Third Sunday of End Time (Saints Triumphant) – November 15, 2009

Hebrews 10: ¹¹ Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. ¹² But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. ¹³ Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, ¹⁴ because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. ¹⁵ The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: ¹⁶“This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” ¹⁷ Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” ¹⁸ And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.

When will the end of the world come? That question was sufficiently answered when Jesus said, “No one knows that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mark 13:32). Yet, how foolish some people are! In the year 1843, there were some who predicted the end of the world would come on March 21. When that didn’t happen, the date was changed to October 22, 1844. Of course, as you can plainly see, that didn’t happen either. And throughout the years more dates have been proposed and more people have been proved wrong. So it should really come as no surprise that a movie was released this past Friday that once again tries to predict the end of the world. How silly! How stupid! How sad! Why is it so hard for some to realize that we don’t know? It could be in 20 minutes, 20 years, or 2,000 years. All we need to know is this: Jesus will come again!

No, Jesus doesn’t tell us he will come again, or give us signs of the end of the world so that we can try to predict when it will be but as a warning so we are prepared. And one way we are prepared is by making sure that our understanding of the relationship between Christ’s work and our work is clearly understood according to the Word of God. The words of our lesson from the book of Hebrews demonstrates that nicely as we see that no additional sacrifice for sins is needed.

But what does that mean? Simply put, it means that Christ’s work on our behalf is sufficient and complete. Listen as God explains this wonderful truth by contrasting the Old Testament priests with our Great High Priest, Jesus Christ. “Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. ¹² But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.” In the Old Testament God set down exactly how his people were supposed to worship; and he set apart priests to serve as “go-betweens” between God and the people. These priests were responsible for offering the many different sacrifices that God demanded. In the book of Exodus, we read of one of these responsibilities: “³⁸This is what you are to offer on the altar regularly each day: two lambs a year old. ³⁹ Offer one in the morning and the other at twilight.” (Exodus 29:38,39). Day after day, again and again the priest would stand and perform his duties because the sacrificial services were never complete. He would sacrifice a lamb in the morning; he would sacrifice a lamb at night. He would sacrifice a lamb in the morning; he would sacrifice a lamb at night. The fact that the priest had to repeat these sacrifices again and again revealed the inability of the blood of the animal to actually remove sin and guilt. Additional sacrifices for sin and guilt would be needed.

So why have them, then? Why have all these sacrifices? Well, they served a dual purpose. First, they were reminders of their sin and guilt! It kept in front of their eyes daily just how serious sin is before God! And they needed that. They needed to be reminded that God had not chosen them, and that their continued relationship with him as his people was not because of anything in them. They needed to be reminded that to break any of the commandments he had given them was indeed a serious thing.

But at the same time, these sacrifices pointed forward to the One who would actually pay for their sins. It pointed forward to the One in whom God chose them to be his people. They pointed forward to the Messiah. Each time an animal was sacrificed it pointed to Jesus, whose blood would be shed to take away the sins of the world. Every time the sin and guilt was symbolically transferred to the scapegoat it was a picture of Jesus, the substitute that would take the sins of the world upon himself. The lamb that was sacrificed every morning and evening pointed to Jesus, the Lamb of God, who would offer himself as the one sacrifice, once for all.

That is what the author to the Hebrews wanted his readers to know. Jesus, the Great High Priest, is better. He offered for all time one sacrifice – not day after day and every morning and every evening. No additional sacrifice for sin needed to be added to his. What the tens of thousands of animal sacrifices were not able to accomplish, Jesus accomplished with one sacrifice forever! And to drive this point home the Holy Spirit inspired the author to write, “He [Jesus] sat down at the right hand of God.” Jesus sat down. His work was complete.

We need to know this - because we are sinners. Much like the Old Testament sacrifices had the two-fold effect of reminding people of the seriousness of their sins and pointing to their Savior, one could say the cross of Jesus does the same. If you’ve ever been tempted to think your sin isn’t that serious, just look at the price required to pay for them. It took the holy, innocent, blood of the Son of God to pay for your sin. It is because of the sins of you who are daydreaming or sleeping right now that Jesus had to go the way of a criminal even though he committed no crime. It is because of the sins of you who aren’t really filled with a glad and happy heart to be in worship this morning that Jesus had to be whipped and scourged. It is because of the sins of you who can seem to find time for shopping trips, and hunting, and work, and personal time, but can’t seem to find time for the Word of God, or time to use your talents in the church, or to give generously and proportionately that Jesus had to be nailed to the tree. It is because of the sins of you who were unloving to your spouse this week, or lost your temper with a child, or was unkind to your neighbor, or inconsiderate to that friend that Jesus had to wear the crown of thorns. It is because of the sins of you who were able to open your mouth to speak poorly about that person, or complain about them, or make them look bad so you could look good that Jesus had to be ridiculed. It is because of the sins of you who talked back to your mother, didn’t do your homework, or rolled your eyes at your teacher that Jesus had to be forsaken by his Father. It is because of the sins of you who broke the speed limit, or used God’s name in vain, or needlessly swore, or had an impure thought that Jesus had to die. Oh the terrible guilt of our sins!

But it isn’t the guilt or the despair caused by our sins that the author to the Hebrews is stressing here. Instead, he wants us to see the complete removal and sending away of sins that Jesus’ sacrifice accomplished. If ever, in the midst of Satan’s attacks or a low point in life, you wondered if sin has actually been removed and you actually stand right and holy before God, just look to the cross. There it points to our Savior, on whom our just and righteous God took out his fierce anger over our sin by punishing him in our place. Just look to Christ and know he sat down at the right hand of God because his one-time sacrifice for sin is complete and acceptable before the Father. Just look to the Holy Spirit who testifies, “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more. And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.” Trusting in Jesus we need not fear, we have been perfected forever. We are complete in him. We have a perfect standing before God because of the finished work of Jesus Christ. No additional sacrifice for sins is needed.

And what does that mean? Where to begin! It means everything for us! It means we can have complete confidence in who we are. We are saints, made holy by the blood of Jesus shed on the cross, who stand ready for the day our Savior returns. It gives us the reason for our confident hope of triumphal entry into eternal life. It gives us the confidence in our constant battle against the devil, the world and our own sinful flesh so we can say with Paul, “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38,39). As that battle grows more intense and the end of the world approaches we know the outcome will be triumph for all whose names are recorded in the book of eternal life.

It is what comforts us as we stand over the grave of our loved ones who have died in the Lord. Mother, father, brother, sister, son, daughter, husband, wife, or friend – if they died believing in Jesus as their Lord and Savior they are already enjoying the presence of their Redeemer and will join us on the last day in receiving our glorified bodies to live triumphantly in heaven forever.

It also means we are free from a guilty conscience. Free to draw near to God and live for him. In verse 14 of our lesson, we read “by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” As we saw last week, the tenses of the Greek verbs are so important. The tense of the verb “made perfect” is a perfect tense – stressing that completed action with ongoing results. That says it all! Already finished is the work of our salvation through that one great sacrifice of our Great High Priest. Clinging to the cross of Christ found in the Word we are confident of the verdict on that great day. There is no work we must do to prove to God we are deserving of the benefits of his Son’s work. It’s done. No additional sacrifice for sin is needed. We do not have to go through life terrified wondering if we have done enough to appease the wrath and justice of our holy God. It is already done. No additional sacrifice for sin is needed.

There are no “ifs.” No carrot-and-stick approach to life, holding out promises for performance of God’s will and threatening condemnation should we fail to heed His voice. Instead there is a promise and the firm conviction that with our consciences cleansed we will “serve the living God.” You see, with a proper understanding of Christ’s work, now we can have a proper understanding of our own works. Our works play no part in our salvation. Our works do nothing to earn God’s favor. Our life of living for our Savior is a result of him living and dying for us. You see, the words of verse 14 “by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy,” speak to the relationship between Christ’s work and our work. “By one sacrifice he has made perfect forever” is speaking of Christ’s work which won for us the declaration of innocence we have from God and which is ours by faith. “Being made holy” is speaking of the holy life we have been set apart to live as a result of Christ’s work. You see, one comes before the other! Our works come after Christ’s work! Our works are the result of Christ’s work! Nothing more, nothing less!

So now we are freed for a life of service. There are no musts or have-tos. No, now we want to. It is not a burden or unpleasant to live for him. No, it is joy to live for him. Christ’s love compels us, as Paul says. Now we want to do good works that are a response to the completed work of Christ. Now we daily drive far from our minds any thoughts of work-righteousness. Now we have the motivation, the only real motivation, to stop our mindless worship, to be obedient to teacher, parent, and government, to love one another, to control our tongue, to use our talents in church, to adjust our schedules around God and his Word, to respond to his love with our offerings. Living on his forgiveness we strive to live in this life like the saints we already are.

“It is finished” (John 19:30). That is what our Savior said triumphantly from the cross. That is what we saints triumph in. Now, go live like the saints you are – confident, comforted, and convinced that Jesus has truly changed us, and acting as holy people would act. Amen.