April 6th, 2025: Hebrews 9:23-28, 10:1-4, 11-14, 19-25 | Christ's Sacrifice

Whether you are great at math, sewing, or predicting human behavior, patterns are extremely useful. Patterns turn chaos into meaning and the unknown into the manageable and anticipated. While the Bible was written over thousands of years and by approximately 40 different authors under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the whole thing follows a pattern that teaches a unified message. God, who made all things, made a way for us to be redeemed, to know Him, and to spend eternity with Him at great personal sacrifice. When Hebrews teaches about the pattern, it connects the Old and New Testament together in the person and purpose of Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 9:23-28

23 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

The theme of Hebrews chapter nine is that Christ is better than the Tabernacle, and His sacrifice is far greater than the sacrifices made there in accordance with the law. So, what was "necessary” in verse 23 was that the blood of Christ was shed to make restitution for sin and reconciliation with God. The blood of Christ purifies; it takes away the corruption and death that are the result of sin and replaces them with the gift of new life.  The Tabernacle and the temple afterward were crude patterns of the true meeting place intended by God for fellowship with man, Heaven.  Heaven can only be reached because Christ became the way.  When He laid down his life, He cleared the road.

24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

When my girls were little, they had a playhouse. Stickers inside showed lights and pictures. A plastic sink and stove were carved into the plastic walls. It had tiny doors and windows, and they played house for hours with imitation dishes and pots and pans. Their toys were replicas that could be handled and learned from that resembled authentic items in our home. They weren’t ready to cook on a real stove or handle sharp knives, they had to mature first. They were practicing in order to understand the reality that would come one day.

That is the purpose of the Old Testament, our “schoolmaster,” to teach with patterns and practices the ideas that are perfected in Heaven. When the Levitical High Priest offered the blood of the lamb on the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies in the temple, he was reenacting what Christ would do in the realms of glory, presenting His own blood as payment for our sin.  Christ visited the temple before His crucifixion, cleansed it of corruption, and spoke the truth to those who should have understood it best but refused to know it. He didn’t offer a sacrifice inside there because that was just the practice set. He offered his life outside of the city. He became the ultimate sacrifice and fulfilled all of the promises made to Moses in the realms of  Heaven itself before the face of  His Father.  

25 Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others;

26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

Because He was God, because He was sinless, because He took upon Himself the sin of the whole world, His sacrifice is the final one. No more is required. He said, “It is Finished,” and like every other word He spoke, it is true for all time and eternity. Everyone who died in faith, believing that God would honor His word and forgive their sin in the days of the Old Testament, was saved by the blood of Christ, the fulfillment of the law. Every one of us who believes God’s Word when it says that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from “all sin” is saved in the same way.  

27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

The judgement of God is a terrifying reality.  We will all stand before Him, our only defense and our only Hope, is that we have been born again through Jesus Christ.  He lives forever, otherwise, we would need a new savior to replace Him, just as the Jews needed to replace their high priest when he died.  The resurrection means that my salvation is secure for as long as He lives and He lives forever.  He has overcome sin and death and Hell, forever, so in Him, I have a secure salvation.

Hebrews 10:1-4

1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.

2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.

3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.

4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

Wouldn’t it be embarrassing if adults decided to go backward and behave again like children in their playhouses instead of living in the real world as intended? Instead of making a meal for their families, they would just pretend on their plastic stoves and serve invisible stew. Instead of going to work and earning a living, they would pretend to be spacemen in a rocketship made of wooden chairs and sheets. Spiritually, people try to do a similar thing. They have accepted Christ as their savior and then refuse to mature. Stubbornly,  they revert back to behaviors and beliefs that belong to their previous lives, to dead and corrupt things that Christ has saved them from. In the Old Testament, as mentioned above, sacrifices had to be made frequently, and sacrifices for the nation, yearly.  Because they continued in sin, blood continued to be shed on their behalf, and it was never enough.  

Calvary tells a different story. Christ died once and for all. When we accept Him as our Savior, we need to let go of the dead things and walk in His pattern. It’s time to mature in the understanding that the “old man” is dead. The blood of sacrificed animals was not sufficient for permanent change, but the blood of Christ holds the power of transformation. When we sin, we can confess and ask forgiveness, and God hears our prayers because of what Christ has done. He paid for it all, not only our past, but He bought a future for us that we can have only in HIm. It’s time for the church to grow up and do what Christ has empowered us to do.

Hebrews 10:11-14

11 And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:

12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;

13 From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.

14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

There is a confidence in the posture and position of Christ in these verses that should reassure you. He who knows the end from the beginning, is seated in authority, because He knows that the work is done. He has earned your pardon, He has defeated your enemy, He has completed the job of our salvation and has separated us for His purpose. He is King, He has been since the beginning, but He has earned this position and will never leave His post. When you need Jesus, Jesus is there.

Hebrews 10: 19-25

19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,

20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;

21 And having an high priest over the house of God;

22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)

24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:

25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

I think that Christians underestimate how seriously God takes our doubt. He wants us to have full confidence in His Son. He wants us to live like we know, absolutely know, that Jesus is our triumphant King, our pattern for living, our eternal sacrifice. We need to encourage ourselves with the truth of the gospel and encourage each other as well. Satan loves to make us feel uncertain and beyond hope, but He lies. When we doubt and are double-minded about how we are getting to Heaven, Christ’s character is called into question. “Let us hold fast,” cling to the fact without wavering that we believe in the finished work of Calvary. We believe in the victory of Christ. He has given us a pattern to practice to prepare us for eternity, a new life.

That’s why the church exists; faith is fueled by fellowship with other believers. Isolation allows doubt and sin to lead us back into despair and self-destruction. The Old Testament promised that the redeemer would come, and He did. The New Testament promises that He is coming again, and He is!  Live in the confidence that the blood of Jesus is able to make us ready for that day!

Thank you for studying with us! God bless!