Text: Heb 10:11-18               “Christ’s Sacrifice”                 Calvary 111509

Story about the native American soldier who sacrificed his life for his unite. This was when Native Americans were first allowed to serve in the military.

The idea of sacrifice in religion is not new, it is also not unique to Christianity. But rather is something that has been well known and practiced for thousands of years. Evidence have been found of sacrifice in ancient groups like the Aztecs, the Maya’s, the Inca’s, the Celts among others.

And perhaps the audience that the writer of the book of Hebrews was writing to, were more familiar with this idea of sacrifice than we are today. for the people of Israel all throughout their history and up until the time of Jesus. Sacrifice was something done on a regular basis, some weekly, others monthly and even annually.

That’s why the Temple was such an important image for them. It represented the way for them to get in right relationship with God. The only problem is that it was a temporary reconciliation. It was never enough to completely restore their relationship with God.

It also wasn’t easy to do, it required, time, preparation, and it wasn’t cheep.
Depending on what you were repenting from, your preparation could have taken hours or even days. For many people you had to travel to get to the temple.
If this was still the case today our worship service would look completely different.
You would be coming into worship with Doves, goats, and calf’s… Let me tell you this place would smell quite differentJ
There would be a place outside to make sure they are the right age, health, and don’t have anything wrong with them.

In the Jewish calendar the holiest day is the celebration of Yom Kippur, which means the day of Atonement. This took place in the temple. At the front of the temple or the tent there was the place called the Holy of Holies where there was one entrance covered with 2 curtains one after the other.

Once a year the high priest would go in after spending 3 days preparing for this event, and would worship in the Holy of Holies giving sacrifice and lighting incents to atone for his sins, the sins of the priests and the people. This place and event were extremely sacred.
One of the things that they did was to tie a rope around the leg of the high priest in case he collapses they would be able to pull him back without having to enter the Holy of Holies.

Two chapters back the writer reminds the people of this tradition and ritual, how on this appointed Day of Atonement the high priest enters alone, beyond the chamber where priests serve into the Most Holy Place to minister before the Mercy Seat, the place of meeting between God and everyone else, who wait anxiously outside for the return of the high priest, who has approached God on their behalf.

It is on this background that he makes the case for Christ. He was telling the people that you recognize your sinfulness and your need for God’s forgiveness which is obvious by the great attention and reverence you give to this event of atonement. and you keep doing it over and over, every year because we recognize that the intersession of these priests who are just as sinful as the rest of us, and the blood if these animals, is not enough to wipe the slate clean. It might atone for what I did today or yesterday but tomorrow I am sure I will sin again and will need to sacrifice again and again and again. But God out of his mercy and love in Christ Jesus, does something that none of us could.

Jesus was sent as God’s only Son, as a perfect sacrifice without any blame, without any sin. To do something that we don’t deserve and never will, no matter how good of a life we live. He took all of our guilt, sin, and burdens upon himself, was insulted, beaten, and hung on a cross, and rose to give us life, renewal and reconciliation with God.

If you read through the book of Hebrews you’ll find several contrasts used to make clear the difference between what Priests did and what Jesus did. Words like old/new, dead/alive, ineffective/effective, endless repetition/once for all.

In our text this morning, two images are offered. One is of a priest, standing, working in the relentless cycle of the day-after-day repetition of the same words and actions. It is the picture of ineffectiveness. The other image is of a priest (of Jesus) who has made a single offering, a one-time-only act, a never-to-be-repeated sacrifice, and is now seated. It is the picture of completion.

Nowhere else can we find this reconciliation with God, all else falls short.

The writer quotes from Jeremiah 31, words written 500 years earlier. It says, “This is my covenant I will make…with them after those day…I will put my laws upon their hearts and their minds…”
Once we became child of God, we have the Holy Spirit in our hearts. The reminder of sin is gone, the love of God is within us, the guilt is gone
Jeremiah continues, “their sins and lawlessness I will remember no more..”

The perfect sacrifice was total atonement for our sins.

Scripture is full of these reminders.
Isaiah 1:18 writes, "Come now, and let us reason together," Says the LORD, "Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool.
3. Psalms 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. They are no more.

In the end it says, “Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.”
No longer is there a need for sacrifice, the one who is sinless, Jesus Christ, took it all away. And we can now come before the throne of grace without the need of an earthly mediator. The old style priest is no longer needed.

In the Gospel of Mark (15:38) it says that when Jesus died on the cross, the veil of the temple, the curtain that covered the entrance to the Holy of Holies the place that separated what was God’s presence for the people of Israel from the rest of the world, was torn in two from top to bottom.

Many times we seem to doubt the power of Christ’s sacrifice. We doubt that it can wash us clean. We feel that we have been too sinful, or we’ve gone too far for so long. But God reminds us that we are justified not by our works but rather by our faith in Jesus Christ.
Many times we try to understand this incredible act of Christ on our behalf, thinking if we can’t understand it, how can we believe it. But that is where we rely on our faith in God’s love and mercy.

The book of Romans (5:1) and 1John (1:7) tell us, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ… and if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin.

Let us not doubt the power of Christ to wash away your sins.
Let us approach God this day and everyday with confidence in the power of his sacrifice on the cross that was done once, for all.  AMEN.

* NIB “New Interpreters Bible” for translation and some interpretation.