Sermon Tone Analysis

The Greatness of the Sacrifice of Christ

We are in the book of Hebrews and I hope that you have all enjoyed it so far.

It is an interesting book despite the fact that we don't know who the author is.

But always remember, the people who were reading it knew who sent it.

We'll find out when we meet him or her in heaven.

My money is on Barnabas just because.

Remember that we talked about Hebrews being made up essentially of three sections.

shows and establishes the development of Jesus as God’s Son. will deal with the development of Jesus as God’s High Priest and deals with the development of Jesus as God’s Great King.

We will be finishing up the longest part, Jesus as High Priest today.

It is the most extensive section and it solidifies the purpose, the need for Jesus to be the Great High Priest for us.

This is the Gospel of Christ.

This is why the second person of the Trinity came to earth and was born as a man, this very purpose; to be and to offer the final, perfect atonement for the sin of the world.

Jesus paid for the sin, singular of the world.

, Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.

NKJV And we have John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus, make this declaration of Jesus' purpose here.

, The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold!

The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

NKJV And we will find out in a bit as we read , He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

NKJV

Why is the Great High Priesthood of Christ so important?

Without it, we would all be doomed to hell but with it, we can spend eternity with God in Paradise!

, Then indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service and the earthly sanctuary.

2 For a tabernacle was prepared: the first part, in which was the lampstand, the table, and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary; 3 and behind the second veil, the part of the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of All, 4 which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which were the golden pot that had the manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant; 5 and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat.

Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.

NKJV

We get a great glimpse of the time of sacrifice and offering that came with the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, the First Contract that God made with man.

This talks about the earthly sanctuary and describes parts of it.

The Holy place where the priests were which held the lampstand, the table, and the showbread.

The showbread or shewbread were 12 loaves of unleavened bread, representing the twelve tribes of Israel.

They were put on the table fresh every Sabbath replacing the old which was to be eaten by the priests in the sanctuary.

Behind the second veil was the Holy of Holies, the Holiest of All, or the Most Holy Place.

That was reserved for the High Priest alone to enter once a year.

In it was the golden censer and the Ark of the Covenant.

The golden censer was a golden vessel that was filled in the sanctuary with hot coals and brought into the Most Holy Place.

Once there, the High Priest would put incense on top of the coals and present it before the Lord.

This was a symbol of the prayers of the people.

There was also the Ark and we see the contents of the Ark here.

There was a golden pot that contained some of the manna that God supplied and the Israelites ate for the forty years in the wilderness.

The stone tablets on which the original Ten Commandments were written and Moses carried down from Mount Sinai.

And last, there is Aaron's staff that budded.

This is a great story you can read in & 17.

Basically, the people were complaining against Moses and Aaron and God was getting tired of it.

In Chapter 16 God killed a bunch that were thinking that they should be as great as Moses and Aaron themselves.

Didn't work out well for them, the ground opened up and consumed them along with some fire.

Now we have a group who are mad because they say that Moses and Aaron killed the people of the Lord.

So God has Moses get the leaders of twelve tribes to each bring a staff, a rod and put their name on it.

He had Aaron put his name on the rod for the house of Levi.

Moses put them in the Tabernacle and the next day when they were taken out, Aaron's rod had sprouted and put forth buds, had produced blossoms and yielded ripe almonds.

God had Moses put that rod in the Ark "to be kept as a sign against the rebels."

The Tabernacle was special.

It was a representation of the throne room of heaven.

And it was a representation of Christ our Lord Himself.

St. Cyril - Greek Christian theologian who lived in the 800's AD.

He and his brother St. Methodius were called the Apostles to the Slavs, the Slavic nations.

That would be the Polish, Czech, Russian, etc.

St. Cyril and his brother are credited with the Cyrillic Alphabet which is the standard script for writing the Slavic languages according to all knowing internet.

This was based off of the Greek alphabet with additional letters to represent sounds that were not found in the Greek.

“Although Christ be but one, yet he is understood by us under a variety of forms.

He is the Tabernacle, on account of the human body in which he dwelt.

He is the Table, because he is our Bread of life.

He is the Ark which has the law of God enclosed within, because he is the Word of the Father.

He is the Candlestick, because he is our spiritual light.

He is the Altar of incense, because he is the sweet-smelling odour of sanctification.

He is the Altar of burnt-offering, because he in the victim, by death on the cross, for the sins of the whole world.”-

by Cyril in Adam Clarke's Commentary

, Now when these things had been thus prepared, the priests always went into the first part of the tabernacle, performing the services.

7 But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people's sins committed in ignorance; 8 the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing.

9 It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience — 10 concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation.

NKJV

As we have learned, the priests went into the first part, the Holy Place, the Sanctuary.

But only the High Priest could go into the Holy of Holies and that was once a year on the Day of Atonement.

In going in, he had to make atonement for himself also along with the people.

Look at verse 8, the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing.

The Holy Spirit indicating at this point that those of the Old Covenant did not fully understand the way into the presence of God that exists now.

They were only aware of the High Priest being in the presence or Moses but did not understand that there would come a time where we could ALL be in the presence by us becoming the Tabernacle of God individually.

That path came through the Holiest of Holies, Christ and His sacrifice as Great High Priest, tearing down the veil that separated man from God.

The Tabernacle was symbolic it says, in that time because all of the ceremonial washings, blood sacrifices and any offerings could not take away the guilt of the soul for the people nor the one offering the sacrifice.

This is good news for us!

That means that now, we don't have to deal with the guilt of sin!

That has washed away with the blood sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

Remember what we said last week.

Our sins are forgiven by God when we accept Him as Lord.

He says He remembers them "no more."

So we need to forget them also.

Let us work on becoming more holy rather than being less sinful.

The one will take care of the other.

, But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.

12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

NKJV

Christ came not to deal with the present but with the future.

The sacrifices that were made back in that day were temporary and were for that time but the sacrifice that Christ made was perfect and forever, bringing with it better promises of eternal inheritance, sonship for us and all the things hoped for.

If the temporary sacrifices in the Tabernacle could sanctify people, 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Before this the attempt was to try to work for salvation instead of living for Christ...who is the Living God.

He mediates for us now under the New Covenant of God's grace through faith in Him, for the redemption of our sins.

To redeem us.

The Greek word translated redemption means to “pay the ransom in full!”

We were and many are, being help captive by sin, but Christ paid the ransom in full for each of us who would walk away from that captivity.

Unfortunately, many chose to stay captive when their release has been made possible.

The best part is, that Jesus (God) did all of this so that He could give us eternal life with Him and make us heirs to all He owns (which is everything).