Latest / The Daily Word / July 12 – The Better Sacrifice
Transcript
- Cory Barnes: Hello and welcome to this beautiful July 12th. Pastor Jenny here, and we are in Hebrews chapter 9. So, how are you doing in your reading of Hebrews? Have you been reading Hebrews? Are you still wondering why you're reading Hebrews? I think ⁓ depending on where you're at ⁓ in your journey of the reading of the scriptures, ⁓ Hebrews can still be A little tricky, I think, to grab a hold of. ⁓ can be very theological, can be a lot to grasp. ⁓ if you're finding difficulty in reading it, I would encourage you, depending on the translation you've been using, maybe to try a different translation, one that's a little easier to grab a hold of. Maybe you're used to reading the New King James. You want to try something like the ⁓ ELT or ⁓ maybe even you know, cross-reference it, use like the message. ⁓ but I wanna jump in with you today because I am excited because again, as a reminder, the writer of Hebrews is encouraging the early Christian believers who had previously been in Judaism, helping them to understand and see. ⁓ to want to encourage them not to turn away because of the trials and sufferings and persecution they were suffering, ⁓ to remind them. You don't need to go back to Judaism. That you know, Christ is who he says he is, you know, k essentially keep fighting the good faith, stay in faith, ⁓ but really helping them to understand their Christianity, but not just understand it, but understand how even what they believed led them to where they are today and how God has used all things. So ⁓ with that in mind, I really leaned into a passage of the scripture today. out of Hebrews chapter nine. So let's pick up in verses twenty three. I'm just gonna share a small portion verses twenty three through twenty-five. It says this, it's prior to this passage, like right above, it's really been talking about ⁓ the comparison between ⁓ what the high priest had been doing, the significance of the temple, what the high priest did. Remember Jesus has now come and he's our new, he's the our new high priest. So the symbol of the high priest that they would have been very familiar with, ⁓ what they had had been used to and what they were doing. ⁓ the writer's now saying, Hey, Jesus is that new high priest. ⁓ and so we pick up at verse 23 and it says this, therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these, pause for. So therefore it was necessary the copies of the things in the heavens. What the writer had just finished explaining is that everything you've experienced up until this point was a copy and a shadow of what's actually taken place in heaven. All of our prior worship in the Old Testament was a copy and a shadow of things that were done in heaven. It wasn't just by accident or happenstance. It wasn't just a tradition of man. It wasn't God saying, ⁓ this would be a good idea. This is something you can relate to. No, God was very specific in how the temple and the tabernacle and how they worshiped all of that was very intentional. It was ⁓ not just a happenstance. And so he's the writer's helping them to understand and see, hey, this was this is set up, this is how it's set up in heaven. This is it's a copy. ⁓ but because of that copy, the sacrifices that are being done here on earth, those too are a copy. And there needed in order to fulfill that which was taking place in heaven, there needed to be you can't just have a copy for the ultimate fulfillment. There needed to be a better sacrifice. All right, that was verse 23. Pick up in verse 24. For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. So again, remember Christ is that high priest. It's saying Christ has not a Christ was did not ⁓ was not made with hands. He what he wasn't he wasn't made by human hands, he was made by God. ⁓ but and he's appeared into heaven itself. He didn't he didn't just appear as a as a priest here on earth, into that temple, ⁓ into that holy of holies made here on earth. He's appeared into the holy of holies. into heaven. And he now to appear in the presence of God for us. So as high priest, he's appeared in heaven on our behalf to atone for our sins, past, present, future, for what we know we've done, what we know we have and and what what's unknown to us. That's what's explained in verses one through twenty-two. All right. Verse 25, not that he should offer himself often as the high priest enters the most holy place every year with Blood of another. So again, it reminds us, and it would have reminded them that the high priest was entering that holy of holies once a year. So, you know, daily, regularly, the priest are going in and offering sacrifices. But only once a year did the high priest go in to really kind of like we we gotta make sure we've covered all the sins. ⁓ we haven't missed anything. He would go into the Holy of Holies, and so again. This is saying, but Jesus once and for all is our high priest, and he doesn't have to keep dying over and over again. He has ascended not into just the copy and the shadow, but into the actual holy of holies. And now it goes on to say that he's seated at the right hand of the Father. He's there. ⁓ and he doesn't have to keep being offered up over and over again. So it's great for us to be reminded of the sacrifice Jesus has made I think it's phenomenal not only for the readers then to understand the connection of what their their prior worship and what they experienced and how that comes into their current worship and experience. But what is an application we can take from that today? It's certainly important theologically for us to understand those connections. But as I was reading that today, a practical application. That I pulled and really felt the Lord reminding me of today was that, ⁓ you know, I did come out of a different church tradition than the one we currently find themselves in. I came out of a different denomination than the Four Square denomination. I grew up in a different denomination. And I don't know about your previous church tradition. Maybe you didn't have a previous church ⁓ tradition. Maybe your first experience with God in church ⁓ has simply been as you've is wherever you're at now. Maybe you're not even at, you know, Lake Shore. I don't want to presume that. but what I'm reminded of is as I have entered into worshiping God, I believe that God uses every opportunity we have to worship Him. ⁓ He builds it. He builds one on top of the other. He takes us from faith to faith and glory to glory. And just as the this writer is saying, hey, the all those things you were experiencing and seeing were just a shadow and copy of the things in the heavens. There what we experience in one church tradition from another, we don't have to demean or degrade or say, Hey, one is better than the other. As long as what we took from what we experienced ⁓ is based on the word of God, ⁓ we can look at what we gleaned and gained and say, Hey, there there was value in what God was teaching and forming in and through me in that season of my life. And so ⁓ I'm grateful for every opportunity I've had to be in different ⁓ I'll say church ⁓ to traditions. Foursquare itself is an interdenominational church. We're not afraid to be around other fa tradition faith traditions. So we're not we are a Pentecostal movement, but we're okay to be around others that are not Pentecostal. And there's and we're not gonna look down upon or frown upon that because When someone is professing Jesus as Savior and crying out to God, they're when we're lifting up, when we're standing in agreement on the primary things, hey, we can worship together. So want to encourage you today, if you've wrestled with or struggled with as you're coming into I'll say new revelation, because that's what these Christians would have done. I think sometimes there's a temptation to look backwards and go. ⁓ I've I've met people who have been frustrated or felt like, you know, how could they have not told me? You know, we've had people come to our church that had no previous knowledge of the Holy Spirit and they they have felt hurt or slighted by previous churches or maybe mentors that were in their life. ⁓ I would encourage you, don't hold offense towards those people. or churches or traditions, but pray that the Holy Spirit himself would bring ⁓ enlightenment and revelation to them. don't hold on to hurt or offense, but thank the Lord for what he was doing in and through you and look for what God was doing in and through you in that season. So I'm out of time today, but let's pray. Lord we thank you for your word. We thank you God that you ⁓ are using your word you have used your word to speak to people in the past. You're using to speak to us now, and you'll use it to speak to people in the future. Because you are the same God yesterday, today, and forever. And your word, while everything else will pass away, your word is faithful and true and will remain. So Lord, as your word remains, would you continue to speak to us, not just in these moments, but in the moments to come, draw it back to our remembrance. ⁓ these words and the other words that you've been speaking to us. Thank you, Holy Spirit, that you are faithful to lead and guide us into all truth. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.