“Worship in the New Temple”

Scripture: Hebrews 9:11-28

For the past 4 weeks, we have been taking a look at the rebuilding of the temple after the people began to return from captivity. It had originally been built by Solomon in the 9th century BC, and would be destroyed about 350 years later. It was rebuilt in the time of Zechariah in the late 4th century BC, it would be expanded and enlarged by Herod the Great in the mid 1st century BC and would be destroyed once again in the later part of the 1st century AD. In 77AD, after a disastrous uprising, Rome would raze the temple, and Israel would be dispersed to the far corners of the Roman Empire. And for nearly 1900 years, the Children of Israel would have no land to call their home.
The temple had been the center of Hebrew worship, and was the only place where official sacrifice, where true worship, could be held. It had become a symbol of Jewish faith and power, and when it was taken away, they would be lost once again. But Christianity was beginning grow by leaps and bounds, and with it came an entirely new concept of what “temple” and “priesthood” and “covenant” was all about.

Read Hebrews 9:11-15

We see some very interesting images here – “high priest”, “the greater and more perfect tabernacle”, “the Most Holy Place”, “new covenant”, “eternal redemption” and “eternal inheritance”. Let me take just a brief moment to say a few words about each of these.
“High Priest” – this person was the only one who could enter the holy of holies – the sacred “residence” of God, and then, only once a year after an extensive purification ritual. He was the people’s human representative to God, but for us Jesus is this sacred and perfect representative, he is our High Priest.
“The greater and more perfect tabernacle” – the tabernacle was the mobile place of worship, instituted during the Exodus, and continued to exist, in one form or another, until the building of Solomon’s temple. It was divine in design, but earthly in construction, and it had a finite life. Jesus, “the greater and more perfect tabernacle”, will always move with us wherever we go, and he can never be replaced. His body is perfect and far greater than anything of earth - Jesus has become the new temple, and he is where we must now worship.
“the Most Holy Place” – refers to heaven, the very presence of God the Father.
“New Covenant” – Jeremiah 31:31-34 describes this, as well as Luke 22:20. The law is no longer simply written on a stone – it is placed in our hearts and minds, and all will know the Lord, not just a select few. In the passage from Luke, this new covenant is given and proved in the Blood of Jesus.
Also see 2 Corinthians 3:7-18
“Eternal Redemption” – Redemption is the claiming of an item that has already been paid for. In Christ, we receive the eternal life that has already been paid for, and dearly at that, by Jesus himself.
“Eternal Inheritance” – An earthly inheritance is a legal gift that is given, upon the death of a person, to those who have meant the most to the deceased. Jesus died for us, that we might inherit eternal life, and it is bestowed purely out of his love of us.

The writer of this letter is laying out the plan of salvation to the people, explaining the new way of Jesus in terms that may be a bit strange to us, but ones that the Jews already understand. V. 15b – “he has died as a ransom to set [you] free from the sins committed under the first covenant.” He is telling the people that the first covenant – God’s promises to the people – was only a precursor to the second. The first has not changed, but the second has made it all possible.

Read Hebrews 9:16-22

Sacrificial blood had always been a sign of cleansing and repentance. Pagans have always used the concept of blood sacrifice; Israel used it in Egypt as a sign to the angel of death that they were to be spared for God; one of the scapegoats was sacrificed to free the people from their sin and the other was sent off into the wilderness as a sign that their sin was taken far away (Leviticus 16:5-26); and Passover involved the blood of hundreds of thousands of perfectly innocent lambs as a sign of atonement. If we were to put the blood sacrifice into words, we might hear “Make me worthy to be one with you.”

And in the sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf, it would be his blood that proclaims “spare us for God”, that proclaims the sign of eternal redemption, that makes us worthy. Why else should we joyfully declare that we have been “washed in the blood of Jesus”? It isn’t some ugly, satanic, ghoulish concept that we should cringe from – it is a glorious and heavenly act that we should embrace! This new concept of sacrificial blood no longer falls on our outward being, but rather on our heart and our soul. This is the message of the gospel, and Eugene Peterson puts it this way:

The gospel life isn't something we learn ABOUT and then put together with instructions from the manufacturer; it's something we BECOME as God does his work of creation and salvation in us, and as we accustom ourselves to a life of belief and obedience and prayer.
--Eugene Peterson in Leap Over a Wall, quoted in Christianity Today, March 1, 1999, 64.

Claiming the redemptive act of being “washed” in the Blood is an act of faith and obedience. The 4th verse of Elisha Hoffman’s wonderful hymn reads “Lay aside the garments that are stained with sin and be washed in the blood of the Lamb; There’s a fountain flowing for the soul unclean; Oh be washed in the blood of the Lamb.”
- Elisha A. Hoffman, Are you Washed in the Blood of the Lamb, Living Hymns, 1975, Montrose, PA:Encore Publications, pg 160)

Read Hebrews 9:23-28

Under the old covenant, sacrifices had to be made over and over, because they were neither sufficient nor complete. The writer of the letter tells of how the high priest had to fearfully and annually enter the holy of holies to make the sacrifice for the nation. It was never enough, never satisfactory, never ending, because they were made with human hands and earthly objects.
But the sacrifice that Jesus became was not human, and was not earthly. His sacrifice was Divine and heavenly and eternal, and he did not enter that “Most Holy Place”, that is heaven, to continuously repeat his redemptive act – it was made and finished, once and for all, at Calvary. (John 19:28-30)
The writer also compares Jesus’ first coming to his second – the first was to destroy the hold that sin has on all who will believe, and the second is to bring salvation to the faithful who wait for his return. His death occurred only once, and from that came his glorious resurrected life. And those who accept the Christ as Lord and Savior will also experience a single and temporary death, and will be raised into new life upon his return. But the writer is very specific, isn’t he. He states in no uncertain terms that salvation will come only to those “who are waiting for him.” (v. 28)

Jesus has become not only the high priest, the perfect and only sacrifice, the cleansing and redeeming flow, but he is also the new covenant and the new place of worship. There is nothing that we can possibly need that Jesus cannot provide. He has become our all in all.

So the question is no longer “Is Jesus waiting for us?” – a valid question, certainly - but a better question for today is “Are you waiting for him?” Are you eager to receive his salvation, his life, his eternity? His return and judgment must be a glorious expectation for us, and is not something that the “washed” should ever fear. It is only the “unwashed” who must dread that day. Judgment will be a simple separation – the washed from the unwashed.

Has your heart and soul been truly washed in the blood of the Lamb? It is the only source of cleansing and worthiness that can bring us to that “Eternal Inheritance”; that can gain us entrance into the New Temple and the right to worship at the foot of God’s throne. Remember that Jesus never washed Peter’s feet until the disciple allowed him to. (John 13:3-9) We, too, must invite Jesus to wash us and make us worthy, and he will patiently wait for the day when we make that conscious decision for him.

Have you let him “wash [you] in the blood, in the soul cleansing blood of the Lamb? Are your garments spotless, Are they white as snow? Are you washed in the Blood of the Lamb?”