11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
I want to begin this morning with a little quiz. See if you can identify the following products by their advertising slogans.
Easy Ones...
• "Just do it." Nike
• "It's the real thing." Coke
• "When you care enough to send the very best." Hallmark
• "Where's the beef?" Wendy's
• "The next best thing to being there." AT&T
• "It keeps going and going" - Duracell
• "Can You Hear Me Now?" - Verizon
• "What's In Your Wallet?" -- Capital One
Older Crowd...
• "I can't believe I ate the whole thing." Alka-Seltzer
• "Sometimes you feel like a nut" -- Almond Joy
• "MMM, MMM Good -- Campbell's Soup
• "They're Great!" Kellogg's Corn Flakes
• "A Little Dab'lI Do Yah." Brylcream
• "Builds Strong Bodies 12 Ways" -- Wonder Bread
• "We Bring Good Things to Life" -- GE
• "The Quality Goes in Before the Name Goes On" -- Maytag
• "The Dog Kids Love to Bite" -- Armor Hot Dogs
Younger Crowd...
• "Gotta Have my Pops" -- Sugar Pops
• "Obey Your Thirst" -- Sprite
• "Live in Your World, Play in Ours" -- PlayStation
• "You've Got Questions, We've Got Answers" -- Radio Shack
• "So Easy a Caveman Can Do it" -- Geico
• "Nothing Runs Like A Deere" -- John Deere
(Credit: Michael Snow, Sermon Central)
Unless we work in the field advertising or we have a product that we are trying to sell, few of us have any idea the billions of dollars that are spent each year to promote products. But the fact is advertising is not so much a matter of promoting a product as it is creating a need. Advertising is not so much a matter of satisfying hunger or quenching thirst as it is creating a hunger and thirst. This is what God’s instructions for Worship are for us.
We’re continuing in our study of Biblical Patterns of worship. Last week I took you to the Old Testament, specifically at God’s design of the Tabernacle to show you God’s instructions for Israel on His requirements in Worship. Everything in the Tabernacle and ultimately the Temple was for the purpose of showing honor to God. There was nothing about the Tabernacle that was the creativity, preferences, or imagination of the people of Israel. This should give us pause as to why and how that relates to us today.
Advertising uses words and images to capture our attention, generate a branding image and keep our attention to a product or company. God used images and metaphors to help Israel (and us) to understand our responsibility in Worship, who He is, and keep us from drifting away from the intent of worship. Nothing has changed.
You cannot have the New Testament without the Old Testament. Everything in the Old Testament was a foreshadowing of what was to come in the New Testament through Christ Jesus. This lays the foundation, even the footings of what our worship should reflect in 2019. Worship is not about reflecting our culture, ourselves, our preferences. Worship is about one thing: giving honor to Christ. It was in the Tabernacle and it is to be so in the church today.
We as a church are going to rediscover Christ’s invitation of the Father to worship in Spirit and Truth. Despite cultural influences (we’ll talk about that next week), despite trends seen in Christianity today. The way we are going to do that is to dive into Scripture and allow the Word of God through the Holy Spirit to speak to us and direct us. So this morning we’re going back to Hebrews 9 and looking at the Tabernacle as it was fulfilled by Jesus.
I. Our Holy Place of Worship
If you remember from last week. The Tabernacle was the center of life for the Israelis. It was constructed specifically with materials and dimensions outlined by God for the purpose of holiness and worship to a holy God. Before God instituted worship, he redeemed the people out of slavery. Then there is righteousness, then comes worship. You cannot be righteous without redemption and you cannot worship unless you are righteous. This is why God demanded that the priests be ceremonially cleansed. This is why the first thing that happened was the sacrifice at the altar.
Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, (Psalm 24:3-4).
All of these places in the Tabernacle were a model of what is in heaven (Hebrews 8:5). If we are going to worship God, there must be righteousness, and this is what Christ did for us. Don’t lose its significance.
15 Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. 16For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. 17 For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. 18 Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. 19 For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 20 saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.” 21 And in the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. 22 Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.
We must, Church, re-capture the significance of what happened at the cross and resurrection. First Christ laid himself on the altar and paid the penalty of sin. The shedding of Christ’s blood was not temporary, it was permanent. The blood of the bulls and goats were a temporary covering, but they could not make a man permanently righteous. Then into the holy place with the showbread, candlestick, and incense. After that Jesus went into the Holy of Holies. This was the place of atonement. The mercy seat over the Ark of the Covenant was the centerpiece of the Holy of Holies. When Jesus died on the cross, the barrier between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies was torn from top to bottom; it was as thick as a man’s hand. This did not diminish the holiness of this place in heaven if anything it magnified it. Make sure it does the same thing in your heart as well.
Yes, this church is a holy place because what we do here is to be holy. We should treat it as such and care for it as such. Even more so, your heart is a holy place. The Spirit of Christ dwells within you and therefore you should treat it as such and care for it as such too. When we come into this place for worship, our thoughts should drift back to the scene of an innocent animal having its blood spilled for our righteousness, and then move the cross. Now onto the furnishing of these holy places.
II. The Holy Manner of Worship
23 Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, 26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:23-25)
Within the walls of the Holy Place were 3 important furnishings. The Table with Show Bread, the Golden Lampstand, and the Altar of Incense. All three of these items had significance for the Israel’s understanding of God and our understanding of Christ.
The Table of Show Bread was a symbol of presence and of provision. The bread was the foundation and staple food for life. God’s presence was the very reason the Israelites were a nation. He brought them out of slavery, across the Red Sea, and eventually into the Promised Land. All the way, it was God who provided and sustained them.
It is nothing different today. We may think our success is our own, but everything we have comes from God. Our very breath is from God. The bread encourages us to remember where our very essence comes from and why our worship focuses upward.
Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst. (John 6:35).
The lamp reminds us that without God we are in complete darkness. Jesus did not come to make bad people good, he came to make dead people live. The purpose of the lampstand was that it was the only source of light in the holy place, just as Jesus is the only source of light in Heaven (Revelation 21:23).
For believers today also, Jesus said, “Whoever follows me will have the light of life and will never walk in darkness.” (John 8:12). He also said that he is the light of the world (John 9:5). And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. (John 3:19). We worship the light of the world, not because we entitled to it, but because He alone is worthy of it. What we are to remember is that without Jesus there is not light and without light, there is not life. And Jesus tells us that he came to give us life and life abundantly (John 10:10).
In the center of the Holy Place is the Altar of Incense. Incense represents the worship and prayers of the people reaching into the throne of heaven (Psalm 141:2, Revelation 8:4). It reminds us that God does hear our prayers. He cherishes our prayer. Even more so, we have an advocate in heaven. He is standing in the very throne room of heaven. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. (2 Corinthians 1:20).
Do you see what happened here: In the Tabernacle, we have the Bread, the Incense, and the Light. Jesus is the Bread of Life, the Light of the World, and the Incense of our prayers, In our hearts, we are to have the bread of life, be the light of the world, and call out to God in the name of Jesus. Which takes us to the final piece of our worship today, the Holy of Holies. I wish I had time to go into this more deeply.
III. The Holy Provision for Worship
Once a year on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest would entire the Holy of Holy to offer sacrifice for the repentance of sin. In the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant which contained, the manna, Aaron’s budding staff, the stone tablets of the Law. Bread, light, and prayer. The lid of the Ark was 2 cherubim with their wings stretched out over the Mercy Seat or Seat of Power. This was the place where all sin is atoned for and the mercy of God-given.
The Greek word for “mercy seat” means “that which makes expiation” or “propitiation”; the removal of sin. Don’t miss the significance. When Jesus was crucified, the veil was torn top to bottom and the blood of Christ, our Great High Priest once and for all, covering the mercy seat for the Propitiation of our sins.
Paul explains this in his letter to the Romans: “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed” (Romans 3:24-25). What Paul is teaching here is that Jesus is the covering for sin, as shown by these Old Testament prophetic images. By means of His death, and our response to Christ through our faith in Him, all our sins are covered. Also, whenever believers sin, we may turn to Christ who continues to be the propitiation or covering for our sins (1 John 2:1, 4:10). This ties together the Old and New Testament concepts regarding the covering of sin as exemplified by the mercy-seat of God.
We can now approach God’s throne boldly, but with the reverence of the work of Christ on the Cross. Our worship should ALWAYS be empowered with this in mind and never about how it will be relevant to the culture. This image and significance were so powerful that even the Apostles and early church continued to worship at the temple.
Take it to the Cross
Close
Pray
Sermon Notes
I. Our Holy Place of Worship
II. The Holy Manner of Worship
III. The Holy Provision for Worship
Study Questions
1. What is the most significant portion of worship for you today?
2. How modern trends added to the worship experience? How have we taken away from the worship?
3. What typology of Christ in the Tabernacle stands out to you the most?
4. What other typologies do you see between the Tabernacle design and the work of Jesus not mentioned in the message this week?
