The Holy Place | Hebrews 9:1–10 | Why We No Longer Need a Temple

Watch This Video: “The Holy Place”

In this sermon on Hebrews 9:1–10, Pastor Mark unpacks the Old Testament's Holy Place—what it was, why it mattered, and how it ultimately pointed beyond itself to Jesus Christ. The tabernacle wasn't just an ancient structure; it was a living symbol of God's holiness and the need for a true mediator. As the sermon explores the limitations of the old covenant and the fearful reverence of the high priest’s once-a-year entry, it leads us to the awe-inspiring truth that in Christ, we now have confident, daily access to the living God.

📖 Click to Show the Transcript of this Sermon

There's so many good stories that involve characters stepping into another world. I think that in a way we all relate to these stories so well because we all did something similar in our imaginations as a child. We would escape as we played, basically. We'd escape to another world. And even though we were in our bedroom or in our backyard, it became another place for us. Now I've shared many times before that one of my favorite series of fiction is the Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis. In those books, the children would find themselves transported to another world. In one book, they find themselves in this other world by going in through a wardrobe. And in another, they are pulled backwards into this world while they are sitting and waiting for a train. And in another, they find themselves transported there through a painting. They find themselves in this magical world, but they were transported there through these ordinary items or places. Once in though, they find another world where they are kings and queens, and they are heroes.

Well, in the Old Testament, we find an ordinary structure that was simple on the outside. But once you were inside, it pointed to another place. The tabernacle was a tent, but inside there were sacrifices made to the the God who was above all things. And the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies. It was a picture of the heavenly courtroom.

Now, you and I read of the tabernacle and the temple, but we naturally aren't all that aware of what went on there. It isn't our way of looking at the world or relating to God. I'm sure that an ancient Hebrew would walk in here with us this morning and be very confused about what's going on. They'd probably most be interested why we all left our homes when it was this cold out. But that's beside the point.

Now, ancient Hebrew would walk into this place and they wouldn't know what's going on. They wouldn't understand how we were doing worship and what we were doing. Now, in our passage this morning, we get a good concise explanation of the inner workings of the tabernacle in the temple. And it's good because it helps us understand what Jesus has done for us and what he is doing for us at the Father's right hand. And so we find ourselves in these 10 verses today, and I've broken them down as I normally do into three points to help us navigate what it has to teach us today.

So the first thing that we see are the details of the tabernacle. It was set up in a special way and it was centered around the holiness of God. I've mentioned a few times before that the tabernacle and the temple weren't a place where the people would gather, like we have today, and worship God. The worship that went on there was done by the priests. And and even then, there were limitations put on what they did and how they did it.

And the guidelines of of what was going on are our next point. We see that there are specific guidelines for what the priests do there. As we talked about recently, just a couple weeks back, these priests had to be Levites, and then these priests could only go into the holy place, but only then, only the high priest could go into the most holy place. And there were even limitations on what he could do in there. And the guidelines that were given about the tabernacle and temple show us that God is holy.

Finally, we see that the temple is limited. Sacrifices were offered there for the sins of the people. But what we find is that this system didn't perfect anything. It was pointing to something greater. Something else was needed. What we learned about the temple is that it wasn't the ultimate and final answer. That would not come until things were perfected in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so we come to our first point this morning about the tabernacles set up as we look at verses one through five of chapter nine. And what we see here is the author of Hebrews doing a really good job of summing up what the temple and tabernacle in the old covenant looked like. Nice concise description here. And what we are seeing in this part of Hebrews is the beginning of a discussion on sacrifices. And here we're seeing what that looks like.

Now I don't know about you, but there was a time where I thought that the sacrifices in the Old Testament were done by individuals that if I would sin, I would go offer a sacrifice for my sins. I didn't get the whole idea of the priests being the one who oversee the sacrifices. And and so I thought that the priests were just kind of like pastors. They would get up and speak. They would maybe, lead the singing or whatever. I imagined the old covenant system, being done by individuals and the priests doing more of what we're doing here today. Well, let me just say this part of the story. My understanding of the scope of human sinfulness, my understanding of how sinful we are as humans preceded my understanding of how the sacrifices worked. So needless to say, when I started realizing how sinful people were, I thought, man, these people must be offering sacrifices all the time. Bob would yell at his wife and he'd run, Go out and get a lamb. Okay. I need forgiveness. Right? That was kinda how I pictured it going. I wondered how they ever kept up with the sacrifices because people are so sinful.

Well, obviously, eventually, I got to a point where this whole old covenant system made a little bit more sense. That there these were priests who were offering these sacrifices through a particular system for the sins of the people. Now as we look at verse one, we see that the rules in the old covenant were binding. They were pretty strict and they were required to worship in this particular way. And then there was an earthly place where God's holiness resided in the tabernacle and the temple.

Now, as I said before, this passage here is a great description of what's going on, but I I think a picture tells the story much better as we begin to think about this. You can see all the stuff here that we read about in the book of Hebrews. So there's an initial area where there are lap lampstands, and then there's the bread of the presence or the showbread, and all the priests could go into this general area. You could say that this was the area where the work of the tabernacle or the temple was being done. It's called the holy place. But beyond that area, as you move further in, there was something that was known as the most holy place or the holy of holies.

Now into this place, the only only the high priest could go. And it wasn't somewhere that they went on a regular basis. You know, I'm feeling up to hanging out with God today. I'm just gonna strut in to the most holy place of the holy holies and pull the lever on my lazy boy and hang out with God for a while. That wasn't how it worked. They were very limited at how long or how often they could go in there. It was once a year. And we'll look at that more in our second point. But there are some details in all this that help us understand what's going on, because we can see that there's a veil between the areas.

And this closed off the most holy place, and God's presence dwelt there. And this veil shielded them from the majesty and the holiness of God, because it would destroy them if they were to experience it without that veil protecting them. And we also see the golden altar of incense is mentioned here. It's just outside the curtain, as you can see. It's called the altar of incense up here. And it's just outside the Holy Of Holies. Now when the high priest would enter the Most Holy Place, he would burn incense. Now this wasn't because they wanted it to smell good in there. Okay? That wasn't the point. It produced smoke. And what it would do is hide the mercy seat on the top of the arc. And this acted as a shield for the high priest.

He could not bear to fully be in the presence of God and to see and experience God's pure holiness and burning purity. And so they would burn this incense to protect the high priest when he went into the most holy place once a year. So even the one designated to go into this place was not simply shielded by his title or the privilege of his job. Going into the presence of God was always a risk. And these things needed to be done because God was a consuming fire of holiness. And a mere creature could not bear to be in his presence, even in this small earthly manifestation of it in the tabernacle.

And this is the important point as we look at this that we can't miss. This was about the holiness of God and how God was set apart. In fact, that's exactly what it means to be holy, And this is a visible representation of that truth. It looks ordinary, but it's showing us the idea of God's holy, holy presence, and how dangerous it was for the for the priest to be near it. Because as creatures, we can't bear to be near the presence of a holy God on our own strength. And that's what we're meant to see here. That God is holy, and you can't just treat that as though it doesn't matter. And the casual way we think about God is honestly alarming when we consider how pure and how holy he is.

And the book of Hebrews wants us to understand this, that God is holy and we are not. But the book of Hebrews also wants to let us know let us know something else. That Jesus has done something to allow us to be in the presence of God. Jesus has done something so that we can have a clear conscience, so that we can trust that we are going to be able to be in his presence when he when we die or when he returns.

So we move on to our second point. And we see that this was not only about construction details. This wasn't just making a temple or a tabernacle for the sake of building a building. But there were specific guidelines that they had to keep. Now in discussing the layout of the tabernacle, I mentioned the burning of the incense. So you have a little idea of the types of things that went on in this temple. But the author of Hebrews is going to focus on some different procedures.

As I mentioned already, the the priests go regularly into the holy place. They had duties there that they had to maintain. They they made offerings there. And there were other things that they had to do. They would replace the showbread. They would keep the lampstands burning. And they would burn incense twice daily to symbolize the prayers of the people. But the emphasis that the author of Hebrews makes is related to the frequency, and who could go into the most holy place.

Only the high priest could go in and only once a year, as I've mentioned previously. But but notice the other things that had to be taken in with him. Price to pay, and that price is death. If you're going into the presence of God, you brought blood because that showed that something had died Now that blood was offered not only for the High Priest but for the unintentional sins of the people. And the idea is that we are unholy, not only in our intentional sins, but also in the fact that we do sins every day without even knowing it.

We need forgiveness from God that is complete and comprehensive, and it can give us confidence. And that is what we see in the way the book of Hebrews addresses what is happening at the temple. Top of the chain, can't just walk into the holy of holies in confidence. He needs smoke. He needs blood. And even then, he can only go once a year. So there has to be something better. Right? There has to be a better system than this.

Now we've all seen a new product that we look at it and go, now that would make my life easier. I'm not talking about stuff that's, you know, as seen on TV type stuff. You know, boy, that would be easier if I could make ice that way. That's not the kind of stuff I'm talking about. It's the kind of stuff that we actually use in our in our jobs that that make our lives easier, or maybe they help us with, organizing things. But once we get that new product, we can't believe that we ever did it another way.

And our kids, as they grow up and don't know the other way, they really can't believe that we ever did anything the hard way all the time. Right? Now, a few years back when my family came for Anna's graduation, we watched some old family movies that my aunt and uncle had paid an online service to digitize. This was I think they were eight millimeter movies that my grandfather had shot. It was a different world back then than, you know, just pulling a phone out and be able to record things.

The funniest part about that by the way, my grandfather was, ingenious. There's some times where you can see what he's doing. He had made a light bar with, like, like, wood and lights on it that he'd plug into the wall so that he could use the camera inside. And if you've been in my office to see how I record videos, you probably think he gets that from his grandfather because I have those clamp lights up there. Right? But yeah. My grandfather was ingenious. And but these are the kind of videos that they, that they had. And this company digitized them.

So we sat down at a TV and we watched them. And in one of the videos, that they had recorded, they were really excited because my grandfather was using his new planter. Now if I remember correctly, it only planted one row at a time. But just watching this video, even though there there was no sound, the people who had gathered there were excited to see this. The neighbors were there watching it. The family was there watching it.

And as I was watching it, I was kind of bewildered by it. Only one row at a time? Now in the spring when I see you farmers in the field, I see you pulling your planters, I think about this. How many more rows you're able to do at a time? I can't even fathom the patience that it took. I can't I really can't even fathom what it must have been like to plant before that one row planter. Right? I can't even fathom it, because we can so easily forget how difficult things were in the past, because we're used to what we have now in the present.

Right? It's hard for us to even fathom the hard way when we now have the easy way. Now you and I are used to the new covenant. We are so far removed from sacrifices, priests, temples. We don't realize how amazing what we have now is. As we saw last week, this is a better covenant. The new covenant in Christ is so much better.

And now the author of Hebrews is really exhibiting why it's so much better. And we are we'll see this more clearly in our third point, as we're shown that the sacrificial system didn't perfect anything. Readers to know that this this is God letting them know an important reality. God, the Holy Spirit, lets them know through all of this system that as long as the temple and the ancient sacrifices are in place, the way to God is not open. It's not easily accessible.

In other words, if you believe that the sacrificial system is ultimate he's saying this to his audience. These people who want to go back to the old covenant. He's saying if you believe that the sacrificial system is the ultimate way to have access to God, It's never going to be great. It's never going to be perfect. If you think that this is the way in which you are going to relate to God, then you're stuck with these earthly priests as your mediator. And there's no way for you to ever enter the Holy of Holies. There is no confidence of salvation.

Because as we have seen, even the high priest needs protective measures for his once a year trek into the most holy place. Access to God is not free. It is not easy. So don't go back to the old covenant, the author of Hebrews say says. Let's look at what Jesus says because we can see the issue here. None of these rituals can perfect the conscience of the worshiper.

Not even the high priest goes into the presence of God with confidence. He is imperfect. He has to wonder whether he will survive the radical holiness of God. So what do these rituals do? They busy the priests with food and drink and other regulations. These things will never allow them to boldly go before the throne of grace.

And this puts the weakness of the old covenant on display for us. When the author says that this is symbolic for the present age, they're saying that when you contrast the old covenant with what we have in the gospel through the new covenant, it shows us just how great the gospel is. All these regulations did nothing but point forward to the great truth that something better was needed and that there would be a time where God would do away with the old covenant and there would be reformation of the way things are done. Lord Jesus Christ.

It's because he is our great high priest, seated at the right hand of the father, that we can know that we have salvation, that we can know that we have access to a most holy God. And so once again, in all of this, we see the glory of the gospel and the beauty of the new covenant. Great doctrinal truths.

Great doctrinal truths. But what does it mean for us? What do we do with it today as we prepare to step out into God's world? Well today, I I want us to come away with one specific application to consider from this passage. I believe it's important that we consider the confidence that we have in Christ.

Last week, I mentioned how amazing it is that we can have a relationship with God. In the old covenant, the people went to God through the priests, but now all of that has been torn down. We have Jesus who is in the true presence of God on our behalf. He is our high priest. And so we can go before God with a clear conscience, because we have the perfect righteousness of Jesus on our behalf.

We don't need smoke. We don't need to go in with blood of an animal. We have Jesus who has gone in by his own precious blood for us. So we can go before God in a way that not even the high priest of the old covenant could have imagined. But let us consider what this means.

We are used to the idea of God being accessible to the point where perhaps we are maybe a little too flippant with the idea. We think we can address God just however. God's cool with me. Great truth that we have access to God, but we can't forget the price that was paid to give us that access. Satisfied the wrath of God on our behalf. Confidence.

And so my challenge to you is to remember the price that was paid for us, so that we can have this familiar relationship with God. No longer do we need to be a Levite to step into the holy place. We don't need to be a high priest in order to step beyond the veil and go into the presence of God. We no longer need to burn incense, to cloud over the room, so we don't gaze upon the presence of God.

And there's no more need to go into the holy of holies with the blood of an animal. We can confidently go into the presence of God because Jesus has ripped the veil. He has destroyed it. He has torn it down, and he has gone in as our high priest. And he is seated at the right hand of the father. And he has gone in not with the blood of an animal, but with his very own precious blood, his own precious human blood.

So the reason that you and I are able to speak with God is though he is familiar and close to us, is because of the unbelievable price that was paid. So may we contemplate the radical holiness of God, and realize the price that was paid that we might know God in an intimate way and be his servants in his world.

It is only by his grace and mercy that we can call him father and say that God is our friend. As we close today, we're gonna say, what a friend we have in Jesus. Think about that. We are able to say that the one who was there, when the earth was created, a God of radical holiness, we are able to say that he is our friend.

Again, not just because he's more mellow than God was in the past, but because he paid the price for our sins to give us access to him. And so may we relish in this truth and go boldly before our God in worship, as we strive to live our lives in holiness to bring glory to his holy name.

🙏 Looking for more messages like this?

Explore more sermons and resources to help you grow in faith at our sermon archive.