*This is a sermon that will/has been preached on July 19, 2015. I have not edited my manuscript for posting here, therefore it will be odd to read at certain points. I pray that it may be edifying to you, the reader.*
“For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come
instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same
sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw
near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the
worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness
of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it
is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Consequently,
when Christ came into the world, he said,
“Sacrifices
and offerings you have not desired,
but
a body have you prepared for me;
in
burnt offerings and sin offerings
you
have taken no pleasure.
Then
I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,
as
it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”
When
he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and
offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according
to the law), then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away
with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been
sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
And
every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same
sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all
time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting
from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For
by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being
sanctified.
And
the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,
“This
is the covenant that I will make with them
after
those days, declares the Lord:
I
will put my laws on their hearts,
and
write them on their minds,”
then
he adds,
“I
will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”
Where
there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.”
(Hebrews
10:1-18 ESV)
This
morning, in looking at Hebrews 10:1-18, we are going to see the culmination and
end of the authors discourse through chapters 7-9. For the past weeks we have been learning
about how Jesus is a superior High Priest and how his sacrifice is superior to
the sacrifices of the Old Covenant.
Today I would like to show you this once more and show you the hope that
comes because of these two marvelous truths of Christ’s superiority.
Lets
begin with the metaphor of a shadow spoken of in verse 1, as we read,
“For
since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true
form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are
continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.”
The language of shadow is spoken of more
than just here, as it is a metaphor that we can understand. We can look at how Paul uses the same concept
in the same context by looking at Colossians 2:16-17:
“Therefore let no one pass judgment
on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new
moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance
belongs to Christ.”
(Colossians
2:16-17 ESV)
Here in Colossians, as in Hebrews, we see
the law spoken of, specifically the rites, rituals, feasts, dietary
restrictions, and sacrifices; this is what we would typically refer to as the
ceremonial law of the Old Covenant. What
is more fully unpacked in this passage in Colossians, what I want you to see,
is that the ceremonial law is the shadow but the substance is Jesus
Christ. When you think of a shadow,
imagine, if you will, that you can take that shadow and you can add to it
shadow after shadow of the same thing.
You will never, no matter how many shadows you add together, be able to
create the substance of the thing. In
the same way, no matter how many sacrifices, no matter how many feasts and
festivals, you can never achieve the real substance through the Ceremonial Law.
This
was the state that the Old Covenant people were in. Looking back at our passage in Hebrews,
verses 2 and 3 say:
“Otherwise,
would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once
been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices
there is a reminder of sins every year.”
If they had the substance instead of the
shadow, then the question in verse 2 would have been answered in the
affirmative. However, as this was not
the case, verse 3 tells us there was a reminder of sins every year through this
system that was looking ahead to its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
So
the question we have to ask is: What was wrong with the sacrifices in the Old
Covenant? If we look back to Chapter 9
verse 22 we read:
“Indeed, under the law almost
everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is
no forgiveness of sins.”
(Hebrews
9:22 ESV)
This tells us that the concept of sacrifice
is correct as God had instituted, but it was lacking the most important
element. We read in verse 4 of our
passage:
“For it is
impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
And that, brothers and sisters, is the
answer to the question. Every sacrifice
under the Old Covenant was offered with the blood of animals, and that blood is
insufficient.
Reading
on starting in verse 5:
“Consequently,
when Christ came into the world, he said,
“Sacrifices
and offerings you have not desired,
but
a body have you prepared for me;
in
burnt offerings and sin offerings
you
have taken no pleasure.
Then
I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,
as
it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”
We saw the impossibility of the Old
Covenant sacrifices to do anything but give a reminder of sins, but we are not
left without the alternative given.
In
verse 5 we read here “a body you have prepared for me”. In the Hebrew, this quotation from Psalm 40:6
says: “God has opened my ear”. The
reason what we read in this passage is different is because our author is here
quoting the Greek translation of the passage.
These two sentences, though different, have the same meaning, that is,
God preparing each subject for what He has planned. The reason we have body written here in the
passage is very important though to what the author has been saying and what he
will say. Turn back in your Bible to the
book of Leviticus chapter 17. In the
chapters 7-9 of Hebrews, the author has been talking about the ceremonial law
as found in Leviticus. Thus, when he
speaks of the blood in our passage and when he speaks of the body, my mind, and
I’m sure, the minds of the readers of this letter would go back to this in
Leviticus:
“For the life of the flesh is in the
blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your
souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.”
(Leviticus
17:11 ESV)
God prepared a body for Christ, the life of
that body in the blood coursing through His veins. So when we see that God requires the shedding
of blood, and the impossibility of it being the blood of animals, we are then
told that a body, with life in the blood, was given to the second member of the
Godhead, we can see the crescendo that the author is building here, he is
moving towards the climax that we will see in verses 10-14 of our chapter.
We
read on:
“When
he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and
offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according
to the law), then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away
with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been
sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
I want to pause briefly here to speak of
this will that God has, that Christ came to accomplish. Lets turn first to Luke chapter 22:42:
“Father, if you are willing, remove
this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
(Luke
22:42 ESV)
Christ, in speaking with His Father makes
if very clear that he has come to do the Fathers will. Now turn to Acts chapter 4:24-28:
“And when they heard it, they lifted
their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and
the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our
father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,
“‘Why did the Gentiles rage,
and the peoples plot in
vain?
The kings of the earth set
themselves,
and the rulers were
gathered together,
against the Lord and
against his Anointed’—
for truly in this city there were
gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both
Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to
do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.”
(Acts
4:24-28 ESV)
This will of God, this plan that he put
into place was made by God, worked out by Him, through the sinful actions of
sinful men. Never the backup plan, but
what God had predestined to take place by His sovereign will. That, brothers and sisters, is the will that
Jesus came to do.
Back
to our passage now, starting at verse 10 we are now at the top of the mountain
that we have been climbing since the beginning of chapter 7:
“And
by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all.
And
every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same
sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all
time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting
from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For
by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being
sanctified.”
I want to bring out four things from these
verses to show you our hope and where it should be founded.
First:
The sacrifice of Jesus Christ is superior to the sacrifices in the Old
Covenant. See how the sacrifices in the
old were constantly repeated every year, but Jesus was offered “once for all”
one sacrifice for all time. The old
sacrifices could never take a way sins, but Jesus’ sacrifice was for that exact
and singular purpose.
Second:
Jesus Christ is a High Priest far superior to the High Priests of the Old
Covenant. We see the priests of old
standing daily at their service, their work never being completed. But Jesus, while on the cross, cried out “It
is Finished!” and He sat down on His throne taking His rightful place as the
Priest King who had offered the most precious and perfect sacrifice, once, for
all time.
Third:
Christ is on His throne and his enemies will
be made his footstool. Jesus Christ
will win. There is nothing that can or
will stop that. We know that:
“at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
(Philippians
2:10-11 ESV)
And who are the enemies of Jesus
Christ? He tells us in Matthew 12:30:
“Whoever is not with me is against
me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”
(Matthew
12:30 ESV)
Either repent and believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ or you will be made a footstool for His feet.
Fourth
and finally: Christ’s sacrifice has made perfect those who are being sanctified
or as the NIV puts it “being made holy.”
Lets read the rest of our passage starting at verse 14:
“For
by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being
sanctified.
And
the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,
“This
is the covenant that I will make with them
after
those days, declares the Lord:
I
will put my laws on their hearts,
and
write them on their minds,”
then
he adds,
“I
will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”
Where
there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.”
God remembers our sins and our lawless
deeds no more, He puts them out of His mind.
When He puts His laws on our hearts and minds, when He perfects we who
are being sanctified, there is nothing we can do to lose that which He has
given. God will preserve His
saints. As He has told us in Romans 8:
For I am sure that neither death nor
life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to
separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Romans
8:38-39 ESV)
Therefore,
to conclude: In the Old Covenant the
sacrifices were insufficient, the priests were never done their work and there
was no sacrifice for sins. But now, we
have a superior High Priest who finished his work by offering a superior
sacrifice. He is now seated on His
throne in victory. You are commanded to
“confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God
raised Him from the dead…”(Romans 10:9).
If you do this, you will “never be snatched out of the Fathers
hand”(John 10:29). If you do not, you
are the enemy of God who will be made a footstool for His feet. Repent, be baptized and enjoy the perfect
hope in your preservation and perseverance and the hope that Jesus will win and
His enemies will be conquered. Amen.
