Heb. 9:24-28 +10: THE FINISHED WORK OF JESUS 4-7-12
Today Lord willing we’re going to think on and talk for a little while about the most important happening that has ever been recorded and that is "THE FINISHED WORK OF JESUS"
* But first I want to give us some solid evidence that Jesus is who He said He was.
At this present time let us realize that we’re well over 2000 years, 20 centuries since the days of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, of the Apostles, of the writings of the N.T.
Much happened during the time of 100 a.d.
B.C. stands for "before Christ." A.D. stands for the Latin phrase "anno domini" which means "in the year of our Lord."
The birth, life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Christ are the "turning points" in world history.
* During the first century Jesus announced that he was the fulfillment of scripture, meaning O.T. and the prophecies to do with the coming Jewish Messiah, also meaning the Christ.
The writing of the Bible, O.T and the N.T. which had covered as many as 1,500 years from the lifetime of Moses until the death of John the apostle who penned the last book, the Revelation, had come to a close, there was to be no more inspired writings.
LISTEN -- Jesus, who is the subject and purpose of the New Testament, proclaimed in
Matthew 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. ***
John 4:25 -26 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. 26Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.
Notice, in these scriptures as well as others He said that He was the Messiah promised by the Old Testament writers.
Let’s be sure and notice exactly what this takes in, He was announcing that the process of writing the Old Testament was already finished. -- The writing of the N.T. would soon get under way; it was not as yet of course.
Listen, if Jesus was not who He said He was then He would have had no way of knowing for sure, that Malachi would be the last and final book of the Old Testament. Malachi never said he was writing the last and final prophetic book. - Malachi lived about 400 years before Jesus.
The Old Testament has hundreds of prophetic verses that spoke of a future Messiah.
And yet Jesus said {HE COME TO FULFILL THE LAW (found in the 1st 5 books of the O.T. --the Penta--teuch, five books) AND THE PROPHETS (Isa. Jer. Dan. Ezk. -- all 17 prophetic books), He knew there would be no more; only God could have known that.
History has never provided us with another messiah or New Testament that was ever widely embraced by people over a sustained period of time.
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* Did it just so happen:
If Jesus was not the Messiah who had been promised by the Old Testament prophets, then why didn’t God continue to raise up prophets, as he did before for so many centuries so we could know who the real Messiah was?
If the New Testament was not the true continuation and fulfillment of the Old Testament, then where is the real New Testament?
And if there was no God controlling the writing of the Bible, then we could have dozens or hundreds of competing Old Testaments, and there could be any number of so called messiahs from any part of the world with each claiming to be the fulfillment of scripture.
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* Consider this:
During the first century, the people of Israel staged an uprising, a war for independence from the Roman Empire, the war ended in 70 A.D., about 40 years after the crucifixion of Jesus. Near the end of the war, the Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem, setting it on fire and leveling it to the ground.
Let’s understand that the Temple was the worship center for Judaism, so without the Temple Judaism was forced to change some important practices.
And now in our day more than 2000 years after the Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem, it has not been rebuilt. -- can we see the providential hand of God at work?
This points out that the first century proved to be the most devastating century of all for Judaism in terms of its long-term consequences.
Did it just so happen that Judaism was forced to change in the very same century that Christianity emerged?
The traditional view is that Judaism has been around since the time of Abraham, about 4,000 years ago, if this is correct then Judaism had been around for about 40 centuries.
That means that the odds that any particular century, such as the first century of this era would prove to be the most devastating for Judaism would be 1-in-40.
This would mean that if the fate of Judaism were controlled just by happenstance, then there would be a 1-in-40 chance that the first century of this era would be the worst of its 40-century history.--let’s remember that God is the Director, His plan is being carried out.
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* DID IT JUST SO HAPPEN THAT:
During the same century in which Jesus died for our sins, Judaism lost the ability to carry out the yearly symbolic atonement for sin at the Temple? -- remember the Romans destroyed the Temple, their place of worship, their place to offer sacrifices. -- Why? Because Jesus was The Lamb of God, He paid the ultimate Sacrifice once and for all.
In other words, during the same century in which Jesus became the real and permanent atonement for sin, Judaism lost the ability to carry out the symbolic and temporary atonement-for-sin ceremony at the Temple.
@@ Matthew 27:50-51 Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. 51And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom;--
The tearing of the veil refers to the heavy curtain which separated the holy place from the Most Holy Place.
The curtain barred the way to the presence of God, and the Law allowed only the high priest to enter and then only on one day each year.
The tearing of the veil from top to bottom (not bottom to top) indicating that God did the tearing) was symbolic of the open access that all men have to God through the death of Christ. No longer is the priesthood or an annual sacrifice necessary. Christ is both the eternal Sacrifice and the eternal High Priest.
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@@ Hebrews 9:24-28 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, (such as the Temple on earth) which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:
25Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; (from sacrifices brought by others)
26For then must he often have suffered (if He should have had to offer Himself often) since the foundation of the world: (koásmoás - orderly arrangement- world) but now once in the end of the world (aion - an age) hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Notice, He has put away our sin, "not SINS" damning sin of unbelief.
27And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: --
As it is with man, so it was with Christ. As man can only die once, so the man Christ could only die once as a sacrifice.
When He appears the second time it will not be to settle the sin question. He is not going to come the next time to walk around the Sea of Galilee or through the streets of Jerusalem to see what men will do with His sacrifice. He is coming in judgment.
There is just one of two places for your sin--either your sin is on you, or it is on Christ. If a person has not accepted the sacrifice of Christ, if people do not trust Him as their redeemer, if Jesus is no authority to an individual, then there is nothing ahead for people like that but the judgment of the Great White Throne, and no one who appears there is going to be saved.
So today if your sin is on you, there is nothing that can remove it but the death of Christ, as being your Substitute, the wages of sin is still death, but Jesus has died in our place, He took our sin on Himself and because He is our Savior, we’re saved from the wrath to come.
Christ’s atonement conquered sin. Only one such atonement was necessary.
Christ came, made under the Law. He appeared at the end of the Law age, and He instituted a new age, the age of grace.
Galatians 4:4-5 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5To redeem them that were under the law,--
The continuing significance of that one act of God in Christ may is seen in v. 28, in which the atonement is linked to the return of Christ, to consummating the salvation which was purchased on the cross.
28So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; (He died for all but all will not receive Him, but many will) and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
To be saved is the certainty of Him appearing with deliverance from condemnation, because our sin problem has been taken away.
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10:1-14
1For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
2For then would they not have ceased to be offered? Because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
The meaning is not that those under the Law had no forgiveness of any kind but rather that final cleansing was not possible, next year and all following the people would have to take an animal to be sacrificed on their behalf to the priest. The consciousness of guilt was not removed. Only Christ the Lamb of God provides that.
3But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. 4For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
Those sacrifices had to be offered year by year continually. But Christ’s single, one-time sacrifice is completed by His continuing position-- He is seated at God’s right hand (vv. 11--14).
5Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: 6In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
7Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) the entire Bible is pointing to Him-- to do thy will, O God.
Psalm 40:7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, 8I delight to do thy will, O my God: --David here in this Psalm was fore telling of Christ.
8 Above when he said, (Previously saying in the law) Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; --in other words, the Levitical offerings did not fully satisfy God the Father as for settling the sin problem.
1 John 2: 2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
Propitiation is here an atoning sacrifice. Jesus bore in His body the punishment due us for our sin; in so doing He propitiated God, satisfied God’s just demand that sin be punished. Thus Jesus is both the advocate for sinners (v. 1) and the only Sacrifice for their sins that God will accept, Propitiation means that Jesus, Gods Lamb is the only satisfying offering that will
Satisfy God once and for all.
9Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, (law) that he may establish the second. (Grace)
10By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:
12But this man, (Jesus) after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;
The Levitical priest never finished his work. The symbolism of the tabernacle involves no element that suggests rest or completion. These priests never sat in the tabernacle. They stood and offered the same sacrifices day after day, their work was never finished.
But after Christ had offered His one sacrifice, He sat down because His atoning work was finished and is now seated and waiting at God’s right hand.
His work as a Priest offering sacrifices is accomplished by His one offering. He now waits to continue as King.
13From henceforth (from that time to wait) expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. 14For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
