The Book of Hebrews 13:10-14 Seeking the city which is to come

Good morning. We are proceeding here with our study of Hebrews chapter 13, 10 through 14, as Brad read for us here. Let's start off by just looking at Hebrews 13, 10. This rather might be a little surprising. We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. Oh, did you know we had an altar? I mean, you may have heard of an altar call. But usually when they do an altar call, there's no altar to go to.

So this is very interesting. One insight, I think, just to kind of the general picture, these Hebrew Christians, from any evidence we have, were Hebrew Christians who lived outside of Israel. The indications are that they lived elsewhere. Some have speculated perhaps Rome. I think the evidence converges on Ephesus as a likely place for the Hebrew Christians.

But nonetheless, the pagans of the first century would look at the lives of Christians and see no visible temple, sacrifices, or altars. So guess what the pagans concluded about the Christians? They must be atheists. Isn't that interesting? Because you guys don't have any temple, you guys have no sacrifices, of course you must be atheists. You don't believe in any God at all. I don't see anything that tells me that you believe in any God. well then the jews except for during the earlier years which we have recorded in the book of acts the jews by this time i didn't see the jewish christians using the temple in jerusalem either so guess what the jews concluded they didn't see any visible religion either so both the pagans and the jews looked at the christians and say I don't see any visible evidence that you have any religion. And therefore, you must be irreligious or atheist or something. Both the pagans and the Jews concluded this by looking at the Christians. It was baffling. It was puzzling to them.

But what Hebrews 13.10 tells us is we have, and by implication from the rest of the verse, a right to an altar. In the New Testament letters, we have is often used, not always, as a statement of our spiritual possession. One example of that is Ephesians 1, 7.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace which he lavished on us. We have. So things that are our possessions based on our position are frequently stated as we have. Here we have a right to an altar, okay? Implied by the rest of the verse here. So we have spiritual possessions based on our spiritual position. Got that? Spiritual possessions based on our spiritual position. So we not only have a position in Christ, but we have possessions in Christ.

And this is one of those statements. This is the case here. We who are believers in Christ have an altar, and explicitly a right to an altar. We have access. Not that we have to ask the Lord for it, or we might get access, but we have an altar. And it's a spiritual altar. And that's something I think to point out that's amazing for us as Christians.

I'm seated now with Christ in a place I've never been physically. I've never seen it with my eyes. I'm seated with Christ and I have never been there. I have the blessed hope that the Lord will come for me and for us someday to take us to a place that I've never been. I've never seen it with my eyes.

And that's an amazing thing. This here is a further revelation of that kind of thing. We have a spiritual right and access that the world around us can't even begin to comprehend. They look at this church building and they say, OK, well, that's a church. No, it's the building. But as great as it is to have this building, I'm thankful for it. It's a very convenient and good place for us to meet.

My hope isn't here. My hope is in a place I've never been. A place I've never seen. We who are believers in Christ have an altar. Have you ever seen it? Have you ever been there? No. This word for altar, by the way, I need to point out, is a word that means both the physical altar and the sacrifice on it. So it's not just, here's an altar sitting there, empty. This is a word that means both the altar and the sacrifice on it.

So this is key. This is very important insight. As opposed to those who have no right to the altar, we do have a right to the altar. We have a right to that altar. Now, and that altar that we have a right to is Christ. who is High Priest of the Order of Melchizedek, as we've seen in Hebrews before, and he's the Lamb of God, and he's the altar. He's the sacrifice and the altar.

Got that? Ooh, did you know that? Yeah, this is cool. And so here is an amazing revelation. And by the way, we're going to see before we're done with this chapter, We also have sacrifices in the church. Huh? Yeah, I mean it. We'll see that. With the sacrificial system under the law of Moses, only those of the tribe of Levi could serve as priests and have a right to the altar in Jerusalem. That's it. We who believe all have priestly access. The Bible tells us. You're a priest if you're a believer here today. Okay? We have priestly access to Christ, the High Priest, and the Sacrifice, and the Altar. Okay? Wow! Okay? We who believe all have priestly access to Christ, the High Priest, the Sacrifice, and the Altar.

We don't have to ask for it. We have it. But those who serve the tabernacle, and by the way, that place has been gone for about 19 centuries, plus some more. Those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat of the altar from which we eat, because the qualification comes only by faith in Christ. That's how you get the right. You don't have to ask for it. If you believed, you got it. It's there.

Because the qualification comes by faith in Christ alone. Nothing else qualifies you. It is not by tribal ethnicity and not by law keeping. You can't get there from here. You gotta go somewhere else and that's accessed only by faith. Only by faith. Those who are qualified, the priests, under the law of Moses, and the principle of law, and let me define the word principle. Principle is either a fundamental truth, or the way things work, or both. So this is the way things work under law, are absolutely excluded from the rights we have under the principle of grace. You can't go and mix law and grace and expect to get anywhere.

Those who have qualification or had qualification under the law of Moses cannot get to here they have no right to this altar never did we have a right to every believer here today has a right to this altar with the sacrifice on it that these ethnically qualified Jews never had Never have. Under the principle of grace, they have no right. None. Not even a little bit. Not some. But what's amazing, what's amazing, after looking at this, is there are some Christians who want to mix. A little bit of law, a little bit of grace. Right? Kind of mix and match. A little bit of law, a little bit of grace. Guess what? That disqualifies you from everything.

Now, let's talk about eating the sacrifices. This is the way it was done under the Old Testament. This is Leviticus 7, 15 through 17. Now, it's for the flesh of the sacrifice of his thanksgiving peace offerings. It shall be eaten on the day of his offering. He shall not leave any of it over until morning. This is an eat-em-up big barbecue. Right? Eat-em-up big barbecue, because you're going to eat everything. You can't leave it till morning. If you're going to start, You've got to eat it all.

But now the next part, verse 16. But if the sacrifice of his offering is a votive or a free will offering. Now let's talk about votive. It has nothing to do with voting. It has to do with vows. Fulfillment of vows. So a vow fulfillment or a free will, that is, I'm not giving this because I'm required, I'm just going to offer the sacrifice voluntarily.

It shall be eaten on the day that he offers the sacrifice, and on the next day what is left may be eaten, but what is left over of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day shall be burned with fire. You can have the first day, you can have the second day, the third day it's gone.

It's toast. It's a crispy critter. So those are the rules, in other words, Under the Law of Moses, the priests, fully qualified, could eat these sacrifices in this particular manner, under this set of rules. They could eat that. But guess what? They are not qualified for the sacrifice on the altar for which each one of us who believes here today is qualified. They're not. We are.

So here's Hebrews 13 11 for the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp Now we had we had a camping retreat here at Holly Hills a couple months back, you know That's not quite like this. Okay, this isn't camping but only sort of what the high priest would do on the Day of Atonement is is they would take the blood out of a bull and a goat and they would offer that blood inside the holy place and the holy of holies or the most holy place. The high priest would go in and he alone would go in there. However, the day of atonement spelled out in Leviticus 16, 27 and 28 Reads like this, But the bull of the sin offering and the goat of the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place, shall be taken outside the camp, and they shall burn their hides, their flesh, and their refuse in the fire.

Now I happen to have not done these offerings, but I happen to have slaughtered various cows and bulls and things like that. That is a lot of meat to get burned up. So this was not some little campfire. This was a bonfire. And I'm sure it wasn't the high priest who did it. They put somebody else to the task, right?

To burn the whole thing into ashes. You're talking packing a lot of wood. then the one who burns them shall wash his clothes, and he's going to have ashes all over the place, and bathe his body with water, then afterward he shall come into the camp. Now why all the washing of clothes and bathing of the body? Physically, this guy is going to be covered with a bunch of ashes and maybe some blood and things like that, but also spiritually, because this is a sin offering, the sins of the people have been placed on this animal, a bull or a goat.

Because it's a sin offering, and you've got to take it outside the camp. Outside the camp was a bad place. That's where you stone people, and that's where you burn sin offerings. That's what you do outside the camp. And you do some other things we won't talk about outside the camp.

Leviticus 421 and 630 that we mentioned Specifically says you're not going to eat like the other offerings that you could eat not this one You're not going to eat it. Why it's the sin offering. It's got sin on it Okay It's dirty It's bad You take it out to the place where you You know, do your bathroom business and you take it out to the place where, you know, you stone people. It's not a good place.

Now, one of the things that's interesting is we've seen through the book of Hebrews, and it shows up in this passage, Tabernacle and camp point to the Israelites in the wilderness and not the city of Jerusalem in New Testament times. It was the camp of the Israelites. You see it here with the tabernacle, which is a sacred tent. Essentially a movable temple, right? A sacred tent. And you see around it the Israelites encamped.

So outside the camp means not just that you go outside that tabernacle fence, but you get completely away from all the tents. And outside the camp was the place where bad things could happen. including stoning people, or burning of sin offerings. This is a blow-up of what that might have looked like, so you get the idea. So taking it outside the camp means you're going to take it a long way away, because you've got a bunch of tents around there.

The author of Hebrews tends to minimize mention of the temple in Jerusalem. Very interesting. He keeps referring to this tabernacle as sacred tent, which hadn't been around for centuries. The word tabernacle comes up nine times, but the word temple does not occur once in the book of Hebrews. He doesn't mention it.

The word camp, when applied to the Israelites in the wilderness, is equivalent to outside the gates in Jerusalem's walls. So if the Jews were going to stone someone, they had to go outside the camp, right? Which meant outside the gates, which is where Stephen in the book of Acts was stoned. If they're going to burn the sin offering, they got to go outside the gates, right? outside the gates. So that was considered outside the camp.

Now the Day of Atonement happens just once a year. This year for the Jews will be October 3rd at sundown to October 4th at sundown. The Day of Atonement, also known as Yom Kippur, they take the blood of the sin offering and offer that inside The holy place and the holy of holies are the most holy place. The high priest would do that.

The rest of the animal, all the rest of it, you drain the blood out, done an offering with it, now the rest of the animal had to be taken outside the camp and burned entirely. This isn't talking about just cooking up some hamburger. You've got to make ashes. of hundreds of pounds of meat and hide and everything else. Gotta turn it to dust. Burn it a lot. The priests were not to eat of the sin offering. As you saw, the others they could eat. Not this one. Why? It's the sin offering. That's why.

The sin offering had their sins on it. The Jews would put their hands on that offering before the high priest would kill it and take the blood into the temple. And then they'd take the rest of the animal, take it outside the camp, and burn it to dust.

Let's look at Hebrews 13.12.

Therefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside the gate. All of the temple sacrifices were intended to point to Christ. Christ offering himself as a priest who offered the sacrifices was also himself the sacrifice.

So he's acting as the priest. He offered himself as the sacrifice, taking our sins upon himself. And like an altar, he is also the place of offering. He's the high priest. He's the sacrifice. He is the place of offering as well. And that's the word for altar that's used in verse 10. It means not just the physical altar, but the sacrifice and the altar together. Location where the sin offering was taken outside the camp and with the temple outside the gate is also comparable to where Christ died.

Here you have a drawing. This is one by Leon Rittmeyer, who I would say is probably the foremost authority on the area around the Temple Mount. He, by the way, is a Bible believer. He has made this drawing showing the back side of the temple. And let me point some things out.

So here's the back side of the temple. The offering would take place on the front side. Here is the Fortress Antonia. where Jesus was beaten and then here is the likely place of Golgotha the reason it would be a mountain they have a different idea of mountains than we do here in Colorado the reason would be a mountain is because that part of the quarry where they got the rock that part of the quarry was of low quality and therefore you couldn't cut good solid stones and so they left a rise and that was a good place to then dig holes to put the crosses in. So this appears to be the place where Jesus was crucified and right nearby would be a newly hewn tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.

As you see, it was outside the gate. It wasn't in the city at that time. It was outside the gate, outside the camp. So Jesus was crucified there, outside the gate, outside the camp, nearby, but definitely outside the walls of Jerusalem. And it says there, he sanctifies with his own blood. The high priest would offer the blood of the sin offering in the holy place, in that holy of holies, or the most holy place, it's also called. Jesus, our high priest, however, offered up his own blood on the cross, did so outside the gate, in a place of reproach. It was a reproachful place outside the gate, because that's where you stone people, and apparently that's where you crucify people too. Christ, the righteous and holy one, and our sin offering, Suffered for our sins in an unholy place and in in an unholy way He did that to sanctify us that is to set us apart for a holy purpose That's what sanctify means to set us apart for a holy purpose a Key point and and one that's frankly been a misunderstood point for centuries among many Christians is Christ definitely suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify us, and He meant to do so. He meant to do so. Suffered here is in the active voice. He didn't suffer as a victim. He didn't go to the cross saying, no, no, you're making a terrible mistake! He did so deliberately. It was intentional and on purpose.

Centuries of error in Christian history, impacting even up to this last century, has come from Christians not understanding that Christ gave himself deliberately. Many Christians over the centuries have actually pointed at the Jews as being the Christ killers. That is a serious mistake. gave himself.

Here it says in Galatians 2.20, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.

Ephesians 5.2, Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us.

Ephesians 5.25, Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her. You get the impression that he loved and he gave, don't you? He loved and He gave.

We could add to that God's intent, John 3.16, for God so loved the world that He gave. Same words, same message. He loved and He gave, He loved and He gave, He loved and He gave, and He loved and He gave.

And added to that, Hebrews 12.2, Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured. And by the way, that word endured is also active voice. He deliberately loved and gave and endured the cross. Active voice. He was not a victim. It does not talk about these things in the passive voice. He deliberately gave himself for you and for me. It's as if he goes to the cross and says, let's do this.

Let's do this. put him in guys let's do this because he loved us and he gave himself deliberately intentionally and on purpose for you and for me Hebrews 13.13 so let us go out to him outside the camp bearing his reproach let's go to that place where they crucify people let's go to that place where they stone people Let's go to that place where they burn the sin offerings. Let's go to that place, if it looks bad to people, if it's a place of disgusting things, then that's fine. Let's go to Him there.

You may recall these Jewish Christians were being tempted to go back to the Jewish sacrificial system as it was being carried out in the temple in Jerusalem. The whole book of Hebrews is addressing, among other issues, that one temptation that these Hebrew Christians were tempted to go to. So the author of Hebrews is telling his believers they will not find any answers in the temple of Jerusalem.

That's not going to fix anything. I imagine some of them were thinking, you know, if I just go along with the sacrificial system, these other Jews won't bother me so much. I'll just go along with the sacrificial system and these other Jews will leave me alone, will quit persecuting me. He's saying, nope. You go ahead and go with Christ outside the camp. You're not going to find any answers in that sacrificial system.

And if it means that people don't like what you represent, so be it. So be it. So stay with Christ, the message is, where He is, even if that looks bad to other people. One of the things we're finding in our culture is claiming faith in Christ is looking pretty bad to other people. Increasingly, other people are seeing faith in Christ as that's kind of a bad thing. You must be an idiot, or a fool, or something worse. Claiming to have faith in Christ is increasingly a socially, and maybe other ways, risky thing to do.

Have you noticed that? As we point out, those who are even aggressively skeptical, however, exercise a great deal of faith. We put it this way before. We've said before that the skeptics believe in multiple miracles without a God and without any evidence. But Christians are being pictured as having faith disconnected from logic and evidence. That's increasingly the way Christianity is being represented. You must be an absolute idiot. Have you been duped? That's the message that comes across. Now, the skeptics, however, are not alone in thinking that this looks bad.

Walking away from the Jewish system of sacrifices and temple rituals really means walking away from any principle of law whatsoever. Why? Because, repeatedly, the Law of Moses says all the laws and all the statutes. If someone says, you know, I'm just going to follow the Ten Commandments, guess what? They have decided that they're going to completely disobey 603 other laws. That's the decision that they've made. I'm going to follow just these ten, but I'm going to break all 603 other laws. That's what following the Ten Commandments means. I'll follow ten, but not the other 603.

There are a great many of those in Christendom who will say that to live under pure and total grace is scandalous and spiritually dangerous and foolish. So for you to walk with Christ entirely under grace, even if that's exactly what the Bible says, is outside the gate for some. You're in a disgusting place if you completely walk under Christ's grace. You're outside the camp. You're out there where they stone people, and where you burn the sin offerings, and where people do other bathroom kind of things.

Hebrews 13.14 says this, For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come. You see, nothing here will last. I'm very glad we can meet here. I'm very glad that we have homes we can go to and we can get back and forth with cars and things like that. But nothing here will last.

This world has in fact been around for a long time. Of course, there's debates about how long, but a long time compared to our own lifetime, certainly. The early Jericho, long before the time of Joshua, is thought by some to be among the oldest cities on the planet, underneath this mound that you see there.

This is Old Testament Jericho. The great pyramids of Egypt were there before Abraham was born. Some have mistakenly said, oh, the Jews helped build that. No. Abraham, who was a proto-Jew, saw these. And they were fairly young at that time, 4,000 years ago. But they were there already before Abraham came. He most certainly saw them.

His descendants did not help build them. The Bible, however, says that nothing here is going to last. One day it is all going to come apart. It's all going to come apart. We don't, as Hebrews 13, 14 says, we don't have a lasting city or a lasting anything. Not here. Not on this planet. Second Peter, summarizes this concept very well in 3, 10 through 13.

But the day of the Lord, and by the way, the day of the Lord is a term for everything from the start of the tribulation period to the end of this present heavens and earth. So that's 1,007 years. That's the day of the Lord. So if you see that term, the day of the Lord, or even as we'll see here, the day of God, it's starting at the tribulation period, which could start today, Starting from the tribulation period to the end of this present heavens and earth. So a seven year tribulation, add to that a thousand years of the Lord's reign upon the earth, and that's 1,007 years. The day of the Lord will come like a thief, that is, you won't expect it, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat and the earth and its works will be burned up, the pyramids included. Big giant mountains, gone. Oceans covering two-thirds of the earth, gone. The tallest skyscrapers, gone. Everything, gone.

The earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, equivalent to the day of the Lord, Because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning and the elements will melt with intense heat Verse 13 key verse, but according to his promise we're looking for what are we looking for? This tells us we are looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells Are we looking for this earth to be the place where everything comes together and lasts and? No New heavens, new earth, that's what we're looking for.

That's what we are to be looking for, not to fix this place up. You ever get people get really anxious about political and military situations? Has ISIS gotten you really concerned and anxious? It's all going to go away, and ISIS will be wiped out one way or another. We're looking for new heavens and new earth. That's when it's all going to be fixed, and not before then, in which righteousness dwells. And righteousness isn't just passing through. It dwells there. So the end of this present heavens and earth is coming as soon as 1,007 years from now.

A new Jerusalem will come down to the earth. The twelve tribes of Israel are at the twelve gates of the new Jerusalem. Here is the gate of Judah in the new Jerusalem, as is described in chapter 21 and chapter 22 of Revelation. The new Jerusalem, heaven come down to earth, we the body of Christ are the bride of Christ and will forever be with the Lord.

That's what's coming. And you can see there the pearls, three on each side, representing the tribe. And looking inside at John's description, there is a river of God with the tree of life. That shows up again. The tree of life. And some of the translations have for the health or healing of the nations, and I think it's better translated, health of the nations.

And that's the Gentiles. That's not us. The church and Israel and the Gentiles are identified as separate peoples on into the new heavens and new earth. Only those who are saved by faith will be there. That includes you and me. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for what you've revealed here in this passage in Hebrews. And you've revealed what we're to be looking for.

And the answers aren't here. Not going to happen here. We will continue to have things happen on this earth that have people wringing their hands and pacing the floor and very concerned. But there will never be an answer from human beings for all the things that go on here. And this earth is not intended to last. We just thank you for the comfort that we have and that we have, even now, access to that altar, which is Jesus Christ himself. We thank you for that awesome privilege, a right, in fact, that we have. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.