We often struggle to hate sin enough because we fail to consider the price paid for it: the sacrificial death of Jesus. Like the original audience of Hebrews, we must better understand the sacrifice of our Savior and what it accomplished if we are going to live sacrificially for Him. This means embracing His sacrifice for us in a way that creates daily awe and inspiration. Today’s passage helps us live this way by revealing both the requirement for and the results of Jesus' sacrificial death.
Hebrews 9:1-14 - "Christ the Masterpiece"
As Modern readers, we can have a very hard time understanding and appreciating the significance of certain Old Testament realities, like the Tabernacle. But if we miss the point of these things, then we won’t be able to fully appreciate the beauty of God’s redemptive plan throughout the ages. The Tabernacle was only a preliminary sketch of God’s future masterpiece, which was the finished work of Christ for our redemption. For the purposes of today’s sermon, we’re going to look at our passage in two parts. First, we’re going to look at the preliminary sketch in vv. 1-10, and then we’ll turn to the finished masterpiece in vv. 11-14.
Hebrews 8:6-13 - "Better Promises"
In Christ, we have the better, unconditional promises of God, and these should fill us with love, joy, peace, and hope. The Old Mosaic Covenant was conditional in that it required obedience to the Law of Moses, which involved priests offering animal sacrifices, which pointed forward to the sacrificial death of Christ. But the New Covenant in Christ is unconditional because of the finished work of Christ, as we will see in today’s passage. If we miss this unconditional aspect, then we won’t experience the full blessing of living in communion with God: having the treasure of His grace and the hope of a heavenly inheritance in Christ.
Hebrews 8:1-5 - "Invisible Realities"
Just as a correct understanding of invisible forces like gravity and germs can help us properly interact with the world around us, a correct understanding of the invisible, heavenly realities of Christ will allow us to truly understand the world around us. And this understanding can only be achieved through faith, which reveals the invisible realities of heaven and renews our understanding of the visible realities of this world.
Hebrews 7:20-28 - "Rest Assured"
Even though most of life’s circumstances don’t come with a guarantee, the most important things do. The author of Hebrews makes it abundantly clear that the benefits of believing in Christ are absolutely, 100% guaranteed. If we can hold on to the guarantees of God in Christ, then we can persevere without knowing what’s around every corner. In Christ, we can rest assured. Today’s passage targets two things that give us absolute assurance in Christ: His permanence and perfection.
Hebrews 7:11-19 - "The Hope of Perfection"
The opposite of the Gospel is self-righteousness or works-righteousness, the illusion that we can somehow attain perfection on our own, through our own efforts. We must let go of that illusion of self-perfection, since perfection is only possible through Christ. Today’s passage is a stark reminder of that simple fact. It reveals the inadequacy of the Levitical priesthood to make anyone perfect, and it reveals the supremacy of Christ and the perfection of His priestly service on our behalf.
Hebrews 7:1-10 - "The Mysterious Melchizedek"
Scripture often provides “solid food” in some unexpected places. In today’s passage, we see how to make a “meal” out of the mysterious Melchizedek. And some basic Bible study steps make this a 3-course meal: 1. Observation (What does our passage say?); 2. Interpretation (What does it mean?); and 3. Application (Why does it matter?).
Hebrews 6:13-20 - "The Anchor of Hope"
If our hope is just a wishy-washy feeling, then we won’t get very far in life. But Christian hope is an objective reality, so we can take hold of it. In today’s passage, we see that our hope is in God Himself: in His age-old promises, and their permanence throughout the ages.
Hebrews 6:9-12 - "Convincingly Christian"
As Christians, we are claiming to be the recipients of God’s grace in Christ: of His forgiveness, of eternal life, of God’s indwelling Spirit. But sadly, it’s all too easy to live our Christian lives unconvincingly. But we are called to follow Christ convincingly. And today’s passage helps us understand what that looks like. Here we see three familiar aspects of a convincingly Christian life: faith, hope, and love.
Hebrews 6:1-8 - "Growth, God Willing"
God willing, we will grow. And this will happen, not in spite of our difficulties, but as a direct result of them. But in order to grow in this way, we need to take to heart three key principles found in today’s passage: 1. We must forge ahead; 2. We must not fall away; and 3. We must all face judgment.
Hebrews 5:11-14 - "Progress or Regress"
When we stop becoming more spiritually mature, we become less mature. There is no spiritual “neutral” -- only spiritual progress and spiritual regress. Progress means to move forward and regress means to move backward. In today’s passage, the author is concerned that his Hebrew readers have lost spiritual momentum- they’ve stopped moving forward, and started moving backward.
Hebrews 5:7-10 - "Our Suffering Savior"
Suffering can lead us away from God. But the suffering of Christ was meant to reconnect our hearts to God. And the hope that we have in Christ helps us to persevere through the suffering in this life as we await the life to come, in which there will be no suffering. The big idea today is simply this: Jesus suffered to save us. In our passage, we see two basic realities: 1. Jesus suffered with us, and 2. Jesus suffered for us.
Hebrews 5:1-6 - "Our Perfect Priest"
Jesus is the perfect priest for imperfect people. When we understand His priestly service, and trust in Him as our Great High Priest, we can flourish in this life. But in order to do so, we must recognize two things: 1. that imperfect people need a high priest, and 2. that we have a perfect high priest in Christ.
Hebrews 4:14-16 - "Confession and Confidence"
Today’s passage explains a few things about the reality of Jesus and how we should respond as His followers. We learn that He is our great High Priest, our representative before God. So then, we should respond by holding firmly to our Christian confession, and approaching God’s throne of grace with humble confidence.
Hebrews 4:1-13 - "The Rest of Life"
What is true rest? That’s the million dollar question! But most of us struggle to understand the biblical meaning of and purpose behind rest. Thankfully, that’s exactly what we find out in today’s passage. The big idea is simply this: God promises rest, but we must pursue it.
Hebrews 3:13-19 - "Fight Hard, Finish Well"
Why is exhortation so important? As we saw last week, we need to “take care, lest there be an evil, unbelieving heart in us leading us to fall away from the living God.” The sobering reality is that unbelief leads to a hard heart that is deceived by sin. But exhortation helps us fight well and finish well, so let’s exhort one another in love.
Hebrews 3:7-12 - "Rest in Christ"
The main point of today’s sermon is very simple: there is no rest in resisting God, but there is always rest in humble submission. Today’s passage warns us to remain faithful, rather than become unfaithful, so that we can enter God’s rest through faith in Christ, rather than live lives of spiritual restlessness.
Hebrews 3:1-6 - "Consider Jesus"
When we fail to fix our eyes on Jesus, we stop paying attention to all that God has revealed through Him. We turn away from the truth of the Gospel, the good news about who Jesus is and what He has done, and is doing, and will do. And the result will always be a lack of hope and confidence in Christ. But, if we keep our eyes on Christ, we will become more and more Christlike. By considering who He is, we will better understand who we already are in Christ, and how we ought to be as Christians. And as we grow up in the knowledge and grace of our Lord, our confidence and hope in Him will develop and deepen over the course of our lives.
Hebrews 2:10-18 - "Hero Worship"
Our hearts are inclined to hero-worship. And our culture increasingly wants to attribute saving power to people, which pulls our attention and worship away from Jesus. Today, we will see that Jesus is our Ultimate Hero. We’ll see how He alone saves us from slavery and sin through self-sacrifice. Therefore, He alone deserves our worship.
Hebrews 2:5-9 - "Destined For Glory"
Sin causes us to forget our purpose, what God created and redeemed us for. So we seek our own goals instead of pressing on toward God’s destination. We drift away from God. We neglect our great salvation. But today’s passage reminds us that men and women were meant to rule over Creation in fellowship with our Creator. Through Christ, we will one day be restored to that honor, to rule with Him for eternity.
