"The Day Draws Near"
[Hebrews 10:19-25]
April 6, 2007 Second Reformed Church
"And you shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twisted linen. It shall be made with cherubim skillfully worked into it. And you shall hang it on four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold, with hooks of gold, on four bases of silver. And you shall hang the veil from the clasps, and bring the ark of the testimony in there within the veil. And the veil shall separate for you the Holy Place from the Most Holy. You shall put the mercy seat on the ark of the testimony in the Most Holy Place. And you shall set the table outside the veil, and the lampstand on the south side of the tabernacle opposite the table, and you shall put the table on the north side" (Exodus 26:31-35).
God instructed Moses to build the tabernacle -- the place of worship -- with rooms within rooms and courts within courts. The innermost room, the Holy of Holies, contained the ark of the testimony -- the ark of the covenant -- that box that contained the Ten Commandments, Aaron's rod, and some of the manna from the wilderness. In that holy place, the Glory of God would descend. And no one was allowed in that room, except for the high priest, once a year, on the Day of Atonement. The room was separated by the ornate veil -- curtain. Anyone who entered that room presumptuously would be put to death.
At the moment Jesus breathed His Last on that first Good Friday, we read this, "And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from the top to the bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split" (Matthew 27:51). And we can imagine those who were in the temple, running in terror, for the Holy of Holies was now open for anyone to see and enter. For hundreds of years, Israel had raised her children with the knowledge that if you glimpsed the Holy of Holies, you would die, and now, it was open to all.
But the author of Hebrews tells us not to fear, but to rejoice, for this is Good Friday. The Incarnate God lived and then died the horrific death of a criminal. He hung between Heaven and Hell, suffering God's Wrath, and being forsaken by His Father. And then, in victory, He tore the curtain from the ceiling to the floor, exposing the Holy of Holies. And our God says, "Come before Me with confidence."
"Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), and since we have a great high priest over the house of God,..."
Therefore, as we saw last night, since Christ our Passover Lamb has been slaughtered for us. Since His Blood has been shed and placed on the lintels and doorposts. Since He is Perfect and Sinless, and offered Himself up for His people. Since He offered His Whole Self, Perfectly, Completely sacrificed on that cursed tree. Salvation is now. Jesus has made salvation now. From that first Good Friday, salvation is now. Don't wait until tomorrow -- there may not be a tomorrow -- salvation is now.
Therefore, since He gave Himself as the Perfect and Complete Sacrifice, He has the Authority to tear open the curtain that separated us, His people, from the Holy of Holies. As His Body was torn apart and His Blood poured out, for the first and last time, a Holy Sacrifice was given, the Old Testament sacrifices ceased, and we were credited with His Holy Life, so we can come into the Very Presence of God confidently.
Therefore, since Jesus assumed the office of the Great High Priest when He offered up Himself as the One Holy Sacrifice, He perfectly fulfilled the word of the angel of the Lord to Joshua, "Thus says the Lord of hosts: if you will walk in my ways and keep my requirements, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here" (Zechariah 3:6-7).
Jesus is our High Priest in representing His people before God the Father. He assists us through His Sacrifice of Himself. And through that Sacrifice, He makes us acceptable to the Father. Whereas that way into the Holy of Holies had been only for the high priest through blood sacrifice and death, once a year, now all of God's people -- all believers -- have the privilege of coming into the Holy of Holies every time we gather to worship.
Therefore. Or, perhaps, so what? Or, who cares?
Brothers and sisters, we are in the presence of the Almighty God. Jesus is here in this place, and He ministers His Grace to us through the reading and preaching of the Word of God and as we receive the bread and the cup. The fact that you and I are here together and we have not been struck dead for daring to come into His Presence, ought to make us ponder, fill us with awe, and realize that we must be different people. People who truly come into the Presence of God are changed.
The writer of Hebrews calls us to three things in the text we read:
First, "let us approach God with a true heart in full assurance of faith."
As we join together in the Presence of God to worship, let us come before Him knowing that we are eternally right with God through Jesus Christ Alone. Now, that doesn't mean we don't sin any longer. Christians sin, and we ought to repent and confess our sin. What it means is that we have been changed inwardly and outwardly through Christ. Our evil conscience has been purified by the sprinkling of His Blood. Our body has been cleansed with pure water -- that is the symbolism of baptism -- by which we understand the process of sanctification. That we are being made in body and spirit -- in every facet of our being -- like Jesus. We are being made holy.
We are to come into the Presence of God knowing, believing, that everything that we are, all of our good, everything worthy in us, has been earned, bought, and credited to us by Jesus Christ Alone. This fundamental principle in holy worship is to come into God's Presence with liberty and boldness and confidence, because Jesus is our High Priest and Sacrifice. If we truly believe that salvation is all of Jesus, and nothing of us, then we are assured, because salvation has nothing to do with us and our decisions and our performance. It's all Jesus. Holy, Perfect, Complete Jesus.
Second, "let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful."
As we make our confession of belief each time we gather together, let us remember that the facts of the confession do not stand or fall with the Reformed Church in America. They do not stand or fall by Second Reformed Church. They do not stand or fall by Peter Butler, Jr. And they do not stand or fall by any one of us here.
Our confession of salvation in Jesus Alone, throughout all of the Bible, stands on the fact of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. Our confession, and the fact of our salvation, stands on the sure and everlasting fact that our faithful Jesus has fulfilled the pledge that was made for centuries through the sacrifice of animals when He sacrificed Himself, the One Holy and Final Sacrifice. Our confession is sure because the Sacrifice of Jesus is sure. And since that Sacrifice is sure:
Thirdly, "let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another."
If this is all true, if we believe that the Work is done and we can come boldly before our God, if we are assured because our Salvation is not based on our fallible selves, not based on our works, but on Him Who is making us His Own, then there ought to be evidences of that truth in our lives.
We ought to be provoking each other -- in a good way. The word there means "inciting, stimulating, strongly encouraging." We ought to be showing love to one another other, putting ourselves out for each other, helping each other to accomplish what is good and pleasing in the sight of God. We ought to encourage each other to continue to do good works. Now, understand, that doesn't mean encouraging foolish ideas, much less sin. And it doesn't mean telling each other that any idea we have is hopeless and useless, but you'll help anyway. It means that if someone is doing something good -- that we encourage her and help those good things to continue. And if someone doesn't know what good thing to do, that we make suggestions based on what we know of him and his abilities.
It especially means encouraging others not to neglect being in worship with other Christians -- to do all that we can to encourage each other to be at every worship service. Some people say, "Well, I worship God at home and in my own way." And it's true, we can meet God and worship Him in our homes -- we should be encouraging each other to pray and read the Bible and good Christian books at home. But we cannot rightly hear the Word of God read and preached and receive the sacraments if we don't join in worship with the people that Jesus saved. Christianity is not first of the individual, but of the people of God.
And we ought to be encouraging each other in all the good things that God has called us to do -- to worship, to be discipled and disciplined, to receive spiritual food from many and various sources, to grow in our life and faith, to forsake our sin, and especially the sin of sloth in spiritual things. "I'll pray when I get older. I'll read the Scripture when I get older. I'll do good works when I get older. I'll become a Christian when I get older." Salvation is now You may not get any older. Salvation is now.
"All the more as you see the Day approaching."
Which day? What is the writer referring to?
There are at least two different possibilities, and we may be wise to say both are right:
The first is the day of the destruction of the temple -- which occurred in 70 A.D. The book of Hebrews is largely concerned with how Jesus has fulfilled the sacrificial system -- a system that took place, largely, in the temple. So, the writer may have been referring to Christians understanding how Jesus fulfilled the sacrificial system, and beginning to live that fulfillment out, before the temple is destroyed and so many are lost for not having a place to sacrifice an animal.
A second possibility is the more general idea of the Second Coming. The writer may have been pressing Christians to live as people who can now stand in the Presence of God in the Holy of Holies, as an evidence to the world, before Jesus returns and it is too late to believe.
For us, the temple is destroyed, there are no more animal sacrifices, we understand that Jesus has died once, His sacrifice being Perfect and Complete, and we prepare to receive the bread and the cup and receive His Grace even this evening. But Jesus has not yet returned in the flesh -- yet He will.
So, let us understand what happened on that Good Friday. Let us rejoice that Jesus has brought us safely into the Holy of Holies by His Work. And let us be assured of our salvation -- because this is His Work Alone. Let us be assured of our sanctification -- because that is His Work Alone. And let us live lives of Christians, confessing our sure faith, working and worshiping as God's Salvation people, loving, encouraging, doing everything we can to make each others' lives better and more of a glory to Him.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, You have called us to be "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a people for [Your] own possession, that [we] may proclaim the excellencies of [You] who called [us] out of darkness into [Your] marvelous light. Once [we] were not a people, but now [we] are [Your] people; once [we] had not received mercy, but now [we] have received mercy" (I Peter 2:9-10). Cause us to live confidently, with assurance, and as a witness to Your Salvation. For it is in Jesus' Name we pray, Amen.
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