Sermon on Hebrews 10:19-25 Southwood 7 January 2007
By Peter Jefferys
Hebrews 9:19-25
19 When Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. 20 He said, "This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep." 21 In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. 22 In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. 23 It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 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. 25 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.
This is a wonderfully festive time of year and to those of us who are blessed with family and children it's a great joy to see the happiness on their faces. I asked my granddaughter Katie what she liked best about Christmas and after a bit of thought she said, "Well, the presents really".
And of course children love presents at Christmas time, don't they, and it's so wonderful as parents and friends to give presents to children and to see the joy that comes into their eyes as they open them. Of course there is always the toddler who will neglect all the expensive presents you have bought and will rather play with a saucepan lid and a wooden ladle instead, banging it to his hearts content.
But have you noticed how different people react to receiving gifts. With young children it's easy to give gifts because they don't expect to give anything back in return; they just take things as they are, pleased to accept them joyfully and with thanksgiving.
Then when children get into their teenage years you often get the impression that they are beginning to feel that they have to do something in return for the gift you have given them.
And as we reach adulthood we seem to take on a different attitude to receiving gifts. There is often the sense of embarrassment when we receive a gift which appears to be very expensive or something which is of far greater value than the gift that we have given to them. And sometimes, not necessarily at Christmas, maybe at birthdays, when we are receiving gifts without returning them, often the gift which is received seems to be out of all proportion and we have a guilty conscience, almost going into self denial about wanting to accept the gift that's been offered. Often we will remonstrate with the giver and say, "Oh no, I can't possibly accept this - it's much too much". We don't like to be beholden to others and prefer not to be placed in this position.
This whole area of gifting is a peculiar one. We often see posters in shop windows or on TV with offers promoting goods - "25 % off everything in store" it says or else "Take this free offer" and its only when we look at the small print underneath that we realise there are conditions attached to these offers. Maybe we have to buy goods to a certain value before the reduction becomes effective.
Throughout the book of Hebrews, the recurring theme which has been running throughout concerns God's gift of the forgiveness of sins. The writer of Hebrews goes to great lengths throughout the book to explain how the old system, the first covenant which God made with Moses for the forgiveness of sins by the sacrifice of animals, could never work and was never fully pleasing to God. But the second covenant, that which was made by Jesus' death on the cross where he took all the sins of mankind away once and for all, was the only proper and perfect solution to this whole problem of sin.
But even today there are a number of misconceptions among Christians about God's forgiveness of sin and so for a better understanding of God's attitude to our sins, it's worth us spending some time looking at this so important subject. There is no better place to look at this than Jesus' parable of the prodigal son which is written in Luke 15: 11-32. This is a very well known parable but maybe there are things in it which we hadn't fully appreciated. So let's have a quick look at it.
One of two sons had decided that he wanted to go off and make his way in the world and he asked his father for his half of the inheritance. This was unheard of in the culture of the Jews of that day. The father had spent his lifetime in building up his assets which would normally be passed on to his sons on his death. But here was one of his sons asking for his part of the inheritance now while the father was still alive. Never-the-less, although the son's actions were seen to be disrespectful, his father did as he was asked. Away his son went to a foreign land where he spent all the money on riotous living. Then there was a famine in the land and he ended up tending a herd of pigs - not cows or sheep, but unclean pigs - and even eating the pig swill to stay alive. When he came to his senses he decided to return home and ask his father for forgiveness. In the story we see that as he approached his home his father saw him coming down the road, and you get the impression from this that the father was in the habit of looking down that road, hoping and longing for his son's return. When he saw his son he was filled with compassion and he ran down the road to him, threw his arms around him and kissed him. And we should understand that what Jesus was portraying here was God's attitude to those people who have sinned and have returned back to Him. Our Holy Father's love has no limits. The son was forgiven even before he had ever returned home. As for the father there was no condemnation. He didn't wait for his son to confess his sins - he had already forgiven him before the confession was made.
The meaning to us is that our sins were dealt with 2000 years ago when Christ died on the cross as a once and for all act. The sins you have committed in the past, the sins you are committing at this moment, and the sins you will commit in the years to come have already been forgiven by God. I'll say that again - the sins that you have not yet committed, but will do, were forgiven by God 2000 years ago on that cross at Calvary. What a wonderful gift this is to us who believe. There's nothing we have to do, we can't earn this gift - it is a genuine free offer, given to us out of the grace and mercy of God our Father. And so we should stop beating ourselves up about this whole business of forgiveness of sins - we should be like little children, just accepting this wonderful gift without any inhibitions.
But some people say, "God can't possibly forgive what I have done wrong". And others are burdened by the sense of guilt. Although they confess their sin they don't really let go of it and carry it around with them throughout their lives. Let me put you straight. All sin is abhorrent to God but the cross is big enough to deal with everything from stealing a paperclip from work to the Holocaust in which 6 million Jews died; there is nothing you have done or could do which the cross cannot deal with. So let us just be thankful for this great gift that has been given to us by our Lord and Saviour.
Other people seem to have a concern about the confession of sins. What if they can't remember all their sins; and what about those sins which we may have committed against others which we are not aware of? What about sins of omission, the things we should have done but didn't? Where does confession come into all of this? In the story of the prodigal son the father had forgiven his son before he had confessed. The purpose of confession is this - when we sin our conscience or inner spirit causes us to move away from the presence of God and we lose fellowship with him. But God desires our fellowship. By confessing those sins that we do recognise we are lifting this burden of guilt from our conscience, our inner spirit so that we can move back close to God once more.
So, having I hope cleared up some misconceptions about God's great gift of forgiveness, of his attitude towards sin, let us have a look at today's reading in a new light. It says in verse 19 that we now have confidence to enter the most holy place, and it speaks in verse 20 about the curtain in the temple being torn open. This refers of course to the curtain which separated the Most Holy Place, where God resided in the temple, from the Holy Place where the people were allowed to come. And it was a constant barrier between God and the people. But we read in Matthew 27:51 that as Jesus died on the cross the curtain in the temple was ripped from top to bottom, symbolically showing that the people now had direct access to God, by Jesus act of cleansing us on the cross. We are told to draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance that our hearts have been cleansed from guilty conscience and that our bodies have been washed with pure water. This is the gift of forgiveness that I have been talking about.
Well this is the time of year when we think about New Year resolutions and I want to suggest some New Year resolutions for us. But whereas most resolutions get binned within the first few weeks of the new year, I hope and trust and pray that these resolutions will be on our hearts and will stay with us forever.
The first resolution is:
And of course children love presents at Christmas time, don't they, and it's so wonderful as parents and friends to give presents to children and to see the joy that comes into their eyes as they open them. Of course there is always the toddler who will neglect all the expensive presents you have bought and will rather play with a saucepan lid and a wooden ladle instead, banging it to his hearts content.
But have you noticed how different people react to receiving gifts. With young children it's easy to give gifts because they don't expect to give anything back in return; they just take things as they are, pleased to accept them joyfully and with thanksgiving.
Then when children get into their teenage years you often get the impression that they are beginning to feel that they have to do something in return for the gift you have given them.
And as we reach adulthood we seem to take on a different attitude to receiving gifts. There is often the sense of embarrassment when we receive a gift which appears to be very expensive or something which is of far greater value than the gift that we have given to them. And sometimes, not necessarily at Christmas, maybe at birthdays, when we are receiving gifts without returning them, often the gift which is received seems to be out of all proportion and we have a guilty conscience, almost going into self denial about wanting to accept the gift that's been offered. Often we will remonstrate with the giver and say, "Oh no, I can't possibly accept this -
This whole area of gifting is a peculiar one. We often see posters in shop windows or on TV with offers promoting goods -
Throughout the book of Hebrews, the recurring theme which has been running throughout concerns God's gift of the forgiveness of sins. The writer of Hebrews goes to great lengths throughout the book to explain how the old system, the first covenant which God made with Moses for the forgiveness of sins by the sacrifice of animals, could never work and was never fully pleasing to God. But the second covenant, that which was made by Jesus' death on the cross where he took all the sins of mankind away once and for all, was the only proper and perfect solution to this whole problem of sin.
But even today there are a number of misconceptions among Christians about God's forgiveness of sin and so for a better understanding of God's attitude to our sins, it's worth us spending some time looking at this so important subject. There is no better place to look at this than Jesus' parable of the prodigal son which is written in Luke 15: 11-
One of two sons had decided that he wanted to go off and make his way in the world and he asked his father for his half of the inheritance. This was unheard of in the culture of the Jews of that day. The father had spent his lifetime in building up his assets which would normally be passed on to his sons on his death. But here was one of his sons asking for his part of the inheritance now while the father was still alive. Never-
The meaning to us is that our sins were dealt with 2000 years ago when Christ died on the cross as a once and for all act. The sins you have committed in the past, the sins you are committing at this moment, and the sins you will commit in the years to come have already been forgiven by God. I'll say that again -
But some people say, "God can't possibly forgive what I have done wrong". And others are burdened by the sense of guilt. Although they confess their sin they don't really let go of it and carry it around with them throughout their lives. Let me put you straight. All sin is abhorrent to God but the cross is big enough to deal with everything from stealing a paperclip from work to the Holocaust in which 6 million Jews died; there is nothing you have done or could do which the cross cannot deal with. So let us just be thankful for this great gift that has been given to us by our Lord and Saviour.
Other people seem to have a concern about the confession of sins. What if they can't remember all their sins; and what about those sins which we may have committed against others which we are not aware of? What about sins of omission, the things we should have done but didn't? Where does confession come into all of this? In the story of the prodigal son the father had forgiven his son before he had confessed. The purpose of confession is this -
So, having I hope cleared up some misconceptions about God's great gift of forgiveness, of his attitude towards sin, let us have a look at today's reading in a new light. It says in verse 19 that we now have confidence to enter the most holy place, and it speaks in verse 20 about the curtain in the temple being torn open. This refers of course to the curtain which separated the Most Holy Place, where God resided in the temple, from the Holy Place where the people were allowed to come. And it was a constant barrier between God and the people. But we read in Matthew 27:51 that as Jesus died on the cross the curtain in the temple was ripped from top to bottom, symbolically showing that the people now had direct access to God, by Jesus act of cleansing us on the cross. We are told to draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance that our hearts have been cleansed from guilty conscience and that our bodies have been washed with pure water. This is the gift of forgiveness that I have been talking about.
Well this is the time of year when we think about New Year resolutions and I want to suggest some New Year resolutions for us. But whereas most resolutions get binned within the first few weeks of the new year, I hope and trust and pray that these resolutions will be on our hearts and will stay with us forever.
The first resolution is:
-To accept God's gift of forgiveness with thanksgiving and gratitude.
Secondly,
-To forgive others, as God has forgiven us for all our sins
Why should we forgive others when they have wronged us? Firstly because Jesus told us to; in the prayer attributed to him he said "Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us."
But also, if we don't forgive others we are in danger of burdening ourselves with bitterness and anger, which can be detrimental to our mental, physical and spiritual health. As we forgive others, we release these negative feelings and restore our fellowship with God.
Lastly,
-To encourage, support and build up each other in our church family in a loving manner.
In verses 24 and 25 of today's reading it says -
The fellowship which we enjoy with God should also be extended to include the fellowship we enjoy with one another. And we should do all that we can to nurture our fellowship and to help each other to overcome hurdles and problems.
Peter Jefferys © 2007
*Scripture quotations taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton, a member of the Hodder Headline Group. All rights reserved. "NIV" is a trade mark of International Bible Society. UK trademark number 1448790.