A HEAVENLY SANCTUARY – Hebrews 9:1-15
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on July 8, 2015 under PM Bible Study |
PM Home Bible Study Group; July 8, 2015
Hebrews 9:1-15
Theme: This passage compares the limitations of the earthly sanctuary with the perfections of the heavenly sanctuary.
All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated.
In our last study we were introduced to the New Covenant—that covenant from God that’s described in Jeremiah 31; one in which God promised to do for His people what they could not do in the Old Covenant under the Mosaic law Jesus, as we have seen, is the High Priest of this glorious New Covenant. And the writer of Hebrews takes us deeper into the realities of that New Covenant by showing us that it too—like the Old Covenant—has the priestly service of a glorious heavenly ‘sanctuary’.
In the Old Testament, the Tabernacle—that portable tent-like structure that God instructed Moses to build; and that was later placed by the Temple build by Solomon—served as the place where the Old Covenant people of Israel met with God. It was where the priesthood served, and where offerings for sin were made. But as it turns out, it was only meant to be a temporary symbol of a greater, heavenly ‘sanctuary’—one in which the Lord Jesus would serve as our High Priest. The writer of Hebrews tells us that there was a “true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man” (Hebrews 8:2); and that the holy places of the old, earthly tabernacle “are copies of the true” (9:24). The Old Covenant priesthood served “the copy and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. “For He [that is, God] said, ‘See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain’” (8:5).
That old sanctuary—by the fact that it served the Old Covenant, and was meant to be a mere copy of a greater reality—was limited in what it could do. It involved ordinances that could not make people perfect before God, and required sacrifices that could not take away their sin. These things were only meant to point to the greater reality that was fulfilled for us in Christ. And so, the writer of Hebrews sets the differences between the two before His Jewish readers—encouraging them not to cling to those old patterns of a covenant that has now been set aside, and to enter instead with full confidence into the New Covenant realities that have been ministered to us by our great High Priest Jesus.
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Note first, then, what he writes about . . .
I. THE EARTHLY SANCTUARY OF THE FIRST COVENANT (vv. 1-5).
A. After declaring the glories of the New Covenant, he writes, “Then indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service and the earthly sanctuary” (v. 1). He stresses this because the ordinances of divine service in the earthly sanctuary served as a true “symbol” of heavenly realities. The heavenly sanctuary has ordinances of divine service too. That means that the ordinances of the Old Covenant were not pointless. They truly spoke of heavenly realities.
B. The writer then goes into the details of that earthly sanctuary to highlight the symbolic nature of its ordinances. These would be things that every pious Jewish person would have known about from childhood.
1. There was first, in that old earthly Tabernacle, an inner area called “the Holy Place”, or literally, “Holies”, or “the sanctuary”. As a priest of the family of Aaron walked through the court of the Tabernacle, he would pass the laver for washing. Then, he would pass the brazen altar for sacrifice. This showed that before a priest could enter the Holy Place, he would himself need to be cleansed and would need to make the offering for sins. But passing through the court, he would come to the large tent in the center of the larger tent-like Tabernacle court. This would be the Holy Place—a “tabernacle” within the Tabernacle. The writer says; “For a tabernacle was prepared: the first part, in which was the lampstand, the table, and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary . . .” (v. 2). Only a priest of the family of Aaron could ever enter into such a place. A king of Israel—King Uzziah—once pridefully attempted to enter this place and offer incense to God. He was not a priest of Aaron’s lineage; and so he suffered terribly for having done so (see 2 Chronicles 26:16-21).
2. But even though that sanctuary was called “the Holy Place”, there was another place that was holier still. It was a place that was separated from all else by a second veil. Only the High Priest was permitted to enter past that second veil and into this inner-most part of the sanctuary—and only once a year, on the Day of Atonement (see Leviticus 16). The writer says, “and behind the second veil, the part of the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of All, which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which were the golden pot that had the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat” (vv. 3-5a). This Holiest of All—and particularly the mercy seat above the ark—represented the place on earth in which God identified His presence to people. Under the Old Covenant, it would be as close as a sinner could ever possibly come toward God. And even then, it had to be a specially appointed, representative “sinner” (that is, the high priest once a year).
C. The writer closes this description by saying, “Of these things we cannot now speak in detail” v. 5b). And in saying this, he is expressing that there is much more that could be said. In fact, much of the Old Testament Law given through Moses involves the matters of these symbolic things. The right felt that he needed to move on. But perhaps we can detect a subtle testimony to the obsolete nature of these things in those words. They are no longer the important things to focus on. What’s most important is the spiritual realities that they represented. As it says in Colossians 2:17, they are “a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.” We shouldn’t take up our time concentrating on “shadows” when “the Substance”—Christ Himself—is there and ready to save us!
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Note next what the writer tells us about . . .
II. THE SPIRITUAL LIMITATIONS OF THAT EARTHLY SANCTUARY (vv. 6-10).
A. After giving this description of the old sanctuary, he writes, “Now when these things had been thus prepared, the priests always went into the first part of the tabernacle, performing the services. But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance . . .” (vv. 6-7). These things first had to be prepared with blood. As the writer would later tell us,
For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.” Then likewise he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission (Hebrews 9:19-22).
And even after these things were cleansed and prepared by Moses, access to the place where God had identified Himself was still extremely limited. The “second part” was only accessible to the high priest on behalf of the people on the Day of Atonement. And as the writer says, his entry must be “not without blood”. The Tabernacle would have testified to the people that He was their God; but it would have also testified that they were not free to enter into His presence because of their sin. It would have been a very limiting testimony—one that was a constant reminder of the fact that sinful man did not have free access to Him.
B. And this was all intentional! It was all a divinely appointed ‘object lesson’. It was meant to show people that the Old Covenant was not sufficient to take away their sin, and that people could not yet come into the presence of a holy God. As the writer of Hebrews goes on to say; “the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience—concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation” (vv. 8-10).
C. Note carefully those words, “imposed until the time of reformation”. There was the indication in the limitations of the Old Covenant Tabernacle that something more was needed—something that God had yet planned to bring about. It was symbolic of a greater reality that God would fulfill in the New Covenant through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ. As the writer would put it later;
Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another—He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself (Hebrews 9:23-26).
Those Old Covenant limitations and inefficiencies were meant to point us to Jesus. As Paul puts it wonderfully in Galatians 3:19-25;
What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor (Galatians 3:19-26).
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This leads us, finally, to . . .
III. THE SUFFICIENCY OF JESUS’ MINISTRY IN THE HEAVENLY SANCTUARY (vv. 11-15).
A. Having looked at the limitations of the Old Covenant Tabernacle and it’s ordinances—the mere “shadow”—we can now see the glorious sufficiency of the “substance”. Jesus did not enter into the old sanctuary for us, because it was symbolic of the Old Covenant—and He Himself was not a priest of Aaron’s lineage. Instead, He is a High Priest of the order of Melchizedek (see 6:20-7:10). The writer tells us; “But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation” (v. 11). He went for us into the sanctuary in the heavenlies—the true sanctuary—and fulfilled all the requirements God had for our holiness in His sight.
B. And we’re not only saved by where it was that Jesus went for us, but also by what He offered on our behalf when He went there. The priests of the Old Covenant could only go into the earthly tabernacle and offer the blood of animal substitutes. But Jesus went into heavenly sanctuary for us with something far better. “Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (vv. 12-14).
C. And so, a better offering in the true sanctuary means a New Covenant—and a new Mediator to minister that covenant to us. “And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance” (v. 15).
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Now; a devout Jewish person might be hesitant to embrace all this. After all, God established the Old Covenant ordinances. Is it safe to leave them and embrace the New Covenant realities in Christ? Can we be sure of all this?
Well; God gave us a wonderful confirmation of the truth of these things. In fact, it would be hard to find a better confirmation. We’re told that as our Lord hung on the cross and breathed his last,
“Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom . . .” (Matthew 27:51).
The veil wasn’t torn from bottom to top—as if it were something man did; but it was torn “from top to bottom”. This was God’s own doing; and He was clearly declaring that the Old Covenant was now over, and the things it was meant to symbolize had been fulfilled in the ministry of Jesus on our behalf in the true sanctuary in the heavens, and that the way was now opened for sinners like us—who trust in Jesus—to enter into the fullest possible fellowship with God our Father!
