Category: Devotions

The Law of Moses (the need to do good things to outweigh the bad, the need to perform, to strive, to tick the boxes so that God is pleased with us) is a shadow of what is here (9:11) and what is to come:-

“The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. ² Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. ³ But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. ⁴ It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” (Hebrews 10 v 1-4)

The Day of Atonement cannot make us ‘perfect’, nothing of Judaism nor of Islam, Hinduism and all the other religions of the world can deal with the longing of our souls. There is some good in all of the religions and yet none have the answer to the way of salvation. Our most basic need of cleansing, forgiveness, freedom from guilt, fear and loneliness cannot be found in any of the ‘laws’ and not even Church. Nothing can take away sins.

Only Jesus. If you don’t have Jesus then you only have shadows. Only Jesus accomplishes the one great event of all history that takes away sin from a person. It is the distinctive. Everything else is a performance that is only a shadow of the true act. Only Jesus is the one worth praying to. Only Jesus is the one worth worshipping. Everything else is impossible.

Let’s imagine what it was like for the Israelites waiting for their High Priest to come back from the Holy of Holies. He had gone through the curtain on the Day of Atonement. Once a year and every year they wait with eager expectation. Of course he might not make it. He could die in there. So they wait. Then he appears and the celebrations can begin. Their sins have been covered. They are right before God, well for another year anyway. And it all spoke of something greater!

“…so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” (Hebrews 9 v 28)

Christ will return! He is coming again! He will appear a second time! And just like those who have died as followers of Him and ultimately face salvation as they go through the purifying fire of their deeds (see yesterday’s blog) so when Jesus comes again He will come to finalise salvation for us all.

We have been saved, we are being saved and we will be saved when He comes again (or we die first). This fulfilment of salvation is for those who are waiting for him. This is an assumption that we will be waiting. It is to wait with eager expectation. We know He is coming and we are at the place of watching the curtain to move a little to show the High Priest is on his way out to us. We know our sin has been dealt with and this is just going to be a time of the celebration of being saved.

This is how we live. This is how we survive the storms of life. When we are sick, when we endure insecurities and the many problems this life can bring to us, we are waiting, our Saviour is coming. He will save us. No more tears, no more pain, no more wars, no more division, manipulation, lies and deceit, all gone. We will be finally set free from such evils. This is how we live. With full anticipation of the return of our Saviour. This is how we live, isn’t it?

Recently a Pastor-friend who lives thousands of miles away from me created a strategic plan so that if one of their senior members of the team suddenly died everyone would know what to do. Within 3 weeks that strategic plan was put into effect as sadly that is exactly what happened.

Can you imagine what it would be like if the strategic plans that we are surrounded by and the many vision statements that we marvel in contain the truth that Jesus is on His way?

To live so that when He comes we will not be embarrassed.

To live so that our witness becomes more focused and more pressing.

To live so that our assets and finances are reflective in His coming, we know about kingdom investments.

Perhaps anticipation needs to return to our lives and to our churches? To live with hope, a longing and an expectancy that the curtain is moving and Jesus is very soon stepping back into this world of His.

This life is our one opportunity. We don’t get to do it again here. I remember as a Pastor burying a member who thought God would heal him because he had something for him to do. The problem was that he had felt this all his life and he never got on with it and did something for God, for others and for himself. He sadly had wasted so much of his life. In contrast recently I was looking at a CV of a friend and I realised that they have such a zest for life that it literally was a celebration of life so far and there was more to come!

“Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” (Hebrews 9 v 27-28)

God has ordained that we die. The sting of death is removed for those who are followers of Christ but death is still there. We don’t get another chance. It is death and then judgment. That’s something not to fear because for those who die in Christ their judgment has already happened at the cross. Humanity either faces the judgment at the cross or the judgment at the Throne (Revelation 20).

We will face Judgment and Christ will be our judge as His followers. At the judgment seat of Christ everything in our life that was not of Him or for Him meaning not just our deeds but the motives that may have made the deeds look good, will be burned up. We will go through the purifying fire and everything that was not of Him will be finally burned up.

This is so wonderful! For no follower of Christ no matter what is said at their funeral stands before Christ perfect. We all die sinners. We die with addictions, with debts, with things done for the world to see and things that only He has seen. Praise the Lord that we will not be judged for those things for if we were we would never make it. But because we have been to the cross and the judgment for our sin has been laid on Him then when we stand before Him He will burn up everything that has attached to our life that was not of Him. And then we will be rewarded for the things that remain, the things that were definitely of Him. (2 Corinthians 5:10)

So we come back to this life. We must make sure that we are living our lives in such a way that when we are at the judgment seat of Christ that our motives and actions in this life are not burned up but are rewarded. How we treat others and even the motives for doing so becomes important. In this life you may get to the top of your career but at the expense of who? How many have you trod on? Recently I heard of a minister who sadly fell away and their family are ruined as this man walks away from everything they have stood for. Yes they will be judged but so will the person who in the previous chapter of their life judged them heavily and rejected them in such a way that they became easy pickings for the enemy. In contrast think of the many acts of love that you hear are done in secret but rewarded later. Kindness is all around us because the followers of Christ are making sure their CV’s contain acts of righteousness, helping others, walking in humility, with grace, giving to God and to others, laying their life down, carrying burdens, mercy missions either to their neighbour or to another people group thousands of miles away. They realise this is their moment, their chance to live for a cause, to build a CV that glorifies God, to be the hands, feet, voice of Jesus in places of despair. To see transformation. They know … this is not a dress rehearsal.

Can you imagine waking up today having had a restless night with condemning thoughts and then going through the day having doubts about your abilities and who you are?

Of course you can.

Some reading this today will have woken in the night thinking of that accusation they are facing. Some are in the middle of it right now, they face uncertain futures, fingers are being pointed and stones are being thrown for the accuser is at work. Others don’t need enemies to do this for their greatest enemy is in their own mind.

Can you imagine in all of that trying to be the best you can be for others, yourself and for God?

I’ve got some news!

“For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.” (Hebrews 9 v 24-26)

Christ is in heaven appearing for you in God’s presence. He is doing that now.

When God looks at you, when He investigates you, what does he find? It is not what your accuser wants you to know.

What people find is immaterial. What your enemies find matters not. Even what you may find in your self-condemnatory life does not count. It is what HE finds that counts.

No you don’t need another cross. No you don’t need another sacrifice.

If we lived our life on what He sees and what He finds knowing that Christ is always appearing before God for us and not what we know and what the accuser says then maybe we will live better and perhaps the many decisions of life will be easier.

The author is almost repeating the themes he has already written but if he does then it is needed. The believers are thinking of walking away from being followers of Jesus to going back to Judaism with its religious practices. And you might say this doesn’t apply to you. However the temptation we always have is to begin to try and do good works as a means to feel we are right before God. If I’m praying, reading the Bible, going to church, doing acts of kindness then that shows I am good. But of course that is also how we feel when the opposite happens. When I sin again, when I am not nice and am unkind, selfish then that shows I am a bad person and God most probably doesn’t like me and will judge me.

It is of course faulty thinking. It isn’t the truth.

“It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.” (Hebrews 9 v23)

Don’t let anyone lead you to believe that heaven in some way needed purifying. There is no physical tabernacle with all of its furniture in heaven. It is us who needed purifying and it called not for earthly sacrifices but something far better. This of course was His once-for-all-sacrifice. We are the heavenly things, we are the people who God lives within and the only way He could enter within was His own sacrifice and nothing of our good works.

So why go back to good works as a means to gain favour with God when the ultimate work has already happened for your life. You have been purified through Christ’s blood. Why not simply accept that truth. There is nothing that you can do to make what He has done better. This is a better way to live.

The blood was needed for the old covenant. The blood of animals was used on that day that sealed that covenant and the outworking of it before the altars over the generations to come. Everything in the tabernacle, all of the furniture and the tabernacle itself was sprinkled with the blood of the animals. Everything that needed cleansing needed the blood of animals. The blood brought the forgiveness. The author/pastor helps us to see this:

“This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. ¹⁹ When Moses had proclaimed every command of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. ²⁰ He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.” ²¹ In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. ²² In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” (Hebrews 9 v 18-22)

To move from the old to the new covenant it wasn’t the blood of anything else except that of Jesus which made it possible.

To move into the new season of being cleansed and being forgiven again it wasn’t the blood of anything else except that of Jesus which made it possible.

Here’s the thing. The sooner the Church realises that only the blood of Jesus should be found on its floor the better. Divisions can happen in seasons of transition and there can be the blood of people that is spilled figuratively.

The transition between the old and new helps us to see the model for our mission today.

Let the world only see the blood of Jesus in the Church.

Recently I have been seriously looking at how old I am. There’s just nothing I can do to stop these years from being added on. How did I get to this age?

Inevitably one day I will be entering into the day of my death. It is there for us all. Death is part of life. We cannot avoid it though we try through all kinds of ways to give ourselves just a bit longer.

It should not be feared but it should lead us to appreciate the time we have.

In many areas of life death is necessary and that is certainly what our author is saying to us in the next 2 verses about Jesus.

^“In the case of a will,it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, ¹⁷ because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living.” (Hebrews 9 v 16-17)

How is an inheritance/ a will gained? A death.

What brings about the end of what was old? A death.

What brings us into the new? A death.

What takes us from the old ideas into the new ideas? A death.

What moves us into a new season? A death.

The Christian gospel is that of the power of the death of Christ on the cross. We must never forget that this is the model for our life here and especially if we are in a leadership capacity. The New Testament is full of this message. Death to self. Dying to our sinful nature. Laying our life down for others.

It seems to me we do a lot of proclaiming about how alive we are when God is desiring we die first! We are so good at promoting where we are going that we take our eyes off the cost, the price that will need to be paid, who is going to die to self? Within the church it is always the shepherd that needs to lay their life down for the sheep. But let’s not just leave it to the shepherds, we are all shepherds in some way. Vision is never realised without a death.

D:Ream, a Northern Irish pop group had a number one song in 1994 with the title ‘Things can only get better’. I am sure if you know the song you have started to hum the tune right now!

I love these kind of opportune songs. The start of political conferences or presidential runs there are usually these kind of upbeat visionary songs that indeed things can only get better. The above was because ‘I’ve found you’ though they are usually played to firmly suggest ‘you’ve found me’!

Every Pastor and Church are familiar with vision statements, looking ahead to see what is before us, a time to imagine the impossibility becoming possible.

But crucial to anything you hear from any leader, politician or from the pulpit is the second of my 2 titles: What and How?

A vision and great ideas are fairly easy to come by. But the method, the strategy, how we get there is a different thing altogether!

The old covenant was calling over many generations for something new. It heralded through the prophets for a new covenant to come.

The author in one verse lays not only the purpose but also the method. This is what the vision is but then this is how it will be fulfilled. Remember Hebrews 9 v 15. Let it become the backdrop of your life and the guide. Let it be your foundation not only for what it says because that in itself is so powerful but the model that our Lord Jesus Christ lived by and calls us all to do also. Here it is.

“For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.” (Hebrews 9 v 15)

The NIV separates the verse with a dash. It helps us.

We all long for the promises, even the ones all the way back to Abraham’s day. The promises that we will discover in the chapter of faith (11). We are people who are ready to ‘receive the promised eternal inheritance’. This is the what?

But the how? This is critical to the what.

The promises have come to us because of the sacrifice of Christ. He paid the price.

He set us free from the sins of the first covenant and not only that one. It just wasn’t working. So what was needed was not a whole new set of rules to replace the defunct ones. No. It was the cross, sacrifice, He laid His life down, He gave up; He submitted, He made Himself less, He humbled Himself.

That’s the Shepherd way. That is our leader showing us how to do life.

If there is no sacrifice be very careful what is being sold to you.

1. So if the tabernacle made by man helped generations waiting for the Messiah then how much greater is the heavenly tabernacle.

2. So if the unwilling animals that were sacrificed helped generations to feel outwardly clean then how much more did the willing High Priest shed his own blood to give him access into the Most Holy Place.

3. So if for Israel this imperfect sacrificial system was sufficient temporarily then how much more is the ultimate sufficiency of Christ’s perfect sacrifice.

“How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!“ (Hebrews 9:14)

How much more …!

4. So if the sacrificial system meant there was a continual need to get right before God through ‘’acts that lead to death’ then how much more does the death of Christ cleanse our own consciences from being tempted to go back to that kind of servitude. We serve the living God without the fear of reprisals.

Let’s look at those points above again:

1. Some church buildings are simply wonderful and the atmosphere that the ‘eternal Spirit’ brings only points to a greater eternal place.

2. Religious acts of service can have wonderful feel-good experiences that God is pleased but only Jesus brings us into the presence of God.

3. Righteous acts and efforts to be good actually may make you look like a better person but it is only His act of righteousness that makes you a new creation.

4. No matter how good you are today by your own efforts tomorrow you will have to do it all over again. But only a relationship with Jesus can remove that desire to perform and to rest in what He has done so that you can serve God through Him.

The central focus of the Bible is on the blood of the sacrifice – the redemptive transaction.

The author is writing to a people who are being tempted to turn back to Judaism because of the persecution they are facing. To turn back is pointless because the practice of Judaism was always only ever pointing to what is here now, their relationship with Jesus Christ.

The blood of animals was used to atone for the sins of the people. But God did not cover/forgive them because of the blood of animals. That is not what made them new. God covered them because of the perfect sacrifice to come – His Son, Jesus Christ.

“But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here,he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. ¹² He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtainingeternal redemption. ¹³ The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. ¹⁴ How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death,so that we may serve the living God!” (Hebrews 9 v 11-14)

The blood of the animal covered their sin. But the blood of Jesus does more than that. It is able to break the power of sin, make the person a new creation and cleanse the person from guilt and shame.

Crucial to our understanding is this: sin and death was not overpowering Jesus on the cross, Jesus was overpowering sin and death.

The blood of Jesus overpowered all fear.

The blood of Jesus justified us.

The blood of Jesus redeems from the hand of Satan.

The blood of Jesus totally forgives.

The blood of Jesus gives access to God.

That’s the scene: the overcoming of all fear, justification, redemption, forgiveness, access, freedom. Do you live in the knowledge of that?

Two families lived side by side and that day they had both placed the blood of the Passover lamb over their house. They had been careful to mix the herbs and spices. The first family were ashen faced, they were trembling inside. They were in fear for their babies. “Let us call out to God, in a few hours the death angel will pass over and perhaps we have grieved God somehow. I’ve not heard from God, maybe I have upset Him. Perhaps I have done wrong. The blood is there, but perhaps it is not enough?!

Next door music is taking place. There is a party. Everyone is excited about leaving Egypt. The atmosphere is security. “Son, do not worry, you are safe for the Blood is over the door. God will pass over. The destroyer will not come. He cannot come in. All will be well.

Which house was safer? Both.

But who enjoyed their safety the most?!

When a child of God knows the benefits of the blood then they walk a more confident life. They live victoriously, confidently and others are impacted by them.

There is power in the blood of Jesus!