Hebrews 10:19 teaches us
that we now have confidence to enter into the presence of God by the blood of
Jesus. Folks, listen. Never underestimate the importance of the
blood of Jesus Christ. The blood of
Jesus Christ changed everything. Before
the death of Christ, before the shedding of His blood, you could not go into
the Holy of Holies which represented the presence of God. Only the High Priest could do so, and he could
only do it on one day each year – the Day of Atonement. But today, through His blood, we have
confidence to enter the presence of God any time we want and as often as we want.
Think for a moment about
what it was like before the death of Christ.
You see, in the Old Testament, and even at the time of Jesus, they
offered millions of animal sacrifices.
As a Jew living in that day, you didn't just offer a sacrifice
once. You offered those sacrifices over
and over and over and over again. Why
was that the case? This was so because
all of those sacrifices were simply pictures of permanent forgiveness that
would come when the ultimate sacrifice took place. Those animal sacrifices
did not bring permanent forgiveness.
They were simply pictures of the permanent forgiveness that would come
when Jesus would die on the cross.
Folks,
listen, there is a very big difference between the picture and the real
thing. If you lived before the death of
Jesus, all you could do is look at the picture.
But after the death of Jesus, we no longer need to offer all those
sacrifices. Have you ever wondered why we
don’t’ offer animal sacrifices today when we go to church? We don’t because back then all they had was a
picture. They didn’t have the real
thing. Today, we can put our full trust and
faith in the real thing. We don't just
have a picture. We have the real thing –
the sacrificial death of Jesus.
Think of it this way. My dad grew up right down the street from
Yankee stadium. So my dad is a die-hard
New York Yankee fan. I'm hoping he'll
still get in to heaven but I'm not sure Yankee fans are allowed. Anyway, he's a die-hard Yankee fan and I
understand why. You see, he grew up
watching the greats play baseball…Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Lou Gehrig -
those guys. As a kid, my dad even had a
Mickey Mantle rookie card. If you know
anything about baseball or anything about baseball cards, you know that a
Mickey Mantle rookie card is a highly valuable card. My dad had those kinds of cards.
Now here is where the
story takes a real bad turn. My grandma
told him, “Chuck, if you keep leaving your cards lying around the house, one
day I'm going to throw them all away.”
My dad didn't believe my grandma.
He should have. One very dark day
when my dad was out playing, after once again leaving his cards lying all around
the house, my grandma kept her word and took all of my dad’s baseball cards,
including his Mickey Mantle rookie card, and threw them in the trash. Do you know what my grandma did? She threw away my inheritance. That's what she did. Now, as a result today I don't have a Mickey
Mantle rookie card.
Imagine I was to go on-line
and print off a picture of a Mickey Mantle rookie card. It would just be a picture of the card – not
the actual card itself. What do you
think would happen if I took that picture of a Mickey Mantle rookie card down
to a vintage card shop and said to the owner of the shop, “I'd like to sell you
this picture of a Mickey Mantle Rookie card for exactly what a Mickey Mantle rookie card is worth." I’m farily certain that I would get kicked out of that card
shop before I could blink. Why
would this be the case? The answer is
obvious - because a picture of a Mickey Mantle rookie card is highly different
than the real thing.
Folks, Listen, all those
animal sacrifices, they were simply pictures of the real thing that was to
come. Today we don’t have just a picture
of forgiveness. Today, we have the real
thing. And because we have put our faith in the real thing - the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ for our sins, we can draw near into the presence of Almighty God with
confidence, any time we ant and as often as we want. And that, my friends, is far
greater in value than a boat full of Mickey Mantle rookie cards!
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