Click here to listen to this sermon.Click here to listen to this sermon.Join me on a journey of the imagination and lets visit the temple in the Jerusalem of centuries ago. It is the tenth day of the seventh month. There is a somber mood to activity. This is no ordinary day; it is the Day of Atonement. The priest is making ready to enter into the sanctified, holy place wherein Gods presence dwells. He has observed the ceremonial rules, cleansing himself and dressing in special garments. This is the way it has always been done. All the way back to Aaron, Moses brother.
The priest has slaughtered a bull praying as he slaughters it asking that the Lord will forgive him of his own sins. He takes the blood of the bull into the holy sanctuary along with a censer of burning incense. Now he enters the Holiest place where the Ark of the Covenant rests. This is Gods throne on earth. As he places the burning incense before the Ark his mind is repeating the words of Scripture: If he follows these instructions, he will not die. If he follows these instructions, he will not die. If he follows these instructions, he will not die. (Leviticus 16:13).
Now he sprinkles the blood of the bull before the Ark, the throne of God. He does it just as he has always done it; year after year on the tenth day of the seventh month. He has purified himself from his defiling sins. He has sanctified the holy, but still very earthbound, elements of the Temple. Only now is he able to begin the ceremony of atoning for the multitude of sins staining the people of God.
Just as it has been done every year on the tenth day of the seventh month, two goats are brought as an offering for the sins of the people. The priest slaughters one goat. He will take its blood do what he did with the blood of the bull. The priest takes the other goat by the head and he tells the goat all the horrible and wicked things that the people of God done. He tells this goat how they have missed the mark. He tells this goat how they have fallen short. He tells this goat how they failed to live up to Gods standards. And this is just in the last year, because the priest performed this ceremony only a year ago.
The goat, burdened with a years worth of the sins of the people will be led away into the desert. The people will curse the goat as it is led outside the city. They are cursing their sins. They know what theyve done. They know how they have fallen short. They know how they have missed the mark. They know how they have failed to live up to Gods standards. They know that their sins are as brutal and ugly as the gore and blood of the sacrificed goat that stains the holy garments of the priest. They also know that there is this day for atonement. Yet, they also know that they will do this all over again next year, on the tenth day of the seventh month.
Meanwhile, back in our own day and age it is the first day of the week. The people of God assemble. This isnt like any other day or time. There is a sense of meditation and reverence. The preacher has been praying all morning. He is aware of his own sins. He knows how he has missed the mark. He knows how he has fallen short. He knows how he has not lived up to all of Gods standards. He may dwell on it in prayer, but that will be enough until next Sunday. The people are gathered this day also aware of their sins. During the quiet of the communion and in their mental wandering during the sermon they struggle ...
One man wonders if his baptism was done right. Should he be baptized all over again?A woman is concerned that her baptism at such an early age might not be enough of a conversion to cover over the horrible sin she committed two years ago that she dare not tell anyone. This is all she has pondered every first day of the week for the last two years.
During the Lords Supper some feel unworthy to partake of the bread and wine. They focus on the blood of Christ and the tortured body of Christ. They know that it is their particular sins that have put Christ on the cross. They feel unworthy and ashamed to approach God. But maybe if they keep coming on the first day of the week they will somehow prove worthy.
There are some who plead for change, telling God how sorry they are - especially those who have committed the same sin week after week. They come on the first day of the week to curse themselves for they know how they have missed the mark. They know how they have fallen short. They know how they have not lived up to Gods standards.
After an hour or longer meditating on their sin and after the chance to confess and prayer, some will leave the assembly place hope that this has been enough. For this hour or so they have reminded themselves of their sins, they understand that they have missed the mark. They understand that they have fallen short. They understand that they have not lived up to Gods standards.
Perhaps they understand that they have been forgiven. Perhaps the preacher spoke it. Perhaps they felt it or hoped it when they ate the bread and drank the cup. Perhaps they prayed it as they wrote a check or dug in their pockets for money. Maybe just maybe God will forgive them this day this first day of the week since they have been good and faithful. But they dont want to get too confident because they know how easy it is to sin. And besides, they will be returning next week on the first day of the week when they will do this all over again.
Two ages of Gods people, but the same problem: a constant awareness of sin. An opportunity for atonement, but a reminder that this atonement must be managed and handled again and again. I admit that theres not a lot of hope in these scenes. However, perhaps you recognize the reality in these imagined settings. Perhaps the absence of hope and the chronic knowledge of sin and failure is too familiar. If so, I want to imagine a third reality. It comes from a sermon I did not preach. It comes from a preacher I dont know. I dont even know his name, but his sermon is so powerful that it was written into the Bible. You have heard some of the words of this sermon read in our worship today (Hebrews 10). I want us to journey to a hearing of these words ...
I want you to hear the words of a preacher whose sermon was written into the Bible:
Christ did not enter heaven to offer himself again and again, like the high priest here on earth who enters the Most Holy Place year after year with the blood of an animal. If that had been necessary, Christ would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But now, once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice. (Hebrews 9)
Do you hear what hes saying? He is saying, In Jesus Christ you have been forgiven.
I want you to hear the words of a preacher whose sermon was written into the Bible:
Gods will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time. (Hebrews 10)
Do you hear what hes saying? He is saying, In Jesus Christ you have been forgiven.
I want you to hear the words of a preacher whose sermon was written into the Bible:
Our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at Gods right hand. There he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet. For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy. (Hebrews 10:12-14)
Do you hear what hes saying? He is saying, In Jesus Christ you have been forgiven.
And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices. (Hebrews 10:18). Why do we come together and before God day after day and feel that nothing changes? Why do we lose hope that our sins could be forgiven? Why do we keep dredging up our sin and letting it rule us?
We can criticize the old ways of slaughtered animals and confessing to scapegoats, but if all weve done is sophisticate the constant attention to our sin into a mental exercise rather than an ancient ritual, we are never going to live in the spirit of Christs forgiveness. And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices.
Some concerned soul might say, But people could get lazy and careless if they are too confident in forgiveness. They may not come back to church. Maybe, but they will never BE church if they think they are always condemned and dont know that in Jesus Christ they are forgiven. We will never BE church if we are hopelessly burdened with guilt that hinders our righteousness. And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices.
If youve heard the words of this preacher today then youve heard an invitation to live in the spirit of forgiveness. If you have been baptized, then stop dirtying yourself with the sins that God has washed away. If youve been baptized, then you have new life. Quit shackling yourself to the condemnation of sin and guilt after God has already freed you.
All of us are invited to make this day a day of new covenant: This is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.
God is inviting us to forgiveness. Do you hear what hes saying? He is saying, In Jesus Christ we have been forgiven.
Can we accept that?
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