Hebrews 10

Summary of vs 1-10

The law is only a shadow of the good to come—not the realities themselves. 

Sacrifices are done according to the law. 

                If the law is imperfect then so are the sacrifices.

                If they were perfect, they would not have needed to be repeated time and time again.

Christ clarifies that burnt offerings and sin sacrifices were not what God desired.  Instead God wanted us to be in right relationship and so God sent Jesus, the one who came to do God’s will.

And through him, we are made holy once and for all.

When we look at the practices of sacrifices, we see the priests offering them repeatedly, right? But when Jesus does it—he only does it once and then takes his place at the right hand of God.   At other times we have talked about how Jesus was both the sacrifice, the lamb, the offering that was made, and the priest—the one who offered the sacrifice on behalf of the people.  Jesus was both the perfect priest and the perfect sacrifice, so what he did had no flaws, no short comings, what he did was perfect.

                Through Christ’s sacrifice, we are sanctified.  When we accept Christ, when we allow ourselves to be sanctified by his perfect sacrifice, we are made new.  The divine laws are written on our hearts and in our minds and our sins are not only forgiven, they are forgotten.

                What God does perfectly in Christ is sufficient for all of us for all time.

(trans)

                The author of Hebrews goes on to say this:  because we have been purified by the perfect sacrifice and we have Jesus as our intermediary, let’s draw close to God with a true heart and full assurance of faith.  We go cleansed and free. So let’s go forth with hope. And let’s make sure we encourage one another in this journey.  We need one another.  We need to see each other, hear our stories, our triumphs and our victories.  We need to be fortified in fellowship and encourage one another as we get closer and closer to God.  

                Ok. So what?  

                Well, I think a lot of times, we come to the table of holy communion as if this were an old school sacricice.  I mean, we talk about the sacrifice of Jesus,but we treat it like a goat or lamb sacricice.  We accept only partial forgiveness.  We release only a small parat of our misdeeds and assume the “big” stuff won’t or can’t be forgiven.  

                What a loss for us. Christ came because he saw that our sacrifices were imperfect and he knew that we could be fully forgiven and fully reconciled with God and with one another.  So he came, offered his own body and made the perfect sacrifice.  And then we waste it.  We, by failing to claim all of what God has offered, we disrespect and disregard what has been given to us.

                God wants you to have full forgiveness. God wants you to have full freedom.  So why not receive that gift?  Today is the day to lay it all before God, all of your sins, all of your misgivings, and to be forgiven, 100%, not in part, but in full.  

                Will you receive that gift?  

                Before we enter into communion, we are going to take a few minutes of silence to confess what’s on our hearts and to ask god to give us the courage to fully receive the grace which is offered to us.

                Let us pray…