Deadheading
Notes
Transcript
Intro: There are things that need to be done when plants are flowering, but what that is depends upon the plants. I know that with tomatoes, if they are flowering and there are many flowers on the same plant you can force the plant to make bigger tomatoes by removing some of the flowers. I’ve been told that if you space out the flowers, or later the small fruit, you can keep peaches from getting as many bugs and make larger peaches. Then there is the practice that Brenna has of deadheading her petunias. Every couple of days she goes out and removes the wilting flowers, doing so allows the plants to give more of their nutrition and energy into growing bigger and producing more flowers. Jesus used a very similar metaphor when He told a parable about a gardener removing the dead branches from grape vines.
The writer of what has become our book of Hebrews gives a similar picture of what has taken place with the ministry of Jesus. Many times Biblical scholars and preachers note that the main message of the book of Hebrews is ‘Jesus is Better.’ If there is one place where the reason for our movement through the Bible with the Gospel Project becomes more necessarily evident as the only way to really understand what the author is saying when we look at Hebrews. READ Hebrews 9:8-14 There are really two things I want us to see this morning and those are the old and how it is being replaced by the new.
The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed while the outer tabernacle is still standing,
which is a symbol for the present time. Accordingly both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience,
since they relate only to food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation.
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation;
and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh,
how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
I. The Old
I. The Old
A. Covenant
1. Mediated by the blood of bulls, goats, sheep and/or birds
2. Calls for keeping the Law
3. Only a shadow
a. do we want the shadow?
b. we want the reality of the shadow.
B. Sacrifices
1. Regular
2. Ineffective
a. reminder
b. non-cleansing
3. A Reminder of sin and mercy
4. Not God’s primary desire
a. Again a shadow
b. God’s desire is obedience so sacrifice is not needed.
C. Approach to God
1. At the Tabernacle/Temple
2. By way of a priest
3. Only with the blood of a sacrifice
Trans – Just as there is a need to remove the old in gardening to make room for the new and sometimes what is only the precursor for what we really want, so too the writer of Hebrews says that the old has been removed and the desired is here.
II. The New
II. The New
A. Covenant
1. Mediated by the blood
a. of Jesus
b. Offered of Jesus’ by the blood of Jesus
2. Calls for acceptance
3. The greater which caused the shadow
B. Sacrifice
1. Unique
a. Once for all time
b. One for all
2. Effective
3. Reminder of love
C. Approach to God
1. Through Christ
2. By Christ
3. By means of the Blood of Christ
Conclusion: One of the great things about the New Covenant that God has initiated through the blood of Jesus is that it is available to everybody no matter of your ethnicity, your societal standing, your gender nor how sinful you have been. Just as Jesus did away with the old covenant so that the new could come and flourish, He can, wants to and will take away your sins and give you a new life.
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