Life Community Church
Life Community Church
Day 4 | Dream Big Devotional | Shaun Williamson
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We trace Hebrews 9:1–14 from tabernacle rituals to the finished work of Christ, showing how a cleansed conscience changes worship and service. We ask hard questions about striving, guilt, and the freedom to serve God with joy and access.
• structure of the tabernacle and priestly roles
• limits of the old covenant and repeated sacrifices
• Christ as high priest and the greater tabernacle
• once-for-all blood and eternal redemption
• a cleansed conscience replacing dead works
• serving and worshiping from freedom, not earning
• practical ways to evaluate time, talent and treasure
Continue on in your 21 days of spiritual journey as we are all leaning in to what God has for this house and also has for you
Well, good morning, Live Community Church. Let me say first and foremost, I'm so thankful that you are here with me. That means that you are engaging on this spiritual journey in February, these 21 days, and so so thankful for you, so thankful for your commitment to join us as a faith family as we pursue God's heart for this house. Today we're gonna be looking at Hebrews 9, 1 through 14. Hebrews 9, 1 through 14. If you do me a really big favor, because we can do this, why don't you hit the pause button, grab your Bible, and actually read through Hebrews 9, 1 through 14 yourself. Just real quick, we're gonna hit a few verses, but not all of it, and so I'd love for you to read through some of that. I'll read through all of it so you can get it down. Why don't you do that real quick? And I promise you I'll go nowhere. All right, cool. You've read through Hebrews 9 through 14, so let's hit some of this. Let's start with verse 1. It says this now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary. A tabernacle was set up. As the Israelites learned God's law and how to worship him, God gave them instructions for building a place of worship. God gave them instructions for building a place of worship. This place was called the tabernacle. This portable building traveled with the Hebrews as they traveled to the promised land. It became the place where God lived among them. Verse 2. In the first room, so he's gonna describe the tabernacle here. In the first room were the lampstands and the table with its consecrated bread, this was called the holy place. Verse 3, behind the second curtain, so this is the second room called the most holy place, which had the golden altar, the golden covered ark, uh, golden jar, Aaron's staff, stone and tablets, and some other things that we can't talk right now, verse 5 says about. It's hard for us to understand. And so there's two rooms, right? There's one room with certain items in it, another room with certain items in it, and a curtain that uh that separates those rooms. Verse 6, when everything had been arranged, so when it's all put up and ready to go, like this, the priests entered regularly into the outer room. So there's a lot of these priests that are scheduled to be there at certain times, and they would enter in just the outer room to do ministry. Verse 7, but only the high priest entered into the inner room. So through the curtain is this special room, the inner room. And once a year a priest would enter this room with a sacrifice, uh presenting it to God, and only one uh individual, one priest could do that. Verse eight, the Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the holy, most holy place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still functioning. This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. Conscious, con, I don't like that word, conscious of the worshiper. They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings. External regulations apply until the time of the new order. Listen, under the old covenant, the people did not have direct access to God. But under new covenant made available through Christ, God's people can have access to God and freedom from guilt. This guilt was never fully relieved or released or gone in the old covenant. For the gifts and sacrifices that the priest offered are not able to cleanse the conscious, the shame, the guilt of the people who bring them. These sacrifices symbolize atonement for sin and provided a way for the people to continue to worship God, but the sacrifices could not change the people's hearts, change the people's life. Listen, only Christ, only Christ was able to be, was the only sacrifice that could remove guilt and shame. So let's move on to verse 11. It says this, but when Christ came as what? As the high priest, not just the priest that could enter in the outer room, but the priest that also can enter into the inner room. But when Christ came as the high priest, of the good things that are now already here, they're already here. This is already taking place. He went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands. This is to say it is not part of this creation. This tabernacle that's been provided for us by Jesus Christ, that we might have access to God, is not created by our hands or created by anything on here and earth, but only created by our God through the work of Jesus Christ. Verse 12 reads this way: He did not enter by means of the blood of goats or calves, but he entered the most holy place for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a sprinkled of those who are ceremonially unclean, sanctifying them so that they are outwardly clean. Listen, before barcodes, electronics, I don't know if you remember this, electronic checkout devices, every item in most stores had a price tag, a price tag that clearly told you you didn't have to scan anything and something popped up on your phone. No, it had a price tag. Listen, sin in God's eyes carries a clear price tag, punishment. And under the first covenant, sins were covered temporarily by the blood of the bulls and goats. Under the second covenant, the blood of the supreme sacrifice Jesus Christ covered all believers' sins. Under the first covenant, the blood had to be shed and offered to God again and again and again and again. Under the new covenant, Jesus' blood was shed once for all. Under the old covenant, the priests physically sprinkled blood on this ceremonial unclean under the new covenant. We who believe in Christ, we who believe in Christ are covered by his blood, which was shed 2,000 years ago for us. Verse 14, our last verse today. How much more then will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanses our conscience from acts that lead to death, so that we what may serve the living God? Listen, the purpose of all the cleansing was to allow people to serve the living God. The Greek word here, serve, used here, means to carry out religious duties. Know that sins are forgiven. We can worship truly and freely. We are not limited to our external actions, but we can worship in spirit. Our worship does not need to be mediated through a priest, but we can worship God on our own with unlimited access to Him. If we were not cleansed from our conscience, we might be unable to worship our living God, worship Jesus Christ. But being freed from our dead works is what allows us to have a clear conscience and allows us to worship without any guilt, without any shame, as true workmen, effectively building God's house here on earth. Listen, is your service or worship to God coming from a place of attempting to make yourself right with God? Or is it coming from a place of knowing that the work of Jesus Christ has already made you right with God? In these 21 days, let us evaluate what our work looks like. Are we working with earthly things that we can only produce by our hands? Or are we working with heavenly things only produced by his hands? And if we're going to work with heavenly things that are only produced by his hands, we have to do it by way of his sacrifice, of the freedom that he's given us, right? But by coming to this earth and paying the ultimate price so that we could have life with him. And in that, then we begin to be true servants, true worshipers of Jesus Christ. We serve differently. We worship differently when we serve, when we worship from a place of knowing that the work has already been done through Jesus Christ. So as you serve in anything you're doing, whether it be a Sunday morning, a Sunday night, whether it be through your time, whether it be through your talent, whether it be through your treasure, however it is, if we're truly going to worship, right? We need to worship from a place of knowing that Jesus Christ has already done the work. God bless you guys. Hope you've enjoyed this. Continue on in your 21 days of spiritual journey as we are all leaning in to what God has for this house and also has for you.