Hebrews Chapter 9 Verses 1 – 2

• Imagine! This would have been hard to hear. Memories of the feasts, recollections of going to the temple with their mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, sisters, brothers…these family members that may not even be with them any longer…hearing that the Old Covenant, the Covenant of the Law, instituted under Moses…the hero of all of their bedtimes stories growing up…hearing this? Gut wrenching.

• The feeling that something is over, something has vanished it’s haunting and that feeling is unique to human beings. Being back in Virginia this week, driving past my old college, even stopping and considering the house my grandparents built…it’s deeply deeply sad in a way…because it’s all gone…it’s not their house anymore…that little boy that lived there, that found stability there, is somehow gone but somehow not and that is odd and sad and tragic and wonderful all together!
• I believe understanding that…the writer says, “Indeed, the first covenant had wonderful things…excellent ordinances of divine service to God,”…and yet he will unpack them and show them that even the wonders of the first covenant spoke of the one to come…
• The very first tabernacle, the tent made at the command of Moses while in the Wilderness which the temple was modeled after and had inhabited the stories, the education and the dreams of the people since childhood…was 45 feet long, 15 feet wide and 15 feet tall. The interior was divided into two sections. When you entered the tabernacle you would enter into a room 30 feet long and 15 feet wide and to the right would be the Table of Showbread. On the table were 12 loaves of bread, one for each tribe which would be changed out once per week.
• In front of you almost all the way to the end of the first section would be the altar of incense where the priests would serve in the temple offering incense to God representing the prayers of the people. On the left side would be the Gold Lampstand. This would be a lampstand with four bowls as it were and six branches…for a total of 10 compartments for oil.
• In front of the lampstand with its four bowls and six branches would stand seven lamps and these seven lamps would burn continually, never ceasing, always giving light to the entirety of the tabernacle, being continually supplied with oil from the Golden Lampstand. There is so much symbollogy jam-packed into just these three elements!
• Just to touch on one…the seven lamps are certainly a parallel to the seven lampstands that we see in Revelation Chapter 1 but also the seven lamps filled with oil are also a picture of the seven fold ministry of the Holy Spirit found in Isaiah 11:2. And the tie between it all is the Person of Jesus Christ! He is in the One spoken of in Isaiah 11…”The Rod from the stem of Jesse…” and He is the one in the midst of the seven lampstands in Revelation Chapter 1 and so even in the Tabernacle of Meeting, clues and pointers to the New Covenant as it was the seven lamps that provided all of the light for the place of meeting with God!

Hebrews Chapter 9 Verses 3 – 5

• Think about this scene for just a minute. In the second partition of the tabernacle, separated by a veil, was the Ark of the Covenant and inside it were three things. Aaron’s rod that budded, manna, and the tablets of the covenant…or…the Ten Commandments. Now check this out…the manna reminded Israel of God’s provision and their ungratefulness. Aaron’s rod reminded them of their rebellion against God’s authority and the Ten Commandments reminded them that they can’t live up to God’s standard of righteousness!

• Pretty depressing collection! But notice, over top of all of this, sealing this in like a coffin was the mercy seat with two angels on either side looking downward towards the seat and once a year the High Priest would sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice onto the mercy seat. And so get the scene, once a year, as God looked down upon the Ark, He saw the symbol of Israel’s sin, rebellion and failure. But overshadowing it all was the blood of the sacrifice…

• In John Chapter 12 we find Mary at the empty tomb. There, where they had laid the blood soaked body of Jesus, on either side…what was there…? An angel…The Ark, a clear picture a precise parallel to the tomb…that held the symbols of all failure and weakness of mankind…sprinkled with blood with angels on either side…you see the tomb of Jesus is precisely what the Ark pointed to…and now guess what? That tomb…is empty! As is the sin, rebellion and failure of us…in Jesus all that is empty…He has cleaned house and He did it in our very hearts!

Hebrews Chapter 9 Verses 6 – 10

• Once a year on the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur, the high priest would have the privilege to go alone into the Holy of Holies to sprinkle blood onto the mercy seat in the presence of the Shekinah glory of God. That blood would be from a bull that was sacrificed in the courtyard outside of the Tabernacle in the presence of all of the people. He would take it from the courtyard, through the inner sanctuary past the veil and into the Holy of Holies and the people would wait…wait to find out if the sacrifice was received by God…
• You gotta take that all in and hear what’s meant by reformation has come…the courtyard was the place of salvation…this is the place of the people…where they would learn of their salvation and celebrate it! The inner sanctuary was a place of service for the priests where they would trim the lamps, change out the bread and burn incense on the altar…and finally the Most Holy Place was only for the High Priest…where there was the very presence of the Father. Reformation. All that is unlocked in Jesus Christ. Today the question is…where are you at?

• Philip said to Jesus something that is true of every heart that ever beat…John 14:8, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” This is what we are after. This is what will emaciate us, this is the cure for the pit in our hearts that shows up when we think upon our past or worry about our future or ponder our present…this is what brings us life…not heart beat life but life alive. Life filled with joy and care and kindness for others and selflessness that unlocks humility and true fulfillment, spiritual and soulish satisfaction and surging power…

• Lord, show us the Father, take us into the Holy of Holies, and that will do it…Philip was spot on…in the Old Covenant, can’t do it…reserved for only one…but in the New Covenant, we have a forerunner…One that leads us…so the question is…where are you?

• Are you in the courtyard saying, “I’m saved! Praise the Lord the sacrifice was sufficient!” That’s awesome but there’s more…and soon you’ll find yourself not satisfied…Move out of the courtyard into the inner sanctuary where you learn of the showbread…God’s continual provision that awaits you somehow…God’s Spirit that never ceases, that enlightens your eyes and understanding as seen in the oil filled lamps…look into the bowl of incense and see the numerous prayers of the people and understand the vast need surrounding you outside of YOU!

• And as you observe…you’ll begin to serve. You’ll pick up the trimming tool and begin to trim the lamps of your own hearts so that you shine a little brighter, a little purer…change out the bread on the table…keep it fresh and filled…as your heart begins to desire and thrive off of feeding others…and then you yourself begin to offer incense alongside the incense of the prayers of others…praying for them and in that loving them more and more…

• The sanctuary is the place of service…those that are there have recognized and celebrated their salvation and are now engaged in service in the very house of God and yet there remains a deeper better place…the Holy of Holies…previously locked by death to only the High Priest and yet now through death (Jesus’ death first, our death to the self second) it is open and waiting…and there, only there, is where we are satisfied because that’s where we see the Father…
• The reward of the New Covenant, the deliverable of the cross of Jesus Christ, is for us to be with Him…right now and forever. And you know what, folks keep their distance. Why? Because it’s like a black light…every stain, every forgotten imperfection is all of a sudden brought to life…and must be addressed. Folks celebrate their salvation and go home…some folks serve and are desperate for the spiritual health and love of others…and yet few walk forward because in that we are all undone…GOOD.

• It’s what we need…It’s the arrival of truth. It is the arrival of power in the conscience…it is power and freedom…When did Isaiah cry out, “Woe is me, I am undone!” When he was in the presence of the Lord. If that’s you this morning, you’re in good company. “Lord I’m not what I thought I was…I’m not who I want to be…”

• I never have those thoughts when I’m busy serving people. I never have those thoughts when I’m doing one of my projects on the house or working at work…it’s only when I’m simply with the Father…And so I see many fill their lives with activity and entertainment and work and even ministry…and I know…
• It’s only when you’ve been past all that that you come to a startling consciousness of your own sin and say, “Woe is me…I am undone…” and the natural response in that situation…is real repentance…I love what Courson says, “Conscious repentance results in unconscious holiness.” Because although we leave the Holy of Holies feeling not worthy and inadequate and inconsistent…others begin to see in us a holiness of which we are not even aware…a gentleness, a stillness, a surety, an empathetic love and a depth of power…
• I’m not satisfied with trimming wicks and changing out bread…I grow weary and dull myself, I hunger myself…so I’m going in…so that my heart will be in the trimming…my heart will be in the praying…my heart will be in the feeding…so that my heart will be free man. Filled with what is really needed and in that, alive and fearless against a world filled with death and fear…only one result then…victory! How about you?