Hebrews 9:11-28 Jesus is better

Hebrews 9:11-28

……Better……

Some things are just better- aren’t they?

There is a saying which goes, “you get what you pay for”

And I don’t know about you, but I have certainly learned that truth the hard way over my life, and I am still learning it.

There have been many occasions when I have bought the lesser, due to the lack of funds at the time, only to buy another lesser 6 months later because that cheap piece of…..fill in the blank….had broken down.

Cars, ride on lawn mowers, computers, are all examples where I have bought the lesser, only having to pay more in the long run, because I just kept buying that lesser.

However, one of the upsides with buying the lesser, is that on the odd occasion when you buy the better- you really, really appreciate the better- you really know how much better it is.

I remember when I bought my first apple mac book,- it was so much better- faster, more reliable, longer battery life, more features, and it just lasted longer.

It was better.

Previous laptops were good, but the apple mac book was just better, in every way, I would never go back.

Today, as we look at this passage from Hebrews chapter 9, we are going to see that Jesus is just better.

Jesus is the better high priest

Jesus as the better high priest, entered the better tabernacle

Jesus made a better sacrifice

Jesus secured us a better redemption- an eternal one.

Jesus gave us a better purification from our sins

Jesus gave us a better inheritance

Jesus gave us a better covenant or promise

Jesus is just better in every single way

And friends, if you truly grasp this truth…..that Jesus is better, just like my MacBook, you wouldn’t want to go back to anything else, or you wouldn’t want to try anything else, because Jesus is better, and you can’t get better than Jesus.

In Hebrews chapter 9, verses 11-14, we can read that Jesus is better, because he has made you cleaner, he has made you clean from the inside out. Or as my daughter would say , he has made your heart not just clean, but he has given you a deep clean.

Friends, you may feel dirty this morning, you may have a guilty conscience, you may feel shame, but I want to reassure you today, that through Jesus, even though your sins (like mine) may be scarlet red, Jesus, has made you whiter than wool.

Look at verses 11-14 with me:

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 

For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Now, remember, before Jesus came to this earth, lived, died, rose and ascended to heaven: God gave his people the lesser human priest, and the lesser man-made tabernacle. The priests would enter into the man made tabernacle (essentially a tent) and offer the blood of an animal as a sacrifice for the sins of the people.

And why did they do this?

Because, the consequence of sin is death, someone has to pay for the sin of a person, and before Jesus came, it was the animals who paid for the sins of the people, it was the blood of the animal, since there is life in the blood which covered the sins of the people.

Sin which brought death, had to be covered by the life in the blood.

However, this blood of the goat of bull, was only able to make the sinner clean from the outside. The priest would sacrifice the animal and declare the sinner clean, so that the person was able to partake in worship with God’s people again. The blood of the goats or bulls were able to make the person ceremonially clean, but it wasn’t able to deal with their heart, it wasn’t able to deal with their guilt and shame.

However, when Jesus, at the cross offered himself as the better, perfect sacrifice, one without a blemish, not in the man-made tabernacle but the heavenly one, in the throne room of God: Jesus’ sacrifice was so much better, because it not only dealt with the ceremonial cleansing, but it dealt with an inside cleansing, a cleansing of the heart, a cleansing of the conscience.

So much better was the sacrifice of Jesus, that he only had to do it once, for all our sins.

Unlike the lesser animal sacrifices which had to be repeated year after year.

Friends, in the sacrifice of Jesus- the better sacrifice, we no longer have to worry if our sacrifice was good enough, we don’t have to hold onto to guilt or shame, we don’t have to worry if we performed all the right ceremonial rituals, but in the sacrifice of Jesus, we are assured that he has cleansed us from the inside out, we no longer have to worry, we just leave our sin with Him.

It has been paid for in full.

As it says at the end of verse 12, our redemption is eternal.

Eternal redemption means that Jesus has paid in full what we owe for our sins, and because Jesus has paid in full, our redemption is eternal. We don’t have to keeping paying back for our sins, we can’t, we trust that Jesus has taken care of it.

Praise God, we don’t have to worry if our good outweighs our bad, no….Jesus took all our bad stuff and paid for it all.

In verses 15-22, we read that Jesus is also better, not just because he was a better priest, not just because he made a better sacrifice, but because He was given us an eternal inheritance.

Look at verse 15 with me:

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.

Friends, it is amazing to think, that those who sacrificed animal after animal during the days before Jesus came to this earth, also received their eternal inheritance, like us through Jesus- not through the animal sacrifices.

Those lesser animal sacrifices found their fulfillment in the cross, the better sacrifice of Jesus.

They too, like us had to depend on the sacrifice of Jesus.

God’s covenant that he made with us through Jesus was so much better than the old covenant he made though Moses, because it was the covenant with Jesus that was able to save both us now, who lived after Jesus came to this earth, as well as those people who lived before Jesus came to this earth.

The writer of Hebrews compares the eternal inheritance we receive like a will.

We know that only when a person dies, that a will can take effect.

You can’t claim your inheritance while the one who made the will is still alive.

Interestingly, this is why in the story of the prodigal son, the son was claiming his dad was dead to him, since he claimed his inheritance before he was dead.

Now, because we know that Jesus really did die, on a cross as a sacrifice for our sins, then our heavenly inheritance is already ready for us. Jesus has already gone and prepared a place for you, and one day he will come and take you home, to your eternal inheritance, as he tells us in John 14.

And when we get there, we will meet people like Abraham, Moses, and all those who lived before Christ, because they too, were not hoping for a temporary inheritance in the middle east, but they, like us where looking forward to their eternal inheritance in heaven with Jesus.

And this brings me to my final point which is found in verses 27 and 28.

Just look at these sobering verses with me:

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Friends, we will die, we will face judgement- all of us.

Sin has to be paid for, and either you will pay for your own sin, as God sends you to eternal death, or Christ will pay for you.

But here is the absolute beautiful thing about the Christian faith……..we are not just looking forward to that final day of judgement when Christ stands in our place, but we can already enjoy that freedom we have in Christ now, because he has already dealt with our sins.

And so when Christ returns to this earth, there will be no need to rebuild a temple and make more sacrifices, because Christ has already put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. When Christ comes again, he will gather his people whom he has already redeemed, purchased with his blood.

Amen.

And how do you know that you truly have been redeemed, saved, purchased by God?

Well, a good litmus question is this?

Are you eagerly waiting for Jesus to return?

Are you looking forward to Christ’s return, or are you too engrossed in this world.

Perhaps you have plans YOU need to do before Christ returns, perhaps Christ’s return would be an inconvenience for you?

As believers in Christ, our focus, our aim, our resolve should always be on Christ.

Why?

Because Christ is better and there is nothing better than Christ.

Let us pray.