DRAWING NEAR IN CONFIDENCE
HEBREWS
4:14-16; MARK 15:37-38
Lesson Prepared by: krisha of Solomon Wisdom FB page
Explanations Taken: https://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/tearing-of-the-temple-
Scheduled Teacher: Bro. Moises Ramos
JUNE 24, 2017
MEMORY VERSE
Hebrews 4:16 (KJV)
Let us
therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and
find grace to help in time of need.
BACKGROUND (OPTIONAL):
Taken from: https://www.godisagift.com/home/2016/5/17/the-meaning-of-the-rent-veil
To help us understand the
power of what God did, let us take a little walk through the Jewish Temple of
Jesus’s day. The first king Herod, Herod the Great, claimed to be king of the
Jews. He knew the Jewish people judged their kings by their king’s relationship
with the Temple.(1) This idea went back to the days of David and Solomon, when
David planned the original Temple and Solomon built it. Hezekiah and Josiah,
who were considered good kings, cleansed the Temple from pagan influences.
Zerubbabel rebuilt it after the Babylonians destroyed it. Later, Judas
Maccabaeus cleansed it again at the Maccabean revolt. Today’s Jews still
commemorate Judas Maccabaeus’s great victory and all the miracles that
accompanied it at the celebration known as Hanukkah.
Wanting to win the people’s hearts, King Herod decided to build the grandest
temple of them all. Ever since the Babylonians destroyed the Temple in 587 bc,
the Jewish house of God had not regained the glory of Solomon’s Temple. Herod
took all the measurements of the original and doubled them, thinking the people
would surely respond to a temple twice as glorious as Solomon’s.
And indeed it was. Solomon’s Temple took seven years to complete; Herod’s took
eighty-two.(2) In fact, the Herod who started it was not the Herod who finished
it. Agrippa II, Herod the Great’s great-grandson, was king when the Jews
completed God’s House.
We have some pretty big
church buildings in the modern era, yet none of them compare to Herod’s Temple.
The Temple complex, with its adjoining structures, was so big that it took up
as much as 20 percent of Jerusalem.(3) Its floors were marble, and its walls
were white limestone, which gave its buildings a glowing appearance. Many of
its interior walls were covered in solid gold, its tapestries rivaled any in
the world, and its gates were so huge it took twenty or thirty men to open and
close them. It was said in that day that a person had never truly seen a
beautiful building unless he had seen Herod’s Temple.
In some of our large churches today, we might have fifty or more ministers
serving a congregation, but thousands of priests and Levites
served the Temple in Jerusalem. The daily operations of the Jewish House of God
were a sight to behold, and the great feasts there were even more of a
spectacle when thousands of worshippers flocked to Jerusalem to participate.
Without a doubt, the Temple in Jerusalem was the center of Jewish religious
life.
Despite its beauty and grand presentations, Herod’s Temple said something about
the people’s relationship with God and with each other. If we had to pick one
word to describe the Temple’s message about the nature of relationships before
Christ, a good choice would be “separation.” There was separation between God
and humanity, between man and man, and even between woman and man.
The Temple had three major courts or divisions.(4) The outermost area was
called the Court of the Gentiles and was a space reserved primarily for
tourists and Gentiles who came to honor Israel’s God. People came from all over
the world to see Herod’s glorious Temple, and as long as they were respectful,
the Jews allowed them to behold the majesty of God’s most holy building.
Foreigners could also purchase various animals for the priests to offer as a
sacrifice, though they had to use the Temple’s own holy currency. And that
required the assistance of money changers, who were notorious for giving very
unfair exchange rates. It was because of these money changers that Jesus said
the Temple had become a “den of thieves.”(5)
At
the entrance to the second court, a large sign spelled out an ominous warning
in bright red letters. Not too long ago, archeologists discovered fragments of
the original engraving. It said:
No foreigner is to enter within the forecourt and the balustrade
around the sanctuary. Whoever is caught will have himself to blame for his
subsequent death.(6)
Those who were not descendants of Abraham, who were uncircumcised, who were
unclean, or who did not keep Torah could not enter the second court. It was
more holy than the first court, and a worshipper had to follow suit to cross
the divide. But Gentiles were not the only ones barred from this second area.
The lame, the blind, lepers, and notorious sinners such at the tax collectors
could not enter either.
In other words, if a person’s linage was not right or if what a person did was
not right, he or she could not worship with the righteous. And if someone
unclean or unholy did manage to enter the forbidden area, it could cost him his
life. The Romans did not allow the Jews to carry out capital punishment except
in instances of this one offence.
The second court, or center court, was divided into three sub-courts. The Court
of the Women was first, and as the name implies, Jewish women could worship
here (as could Jewish men and children). Beyond that was the Court of Israel,
and only Jewish laymen could enter here. Finally, there was the Court of the
Priesthood. This area was the closest to the Holiest of Holies, and a person
had to have the high calling of a priest to enter a place so near to God.
Beyond the second court was the Holiest of Holies, or God’s court. While the
Temple provided the Gentiles with their own court and the Jews with another,
the third court was God’s dwelling alone. A thick veil surrounded this most
holy place, and beyond the veil was the Shekinah—the outshining of
the glory of God Himself. The Jews considered the Holiest of Holies to be the
place where heaven touched and became one with the Earth. No one except the
High Priest could enter the Holiest of Holies, and he only did so once a year,
at the Feast of Atonement. If a Gentile went into the Court of the Jews, man
would kill him. However, if a person went into the Holiest of Holies
unlawfully, the Old Testament tells us God would kill him.
It is interesting that the Torah had no command to stone Gentiles who came too
near to the Holiest of Holies, nor did it contain many of the other
distinctions instituted by the religious authorities in Herod’s Temple. But one
has only to look at the Holiest of Holies to see why the Jews added them. If we
tend to act like our concept of God, and if the Lord excludes those who are
less holy than Himself, we will naturally exclude those whom we consider less
holy than us.
Before Christ came, the Temple was a picture of God’s relationship with
humanity and of humanity’s relationships among its members. There was
separation between God and humanity, Jew and Gentile, and even man and woman.
Self-righteousness leaves us looking down on our neighbor and up to an
unreachable God, and such was the case in the culture that built Herod’s
Temple. By dying and rising from the grave, Jesus tore down these walls of
separation—tore right through the veil of Shekinah—to flood the
Earth with heaven and bring back those “who once were far off.”
INTRODUCTION:
Before, Israelites
worshipped God with their sacrifices through priest. They can’t worshipped and
talked to Him directly but now we can go to God in prayer every time we
want. In time of need we can talk to Him
in prayer. Our memory verse says,
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we
may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
Have you seen the
importance of directly praying to God? If we want to worship Him through our
offerings, we don’t need a priest to intercede s between us and God the Father.
This privilege is because Jesus gave himself as a sacrifice
When Jesus died on the
cross, the temple curtain (also known as the temple veil) was torn. The veil
was torn from top to bottom. This happened for a purpose and this will be
explained in our lesson for today which titled, “DRAWING NEAR IN CONFIDENCE.”
LESSON OUTLINE:
We
can draw near in confidence because…
1.
OUR PRIEST IS JESUS CHRIST (HEBREWS 4:14; HEBREWS 7:20-28)
Once a
year, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest alone would go into the Holy of
Holies to make atonement for all the sins of the nation. If he entered there
improperly or at any other time, he would die (Leviticus 16).
He would sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat in the very presence of God. When
he came out alive, the people heaved a sigh of relief, because it meant that
God had accepted the sacrifice for their sins for another year.
Jesus
is not just another high priest in the line of Aaron. Rather, He is our great
high priest according to the order of Melchizedek (5:6). Rather than entering
the Holy of Holies in the temple, He has passed through the heavens (in His
ascension) into the very presence of God. The presence of God is the third
heaven (2 Cor. 12:2).
But his
point is that Jesus, our great high priest, is unlike any merely human high
priest. He has entered the very presence of God. The Father has said to Him,
“Sit thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool” (Ps. 110:1). No earthly priest would
dare to sit in the Holy of Holies! They always stood. But
Jesus sits at the right hand of God’s throne because
once for all He made atonement for our sins (Heb. 10:12).
So Jesus is a great high priest, in a class by Himself, because of His office
as a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
2.
WE NOW HAVE ACCESS TO THE THRONE OF GOD (EPHESIANS 2:18; HEBREWS
4:16)
-
Jesus died at the
exact moment that the sacrifice for Passover was held. At that same time that Jesus
breathed His last breath, the temple veil was rent. The veil’s being
torn, by God Himself, symbolized the fact that mankind’s separation from God
had been removed by Jesus’ supreme sacrifice at Calvary. Since Jesus was
without blemish, without sin, and kept the Law perfectly for us, His death was
the propitiation or satisfaction of the wrath of God against humanities
sins. Isaiah 59:2 declares that “But your iniquities [or sins]
have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he
will not hear.” Now that Jesus’ once and for all sacrifice was given,
we now have access to the very throne of God. Before, He would not even
hear us, not to mention allow us to
approach Him.
3.
THE SEPARATION BETWEEN GOD AND MAN WAS ABLE TO REMOVED (ISAIAH
59:2; 1 JOHN 2:2)
- The veil was a symbol of the separation of God from sinful
mankind. It marked the boundary between God’s pure holiness and
the wickedness of mankind. It was not possible to go beyond the veil
because our sins have separated us from a Holy God. The profane and the Holy cannot
be joined together.
- The veil was not a small curtain like you see in
some movies. The veil was 60 feet long, 30 feet wide, and was
four inches thick. The veil was so massive and heavy that it took
300 priests to manipulate it. An important point here is that no one
could simply tear the veil themselves. It would take more than human
strength to tear it. The analogy is that it took the mighty hand of God
Himself to tear it supernaturally and this tearing, which represents the
removal of the separation of God and man, could not be done by humans. It
had to be done by God alone and that’s the point. No one can remove our
separation from God but God Himself (Isaiah 59:2). First John 2:2 says
that “He [Jesus] is the atoning sacrifice for our
sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” Since
Jesus’ death atoned for our sins, Jesus’ sacrifice allowed for the veil to be
torn and thus, the separation between God and man was able to be removed.
The
fact that the veil was torn from the top down, some 60 feet from the floor
(where humans could not reach it), shows that God was the One that caused the
veil to be torn. He is the initiator of the veil being rent. He is
the cause of the tearing. He, in Jesus Christ, is the reason it was torn.
It
is no coincidence that the temple sacrifices by Jewish Christians ceased that
year and for the years to follow. Why? The sacrifices were stopped
because of Jesus’ offering of Himself. The temple priests did not accept
Jesus’ sacrifice in place of the animal sacrifices but believers in Him
did. The Book of Hebrews was written specifically to Jewish Christians but
the applications for us are the same. Hebrews chapter 10 reveals that no
other sacrifices where given, at least by the Jewish Christians. Luke’s
account of the birth and early history of the church in the Book of Acts never
mentions any of the Christians continuing to sacrifice. They understood
that the veil had been removed by Jesus’ offering on the cross and therefore,
there was no further need to provide sacrifices, even at Passover or on the Day
of Atonement.
CONCLUSION:
- The significance of the veil being torn from the top down, and the
fact that was torn, is that Jesus’ sacrifice makes it possible for us to come
to God the Father. Our sins no longer separate us from Him. Today,
for those who put their trust in Jesus, we have access to God. Second
Corinthians 5:21 explains that, “For he
hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him.” The
fact is that Jesus Himself was torn for our sakes (Isaiah 53).
Our High Priest today is Jesus Christ Who continues to intercede
for the saints. We can now come boldly unto the throne of grace The Bible
says,
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may
obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16 (KJV)
- We can now draw near to God and worship Him; that’s the great
blessing we have because of our Saviour Jesus Christ. That’s why we need to
give importance the day of our worship. The preparations are needed: our time,
offerings, and especially our hearts. Prepare ourselves in order for God to
accept our worship.
