Sermon on Hebrews 9:11-15, for the 5th Sunday in Lent 2018 (1 Yr Lectionary), "The Blood of Jesus"

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Our reading today from Hebrews gives us more than enough to chew on, that could keep us occupied for hours, with the many connecting lines between the Old Covenant and New Covenant in Jesus Christ. The Biblical concept of “covenant” is very important in Hebrews. A “covenant” is like a contract or binding agreement between two parties. So our reading is a contrast between the Old and New Covenants. What are those? The Old Covenant is what God made with Moses and Israel on Mt. Sinai. Including the 10 Commandments, but also the whole system of sacrifices and worship. This involved the blood of goats and calves, the ashes of the heifer, the high priest and the tent, all mentioned in the reading.

These are all elements of the Old Covenant. God ransomed Israel from slavery in Egypt, and was in the process of establishing them as a new, free nation, set apart to serve and obey Him. And this was His binding contract with them—the covenant on Mt. Sinai. It promised great blessings—but it depended on their obedience to Him. You could describe it as a “conditional covenant”. Under these conditions—obedience, repentance, and trust in God, and He would bless and prosper them. But if they broke those conditions (as they surely and quickly did), then God’s blessings would cease—and the more disobedient and unrepentant they became, the more they would face God’s curse and punishments. Those were aimed at turning them back to repentance, like a cold bucket of water to shock someone out of a stupor.

This Old Covenant involved a divinely designed center of worship, called the Tabernacle—which was a richly decorated tent, that was very large, but mobile. It went everywhere the Israelites traveled, through 40 years in the wilderness before they inherited the land of Canaan. At this Tabernacle, or tent of worship, priests made animal sacrifices to the Lord, to make atonement with God for the sins of the people. Priests could only enter the tent by the blood of the sacrifices. It’s a gory picture, and a reminder of the painful lesson that the Israelites observed whenever they sinned—sin is costly, and deserves punishment in death—but it’s also a glory picture, because it reminded them that God provided an innocent substitute on their behalf. Hebrews 8 says that all of these various details—the priests and what they did, the sacrifices, the design of the Tabernacle or tent—these were all copies and shadows of the heavenly things. In other words, they communicated heavenly truths and pointed to something greater than themselves—which is Jesus Christ and the New Covenant. Walking into the tabernacle was like walking into a picture lesson filled with meaningful symbols.

The Old Covenant of Moses and Israel, the 10 Commandments and their worship and sacrifices, points to the New Covenant in Jesus. Who came not as the New Lawgiver, but as the book of John tells us: “For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth come through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). Jesus brings redemption and forgiveness from the sins committed against the broken first covenant. Jesus is the Grace-giver. “Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come”. Jesus was not only a superior high priest, to those who had come before Him—He is the sinless and eternal Great High Priest, who serves us forever. He brings all good things—forgiveness of sins, life everlasting, the abundant gifts of His Holy Spirit.

It goes on to say that He entered through the “greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places.” The greater and more perfect tent of Jesus is His own body! How do I know this? Because in John 1:14, describing Jesus, it says that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son of the Father.” But the word “dwelt among us” is actually “tabernacled” or “tented” among us, in Greek! Both Hebrews and John use that “tenting” word to point back to the place of Old Testament worship—but connecting it forward to the incarnation  of Jesus Christ. Why the two are connected is this—the tabernacle or tent, was God’ dwelling place or tangible presence among His people. But now in Christ Jesus, that’s located in a human person, not an impersonal tent. And Jesus’ “greater and more perfect tent” was not made with hands or of this creation, because He is God’s Divine Son!

When it says that Jesus entered once for all into the holy places by means of His own blood, securing an eternal redemption—this tells what the priests under the Old Covenant entering the tabernacle were never able to secure for the people. Their work was repeated over and over. An endless stream of sacrifices and blood of bulls and goats, but never finally removing sin. But it was an important picture of how Jesus would perfect and complete their work—entering once for all, by His own pure, precious, holy and innocent blood, and finally removing all our sin, achieving our eternal redemption. No more repetition, no more sacrifices, but Jesus died for our sins, once and for all. He alone had access to what was inaccessible and unattainable under the old covenant.

Compare the sanctifying blood of Christ to the blood of the animals in the Old Covenant. Their blood was only able to purify the flesh—an outward cleansing from sin—but Jesus’ blood cleanses much deeper. “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.” Jesus’ blood cleanses our conscience—the inner guilt and shame that clings to our heart when we have done wrong, and have been defiled or made unclean through our sinful thoughts, words, and deeds. This, Jesus’ blood cleanses away. A deep, spiritual, internal cleaning, that leaves us washed and whiter than snow. A clean and renewed conscience. Our conscience is an inner courtroom that judges our actions right or wrong, or an alarm that sounds to keep us from doing wrong. But when our conscience has been violated—when we have violated God’s law—the cries and distresses of the conscience can only properly be addressed and washed with the blood of Jesus. The conscience that is not at peace can throw us into an inner torment or despair; or even be warped into self-justification and hypocrisy. Jesus’ shed blood is the only cure for the troubled conscience.

My kids, just like me when I was young; and maybe just like you, are always puzzled by the statement that Jesus’ blood purifies us and washes us clean. They say things like, “but blood is messy and makes you more dirty or yucky!” Better than any detergent or cleanser, Jesus’ blood purifies and washes out the stubborn stains of sin. Only Jesus’ blood, shed on the cross, can get that sin out of your life—to wash and drain out all the filthy grime of sin, and leave you better than new. From our earthly vantage point, that seems impossible, as we continue to struggle with sin, but from Jesus’ vantage point, “you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 5:11). This is Jesus’ work in you. He purifies deep down to your very conscience, and makes you alive to God in Him. No better washing we could ask for! And at the price of His blood!

And this cleansing by Jesus’ blood is for God’s purpose—that our conscience would be purified from dead works to serve the living God. The difference between dead works and living works is whether we have faith in God. God is not pleased or served by works that are not done in faith. Going through the motions of obeying God, or walking through rituals and commands without faith, is not pleasing to God. But purified from dead works, with our sin washed away and a conscience freed in Jesus, then we are called to serve the living God. Our lives are made instruments of His service, and we bear living fruit as our lively faith drinks in the nourishing Life of Jesus, the Living Vine. Living faith in a Living Lord bears living fruit in service to others. Your lives become a beautiful service as you find creative, compassionate, and courageous ways to serve those around you, and to bring Christ’s love and light into their world.

The last verse of the reading is this: “Therefore He is the mediator of the 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.” Jesus calls us to an eternal inheritance, just as it earlier said that Jesus secured for us an eternal redemption. Lasting, unfading, never spoiled or destroyed—eternal. All by Jesus’ death.

We began today by talking about how important the word “covenant” is to the author of Hebrews. A contract or binding agreement. Jesus’ death sealed this new covenant in His blood, for the forgiveness of sins. A very particular kind of covenant—Jesus’ last will and testament. An unconditional covenant—not like the old covenant that was broken, and that depended on our obedience—but a new covenant based on His obedience and His promises. Jesus celebrated the establishment of that covenant in His blood when He ate His last Supper with the disciples, saying, “Drink of it all of you, this cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” And it was ratified and sealed when He died on the cross, so that we now share in His eternal inheritance. Such a love our Father has for us, that Jesus, His Son freely made such a covenant of blessing and good things for us. A new covenant of forgiveness that is shared with us and brought forward each week in the body and blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper. This is God’s covenant of forgiveness with us. God’s plan, stretching from Old Testament to New, all folds together perfectly centering in Jesus Christ. Give thanks for such a great High Priest! Amen.

Sermon Talking Points

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1. Read Hebrews 9:11-15. What is the “old covenant” (implied in the reading) and the “new covenant” referring to?  What place of worship did the old covenant direct Moses to build? Exodus chapter 25ff.
2. How was the old covenant “conditional?” Under what conditions would they receive blessings? Curses? Deuteronomy 28. What eventually happened with Israel, concerning this covenant? Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 9:15.
3. What lesson did the old covenant believers learn about sin, when they witnessed and participated in the sacrifices? What lesson about substitution?
4. Jesus is not the new lawgiver, but the bringer of what? John 1:17. What are the “good things” (Heb. 9:11) that He brings?
5. How is Jesus the “greater and more perfect tent?” John 1:14; cf. 2 Corinthians 5:1-4. Why does it say it was “not made with hands” or “of this creation”?
6. How deep a cleansing does Jesus’ blood give us? Hebrews 9:14; 10:22; Isaiah 1:18; 1 John 1:7.
7. How permanent is Jesus’ role as mediator and high priest? How permanent is the redemption that He has secured for us? Hebrews 9:12, 15, 25-26.