Sermon Text: Hebrews 9:1–14
Preacher: Pastor Brian Sauvé
A Sermon on Furniture
As we have been out of the book of Hebrews for the last two Sundays, I believe it will be helpful to take a moment and set our section today—Hebrews 9:1–14—in its broader context on three levels:
First, there is the broadest context without leaving the book itself, and that is what the author of Hebrews aims to do with this whole letter, right? What is Hebrews fundamentally about? You already know the answer: Jesus is better than all of his forerunners and rivals. His conquest is global and universal in scope. And in light of this, never go back to the shadows that he cast in the Old Testament, but cling in faith to Christ, the Cornerstone.
Second, zooming in one more click, our text today is in a section that really began in chapter 2, and which will run through chapter 10, the heart of the letter, which aims to unfold the great High Priesthood of Jesus—that he is our great, permanent all-sufficient High Priestly Advocate in the heavenly places by faith.
Finally and thirdly, zooming in again, we could say that our text is a part of a sub-argument that the author of Hebrews began to make in chapter 8, which is an argument about the supremacy of the covenant that Jesus mediates as this better High Priest—the New Covenant.
He wrote in Hebrews 8:6, that “...Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.” What does that mean? How is he the mediator of a better covenant, built on better promises?
The first part of his answer to those questions, in the rest of Hebrews 8, was to quote from the Old Covenant’s promises of the New Covenant and what it would be like from Jeremiah 31. We saw that the Old Covenant obviously wasn’t enough, couldn’t save anyone, but that it promised that which could and would save all of God’s people, the New Covenant.
We saw that the New Covenant which Jesus mediates and upholds is better, because it overcomes the core problem of the Old Covenant, namely, that it could describe righteousness before the Law, but not overcome human sinfulness that ensured nobody would actually keep the Law.
And so in Hebrews 8, we saw that the covenant Jesus mediates is better because it overcomes our sinfulness. It forgives us, washes us, and then gives us hearts with the holy Law of God written on them. The Law—rather than killing—now lives in resurrected saints under the New Covenant of Christ.
Now, in chapter 9, the author will show us another facet of the New Covenant’s supremacy, comparing the forms of worship under both covenants and showing us why the old pointed towards the new. Look with me, if you would, at Hebrews 9:1. This is the Word of the Living God:
“Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron's staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.
These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”
-Hebrews 9:1–14
There are essentially three parts to our text:
First, in verses 1–5, the author looks back over his shoulder at the Old Covenant Tabernacle, the setting of the priestly ministry in that system. And what we’ll find is that the Tabernacle, down to its furnishings, was preaching something.
Believe it or not, we will spend most of our time this morning looking at this part, since it is the part we are likely to understand the least, given our inexperience in the Old Testament in comparison to the Hebrew Christians who initially received this letter—and understanding it is key to understanding the point the author is making.Then, in verses 6–10, he tells us mores bout the priestly ministry in the Tabernacle, and what the Holy Spirit was aiming to tell us through this shadow-worship and shadow-priesthood—remember, all of it is about Jesus; God is the supreme Author behind all human authors of the Bible.
Finally, in verses 11–14, we see the application of these things, which is to say, why Jesus’ priestly worship is better than the old priestly worship.
So we could say that verses 1–5 tell us about the Shadow-Tent, then 6–10 of the Shadow-Priesthood, and then finally 11–14 of the true tent and true priesthood of Christ. Let’s take up each of these three sections in turn, starting with the Shadow-Tent, the author’s dive into the architecture and furnishing of the Old Testament Tabernacle in the first five verses.
The Shadow-Tent (1–5)
To do that, we’re called back to the story of Exodus, because that’s where the Tabernacle and its furnishings come from.
Exodus is one of the most gripping and central stories in the Bible; you actually can’t understand the Bible without it. It begins with tragedy, the enslaving of the Hebrews as the Egyptian leaders forget Joseph and how he had saved the nation. Even as God blesses the Israelites, greatly multiplying them in their slavery, more drama is introduced as the wicked Egyptian kingdom feels threatened by their fruitfulness and commands the slaughter of their baby boys. Moses is drawn from the Nile, ascends to princedom, goes to his exile, speaks to the I AM in the burning bush.
Plagues are sent from God to defy the false gods of Egypt. Water turns to blood and blood is shed—the firstborn of Egypt slaughtered by God’s angel of death. But when death passes over the Israelite households, it looks on the blood of the Passover lamb, smeared over the doorways, and passes over.
God’s people are freed, pass through the parted waters of judgment. They journey through the desert, feasting on bread from heaven and water from the rock. God comes down and Moses goes up to receive the Law on Sinai.
I mean, you already know it: This story is like the Grand Central Station of biblical theology. The whole of the Old Testament is fundamentally about God’s unfolding plan to save his people and bring about his eternal Kingdom, his New Heavens and Earth, and this is one of those places where that story is acted out in glorious prefiguring.
And yet, in all of this drama and sweeping gospel imagery, the author of Hebrews wants us to focus, not on the part of Exodus that gets turned into blockbuster movies, the first part of the story, but the part at the end of book that tests many Christians Bible-in-a-year resolve—the part about a tent and its furniture. Look back at verse 1 again:
“Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron's staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.”
-Hebrews 9:1–5
Furniture and architecture of a tent, that’s what he points to as his object lesson in the supremacy of the New Covenant. Why?Because the Old Testament isn’t just preaching the glories of the coming Savior King in the big picture stories we remember, but also in the smallest details—down to the furniture.
See, each and every one of the Old Covenant regulations for worship and instruments of worship preach essentially two things at the same time: The inadequacy of the Old Covenant as an end in itself, and the work that the better Priest and better Covenant to come would do.
Regulations for Worship
So what we’re going to do is take just a small, quick glance at each of the items he list and what they are saying. But before we do that, I’d like to point out something in the first verse that is really important for us to see, but easy to miss.
The author tells us that first covenant, the Old Covenant, had regulations for worship. He says it in a way that makes it plain that the New Covenant also has these kinds of regulations, because he says, “…even the first covenant had regulations for worship.”
See, something you notice as you read the Bible is that God doesn’t only instruct his people to worship him, but also how to worship him—that’s what these regulations are. This is one of the reasons that at Refuge, we hold to what is called the Regulative Principle for Worship, meaning that the elements of our worship are regulated by the Scriptures.
We don’t invent the forms of worship. God says sing in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, so that’s what we do. He says to preach the Word, in season and out. So we do. He says to publicly read the Scriptures, so we do.
When you dismiss God’s regulations and instructions for his worship, you are in dangerous territory. God swallowed up Nadab and Abihu, two sons of Aaron the priest, for offering strange fire at the altar, for innovating in worship.
So regulations are good things, not unhelpful restrictions. They are God telling us how to worship. We ought to follow them.
As we go through these various instruments and rituals of the Old Covenant worship paradigm, I want you to think: What would have happened to the sermon God aimed to preach through this Old Covenant priestly worship if the priests had decided to get creative? To maybe do some skits in front of the Tabernacle to attract the Babylonian seekers.
Now let’s talk through the furniture, and we’ll find out why it is a massive grace that the priests didn’t innovate in putting the Tabernacle together. First, let’s talk about the two-part tent, the Tabernacle:
The Two Part Tabernacle: Holy & Most Holy Place
The Tabernacle preaches one of the most glorious truths about the God we worship—that he made us to dwell with us.
The Tabernacle was a forerunner of the Temple. It was a mobile tent that the people of Israel carried with them in the wilderness and put up wherever they would make camp. The tribes would encamp around it like spokes, with the tent in the center.
The Tabernacle preaches, then: “I would dwell with you. You are a holy people because the Most Holy dwells in your camp. Even as you wander in the wilderness, I will not stay afar off in luxury; I will camp with you.”
That the Tabernacle had two parts also preached, as we’ll see especially in verses 8–9. It said, “The way into the holy of holies hasn’t yet been opened. Only one man, the High Priest, can come into my presence, not the whole camp. Something else must happen for you to come into this place.”
In the Old Covenant, God dwelt with us, but we hadn’t yet been taken up to dwell with God in the holy places. But what happened on the cross? The veil separating the holy of holies from the rest tore. And what does Paul tell us? That, Ephesians 2:6–7, he “…seated us with [Christ] in the heavenly places, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.”
The Tabernacle preaches that we were made for God, but also that it can’t bring us there. We needed another—Christ, the true Tabernacle.
The Lampstand
This is the menorah, the golden lampstand of Exodus 25:31–40. The Hebrew word means to flame. It gave light to the priests who worked in the Tabernacle. It looked like a tree, a central trunk extending into three branches and then into a total of seven flames. What does this flaming tree preach? It says, “My presence is like illumining life and light—I would take you back to the Garden dwelling place.”
The light-giving tree was evocative of Eden, and the tree of life. This is the tree that we see in Revelation 22, that yields its fruit for the healing of the nations. So from the garden river of God’s sanctuary, a better Eden, life would flow out and bring the nations to God for healing.
It also preached, of course, that a simple lump of gold, shaped like a tree, could do nothing. The flame of some burning oil did nothing. What did they need? The true light of the world, the Lord Jesus. Which is why, in Revelation 21, the people of God, represented by a great city, “…has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for th glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.”
The Table & The Bread of the Presence
This table was overlaid with pure gold, made of the same wood as the Ark of the Covenant. It was set with bread and wine, and the priests were commanded to eat and drink this bread and wine and reset it each week on the Sabbath day.
What is this preaching? It preached, first, that God was a God of feasting. He ratified his covenant in the wildness, the Mosaic Covenant, with a meal. It says, “I will provide for you. Trust me.”
But there’s more. There is a thread that runs from the Passover meal to the manna in the wilderness to the feeding of the five-thousand to the last supper to communion that we can’t follow in detail now, but which is glorious. This bread preaches to us that God delights to give us Christ as our true food. That whoever eats his flesh and drinks his blood has part in his life.
So this bread preached that and it preached the need for the true bread, which did not need weekly refreshing, the Lord Jesus himself.
The Curtain
We’ll glance at the curtain, but there is more here than we can see now. The veil separated the two sections of the Temple. None but the High Priest, and only on the yearly day of atonement, could pass this veil. It was woven with figures of angels and celestial symbols.
It preached: “After you were banished from Eden, you may not pass the angel back into my presence save through sacrifice, save through representation by a High Priest. You are sinful.”
And when Christ died, of course, what happened? It tore. What tore? A picture of the heavens, full of angels. It was a sign that the old heavens and earth had been torn down, and that Christ was making a New Heavens and New Earth.
Now we pass into the Holy of Holies, and see first…
The Golden Altar of Incense
On this altar, the incense was burned, a sweet-smelling aroma in worship of God. The smoke of the incense often represents the prayers of God’s people.
Now, this preaches something interesting, because there’s a bit of a controversy here. In Exodus 30, the altar is placed outside the Holy of holies, but here, inside. Why?
Because of this: During the normal priestly worship, the altar stood in front of the veil, and so the smoke went up and passed through the veil into the inner chamber, representing our prayers going up to God.
But in Hebrews, it is presented as inside, because the altar would go into the inner place with the High Priest on the Day of Atonement, and that is the setting we are talking about here: The High Priestly worship of Christ against the High Priestly worship of the Levites.
So what does that preach? Just as the High Priest brings our prayers to God on the Day of Atonement, so Jesus, our better High Priest, brings us to God through his atonement. Burning incense was a shadow, but the Lord Jesus actually does it.
The Golden Ark of the Covenant
The Ark of the Covenant was a box of acacia wood, overlaid in gold, topped with the Mercy Seat with glorious angelic beings. The Ark went everywhere Israel did, even into battle.
Now, the contents are important; the Ark contained three things. Inside there was a golden urn full of the manna, the bread God fed Israel with in the wilderness; the staff of Aaron that budded; and the stone tablets of the Law Moses received on Sinai.
Once those objects were put in the Ark, it was covered with what is called the Mercy Seat, which made it look like a throne or a footstool for a throne, with two angels on top. On the Day of Atonement, Leviticus 16 tells us that the High Priest would sprinkle the Mercy Seat with the blood of a bull.
What’s going on, here? Tons. Like, we could write a book on what God is preaching through all of this, sitting there in the Holy of Holies.
But for now, just try this on for size: God knew that Israel would utterly break the law written on those tablets of stone. He knew that they would reject his bread and demand other food—become spiritually starved. He knew that they were like a dead stump, a dead stick that could only bud again through miraculous grace.
And so he covered up those objects with his seat of mercy, and sprinkled it with blood. Through the blood of Christ, he is now making the entire world a footstool for his feet—meaning the Father is making the world into his Ark, into his Holy of Holies.
All of these objects are the setting of the priestly ministry. This is like the stage where the work of the Old Covenant shadow-ministry acted out its story, a story that points to Christ.
The Shadow-Priests (6–10)
Now, in verses 6–10, the author turns to that ministry, from the shadow-tabernacle to the shadow-priests that ministered there.
“These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.”
-Hebrews 9:6–10
This Tabernacle and its furnishings was a stage on which a shadow-priesthood acted out the ministry of Old Covenant worship—all of it showing us, what? As the author of Hebrews puts it, “By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing (which is symbolic for the present age).”
What did these priests preach on this stage? They preached that the way wasn’t open yet, but one who was coming who would open the way. This one would be both a better Tabernacle and a better Priest.
Tent & Minister (11–14)
Look at verse 11 with me,
“But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”
-Hebrews 9:11–14
Jesus’ priestly ministry is what all of this was about all along. Jesus is the true Tabernacle, the one who became flesh and tabernacled among us—God with us. And his high priestly ministry, unlike the high priestly ministry of the Levites, is no shadow, but substance.
The blood of bulls and goats did nothing but point. And what they pointed at was the better sacrifice, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He is your only hope to gain entry to the Holy of Holies, to the heavenly places, to God himself.
He is the only one who can sprinkle your conscience clean of all of the filth of defiling sin that weighs you down with shame. So here is the single, great, big application of this text for us this morning:
Put your trust—all of it, every particle of it, for your life and forgiveness and hope—in the Lord Jesus Christ. He died for you. He shed his own blood for you. He is not just a priest, he is the High Priest of the good things that have come.
Forsake trust in your own works. You can’t cleanse yourself. Forsake trust in any other priest or intercessor: There is only one. But he is one who is able to present you without spot or blemish or any such thing before the throne of God.