1.
Please
pray with me. May the words of my mouth
and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock,
and our Redeemer. Amen. The message from God’s Word this morning is
taken from Hebrews 9:24-28, it’s entitled, “Sacrifice—Effective
but Deadly,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
On
Wednesday, January 13, 1982, an Air Florida Boeing 737 jet left National
Airport in Washington, D.C., during very cold weather. Moments later it hit the
14th Street Bridge and crashed into the icy waters of the Potomac River. The
tragic accident took 78 lives. After the
crash 6 passengers held to a piece of the plane, trying to stay afloat.
Helicopters from the Coast Guard and Police came to rescue these survivors.
They lowered a lifesaving ring. One of the men caught the ring and handed it 5
times to his companions. All 5 made it to the helicopters. As the helicopter returned for a final trip
to rescue this man, he disappeared beneath the water. The survivors didn’t even
know his name. He gave his life that they might live. His was an effective but
deadly sacrifice. Our rescuer has the
name Jesus. He gave his life for our sins. His offering was effective because
he has done away with sin by the sacrifice of himself (Heb. 9:26). His offering
of himself needed no repetition. His offering was deadly because in doing God’s
will he surrendered his own life. Jesus now holds out a lifesaving ring to us
through His Word and Sacraments. By believing in Jesus as our effective
sacrifice for our sin we receive eternal life.
3.
On
this day that we recognize our Great High Priest Jesus as a sacrifice and
offering for our sin it would be good for us to also remember our veterans who
have served our country during times of war and peace. Think about our veterans who have served in
our military for a moment. They are a
lot like this man who offered himself to save the lives of his companions after
the plane crash on the Potomac. Our
nation’s veterans today deal with so many things. Many of them have lost their limbs, they’ve
been physically and emotionally scarred by the horrors of war. They fought along their countrymen all so
that you and I can enjoy the benefits of living in a free society. Let’s take a moment to honor our veterans in
our worship service this morning for the sacrifice that they have made for our
country. Veterans won’t you please stand
so that we can thank you with applause.
4.
Just
as our veterans have sacrificed themselves for us so too an even better sacrifice
was made for us the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 9:24-26, “24For Christ has entered, not
into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into
heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25Nor
was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places
every year with blood not his own, 26for then he would have had to
suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has
appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself.” The forgiveness of our sins wouldn’t be possible without the
shedding of the blood of our Savior Jesus.
His sacrifice was effective, but deadly.
In the Old Testament the sacrifices of bulls and goats all pointed the
Israelites and us today toward the sacrifice of our Great High Priest. For without the shedding of blood there can
be no forgiveness of sins. For the wages
of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus
our Lord.
5.
Before
we can enter God’s presence in worship, there is at the beginning of the Divine
Service, Confession & Absolution. After
confession our sins we are forgiven. We
then come to our Heavenly Father’s throne of grace in worship through prayer,
praise and song. But, because we sin so
much against God and our neighbor in thought, word, and deed we can’t live
without a daily purging of our conscience.
No matter how painful it may be, we must confess our sins before God. Its importance is in direct proportion to us
being aware of what Jesus did on Calvary’s cross for us.
6.
Many
times we lose the sense of our sin. We
often stumble into sin and pick ourselves up with a weak excuse and laugh it
off. We think God won’t make a fuss over
little things like a little white lie or the selfishness that takes place in
our homes. God won’t care if I take His
name in vain every now and then and swear with those four letter words once in
a while. God doesn’t mind if I forget to
worship and pray to Him on a regular basis or if I continue to hold that grudge
and hate toward my neighbor. In fact, we
may even refuse to deal with our sins.
Or, we may turn into moralists and try to live a good life without God’s
help and the painful discipline of confessing our sins before God. But, Jesus didn’t come to just convict you of
your sin, He came to cleanse you from your sins. Jesus accomplished this by offering Himself
as the Sacrificial Lamb on the cross.
This was the only payment that was acceptable to God for your sins.
7.
Notice how the author of Hebrews says that
Jesus didn’t go into an earthly Holy of Holies. He went into the presence of
God, the real Holy of Holies. And He did it for us. How beautiful to realize
that when He went in, He took us with
Him! Jesus has ushered us into the presence of God. Nor did Christ have to
offer Himself often, as did the earthly high priests, who had to make the
offering of atonement every year. Jesus’ sacrifice was better because He takes
His people into the heavenly Holy of Holies with Him and because He had to make
an offering only once.
8.
Hebrews
9:27–28 says, “27And just as
it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28so
Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second
time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” All men have to die, and our death is by
divine appointment. It’s one appointment everyone will keep. After death comes
judgment, which is also appointed by God. And since men aren’t able to atone
for their own sins, God’s judgment demands that they pay or have a substitute
pay for them. Like all men, Jesus
was appointed to die once. But unlike
all other men, He will never face judgment. Because He took our sins upon
Himself, He took our judgment upon Himself. But the judgment was for our sins, not for His. For God “made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our
behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor.
5:21). He died the one death that judgment demanded. His sacrifice was effective, but deadly.
9.
As
I mentioned before, the Israelites of the Old Testament always waited on the
Day of Atonement for the high priest to come out from the Holy of Holies. If he
did anything wrong, if he failed to follow God’s instructions, he would die. So
there was always a sigh of relief, for their own sakes as well as for his, when
he reappeared. But, if the people were
so eager to see the former high priests reappear from the earthly Holy of
Holies, how much more should Christians look eagerly for our great High Priest
Jesus to reappear from the heavenly Holy of Holies on Judgment Day?
10.
When
the high priest walked out of the old sanctuary, the people knew that his
sacrifice had been accepted. He had done everything right. Jesus Christ’s reappearing
on Judgment Day will be one more confirmation that He did everything right,
that His Father is satisfied with Him. And because the Father is satisfied with
Him, He is satisfied with you, for you are in Him. When He comes back, your
salvation will be full. When He appears a second time to those who expect Him,
it will not be to deal with sin. Sin only needs to be dealt with once, and this
He did on the cross. When He comes again, it will be without reference to sin.
11.
At
the end of that eventful Passover week when Jesus was finishing His ministry,
the Romans had prepared 3 crosses for 3 criminals. On two of the crosses,
thieves were to hang. The third cross was for a rebel named Barabbas, who had
been found guilty of treason against the Roman empire. But Barabbas never made
it to the cross. He was guilty, but he wasn’t executed—because someone took his
place. On the middle cross that day hung not a violent, rebel, but the sinless
Son of God. Barabbas went free not because he was innocent, but because Jesus
took his place. Jesus was crucified not because He was guilty, but so that He could take Barabbas’s place—and the place
of every other sinner. His sacrifice was
effective, but deadly. All for you to
forgive you your sins and give you eternal life. Amen.
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