Transcript

You have probably seen images of the first moon landing that took place back in 1969. Mankind took its first steps on the surface of the moon. Since the designers did not want to add any unnecessary weight, a larger, better-quality camera was not included in the landing craft. If you have seen pictures of that lunar landing, they are dark and fuzzy. It was not anything like the movies that would later create vivid scenes of beauty and color.

In a very real sense, beloved, the glory of the Jewish tabernacle and, later, the temple is nothing compared to the glory of God’s presence in heaven today.

Now the Jewish believers, reading the book of Hebrews would have had some doubts about that. Herod’s renovation of the temple in Jerusalem had been impressive. Gold plates covered the temple doors leading into the Holy Place. The white marble exterior of the temple, one first-century author wrote, made the temple look like a snowcapped mountain from a distance, with the gold-plated doors shining like the sun. The people of that generation could not imagine a greater temple.

So, the writer of Hebrews sets about to contrast the glory of an earthly temple with the supremacy of Christ’s glory.

He begins here in chapter 9 speaking of the “earthly place of holiness. . . . a tent [that] was prepared” (verses 1-2). This refers back to the tabernacle in the wilderness.

The construction design followed the same floor plan when the tabernacle was replaced with the temple in Jerusalem. There were two sections to the temple: the first section, known as the “Holy Place,” contained the golden lampstand and table of showbread, with twelve loaves of bread representing the twelve tribes of Israel.

A thick veil, or curtain, separated the Holy Place from the second section, the Most Holy Place—which we often call “the Holy of Holies.” While the golden incense altar was located in the Holy Place, it was positioned near this veil and often associated with the Most Holy Place.

In this Most Holy Place, the ark of the covenant sat, overlaid with gold. Inside the ark, which was a gold-covered box, were the stone tablets of the law, some of the manna God had provided in the wilderness, and Aaron’s staff that miraculously budded with blossoms.

The top of the ark—or the lid—was called the mercy seat. Two golden cherubim had been crafted on each end of the lid, hovering over it. The writer says that “the cherubim of glory [were] overshadowing the mercy seat” (verse 5).

At the end of verse 5, like some preacher who says to his congregation, “There’s more to say, but I’m out of time,” the author writes, “Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.” They have already been described fully in the Old Testament, especially in the book of Exodus.[1]

Verse 6 tells us the priests’ duties were carried out in the Holy Place. Only the high priest was allowed to enter the Most Holy Place, and then just once a year (verse 7), as described in Leviticus 16.

On that one day, the high priest would take some blood from a sacrificed animal into the Most Holy Place and sprinkle it on the lid, the mercy seat. God would effectively see the broken commandments through this shed blood, which would temporarily atone for the sins of the people for the previous year.

In verse 8 the writer explains, “The way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing.” In other words, until something changed this covenant with Israel, only priests were able to serve near the presence of God. Everyone else was restricted. There was a huge sign, so to speak, that said in large letters, “No Trespassing. Keep Out.”

With that backdrop, the writer begins to contrast this whole sacrificial system with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He writes, “According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper” (verse 9). This sacrificial system was both temporary and insufficient.

Not so, with Jesus. Through His shed blood, He can now “purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (verse 14).

No more sacrifices, no more temporary offerings, no more restrictions from the presence of God. These are just fuzzy “photos” now replaced by the vivid beauty of Christ’s all-sufficient, personal sacrifice that cleanses us internally.

Through His sacrifice, a new plan, a new path to the throne room of God, has been announced. Verse 15 says Jesus “is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance.”

The writer then clarifies a few points in his contrast between Judaism and the old covenant and Jesus’ new covenant, beginning in verse 23:

It was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites [sacrifices], but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

The temple and its sacrifices and ceremonies were proper in the past—they were what God had instructed. But they were dark, fuzzy copies of the heavenly reality that would come to pass through Christ.

At the moment Jesus died on the cross, the veil in the temple between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place was suddenly ripped down the middle, from the top—some thirty feet high—to the bottom. That signified that the death of Jesus was now the doorway, opening access for mankind to the very presence of God. The “No Trespassing” signs were gone for good.

It is tragic to consider that the priests would evidently sew that curtain back up and continue their obsolete traditions until the temple was finally destroyed in AD 70 by the Roman army.

But that tearing of the curtain was God’s exclamation point saying that the temple was no longer needed. The writer declares this glorious truth in verse 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 [the Father] on our behalf.

Following His resurrection, He presented Himself, the living Lamb, to God the Father. What a moment that must have been!

Remember, the sacrifices offered by the high priest on earth were imperfect—they had to be repeated year after year. But the sacrifice of Jesus is one time. Verse 26 says, “He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”

I love that. When you come to Jesus, He puts your sin away. He removes it. Your sin is not recorded somewhere, to be played back one day when you stand before God. That recording has been erased. Instead of the filth of sin, God the Father sees the perfection of His beloved Son in you.

What about those who refuse Christ? We are given a very solemn forecast here in verse 27: “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” You die one time, and if you are an unbeliever, you will stand before God in judgment. You are not reincarnated to get another chance to do better, as one woman told me recently. You have one life; and when that one is over, you are going to have an appointment with God.

You can avoid the judgment of God by asking Jesus to forgive your sins. On the cross, He took the judgment of God upon Himself for you. He can give you forgiveness of sin and access to the Holy of Holies and the very presence of God.

Through the sacrificial work of Jesus, our fuzzy thoughts of heaven one day will be replaced with incredible color and beauty and brilliance when we arrive in the glorious presence of Jesus Christ, our High Priest and our Savior.