Hebrews Talk 2 (Introduction 2)

0:00 Morning. Those who know me well will know that I love a good TV quiz show. And if I had to name my favorite, without doubt, it would be this one. It's called Only Connect. Does anybody here a fellow fan of Only Connect? Do we have a picture of the slide? Oh, yeah. Mine are working.

0:23 Anybody? Any fans? Oh, there are a few. You're not as an intelligent bunch as First Service, to be fair. But this is my favorite quiz. And basically, if you don't know this quiz, what you have to do with it is you're given four seemingly random clues and you have to work out the connection between them. And there's nothing more satisfying than working out the connection between them, even if you've paused the screen for about five minutes like I have before you actually get the answer. Now, I thought what we would do this morning is we would begin the second introductory talk with a little round of Only Connect and see whether you can work out, I'm not going to ask you to shout out, nor am I going to give you time to pause, but to see whether you can work out what connects these four verses.

1:11 So the first one's from John 1, the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. The second, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Third, from Titus, he saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit when he poured out on us generously, or whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ, our Savior. And then Romans 8, Christ Jesus who died, more than that, who was raised alive, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. If you manage to get the answer, well done. There is a big clue, of course, if you knew what we were talking about today. which I mentioned last week, which is about the Jewish worship system that is so tied in with this letter, the tabernacle, and then the temple. You can see that that is what connects all of these.

2:03 John 1, the word made flesh and tabernacled among us. The altar of sacrifice and the incense altar mentioned as well alluded to in Ephesians 5. The laver alluded to in Titus 3 and the high priest role alluded to in Romans 8. And if I'm talking to you now and all of that seems like gibberish, you don't know what I'm on about, that's fine. That's what this morning is for. That's what we're here for this morning. As I mentioned last week in our opening introductory talk, this is introductory talk two, and then Gilbert will start the series properly in chapter one next week in Hebrews. The writer is writing this letter to Jewish Christians, to those, like those imaginary characters that I presented to you last week, like Jonathan and Simon and Jacob.

2:51 And these characters, of course, these people would have had a deep understanding, a deep experience of the Jewish temple and its worship system. And so for us, who are not steeped in any of that, of course, for us to maximize how much we can engage with and get out of this letter and grasp, we really have to do the groundwork on some of this to get that basic grasp. And actually, this will do us more good than just in the letter to Hebrews because as those verses have shown, actually, the things of the tabernacle and the temple are mentioned all over the New Testament. So by understanding this, we'll have more of a grasp of the New Testament as a whole, of the gospel as a whole, of the work and the person of Jesus Christ as well. So here's the plan for this morning. We're going to do more of the bridge building work between Hebrews and ourselves that we began last week. And we're going to do that by rejoining that imaginary character I set up for you last week, Jonathan, this Jewish Christian who continues to attend the temple for key festivals. And we're going to go with him, and we're going to go with him to the temple in Jerusalem on a specific day, on the day of atonement, this festival day.

4:17 And we're going to walk with him, and we're going to see and consider where he goes, and what he sees and what he experiences. And crucially, we're also going to go to places that he doesn't get to see and doesn't get to experience as well. And as we move through this, we're going to stop off at each of the temple furnishings, each of the objects of the temple, as we make our way through the three divisions of it, the outer courts, then the holy place, and then the holy of holies. And let me be very clear, this is going to be a very basic, high-level run-through. Back in 2019, Gilbert did a series of eight talks. I've got one today to do what he did in eight. So it's going to be basic. But if this does whet your appetite, of course, we have all of his talks online.

5:15 And you might want to go back and, while we're doing the Hebrew series, go back and listen to all of this in more detail again. it's a great accompanying series to go along our studies in Hebrews. So the idea of this morning is really we're all going to be in different places. Some of us are going to know this really, really well already. But there might be many of us and this might be new to us or we've forgotten a lot of it. And what we want to do is get all of us to the same basic level of understanding of what's going on. So let's go for a walk. And let's go with Jonathan.

5:52 We're in Jerusalem. Remember, we're in AD 65, and we're arriving at the temple on the Day of Atonement. Outside the temple and the outer courts, they are heaving with people, Jews from Jerusalem, but lots of pilgrims have come back as well. And the atmosphere, unlike a very celebratory Passover festival, this is a day of repentance. So this is very somber and very solemn. And next picture here shows a reconstruction of what we are walking into with Jonathan. This is how the temple would have stood after Herod the Great's great renovation and expansion project, which likely actually only finished maybe about AD 62, 63, a couple of years before we were making our way in here. And very sobering then to know that in five years' time, this building would be no more dismantled completely, destroyed completely by the Roman army, never to this day to be rebuilt.

7:06 these people did not know that what they were doing would soon disappear. And the temple, of course, was God's dwelling place among his people. It was the locus of his presence. And everything that we talk about this morning is all concerned, all centered on that idea, that idea of access to, of welcome into the presence of the holy God. Who could draw near? Who couldn't draw near? How close could different people get? And could there ever be a way that would equalize that and allow many, allow all to potentially access and be welcomed into the presence of God.

7:59 That's what sits at the heart of what we're talking about. And it's important to highlight that the story of God's presence with his chosen people didn't start with the building of a temple. It started with a tent and amongst lots of other tents. It started with the tabernacle, which God commanded Moses to make so that he might dwell among his people, the Israelite travelers in the wilderness. Here's the command found in Exodus 25. Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you, this earthly picture of a heavenly reality. And we'll come back to that through the series.

8:48 And here's a model of that tabernacle. Some of you might remember it. It sat in the foyer actually back in 2019 when Gilbert was doing his series. It's a model that was made many years ago for David Gooding by a man called Stanley Marshall, whose son actually is a member here now. And we're going to use a few photos of this model this morning. And even though this is the tabernacle and we're looking at the temple, this all works, the photos of this work because all of the furnishings were all transferred from the temporary tabernacle over to the permanent temple. So we go back to the temple again, this time a diagram of the layout, which is hopefully helpful to you even in terms of getting your bearings if you can see that far. You might need binoculars, I apologize.

9:36 It's going to be lots of pictures this morning to keep you on track. And a brief side note, this isn't the first temple. This is the second one. First temple was built by Solomon, but it was destroyed by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar around 586 BC. A much more modest temple was then built by returning exiles under the leadership of Zerubbabel, and that was completed around 516 BC. And what we see before us reconstructed here is that second temple after Herod's renovation and expansion project. So we join Jonathan as he makes his way through the crowds up the hill towards the Temple Mount. He moves through the Gentile courtyard, this area outside the walls.

10:32 And if we were there, this is as far as we would get. Wouldn't be allowed any closer than this. But Jonathan, as a Jew, is allowed to make his way through. He goes through the beautiful gate into the next courtyard of the temple complex, the court of the women named that because that was as far as Jewish women could go. And I just want you to stop for a minute. Let's use our imaginations. Imagine standing in this grand complex full of people. Imagine the sun bouncing off the whitewashed walls of the temple.

11:16 Imagine it glinting off the gold of the doors, the plating that's all around here. Imagine the sights and the sounds and the smells. You'd probably pick up this sort of mixed aroma coming across of burning incense, but also of the strong blood of animals as well. and Jonathan moves on through from this outer courtyard then as a Jewish male he was able to go further now into the inner court of Israel we go with him and he takes his place in the narrow area along the eastern side of that inner court to watch what is happening in this first of the three divisions what is going on on this day of atonement and in this first division we'll find two pieces of furniture. We'll find the altar of sacrifice and we'll find the laver. Now here's a picture of that model of the altar of sacrifice. And in the tabernacle and in the temple, it would have stood just inside the gate, positioned very significantly, almost as this illustration of a barrier in that sense, to represent that the sins of the people, Jonathan, his peers, the priests, the high priest even, those sins were a barrier between them and the holy God and his presence, and then a physical illustration that those sins needed atoned for.

12:52 On any ordinary day at the temple, the priest would have sacrificed two unblemished lambs on the altar, one in the morning, one in the evening. But today, with this being the day of atonement, the high priest had earlier sacrificed a bull for his own sin. And now Jonathan watches on as he sacrifices a goat for the sins of the people. And Jonathan watches. He sees the blood splashed against the altar sides and he is reminded as he reflects on his own sin. As this blood of this unblemished animal is shed on his behalf and offered on this altar for him, the innocent dying in the place of the guilty. But the reality was that the sacrifice of these animals could not give Jonathan and could not give anyone else complete and full forgiveness. The next day, the daily sacrifices would have to happen again.

14:02 the next year the day of atonement would have to happen again in exactly the same way the priest would have to keep on and keep on and keep on offering these animals after animals on the altar as a symbol of the ongoing persistent sin and guilt of the people and that theme of that repetitive drudgery of the priest's work is found again with a second piece of furniture just beyond the altar sacrifice and this is the laver this is a bronze wash basin and Jonathan would have seen the priest at this many times before and so and he watches on today and he sees it's this repetitive over and over again them washing their hands and their feet to make themselves ceremonially ceremonially clean before they could serve God and it had to happen over and over again. Here's another illustration, another illustration of a barrier between the sinful people and a holy God, their uncleanness, not simply on the outside, like their hands and their feet, but also on the inside. And as Jonathan watches on, he is reminded and he is confronted with what he knows about his own heart, the uncleanness of his own heart, and then what flows out of that, his thoughts, his words, his deeds. And this lever again reminds him of that, but it also symbolically is showing and pointing that God wants to provide a way to make his people clean. And so we move on. Up to now, Jonathan has had access to witness all that has been going on, but now that access stops.

16:01 He doesn't get to see anywhere. He's left along with his peers to wait and to picture in his mind's eye to imagine like we're doing now, what happens next? And the last thing he sees is the high priest. High priest, his chief representative, his chief mediator before God. And he watches as this high priest, who today in particular is dressed not in his normal golden garments, but in white linen to represent humility and repentance. And he watches as the high priest carries this basin with the blood of the goat behind this first entrance curtain and disappears from his view into the holy place. And Jonathan is a good Jew. Knows what is in there.

16:55 He knows all about what is in this place that he can't see. So he imagines the lampstand, this stunningly crafted lampstand from one piece of hammered gold, made to look like a living tree, evoking actually the tree of life in Eden. And it's got buds and it's got blossoms and it's got almonds, a physical illustration that God and God alone is the source of life. And also an illustration that God and God alone is the source of light. Its purpose is to hold these seven oil lamps that illuminate this holy place that, of course, is behind all this, in all this darkness, away from sunlight. This was the only light that illuminated this holy place given to the people by God. And as well as the lampstand, then Jonathan pictures in his mind's eye the table of the bread of presence. Here's a picture of the model of that.

18:02 This table where 12 loaves, one for each tribe of Israel, would be placed each week before God for his pleasure and his enjoyment. Not only was this a table that was an illustration of God's provision for his people as provider and sustainer of life. It also illustrated his desire to commune with, to be in relationship with his people. This picture of him sharing this table, sharing this bread with his people who you love. And then the third piece of furniture in this space that Jonathan pictures in his mind would have been the incense altar. Standing right in front of the veil that separates the holy place from the inner holy of holies. Here, the high priest would offer sweet-smelling incense as he prayed, interceding for the people on their behalf with the smoke rising up representing the prayers of the people who are praying outside. it.

19:17 And the incense was also again another reminder of the people's sinfulness, that they couldn't ask God for anything on their own merit. And so their prayers in that sense had to be offered up in the midst of this sweet smelling fragrance of the incense. And it also had another third purpose, and that was that the smoke created by it then acted symbolically, if you like, as this shielding of the high priest from the direct presence of the holy God when he went then into the next place beyond the veil. And we've got to understand this. And you might know this from the story of Zechariah already who was one of these high priests, but into this third division, into the holy of holies, only one person, this high priest, and only on one day, this day of atonement, was anyone allowed into this holy of holies, into the direct presence of God. And again, Jonathan pictures in his mind's eye what is taking place. He pictures the linen wall, the veil, beautifully embroidered in blue and purple and scarlet representing God's beauty. And then with these images of these cherubim woven into it, these mighty angels that again evoked, pointed back to Eden.

20:57 These were the angels that were set to guard the tree of life. Again, reminding Jonathan and those who are thinking about this, about the holiness of God. Here again, this veil was this provision of God to separate him from his sinful people, but also to create something that allowed them to draw closer than they ever could without it. It acted in both those ways. and Jonathan imagines the high priest can you imagine being the high priest you only get to do this once it'll be somebody else after this next year can you imagine the apprehension how tentatively you would draw back that veil and the high priest makes his way in he's carrying the burning incense the censer of burning incense he's carrying the blood of the goat into the Holy of Holies. And Jonathan actually knows that the furnishings that were once there inside the Holy of Holies, in the tabernacle, and in Solomon's temple in AD 65, they haven't been there for hundreds of years.

22:17 They were never there after the conquest of the Babylonian. But Jonathan would have also known that those earlier high priests would have drawn back the veil and they would have encountered the Ark of the Covenant and the mercy seat. And this is the two of them put together. The Ark was this cuboid shaped chest, a wooden box overlaid with gold that contained the two tablets of stone on which were written the Ten Commandments, the law, the old covenant. And this ark functioned as the heavenly God's earthly footstool. And again, as Jonathan is thinking about this, and he pictures the ark, and he pictures the stone tablets inside it, his mind's eye surely would run to reciting these commandments that he would know so well. And as he runs through them in his head, he has to acknowledge again how far short he falls of them.

23:25 He has fallen of them. And how, like the rest of the people, he, they cannot keep up their side of this covenant that God has made with them. That's the ark. And then on top of that, we have the mercy seat. The mercy seat was this solid slab of gold, a lid for the ark, if you like. And it had these two golden cherubim and their wings overshadowed the ark towards each other like a canopy. And it was above the mercy seat and it was between the cherubim that God told Moses that he would meet with him and speak to him.

24:06 This was the place of God's presence. And this was the place where the high priest then would sprinkle the blood of the goat as an atonement for, as a covering for the sins of the people, over the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. Today's high priest, of course, these things aren't there. And so he has to sprinkle the blood on the foundation stone on which these would have stood. That's all he has. And as Jonathan and waits and reflects and prays. He at last hears the murmurs of the crowd, and he sees over the top of other heads the high priest emerge, and the high priest then makes his way back to the altar of sacrifice in front of him, and he takes another goat.

25:00 There had been two goats taken that morning, and one had been chosen by Lot to be sacrificed, and then there was this other one, And the high priest put his hands on the head of this other one. And he confessed the sins of the people over the head of the second goat. And then he took it and he had it released out into the wilderness. This picture of the sins of the people being borne away by this scapegoat. The second one. And this is the final act of the rituals of this very special day. And Jonathan departs along with the rest of the people. They're all making their way out solemnly and quietly.

25:51 And that's what he and many others, something of what they would have experienced on a day like that. And I hope that that walkthrough is helpful in some way in giving us what we talked about, just that sort of basic grasp of what would be in these people's minds and their experiences as this writer writes to them this letter. And let me remind you, that's what this is all about. That's the purpose of what we've just walked through. So that as we then begin to walk through the letter, that every time there is a mention of something along these lines are to do with this, that the little light bulb comes on above our heads and we know and we can grasp and we can understand more deeply and more significantly what it is the writer is writing so that we'll be able to make sense of this compare and contrast project that he is carrying out with his audience. The contrast between the old and the new, between the obsolete and its replacement between the shadows and their fulfillment. Because everything, every step that we've walked through with Jonathan this morning, the writer will tell us, is a shadow that points to and is ultimately fulfilled in and by Jesus. And again, as I was thinking about this, I was imagining this person.

27:24 Like I say, keep on reminding this, an imaginary character, but imagining Jonathan and imagining him maybe shortly after the day of atonement with all of these rituals still very fresh in his mind and his experience. And him sitting in his house church with the other people around him. And with all of those questions and all of those struggles that he's wrestling with at the moment we discussed last week and all of those maybe empty seats of people who have been there in his church before but have now drifted away all of that going on in his head he hears this letter read aloud and full in his house church imagine what impact some of these words then might have had on somebody like him as he listens, as he remembers the day of atonement and he thinks his way through, remembers the altar of sacrifice, the constant shedding of blood, and he hears these words day after day. This is from chapter 10. Every priest stands and performs his religious duties again and again, and again and again he offers the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But when this priest, Jesus, has offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down.

28:50 That means his work was finished. He sat down at the right hand of God. And since that time, he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice, he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. imagine being Jonathan with all your struggles and all your questions hearing those words this seeing the shadow of the altar sacrifice fulfilled by the perfect once and for all sacrifice of the blood of the perfect spotless lamb of God sins forgiven forever as he listens to then he remembers and pictures the laver and he hears these words having our heart sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience. Not just our bodies, not just our hands and our feet, but having that heart that he was thinking about, the heart sprinkled and cleansed. The shadow of the laver fulfilled by the heart cleansing, heart renewing work of the Holy Spirit indwelling his people.

30:06 And as he listens and he continues to think all of this through, he remembers then the high priest going beyond the veil to where he cannot see into the holy place, into the holy of holies, and interceding for him and his people at the mercy seat, this symbol of the throne of God. And he hears these words, therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, a priest, not on earth, but a heavenly priest. Jesus, the son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. Don't let go of this. Remember this? For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses. Jesus understands just like the human high priest would have understood, but here's the difference. We have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet he did not sin.

31:02 Let us then approach God's throne of grace into this very holy of holy place with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Again, the shadow of the high priest fulfilled by the heavenly priesthood of the Son of God, fulfilled by the one on whose death the veil in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. I wonder sometimes, was the one that was in the temple now, did they sew it back together? Or is it a new one that was made? I've no idea. But here is this heavenly high priest now. seated at the right hand of God praying for interceding for Jonathan. Right now that's what is happening as well for us.

32:06 And then as Jonathan listens finally I imagine him and I imagine him hearing these words these words that Jeff actually began our service with and in his situation with his mindset just being overwhelmed, weeping perhaps. I'm going to actually finish with these words and I'm going to invite the band. Hopefully they're probably hiding behind there. No, not yet. Hopefully they'll come in some time. And hopefully they'll come back because I want to finish with a song just off the back of these. But here's these words. And again, imagine being Jonathan and hearing these words in your situation,

32:53 put yourself in his shoes. Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place, we together, not just the high priest, we together have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened up for us through the curtain that is his body. And since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God. We get to draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings. Having, here it is again, our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience. Having our bodies washed with pure water, let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess for he who promised is faithful. the way in to the presence of God is now fully open. Transfer your thinking from Jonathan for a moment.

34:04 And let's think of you. Let's think of me. Let's think of us. All of these shadows have been fulfilled. God has given us the ultimate and final provision of his son. He has given us his perfect sacrifice, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He has given us his cleansing. Think of the laver.

34:35 He's given us his light. Think of the lampstand and his life. Think of the lampstand. He's given us Jesus right now, praying, interceding for us in heaven, think of the altar of incense. And this provision is for everyone, not just a high priest, not just a priest, but everyone, ordinary people, ordinary Jews, and Gentiles like us who would have been stuck outside the walls. And so that means that we get to gather here together in this moment, once and for all, forgiven Gentiles in a warehouse, wearing ordinary clothes.

35:34 There's no sign of any animals. There's no sign of any blood. There's no sign of any furnishings or objects or anything like that. Nothing at all. We've been made a holy people, a royal priesthood. The Holy Spirit's ongoing work is happening of our hearts being continually cleansed. And we are being both welcomed into the unmediated presence of a holy God. And we are also becoming that presence of the holy God.

36:10 We, his church, are now his temple, the place. We, these living stones, we are the place where God dwells by his spirit. Remember back to Ephesians last year, in him, the whole building, this building of people, living stones, not the walls here, but us together. In him, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him, you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit. Do we grasp the privilege that we are enjoying and experiencing in this very moment.

37:02 Welcomed into, in Christ, the presence of God, invited to draw near to God with confidence and enjoy relationship with him, enjoy communion with him, and receive his unmediated, unfettered grace and mercy personally. Pray that these images as we think them over, as we come across them in the weeks and the months ahead, that they might help us to grasp the privilege that is ours to approach our holy God with confidence in Christ.