SERMON MANUSCRIPT
Guilt is a burden, one that’s powerfully depicted in that famous Shakespearian scene when, after helping her husband with murder, Lady MacBeth is overcome with the reality of her iniquity. Her crimes haunt her mind and steal her sleep. And, tortured with guilt, she paces the night scrubbing her hands, desperately trying to wash away the blood that only she can see.
All honest and uncalloused people know what it is to feel the burden of guilt for past wrongs. And we’re familiar with the haunting questions that often accompany them: Can I make this right? Is it possible to fix what I’ve now broken? What does my error say about me? Am I beyond redemption? Can I scrub my hands hard enough to make them clean again? Others may not see their filthiness, but I do!
And the burden of guilt takes a toll. One medical source reports that guilt “can lead to anxious obsessions, depressive tendencies, and physical symptoms.” According to one study, feelings of guilt can literally make people feel heavier.
Maybe that’s you. Maybe you’re thankful there’s no spiritual scale under your chair because, if you’re honest, you feel you have five tons on your shoulders. Things you’ve done, things you haven’t done, or things you haven’t done well; words you’ve said, words you never said, or words you’ve said wrongly; doubts you harbour, malice you hold, bitterness you feel, people you’ve hurt, responsibilities you’ve shirked, resources you’ve squandered, years you’ve wasted, crimes you’ve committed, ideas you’ve considered, evil you’ve applauded, idols you’ve worshipped. It’s so heavy, isn’t it?
Now, many try to buffer against guilt by avoiding, normalizing, or justifying wrongs. But God’s people can’t because God has said, “None is righteous, no not one” (Rom 3:10) and that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23).
Christians know we’re guilty. We’ve all rebelled against the King, grieved his Spirit, and shamed his Son. But what do we do with that guilt? Should it burden us, muting our worship and stifling our work? Must our sins weigh us down, robbing joy and stealing freedom? Forget cleaning our hands, how can we clean our conscience?
This morning we’re going to find out how in Hebrews 9. The author has been describing the supremacy of our High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the beauty of the New Covenant he mediates, one ratified in his blood and one that offers, among other things, the forgiveness of sins, something the Old Covenant and the Mosaic Law could not offer.
BEFORE CHRIST
And that’s where he starts in this text, reminding his readers what it was like before Christ. Prior to Jesus coming, dying, rising, ascending, and advocating for us, how did guilty people interact with a holy and just God? for that, he takes us to the tabernacle, Israel’s ancient place of worship. Listen to the first ten verses as I read them. [9:1–10]
There are three activities about which people should be concerned when it comes to a relationship with God, all of which are seen in the tabernacle: attending to God, approaching God, and appeasing God.
Attending to God is to worship God by serving God. The author refers to it as the “regulations of divine worship” (9:1) and that the priests, who themselves are called “worshipper[s]” (9:9), were “performing the divine worship” (9:6).
And what did this entail? Well, he lists a number of items that remind us that they were offering sacrifices (Ex 29:38–41), tending to lamps (Ex 27:20–21), burning incense (Ex 30:8), and renewing sacred bread (Ex 25:30). The priests were attending to God, an act of worshipful service in the house of God on behalf of the people of God.
The second activity is approaching God. Verse 1 calls the tabernacle “the earthly sanctuary,” a place set apart for holy purposes like attending to God. But what makes the tabernacle particularly holy is that God’s presence uniquely dwelled in its innermost room, above “the ark of the covenant” where sat “the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat” (9:5). [Ex 25:21–22; 1 Sam 4:4a; Ps 80:1] While God reigns from heaven, his earthly throne was in that room, above that box, between those angels.
So, in a very real sense, as the priests were “continually entering the outer tabernacle” (9:6) and, to an even greater extent, when the “high priest enters [the inner room] once a year,” they were approaching God’s presence, drawing near on behalf of God’s people.
The final activity is appeasing God. Yahweh is holy and his justice must be satisfied, his wrath against sin must be propitiated. In fact, if God is not appeased he cannot be attended to or approached. But, God so loved the world, as sinful and deserving of judgment as it was and is, that he provided a way for atonement. [9:7]
“The cost of sin is death” (Rom 6:23a), impurity, and separation from the God who is life. But, in the work of the tabernacle, as Paul puts it in Romans 3:25, “[God] passed over [their] sins.” There was an appeasing of God that God made available to his people.
These three activities—attending to God, approaching God, and appeasing God—are crucial for all people of all time if they want a relationship with their Creator. But, what the author is highlighting at the start of Hebrews 9 is how difficult it was before Christ.
I mean, it was restricted. To attend, approach, and appease one had to abide by the “regulations” (9:1). The tabernacle had to be “so prepared” (9:2) with all its sacred accoutrements (9:2–5) and, even then, only select people could participate. Only the tribe of Levi. Only men of the tribe of Levi. Only certain men of the tribe of Levi. Of the certain men, only those on shift that day. And only one on shift could actually go into God’s presence and only one time a year and only with blood. That seems suffocatingly restrictive, doesn’t it?
The Prime Minister claims to serve you, represent you, and hear you, but do you think you can grab coffee with him? No. That’s reserved mostly for those he knows, those in politics, those from his party, and those who want to talk about things he wants to talk about. Access is restricted, and that’s how approaching God was before Christ.
It was also predictive. All that activity in and around the tabernacle wasn’t even the real thing but merely pointed to the real thing. [9:8–9a] The earthly tent, the symbol, had to go away before the heavenly tent, the reality, was enjoyed. All the sacrifices and washings were “regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation” (9:10b), until the better system could be established, until the new order came.
Receiving a learner’s licence, is fine, but its real power is in what comes next: the full licence. The G1 is predictive and, hopefully, impermanent. It’s training wheels for reality. In a way, so was attending to, approaching, and appeasing God before Christ. It was predictive.
Finally, it was deficient. [9:9b–10a] This old system was incapable of meeting humanity’s greatest need. Like a meal on a diet, it just can’t satisfy. All the sacrifices, service, and washings couldn’t get out all the sin because, while momentarily washed away, “the cat came back, the very next day.” The Law could not definitively deal with rebellion, could not wipe the slate clean, could not cleanse the guilty conscience. It was incapable. It was deficient. God’s people were, in a sense, left desperately scrubbing their filthy hands.
This is how it was before Christ. Serving God, drawing near to God, and being made right with God were laborious endeavours, really restricted, merely predictive, and totally deficient.
BUT CHRIST
Mercifully, verse 11 opens with two of the most beautiful Greek words imaginable: But Christ. Before Christ it was tough to attend to, approach, and appease. But Christ changed everything. [9:11–12]
While the old covenant priests tirelessly and viciously attended to God in the earthly tent, “when Christ appeared as a high priest” he walked into the “more perfect tabernacle,” the heavenly one predicted by the “one made with hands.” He perfectly did what God wanted him to do.
While the old covenant priests fearfully and rarely approached God, Jesus “entered the holy place once for all.” He went beyond the veil into his actual presence on behalf of all the people.
And while before Christ the appeasement offered was deficient, predictive, and repetitive, his was none of those things. He went to the heavenly mercy seat not through “the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood” and thereby “obtaining eternal redemption.”
Before Christ it was tough. But Christ attended to God perfectly, approached God truly, and appeased God finally.
But Christ. Have you ever noticed how often the Bible says our fate turns on two such words? [Eph 2:4; Gal 2:20; Col 3:11] God makes all the difference. Christ makes all the difference. We can have him and nothing else and have all we need. We can feel useless, powerless, and voiceless, “but Christ.” Our sin can be stacked to the ceiling, our guilt pressing upon our shoulders buckling our needs, “but Christ.”
BECAUSE OF CHRIST: WASH AND WORK!
Before Christ, intimacy with God was tough, but Christ did it all for us. But the author isn’t done. Like a faithful preacher he makes sure his hearers know how to be doers as well. And so he crescendos, moving from before Christ to but Christ and landing on because of Christ.
[9:13] Before Christ, God had provided a solution for his people, albeit restrictive, predictive, and deficient. The old covenant offerings did, for a moment, set sinners apart by superficially cleansing them.
But if that’s true—and it is—[9:14]. Because of Christ, you and I belong to an appeased God. His justice has been satisfied by his Son who, “through his own blood … obtained eternal redemption.”
The Apostle John celebrates this: “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). Jesus is the reason that God’s just judgement has been eternally turned away from us.
And, since that’s true, because of Christ, you and I can approach God. Jesus “entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle” (9:11), and we, by faith, go with him. That’s why the author was able to say, [4:16]. We have access to God. We can go to him saying, “Our Father, who is in heaven.” No restricted priesthood, no sectioned-off tent, and no veil blocking our view of his presence. It’s been torn in two! Because of Christ we sinners have access to God.
Finally, because of Christ, you and I can attend to God. We can worship him by serving him the way he wants to be served. This is his main point: wash and work! “Cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (9:14b). Wash your heart of guilt knowing Christ paid for your sins. Scrub your hands of the burden of religious activities knowing they bring no forgiveness. Bathe your life in the reality of Christ’s perfect atonement. And then get to work, serving the living God with the weightlessness of a clean conscience. Wash and work!
I want to address four groups of people as I close. There isn’t a person on this planet who doesn’t belong to at least one of these groups.
First, to the unwashed. You may be here and you’ve never placed your faith in Jesus Christ. If that’s the case, you are still under the wrath of God. You deserve it as do we all. The difference is, most of us here have sought shelter in Jesus. [Rom 6:23] For you to wash and work! means trusting in Jesus’s death for you, his resurrection for you, and his promise to you: that if believe in him you will live even if you die. There is forgiveness available, friend. Come and be washed.
Second to the burdened. You may have trusted in Jesus but you still feel the weight of guilt for past sins, and it’s robbing your joy, stifling your growth, and stopping your service.
Let me ask you a question: have you ever been wrong before? Yes? Then why would you listen to yourself instead of the God who’s incapable of being wrong? He has said you’re forgiven. Shouldn’t that be enough? Or do you think you know better than him? The God of the universe has swung his gavel and pronounced you “not guilty” and you are disagreeing and insisting on jail time.
Stop listening to your heart, your family, your friends, your world. Instead, approach your God and listen to him when he says, “because of my Son, my enemies have been made my friends, rebels made family, my wrath turned to your riches.”
Because of Christ, we belong to an appeased God. Brothers and sisters, God is satisfied. You carrying the burden of guilt for sins that were nailed to the cross is not virtuous, necessary, or helpful. God is satisfied. He has been appeased. Put down that burden.
Third, to the unoccupied. To those who have been washed but have stalled out before they got to work, it’s time to move. You have been saved for that very purpose: to attend to your God in the ways he wants you to. [Eph 2:8–10]
Wash and work! Serve the living God to whom you owe your life. Find a way to contribute to what God is doing in this world, in this assembly, in your life. Don’t be lazy. Don’t be a spiritual loafer, riding on the labour of those around you. Ask God to show you where he wants you to serve, to attend to him, to worship him. [Rom 12:2]
Finally, to the imperfect. To those of us know we’re saved, know we’ve been forgiven, and are labouring for the Lord, but who also know we still sin once in a while. (Okay, often.) Remember the scene in the Upper Room: even those who have been bathed by Christ still need our feet washed by Christ. Remember to keep short accounts. Keep that conscience clean that we may serve our living God well.
Josiah has served the Oakridge Bible Chapel family as one of its elders and one of its pastoral staff members since September 2018, before which he ministered as an associate pastor to a local congregation in the Canadian prairies. Josiah's desire is to be used by God to help equip the church for ministry, both while gathered (edification) and while scattered (evangelization). He is married to Patricia, and together they have five children—Jonah, Henry, Nathaniel, Josephine, and Benjamin.
