Sabbath School Class Week 13

Sabbath School Class Week 13

Hebrews 10: 1-18

So the past two weeks we have been looking at the old and the new covenant.  For those of you only joining us on the blog I am sorry we have not posted the last several weeks.  We have studied chapter 8 and 9 looking at the differences between the old and new covenant.  I will write about our discoveries at a later date.

This week we will be studying Hebrews 10: 1-18.

In this passage of scripture Hebrews 1-18 we see the trinity.  The trinity in action.  We see who each of them is and what they have done and do for us. It was the will of GOD, it was the act of Jesus Christ and now the testimony of the Holy Spirit that saves us! All three have their part.  All three desiring, working, sacrificing so that we may be with them!  God wanted to save us and gave His son.  Jesus did the will of His father and gave his life for us.  The Holy Spirit is now here daily to guide us if we are willing to listen.  What a beautiful glimpse of being wrapped up in love! As we read this passage together, it is my prayer that you more clearly see a trinity that loves you!

Read verse 1-4

"The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship."

The old way of sacrifice, the old way that the Christians were wanting to go back to was just a shadow of the new.  Once again the author is highlighting the fact that Christ is the fulfillment of the law.  Christ is the reason all that was there.  Christ is where it is at.
Here in the first few verses of Hebrews 10 the author is letting us know that though the law was put into place to be something beautiful it is only a shadow of what is to come. The law was meant to bring order and peace.  The law was to help strengthen the community of believers, to highlight their calling, to set them apart. Yet no matter what they did, no matter how many well they tried to keep the law, no matter how many times they confessed, and brought sacrifices to the temple, it couldn't save them. The law doesn't save us, sacrificing lambs doesn't save us.  It was all there to point us to what can.  The law doesn't have the power to save it is the maker of the law who can!

Continue reading verse 5-7

" 5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:

“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
    but a body you prepared for me;
6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings
    you were not pleased.
7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—

    I have come to do your will, my God."

Who came?
Why did He come?
Whose will?
So many times we see Jesus as the loving one, Jesus as the kind and sacrificial one, yet why did he come? To save us? Yes.  But first he came to do the will of His Father our God.  God, yes the same God of the old testament sent His son to die for you and me. That sounds like a God who loves us just a little bit, don't you think.    

Continue reading verse 8-10

"8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. 9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

We have been made holy through what?  By what will? or Whose will?

Continue reading verse 11-18

11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. 14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:

16 “This is the covenant I will make with them
    after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
    and I will write them on their minds.”[b]

17 Then he adds:

“Their sins and lawless acts
    I will remember no more.”[c]

18 And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.

So what does the Holy Spirit testify too us?

First that the law is now where? ____________and __________________

This means more than just a list of rules. 

"Then he adds.."  Who adds?  
The Holy Spirit adds...

"Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more"

The Father loved us yearned for us enough to give us His only Son, then His son Jesus Christ was willing to give it all up for you and me, to sacrifice our sins, to take them, to pay the price for them, to give us salvation once and for all and then we have the Holy Spirit who is reminding us that once they have been forgiven, our sins are not remembered any more!  The Holy Spirit's role of reminding us to let it go is such a beautiful gift isn't it?

I would like for us to picture the baggage, the sin that we have been holding on to, or that we have asked Him to forgive and yet we keep thinking about. Do you know what that is for you. Is there anything?  

Now I want you to picture setting that bag, or bags at the feet of Jesus.

Look up into His kind face and thank Him for paying the price.

Now look down at His feet where you set the bag... it is gone!  

You turn and go to share with others what has been done for you and how they can have the same gift. Then just at that moment when you start to remember the baggage you left behind, the Holy Spirit is right there and he so kindly reminds you that your sin was paid for- the baggage, the sin has disappeared and remembered no more!  

You walk free of the burden you once carried.  Free to serve him!  Free to love Him!  Free to love others!  Free!