Tana City Church Preaching
Kim Midgley | A new and better tabernacle(Hebrews 9)
Every Father we want to gather together to hear your word Lord in the Old Testament we read of how your people were together after a time of neglect after a time of turning away from you and neglecting you and your word and Then at the reading of your word Lord. They were tears and there was repentance Lord I pray that as we gather around your word this morning our hearts would be soft That we would hear your Holy Spirit speak to us that we would know you better that you will guide us and feed us this morning in Jesus In Hebrews chapter 7 we saw that Jesus was a new kind of priest he was a priest after the order of Melchizedek and it wasn't from the tribe of Levi so this made Jesus a unique priest and it was Really a point that the writer was making in Hebrews chapter 7 verse 12 He said when there is a change in the priesthood there is necessarily a change in the law as well So what the writer to the Hebrews was emphasizing is that with this new order of priesthood to which Jesus belongs There's also going to be a change in the law the terms the rules and so what we see in the battle is that When God gives us his law He an exit through a covenant and with the new priest came a new law and a new covenant So law is enacted through a covenant Moses and Israel made a covenant with God at Sinai when they received the law which we typically view as most of the Old Testament rules and ceremonies and regulations and At that time the people were bound over into this agreement with God they they formed a covenant and there's that covenant of the law given to Moses and given to Israel that covenant was a covenant that involved blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience and Actually, it's not exactly the same as the covenant that we're in as Christians In Hebrews chapter 8 the writer elaborates on the better covenant the writer goes to say There's a new covenant and it's better than the old covenant that Israel was in because in the new covenant God has actually put his law into the believer's hearts Now that is a miraculous transformation that Israel didn't get through the covenant they were in In the new covenant that Jesus brings us Jesus Meet to us and when we say I believe in you Jesus and when we respond with saving faith to the gospel We are born again and God gives us a new heart and a new spirit and the Bible describes us as having been spiritually dead Dead in our transgressions and made a life by the Holy Spirit And that's why Jesus when asked you know about entering the kingdom or you know What must I do said Nicodemus and the onset you must be born again like how can I be born again? Well, it's you can't be born again physically, but you can be born again by the spirit of God You can become a new creature in Christ And so when we preach the gospel to people we're not preaching a religion or a philosophy we're actually pointing them towards Jesus and saying meet this high priest and He will give you eternal life and you will be made new it's a completely different covenant And the new covenant is better because it's at work on the inside That's a very important concept that you need to grasp deeply as a Christian is the question of what is going on on the inside And so we saw this I'm going to read to you in part of the recap I'm reading from Hebrews 8 verse 6, but as it is Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as The covenant he mediates his better since it's enacted on better promises For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second For he finds fault with them when he says behold the days are coming to clear the Lord when I will establish a new covenant With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day When I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt For they did not continue in my covenant and so I showed no concern for them to clear the Lord For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days to clear the Lord I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts And I will be their God and they shall be my people Beautiful goal of the father is that he wants to be in relationship This isn't about just following rules. It's about God saying the problem was the people of Israel They didn't treat me with love. They didn't follow me with all their hearts They just obey me with lip service They did external things to meet the requirements of the Lord, but they didn't love me and I don't want that It says God you want some people who love him. I will be their God and they will be my people It's like when you go to a romantic, you know Part then you say I'm yours. You are mine It's there's an intimacy There's a relationship behind the heart of God and that's what he wants from people and the old covenant Wasn't providing that because the people's hearts were still stubborn. They were still against God So he says I will put my laws into their minds. I'll write them on their hearts I will be their God and they shall be my people and they shall not teach each one his neighbor and Each one his brother saying no the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest For I will be merciful toward their iniquities and I will remember this since no more So God says in a new covenant. He doesn't remember. He doesn't hold our sins against us He doesn't keep looking at our sins because somehow he makes a way to deal with the problem of sin In speaking of a new covenant He makes the first one obsolete and what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away so that's all of the I that the the law as a as a kind of a an Instrument that God used for Israel. He says I'm not going to use that in the new covenant I'm going to do something different. I'm going to stir your heart to obey me I'm going to cause you to love me and that's why Jesus said if you love me you will obey me It's not if you're afraid of death you'll obey me. It's a very different basis of motivation and so Now we see in Hebrews. We have a new priest a new covenant and in Hebrews 9 The writer speaks of a new tabernacle the writer goes on now to compare the earthly tabernacle of the old covenant or the place We got and people met he compares it to the heavenly tabernacle of the new covenant And this is again just extending the idea of how you come to God to compare what was happening in the old Covenant with Israel and what happens now in a new covenant with Jesus and I can tell you everything is Everything changes when we read Hebrews 9 we'll see that Let's go through Hebrews 9 together Hebrews 9 verse 1 Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness For a tent was prepared the first section in which were the lampstand in the table and the bread of the prisons It's called the holy place We had the second curtain was the second section called the most holy place Having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides of gold in which was a golden Earn holding the manor and errand staff that bided and the tablets of the covenant above it with a cherubim of glory Overshadowing the mercy seat of these things. We cannot now speak in detail The rights of saying there was a lot of stuff that God prescribed when he told Moses how to build this Tabernacle this tent of meeting God was very specific about everything and every atom that was to be there and how it was to be constructed Hebrews 9 verse 6 these preparations having thus been made the priests go regularly into the first section performing their ritual duties That's every day, but into the second only the half priest goes and he back once a year and not without taking blood Which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people? So that's on the day of atonement the half priest will enter the holy of holies He would sprinkle the blood of the lamb on the mercy seat which was that the representation of God's throne Except God's throne isn't on earth God's throne is in heaven, but this was a picture of God's God's meeting place with man He's very thrown where he would sit there the gold angels covered that that was the mercy seat by the star is pretty intense That the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing In other words as long as that curtain is in place as long as that tent is up there is no access really and The way if the holy places not yet open only the half priest could go in only On the day of atonement and he still didn't really get to see God Because if God appeared of course you would you would die So we read on which is symbolic for the present age That was the age that Israel had lived through according to this arrangement gifts and sacrifices are offered That cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper And I wanted to emphasize that line because I'm going to refer to it a lot this morning according to the old covenant Gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper You would always be feeling guilty. There was always one more offering to make You could never really access God You could only come as far as the outside of the tent of meeting if you were in Israel act You could actually but the tent of meeting itself was holy So if you accidentally touch that you would die if you were to one of the priests you could go in you went to that You go to the tent there was a curtain around the tent and in front in the in front of the tent of meeting there was a brazen altar the the altar of the Lord the altar of burnt offerings the first place you would come as you entered and That's the furnace that it is your life could go. That's where they would make sacrifices for sins So they couldn't they could come towards God, but they couldn't Draw very near and they couldn't reach him at all and they were constantly having to burn sacrifices for these sins just to come that far and it in this whole system. It says cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper What would mean to have a perfect a conscience? I wonder I don't wonder I've actually thought it through and I've experienced it in Jesus Christ That I can know my sins are forgiven That I can have a conscience which is at peace with God that I can know that right now There is absolutely nothing I have to do to a tone that I can say to you I stand right with God without having to make any sacrifice at all. I don't have to pray today I do talk to God because I love him and I will pray just in case you worry that your pastor doesn't pray Your pastor loves Jesus with all his heart I want to serve him with all my life and I talked to him all day long in my thoughts Not all the time. Obviously sometimes I'm watching TV The point is Israel knew nothing of that and you have nothing of that through religion You have nothing of that through the ball You have nothing of that through the the old covenant of sacrificing animals on the brazen altar and giving God your gifts Those things cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper But he was nine just tences. What do they do? They deal only with food and drink and various washings Regulations for the body so those are all external things Imposed until the time of reformation until things are reformed in Christ But when Christ appeared as a heart priest of the good things that have come Amen, that's what I'm talking about Christ has come He's appeared as the heart priest of the good things that have come then 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 Not by means of the blood of goats and cows But by means of his own blood thus securing and eternal redemption eternal Not just for a while for me it's eternal For if the blood of goats and bulls in the sprinkling of divine persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctified for the purification of the flesh In other words, the old covenant could deal with just a temporary external cleansing How much more will the blood of Christ who through the eternal spread often himself without blemish to God? Purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God That's the state in which the Christians should be living there the state of a purified conscience that's turned you away from dead works What are dead works religious acts that you try to use to try to atone for your sins? This is not the basis of your relationship with God. It is not your righteousness that wins you favor with God It is Jesus who appeased and satisfied God on our behalf And so it purifies our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Why are we still serving God? Because we love him Because it's right Because right remains right and doing what is righteous is what a Christian should do But not in order to hope in what you have done. Your hope is impressed Therefore, he is the mediator of a new covenant so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance So it's something we receive as an inheritance since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant I'm redeemed from the transgressions committed under the law of Moses So even if there is a law and Romans one explains that in a sense Everybody has failed even those who didn't have the law failed to do what is right So whether you were a Jew or a Gentile, it made no difference There is no difference all have sinned and full short of the glory of God Romans chapter 3 tells us So that idea that you are a transgressor and that you have Failed under some set of laws is true no matter what where you live you could live in the bush as an animus Who never ever heard the gospel or knew anything of the old covenant He too has failed to uphold any form of righteousness So Where was I okay this 15? He's the mediator of a new covenant So those are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance since a death has occurred that redeems them From the transgressions committed under the first covenant for they wear a will is involved the death of the one who made it must be established Christ died for a world takes effect only a death Since it is not enforced as long as the one who made it is alive Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without lead For when every commandment of the Lord been decayed by Moses to all the people He took the blood of cars and goats with water and scarlet wool and hiss up and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people saying This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship Indeed under the law almost everything is purified with blood and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins the right is Explaining something that the Hebrews are well acquainted with and this is a lesson that God taught to Israel Through the law and through the tabernacle through the old covenant. He was saying There is no forgiveness of sin unless a price has been paid unless life is taken so it's necessary for atonement Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rights But the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these 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 on our behalf Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest enters the holy places every year with the blood not his own For then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world But as it is he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself There's Jesus the Lamb of God and just as it is appointed for men to die once and after that comes judgment So Christ having been often once to bear the sins of many will appear a second time Not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him So next time Jesus comes he comes for those who are eagerly waiting for him comes to rescue us to take us to be with him and in fact the biblical picture of that is that Jesus comes for his bride and Takes her to the wedding feast of the lamb some of the ideas of the rapture come from that that we would be caught up And be with him and how those events unfold we can discuss another time But the fact is Jesus returns for his bride who has been made beautiful made holy She is prepared she is spotless and she is robed in white and she goes to be with him So We mustn't attempt to relate to God through the terms of the old covenant Not through the terms But however while we're not under the law or in the old covenant this doesn't mean that these things are irrelevant to us In fact in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 17 to 20 Jesus said this Do not think that I've come to abolish the law or the prophets have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them So he said I'm actually going to uphold the law in its totality to completion He's going to complete the works required of the law on our behalf for truly I say to you until heaven and earth passed away not in I/O to not a dot will pass from the law until all is Accomplished therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teachers others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven For I tell you unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees You will never enter the kingdom of heaven Jesus makes some Big statements here and he basically says he's not doing away with the law He's actually upholding the law and Paul later writes to explain that the law is actually righteous and good and holy But it's just rated useless as a means to saving us because we cannot in our sinful flesh We cannot uphold the law. So Jesus comes in his sinless state and he upholds the law and obtains perfect righteousness and then gives us in his grace He gives us that righteousness and takes our sin that divining has changed and so it gives us a Respect for the law is something that if we were under it, it would condemn us to death If I am under the law, I am for sure going to be condemned I will never manage to uphold the law but what the law reveals is the moral nature and character of God and what is righteous and So what should a believer do in relation to the law? Okay, okay, the Lord uphold the Lord do what's right? Jesus says I tell you unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scratch of Pharisees you'll never enter the kingdom of heaven that to me was also like a Really helpful statement that he made because when I look at the people who Effectively saw the law as their means to salvation Put all their pride and hope in it the scraps of the Pharisees. I saw people who would make their very best efforts They're very busy so if you could vote yourself to follow the law and become a radical Pharisee kill dude and Pharisee in the most positive sense of being a guy who keeps the law Jesus said your righteousness has to exceed that guy then I'm new for sure It's impossible for me to find my righteousness that way. Yeah, so where would that righteousness come from? It it is from Christ who fulfilled the law on my behalf I can only get to that point of exceeding the righteousness of scraps and Pharisees if I receive the righteousness I couldn't do it in my own strength any more than the scraps and Pharisees could do it in their own strength so Which is it then are we are we to obey the law of Moses or not? I'm telling you we're not under the law, but we uphold the law as much as we can and this is this is where it becomes a little bit more Interesting to me because God set up this whole Tabernacle system and gave Israel the law and he was teaching them That there is such a thing as a set of standards and that he is holy and that they are not And that you quite coming to his presence when you're sinful that some doesn't enter the presence of God There were separations and more separations and more Separations between Israel and God and then God gave them rules and even with those rules They didn't get past all of those Separations and we could stay in us more perhaps next week. It would be interesting to look at all of that But the thing that really gets driven home is that there's a there's a conscience in the end that should feel I'm not worthy I'm guilty. I Can't get close to God. I can't get right with God I failed to uphold the law and I always when I was raised as a Westerner in an individualist culture I always had an overdeveloped sense of guilt. I don't know how Melagazis I didn't grab in Madagascar, so I don't know how a Melagazie really processes guilt and innocence, but I understand that Individualists do it differently from collectivist cultures and as it turns out the collectivist cultures operate more around a sense of usually either Like How do we how could we put it up? I'll give you like On and chain like Asian people do value respect or everything's fear and power Those are the dynamics and and the Westerners the individualists. We live in a different view We're in the guilt and the innocence kind of way of seeing things So I thought Melagazie seem to have very serious social rules and customs and you assume that they're a law-abiding people Until you start driving on the road And then they fill the circle and the guys go the wrong way around the circle if there's no one There is no policeman there, so they don't think of there's a law that since you go Likewise around the circle they think of no one is going to I won't be caught no one's going to Be dishonored. I'm not gonna be dishonored. I can just take the shortcut. I still can't do it I I drive the correct way around the circle according to the law of the road Because I was raised in it in a law-ed hearing culture where you immediately feel guilty even if no one is there so when I started to Get intimate with my girlfriend no one was there but her and me and In no time at all my conscience is screaming stop. You're going too far You should obey the rules and the rules say Don't get intimate before you married. Okay, so I come to Madagascar and we meet up against a more collectivist Culturists driven a bit more by honor and shame and a bit less by guilt and innocence and what I find is that The young Camela gazis seem to have a worse time. They find it harder to obey rules if no one's watching them So genuinely it's true now. I'm not saying my culture is better I'm just saying that there are different ways in which you think and deal and I honestly believe when you look at Individualists and collectivist cultures you'll find that both have become corrupted by sin Yeah, and so the collectivist their corruption is that they don't take individual responsibility They they always blame or always pass the responsibility onto something or someone else Circumstances fate or the best that was late In the individualist what are their sins? Maybe it's just pure greed and self-centredness the world revolves around me I don't you know consumerism capitalism fits into that nicely so The two different cultures the world's got the collectivist the individualists both of them need redemption The guy who wrote 3d gospel Jason Georges. How if you say it's your name brilliant analysis of worldviews He spoke about the guilt innocence paradigm of the Western world and this is the thing in the Western world We grow up under a strong understanding of law and we become obedient to the law even when no one's watching yet We still sin but what we don't do well is honor people and respect people and show them the Curtuses and the dignities that they deserve within a broader relational context because we're individualists and because we don't live for honor or shame bit the Africans they live under this paradigm of fear and power To a logic state so the Africans a lot of Madagascar is also African by the way But in this paradigm you relate to God or the powers out there through the superstition through the Appeasement of the ancestral spirits the honoring of the fatties the fear power dynamics is that there are Supernatural forces that we must not offend and so we better not do what is taboo or fatty And so you you know what works so well in African cultures is the prosperity gospel The prosperity gospel works so well because it's driven off a fear power relationship with God It says God if I tithe you will bless me Says God if I do the right things and I you know Then you're gonna get good But if I mess up what's going to punish me and so preacher the prosperity often manipulate people and say you you have to do this You have to do that you have to buy this water and you have to go on this pilgrimage But this is how God's you're going to get it right? It's a superstitious view of relationship with God and it propagates beautifully in Africa I mean in an evil sense that because of the fear power paradigm so prosperity gospel It's a fear power superstitious relationship with God You weren't here because you didn't have enough faith or there was hidden sin in your life And you tell you find that hidden sin in your life God's gonna judge you none of that is the true gospel That's not the new covenant And it ended with the fear paradigm that the Asians and the high context cultures follow is the on a shame We appear in some reputation matter So why am I sharing all this with you just throwing it out there to say when you come to the matter of conscience Understand that the law and the tabernacle is actually something that we should Consider deeply to understand that God really does have a problem with us whether we when we sin So it's not about your reputation before man if you if you're a more high context on a shame person You need to add to your great value of your family You need to add this understanding that God sees you every second of your life even when you're alone Yeah, and that means when you've been tempted to steal something or when you're about to live to keep your reputation You are sinning and it's a deeply serious matter in God's eyes Even when you drive the wrong way around the traffic circle you are sinning You're breaking the law in that definition of sin being a transgression of the law Even when you don't pay your tax but you weren't caught God sees it and it's sin so in a in a context of unashamed We probably need to redeem guilt innocence bring it back more in the context of Guilt innocence culture Western culture We probably need to learn and redeem honor and shame and bring back the right forms of shame because the West is shameless And we need to bring the rights on our human beings and I discovered there's this beautiful thing that happens in Madagascar and it has to do with People being present in the moment because they're honoring you more than they're honoring time And so if I'm meeting with the Malagazika and he has another meeting later. He is not looking at his watch He's not about to disengage from this conversation with me He would rather be late for the next meeting and not be punctual because he's in the moment now present with me He's honoring me and I realized that we always as Westerners are focused on the next appointment to the extent that we actually this honor the person we with right now and We saw the future focus planning for the future and those are good things if you want to progress economically But maybe they're also not honoring of other people and so I believe all of these paradigms the guilt the innocence the fear power the unashamed that all need to be redeemed and Publicly we need to have all of those things working rightly in us But the one that Hebrews is dealing with right now has to do with our consciousness of sin and our conscience So I'm going to read on before I close. I've just got a few more thoughts to add Hebrews 10 now Hebrews 10 verse 24 says For since the law Has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities It can never by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year make perfect those who draw near So the law can never perfect those who come via the law Otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered the sacrifices since the worship is having once been cleansed Would no longer have any consciousness of sins That's a profound statement again It's like if the law could do its job And if you could a total properly you would reach a point where you don't have consciousness of sins You know bothered person. I don't mean that when you shouldn't be bothered. It's very different. It's like you know You no longer condemn But in these sacrifices, there's a reminder of sins every year for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins So when I look at this I Get to a place where I understand just how much better it is to be a Christian Then to be under the law or under any religion this conscience and guilt and Acclensing that works So one John one verse eight to nine says this if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us So this not having a consciousness of sins means not having a worry or a fear that your son is going to condemn you The reason the Christian is no longer in that position is because Jesus has taken away the condemnation Nevertheless, we still know that we are sinners if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness That is why you can have a clean conscience not because you did well enough but because you know Jesus can take care of the problem of sin in your life and When you said you should still feel guilty until you have said Jesus forgive me You're not going to be guilty to hell, but you are guilty of sin when you said you understand that You know if you're not losing your salvation and you're painting and getting it back every day Every time you said if you die a second after you soon you still go to heaven But you should feel guilty for sin, but you should have this abiding knowledge that Jesus will take away your son When you turn to him and ask for forgiveness, he's faithful to forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness so make a nervous and covenant and This is effectively not a temporary fix But your very heart has changed and that's why you ultimately would long for his appearing Because this is what we read at the end of Hebrews chapter 9 Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things But into heaven itself now to appear the presence of God on our behalf But nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest enters the holy places every year with Light not his own for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world but as it is he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put a waste and by the sacrifice of himself and Just as it is appointed for man to die once and after that comes judgment So Christ having been offered once to bear the sins of many will appear second time not to deal with some But to save those who are eagerly waiting for him That last verse of Hebrews chapter 9 verse 20 18 Not to deal with sin Well, I've faced Jesus. It's not gonna be a reckoning for Masson Masson has been reckoned on the cross Jesus has dealt with Masson on the cross So what is left for me to face when Jesus returns is not a fearful expectation of judgment That's what someone who is outside of Christ faces fearful expectation of judgment that what I We are standing up because of this new covenant is eagerly waiting for him Longing for Jesus to come back Longing to see him face to face because there is no fear of condemnation. There is no consciousness of sin. There is no Unperfective conscience Jesus has perfected my conscience is made me unafraid of the problem of sin because it has been reckoned with at the cross Yeah, and so now I eagerly await his return I'm not afraid when Jesus comes back that he's gonna pull me aside and say now Let's go through all these bad things. You didn't talk about how much you were That is not what happens to a Christian when you meet Jesus when you meet Jesus He comes and he embraces you like you've been longing to be together your whole life Everything you've ever desired is being fulfilled in him the emptiness in your soul has finally been swallowed up in glory And Jesus comfort and he says your mind have been waiting for you. That's why I eagerly Wait for him to appear. That's why I want Jesus to come back because I have no fear of judgment So we as believers. We should be acutely aware of some and guilt and deeply grateful for Jesus We should be very intent on upholding the law while placing zero hope in the law for our righteousness We should do what is right for the glory of God because we love him not because we're trying to bow In essence for ourselves Jesus has achieved that and so this is why when I look at the book of Hebrews I said to you when I started this long ago. This this is magnificent this book It puts forth the gospel truth to us in such deep ways I'll ask you not to stand and the band can come up and I'm gonna pray for us As you stand I want to ask you this question are you longing for looking forward to and eagerly waiting for Jesus return Heavenly Father Heavenly Father, I pray for every person in this room And especially for those of us who have been relating to you with fear and Living as if we can't know you That praying Lord Jesus today you would open our eyes our ears our hearts to see what you have done on the cross to see how you are a great high priest of a new covenant and That there is a heavenly sanctuary where you stand before the Father and you intercede for us Jesus our Savior Jesus our Savior Thank you Jesus that we can eagerly look forward to your appearance because we know that you have taken care of sin You have dealt with the problem of sin and you can have perfected our consciences in you We can stand in a place where we're not afraid of being sinners because though we sin We can be forgiven because of you Jesus. Let's worship him