November 6, 2011
Dear friends in Christ.
Believe it or not, the Letter to the Hebrews is one
of the few books of the Bible to which we do not know the author. Though there are many people who believe that
it must have been the Apostle Paul who wrote it, there is more than enough
evidence to support the idea that it was written by Apollos or even
Barnabus. But whoever wrote this letter
was one who had both the solid conviction of salvation through Jesus Christ
alone, and knowledge of how Jesus completely fulfilled all foreshadowing of the
Jewish religion. In fact, as the author
writes in our lesson this morning, he shows us in no uncertain terms how Jesus
is, in fact, our High Priest.
Now, in order to understand just how Jesus is our
High Priest, we have to look back into the Old Testament so that we might see
what the duties of the High Priest were.
In those days the High Priest was the one who acted as a representative
between the people of Israel and the Lord God, as he was the one who presided
over the worship lives of the people.
Though there were quite a number of priests who took care of the temple
courts and offered the daily sacrifices, it was the High Priest who took care
of the inner sanctuary and offered the sacrifices required for the great Day of
Atonement. On that special day, the High
Priest made atonement for the sins of the people as he carried the blood of the
sacrifice into the most holy place and sprinkled it on the mercy seat of the
Ark of the Covenant. On that special
day, all sins from the previous year were purged away by an offering that
foreshadowed the sacrifice that would be made by our Savior. For on that day the High Priest was to take a
bull and two goats for the sin offering.
He would take the bull, sacrifice it on the altar for his own sins. Then he would cast lots for the goats, and
sacrifice the one that had been chosen by lot.
He would then take the blood of the sacrifice and carry it into the most
holy place where he would sprinkle it on he Ark to atone for the sins of the
Israelites. After this had been done, he
would come back out, place his hands on the remaining goat, confess all the
sins of the people over the goat, and when this was completed, someone would
lead that goat out into the wilderness where it would be left to die,
symbolizing the departure of Israel's sin and their right relationship with the
Lord.
In such a vivid way the Lord foreshadowed exactly
what Jesus would do for his people as our High Priest. For the writer to the Hebrews tells us:
"For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the
true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence. 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. Then
Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But
now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by
the sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that
to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many
people;" (Hebrews 9:24-28)
In the same way that the High Priest sacrificed the
Sin offering for the sins of the people, so also Jesus, our High Priest,
sacrificed himself for our sins. In the same way that the High Priest would
offer the blood of animals sacrificed on the altar for the sins of the
Israelites, Jesus, our High Priest offered his blood which he poured out for us
on the altar of the cross. And, as we
discovered in Bible Class this past Wednesday, it is very possible that in the
same way that the High Priest sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice on the Ark
of the Covenant, so also Jesus sprinkled his own blood on the Ark of the
Covenant in payment of our sins. Though
I cannot prove what I just said, as we learned in Bible Study on Wednesday, it
is possible that the Ark of the Covenant was hidden in a cave that was directly
under where Jesus was crucified. It is
possible that the blood that Jesus shed and that poured out from him when the
soldiers pierced his side flowed down through the crack that opened when the
earth quaked at Jesus’ death and dripped down on to the ark below. Though I cannot prove that things happened
this way other than to the testimony of a man named Ron Wyatt, whose
discoveries we looked at in Bible Study, considering how God the Father
orchestrated the perfect time in history for his Son to be born, die and rise
again so that Jesus could completely fulfilled all of God’s law, it becomes
completely plausible that the Lord could have made certain that our High
Priest’s blood fell on the Mercy Seat of the Ark for our atonement.
Though I realize that this is conjecture and there
is nothing in Scripture that clearly says this is the way it happened, we can
take comfort in the fact that Scripture does tell us that through his offering,
Jesus, our High Priest, made us perfect in the eyes of the Lord our God.
Through his atonement, Jesus, our High Priest brought to an end the daily
sacrifice. For even though the Lord had
commanded the slaughter of animals for the forgiveness of sins, by the simple
fact that those offerings had to be repeated show us that the blood of animals
could never take away sins once and for all.
But when Jesus, our High Priest appeared, he sacrificed himself once for
all! When Jesus cried out, "It is
finished!" we knew that our salvation was complete! We knew then that through Jesus' sacrifice
our sins have been forgiven and our guilt has been washed away!
This is the beautiful truth that the writer to the
Hebrews is proclaiming in our text today.
For when he wrote these words the Christian Church was feeling the
pressure of persecution and the hardships of suffering for the name of
Jesus. Because of this, there were many
Jewish Christians who were simply lapsing back into Judaism rather than
remaining true to the Christian faith.
Though there was undoubtedly some comfort and assurance that the Jews
found in all the rituals and sacrifices that they had grown up with, those who
lapsed back into Judaism were giving up so much more than they ever
realized. For those Christians who gave
up Christianity for the safety of Judaism were actually giving up and letting
go of their eternal Salvation. This, in
fact is what the writer to the Hebrews tells them as he writes: "For
Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one;
he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence. 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. Then Christ
would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he
has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the
sacrifice of himself." (Hebrews
9:24-27).
You see, it was with these words that the writer was
telling the people that Jesus was their High Priest who had not only sacrificed
himself for their sins, but that he was now sitting at the right hand of God
interceding on their behalf. As we know,
after Jesus rose from the dead, he stayed around on the earth appearing to his
disciples and many of the faithful believers during a period of forty
days. But after that time, Jesus
returned to his Fathers throne in heaven where he now sits at the Father's
right hand interceding for us. But he
does not do it as the High Priests of the Old Testament did. For when they interceded for the people, they
came before the throne of God only one time each year and then only with the
blood of the sacrifice. When they did
so, they sprinkled that blood on the cover of the Ark of the Covenant where the
two cherubim stood. It was there, at the
mercy seat of God, that the priest who carried the sins of the Israelites
before the Lord interceded for the people with the blood of the sacrifice. But, because that blood could not do away with
sin once for all, the High Priest had to offer that same sacrifice annually and
approach the throne of God to make intercession for the people of Israel.
Jesus, however, did not need to do this. For when he had sacrificed himself, once for
all, Jesus entered heaven once for all so that he might sit at the Father's
right hand and make intercession for us.
Now, whenever God the Father looks down on the earth and sees our sins,
Jesus does not need to offer his blood again and again to intercede for us. He does not need to sacrifice himself again
and again, as some churches believe, to cover our iniquity. Rather, Jesus simply points to that single
moment in time. He turns to God our
Father and says, "Yes, they are sinners.
They do deserve your wrath and punishment. But remember the sacrifice you sent me to
make. Remember how I willingly gave my
live and shed my blood for their sins.
Remember how I earned the forgiveness that they could not, and made them
right in your sight." It is then,
that through Jesus intercession on our behalf, that God the Father turns away
from his anger and sees our sins no more.
For through the intercession of Jesus, our High Priest, our God is
continually reminded of Jesus' sacrifice made one time for all people, and we are
credited with his righteousness and look forward to life forever with him in
heaven.
Yes, this is what we as Christians are looking
forward to even today. Though there are
times that our sinful natures get the better of us and make us fearful of death,
death is something we never need to fear!
We never need to fear it because we have been made right through faith
in Jesus Christ our High Priest. He is
the one who sacrificed himself on the cross in order to save us from our
sins. He is the one who sits at the
Father's right hand and intercedes on our behalf, and he is the one for whom we
are waiting. For one day, not long from
now, Jesus our High Priest will return proclaiming our salvation. This, in fact, is what the writer to the
Hebrews assures us of when he writes: "Just as man is destined to die
once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take
away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear
sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him." (Hebrews
9:27-28).
This is the day that we are waiting for! For on that day when the last trumpet sounds,
if we are still living on the earth, we will look up to heaven and see our
Savior and High Priest returning in the clouds.
We will watch as the bodies of all who died before us are raised from
the earth, their souls are reunited with their bodies, and all are gathered
before Jesus Christ for Judgment. For in
the same way that the Old Testament High Priest was often called on to decide guilt
or innocence in criminal trials, Jesus will decide the guilt or innocence of
all who have ever lived on the earth.
For on that day, Jesus will separate the believers from the unbelievers
as easily as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats. Those who did not believe in Jesus will be
sent away to eternal punishment, but he will gather those who believed in him
to himself and take them to his heavenly kingdom where we will live with him
forever.
But even if we don't live to see that day from the earth,
we do not need to worry. For when we
finally do close our eyes in death, Jesus will send his angels to carry our
souls to his side in his heavenly kingdom.
There will live with the Lord forever, returning to the earth only
briefly on the Last Day to collect our bodies from the earth. For on that day when they are raised from the
ground Christ will transform them into the glories bodies that we will have in
heaven from that time on and forever.
Though on that day we will be gathered before the Lord with all people
we will have nothing to fear, because we will be among the believers on his
right hand to whom our High Priest will say, "Come, you who are blessed by
my Father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the
beginning of the world."
This is the super sufficiency of Jesus Christ our
High Priest. Though all who served as
High Priest in the Old Testament fulfilled the roles the Lord would have them
play, they were only shadows of what was to come in Jesus Christ our Lord. For Jesus is our High Priest. He is the one who sacrificed himself for our
sins. He is the one who entered heaven
as our intercessor, and he is the one who will return to give salvation to all
who are waiting for him.
Amen.
Pastor
David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN
