Today is Laura and my 23rd Anniversary. In Canada it is "Remembrance Day" which helped me never forget my anniversary. Here we celebrate Veterans Day. Today we are looking at the sacrifice of Jesus Christ who voluntary, freely, morally and intentionally gave himself and HIS Blood for our sins to redeem us, save us and sanctify us! We are thankful for the sacrifice of our Veterans and their willingness to put their lives on the line.
The passage we are looking at is the continuation of our journey through Hebrews. The writer of Hebrews is taking us through the long history of the Old Covenant with its rules and law.
The change from the Old Covenant to the NEW shifts in Chapter 9 as the author reminds us that the purpose of worship is to bring us into the presence of the King of Kings. We are not only ushered into the Holy of Holies but we are invited to fellowship with the God of the universe as we had in Genesis. We hear in this lesson the most important truth about the New Covenant:
The Blood of Christ
11 When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here,[b] he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. 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. 13 The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. 14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death,[c] so that we may serve the living God!15 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
16 In the case of a will,[d] it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, 17 because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. 18 This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. 19 When Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. 20 He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.”[e] 21 In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. 22 In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
23 It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. 25 Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. 26 Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
We see that as Jesus said to the man in our Gospel lesson "you are not far from the Kingdom of God" we now know that we are being ushered into the REAL TRUE Presence of God through the blood of the NEW Covenant in Holy Communion and in the worship and fellowship we share as the Body of Christ.
It is amazing that the Lord not only cleanses us but HIS blood also gives us the power to live as HIS Children.
May we join together in celebrating the truth of Jesus' last will and testament the truth of the NEW Covenant and the invitation to rejoice in the presence of God, forgiven and free from our sins under the law and filled with the Holy Spirit to live each day as NEW Creatures and people of the KINGDOM.
Praise the Lord that He is the Great Mediator between God and US!
Pastor Bryan
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