Once for All Time

In one paragraph

This sermon worked through a long stretch of Hebrews, tracing how the old covenant system of priests, tabernacle, and animal sacrifice was always a copy pointing toward something better. Pastor Nathan brought the congregation to the Lord's Supper by showing, passage by passage, that Christ fulfilled and replaced that entire system with a single, once-for-all sacrifice. The starting point was the...

Read together

1. Hebrews 9:1-10:20 the main passage read through as the body of the sermon
2. Hebrews 8 noted as already establishing Jesus's blood as the better system and the new covenant
3. Hebrews 12:24 listed as one of the passages to be covered on the subject of Jesus as high priest
4. Hebrews 13:12 listed as one of the passages to be covered on the subject of Jesus as high priest
5. Psalm 40:6-8 quoted as Christ speaking to God about not wanting animal sacrifices but a body to offer, cited as Psalm 46 through eight in the Septuagint version
6. Jeremiah 31 quoted as the Holy Spirit testifying to the new covenant, God's laws written on hearts and sins remembered no more
7. 1 Corinthians 1:18 quoted to show the message of the cross is foolishness to those perishing but the power of God to those being saved
8. 1 Timothy 1:15 quoted as a trustworthy saying that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners
9. 1 John 1:9 cited in the communion prayer as the basis for confessing sins and receiving forgiveness and cleansing
10. Ephesians 2:8-10 paraphrased during the opening prayer on being saved by grace through faith and created for good works

Talk about it

1. Pastor Mark described the old covenant sacrifices as never being able to cleanse the conscience, only reminding people of their sins year after year. What do you think it would have felt like to live under that system, knowing the sacrifice you just made still could not fully deal with your guilt?
2. Pastor Mark said that even counterfeit religions involve the shedding of blood in some form, and that there is something intrinsic in us that knows we lack and that something needs to die. Do you agree with that? What does that tell us about human nature?
3. Pastor Mark drew a contrast between the old priest who stood and ministered day after day and Jesus who, after his one sacrifice, sat down at the right hand of God. What does that image of Christ sitting down mean to you personally?
4. Pastor Mark said that when it comes to sin, we are each faced with a choice between humility and pride, and that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, but that universalism is wrong and not everyone will be saved. How do you hold those two things together in your own thinking and in conversations with people outside the faith?
5. The Jewish believers the letter was written to were being pressured by persecution to go back to the old covenant system. Pastor Mark said the writer of Hebrews was telling them to stick with Christ no matter what. Where in your own life do you feel pressure, subtle or otherwise, to drift back toward something other than simple trust in what Christ has already done?