Our High Priest

The Day of Atonement was a really busy day for the High Priest. In ancient Israel, this was the busiest day for the High Priest in the entire year. The High Priest was selected from the tribe of Levi because the Levites were the priests, and the High Priest had to come from that tribe and from the house of Aaron. The High Priest had to live by a standard of holiness that was even above the standard of holiness expected for the priest, which was a standard above which was expected for the average person. This is especially true with ritual purity. They are expected to be, on this day, particularly, ritually, absolutely pure. Because it was on this day that was decided whether Israel would still be God's people or not. Because on this day, the High Priest would go into the tabernacle and into the Holy of Holies, the only time during the whole year that he would go into the Holy of Holies, and there he would make an offering for the sins of the people.

And it was here that either God accepted that sacrifice or did not. If he did not accept the sacrifice, the High Priest would not come out of the tabernacle or later the temple once it was built. And his death signified that all of Israel was going to die. So this was the most holy day of the year, even more intense than the Passover, because it was here, on this day, that God accepted the sacrifice for everyone, and it was the High Priest who did this. Now, I have some slides we're going to show. This first slide is a representation of the tabernacle itself when Israel was in the wilderness, and you can see there's an outside. It wasn't as big as you'd think. I mean, it was a fairly good-sized area, but it wasn't extremely large, and you can see this outside court and where they would perform the sacrifices. And then there was a tent, and you see the tent cut away there. There were two rooms, and you can see the glory of God coming down into that second room, which is the Holy of Holies, or the Most Holy Place. A couple years ago, on the day of Atonement, I gave a sermon on that Most Holy Place, what was in there, and specifically the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat, which set upon that Ark of the Covenant. And over the last few years, I've covered a number of aspects of this day. Last year, it was the ceremony involving the two goats. We also went through how to redeem someone took a near kinsman and how Jesus Christ is the near kinsman on this day. Today, we're going to talk about, though, Jesus Christ as High Priest by looking at the High Priest and what He did on this day. And then we're going to go to the book of Hebrews, and we're going to read a number of passages that talk about this day, not from the Old Testament. This is a New Testament passage that talks about this day, what the priest did on this day, and how that symbolized Jesus Christ.

Because Jesus Christ is not from the tribe of Levi. And that means, as we'll go and see, there was a change in the Levitical priesthood laws. There had to be, because He's not from the tribe of Levi. He's from the tribe of Judah. So why did that happen, and how did that happen, and how does all the ceremonies of this day centered around the High Priest, what does that have to do with you and I today? Now, we're here because we understand that we're fasting to be humbled before God. We're here today because we understand this day pictures the atonement at one minute, the reconciliation with God. But the ceremonies of this day are the most intense of all the ceremonies in the Old Testament. This is the most complicated series of ceremonies on this day. So today, we're just going to talk about the High Priest. So here we have the second slide.

On the second slide, what we're going to do... It'll come up in a minute here.

Well, our second slide is the High Priest himself. And as you can see, we have a little picture of him there. We have a representation of his garments. No one knows exactly what he wore, but the High Priest did wear a very special garment on this day. And we're going to talk about that garment. The High Priest had a very special role in the relationship of Israel and God.

Israel was always separated, unlike other countries. It was separated into church and state. They worked together, yet they were separate. There was the time of the judges. You had judges, and the judge sometimes would be the High Priest. And at that time, it was together. But once you had a king, there was a separation of duties.

There was a separation of duties. There was what the High Priest did, and there's what the king did. We find this similar, though, in Moses and Aaron. Moses could not perform as great as Moses was. He could not do the High Priest duties on this day.

He wasn't allowed to. In fact, it was a death penalty for him to go in and do the sacrifice and go into this most holy place on this day. Only the High Priest could do it. And so it's very important to understand the role of this High Priest in the relationship between Israel and God.

And it's also important for us to understand that the role that Jesus Christ plays as High Priest today, in His relationship between us, the Church, and God. And the Priestly garments were an important expression of the holiness of the High Priest. Now let's see if we can get the next slide up. There we go. The High Priest. Let's go ahead and hit the next one here. Life was dedicated to serving God. And the next point, design of the Priestly garments was an expression of His holiness.

We don't know exactly what all the garments were supposed to represent. But we do know that they all represented His holiness. There was nobody else in all of Israel that was allowed to dress like this. In fact, there's two entire chapters, basically, Exodus 28 and Exodus 39, that are dedicated to the details of how the High Priest was supposed to dress. You don't think dress is important to God. How we dress isn't important to God. There's two entire chapters of how the High Priest was supposed to dress to represent the people to Him and Him to the people. So He represented the people to God, and He represented God to them. Let's look at some of the ways He would dress here.

The next slide. He wore a tunic. Now, in this picture, you can only see part of the tunic. It was an all-white linen tunic. You can see the sleeves, and you can see the bottom down here, the skirting of it. The rest of us covered with other garments. He had three layers of garments that He wore. So you can imagine getting ready for this day. The first thing He would do is He would get up and He would put on this tunic.

And that's the first thing. It was pure white, and it was linen. And it could have no stains on it. It could have no blotches on it. It could have no tears. It had to be perfect. After He put that on, He would put on a robe. Now, you only see part of the robe because there's another garment on top of that, too, but it's blue. But what's interesting about this, and once again, we're not sure why, but the biblical instructions is that at the bottom of this robe, there were hung little bells. Literally, when He walked, you could hear Him coming. You could hear Him coming.

There was also pomegranates, so He would smell really good. So you got pomegranates hanging on the bottom, and you have little bells. And when He would go into the Holy of Holies, the most holy place on this day, you could hear Him walking through that tent. Everybody else is silent because the high priest is going to see if we're acceptable to God. And as the high priest walked through that tent into the Holy of Holies, you could hear Him walking in all the silence because you could hear the bells. And then He would pull back that veil that separated the two rooms inside that tent, and He would disappear behind it.

It was interesting. The veil didn't open in the middle. He had to pull it open from the side. It was a big, heavy veil. It was one big piece. It symbolized total separation that no one could go into that Holy of Holies because it represented the throne of God. And remember, that's where the pillar of fire and the pillar of smoke set in that very place. They saw the very presence of God. Every morning when they got up and walked out of that camp, they looked at the tabernacle, and there was a pillar of fire at night and a pillar of a cloud during the day coming out of the Holy of Holies.

And nobody could go in here except this day. Only the high priest. Okay, the next slide. There's an ephod over this road. Now, the ephod is what you see is just many colors there. There's a sash around it. It is gold, blue, purple, and crimson, and it's made of this linen that's twisted to make these designs in it.

So it's, once again, it's a very stunning, very stunning clothing that he's wearing because he's holy before God and coming before the Holy God. This represents holiness, the absolute best. There was nobody dressed like this in all of Israel.

But the high priest came in on that day dressed like this. He also had, we'll look at the next slide here, this breastplate. Now, this breastplate, you're looking at the breastplate. We'll talk about what you're seeing here in a minute. But tucked inside there, there was a pouch inside that breastplate, is the Urim and Thummim.

We don't know, and the Bible doesn't tell us exactly what the Urim and Thummim was. It's some kind of object, and there's two of them in there. Whenever the high priest would go into that first part of the tent and determine what is God's will, he had to ask a yes or no question. And the use of the Urim and Thummim was God would say yes or no. We don't even know it worked. But he was told, he knew how it worked. And it's explained in the Scripture, when you have a question, the high priest brings before me, you bring the Urim and the Thummim, and I will answer you. But basically, it's a yes or no question. And so, that was in a pouch, because it had to be hung over his heart. So it's either a pouch that's behind this plate, or it's actually part of the plate itself. Okay, next. What you have here on this plate, and it's gold, are 12 precious stones and semi-precious stones that represent the 12 tribes of Israel. But they all were a different color. Every tribe had its own color. And so, he wore this around his neck, as he did the sacrifices and the things he did on this day. Next slide.

On the shoulders, on both of his shoulders, there were two stones that were sewn into the shoulders, so you could see the stones. And on these onyx stones, each one had six names of the sons of Jacob, or the sons of Israel. So what you have are the 12 tribes represented again, six on one side and six on the other.

It's a pretty complicated, special garment that it took a lot of people a lot of time to create and it was created perfectly. If any piece of it wasn't perfect, he couldn't wear it, because he is going before the Holy God and he wanted to go before God in the way that God told him to. There's a reason for all this. You know, none of us dress like this today, but there's a reason that we need to learn why God would give them such strict instructions and why they were so important and why they were taken as being important. Because they weren't God's people. If the ceremonies of this day weren't accepted by God, they were no longer his people.

Then the next... he wore a turban. This is what you'll find various representations of the turban that he wore. This is usually the most common example of what they think it looked like. Now what's really interesting is you see this gold band at the bottom of the turban? That was actually a separate piece of clothing. Next slide.

Because that next... well, let me stop here. That band around there was a crown. It was a crown. It was a gold crown. And on it were the words, Holy to the Lord. In other words, the high priest is doing something holy and he is holy.

He actually had to bring blood and sprinkle it all over the mercy seat to represent the sacrifice for themselves, that there was a substitute for them, for him and for all the people. And he would come in and so on. On that crown up there were the words, Holy to the Lord. Now the next slide. This sensor he carried is very important because on the Day of Atonement, he had to carry this sensor that was putting off not only a sweet aroma, but it was this smoke sort of was coming out. This smoke had to come out of it. You think, wow, this sounds really strange. It means we in our world today, this whole thing sounds strange. This is really weird, but it's not because God is teaching us something to what he had them do.

Leviticus 16 is an entire chapter of instructions on what the high priest was supposed to do on this day. And there are instructions, Leviticus 16, verses 12 and 13, about he's to take the sensor and bring it into the holy place. As he walks, probably filled with trepidation, fear, excitement, he's going into the presence of God.

And he's excited about that. He's probably very afraid about that. And he's walking those steps, hearing those old bells tingle as he walks towards, and he's carrying this sensor. And so this, the smoke is coming up. Let's go to Revelation 8 before we go on, because I want you to see, because you start to look through the Old Testament, New Testament, and you start to see that there are all kinds of things we see in these Old Testament rituals and ceremonies that we find in the Old Testament, that they represent something in the New Testament. Revelation 8. This is talking about the seven seals here. He opened the seven seals, and there was silence in heaven for half an hour. So now this is the throne of God. This is the actual tabernacle. Remember when we went through the Ark of the Covenant, and we find in the New Testament that when people see a vision of God's throne, the Ark of the Covenant's there.

Whether it's the actual wooden one or gold one, you know, covered with gold, or whether it's the actual Ark of the Covenant. There is an Ark of the Covenant before God, because His throne represents the mercy seat. And so here we have a vision of heaven. And I saw the seven angels will stand before God. Then we're given seven trumpets. Another agent having another angel having a golden censer came and stood at the altar. See, here we have an angel coming before God with a censer, just like the high priest did. So there's something similar here that's happening. With much incense, they should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne. When He went in there with this censer, it wasn't because God liked the smell of it. It's because it represented all the prayers of the people who are standing outside. All the people are outside praying to God to accept the high priest, praying that the sacrifice will be accepted so that they can continue to live, and they can continue to be God's people. And so He walks in there. This is a symbol of their prayers. I'm not sure they understood that, but we see this in the New Testament. An angel bringing a censer with all the smoke and incense coming out of it, which are the prayers of all the saints. Verse 4, and the smoke of the incense and the prayers of the saints ascended before God from the angel's hand. So this represents your prayers and my prayers, too, that go before God.

So the high priest did this, and we're going to show how this ties into the work of Jesus Christ. So what we have here, these clothes, but the reason I want to show them to you, at least a representation of them, is because you can understand this is really serious. The tabernacle was designed specifically down to the finest detail by God. Who the priests were going to be were selected by God. All the activities of this day were designed in great detail by God. That's what Leviticus 16 points out. And even the clothes of the high priest and what he did were designed by God to express God's holiness and who they were as his people. You and I don't live by those rituals today. We don't have to do all that today. But if we don't understand the meaning of it, the meaning of these rituals, then we're missing out. Why are we here today? Why are we here today?

Let's just look at this next slide, and then we'll just leave this one up for a while. Let's leave this up for a while, because I want to talk here about this day and that tabernacle from a New Testament viewpoint.

Let's go to Hebrews chapter 7. We're going to be reading some long passages here in Hebrews, but I think we have to read them to really get what is being said here. You know, many times on, or always on the Passover, we take part of what Jesus told his disciples on that night of the Passover in John 13 through 17, and we read parts of it, because those are very important instructions for those who are about to keep the Passover. Or for those of us who are keeping the Day of Atonement, these next three chapters in four chapters in Hebrews are very important because they explain what we're doing. So we're going to pick out some passages over these next four chapters, and we're going to look at it and piece together and understand what this has to do with us. What this has to do with us.

Otherwise, we're just separated from what seems like rather bizarre, you know, almost sci-fi something going on here, Yoram and Thummun and all this stuff.

You know, what's that have to do with me? It has a lot to do with us. And understand the reality of what this pretended. This was a grand play that shows the reality of what God's doing.

It's a grand play done for hundreds and hundreds of years and recorded so that we can understand what He's doing now. Let's go to chapter seven of Hebrews. And let's start in verse 11 here, breaking a little bit of a thought. But as we go on, you'll be able to pick up how I'm piecing this together. Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received the law, what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek and not be called according to the order of Aaron. He says, so wait a minute. If the Levitical priesthood was established by God, and it says they received the law, the law was actually given before the Levitical priesthood. The law was given on Mount Sinai. But there were things added to that law about rituals and ceremonies and a priesthood and a high priest and a tabernacle. There were all kinds of laws that had to do with those things. He says, but we now have a priest that is not from the tribe of Levi. We have a priest. Now we don't have priests as... We don't call our ministers or elders priests, do we? Because we don't function as priests. There is one priest who functions as a priest. But he says, this priest doesn't come from Aaron. There has to be some change in the law of God for there to be another priesthood. The change is you and I aren't here today doing sacrifices. You and I aren't here today doing all the things they did, but we are to understand what they did and the reality of what it represents. For the priesthood being changed of necessity, there was also a change of the law. For he of whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe from which no man has officiated at the altar. He says, nobody can go officiate at the altar unless it's from the tribe of Levi. That's what the law says. For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood. But he is after the order of Melchizedek.

Actually, that's an interesting statement because Melchizedek is mentioned in the Old Testament in Genesis, but he's also mentioned in Psalm 110. Psalm 110 is a very important messianic prophecy. And in there, the Messiah is said to be after the order of Melchizedek. And he's actually quoting here. If you go down to verse 17, he's actually quoting from Psalm 110. He says, see, we were told that there was going to be a time when all the laws about the Levitical priesthood would be changed because there would be a different priest who wouldn't be a Levite.

But our priest comes from Judah. Verse 18, for on the one hand, there is an annulment of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitiveness. For the law made nothing perfect. On the other hand, there is the bringing of a better hope through which we draw near to God. So he says, you know, the problem with the old covenant of the Levitical priesthood is that in the end, it couldn't change anybody, and it didn't give anybody eternal hope. Understand, eternal life is not offered, was not offered under the Levitical priesthood. They weren't told to obey these laws and you will receive eternal life. They were told to obey these laws and God will drive your enemies away. Obey these laws and you'll get rain in due season. Obey these laws and you have lots of crops.

And someday I will make a new covenant with your descendants and I will resurrect you.

But it's not a spiritual resurrection they're promised.

They have to accept a different high priest to receive eternal life. Because the descendants of Aaron could not give anybody eternal life. They were just human beings selected by God to do the duties that were given to them to do.

Let's skip down to verse 23. Also, there were many priests because they were prevented by death from continuing. He says, look how many priests there had been since the time of Aaron. And there were still, when Hebrews, the book of Hebrews, the letter of Hebrews is written, there are still Levites in the temple, Herod's temple in Jerusalem. It hadn't been destroyed yet. And they're still doing these things on the day of atonement.

Hundreds of generations later, they're still on the day of atonement. There is an outer court in the temple. There is an inner room. And then there is a room inside that room called the Most Holy Place. And there is still a giant veil across between those rooms. It's still at the time of Jesus that was still there. And at the time this is written, they are still doing these ceremonies. And He says, you know what? They're still doing it. They're still carrying out doing these things. But a different priest, a different high priest has come. But he, because he continues forever, Jesus Christ, the high priest, the Lord, as He said here, from the tribe of Judah, but he, because he continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore, He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. He really wants to stress that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is very important. If He's a dead priest, there is no hope. But He is now making intercession. The high priest went into the Holy of Holies to make intercession for the entire nation of Israel. I am here... well, the words He would say would exactly be this, but I am here to represent the people. Will you accept the substitute for our sins? That's basically what He's doing.

He says, Jesus Christ is now standing in the real Holy of Holies. And that would be interesting for Him to say that because it was going on in those days still on the earth. He is now in the real Holy of Holies, acting as high priest, interceding, saying, accept the sacrifice for these, my brothers. Aaron was a brother to all the Israelites. He was a member of their nation. Jesus Christ came as a member of the human race for everyone.

Verse 26, for such a high priest was fitting for us, speaking of Jesus Christ, who was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens, who does not need daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins and then for the people's. For this he did once and for all when he offered up himself.

For the law appoints as high priests men who have weaknesses, but the word of the oath which came under the law appoints the Son who has been perfected forever. Boy, now we start to realize why this high priest is qualified to do what he does. He doesn't bring the blood of bulls and sheep.

He, as the high priest, brings his blood. He is the sacrifice.

That's why he had to do it once. He just doesn't bring a sacrifice to God for you. He brings himself and says, I died for him, him, her, her, her, all of us, except them. If we understand this day, this should motivate us to understand how much God loves us and what God is doing for us to get us to the feats of tabernacles, the real feats of tabernacles, His kingdom. What He is doing to get us there so that He can bring us into a state of oneness with Him and with Christ that we don't even understand, that Christ asked God to give to us at the Passover, right? John 17. The perfect high priest, no sin who had been God, who was the Word, became flesh, returned, brought himself to God. We also see this mirrored back during the face of Unleavened Bread, where there is that special ceremony in which the first of the first fruits of the barley harvest is presented to God in the temple. So here we have the perfect high priest bringing the perfect sacrifice. Now let's go to chapter 8, verse 1. Here Paul says, now this is the main point of the things which we're saying. He says, let me get down to just summing up what I've said so far. We have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord erected and not man. He says, what I'm telling you is all this stuff that took place here, and this tabernacle lasted a long time. I mean, it would have had to be repaired and so forth, but it lasted the 40 years. It lasted the five years that it took Joshua to conquer Canaan, and it lasted for many, many, many, many decades during the time of the Judges. It wasn't until the time of the Judges was coming to a close that this tabernacle was captured by the Philistines and destroyed. And then they had to rebuild something. And then, of course, Solomon came along and rebuilt the temple, or built the temple, the first temple.

He says, all this, all this tabernacle, these temples, these ceremonies, represent the reality of what goes on in heaven. There's a reality this day represents in which a high priest in his priestly garments, shining like the sun, presents himself to the Almighty Father, shining like the sun, and says, this sacrifice I present as the representative of the people to you to accept for their sins. That's what this day means, in part. I mean, the two goats or something. I mean, think of all the things. Since I've been here every day of atonement, I've tried to point out a different aspect of this day, and I still have years before I finish.

It's an amazing day. Hebrews 9.

Verse 1, then indeed even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service and the earthly sanctuary, what we have up here on the screen. For a tabernacle was prepared the first part, in which was the lampstand, the table, the showbread, which is called the sanctuary, and behind the second veil, the part of the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, which had the golden censer, the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, and which were the golden pot that had the manna, errands rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant, and above it were the carabim or glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things, we cannot speak in detail. Two years ago, I covered all this in great detail, and we covered what's in those two rooms, this outside room, which has the lampstand. You can see that in the showbread, and that's why he says there's two veils. See, other priests could go through that first opening into the first room to perform certain ceremonies. Only the high priests could go through the second veil, because the second veil represented going into the very presence of God, coming face to face with God.

And so the writer of Hebrews says here, you know those things. We don't have time to really talk about all of them in detail. He says, now when these things had been thus prepared, the priests always went into the first part of the tabernacle performing the services, but into that second part, okay, the second little room. Remember, the sacrifices are dead outside in this courtyard, but the second room inside that tent, the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people, sins committed in ignorance. This is what all of Leviticus 16 is about. Explain the details of what this was.

But notice what he says next. The Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the holiest of all, or the holy place, was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. The average Israelite couldn't go into the presence of God, only the high priest, and he represented them.

He says, it was symbolic, verse 9, for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot make him or perform the service perfect in regard to the conscience, concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings and fleshy ordinances, and pose until the time of reformation. He said, and all those things couldn't change the people.

They could not have the intimate relationship with God through His Spirit that made them different. And they were different people, but they weren't in what we, New Testament calls, converted. Now, there were some converted people in the Old Testament. You see some people where God gave His Spirit, but it wasn't the average person. It wasn't the average person. They related to God in ceremonies. They related to God with a veil between them, a barrier between them and God. They prayed to God. God answered their prayers, but there was a barrier between most of them and God.

Verse 11, But Jesus came as high priest of the good things to come, with the greater, more perfect tabernacle not made with hands. That is not of this creation. Now with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood, He entered the Most Holy Place once for all. He makes this point again. There was only one sacrifice worthy of our sins. A goat, the blood of a goat and a lamb did not wipe away our sins. It didn't wipe away their sins. It was just a symbol, as He said it was symbolic. What's the life of a human being worth? How many sheep are you worth to God? How horrible of our sins! How many animals could die for God to say, okay, that's enough animals to die. I'll forgive you. Those accounts can never add up. Only Jesus Christ, whose life was worth more than all of ours. And then He had to present Himself to God.

He not only sacrificed Himself, He presented the sacrifice to God. He had to become the high priest. He says He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. What He does now echoes out through eternity. What Aaron did in the high priest then was temporary.

The reality it represents is for all eternity.

For if the blood of bulls, verse 13, and goats, and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh. In other words, okay, this fleshly human being can have a relationship with God because they went through the ceremonies and acknowledged, I need a sacrifice for my sins. Okay, that's the... as far as you can go with this, but you did that, so now we can talk. He said, How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? How can we keep this day knowing what it means and not be totally dedicated to serving the living God? How can we not? Because we realize the reality. You and I are here in the reality of the realm where God lives. Something is happening that is real, that is affecting your life right now. It didn't happen then. There was a reality in heaven taking place when the Levites did their duty. There is a reality taking place now. And for this reason, He is the mediator of a new covenant.

By means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

When you and I go before God, we go with the high priest into the very presence of the Father. There is no barrier between you and God. Why? Because the high priest is there. The high priest is already in the holy place and you go into the holy place with him. When you pray, you are before the throne of Almighty God. When Jesus died, there were earthquakes and there was wind and there were clouds. But you know the most incredible thing that happened when he died? In the temple, the veil that separated the Holy of Holies from everybody else was supernaturally ripped in half. Matthew records that. The veil was ripped in half. Suddenly everybody, you know, you look, oh look, you can see into the Holy of Holies, which signified now because of this high priest, you go with him into the Holy of Holies.

That's the relationship. God has opened up to you that you follow the high priest in. You're not struck dead. You're invited to come in.

That's the price. That's what's happening. That's the reality of the life that this day shows for us.

Chapter 10.

Once again, I'm just picking out, I could give a whole other sermon and use the other sections to create a whole other sermon. Verse 19.

Therefore, okay, because we get to follow thy priest into the Holy Place, the very throne of God, you know, what is it? I don't know. It's not a dimension, I understand. It's a sea of glass with thunder and lightning and a choir singing and angels coming back and forth. We follow Him in there. He's waiting for us to take us to God, the Father. Every single day of our lives, we go into the presence of God.

Therefore, verse 19, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, you say, well, I'm not worthy to go before the presence of God. No, you're not. No, I'm not either. That's the whole point. Ancient Israel had to go represent them to go into the presence of God.

You have a high priest who is your brother who goes before you and takes you with him into the presence of God.

We are to be able to go before God, not only with humility, which we better have, but a certain amount of confidence, this boldness that says, I get to come because my high priest and my Savior is there and brings me there. We don't do it on our own. He says, by a new and living way, which He consecrated for us, throw the veil that is His flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, He said His flesh became the veil that was ripped. Of course, it was literally ripped in the temple on that day when He was sacrificed on the Passover.

Let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience on our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for He who promised His faith. Do we believe in what this day means enough? Do we really believe what this day means? Or, as our ritual, we don't eat anything, we feel terrible, we get in a car, we go to church, we go home, and we count down the seconds until we can go to five guys.

It is a ritual, and it's a ritual. At least, their ritual had meanings. Our ritual means nothing. If that's all this is, it's nothing. Understanding what they were doing as a representation of the reality you and I get to live in, they didn't get to understand this. All those years, Aaron and his descendants went into the Holy Holies. All those years, oh good, God has accepted us. All those years, and there still wasn't the knowledge or understanding that each person is given the grace of God to go into His presence through Christ. They didn't understand that. How could they? It hadn't happened yet.

You and I have to have this confidence. This day is to remind us of the promises, the promises of God.

Let's look at the next slide here, because this sort of summarizes what we just read in Hebrews. Christ is the perfect sacrifice for sins and offers Himself to God so that we can be reconciled to Him.

And this is, of course, I mentioned the wave sheep offering during the days of 11 bread. That's an amazing thing too.

Jesus says, don't hold on to me. I haven't ascended to the Father yet. What do you mean? You died. Why haven't you gone to the Father yet? You've been resurrected. Why haven't you gone to the Father yet? Because He was waiting for the time in the temple when they offered the first fruits of the first harvest of the barley to God. And He was the first fruit, right? We know Jesus Christ is the first fruit. He was waiting until that moment when they were offering to God the first fruits was just a symbol of Him. Now He goes to God at that exact same time and God accepts Him.

These rituals were set up for a reason. He and I don't have to offer barley every spring, but we do have to accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the fact that He presented Himself that was accepted by God. Since then, He's been presenting Himself all the time as the High Priest. And that brings us to this day. Second point is, Christ is the perfect High Priest who intercedes for us so that we can come into the presence of God the Father.

He's the perfect sacrifice, perfect High Priest, so that we now can go directly to Him. He is our Father.

We have a relationship. We have the ability to tell Him, ask Him what's on our mind, ask for forgiveness, ask for guidance and help for blessings, for healings. And because we're in His presence through His Holy Spirit, we can receive comfort and understanding when things don't work out the way we think they should, right? Why are we able to have that? Because we have a High Priest that is made the perfect offering, and you and I are allowed to come into the presence of God. God's Spirit is in us all the time. That means God's presence is with us all the time, wherever we go. Remember, in the Old Covenant, only a few people ever had God's Spirit. The vast majority of people did not. Remember Joshua going to Moses and saying, there's men over here prophesying because God's given them their Spirit. There were two men. He said, should I go stop them? And Moses said, no, oh, that I wish all of Israel was given God's Spirit. He had it. Joshua had it. Those men had it. Almost nobody else did. Almost nobody else did. God's present wasn't with them.

Then the last point here in this part of Hebrews is we must have confidence in the promises God makes so that we can experience the power of this reconciliation in our lives. We've been reconciled to God, brought back into a relationship with Him that we never had. We were designed to have a relationship with Him, but we never had it. He had to institute it. He had to draw us. Even if He was working with you before you were born, He was doing the work, right? We don't initiate anything with God. He initiates. He has to initiate. He has to draw us to Him. That we must seek Him. I mean, there's things we must do, but you don't have a cell phone powerful enough to call God and say, hey, let's do lunch. You just don't have that power.

The David Toman has a lot of lessons for Christians. The importance of the Ark of the Covenant, we covered that a few years ago. The ritual of the two goats, we covered that last year. The significance of the veil separating the most holy place.

We talked about that some. The role of Jesus Christ as the sacrifice. We've talked about that some.

The sacrifice for the sins of humanity. The role of Jesus Christ is near kinsmen. We talked about that a couple years ago. And the role of Christ as high priest. There's other parts of the aspects of this day that we haven't touched on yet. Jesus Christ is that high priest, which means He's actively involved and reconciling us to God. That means He is actively involved in your life to lead you to a relationship with God the Father.

He's not just up there standing before God doing some ritual. He's in our lives actively teaching us, leading us to have a relationship with the Father.

And He knows what it's like to be human. He knows exactly what we go through.

So I want to conclude with Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4. And verse 14.

Seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confessions. He's entered the Holy of Holies and been accepted. We are the people of God. We don't have to be worried, oh no, will He accept us? Or after this day is over, we all reject it? No, He's been accepted as the representative of His people. He is both God and man. That's why no one else can do what He does. Right?

He says, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness.

I don't know. Fasting usually doesn't bother me, but I may have like a low blood sugar thing today. I'm like walking around sort of numb, you know, like who are you? I don't know. That doesn't mean anything. I mean, when you fast it for 40 days, it doesn't mean anything to go one day. And He can go, oh, I'm suffering here. It's a whole day. And He says, oh man, wait till day number 18. Then it really gets tough. He knows. He understands. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Everything that can be thrown at a human being was thrown at him and he did not sin.

Let us therefore, on this day, let us be reminded, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need.

He didn't say, so that we will never have times of need. He says that we will receive help from the Father in our times of need.

We just went through the Feast of Trumpets. On the Feast of Trumpets, we celebrated the return of Jesus Christ, which is going to be a reality. To set up God's kingdom on this earth.

But he also wants to bring, you know, he's just not going to, it's not just all about a physical kingdom. He wants to bring into the family those who have responded to God's call. Understand who Jesus Christ is. Follow Him.

Have repented. Have received God's Holy Spirit and are prepared for that day.

And that's what this day is about. It's about being reconciled. It's about an atonement so that we come into a permanent, eternal relationship. How many times have we just read in Hebrews where He says the old ones, it was temporary, but Christ is eternal. What He's doing is eternal.

And then we're about to celebrate the time when we help and serve Jesus Christ. As He reigns on earth for a thousand years, and then it really gets exciting.

Because then He resurrects all those who have died who never knew Him and give them a chance for salvation. This is an important day. We need to focus in on this day and not forget the important meaning of it. You know, it's sort of the day between trumpets and and tabernacles where we get hungry. Uh-uh. Now this day is about how you get there. It is about how we are drawn to God. We are allowed to come into the very presence of God. In fact, the presence of God is in us through the Spirit all the time because we have a high priest. We have the perfect high priest who presented to God for your behalf, on your behalf, the perfect sacrifice.