When Heaven Saw Him Die (Hebrews 9:15-28 Jeff Kliewer)

Heaven’s Perspective on the Cross

Touching ever, she is who you are My God, that is who you are. In the darkness, my God, that is who you are Yes, my God, that is who you are Lord, thank you so much that you've given us every blessing.

The breath that we breathe is all for you, Lord Jesus. We stand before you singing praises to your name. It is your mercy and your grace, the reason we stand, the reason we can sing, the reason we have joy in our hearts, hope in our lives.

Praise the Lord, his mercy is more. Stronger than darkness, new every morn. Our sins, they are many, his mercy is more. Love could remember no wrongs we have done. Omniscient, all-knowing, he counts not their sum Thrown into a sea without bottom or shore.

Our sins, they are many, his mercy is more. Praise the Lord, his mercy is more every morn Our sins, they are many, his mercy is more. As we constantly go, bring us home He welcomes the weakest, the vilest of all Our sins, his mercy is more, his mercy is more, yes.

Our sins, they are many, his mercy is more. Pictures of kindness he lavished on us His blood was the payment, his life was the cost We stood neath a debt that we could never afford Our sins, they are many, his mercy is more.

Praise the Lord, his mercy is more. Our sins, they are many, his mercy is more. I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable and pleasing to God, for this is your spiritual act of worship.

Worthy of every song we could ever sing Worthy of all the praise we could ever bring. Worthy of every praise, he's us the name above Every other name, he's us the only one we live for

In the devotion of our hearts, Lord, as we open the word of God, we ask that you would open our eyes to see wonderful things from your word. We pray that as we see and behold these things and behold Christ crucified, that you would transform us into the image of Christ, beholding him, that we would be transformed from one degree of glory to another.

And for those who come this morning and have not yet seen the cross, have not yet looked for salvation, we pray, Lord, that they would see, that you would supernaturally open their eyes to see the meaning of the death of Jesus on the cross.

Do this all by your word and for your own glory. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. When Peter watched Jesus die, I'm sure he was filled with grief. He had denied him three times, and then the rooster crowed, and he watched from a distance, I'm sure, and saw Jesus dying.

When John stood at the foot of the cross, he felt devoted love for Jesus, and he committed himself to take care of Mary, the mother of Jesus. When the thief on the cross mocked, he looked for an outlet for his pain and poured out derision on the Son of God while he died on the cross.

The other thief cried out for mercy. When Pontius Pilate sent Jesus to the cross, he saw him die as keeping the peace. He just wanted peace with the Roman Empire. When Herod saw Jesus die, he watched him die as the elimination of a threat.

Jesus was king of the Jews, and here Herod was eliminating a threat. The Jewish people, how did they see him die? Well, they had hoped that he would be the revolutionary that would overthrow the Roman Empire, so they saw him as a disappointment, and they wanted to punish that man for disappointing them and getting their hopes up.

When the Roman soldiers watched him die, they saw him as providing a paycheck. They were just doing their job. The death of Jesus on the cross looked so ordinary to many people. It looked like some Nazarene strung up on a tree with a crown of thorns pressed into his brow, nails driven through his hands and feet.

Hanging and bleeding and dying, it looked very ordinary to the people of that time. Acts 4 .27 and 28 says, "'Truly in this city there were gathered together "'against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, "'both Herod and Pontius Pilate, "'along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, "'to do whatever your hand and your plan "'had predestined to take place.'".

What looks so ordinary to the people watching Jesus die was the moment in history, before the foundation of the world, God planned and predestined that event to take place, and that event was the most significant event in history.

The lamb slain from before the foundation of the world, the cross on which Jesus died, that moment in time when Jesus died on the cross was the significant moment of all history. From heaven's perspective, planned before the beginning of the world and accomplishing certain things.

We are going to look today at what the dying of Jesus on the cross actually meant and what it means for us today. You see, after Jesus died on the cross, no one would ever see him die on the cross again, would we?

None of us were there, and most of human history is filled with people who never saw him die, and yet we have, and this morning you will. In Galatians chapter three, verse one, Paul talks about the foolish Galatians, before whose eyes Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.

How did the Galatians see Christ portrayed as crucified? When Paul came to the Galatian region, do you think he went to the local theater and recruited some actors, and they did like an Easter pageant, a Good Friday reenactment in an Easter pageant?

Is that what Paul means by before your eyes, Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? No, Christ was portrayed to the Galatians by the preaching of the word of the cross. Paul came to Galatia, Acts 13 and 14, and he preached in Pisidian Antioch, how Christ was hung on a tree and rose from the dead.

He preached this message, and many people believed it, and others held it to scorn. He preached the message, and so Christ was portrayed. And in First Corinthians 118, it says, the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

In God's economy, in his plan, he has a message called the word of the cross. Christ died once, and then he sends forth witnesses into all the earth to proclaim that death until he comes again. It is the message of the cross.

So this morning, we are looking, not through earthly eyes, to see a man dying on the cross, but from heaven's perspective, which we are able to see through the word of God. In Hebrews chapter nine, turn with me there, verses 15 and following, we are able to see heaven's perspective on that event, that one day, which changed the world.

I remember many times having an incredible opportunity to share with someone this message who had never heard it before. You know, you grow up in America, and you think, oh yeah, everybody knows Christmas is about how Jesus was born to a virgin, and Easter is about how he rose from the dead.

But there were many times, especially when I was in inner city Philadelphia, coming up to a 10, 12-year-old, and telling them about Jesus. A family, telling this family about Jesus Christ. And sometimes, a person had never heard that there is a such person as Jesus, or that he was born to a virgin, or that he died on the cross, or rose from the dead.

What a privilege it is to preach the word of the cross. Now sometimes, when we share this message, there will be kind of like a glazed look come over somebody's eyes. It's like they just fall asleep. But other times, the power of God so infuses that conversation, that when they hear about Christ crucified, it's like they're seeing it with their own eyes.

And the meaning of that death comes to them. That the death of Jesus on the cross was the most significant thing in the history of the world. From heaven's perspective, when Jesus died, there was an inheritance given to people like me, and you, if you believe.

When Jesus died, all your sin was forgiven. We just sang about how your sin is thrown into a sea that has no shore, and that's a bottomless ocean. Your sin to be remembered no more, completely forgiven.

When Jesus died on the cross, your access to heaven was granted. When Jesus died on the cross, he paid a one-time sacrifice that becomes the theme of your life. Just absolutely amazing, astonishing things.

These are found in Hebrews 9, 15 to 28. So the way we do things here at Cornerstone is we work through the Bible. We read verse by verse, and we study to see what God's word says. And we pray that the Holy Spirit will make that applicable to our lives.

It's something that only God can do through the power of the gospel. The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. The preaching of the cross saves sinners.

I have nothing to offer you here. I'm just a man, a sinner like you. But in the wisdom of God, he has given me a message that's been handed down for thousands of years, 2 ,000 plus years, or almost 2 ,000 years.

The word of the cross. This morning, let's read it. Hebrews 9, 15 to 28. This is kind of like heaven's view of the cross, not an earthly view. This is what was happening in spiritual places when Jesus died.

Therefore, he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established, for a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. Therefore, not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.

For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of the calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, this is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.

And in the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.

Now, in first service, I continued and preached through 23 to 28, but in retrospect, I felt like there was so much meat in these first verses that I was cramming things in. And so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna just stop here today and we're gonna take these first two points and then next week we'll resume and do 23 to 28.

Because I don't want us to miss the significance of the death of Jesus on the cross. So I'm calling an audible here. We're just gonna truncate this from first service. They're gonna have to hear it twice next week.

So that's too bad for them. The first big point is something that, you know, when I saw this this week and really thought about it, it just blew my mind. And I hope it does the same thing for you. It says that an inheritance was given when Jesus died.

Okay? Now that's the way things work, right? What would you say of a son who came to his father and said, I want my inheritance now? What would that essentially mean? It would mean, dad, I wish you were dead because I want your house.

I want your money. Perish the thought. Read Luke 15, the prodigal son goes to his father and says exactly that. Father, give me my inheritance now. Now, in a worldly way, I think there's probably people that would cheer that on.

That's right. Follow your dreams. Go for it. Take the money and pursue your heart. But as we think about this, it's really an awful thing. Dad, I wish you were dead. I want the inheritance now. When is an inheritance given?

Upon death. Inheritances are given upon death, not before. So look at verse 15. Therefore, he is the mediator of a new covenant, so a new arrangement, a new plan, so that those who are, not a new plan, his plan was from the beginning, but a new contract, a new agreement, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance.

How come you can get an inheritance since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant? So the first covenant being the law of Moses. The covenant was that we had to keep, or Israel had to keep the laws, 10 Commandments, Exodus 20, and all the peculiar laws of sacrifice and dietary codes and morality that are all part of the Mosaic code that he got at Mount Sinai.

The agreement was when you keep those, you'll be blessed, and when you break them, you'll be cursed, and there were two mountains in Israel, one for calling out the blessings, the other for calling out the curses.

That was the arrangement. Here's the problem. People sinned, and that calls down curses upon their head. Cursed is anyone who breaks any of these laws. The soul that sins must die, and even the righteous deeds of an Israelite are like filthy rags in God's sight because they're tainted by sin.

We try to obey God's law, but have you noticed that there's something corrupt in your nature? That however hard you try, you fall short of the glory of God. Guilty as charged. You see, the old covenant couldn't make us perfect.

We were sinners, and we are sinners. Transgressions were committed under that covenant, so there needed to be a new covenant, something that actually cleansed and changed the heart from the inside out.

We learned about that in Hebrews 8, the promise of Jeremiah and Ezekiel of a new covenant. That's recorded for us in Hebrews 8, but notice here that the inheritance is given when a death occurs. Verse 15 says in inheritance, verse 16, for where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established.

For a will takes effect only at death since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. Those who inherit can't just go like the prodigal son and say, dad, give me the wealth now. A death has to occur.

And what happens on earth when somebody dies? He's left a will. He's the testator of a will, and the beneficiaries after the death of the testator receive the inheritance, but often there are many siblings, and sometimes in the world in which we live, sin being as it is, they will squabble over the inheritance.

Who gets what? And even the will itself is called into a question. Called into question. Why? Well, maybe when he was getting older, he was losing his mind, and he didn't really mean to write that. That was done under duress from one of the siblings.

And you see all of this fighting for the inheritance. This happens every day. People fighting for their share of the pie because the inheritance is being given. But what's different about this inheritance is that the testator dies, and the inheritance is given, but that testator, the one who wrote the will and promised the inheritance, he doesn't stay dead.

He rises from the dead on the third day, and he himself is the executor of the will. That means he will secure for you what is your inheritance. It cannot be fought against. It cannot be stolen from you.

It is kept in heaven for you, 1 Peter 1 .4. It is sure the executor will see to it that you receive your inheritance. Now, when do you get the inheritance? And this is the thing that blows my mind. In this verse, the inheritance is given upon death.

The death of the testator. Look at this. Verse 16, for where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. When Jesus died on a cross, the world saw a Galilean carpenter dying on a wooden structure, and different people saw it differently and had their reasons for so approaching it.

But how did heaven see the death of Jesus on the cross? The testator has died. The inheritance is yours. Now, you guys who have been around a while, you know that sometimes I take the gloves off. And I will criticize from the pulpit because the Bible does that.

And sometimes I'll name names. I try not to, but sometimes it needs to be. Paul says, Demas loved this present world. For 2 John, 3 John, Diotrephes loves to be first. Sometimes you name names. And so I don't know if I've named any names of the prosperity preachers.

But there is a theology in America called prosperity theology. And I've taken the gloves off before, and we've watched this movie called American Gospel. You guys seen American Gospel? And it shows the error of prosperity theology that the death of Jesus is really just to give you health and wealth.

And it's really an over-realized eschatology that many of the things that are promised to us in heaven where there is no sickness ever, and there's no lack, everything is provided, that this is in heaven.

Some of these preachers will make it seem like all of that is for here and now. And there is excess in that teaching. In fact, there's great peril and danger and evil in some of that teaching. Today, I don't wanna take the gloves off against the prosperity teachers, but take the gloves off against the poverty teachers, which is an opposite error and some of what all of us could be prone to.

Now listen, the death of Jesus on the cross means that you have an inheritance. Present tense, you have an inheritance. The prodigal son, he knew exactly what that inheritance was. It was money, it was his father's stuff, it was his dad's house, he wanted that.

But what is the inheritance offered to us as children of the living God? I think we underestimate what that is. I think we sometimes fail to walk in the fullness of that and ask God to show us and reveal these things as given.

We're gonna turn to Ephesians 1, verses 11 and following. Then we'll be back in Hebrews 9 in a minute. But turn with me to Ephesians 1, verse 11 and following. What is the inheritance that we're promised?

Ephesians 1, 11, in him we have obtained an inheritance. Inheritance. Does it say we will one day get an inheritance? It says have obtained an inheritance. There is something given already. When heaven saw Jesus die, the inheritance was given and we have obtained it, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.

So that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.

When do you get that? It says who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. The Holy Spirit is given as a down payment when you believe, having believed, you're marked in him with the seal, the promised Holy Spirit.

Now, the prodigal son, he knew what he wanted from his dad. But what is it that we are given as an inheritance as children of the living God? Look what it says. Verse 15 and following. For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him.

Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you. What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints? And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe?

According to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

And he puts all things under his feet and gave him his head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Paul does not answer the question and says, your inheritance is X, Y, and Z.

Instead, he says, my prayer for you is that God will show you your inheritance in Christ. And here's what you know about it. The power that lives in you, the Holy Spirit of God, the very spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, that kind of power now lives in you.

Now that's mind blowing. Your inheritance includes this idea that the Holy Spirit of the living God lives inside of you. The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, that immeasurable power now lives in you as a deposit.

So it's true that prosperity theology, if it claims that you're going to have a plane and a nice car and whatever error there is down that lane, is to be avoided. But it is also important for us to understand that the power that works in us, the inheritance that we have in Christ means that we are not to be a people that grovel like victims, that have grievances about everything, that constantly walk about moaning and bemoaning, woe is me.

And that's the posture of too many Christians in our country today. That's certainly the posture of the world with the victim grievance industry of the oppressor victim narrative, which is nothing but Marxism, that's running loose in America today.

It has found its way into the church. It is a poverty gospel. But it is not the part of Christians to believe a poverty gospel when the same power that raised Jesus from the dead now lives in us. Brothers and sister, I have seen with my eyes the goodness of God in the land of the living.

I know what it is to some small measure experience the inheritance that is mine as a child of God in the church of which Christ is the head. I was a missionary in inner city Philadelphia. And there came a time when our family decided to move to Mount Laurel.

There was a murder right in front of the house and my daughter was sleeping on the other side of the wall and we made the decision that night that we're gonna move to Mount Laurel. And so for a period of time, I was driving back into the city and preaching the gospel in Philadelphia, streets of Kensington, Juniata Park.

But I knew I shouldn't be there long. I needed to move to where God was calling me next. I wanted an inheritance for the sake of the kingdom to preach the gospel where he had planted me, Mount Laurel, New Jersey.

So I heard that Mount Laurel Evangelical Free Church had no pastor. And I had just written a book on Romans. It was a commentary just verse by verse through the book of Romans. So I made three copies of that book and I came to what is now Cornerstone Church.

It used to be called Mount Laurel Evangelical Free Church and I put those books on the door with a note to the elders. Trying to introduce myself and say, God, is this the inheritance that you would have for me that I could preach in this pulpit?

I came back that night under the cover of darkness and slipped up to the front door and I saw that the envelope was still there and I grabbed it and I put it back in the car and I drove away. They never knew that happened.

I was trying to make something happen. Is this your will for me, God? But not long later, I went for a run in the neighborhood and I had my cell phone with me and I ran by this church and I slapped the sign and I prayed.

Lord, provide this church with a pastor. And I ended up in front of John Laskin's house. He's one of the elders here, my associate pastor. And he lives two doors from where I live. I walked in front of his house and I prayed again and in that moment, I was praying for Mount Laurel Evangelical Free Church.

A text message came into my phone that says, hey, would you ever wanna preach at Mount Laurel Evangelical Free Church? And I wrote back, I better say yes to this because I'm praying for that church right now.

And so I came here, five years now. I'll tell you, it is a privilege to pastor this church. It is an inheritance. Ephesians 4 says that God gives pastor teachers to the church as a gift. That church and that pulpit is a gift to the pastor as well.

To be an undershepherd of Christ and to shepherd this flock, this is the inheritance. It is our inheritance in Christ to plant a church in Rancocos Woods while the rest of the world is stuck in a panic.

It is our inheritance in Christ to walk in the power of the spirit, preach the message of the cross and see men and women saved and baptized and growing in the fellowship of the church. This is our inheritance.

Sadly, too many of us, and myself very often, we don't walk in the fullness of this. We don't pray, Lord, open my eyes to see what is our inheritance in Christ. Spiritual gifts, what is our inheritance?

I think we can err if we say that every person that we pray for must be healed. But there's also error to not pray for people, to not believe that God will still do this today. I was just reading a book where a theologian, he was from Dallas Seminary, where I went, he didn't believe in the gifts of the spirit.

And one day he went to a crusade where a gospel preacher was teaching, and he saw things that he had never seen before, the power of God working. And this man tells the story of another pastor from Houston, documented, where right after he finished preaching, just like I'm doing now, he came out of the pulpit and he lost his voice, completely, vocal cords just shredded.

It's kind of like me, I think, I get worked up and I yell sometimes and I just talk. But he lost his voice, and for two years he couldn't speak. And so finally, after two years, he began to teach a Sunday school class at a different church.

He was no longer the pastor because he couldn't preach. But as he read a verse on healing, they had a special microphone in the Sunday school class where his barely audible voice was detected. He eked out this verse on healing, and his voice came back like that.

I think things like that are part of our inheritance in Christ. And very often, church, we don't even pray. We don't see a lot of healing. But do we really pray a lot? Do we usually ask God to heal? We have seen miraculous healings in this church.

Not of the quality and frequency that you see in the book of Acts, but do we believe in the power of God to heal? What I'm seeing, let's go back to Hebrews 9. I said this was gonna take a long time. This just really struck me this week.

It says in verse 15 that we have this eternal inheritance. In the death of Jesus on the cross, that inheritance was given. And Ephesians 1 teaches us to pray. What is the fullness of that? What is this inheritance that we're given?

Forgiveness Through the Blood of the Covenant

The second big point is that one thing we know for sure is that we have the forgiveness of sin. Look at verses 17, I'm sorry, verses 18 to 22. Therefore, not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.

For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of the calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, this is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.

And in the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.

Now, if you're new here, I'm sure some of you are thinking, it just got kind of weird. What? What is happening here? Sprinkling of blood. In the old covenant, when Moses was given the 10 commandments, Exodus 20, he comes down from the mountain to initiate the covenant with the people.

He is commanded to take the blood of animals and sprinkle not just the elements, but the people. And the Holy Spirit is indicating by this, that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin.

Turn with me for a minute to see this passage, Exodus 24. And if you're like me, verses 9, 10, and 11 will be kind of shocking. Exodus 24, verses 9, 10, and 11. It says, Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and 70 of the elders of Israel went up and they saw the God of Israel.

There was under his feet, as it were, a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel. They beheld God and ate and drank.

Let's be honest. How many of you all knew that 70 men, Moses and Aaron, and Aaron's two sons, Nadab and Abihu, that these 74 people went and saw God? I have missed this passage in God's word. I'm sure I've read it and just forgotten.

I have missed this for a long time. You guys know the story of Isaiah, right? Isaiah was caught up into the throne room of God and he saw the angels and he saw the glory of God and the angels crying, holy, holy, holy.

We know that story. But do you realize that Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and 70 elders went and saw God? Isn't that what that says? Look at verse nine. They went up. Where did they go? Maybe they went up into the mountain or maybe they went up into heaven.

Just says they went up. Verse 10, they saw the God of Israel. Now in the Isaiah account, we learn from the book of John that who they saw was actually Jesus. John 8 will teach us that. They, Isaiah saw Christ because John 1, 1 to 18 teaches us that no one has seen the Father.

But when you see Jesus, you see God. And so it says right here, they saw the God of Israel. I'm sure in verse 10 that these 74 people saw Jesus on the throne room. What did it look like? Look at verse 10.

Under his feet were a pavement of sapphire stone like the very heaven for clearness. This clear sapphire stone pavement under his feet. And 74 men were able to go and see him with their own eyes. This is before Jesus came in the flesh.

They saw him in heaven. He's eternally existing. Now look at verse 11, and he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel. They beheld God and ate and drank. 74 men went and ate with Jesus.

Probably bread and wine. And just casually, almost, he doesn't lift his hand against him, he has no beef with them. They can walk in his presence. This should be stunning to us. Because the first covenant is instituted.

Adam and Eve have fallen from sin. These are sinners. There's a problem here. How do sinners go and walk and stand in the presence of a living God? How can sinners be there? The answer is the first three verses before it.

Six, seven, and eight. And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins. And half of the blood he threw against the altar. Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people.

And they said, all that the Lord has spoken we will do and we will be obedient. You think they were able to keep that? You think their hearts were pure for five minutes without a wandering thought? No, but look at verse eight.

And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people. And said, behold, the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words. The reason that those 74 men stood in the presence of a holy God, sinners though they were, is because they were covered in blood.

There's nothing between verse eight and nine. If you or I were sprinkled with animal blood, what would be your first instinct? Run to the river, run to the shower. Gotta clean, gotta get clean. But no, this blood dripped on them and then dried on them.

And under the covering of that blood, they stood in the presence of a holy God. This is the meaning of Hebrews nine, where we're studying. Go back to Hebrews nine. When it finishes this grand teaching, verse 22, it is summarized in the sentence, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin.

So if you're new here and you thought it did get a little weird with sprinkling of blood, understand this. All of that blood sprinkling in Exodus 24 to initiate a new covenant, it required the death to start the covenant.

And then there was a yearly day of atonement where the high priest would offer blood on the altar to cover that year's sins. But people kept on sinning and year after year, the high priest had to offer blood.

Blood sacrifices of animals were required by God. Because in Leviticus 17, 11, it says life is in the blood. God has given the blood to make atonement for your life on the altar. God did this, not me.

If you think I'm weird, this is God's plan. And all of these animal sacrifices under that first covenant were pointing us to the blood of Jesus Christ. None of that blood, even the blood that covered them in Exodus 24, took away their sin.

It was only a covering, a placeholder, something to point us forward to the death of Jesus on the cross. When his blood poured down from the crown of thorns, from his hands pierced through, from the centurion who pierced his side and blood and water poured forth, that blood poured out.

The meaning of the blood is not magical. Many people miss this point. It's not like a magical transaction. When I say the blood of Christ, I mean the death of Jesus. His life is in his blood. It is poured out, it's given in death as a sacrifice.

That's the meaning of the blood. It's the infinitely valuable life of the Messiah, the one and only Son of God. His life given in death. He had to die the death that we deserve. And so his blood atones for sin.

It forgives our sin. So this week we're only doing two things. I spare you, the inheritance and the forgiveness. Most of the world looks at the death of Jesus, not physically, they don't have eyes to see, but they hear preachers like me.