Entering God’s Presence
Aug. 19, 2007
More than 3000 years ago, God gave the Israelites a
detailed pattern for worship. There were all sorts of elaborate rituals and
rules, culminating in a special ritual once a year on the day
of atonement in which the priest symbolically went to the throne of God
and received forgiveness for all the sins the Israelites had committed in the
past year.
We
don’t do these rituals anymore, so why should we bother with them today? Well,
most Christians don’t bother with them. Most people don’t read Leviticus very
often, and even when we do read it, we don’t pay that much attention to the
details. But even though we worship God in a very different way today, the
details of the Old Testament can be very encouraging to us—and I don’t mean
just that we are happy that we don’t have to do all those old rituals.
Rather, those old rituals help tell us what we are
actually doing when we worship today, whether our worship is singing together
on Sunday morning, or praying at home on Tuesday evening, or talking with a
friend at lunch on Friday. The old rituals tell us what we are doing
today. Now, I never thought of it that way before, and you probably didn’t,
either, so I think I have some explaining to do.
Most of my message today comes from the book of
Hebrews, but I will start with a few verses from Leviticus to help set the
scene, to let us know what the book of Hebrews is talking about. Let’s start
with Leviticus 16, verse 2:
The LORD said to Moses: “Tell your brother Aaron not to come
whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the
atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud
over the atonement cover.
God had already told the Israelites to build a tabernacle,
a place of worship. The tabernacle was surrounded by a big fence, and inside
that was a tent, and inside the tent was a special partition, and inside the
partition was the ark of the covenant in the Most Holy
Place, which was where God would appear.
And what this verse is saying is that anybody who went
into the Most Holy Place without permission would die. Only one person in the
whole nation was allowed to go into the Most Holy Place, and he was allowed to
go in only once each year. Otherwise he would die. And according to later
tradition, whenever he went in they would tie one end of a rope around his
ankle, so that if he did die, then they could drag him back out.
So, this was a super-special place, the place where
God was, and it had to be treated in a super-special way. Once a year, on the
tenth day of the seventh month, the high priest could go into the Most Holy
Place. And what did he do there? He burned incense, and he sprinkled a little
blood on the ark of the covenant, the box that held the
ten commandments, the place where God would appear. Verse 14:
Lev 16:14 He is to
take some of the bull’s blood and with his finger sprinkle it on the front of
the atonement cover; then he shall sprinkle some of it with his finger seven
times before the atonement cover.
Verse
15: “He shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and
take its blood behind the curtain and do with it as he did with the bull’s
blood: He shall sprinkle it on the atonement cover and in front of it.
Verse
16: In this way he will make atonement
for the Most Holy Place because of the uncleanness and rebellion of the
Israelites, whatever their sins have been. He is to do the same for the
Tent of Meeting, which is among them in the midst of their uncleanness.
So he is making atonement for all the sins of Israel.
He is setting them right, going before God and being accepted by God, being
made at-one with God. That’s how the English word atonement was invented – it
meant being made “at one” with God. On this day of
Atonement, once a year, the high priest confessed all the sins of Israel on the
head of a goat, and sent it away into the desert. The symbolism shows that the
sins were removed, taken away, and that is what is means for
us to be accepted by God.
Verse 30 summarizes it: because on this day atonement will be made for you,
to cleanse you. Then, before the LORD,
you will be clean from all your sins.
Well, we don’t do these rituals anymore – nobody does
these rituals anymore – so what’s all this got to do with us?
The book of Hebrews brings it a bit closer to home. It
picks up the story in chapter 9. Verses 1-5 describe the tabernacle, but let’s
pick up the story starting in verse 6. Hebrews 9,
verse 6:
9:6 When everything had been arranged like this, the priests
entered regularly into the outer room to carry on their ministry.
9:7 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.
Now, there was a spiritual significance in the
symbolism – verse 8:
9:8 The Holy
Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place [the
place symbolizing the presence of God] had not yet been disclosed as long as
the first tabernacle was still standing.
Symbolically, only one person could go into the presence
of God, and he could do that only once a year. The symbolism showed that the
people needed to be cleansed before they could go to God, but the fact that the
people could not enter the Most Holy
Place showed that the necessary cleansing had not taken place – it was only
symbolized. The high priest himself couldn’t go back into the Most Holy Place
on the very next day – showing that his cleansing was more symbolic than real.
Something more was needed.
Verse 9: 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.
Now, as
you probably already know, Jesus fulfilled the symbolism involved in the Day of
Atonement. He is the one who brought the forgiveness and cleansing that the
rituals could picture but were unable to deliver. Jesus did what they could
only hint at. He was the real high
priest, as verse 11 says:
9:11 When Christ came as high priest of
the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more
perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this
creation. [That is, he went to the heavenly reality rather than the earthly
imitation.]
9:12 He did not enter by means of the
blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place [the heavenly
one] once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.
So Jesus went into the real heaven,
and he offered God the worship that was really effective, and he got the
redemption or salvation that we needed.
Well, OK,
but what’s that got to do with our worship right now?
Two things. First, we
saw earlier that the symbolism of the Old Testament is that people could not
get to God because they had sins that had to be removed. Jesus has taken care
of those sins, and so the way to God’s presence is now revealed – it is through
Jesus. Verse 14 says,
9:14 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!
The word “serve” in this translation comes from the
Greek word latreuo, which does not mean serve like a
servant or like a waiter in a restaurant – it means serve in worship. We can see this in the English word idolatry – the ‘latry’ part of that word comes from the Greek word latreuo. To serve an idol is in Greek idol-latreuo, or idol-latry, idolatry.
What Hebrews 9:14 is saying is that Jesus has cleansed us from all sin so that
we might worship the living God.
In Old Testament times, we could do it only from afar,
only through the intercession of a priest, and even he couldn’t enter God’s
presence, because he also needed to be cleansed – a cleansing that did not
really come until Jesus did it. So the first point is that the way to the Most
Holy Place is open – we have been cleansed, and we can enter because of what
Jesus has done. In ancient Israel, it was a super-special place and a very rare
privilege. Today, it is what we are invited to do every day of our lives.
My second point is that we don’t have to be worried about
whether we will make it out alive. The Old Testament high priest had to perform
all his rituals just exactly so. We do not. That’s because we do not enter
God’s presence on our own – we enter with our High Priest, Jesus Christ, and
our worship is united with his worship, and he makes our worship acceptable to
God.
He made the offering to end all offerings, and when we
bring an offering, it is accepted not on its own worth, but because Jesus
Christ has already offered the only offering that can be effective. When we
pray a prayer, it is accepted not because our
words are so great, but because we pray in the name of Jesus, with his
intercession for us, transforming our weak and limited words into a prayer that
God hears from his own Son. Our lives are joined with Christ, and Paul says
that we died with him and are raised with him. We could say that our worship is
united with him, too, and we enter the presence of God Most Holy Place because
we are united with him.
Let’s look at it in chapter 10, verse 11:
10:11 Day after
day every priest [in the Old Testament] stands and performs his religious
duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take
away sins.
10:12 But when
this priest [Jesus] had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat
down at the right hand of God.
So Jesus offered the one sacrifice that was effective
for all time. It covers all the sins in the past, all the sins in the future.
They’ve already been paid for, covered – so God does not count any of our sins
against us. How could he? – they’ve already been paid
for, in full. The debt has been paid, and there’s money left over in the bank.
Jesus has already offered the sacrifice, opening the way into the Most Holy
Place for all of us. As verse 14 says,
10:14 because by one sacrifice he has made perfect
forever those who are being made holy.
Wow – do you feel like you’ve been made perfect
forever? The word “perfect” doesn’t really mean perfect in the sense of
absolutely no defects. Rather, it means something that has reached its goal –
something suited for its purpose. And Jesus has fully suited us for our
purpose, and that purpose is that we serve or worship the living God. Jesus has
fully qualified us for our role in entering the Most Holy Place to worship God
as often as we wish.
We see
it again in verses 17 and 18:
10:17 Then he
adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”
10:18 And where
these have been forgiven, there is no longer
any sacrifice for sin.
Now, we
all have sins, but this verse is saying that they’ve already been taken care
of. We don’t have to do penance, or grovel in the dirt, or pout for three
weeks. It’s already been taken care of. Those sins are not a barrier between us
and God because they are gone – at least they are from God’s perspective, and
that’s the one that really counts. There is no chasm between us and God because
Jesus has filled it in, and we are free to enter God’s presence whenever we
want to, because Jesus has offered the only sacrifice that needs to be offered.
He has done the one act of worship that is effective for all time, for all
people.
So what
are we supposed to do now? How do we respond to what Jesus has done for us? The
book of Hebrews tells us, starting in verse 19:
10:19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy
Place by the blood of Jesus,
So here’s his conclusion: we should
have confidence to enter the presence
of God. We should not feel unqualified, and we should not feel like he is going
to ignore us once we get there. Because Jesus has given his life for us, we are
perfectly suited for the task – perfectly qualified for the purpose of worship.
On our own, we could never offer up an adequate worship, but because we are
united to Christ, we share in the worship that he has given on our behalf.
How
do we do it? Verse 20 explains: “by a new and living way opened for us through
the curtain, that is, his body,”
In
the Old Testament tabernacle, a curtain separated everyone from the Most Holy
Place, but we have a new way through that curtain, and the pathway we have is
the body of Jesus. Because he became a human and gave his body for us, we have
access to the throne of heaven.
And
we have help. Verse 21 tells us, “and since we have a great priest over the
house of God…,” We have Jesus to help us.
OK,
we have confidence and a High Priest to help us. So what are we supposed to do?
Verse 22: “let us draw near to God
with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to
cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure
water.
The
way is open. We have the permission. Now we have the invitation. God himself wants us to come, so we can be confident
that we will be accepted. We don’t have to worry about a guilty conscience,
because Jesus has taken care of all our sins. We don’t have to worry about
being unclean, because Jesus has fulfilled the symbolism of all those washings,
too. We are as clean and spotless as the freshly fallen snow, as pure as
distilled water, because Jesus has allowed us to share in those qualities.
So with
an assurance like that, with a guarantee that God accepts us and wants us, what
are we supposed to do? Do we decide that it’s not very important, that if the
door is always going to be open, then we can always wait till later? No, if we
decide today that we can wait until later, then it’s likely that we are going
to think the same thing tomorrow, and the tomorrow after that, too. If it’s not
really important to us now, it might never feel very important. That’s why in
Hebrews 3 we are exhorted, Today, as long as it is
today, strive to enter God’s rest. Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do
today.
Verse
23: Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is
faithful.
And what is the key to all this? It
is mutual encouragement – verse 24:
10:24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love
and good deeds.
10:25 Let us
not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us
encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.