Worship
is both personal and corporate. While we need to spend alone time worshiping
God, we also need to take part in worship services with others, with those to
whom we will minister and with those who will minister to us. Think about that
as you read these passages.
From
the Epistles
Now the
first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary. A tabernacle was set up. In its first room were the
lampstand and the table with
its consecrated bread; this
was called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most
Holy Place, which
had the golden altar of incense and the
gold-covered ark of the covenant. This ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant. Above the ark were the cherubim of the
Glory, overshadowing the atonement
cover. But we cannot discuss
these things in detail now.
When everything had been
arranged like this, the priests entered regularly into the outer room to carry on their
ministry. But
only the high priest entered the
inner room, and
that only once a year, and
never without blood, which
he offered for himself and for
the sins the people had committed in ignorance. The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been
disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still functioning. This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the
gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings—external
regulations applying until the time of the new order.
But when Christ came as
high priest of the
good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more
perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this
creation. He did
not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most
Holy Place once
for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially
unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of
Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse
our consciences from
acts that lead to death, so that
we may serve the living God!
For this reason Christ
is the mediator of a
new covenant, that
those who are called may
receive the promised eternal
inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins
committed under the first covenant.
In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the
one who made it, because
a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the
one who made it is living. This is
why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. When Moses had proclaimed every command of the law to all the people,
he took the blood of calves, together
with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and
all the people. He
said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.” In the same way, he sprinkled with the
blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. In fact, the law requires that nearly
everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is
no forgiveness.
It was necessary, then,
for the copies of the
heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things
themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made
with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself
again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer
many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away
with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will
appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
Hebrews
9:1-28
