Tuesday, November 13, 2012

“Sacrifice—Effective but Deadly” Hebrews 9.24-28, 11.11.12 Sermon ’12 Series B



1.      Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  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 an 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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