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
comes from Hebrews 13:1-17. The message
is entitled, “Disgraced, Deserted,
Despised,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
Disgraced.
Deserted. Despised. Our Savior Jesus suffered a bloody, shameful
death as our great sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins—and more—outside
the camp as Hebrews 13:11 tells us. And
because He did, we are at peace with God.
In fact, God is now for us “the God of peace.” He brought Jesus back from death and in so
doing declared that His demands for justice had been fully satisfied at the
cross. Our sins are gone. Our Savior is now our Good Shepherd.
3.
We
have a good idea what sacrifice looks like. A baby is born. It takes time to
take care of that child. Middle-of-the night feedings. Diapers to be changed.
And diapers are expensive! Sacrifices are made in time and money. Two marines are in battle. They have
taken cover in a ditch. A grenade lands between them. One looks at the other,
smiles, and jumps on it. He sacrifices his life for the other soldier. A man in a Muslim country becomes a
Christian. He will sacrifice his family, work, freedom, and maybe even his life
for his faith. These are scenes that show what sacrifice looks like.
4.
Now let’s go back, way back, thousands of
years. Making a sacrifice was a huge part of the temple worship during Old
Testament times. In the centuries before Jesus was born, the Jews made
sacrifices, lots of sacrifices. They sacrificed all types of animals: bulls,
sheep, goats, lambs, doves, and pigeons. They sacrificed grain and crops. They
had sacrifices to give thanks, sacrifices for peace, sacrifices to go with
prayers, and especially sacrifices to take away sin and guilt.
5.
In fact, the most important day in all of
Jewish life was a day of sacrifice for sin and guilt. It was the Day of
Atonement. On that day, a goat was sacrificed, and its blood was taken into the
holiest place in the temple. It was offered to God as a way to atone for, make
up for, bring forgiveness for the people’s sins. You can imagine what a sacrifice looked like
on that day. Blood, lots of blood, on the altar, staining the wood and stone.
Blood on the ground and sprinkled on the ark of the covenant in the Most Holy
Place in the temple. And then, the body of the goat was burned outside the
city, outside the sacred place.
6.
Disgraced, deserted, despised, this is what
sacrifices looked like in the Old Testament. Lots of blood and fire and smoke.
And many of the Old Testament sacrifices were made to bring forgiveness for sin
and to take away the people’s guilt. But
then the day came when all those animal and grain sacrifices were no longer
needed. The day came when one sacrifice was made that made all those other
sacrifices obsolete. The day came when Jesus made a once-for-all-time
sacrifice.
7.
Let’s begin to see what Jesus’ sacrifice looks
like where He became disgraced, deserted, and despised for you and for me. The
altar is made of wood, but it’s in the shape of a cross. On that cross, blood
is shed—Jesus’ blood. But notice the irony. On the Day of Atonement, the
sacrifice was made in the temple, in the Most Holy Place. It was then burned
outside the holy places, in a defiled, unclean place. Jesus was sacrificed
outside, in the unclean, defiled place, so that we could enter the holy place
of God’s presence.
8.
How do you picture Jesus’ once-for-all
sacrifice where He became disgraced, despised, and rejected for you and me? On
the cross Jesus’ head is bowed down. He’s taken his last breath. A crown of
thorns circles his head. Now, it looks
peaceful. But everything before that moment was violent and bloody. If you had
looked at Jesus’ back, his blood would’ve been matted to the wood of the cross.
His face would’ve been streaked with blood from the crown of thorns. Blood
would’ve oozed out of the nail holes in his hands and dripped down his wrists
and arms. Blood would be rolling down his side, where a spear had punctured him.
And blood from the nail holes in his feet would’ve crept down the cross and
onto the ground.
9.
What happened to our Savior Jesus was violent,
bloody, dirty, and filled with agony, Jesus did this to take away the sin of
the world. His sacrifice was to atone for your guilt. Jesus sacrificed his life
so that we might live eternally with him. On the altar of the cross, his blood
was shed so we would be clean in God’s eyes. The writer of Hebrews says, “Jesus also suffered outside the gate in
order to sanctify the people through his own blood” (v 12). We come into
God’s holy presence only because Jesus has made us holy, sanctified us, by his
holy blood shed on the cross.
10.
Jesus’ sacrifice is the only one that makes all
those animal sacrifices in the Old Testament mean anything at all. Jesus’
sacrifice is the only sacrifice that sanctifies us before God. Jesus’ sacrifice
is once-for-all and for all times. But,
the time for making sacrifices isn’t over. Oh, it is over for gaining
forgiveness, for being clean and sanctified in God’s eyes. Those sacrifices for
forgiveness and atonement are done. We can’t add any sacrifice to what Jesus
did on the cross.
11.
But other sacrifices are still to be made.
Listen to vv 15–16 of our text: “Through
him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the
fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share
what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” We still make
sacrifices to God: the sacrifice of praise with our lips; the sacrifice of
doing good and sharing what we have.
12.
What do those sacrifices look like? These scenes make me think of the sacrifice
of praise with our lips: Hymnals open, and we’re singing together. The words of
the Creed are spoken out loud as we confess our faith in the triune God. Heads
bowed before a meal to say thank you for the food when eating at Culvers
or McDonalds. Telling someone about Jesus at work. Shaking hands and
sharing “the peace of the Lord” with
one another other during the worship service. Speaking God’s blessings to
someone who sneezed. Saying “Thank you,
Lord!” throughout the day for the wonderful gifts he gives us daily. I’m
sure you can picture in your mind what the sacrifice of praise with our lips
looks like in so many other ways.
13.
Now for the sacrifice of doing what is good. The
writer of Hebrews gives us a list of good things to do, ways to give of our
time and money, to sacrifice of ourselves, in the way we live. V 1: “Let brotherly love continue.”
We’re family, and we care for one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. We
sacrifice time and money to make Christ & Calvary Lutheran Churches our
home. V 2: “Show
hospitality.” We provide food and drink to people here at our church when we
have fellowship meals, we collect food for our local food bank, and baby items
for our nearby crisis pregnancy center. V 4: “Let marriage be held in
honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled.” God’s Word is clear.
Marriage is to be treated with respect, honor, and as an institution of
precious value. The gift of sex is to be expressed within the marital
relationship alone. In a world of rampant pornography, TV shows where sex and
marriage are seldom put together, and a climate in which sex outside of
marriage is seen as the norm, these words about keeping the marriage bed pure
seem quaint, out of step, old-fashioned. But they are God’s Word, and it’s what
our sacrifice of doing good looks like today.
14.
V 5: “Keep your life free from
love of money, and be content with what you have.” Have you ever woken up in
the middle of the night worrying about a bill that needs to be paid or about
the debts you’ve built up? I have. One way I’ve found to get back to sleep is
to count, not sheep, but blessings. I simply start saying thank you in a prayer
for anything and everything God has given to me. Counting blessings rather than
fretting over bills makes for a better night’s sleep.
15.
Vv 7, 17: “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to
you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their
faith. . . . Obey your leaders and
submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will
have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for
that would be of no advantage to you.” Treat your pastor with respect and
make his ministry one of joy rather than groaning.
16.
Are you getting a picture of what our
sacrifices look like? I hope so. The
writer of Hebrews has summarized it well. Jesus made the once-for-all sacrifice
for us on the altar of the cross. He sanctified us and made us holy in God’s
sight by becoming disgraced, deserted and despised. And now that Jesus’
once-for-all sacrifice has sanctified us, we live lives of Sacrifice with our words
and by doing what is good in God’s eyes.
Amen.
