He Entered Into Heaven Itself

Hebrews 9 and the High Point of Christ’s Priesthood

We have been working diligently for quite some time now to arrive at this tremendous text, and here we are. We don't have much of a liturgical calendar around here, if we have any liturgical calendar at all, but it does seem somewhat appropriate that we would come to this text on this particular day.

Those of you who are members will be able to testify, however, that we didn't skip anything to get here. This isn't an artificial change of subject. This text is the next verse in the study that we're doing through the book of Hebrews.

So, Hebrews chapter 9, before we look to the Word of God, let us ask His blessing upon our time. Dear Heavenly Father, we confess that without Your Spirit we can do nothing. We cannot handle this text.

We cannot hear it. We cannot apply it. We cannot truly believe it unless Your Spirit is active within our hearts. And so, we would ask that You would help us to understand and to rejoice in the truths contained herein.

We pray in Christ's name. Amen. It truly has been a goal of mine, as we have been working through the book of Hebrews, to get to this section, really, 924 into chapter 10, seems to me to be the high point, the Romans 8 of the book of Hebrews, if that means anything to you.

That high section of revelation, the pinnacle of the argument that is then followed primarily by application by the writer. And if you've not been with us, we have, during the opportunities when I have filled the pulpit, been working through the book of Hebrews for quite some time now, and we have laid a foundation.

And so, if you have not been with us, I would encourage you to take the time to read the rest of the epistle. Not this morning, because then you wouldn't get to hear what I have to say, but read the rest of the epistle.

Follow the argument, for you will find that truly, even though today in the world around us, there are many people who are gathering, who are speaking of the resurrection of Christ, who are speaking much of Calvary, and there was discussion this week, of course, of the cross, and now the resurrection, even though, of course, that was also just as much gathered together with all sorts of unbelief and silliness as it is every year in our land.

Yet, the texts that speak the most clearly to the reason, the purpose for what Christ did, are right before us here in the book of Hebrews, and they are not normally the texts that people are looking at.

We have found that there have been some times we have really had to proverbially roll up the shirt sleeves, or gird our loins in a King James-ish way, to struggle through and work through the difficult texts that lead us now to this particular point.

But now that we're here, now that we're here, let's listen to what the Word of God says. Begin with verse 23 of Hebrews chapter 9. So Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.

Now, the last time that we were together, we worked through verse 23, and we have been following the argument up to this particular point. And now we have the opportunity of considering words that I have referred to many times before.

That we have had allusions to before. Remember back in chapter 7, we had that brief period of time, that brief reference, where Christ's intercessory work was presented to us. We have a mediator, because He ever lives to make intercession for them, was the term there in Hebrews chapter 7.

But the writer did not expand upon it at that point. He was primarily focused upon the priestly work of Christ. But we took the time to think about mediation and intercession and things like that. Now we come to this text, where we have a little more expansion upon what it means that Christ appears in the presence of God for us.

Why is the resurrection of Christ so important? Why was it that just last week I listened to a Christian man, I don't necessarily agree with his methodologies, but a Christian brother in Christ, I don't question that in any way, shape or form, seeking to vindicate the historical reality of the resurrection against a well-known skeptic, a man I have debated myself, Bart Ehrman.

Why would you invest time and effort to seek to vindicate the historical reality of the resurrection? Why is it that every year at this time of year, it's like clockwork, somebody will come up with some new wild thing sometime between one month and one week before the celebration of the resurrection of Christ.

Have you noticed that? I mean, if you haven't noticed that, you haven't been watching. The books come out, and I remember a few years ago, it was the tomb story, and some of you know I wrote a book in 17 days in response to the tomb story back then.

Well, the same guy, Simcha Jakubowicz, he came back out again, and he's looking sadder and sadder every time he does this type of thing. Now he's come out and he's claimed that he might have the nails used in the crucifixion.

That's the new story. He found the nails used in the crucifixion of Jesus. Well, I'm glad he believes that Jesus was at least crucified. That's better than some people in our day happen to do. I saw pictures, and I said, yeah, way too small.

But be it as it may, there's always something strange going on at this time of year. And, yes, those of us who do apologetics end up responding and once again giving the historical verification of the resurrection.

But leaving all of that aside for just a moment, think for just a moment about why it is that the resurrection of Christ is so important. If someone were to ask you, a believer, some of you young people, you're at school, you're at your job, and the conversation comes up, and it is that time of year, what were you doing on Sunday?

Well, I went to church, and we talked about the resurrection of Christ. Why does that matter? I mean, you know, I'll never forget the late Greg Bonson talking about a professor over in California. He was emphasizing the importance of having a consistent worldview, and he said, you know, just simply proving the resurrection doesn't really prove anything at all if you don't challenge someone's worldview because there's this naturalist guy over in California, and he says, you know, the evidence of the resurrection of Christ is actually pretty good.

I don't know what it means because, hey, weird things happen. Weird things happen. See, for us, the resurrection of Christ, it means certain things. I mean, it's not just a weird event. God was involved in what took place there.

But you see, if the naturalistic materialist, the person of our day, well, you know, even if it happened, I don't know, I'm not really sure what that means. What does it mean to us? Well, let me suggest a few things very briefly because I want to try to get all the way through verse 26 this morning, and I don't know if I'm going to make it.

You all don't have any plans for lunch, do you? Don't worry. Don't worry. First and foremost, I'd like to suggest to you that the resurrection of Christ is a vindication of who He claimed to be and an acceptance on the part of the Father of the work that He offered to Him.

If there was no resurrection, then His claims would have been left empty. Not only that, it would make Him a false prophet, for He had prophesied that on the third day He would rise again. And so, the resurrection of Christ is the Father's seal of approval, stamp of approbation upon the work of Christ Himself.

A filled tomb would have been an inconsistent ending for the One who claimed to be life itself. There could not be a tomb with a body in it on that third or fourth day. That would have ended the truth claims that Jesus Himself had made.

And it demonstrated in the exercise of the power of the triune God, because if you look through the New Testament, you see the Father raised Jesus. You see that Jesus Himself lays claim to being able to take back His life and to be involved in His own resurrection in John chapter 2.

The Spirit of God is involved in doing this. It's a triune act. The triune God is involved in the resurrection. That resurrection power is divine power. And in that action, you have the Father saying, This One is vindicated.

Yes, the power of Rome put Him to death. From the world's perspective, He died the worst death that could be died. Only the lowest of the low died in that kind of agony and that kind of humiliation. And yet, by resurrection, you have the demonstration that the powers of this world are helpless to stop the accomplishment of the purpose and decree of God.

And so, you have the Father saying, Yes, this is the Messiah. Yes, this is the Promised One. So, that's extremely important. That must be understood. But why else does Christ rise from the dead? Well, Paul said, for our justification.

For our justification. Well, I thought that was due to His sacrifice and His atoning death. Yes, but you see, they're all connected together. They are of one whole. And you see, in the darkest hours of God's people, when the powers of this world seem to have absolute control, when persecution is at its worst, down through the centuries, the promise of this text has been a bulwark.

It has been a place of consolation. Because you see, you have a promise made here in verse 24. The Messiah did not enter into, literally, its handmade holy places. Is that not what the inner sanctuary and the tabernacle was?

Do we not even know the names of many of those who sewed the threads, who did the metal work in creating that model, that, literally, the term is anti-type of the heavenly reality? You see, Christ did not go to the temple in Jerusalem to make His sacrifice.

He was not of that priestly group. He was of a different priestly group, the Melchizedek priesthood. It has only one person in it, by power of an indestructible life, has a priesthood that is superior to that.

He did not go into Jerusalem to make His sacrifice. What's the point that's made even here in the book of Hebrews later on? He went out of the camp. He went out of the city. There can be no confusion.

The Messiah did not enter into handmade holy places, which are but an anti-type of the true, the real holy place, which is in heaven. But instead, notice what he says, He entered into heaven itself. Not a picture of heaven.

Not a model of heaven. But into heaven itself, now to appear, literally, before the face of God in our behalf. It is a plural pronoun. Our behalf. In behalf of the people of God. Why does Christ have to rise?

Because in the economy of God, in the decree of God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, His sacrificial work completed one time, never to be repeated. That's the point that's now going to be driven home all the way into chapter 10, over and over and over again.

One sacrifice, one sacrifice, one sacrifice. The high priest, having offered that one sacrifice, enters into the presence of God, and unlike the old high priest, who then, having offered that sacrifice, because it was the blood of goats and bulls and cows, he sprinkles the altar and then he turns.

And he leaves. He must. He cannot stay. There is no place in the Holy of Holies to sit because the work could not be finished. The very way in which the priestly sacrificial system was set up defied the possibility of a finishedness of it as long as that's all you were doing.

There had to be something greater. It had to point away from itself. And it did. And so now we have the assertion, the Messiah is not going to that holy place which was still standing at this time. The sacrifices are still being offered.

He did not go there. Instead, He went out, and because of that resurrection, because that tomb was empty, the entire book of Hebrews, based upon the presupposition, the assumption of what those 500 witnesses knew to be true, He had risen from the dead.

He was no longer there in the grave. And so He did not enter into a holy place made with hands, which was a mere copy of the real one, but into heaven itself. Into that pure place. That place where no sin, no rebellion can be found.

And now what does He do? To appear in the presence, before the very face of God, in our behalf. This is the text that is such a bulwark. Remember back as I recall in chapter 5, it talked about an anchor for the soul that was inside the veil.

There is the picture once again. I think the author had this in mind It was just a little preview. We've had previews of this all along. Now the glory of it is opened up for us. The people of God, beleaguered with our failures and our sins, beleaguered with how often it is we have to look at ourselves and we have not loved God as we should and we have not taken advantage of the opportunities given to us and it is so easy to become discouraged.

And if we ever thought that it was based upon our performance and our good deeds, we have these words in front of us. He appears in the very presence of God Hupere Hamon Hupere Hamon in our place. This is why the apostle can say in Ephesians 2 that we've already been seated in the heavenly places in Christ.

The now and the not yet. The reality of our union with Christ means that since He is now in the very presence of the Father, the picture of Him seen in the book of Revelation, the Lamb standing as if slain before the throne, bearing the marks of death, He stands in the presence of God for us.

Yes, He is for us in the sense of Paul saying, if God is for us, who can be against us? But it is a word of substitution. It is a word of union. He stands in the holy place and He does not have to leave.

He does not put some blood upon the horns of the altar, sprinkle some upon the mercy seat, and then turn and leave. He does not have to leave because the priesthood that He bears allows Him permanent access as our substitute, as our representative in the very presence of the Father.

Do you see how God has summed up all things in Christ? I'm not sure of this. I'd have to check it out. But I think that term that's used in Ephesians 1 may be one of the longest words in the Greek New Testament.

It's huge. The summing up of all things in Christ. What does that mean? What does it mean to sum up all things in Christ? What does it mean that God has made reconciliation of all things in Him? Colossians 1 .20.

Well, some people who cut the New Testament up into parts and pieces have said that that means, well, that everyone is reconciled. Now you've just got to enjoy your reconciliation. Well, even the us here in Hebrews 9, did you notice at the end of the chapter when it talks about who will appear a second time for salvation with reference to sin?

To whom? To those who eagerly await Him. There is no ground for this inclusivism or universalism or anything else in the pages of Scripture. Those for whom the Son appears in the presence of the Father, they're a specific people.

Those that God has chosen and those that God has changed. He's changed their hearts from being God-haters into God-lovers. But you see, when He appears in the presence of God for us, God's justice is accomplished.

His justice is accomplished. Reconciliation is a fact. All things have been summed up in Christ. That doesn't mean that God's wrath, that God's justice has been undercut. What it means is that there is perfect justice not only in the demonstration of His wrath and holiness against the sinfulness of man and those who remain in that state and who continue to express that rebellion throughout all eternity, but now, you see, the real question was how could God show mercy and grace to those He called His friends?

To Abraham? To David? How could this be? It was all because of the certainty of the cross. Everything has been summed up in Christ. All of the attributes of God expressed in this glorious creation and now in the summing up of all things in Christ and the finishedness of His work.

Nothing is left untied. There are no, quote unquote, loose ends. The sacrifice is completed. And Christ now appears in the very presence of God in behalf of those who have been united to Him so that His life is their life.

His death, their death. His righteousness, their possession. And so we can truly, as Paul says, be seated in the very heavenly places, but in what way? Only in Christ. In union with everything summed up.

His plan accomplished. Now He appears in the presence of God for us. The world looks at us and sees a despised people. The world looks at us and sees a people of weakness. But from the heavenly perspective, united with Him, and He is now, as we will see in chapter 10, there's another additional statement made.

He is seated at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. Seated. Not standing in the sense of there's something more to be done. His work completed. He is seated at the right hand. The position of authority.

The position of approbation. Yes, I am pleased with Him, and therefore I am pleased with all those who are in Him. What more could you seek this day? If you are a Christian, if you have fled to Christ, if you have confessed His name, His Lordship, if you seek your all in all only in Him, what more could you ask for than this?

Your perfect substitute is seated at the right hand of the Father. That means His work has been accepted and therefore you have been accepted in Him. Why must there be a resurrection Sunday morning? Because Jesus had some place to go.

He had some place to go. Mary, stop clinging to me. I know how the Apostles would have loved to have had a few more semesters of instruction. I can just imagine that in the back of their minds, at the ascension of Christ, maybe even not recorded for us in Scripture, a few minutes afterwards after the angels of God, it's time to get to work.

And as they're leaving that mountain, Peter's walking along and he's thinking, Lord, I'm not ready. Lord, remember what? I know You've restored me, but I still feel like the guy that denied You three times.

Oh yes, Jesus had made the promise, the coming of the Spirit, but they couldn't know until the Spirit came what a difference He was going to make. You see, Jesus had some place to go. He had to return to this place.

It wasn't that He hadn't been here before. Because remember, the angels, the cherubim, the seraphim surrounding the throne. Holy, holy, holy. What is John's house in John 12? They were seeing Jesus. He had been there before, but not in this role.

There was a historical reality of the crucified Christ. There was a historical reality. This took place in history. He entered into heaven itself and He appears in the presence of God for us. What a divine truth.

But you see, the writer wants to then emphasize something for us. He wants to emphasize the perfection of this work. So, here are the rest of what he says. Nor was it that he would offer himself often as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own.

Otherwise, he would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world, but now, hapax, once at the perfection, the consummation, the completion of the ages, he has been manifested to put away sin by his own sacrifice, for the sacrifice of himself.

Do you hear again? Remember the context of Hebrews. It's an apologetic. It's a defense of the finishedness and supremacy of the work of Christ. It is a defense to those who are being pulled back to the old ways, come back to the grandeur of the temple.

We've emphasized this over and over again. But it's so important because it's always the context we must look at. And notice what is said. You see, nor was it that he would offer himself often. The very essence of the old covenant worship in the temple was focused upon that liturgical year with that high day being the day of atonement that we took the time.

Some of you may have wondered why we took the time. But remember, we even stepped out of Hebrews. We went back to Leviticus. Yes, we preached from Leviticus from this pulpit. We have videography. We have video evidence that we did this.

And that broke every rule of interesting preaching you would ever take at most seminaries today. How dare you do something like that? You see, we did that because we wanted to be able to when we stood on the pinnacle to say what we're saying is founded upon having really done the work to get here.

You know, it's one thing to climb a mountain. The way that they did it when they first conquered Everest. The old-fashioned way. Today, you can get a helicopter to take you up there. I dare say that the view from Everest is the same whether you take an airplane helicopter or you climb it.

But there's a completely different experience of standing on top of it whether you climbed it or you took a helicopter. We've climbed the mountain. And so when we get here and it says Nor was it that he would offer himself often as a high priest and as a holy place year by year with blood that is not his own.

We walked up this mountain. We went back and we looked at the Old Testament backgrounds. We looked at the foundation of this. We understand what's being said. He is not simply trying to redo Judaism. And the Jewish calendar of worship was always bringing you back to the same point, back to the same point pointing away, pointing away.

No. This one does not offer himself often. You see, there had to be an explanation. There had to be an explanation. God was pleased to meet with the people and the aroma of the sacrifice was so deeply connected in their minds with godliness and worship.

And now we're meeting as these groups and there's no pageantry. There's no one wearing the robes of the high priest and the stones for the twelve tribes. There's just so much pageantry and all this liturgy.

And now we gather and we sing hymns and we talk about Jesus and we pray. You know, there's always that draw for people. And I know very, very well, you can sit here in our simple whitewalled building and if you are not entering into, if your heart is not thrilled at the thought of the finishness of the work of Christ and His being in the presence of the Father for you in your place, if that does not thrill your soul and you're easily distracted from that and you're sort of thinking about other things and wouldn't it be nice if we had this or wouldn't it be nice if we had that.

If you take all this for granted, you might find some kind of pageantry and liturgy and long flowing robes and censors and incense and people with big hats to be something that would be attractive to you.

I can understand that. But you see, there had to be an apologetic offered. How could there be such a major change? It used to be this cycle, this liturgical cycle over and over again. And now it's the resurrected Christ.

A finished work. We don't have high priests. We have one high priest and he is in the presence of the Father and we don't have to try to model ourselves after that by having more priests. There are none in the New Testament.

Well, we're all a kingdom of priests, but there is never, ever, anywhere in the inspired scriptures of the New Testament a man who is called priest other than Jesus. Not once. Not once. Not there. It's an innovation.

It's an undoing of the finished work of Christ in reality. But an answer had to be given. You see, he would not offer himself often as the old high priest. Otherwise, he would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world.

Because of who he is. Because of his role. If it took multiple sacrifices, if he had to keep representing even his one work, then he would have had to have been doing this all along. But you see, that was not God's plan.

That was not God's plan. Instead, here is the assertion. Now, once... We've already emphasized this, but let me emphasize it again. It's a beautiful word. Hopox. Sometimes it's epipox. Epi, it's just a strengthened form.

The term is hopox. One time. Not to be repeated. A singularity. One time. But now once at the consummation of the ages. You go, what does that mean? I mean, the ages have continued on. It's been almost 2 ,000 years.

How can the cross be seen as a consummation of the ages? But I say this often, and sometimes you might hear it, but you need to understand in Paul's mind, and certainly whoever wrote Hebrews, whether it was Paul or somebody else, it was somebody intimately familiar with his world view and his teaching.

In the New Testament's perspective, the cross is the center point of history. It's the perfection. It's the center point. It's where God accomplishes everything he intended to accomplish. He has been gathering in his elect people ever since then.

But he's not having to do new work to make that happen. In the sense of something added to the cross. It's the center point of history. It's the consummation of the ages. It's what everything was looking forward to before, and everything is looking back to afterwards.

It's the continental divide of the work of God. It's the high point. And so, one time, at the consummation of the ages, there's no other point where this could happen. The consummation of the ages, he has been manifested to put away sin by what means?

His own sacrifice. The sacrifice of himself. He is high priest. He is both the one who offers the sacrifice, and he is the sacrifice. That's what the old system could not picture in completeness. Because there was no one who could fulfill that role.

Because of the grandeur of his person, because of the grandeur of the incarnation, no one could be a picture of this. So this goes beyond the old high priest. He is both the high priest and the offering.

But you see, it has to be a one time offering, or my friend, it is not the sacrifice. It must be once. For if it is repeated, if it is done over and over again, it's not the sacrifice of Christ. It's something else.

It's something lesser. Call it what you will. It is not the sacrifice of Christ. One person put it this way, and it's an insightful thing. To talk about his sacrifice as the eternal sacrifice can be misleading.

If it means, that is the phrase eternal sacrifice, if it means that his sacrifice is the historical expression of the eternal mercy of God, or that its efficacy is eternal, no exception can be taken to the term.

But if it means, as it does for many who use it, that he is eternally offering himself in heaven with the corollary that in the Eucharist his sacrifice is repeatedly reenacted on earth, then it is a plain contradiction to the emphatic teaching of this epistle.

He appears eternally in heaven for his people on the basis of his own sacrifice presented and accepted once for all. As we will see in chapter 10, to repeat this sacrifice, to have any kind of repetitive sacrifice, is to put yourself directly back under the old system, and to undo the finishedness of the cross of Christ.

Here is the direct assertion of the Holy Spirit of God in the Scriptures now. Remember, you must hear this as its original audience was intended to hear it. But now, once at the consummation of the ages, he has been manifested to put away sin.

To put away sin. These people are being called to come back to the temple, called to come back. What are all those sacrifices about? They are all reminders. The Christian message is sin has been dealt with, and has been dealt with once and for all, and in only one way.

That's why this does not allow for some type of pluralism. It does not allow for some other ways to say, well, you know, for Christians the sacrifice of Christ, union with Him, belief and repentance, yes, all focused on Christ.

That's all just fine. But, you know, for the Buddhists, there's another way. And for the Hindu, for the Muslim, what you're saying is God went through all of this for just some people, but He must be doing something else over there.

You mean He Himself in the person of His Son endured the wrath due to the sin of some people, but then He allowed for other ways of obtaining a holy and just standing before God. Really? What are those other ways?

How else, my friend, can anyone stand in the holy presence of the Father without the holy righteousness of the Son? Can anyone stand in His presence clothed in anything other than the one perfect robe of righteousness that comes from union with this One who stands in the presence of the Father?

Are there others standing in the presence of the Father? Is Jesus but one of many? Here we see the very essence of the Gospel. He has put away sin by one means, and one means only. His own self-sacrifice.

This day many people will put on their best clothes and will do something they for some reason don't do the rest of the year. Oh, they might do it at Christmas. They'll put on their best clothes and they'll feel really religious about themselves because they've gone someplace.

They've done something religious. They might even sing some songs that talk about the resurrection of Christ. They might even hear a sermon that talks about an empty tomb. When they get home, they're going to take those clothes off and they're going to go right back to the ways of the world.

And all of that, there will have been no serious consideration of this phrase, put away sin. They wouldn't even have thought that all this religious stuff they did had a purpose. It had a meaning. He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

And He accomplished it, which is why He is now in the very presence of God for us. God does not allow into His presence those who are impure. If we desire to be in the presence of the life-giving God, who has given us life, then we must have a purity that will allow us to do so.

What is the only way that has ever been provided for us to have that? It is in the Messiah. In the crucified Christ, who was manifest to put away sin by the once-for-all sacrifice of Himself. That is the Christian Gospel.

That is our hope. That is why we rejoice this day. Let us pray together. Indeed, our glorious Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we bow before you at this time. And we cannot help but be amazed at the accomplishment of your eternal intention.

And that is the Gospel itself. Father, Son, and Spirit, in eternity past you covenanted together to bring about your own glory through the redemption of a particular people in Christ Jesus. And this day as we consider the accomplishment of that, how this was all done before we ever came into existence and yet we are the mercied recipients of this divine grace.

We are silenced. There are no words that we can offer to express our wonder of what you have done for us. But if we are truly changed in our hearts by this recognition, may we live. May we at least offer what we can, not for our salvation, but out of our thanksgiving.

May we live in such a way that you can see that we love you and we thank you for what you have done. If there be any within the sound of my voice at this time, O Father, who have been playing games with you, who have not embraced Christ in repentance and faith as Lord, may this be their resurrection day.

Show yourself powerful. Glorify yourself in the salvation of your people. We pray in Christ's name.