Exploring Old Testament Worship: Limitations and Christ's Access

Old Testament worship exemplified restricted access to God, highlighting the need for Christ to provide true communion with the divine.

### Exploring the Old Testament Tabernacle and Its Significance in Hebrews
* 📖 The book of Hebrews offers a deep dive into the Old Testament Tabernacle, exploring its **structure, function, and the limitations of Old Covenant worship**.
* 🕊 The author emphasizes that **Jesus Christ serves as our great high priest**, providing access to God through a **new covenant that surpasses the old**.
* ⛪ In Hebrews 9:1-10, the text outlines the intricate details of the Tabernacle, including the **holy place** and the **most holy place**, highlighting the **restrictions placed on worshipers**.
* 🔑 The Old Covenant worship was characterized by a physical location, with the Tabernacle being a **tent that housed sacred items**, but it ultimately **limited access to God's presence**.
* 📜 The author points out that the rituals performed by priests were **insufficient for perfecting the worshiper's conscience**, as they dealt only with **external regulations**.
* 👑 The significance of the Ark of the Covenant is explored, as it symbolizes **God's presence and holiness**, with the mercy seat representing the **ultimate reconciliation between God and humanity**.
* 🔍 The passage encourages reflection on the limitations of the **Old Covenant** and the anticipation of a **greater fulfillment found in Christ**, who **breaks through these barriers**.
* 🙏 Ultimately, the author calls for a **deeper understanding** of how the Old Testament worship system points forward to the **glory of Christ** and the **access He provides to believers today**.

### The Transformation of Access to God: From Old Covenant Limitations to New Covenant Freedom
* 🏰 The description of the Holy of Holies illustrates where **God's presence dwells**, symbolized by the **mercy seat and cherubim**, who cover their faces due to **God's holiness**.
* 😨 Entering this sacred space was a terrifying prospect, akin to scenes from **"Raiders of the Lost Ark,"** as it represented a **limited access to God's true presence**.
* 📖 Biblical passages like Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4 depict God's heavenly throne room, filled with **awe-inspiring sights and sounds**, emphasizing the **overwhelming nature of divine holiness**.
* 🚪 Under the Old Covenant, access to God was **heavily restricted**, requiring **physical pilgrimages to Jerusalem** and encountering **numerous barriers within the temple structure**.
* 👨 The role of earthly priests was limited, with high priests entering the **Holy of Holies only once a year**, laden with the **weight of their own sins**, highlighting the **inadequacy of the sacrificial system**.
* ✂ Jesus' sacrifice transformed this access; upon His death, the temple veil was torn, symbolizing the **removal of barriers and granting believers direct access to God**.
* 🌟 The New Covenant invites believers to **approach God with confidence**, contrasting the Old Covenant's restrictions and revealing the **intimate relationship available through Christ**.
* 🙌 Ultimately, the message is clear: Jesus fulfilled the limitations of the Old Covenant, allowing believers to **run into the arms of their heavenly Father**, assured of **His love and acceptance**.

this one is going to be fun. As I think about the book of Hebrews, this might be, of course, I haven't taught it yet, so it's a bit odd to say this, this might be one of my favorite ones because I think we're gonna do something that very few people get to do, and that is unpack, looking deeply what exactly did the Old Testament temple Tabernacle look like, how did it work, how did people navigate it. It's going to be fun, it's gonna be heady, it's gonna be thick like last week, and of course, the book of Hebrews is always thick, so you know to show up ready. And today, you'll notice on your tables both the normal outline and then you've seen it, there's a diagram, so you want to make sure you grab that diagram. Everyone's got a copy there because you're gonna need it to make our way through this section today. Okay, let's turn our attention then to Hebrews chapter nine, Hebrews chapter 9. We're looking this morning at verses 1 through

10. As you're turning there, the argument is continuing that the author's making, which is that we have that great high priest who can give us access to God in Jesus Christ. He inaugurated a new covenant, which we talked about last week at the end of chapter 8. And what he's gonna do in Chapter 9 is he's gonna say, Okay, so Jesus did all these new things. If you're gonna really get that, our author says, You need to sort of rewind the tape for a moment and imagine yourself in the Old Testament worship system. What he does is he actually walks you through the Old Testament Tabernacle, what was in there, what was worship like in the Old Covenant, what did you have to experience, and what do you aren't ready to do. He's getting ready to say the Old Covenant worship was ordained by God, yes, and therefore good, but it was limited, had all kinds of limitations to it, limitations that Jesus shatters and breaks through. But you can understand how Jesus shatters them and breaks

through them unless you understand those limitations. So what we're gonna do today, so we're gonna spend a lot of time diving into what Old Testament worship was like. This is the kind of thing you'd find in, say, the Book of Leviticus. When's the last time you studied that one? Maybe that should be the next study in here, right? What do you think, you do Levitical now? No one would show up. But Leviticus, parts of Exodus. You probably, when you read the description of the interior or the tabernacle of Exodus, what do you do? Your eyes glaze over. You're like, yeah, let's flip to the better parts, right? But today, we're not flipping. Today, we're gonna dive into it and force ourselves to learn what did they experience in that Old Testament worship. So let's listen then to chapter 9, verses 1 through 10. Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship in an earthly place of holiness. For a tent was prepared, the first section in which were

the lampstand and the table and the bread of presence. It is called the holy place. Behind the second curtain was a second section called the most holy place, having the golden altar of incense and the Ark of the Covenant, covered on all sides with gold, and which was a golden urn holding the manna and Aaron's staff that budded and the tablets of the Covenant. Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things, we cannot now speak in detail. These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section performing the ritual duties, but in the second, only the high priest goes, and he but once a year and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. By this, the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened. That's gonna be a key verse, by the way. I'm gonna read that one again. By this, the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into

the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing, which is symbolic for the present age. According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper. They deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation. A lot there this morning in those verses, so our job is to jump in the Old Testament worship, examine it, analyze it, and see its limitations so that we can see how glorious Christ is in comparison. So let's pray and ask God to bless that as we do it. Let's pray. Lord, we realize passages like this are filled with details that honestly we don't understand and we don't get. But Lord, we know there's a message here. Lord, we know that you don't do anything without a reason, and Lord, we know that you have even set up the tabernacle to point forward to Christ. So Lord, may we see his glory shine through even in this passage, we pray in

his name is Amen. So, when I was younger in my childhood days, I had a favorite movie. I'm sure you guys did too. When I was growing up, my favorite film was Raiders of the Lost Ark. Now, you remember that movie, right? It came out in the early 80s. It's Harrison Ford at his prime, right? He's the archaeologist Indiana Jones going around the world finding things, and there's so much in that movie to love, right? There's certainly the finding lost artifacts bit, there's sort of the archaeological side of things discovering old stuff buried in the sand, there's the adventures of this Indiana Jones fella, there's the action sequences, and the movie's fun, and when you're 12 or whatever, this is a great movie to watch and enjoy. But when you think about the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, the star of the show was not Indiana Jones. The star of that movie was actually the Ark. What's fascinating about that movie for me is just to imagine what if you found the Ark of the Covenant, that golden box.

inside of which were the tablets of the Ten Commandments, the cherubim in gold on the top, that holiest object in the history of the Old Testament. Of course, in the movie, they found it, right? That's what makes the movie great. But here's the thing about the film that's fascinating, is that when they find it, and this is very non-Hollywood, I will say, the god of the Ark of the Covenant is not the God you thought he was. The god of the Ark of the Covenant is not a god you cozy up to, right? The god of the Ark of the Covenant is not one you draw near to. The god of the Ark of the Covenant you draw near, this God, you go prancing in there, you open up that lid, that's kind of literally burn your face off, right? Remember the end of the movie? It literally burns their face off. Now, of course, I'm not saying that would actually happen. It's a movie, right? But what the movie does get right is that God is more holy than you possibly can.

imagine, and when you charge into his presence represented by the Ark, there's a reckoning there. In fact, remember how the movie ends? What do they do with the Ark of the Covenant? What's over? They put it on this play and Times Square of New York. Now, if you remember the movie, they put it inside this crate, in this box, and hide it away in some warehouse. And they say, Let's just forget that, because if we draw near that, we're all gonna die. Here's the thing, interesting about the movie is it what it gets right is that God is holier than you think and unapproachable. Well, it's kind of sad about the movie is it just leaves it there. If God is that holy, you're not approachable. What do you do with God? Do you stick him in a box somewhere and never won't have anything to do with him again? Put it another way, Raiders of the Lost Ark, as fun as it was and intriguing was, it was never gave you a solution to the problem. It just said, Oh, here's a

problem. God is holy and burnt, burn your face off when you draw near, so just don't draw near to stay away as far as you possibly can. That whole theme, that whole idea that God is at a distance, that we want to be very, very careful not to encroach upon, is the experience of the Old Testament worshiper. And what we're going to do today is we're gonna dive in this passage and realize when you experience worship in the Old Testament, of course, it was legitimate, of course, it was ordained by God, of course, it was good in many ways, it was the real God you're worshiping, but you weren't able to draw near. In fact, you did it all at a distance, and there was this big restriction in Old Testament worship. In fact, the main theme of Old Testament worship is simple: access denied. Access denied doesn't mean you didn't really have a relationship with God in some way as an Israelite. Of course, you did in a sense, but you did only in anticipation of what Christ would

eventually do so in our passage today. Then we're gonna walk through that experience, and here's how this is going to look. We're gonna realize that the worship of the Old Testament Saints, if you will, Israelites, was very earthly. It's the bottom line, and you can look at your three Roman numerals there that capture this. Look at them with me for a second. Old Covenant worship focused on an earthly place. We're gonna spend a good bit of time in those first five verses. Secondly, Old Covenant worship focused on an earthly priest, coming back to that theme again. And then lastly, Old Covenant worship focused on earthly sacrifices, animal sacrifices to be exact. Now again, don't misunderstand the critique here. The author is not saying these things were sinful and wrong and evil. No, that's only saying they're all legitimate. They're doing by God. They were just limited. They didn't actually get the job done, and that's his point, right? Is wouldn't you want to worship God in such a way that doesn't

have those restrictions and those limitations. That's what Jesus brings to the table. So, we're gonna walk through these one at a time. I start with Roman numeral one. The Old Covenant worship focused on an earthly place. Notice verse one of your passage where he says this very plainly and straightforward. Now even the first covenant, remember the term here is first covenant, is just a reference to the Old Covenant, right? Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship. And look at the next phrase, in an earthly place. An earthly place of holiness. And then notice verse 2, For a tent was prepared. Here's the first thing I realize under this earthly place is that in the Old Testament times, and you know this because you've read the Old Testament, you know the stories. When God set up his covenant with Israel, he gave Moses clear commands. I want you to make for me a dwelling place. Now, of course, at this point, Israel didn't have a land, right? Israel's on its way to the land under Moses, but they wandered in the desert.

for all those years, they didn't have a place yet that was permanent. What was God's quote-unquote dwelling place at this point? It was literally a tent. In fact, that's what the language here says in the text. It's a tent. There's other words we use for this. We also say it's a tabernacle, okay? And what you would do with this tent and tabernacle is that you would set this up to do what you need to do for worship. And this was, in essence, God's dwelling place. Now, we'll see it is true that God dwelled there in a special way, no doubt about it, but we'll also see this: what you experienced in the Old Testament Tabernacle dwelling is nothing compared to what you'd experience if you went to the real heavenly places and saw God himself. And that's gonna be one of the big contrasts we'll come across when we get to it. Now, I want you to look at that little sheet I gave you, this little piece of

paper. We're gonna be talking about this whole Old Testament tabernacle in light of this piece of paper, which will really help you. Now notice when you look at this piece of paper, you have a larger courtyard with a fence around it, okay? That is the larger Tabernacle sort of setting, but it's really this interior tent here in the middle that is in view in our passage today. That is the tabernacle proper, that is the place that has the two chambers that we'll be talking about, that is the place in the Old Testament time that God dwelled. And you can see all this is movable. When Israel moved, they packed it up, they moved out, and they set it back up again wherever they were. This was a movable tent tabernacle for God's people. Now of course, once Israel settled in the land, God told Solomon, I want you to build me a permanent home. So the same language here about holy of Holies and holy place finally was manifested in Jerusalem in a physical stone temple that never moved.

right, and so that is what we think about. So, what I'm going to realize here as a first step is that God has an earthly dwelling place in the Old Testament order, originally a tent or tabernacle, and eventually, although we're not going to talk about it as much today, became a physical stone temple in Jerusalem. But the structure is the same. In fact, when you look at the structure of this sheep and you were to think about the physical temple in Jerusalem, the basics are all still there. It's the same infrastructure. Okay, so the first thing you realize is that God says, I want you to build me a place to live. Here's the second thing I want you to realize about this earthly dwelling: it has two chambers in it. You can see that in point B. Our author is very clear in his descriptions. He says, I want you not just to know that God has an earthly tent to dwell in. I want you to know the specifics. It's got a double chamber, and I'm going to tell you what's inside each chamber, and we're

going to talk about what they do and why they did it this way. Now, before we dive into each of those chambers, I want you to notice just something right out of the gate here, and that is that there's chambers at all is significant theologically. I'm going to talk about this more a little bit later, but if you were to walk up to a worship site in Jerusalem or in the desert in a tabernacle setting and look for God, you could not see him, right? You could not see his dwelling place. It was blocked by an outer door, and then as well, it was blocked by an inner door or an inner curtain. The fact that there's a building at all with chambers, you have to go through layers to get to the deeper part. All of that is symbolically and theologically significant. That is, access is not quite available yet, right? Access is denied. You can't get in there. It's blocked. There's no way to get around this. You're restricted. So, as we go

through these two chambers. I don't want you to miss the look. We're gonna get into the minutia here, but don't miss the larger picture. Larger pictures. There's anybody with a reflection upon it. An ancient Israelite world will look at this and go, Oh, I'm getting the message. I got the message. I can't get to God yet. There's a sense in which I don't have full access to him. By the way, wouldn't that make someone reflect upon the effectiveness of the priest a little bit? If these priests are offering all these sacrifices for my sins so that I can offer, so that can get close to a holy God, but yet I never get close. How holy God. What would that make me think about these animal sacrifices? Are they really getting me? Are they really getting it done? And the answer is they're not getting it done. Now, they pointed to the thing that would get it done. Name with Jesus. So, they were legitimate in that sense, but they didn't get it done. So, anybody in Old Testament

Israel would have gotten the message: we need a real Savior, we need a real high priest, we need someone who can really get it done. Translation: all of this was provisional and temporary. You would have sensed that in your gut from the very start in the nation of Israel if you were reflecting upon it at all. Okay, well, let's talk about these two chambers because our author talks about them. Look down in verse 2: For a tent was prepared, the first section or first chamber in which were the lampstand and the table of the bread of presence. It is called the holy place. So, the very first chamber in this little tent, the outer chamber in this whole town, was called the holy place, and it had two major things in it. Actually, it had three. The altar of incense was there too. We'll come back to that in a moment. But mainly here, he's focusing on the bread of presence and also the candelabrum, right? This light, this golden lampstand. I want you just to think about these two features with me for a moment.

this lampstand. You've seen pictures of it. It's got the, you can even see it in your diagram there under number six. It's got these seven sort of branches to it. The job of the priests when they tended the tabernacle and when they tended the temple is you do not let the light go out. It's your number one rule. You're there all the time. That light doesn't burn out. You're fixing the wicks. You're trimming the wicks. You're bringing in the oil. You don't let the light go out. So there's always a light burning in the candelabra. And there was a table in there with the bread on it. Interestingly, we're told that there was 12 loaves. And these loaves were baked fresh every week. And then the priests were the ones who would typically eat them. Looks like two ate some of the sacrifice. They would eat the bread. And they would awful often eat the bread with wine. Interestingly, all of this is happening inside that outer chamber.

which only a priest can go into. So if you're Joe Israelite walking around going, Oh, I want to go look in there, no, you can't. You can't get in there. That's off-limits to you. Only the priests can go in that part, and they do those things like ten the wick and make sure that the bread of presence is always there. Now, we said at the beginning of this that all of this points to Christ. So let's just reflect on those two items with me for a moment. How do the candelabrum or the light, the lamp here, what we call the lamp stand, and the bread of presence point towards Christ? How do they anticipate who Jesus would be and what he would do? Open this up to you. It's all kinds of answers here. Yep. Yes. Yes. So what we got right out of the gate there is that Jesus identifies himself as the light of the world. In fact, he in one sense is when he talks about letting your lamp shine and your

lamp burned before men. There's no doubt he's echoing what people would already be familiar with, which is not just the lamp that they know about in their own house, but even the lamp they're familiar with in the worship context. In many ways here, Jesus is the bread, is the light of the world, right, shining as we go. Also mention there is the bread of life. Where does Jesus do rumors? The part of the New Testament. Jesus sets himself up as the bread of life. Pop-quiz this morning. John 6. And what just happened in John 6? Jesus feeds the 5000. You know what he says? He goes, you know what, and that's in effect, I'm the true bread from heaven. I am the bread of life. And what he sets himself up, and we'll see this in a moment, he's in a sense, because I'm the manna that God has given you in the desert. All of that, that sustains you and upheld you. What does bread do? It feeds you, right? It sustains you. It keeps you going. Now in our little

world we think up. We think about bread as such a basic thing. We don't even think about its upside note in our meal. But in the ancient world, bread was the meal, right? You needed it to live right out of the gate. What you see here in this text is that God has symbols for you, even the old come to order looking forward to what Christ would do and what Christ would be. He would be the light of the world. He'd be the bread that would give us life. It's Him that sustains us. Even a little echo here of the Lord's Supper is there, not when the priests eat the bread. They often eat it with wine, and there's a sense what Jesus says. I want you to feed on me, right? Eat my flesh, not literally, of course, but eat from me, and you will be sustained. All these things look forward to that course. There's 12 loaves to 20 tonight. It's the 12 tribes of Israel, but we'd also argue the 12 disciples. You may also remember the story of David as

he's on the run from Saul, hiding out from Saul, and he's hungry. What does he eat? This bread, right? That's reserved only for the priests. All kinds of connections here that are fascinating, but this outer chamber had these pointers looking towards Christ, and only the priests can go in there. But you know, it's not just this outer chamber that's the big deal; the real big deal is this inner chamber. Let's take a look at that reading on in verse 3. Behind the second curtain, this is interesting language. So, there's an outside curtain to get into the holy place, and then when you're in the holy place, there's a second curtain to get into the next chamber. Behind the second curtain was a second section called the most holy place, and most of you probably will be familiar with the other name for this, which is called the Holy of Holies. What is a literal rendition of the Hebrew, right? So, it's the most holy place or the Holy of Holies, having the golden altar of incense and the Ark of the Covenant.

covered on all sides with gold, with the golden urn holding the manna, an errant staff that budded, and the tablets of the Covenant. Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things, we cannot now speak in detail. There are all kinds of things here that are noteworthy, but what I want you to notice from the outset is he makes note of the curtain, this thing blocking you. What's curious about this is that this didn't just block God's presence from the people; it also blocked God's presence even from the ordinary priests. They would step inside the holy place, and they would see another block. The ordinary, we'll find out in a moment, the ordinary priests could not go behind that second curtain. Only the high priest, once a year, could do such a thing. That is symbolically significant of the blocking, but the main object here is the Ark of the Covenant. Did you notice the three things in the Ark? Manna, Aaron's rod, the Ten Commandments. I love how God does this. God is in one

sense creating a memory chest. Every member ever have a memory chest. Your house. We're like it could be as simple as a shoebox or it could be more ornate. What do you put in a memory chest? It's little things that are treasures to you, right? They remind you of something. But what if God were to create a memory chest? Or put it another way, what if we were to create a memory chest for what God has done in our life? And by the way, it wouldn't be a bad thing to do, right? Have a place in your home where you say, I'm gonna put this in to remind me of God's faithfulness. I'm gonna put this in this box around me. What God has done and who he is. That's effectively what these things are. This is like inside that box, that Ark of the Covenant, Asturia of Israel, right? God gave the Ten Commandments to get things started as his core covenant. He gave that raw Aaron's rod blossomed as a sign that he was gonna give a high priest to his

people, not the ultimate one. Of course, you got the manna from heaven, how He preserved them in the wilderness. It's a reminder, it's like a little trip through time to remind you of what God has done. But the real essence to the ark isn't even there. Here's the real essence of the Ark. It has what's called a mercy seat. Look at verse five. Above it, meaning above the lid of the ark, are really on the lid where the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. This is really the significance of the ark and where I want to focus our time on this section. Here's what's interesting about this. On the top of the ark, literally where angelic beings in blazing and gold, and we know in other passages that they were, they have wings and they're covering their face with their wings as they sit in bold in gold on the lid of this Ark. And this is known as the mercy seat. The reason it's called that is because this is a picture of God's

throne. This is a picture of where God dwells. This is His presence on that lid of the ark, and these cherubim are symbolic of God's angelic attendants who cannot look upon God because His face is so very holy. They cover their own faces with their wings. Here's what's interesting, though. If you were to go inside the Holy of Holies and have a look around, that would be a really scary thing to do. As we're gonna see in a moment, it was a treacherous place, not that different than the movie in some ways, Raiders of the Lost Ark. You might fly back that curtain with a trembling hand, and you might think, If I go in here, I may not come out alive, because I'm getting ready to enter into the presence of God's throne room, in His mercy seat. But here's what I want you to see is happening. Is it as scary, as frightening, as terrifying as that would have been in this earthly tent? That mercy seat is simply symbolic of what God's real

throne room was like in heaven. You know what's interesting is the passages in scripture actually tell us what God's real throne room is like in heaven. And you know what? Those cherubim and blazing and gold are real creatures. There are real angelic attendants flying around. And you think you're scared to enter into the earthly holy of holies. How would you feel if you entered into the heavenly holy of holies? In fact, if you think about passages like Isaiah 6, Ezekiel 1, Revelation 4, we have visions of people going into the throne room of God, and it is utterly terrifying. There's rumblings, there are shaking, there is earthquake, there is smoke, there's God's throne room, there's these angelic attendants. And when they're described, they're flying around the entire space, and there's eyes all around them, you know, from the Ezekiel passage, and they're searching, they're looking, and they're watching, and this is God's holy presence, and they're singing all

the time holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty. The earth is full of His glory, and there's lightning, and there's fire. This is a scary scene. Imagine that scene as you walk into the throne room of God in the real heavenly places, and suddenly one of those cherubim notices you. They look down, and they see you because they have eyes all around. They look. You're in God's presence. You're here. What would you want to do at that moment? I can tell you what you wouldn't want to do. You wouldn't want to say, Hey God, I've been waiting to see you my whole life. This is great. Let's come on, you'll escape. Let's have a chat. No, you would say, Will the earth please open and swallow me up so I don't have to look upon the face of the Lamb. Think about it like this. If angelic beings are so overwhelmed by God's glory that they have to cover their faces, and they're sinless, what would have happened if a sinful creature entered into the

Holy of Holies, the real one in heaven, you'd be absolutely undone, which is what happens to Isaiah, right? And as Isaiah 6, I'm completely, utterly undone. All this is making a clear point, is simply this: this earthly scene of an arc of the Covenant, yes, it represents the presence of God, yes, in a sense God was there, but this pales in comparison to what it's really pointing towards, and this is the limitations of the Old Covenant. The limitations of the Old Covenant is that even if you got through that fence, even if you walked through that curtain, and you got behind the scene, there's a sense in which you're still not in God's full presence. Even if you could get a priest to go in there, he's still not in God's full presence. Don't rely on our earthly ten earthly dwelling to solve your sin problem. Need to get into the real presence of God. Look at Point C there. I want to draw this first point together. We spent more time on it than we will the others, but I want you to think about

the implications of this under the Old Covenant basically access to God, even in the limited sense, was restricted. There's a couple of things to note about that. Because of this, worship under the Old Covenant order had a physical location aspect to it. Okay, if you wanted to worship the God of Israel, you had to travel to Jerusalem. That doesn't mean you couldn't, in a sense, worship God in other places, but this is why people did pilgrimages in the Old Testament, right? They would go for the festivals because Israel was the place, and Jerusalem was the place, the tabernacle, the temple, is the place where you worship God. The other implication of this is that everybody who made that journey would be hit with restriction after restriction. You probably haven't really thought about what it would look like to journey to Jerusalem out a program edge, but when you got there, you would just be hit with barrier after barrier. First, you showed up in the city, now you're entering God's holy city.

you've got a certain amount of cleanliness to do that. Then you go to the Temple Mount. Gotta have a certain amount of cleanliness to do that. Then you're in the outer courts. There's cleanliness to do that. And the Gentiles are prohibited. Then you're in the Israelite Court. There's a certain level of cleanliness for that. Then it's the court of priests you can't go into. And then there's the holy place you certainly can't go into. And there's the Holy of Holies that you certainly can't go into. There's barrier after barrier, blockage after blockage in your whole worship experience. All of that is because you have an earthly dwelling where God has set this up. And here's the point: Jesus changed all that. Let's think about that for a moment. How did Jesus's actions change the barrier problem? And how did Jesus's actions change the geography problem? Notice now we don't travel to Jerusalem on a pilgrimage, right, to worship God. Won't you process that with me for a

moment how does Jesus change both of these realities of restrictions, or where did we see that happening? Yes, yes, this is a big point. This actually in Hebrews highlights one of the key points in the Gospels, which is that when Jesus dies on the cross, the temple veil, this temple veil described here, is rent in half, ripped into two pieces. Could there not be a more perfect picture of what the point is, is that now you can, in a sense, cozy up to that God. You can't get in there. You can't experience that intimacy that you could never have before. Good. Where else do we see the change in geography and the change in physicality happen in the New Testament time? How Jesus has changed this scenario? Yeah, the Holy Spirit is now the means by which we worship. God's wants worshipers to worship Him in spirit and truth. Remember the story of Jesus talking to the woman at the well, and he's talking to the woman as well about, you know, her fifth husband, basically, and she's smart enough to change the subject, by the way.

she's like, Well, how about this debate over where to worship? Is it in Jerusalem or in Gerizim, huh? See, and Jesus sort of sorts out, goes, Well, there's a time coming, and it in effect is already here when that geography won't matter because God wants you to worship in spirit and truth. Here's the point of when you see the first limitation of Old Testament worship is this physical tent problem that Jesus solves. He rips the veil open. Geography doesn't matter because he's gone into the real heavenly places where God himself exists. That is a radical, wonderful change that makes Jesus, as we've said all along, better in every way. Now, I spent intentionally more time on this first point, but let's look at the other two. There's more to say here about the way Old Covenant worship is different. Let's look at Roman numeral two. Old Covenant worship focused not just on an earthly place but on an earthly priest. So, I want you to imagine now the scenario we've talked about the tent and

its structure and what's inside it and how you get in it. But now I want to go into the priests that do it, okay? And our text actually gives us some interesting insight onto these. First, we realize that the normal priests spent a lot of time in the outer chamber. Look at verse 6: These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section performing their duties. So, in the old covenant order, you had earthly priests. These were decided from the tribe of Levi, by the way. So, this is part of my little tour for you, going back, stretching your brains a little bit. The tribe of Levi was the tribe that would be commissioned with caring for the temple and the tabernacle. And the Levites, all the descendants of Levi, didn't have a land grant, right? Because they were always working in the temple. And part of that tribe, the descendants of Aaron, were the priests. And what they did is they worked in this outer chamber all the time. And remember what they're doing in outer

chamber. They're bringing in sacrifices and making sure the bread is there, making sure the lamb doesn't go in and out to ten into all the ritual duties. And you notice that the text indicates here this. They do this regularly. There's actually a better way to translate this. I put the Greek, not that you probably care, D upon sauce there in your notes. I think the better translation here, they did this repeatedly, regularly gives this impression that they're busy all the time. And that's true, but what I think was really going on with this passage saying they just do the same things over and over and over again. This is back to the day, our very first study. This is the Sisyphus pushing the ball up the hill problem, right? It's the boulder you push up the hill thinking you're solving the problem that rolls back down. You got to do it all again. This is the nature of the Old Testament priesthood. These were just human beings who would walk into this outer chamber and do the ritual duties.

or they just kept doing it and doing it and doing it, and our authors, in a sense, saying, Well, if you scratch your head and think about that, doesn't that concern you? Let me get this straight. Are you really banking on that? Is that your hope? That's your big hope? Your big hope is these guys show up every day and do a little thing, and they do it again the next day, and the next day. You're thinking for eternity that's gonna solve my sin problem. It's like that. If that's your hope, you are missing the bigger picture. That's only looking forward to the person who can really solve your sin problem. This repeated and getting nowhere, spinning your wheels problem is exactly what our author is pointing out. But then he talks about the holy place. Look at verse 7, and that's where we look at the next section. It's not just that the priests go into this outer chamber. He mentions that verse seven that the high priests go in to the inner chamber. Look at verse 7, but in the second second

chamber. Only the high priest goes in, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. Wow, you might talk about restriction. Think about this with me for a moment. Here's God's number one guy. He got all the priests, and he got one above them all, his high priest. He's number one guy, the main representative for the people. And God says, Hey, I want to have a relationship with you, but guess what? I'm gonna restrict that too. You can only come in once a year to the holy place. And then the text makes it very clear, and when he goes in, he goes in very carefully because he says he ought to offer sacrifices for the people. And then it makes it very clear, and for himself. Would you go in? What you think about it for a moment. Imagine you're the high priest, just hypothetically, and you're about to pull back that curtain, and you're thinking, How'd my week go? How many beatings have I

been how holy am I, and then you think yourself, well hey, you know, I just sacrificed that goat, so I'm good. And you're thinking, am I? Is that really gonna get it done? You realize that even for the high priests, this earthly person, even he was cut off, even he was limited, even he entered with trepidation. What is all this telling us? Here's the thing that's amazing about this: all that has a ginormous theological message that cannot be missed, and that is you again cannot just stroll on into God's presence in your current situation. You need someone to really fix that problem. Notice the passage I put in your notes there, Leviticus 16:2. Leviticus 16 is one of those passages that you just don't have memorized, probably. I'm guessing you have any passages from Leviticus memorized. I'd be like, I'd like to know that if there are any, but I pluck this out because of how relevant this is. This is God talking about Aaron.

the first high priest. And look what he says to Moses about Aaron. Tell your brother Aaron that he may not come whenever he wants. I'm italicizing that portion. Look at it again. Tell your brother Aaron that he may not come whenever he wants into the holy place behind the veil in front of the mercy seat on the ark. And look at this language. Or else he will die. Don't come strolling on in here. Here's the interesting thing about it, though, is that God doesn't just say that to Joe Israelite. He says that to his number-one guy. Are you getting the point here? He's saying, Look, if even Aaron can't go in there, if even Aaron can't have a relationship with God that's in it, even he's not getting it done. Is that what your hope should lie? Is that really where you want to put your confidence? Even he can't go in whenever he wants, but only once a year. And then, of course, our verse 8, which when I read the passage, I said, This is

really the crescendo of it by this the holy spirit indicates there's it there's a key little phrase right when he says by this that this is the entire infrastructure the entire experience this barrier of the high priests you can only go in once a year all this is telling you a message what's that message verse 8 by this the holy spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened people ask you all the time so how do you you know what's a quick way to summarize the difference between the Old Testament in the New Testament this passage this verse actually gives us two great words to describe the Old Testament the Old Testament worship could be described as not yet not yet do you have full unvarnished access to the holy God himself it's coming by the way the phrase not yet means that it's not true now but that it will be in the future then not yet is a perfect way to summarize the Old Testament order there is a time coming the implication says

here when God will open up the door fully and widely for you to enter into God's presence. This is where I want to take us back to Hebrews 4:16, which I put down your notes this last year, but I want you to read Hebrews 4:16 with me again freshly in light of what we're doing here in Hebrews nine, because now you'll see what it's really about. Look at it again with me. It's right there in your notes. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace. By the way, you'll notice there in your notes I put mercy seat in a bracket, because the term throne of grace is the equivalent in the Greek here and referring back to the mercy seat. Remember the mercy is the Ark of covenant presence of God is dwelling place. He's saying now you can enter into the throne, drawing you to the throne of grace, his mercy seat with confidence that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need. So what's

the contrast here contrasts Hebrews 4:16 with verse eight and verse seven, or you can contrast Hebrews 4:16 with Leviticus. Either way, what's the difference? Well, Jesus is the difference, of course. Every answer for everything is Jesus. What's the difference between our disposition? We entered in the presence of God versus what the high priest would do. We enter in boldly. Remember the image I gave you of the trepidation, pull back the curtain, go not sure I want to go in there. Now you can go in, and you can go in confidently, and you can go in boldly. You can go in comfortably, not in a way that's frivolous or not in a way that doesn't honor the holiness of God, but you can go in with absolute assurance that you're not going to be struck down because God has poured out all his judgment on Christ in your place. This is the glories of the New Covenant. The limitation is gone. You can march right into God's presence, and God will

receive you no longer is there an order. Don't you think you can come in here whenever you warrant or you might die. He imagined relation with God like that. By the way, some people do think the relation was God's like that. Some people live relationship with God where that the essence of the relationship was God is this like an angry father. He says don't think you can come in here anytime you want to. If you come in here when I'm not ready for you, you're gonna die. You make sure you watch yourself. You might have that idea of God in your head. I want to suggest you that's not the God of the Bible. Under the new covenant in Christ, the way has been opened and God now brings you in as his child. One of my greatest images of this, it's this very famous photograph of John F. Kennedy and the Oval Office in the reign of his presidency. He's in the Oval Office, it's a black-and-white photo actually. He's surrounded by all these dignitaries, all these heads of state, and you know what

they are looking for in that moment. They probably got ten minutes with the president. Each of them wants their thirty seconds. I've got to get a chance to talk to the leader of the free world and make my point and argue my case and get my little moment in. And they're all jockeying for a position, right? Trying to stand near the president so you can talk to him. But then in the bottom of the photo is JFK Jr., his little boy. And in the scene, you know he's just trucked right into the middle of the whole thing, right? Comes right up to his dad and says, Can you tie my shoe? And so the picture is this scene of JFK tying the shoe of his little son, John John, in the Oval Office with all these dignitaries looking at him like, I wish I was that little kid. That is the picture of the believer, is that we think about this intimidating distance, but he is your father, and you are his daughter or his son, and you can run right into his arms and hug him and

all that is possible because of what Christ has done, and the message of the Old Testament worship was very simple. You need someone to make that possible, and that whole infrastructure of the priesthood was saying it's not possible until Christ gets the work done. That's the limitation of the Old Covenant. Now, looking at Roman numeral 3, let's wrap this up by noticing here the third thing that's different. We have an Old Covenant folks on our earthly place and also earthly priests, but also earthly sacrifices. Look at verse 9. This is where he brings this all to a head. According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but to you only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body in polls to impose to the time of reformation. I think it's very interesting that our author here uses the term conscience. He says, What can solve? In effect, this is what he's asking. What can cleanse and solve a guilty conscience? Now, that whole phenomenon, our world, is fascinating to

watch what people do with guilty consciences. People walk around, and sometimes they walk around their whole life with a guilty conscience about what they've done. Sometimes it's something you did five days ago; sometimes it's done something you've done twenty-five years ago. And people try to solve their conscience problem in all kinds of ways. And you know the ways people try to solve a guilty conscience, right? They first try to pretend that they're not guilty at all. That's like, I'm just imagining this, and if I go to a psychiatrist to tell me all is okay, and I'm just making it up in my head, it's that religious thing poking at me. I got to get rid of that. Others try to quell a guilty conscience by drugs, alcohol. Some people have a guilty conscience, and they just say, Well, I'm gonna solve my guilty conscience by just living such a crazy life, and I forget about that because I'm just doing some of the other things. And people just go through life burdened by

a guilty conscience. It's a fascinating article I've referenced there in your notes called The Strange Persistence of Guilt by a scholar by the name of Wilfred McClay. During our Reformation conference last year at Christ's Covenant, Kevin DeYoung actually mentioned this article, but he points out here in this article that what's strange about our world, despite that they think they're post-religious and post-Christian in their enlightened now, is that the guilty conscience has not gone away. People live their lives with a guilty conscience in ways perhaps they've never had before. And what's curious is not that it's gone away; it's all the things people do to solve it. So now they're just, they're all about humanitarian efforts or moral crusades or moral outrage, all to try to make themselves feel better about who they are. This passage has a very different solution to all that. It's saying actually if you want the cleansing of a guilty conscience to have your sin really dealt with, it can't be with these

human regulations and the blood of animals and the bowls of goats. This points forward to the only thing that can do it, and that is Jesus himself. Tense at this in verse 10 deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body until the time of reformation. That's just a nomenclature until the time of the new covenant when Jesus hadn't come and really solved your sin problem. Now, when you think about these three things together: an earthly place, sort of an earthly priest, and an earthly solution to the problem of sin and conscience, all of that has got a very clear message for you today, and that is you need to stand inside that Old Testament order and really let it sink in if you're gonna get what's new in Christ. If you're gonna see the glories of why Christ is better, you have to know the limitations of when what people dealt with before he came. Aren't you so thankful that we worship at a time where the work has been done, it's been finished and complete because

Jesus went into not the earthly tent but the heavenly holy of Holies. He was not just an earthly priest but the Son of God, and he didn't offer his animals; he offered himself. All of that solved the problem of limitations in the Old Covenant. That's the glorious great news; that's good news today; it's great news today. The image I want you to leave with today is the way is opened. You can run into your father's arms like little JFK Jr. You can pour through all the dignitaries because he's your father who loves you. Yes, he's holy; that hasn't changed. What's changed is his satisfaction of your sins in Christ.

Charlotte: Women’s Bible Study (Hebrews) w/ Dr. Michael Kruger; (Episode 20)

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Unpacking the Old Testament Tabernacle in Hebrews

The author of Hebrews is exploring the Old Testament worship system, focusing on the Tabernacle's layout and its significance.

The Old Covenant worship, while ordained by God, had limitations that Jesus ultimately breaks through.

The passage emphasizes that the way into the holy places was not yet opened, highlighting the need for a new covenant and the transformative role of Christ.

Old Testament worship was characterized by a distant and unapproachable God, with the Ark of the Covenant symbolizing this holiness.

The worship focused on an earthly place, represented by a movable tent or tabernacle, and later a permanent stone temple in Jerusalem.

The limitations of this worship system, including the need for an earthly priest and animal sacrifices, highlighted the anticipation of a greater solution that Christ would eventually bring.

God's Earthly Dwelling: The Tabernacle and Its Significance

God's earthly dwelling in the Old Testament began with a tent or tabernacle and later evolved into a stone temple in Jerusalem.

The tabernacle had two chambers, symbolizing restricted access to God's presence.

The outer chamber, the Holy Place, contained the lampstand and the table of the bread of presence, with the priests responsible for maintaining the light and offering the bread, highlighting the need for a true Savior and high priest.

The Significance of Jesus as the Bread of Life and the Holy of Holies

Jesus is portrayed as the bread of life and the light of the world, with his role in feeding the 5000 and offering sustenance to his followers.

The Holy of Holies, separated by a curtain, contains the Ark of the Covenant, which holds the manna, Aaron's rod, and the Ten Commandments, serving as a memory chest of God's faithfulness.

The mercy seat, located above the Ark, is significant as it represents God's presence and mercy, with cherubim overshadowing it.

The Holy of Holies, with its mercy seat and cherubim, symbolizes God's presence and holiness, creating a terrifying atmosphere for anyone who dared to enter.

The earthly scene pales in comparison to the real throne room of God in heaven, which is described in scripture as utterly overwhelming and filled with angelic beings.

Jesus's actions changed the barrier and geography problem of worship, eliminating the need for pilgrimages to Jerusalem and providing direct access to God's presence.

Jesus' death on the cross tore the temple veil, symbolizing a new intimacy with God and changing the need for a physical place of worship.

The Holy Spirit became the means of worship, making geography irrelevant.

The Old Covenant's reliance on earthly priests and their repetitive rituals was transformed by Jesus, who offered a permanent solution for sin and opened the way for direct access to God.

The Transition from the Old to the New Covenant

The high priests, including Aaron, had limited access to God's presence, highlighting the need for a mediator.

The Old Testament worship is characterized by the phrase "not yet," indicating that full access to God would come in the future.

In contrast, the New Covenant through Jesus offers believers bold and confident access to God's presence, eliminating the previous limitations.

The Difference Between the Old and New Covenant

The Old Covenant was characterized by an earthly place, earthly priests, and earthly sacrifices, which could not perfect the conscience of the worshiper.

People often struggle with guilty consciences and attempt to solve the problem through various means, but the passage emphasizes that true cleansing can only come through Jesus.

The New Covenant, established by Christ, offers a complete solution to sin and guilt, allowing believers to run into the Father's arms with confidence.