____________________________________________________ THE GOSPEL OBSERVER "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:19,20). ____________________________________________________ September 6, 1998 ____________________________________________________ Studies In Hebrews #9 (Part Two) by Alex D. Ogden The Sacrifice Under The Priesthood Of Christ Eternal Redemption (9:11-15) Our writer speaks of Jesus as ``having come a high priest of the good things to come.'' What ``good things to come'' has Jesus become High Priest of? It would seem to me the answer is found in the verses we just studied (9:8-10). They were looking forward to a time when ``the way into the holy place'' would be made manifest. This would be ``a time of reformation.'' The realization of those hopes is found in Christ. He is the High Priest of ``the good things that have come'' (RSV). He is High Priest of ``the greater and more perfect tabernacle.'' As we have already noticed, this is heaven (see 9:24). Jesus is a High Priest which goes into heaven itself to offer to God the blood He has to offer. Having a greater place to serve as High Priest, His priesthood is superior to that of Aaron. Under the Levitical Priesthood, goats were offered for the sins of the people and calves for the sins of the High Priest himself (see Lev. 16:3-15). Our High Priest has not made sacrifice of these animals but of Himself, a man who lived without sin (4:15; 1 Pet. 1:18,19). Note three areas of difference between the Old Testament sacrifices and the sacrifice of Christ: (1) The Old Testament high priest had to make two sacrifices--one for himself and one for the people. Christ, being sinless (4:15), needed to make only one sacrifice, for the sins of all men. (2) The Jewish priest offered the blood of perfect animals as a substitute for sinful man. Christ, being Himself perfect, offered Himself. (3) The animals used in the sacrifices of old had no choice in the matter. They were killed. Jesus, however, has ``put away sin by the sacrifice of himself'' (9:26; also 9:14). His was a voluntary sacrifice. Having offered Himself as our sacrifice He ``entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption.'' After Christ shed His own blood on the cross He entered into heaven itself to offer the blood to God. In so doing He obtained ``eternal redemption'' for those who would obey Him (5:9). He entered ``once for all'' because by His sacrifice the conscience of men could be cleansed (9:14). This sacrifice of the Son of God is not only effective in cleansing our conscience and allowing us, who will obey Him, to draw near to God, but it also provided eternal redemption for some who had lived under the first covenant (9:15). Those who lived faithful to the law God had for them never actually received forgiveness of sin or redemption because ``it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins'' (10:4). However, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross provided eternal redemption for them. The blood of Christ flowed backwards as well as forwards from the cross. Since Jesus has made such a superior sacrifice to God, the way into the holy place has been opened. Now man can ``draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace'' (4:16; 7:25). The Necessity Of Christ's Death (9:16-23) Having touched on the idea of an ``eternal inheritance'' in verse 15, our writer now speaks of the need for the death of the one who made the testament, or will, which provided this inheritance. A testament is of force ONLY after the testator has died. Therefore, Jesus, the testator, had to die before His promise of eternal redemption could be received by His followers. Another reason Jesus had to die on the cross was to dedicate the new covenant with His blood. The Law of Moses was dedicated with the blood of calves and goats. The blood was sprinkled on ``both the book itself and all the people'' (9:19). The ``tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry'' were also sprinkled with blood to dedicate them to the Lord's service. The writer says, ``I may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood'' (9:22). God directed that blood be used to symbolically cleanse many things. [Some things were to be cleansed with water and fire and others with the ashes of a red heifer (9:13; Num. 19:2-10)]. He goes on to say, ``apart from shedding of blood there is no remission.'' There is only one thing which can take care of the filth of sin, blood. The blood of animals was only able to provide cleansing of ``the copies of the things in the heavens'' (9:23). The physical tabernacle and its utensils and even the people were cleansed and fitted for the worship of God by the sprinkling of animal blood. But these were but copies of the spiritual realities. The spiritual realities themselves would require a superior sacrifice to be cleansed and dedicated. What ``heavenly things'' needed to be cleansed? The context tells us. It is the defiled conscience of men and women (9:9,10,14). As the physical tabernacle was the dwelling place of God and had to be free from defilement for Him to be in their midst, so are we also a spiritual building unto Him (see Eph. 2:22; 1 Pet. 2:5) and thus we must also be cleansed from defilement for Him to dwell among us (1 Pet. 1:19f). We are sanctified unto ``obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ'' (1 Pet. 1:2). Only ONE Sacrifice Needed (9:24-26) As we have already noted Christ ``entered in once for all into the holy place'' (9:12). The priest under the Levitical system had to continually enter the Holy of holies, yearly, to offer new blood because no remission of sins was obtained from the previous offering. But the sacrifice of Jesus is effective enough that it needed to be offered only once. Through the one offering of Himself He ``put away sin'' and ``obtained eternal redemption'' (9:12,26). Since sin is ``put away'' and redemption obtained, there is no need for our High Priest to continue making offerings for sins. All who will obey the Lord's will can have the blessings of this sacrifice (see 5:8,9). The Return Of Our High Priest (9:27,28) It is appointed by God that all men die once, and then face judgment. Christ, being a man also had to die once. This He did in the offering of Himself on the cross ``to bear the sins of many.'' The Israelites who watched their high priest enter the Holy of holies would await his reappearance. His reappearance was a welcome sign to those waiting for him because it said God had accepted the high priest and the sacrifices he had offered on their behalf. Christ, our High Priest, will also reappear one day. But, unlike the priest of old, He will appear ``apart from sin.'' The priest of the earthly tabernacle reappeared having no true effect on sin. Christ will appear apart from sin in that sin was ``put away'' by the sacrifice of Himself during His first appearing. His reappearing will not be for the purpose of taking care of the problem of sin, but to usher those who had obeyed His will and were waiting for Him into the eternal home of heaven. With the promise of this return, the Jewish Christians reading this book should have been encouraged to remain faithful to the Lord, not growing faint or weary but persevering in patience and faith. ___________________________________________ Taking in the Goats and Wolves by Steve Klein The Bible teaches that the Lord adds those who are saved to the universal church (Acts 2:47). Saved individuals then join themselves to other disciples in their area for work and worship as a local church. When a Christian moves from one place to another, it is necessary that he join himself to the church in the new location. This is what Saul attempted to do in Acts 9:26; the Scripture states that ``when Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, and did not believe that he was a disciple.'' Local churches would normally consider it a blessing to receive new members from other places. Yet the Jerusalem church was cautious about accepting Saul. Barnabas had to testify of Saul's faithfulness before the apostles in order for Saul to be received (Acts 9:27). Here then is an apostolically approved example of a church exercising caution about receiving a new member. Although Saul was worthy of acceptance, the cautiousness of the disciples was warranted and implicitly approved by the apostles. Today, many churches have thrown this caution to the wind. Churches will accept anyone into their number who claims to be a Christian -- without any apparent concern for the person's past faithfulness or lack thereof. This practice not only weakens the local church, it also does nothing for the spiritual welfare of one who may need reproof much more than acceptance. Choice Bryant, now in his eighties, relates an experience from his many years of preaching which well illustrates the need and benefit of exercising care in this matter. He writes as follows: Leaving Grandfield, Oklahoma, we moved to Floydada, Texas to work with the church in that city. One Sunday morning, a lady ``came forward,'' asking to be identified with us. As my custom is, I simply asked from what church she comes, and she said it was the Lockney church. I wrote to the elders of the Lockney church and they promptly answered that she was not faithful as a member, and even her life was out of harmony with Bible teaching. I acquainted our elders with this letter, explaining that this lady needed to be confronted with this letter, that we could not accept her in her sinful life. One of the elders, a very influential man in the area (in fact, he was a business man in the city) said that we need not do anything, we must not ``get our feet wet'' in such situations, that we must just accept her ``as is'' and proceed with our work. This disturbed me no little, and I rebuked him for speaking thus as an elder of the church. Then another one of the elders offered to go with me to talk with the lady (who lived in Silverton -- a few miles north of Floydada). We set a date to go, and upon approaching her with the letter from the Lockney elders, she first angrily denied the charges and criticized them for writing in, and raved for some time. We just patiently listened to her rantings, and when she finally stopped I simply said, ``if what you say is true, then the Lockney elders lied on you, therefore, we are now forced to get with those elders and get all this straightened out.'' At this point she broke down and cried like a baby, saying, ``yes, what they say about me is true; I am guilty of their charges!'' I then replied, ``you need to do two things, (1) confess your wrongs to them, and (2) do the same before our congregation!'' We left on that note. The next Sunday morning she came before the congregation confessing her wrongs, and right behind her was her husband who confessed his faith in Christ and asked to be baptized. The result of our doing our duty in contacting her as we did, there were two souls saved (instead of being lost)! Incidentally, thereafter that couple became two of our best friends. I am a firm believer in ``checking up'' on those who ask to be identified. Either you will uncover the wrong-doing in their lives, or, you will learn of the valuable assets they possess to use in your local work. (Choice Bryant, ``An Octogenarian Reminisces: Experiences in Floydada,'' With All Boldness, May, `98). Sometimes, an individual may be like a goat trying to join a flock of sheep. He is not intending to do the sheep any harm, but he really doesn't belong in the flock until he is truly a sheep (this was the case of the woman in brother Bryant's story). In other cases, an individual may be more like a wolf--trying to gain entry into the flock in order to devour sheep with false teaching and heresy. The apostle Paul warned the elders of the church in Ephesus that, ''...savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock'' (Acts 20:29). As shepherds of the flock, these elders were bound to do their utmost to keep the flock safe from wolves. It is vital that churches check up on those wishing to join their fellowship. One sensible and Scriptural way to accomplish this is simply to communicate with trusted Christians who know the individual in question. Barnabas was known and trusted by the apostles in Jerusalem (Acts 4:36-37), and he was acquainted with Saul, so he was in an ideal position to offer testimony about Saul's character. When Apollos went from Ephesus to Corinth, faithful brethren in Ephesus sent a letter of recommendation with him; ``the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him; and when he arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace'' (Acts 18:27). Such letters of recommendation from one church to another were regarded as necessary in some cases and seem to have been commonly sent in New Testament times (cf. 2 Corinthians 3:1). Our prayer is that each local flock will be a place of safety for the sheep, but not a haven for goats and wolves. ___________________________________________ NEWS & NOTES Being the first Sunday of the month, we are looking forward to having Rick Fleeman as our guest speaker tonight. I was sorry to hear that Bill Robinson, who was formerly preaching in Cross Lanes, West Virginia, has recently suffered a stroke and is now undergoing rehabilitation. Let us keep him in our prayers for a speedy recovery. Since we began meeting in this new location (February 25, 1998), we have had, so far, 54 different visitors; and since some of these have come more than once, our total visitor-attendance since then has been 77, which averages to about 13 visitors per month (and 9 new visitors per month who had never been here before). Free Bible courses are available. ________________________________________ Tri-State CHURCH OF CHRIST 1314 Montgomery Avenue, Ashland, Kentucky 41101 Sunday: 10:00 A.M. Bible class 10:50 A.M. Worship 6:30 P.M. Worship Wednesday: 7:30 P.M. Bible study evangelist/editor: Tom Edwards (606) 325-9742 e-mail: tedwards@zoomnet.net Gospel Observer web site: http://www.zoomnet.net/~tedwards/go ________________________________________