a heart, a mind that is hostile to God, that hates to obey God and loves to do evil. The evil actions you perform: the anger and fighting, the lying, the stealing, the drunkenness, the over-eating, the laziness, the accumulation of things, the refusal to get involved in helping others, the defensiveness, the lack of interest in God and his ways all comes from you, from your heart. Nobody makes you do it. It is the greatest lie of our therapeutic culture that your behaviors, your emotions are caused by what someone or something else did or does to you. Your biggest problem is not what others have done to you but what you have done because you have a conscience that produces works that lead to death. It is this that keeps you from God and only the cleansing power of the blood of the great Son of God who offered himself, by the eternal Spirit, unblemished to God can cleanse your conscience. Only that blood has power to not only gain forgiveness but make it new so that you have a conscience that produces acts that are full of divine life. My dear friends, if your conscience has been cleansed by the death of Christ, then you are now free to serve and worship the living God. What you could never do before because you hated him and had no interest in him you now want to do. Your life is now about living to God and for God and in God. Your conscience was not cleansed so that you can get God to heal you or make you rich or because God needed your help to win the world to Christ or feed the poor. Your conscience is clean so that your life can be all about God. John Calvin says it like this: “…we are not washed by Christ, that we may plunge ourselves again into new filth, but that our purity may serve to glorify God.” Your conscience is clean so that God is now the center of your universe and nothing and no one else. In all that you do, from eating your meals to coming to church to going to work, to mowing your lawn, to going on vacation you do it out of your delight in God and your eagerness to please him. This is what you look forward to doing forever. This is what makes heaven pleasing to you, unfettered delight in God that produces actions that are full of his life. Jesus Christ alone is worthy of all your trust because…
III. Only Jesus has ever been able to save sinners (v. 15c) In v. 15 we are told that because Jesus offered himself, by the eternal Spirit, unblemished to God he is now the mediator of a new covenant. It then tells us that the result of this new covenant is that all of God's called ones will receive his promised eternal inheritance. This first half of the sentence is fairly clear. What I spent a long time puzzling over is that last part of the sentence, "…now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant." I could not figure out what the relationship was between Christ's being the mediator of the new covenant and his dying to redeem those who sinned under the first covenant. Why give us this information at this point? Let me first make sure you understand what that last part of v. 15 is actually saying. What it is saying is that the only reason that anyone who lived prior to the coming of Christ is in heaven is because they had their conscience cleansed from acts that lead to death by Jesus' offering of himself, unblemished to God in about 30 A.D. on a Roman cross. Moses and Rahab and Ruth and David and Elijah and Hezekiah and Josiah are not in heaven for any other reason than because Christ's blood has, by his historical death redeemed them from all the sins they committed while living under that first covenant. They are not forgiven because they participated in the rituals of cleansing at the tabernacle. They are not forgiven because they obeyed the law. They, like us, were defiled and unfit for God's presence because they had a conscience that produced actions that are worthy of death. Thus, Jesus has always been the Savior of his people. No one has ever been redeemed or set free from their slavery to sin and the curse of death by any other means, not even those who lived before his coming, under the regulations for worship in the Law of Moses. Why is it so important for us to know this? It is because God does not want us to think that when we are told that Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant that this is plan B. What is going on in the coming of Christ and the end of the regulations for worship and the tabernacle is not that God instituted one plan back there on Mt. Sinai to make people fit for heaven and he suddenly discovered that it didn't work and so now he has come up with another, new plan. It isn't that God when he was confronted with Israel's disobedience said, "Oops, I guess that didn't work. I'll have to come up with a different plan." New does not mean different. What is "new" about the new covenant is that Christ has actually come into the world and done all of what the OC shadows and copies were describing. In the argument of this letter you can really see why this is important. These people are thinking about returning to the Jewish system in order to escape persecution for being Christians. They are not saying they are leaving God behind, only that they are going to leave Jesus behind. They are claiming that they can know God through the Jewish worship rituals. The author is telling them they are wrong. No one has ever known God by these means. All of God's people who are now in heaven are there because Christ shed his blood for them and for no other reason. If they return to the OT law they are returning to a system that cannot save because it never could save but was given only to reveal that Christ is the Savior. The God who made the world and who gave the law to Moses on Mt. Sinai and who sent Christ into the world is in control. He is not reacting to human actions; he is acting. His plan to redeem his people was put into motion before he made the universe and he is carrying it out even today. He is never caught by surprise. He is working out all things in conformity with the purpose of his will. You can trust Christ because he has always been the Savior of all of God's people. He came into the world at exactly the moment God wanted and he accomplished our salvation in exactly the manner that God determined. He is as this author says in chapter 13, the same, yesterday and today and forever. Dear friends, there is nothing and nobody like that in all the world. Jesus Christ alone is worthy of all your trust because…
IV. Only Jesus can give you what you really want and need (vv. 11, 12, 14 & 15) Throughout these five verses the author has used a string of phrases to describe the benefits that we receive as a result of Christ's shedding his blood and passing through the more perfect tent and entering into God's Most Holy Place. I want you to see them and appreciate what Christ has provided for us. In v. 11 Christ is described as the "high priest of good things that are already here." This is simply another way of saying that he is the mediator of the new covenant. He is the one who brings to us all the good things that God has promised to give to his people throughout all of history. Then in v. 12 these "good things" are summarized in the phrase, "eternal redemption." Redemption is an economic term that refers to the practice in Israel of settling debts. If you were a farmer and borrowed money from a neighbor so you could buy seed and oxen to plant your fields and then there was a drought and so you did not harvest a crop to sell and so you could not pay your neighbor back what you owed him, then you would sell yourself to your neighbor as his slave to pay back the debt. You could be redeemed by a rich uncle who would come and pay off your debt for you and set you free from your slavery. So the idea is that you are set free from slavery and the misery of slavery and poverty. Notice this is an eternal redemption. You and I, by Christ's death are set free forever from the tyranny of sin and the misery of sin and we are made into free citizens of heaven. We are released from our debt to God and now belong to him not as slaves but as children. The debt we owed to God was not due to some accident or misfortune. Rather we are in debt to God because we have squandered all that he has given us to serve him for our own pleasures. We are like people who borrow money from the bank to start a business and instead we go lose it all at the casino. The bank will not be pleased with us. God, through Christ's death has released us from our debt and made us free citizens. It is true forever and it is already true for us. We already are enjoying the benefits of that freedom from sin's tyranny and God's displeasure. We've already noted in v. 14 the chief benefit of Christ's work is that we have a clean conscience so that we can now and forever serve the living God. In v. 15 the good thing that has already come through Christ's work is that now, all of us who are called are recipients of God's promised, eternal inheritance. "Those who are called" refers to all those whom God effectually calls. This "calling" being referred to here is God's word of command that creates what it commands. God commands, "Let there be light" and light comes out of darkness. Jesus commands 4 day dead Lazarus, "Lazarus, come out" and the dead man appears at the door of the tomb still wrapped in the embalming linen and spices. God commands, through the preaching of the gospel that we believe in Christ and he causes his chosen ones to believe by the regenerating work of his Spirit. So all the called ones are all those who have put their faith into Christ. All who believe are the recipients of God's promised eternal inheritance. What is this referring to? First, this inheritance has been promised. All the promises that God made to his people throughout the OT are referring in one way or another to this eternal inheritance. When we read those OT passages describing a world where lions and lambs graze together and where there are no more tears and where people live together in perfect harmony and love, we should understand it to be referring to this promised inheritance. Second, it is an eternal inheritance. You will see the word "forever" regularly attached to the OT promises. God told Abraham he would give him and his descendants the land of Canaan forever. He told the city of Jerusalem in Isaiah 60:15ff., "I will make you the everlasting (eternal) pride and joy of all generations… the Lord will be your everlasting light and your days of sorrow will end… Then will your people be righteous and they will possess the land forever." All of the promises in the OT were never about this land, nor about national Israel. They were always about the eternal inheritance and about true Israel, those who are called, the church. Third, it is an inheritance. This means first that all those who are called are children of God and therefore right now are enjoying all the benefits of being an heir of God and a co-heir with Christ. However it also means that we are not in full possession of our inheritance right now. It is yet to come. The fullness of the promised eternal inheritance is not yet ours. The mistake that all those who preach that Christ died so you can be healthy and rich now is that they ignore this word, inheritance. It is a lie to tell people who are heirs of God that you get the inheritance now. Inheritance always refers to something that is yet to come. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ you can be absolutely certain that there is a glorious future for you. God's promised, eternal inheritance belongs to you and one day you will enter into its fullness. It is as Peter says, "reserved in heaven for you." This should fill our hearts with joy and hope. There is much sadness in this fallen world but as Paul says these present sufferings "are not even worth comparing to the glory to be revealed to us." As most of you know, our oldest son Jared was disabled in a skiing accident 5 1/2 years ago. I hesitate to talk about our situation for fear you will think we are looking for your pity or your praise. I simply want you to know that it is really true that if you are the recipient of God's promised eternal inheritance you really can live full of joy and hope while you grieve when the worst thing you can imagine happening to you, happens. My disabled son Jared is not permanently disabled, unable to initiate or talk or see. One day he will possess in fullness all God has promised to those whom he has called. This inheritance is his because Jesus offered himself unblemished to God by the eternal Spirit so that he has now entered the Most Holy Place, once for all, by his own blood. Jesus Christ alone is worthy of all your trust because…
© Copyright 2007 John Swanson.
|