Sermon Notes for Hebrews 9:22-26, More Than A Ceremony With Jesus, July 25, 2010

Introduction    Our niece Emily had a pet lamb at the Anderson farm, named “Snowflake”, that she loved.  Apparently Craig also loved the lamb … you can ask him about it sometime … J 

1.         Hebrews 9:23   Once Upon A Time, Long Ago …

But imagine if Emily had lived “once upon a time”, before Jesus was born.  Every family had to take its most prized lamb or goat to the Temple for the priest to sacrifice it for the sins of the family.  What if the best lamb had been Snowflake?  How would Emily have felt … proud?  Sad?  Because the priest, as you know, would kill the little lamb, drain its blood and sprinkle it, roast the meat, pray some words over the family … and then the family could go back home, forgiven of their sins.  It was a kind of very important “worship ceremony”. 

As Hebrews 9:23 says,  Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.  That is why the [Old Testament] Tabernacle, and everything in it, which were copies of things in heaven, had to be purified by the blood of animals. 

2. Hebrews 9:23-26  But Then Jesus Came and … 

Listen to this from Hebrews 9:23-26

But the real things in heaven had to be purified with far better sacrifices than the blood of animals.                     

For Christ did not enter into a holy place made with human hands, which was only a copy of the true one in heaven.  He entered into heaven itself to appear now before God on our behalf.  And he did not enter heaven to offer himself again and again, like the high priest here on earth who enters the Most Holy Place year after year with the blood of an animal.  If that had been necessary, Christ would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began.  But now, once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice.

One day God became human as Jesus … and the perfect Jesus gave His own self to be killed as the perfect sacrifice, the perfect God-Man, so that anyone, anytime, anywhere, who asks for Jesus’ death to count for their sins too, would always be forgiven … with or without a ceremony!  And no goats or little lambs from the farm have to be killed anymore either!

Our son asked Jesus into his heart at bedtime when he was six … in fact, during the week of After Supper Bible Camp … not during any ceremony or altar call, but in his own bed.

Application     Ceremonies are important ONLY when we are sincere in DOING what the words of the ceremony say.  For example, Altar Calls.   Communion.  Weddings.  Baptism.  Otherwise a ceremony can be dangerous.  Remember that God, of course, looks at our hearts and how we live, not at the or lack of ceremony.

J       (Sarah)  One time we were eating out with some friends in a restaurant where they bring a small, free cake on your birthday.  One of the girls in our crowd told the waitress it was her birthday – so sure enough, the Wait-Staff put on a Birthday Ceremony when they came with a little chocolate cake covered with candles and sang “Happy Birthday to You!”  When we got to the car I said, “I didn’t know today was your birthday!”  And she said, “It’s not!” 

It was funny because it was fun and mischievous!  But her birthday “ceremony” didn’t mean anything because she wasn’t a year older!  It was fake!!

L       You don’t want your surgeon to say, “Oops!” because he went through his Medical School Graduation Ceremony by cheating on his medical exams.

 Conclusion     What about you and Jesus?  And today we will “Christen” Nicholas … when he is older and has invited Jesus into his heart for himself he can be baptized.  But a “Christening” is a “Dedication” of the child and his parents.  The Christening Ceremony is powerful ONLY if his parents and family and we understand what we say, mean it with all our hearts, and then DO it!