Jesus is our great High Priest (Heb
7:26); He is our all-sufficient sacrifice (Heb 7:27); and the mediator and
guarantor of a better covenant enacted on better promises (Heb 7:22 &
8:6). Under the old covenant God called
for specific rituals and sacrifices from His people as a part of their worship
of Him. While different in their meaning
and methods, all of them pointed to Christ and the new covenant He would
initiate and mediate through His once-for-all perfect sacrifice offered on the
cross.
While the new covenant makes the
old one obsolete, it does not negate the necessity for appropriate worship for
God from God’s people. God is still a
“consuming fire” who deserves and commands “acceptable worship, with reverence
and awe” (Heb 12:28-29). This week’s
text reminds us that God still delights in sacrifices as a part of acceptable
worship. These sacrifices are spiritual. These sacrifices are offered from our
thankful hearts. These sacrifices are
our lips that proclaim His praise and our lives that share His love.
Through Him then let
us continually offer up
a sacrifice of praise to God,
that is, the fruit of
lips that acknowledge His Name.
Do not neglect to do
good and to share what you have,
for such sacrifices
are pleasing to God. (Hebrews 13:7-16)
First, as you prepare for corporate
worship this Sunday I encourage you to read Psalm 51. Focus on vv16-17:
For you will not
delight in sacrifice,
or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt
offering.
The sacrifices of God
are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise.
Consider
that you cannot come into God’s presence empty handed. Yet the sacrifice He desires is not the blood
of a dead animal. Jesus has forever
replaced the need for that. Instead God
desires and requires that our hearts be broken over our sin. He wants from us a broken and humble heart.
C.H. Spurgeon
said: “A heart crushed is, to God, a fragrant heart. Men condemn those who are
contemptible in their own eyes, but the Lord seeth not as man seeth. He
despises what man esteems, and values that which they despise. Never yet has
God spurned a lowly, weeping penitent"
Second, as you prepare for corporate
worship this Sunday I’d encourage you to meditate upon the truth that Jesus
went outside the gate to suffer and die in order to sanctify you, to set you
apart for God. “Jesus also suffered
outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.” (Heb
13:14)
Peter
declared this truth in this way: “but
as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is
written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” And if you call on him as Father
who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with
fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the
futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as
silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb
without blemish or spot. (1 Peter 1:15-19)
This should fill our broken and
contrite hearts with songs of praise and thanksgiving!
Finally, consider this as you prepare for
worship this Sunday. You don’t have to
wait till Sunday. Indeed, you must
not! Our text reminds us “let us continually offer up a sacrifice of
praise to God”.
Under the
new covenant our individual worship is not limited to a specific time or
place. David said:
I will bless the LORD at all times;
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul makes its boast in the
LORD;
let the humble hear and be glad.
Oh, magnify the LORD with me,
and
let us exalt his name together! (Psalm
34:1-3)
Worship
that begins privately in the hearts of God’s people and goes up before God
continually, explodes into a combined chorus of praise as we magnify the Lord
and exalt His name together.
I look
forward to seeing you in church this Sunday!
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