A SUPERIOR TABERNACLE cont'd

“A SUPERIOR TABERNACLE ” (cont’d)
Hebrews part 11 (9:11-28)
Rev. Grady Davidson 121111

The message this morning is the same message that the Epistle to the Hebrews has been overwhelming us with for three months: namely, the superiority of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We have seen already that Christ is superior to the ancient prophets; to the holy angels; to Moses, mediator of the old covenant; to Joshua, who led God’s people into the Promised Land; to Aaron, the first High Priest over God’s people; he mediates a new and superior covenant between God and His people; and he does so in the context of a superior tabernacle.
In today’s few verses, the superiority of our Lord Jesus Christ is laid before us once again—this time, in regard to the superiority of His ministry as our Great High Priest, when He entered the heavenly tabernacle to perform His priestly ministry there. Key sentence: Christ our High Priest has made a superior entrance into a superior tabernacle by means of a superior offering to achieve a superior redemption and a superior cleansing.
1. A SUPERIOR TABERNACLE.
(v. 11) “When Christ came as High Priest of the good things that are already here” (that is, God’s Kingdom is already present to us, and the blessings of God’s Kingdom are already ours to begin enjoying, although they are not here in their fullness), “he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation.” We talked last week about the ministry of the High Priest in the Tabernacle, worship tent, of the old covenant. It turns out, as we read back in Hebrews 8:5, that the architectural design of the old, earthly tabernacle was based upon an original tabernacle where God dwells in heaven. When God gave instructions to Moses about building the earthly tabernacle, God showed Moses the one in heaven and said to him, “Now build one according to this heavenly template down on earth.” The earthly tabernacle (later on, in the time of Solomon the temple) was at best a flimsy and mediocre reproduction of the real tabernacle which was in heaven.
After Christ had fulfilled his high priestly duty of offering himself as a sacrifice on the cross, his spirit entered heaven, and passed straight through the outer court of the heavenly tabernacle, through the Holy Place and into the heavenly Holy of Holies… there to present himself to God as evidence that his flesh had been torn and his blood poured out to obtain eternal redemption for all who would believe in Him.
2. A SUPERIOR ENTRANCE BY MEANS OF A SUPERIOR OFFERING.
(v. 12) “He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.” The author here is pointing us straight to the Day of Atonement, that one day out of the year when only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies carrying the basin of sacrificial blood which he sprinkled on the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant. The Old Testament high priest and his yearly ministry on the Day of Atonement was the symbol; Christ our Great High Priest is the reality.
The emphasis here in v. 12 is upon the superiority of the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ—his priceless life blood, not merely the blood of goats and calves. Christ our Great High Priest entered the Heavenly Tabernacle, and pressed straight into the Heavenly Holy of Holies, there to present his own blood to God to make atonement for our sin.
And so we have a superior tabernacle, into which Christ made a superior entrance by means of a superior offering, which leads us to….
3. A SUPERIOR REDEMPTION. See the last words of verse 12: “having obtained eternal redemption.” There’s a contrast being made here. What’s the opposite of a redemption that is eternal? (One that is temporal—the high priest of the old covenant had an annual appointment with God on the Day of Atonement… once a year he would approach God in the holy of holies to bring an offering for the sins which he and his people had committed in ignorance in the previous year.) How long is an eternal redemption good for? A long time. Followed by forever and ever. “When we’ve been there ten thousand years bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’ve first begun.” The moment you believe in Christ, and receive Jesus Christ, your name is entered in the Lamb’s Book of Life… and there’s no expiration date beside the entry!
And so we have a superior tabernacle, into which Christ made a superior entrance by means of a superior offering, giving us a superior redemption, and fourth…
4. A SUPERIOR CLEANSING. See the contrast between vv. 13 & 14.
(v. 13) – an outward, symbolic cleansing through the rites and procedures of the old covenant… the old covenant provided a symbolic, external and ceremonial cleansing.
It’s kind of like washing up before dinner. You can get the visible dirt and invisible germs off your hands with warm soapy water… and yet sit at a dinner table full of vile and wicked desires and harboring hatred and evil in your heart. What our High Priest did when he entered the Heavenly Tabernacle is so much better!
Look at verse 14 (review). Verse 9 above reminded us that the old covenant sacrifices were powerless to do anything about the stain of sin on the human conscience. The issue here is that sin not only makes us guilty; sin also corrupts us. Sin defiles us. And we are absolutely powerless to do anything about the stain and corruption and defilement of sin. It’s like spilling a glass of red wine on a white woolen sweater. You can dab at it and blot it and use Woolite and dry clean it… but you can’t remove the stain. Or like a rusty old pocket knife. The air reacts with the iron in the blade, and it rusts and rusts until it’s all returned to the earth from which the ore was mined. Sin has this power to corrupt and to defile. Only the blood of Christ has the power to wash away that defilement!
The result is that from the center of your being you are re-oriented. The blood has this unique power to turn you away from sinful acts leading to death, and turn you around so that what you really want to do with your life is to serve the Living God (v. 14)!
What has Christ our High Priest done for us? Christ our High Priest has made a superior entrance into a superior tabernacle by means of a superior offering to achieve a superior redemption and a superior cleansing.
Under the Old Covenant, on the Day of Atonement, when the high priest entered the Holy of Holies carrying that basin of blood to sprinkle on the mercy seat, God’s people would gather around the tabernacle (later on, around the temple). A great crush of bodies waiting in deadly silence, literally holding their breaths, for the high priest to come back out to the people. When he appeared after his priestly ministry, I believe that you probably hear the collective sigh of relief as God’s people had the assurance that their sins from the past year were covered. God had once again accepted the blood sprinkled on the mercy seat. The people of God were “OK,” at least for the moment.
In fact this week I came across a poem written by the scribe Joshua ben Sira around 200 years before Christ. Joshua ben Sira was watching when the High Priest that year, one Simon II the Just, reappeared in the courtyard after officiating at the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. I want to read Joshua’s poem to you, warning you that it’s flowery and poetic… but it conveys the relief and the joy of the people that their sins were covered, if just for another year—and they knew it, because the High Priest had reappeared:
“How glorious he was when the people gathered round him as he came out of the inner sanctuary!
Like the morning star among the clouds,
Like the moon when it’s full,
Like the sun shining upon the temple of the Most High,
And like a rainbow gleaming in glorious clouds;
Like roses in the days of the first fruits,
Like lilies by a spring of water,
Like a green shoot on Lebanon on a summer day;
Like fire and incense in the censer,
Like a vessel of hammered gold adorned with all kinds of precious stones;
Like an olive tree putting forth its fruit,
And like a cypress towering in the clouds…”
(Sirach 50:6-10)
I hope you glean something of the excitement, relief and joy of God’s people when the high priest returned from ministering in the earthly sanctuary. With that in mind, I want to show you one more verse from this chapter (9:28, review).
Indeed, Christ our High Priest has made a superior entrance into a superior tabernacle by means of a superior offering to achieve a superior redemption and a superior cleansing. But when Christ our Priest reappears, what a joy it will be to all who have believed in Him, to all who have loved his name and longed for his appearing… because He will come to bring us salvation.
That’s when heaven and earth will become one seamless whole. The fabric of God’s heaven and the fabric of creation will be woven together; and Revelation 21:3-4 will come true (review).
Christ our High Priest has made a superior entrance into a superior tabernacle by means of a superior offering to achieve a superior redemption and a superior cleansing.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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