Spiritual Sacrifices

Spiritual Sacrifices
Hebrews 13:10-16

Introduction

The Apostle Paul as he is about to end his Epistle to the Hebrews, warned them not to be carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For the reason that it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace not with meats or Old Testament ceremonies and dietary standards. In our text today Paul is making a contrast again between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The emphasis is the superiority of the truths we have now in Christ.

I. A Better System (Heb. 13:10)
A. We have an altar from which those who serve and worship in the tabernacle have no right to eat. (Heb. 13:10) The Jews argued that Christians have no altar, no temple, no sacrifice, and no priest. They were right. During that time, Christians had no holy temples, no altars, no priests. Their pagan neighbours also think they have no God.
B. The Apostle Paul by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote, “We have an altar… “(Heb. 13:10): The believer’s altar is the cross of Calvary. The cross is the altar upon which God sacrificed His Son for the sins of the whole world. His death on the cross is the sacrifice for all people to get save
C. Christ offered Himself, to which those “that worshipped in the tabernacle have no right to eat.” Christ’s Altar, the Cross, infers the ending of the Tabernacle, the Temple, and the Old Covenant (Col. 2:14-17). Those who makes sacrifices required by the Law show their lack of faith in Christ. They cannot claim any share in the redemption of Christ. That is why it is written “those who serve and worship in the tabernacle have no right to eat.

Illustration/Application: Why Christianity Has No Temples
When Christianity came to be known among the heathen, they taunted the Christians for having no temples or altars.
“The Christians assemble wherever it is convenient,” said Justin Martyr to the Roman prefect, “because their God is not, like the gods of the heathens, enclosed in space, but is invisibly present everywhere.”
To a similar taunt from Celsus, Origen answered, “The humanity of Christ is the highest temple and the most beautiful image of God, and true Christians are living statues of the Holy Ghost, with which no Jupiter of Phidias can compare.”
—True Stories Encyclopedia of 15,000 Illustrations: Signs of the Times.

II. A Better Sacrifice (Heb. 13:11)
A. For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. (Heb. 13:11). In the Old Testament, on the Day of Atonement, the bodies of the sacrificed animals were “burned without (outside) the camp, and their blood was carried by the High Priest before the mercy seat, (Lev. 16:27).
B. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate (Heb. 13:12). Jesus suffered death outside Jerusalem that He might sanctify (to make the people holy) through His own blood.
C. Without (outside) the gate is the place where criminals were condemned and executed (Lev. 24:14). It was the place where lepers were exiled and forced to stay (Lev. 13:46). It was the place to which the filth of the city was dumped (Deut. 23:10-14). That was the place where Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God suffered and died for you and me!
D. In order to cleanse His people by becoming the complete atonement, Jesus willingly, become as an “accursed thing,” a “sin-offering,” to be led without the gate and to suffer there. Through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, we have access to God (Heb. 7:25, 9:24). In order to “sanctify us,” Jesus suffered as a criminal “without the camp!” (outside the camp).
E. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. (Heb. 13:13). The Apostle Paul calls on his Hebrew readers to be identified with Jesus in His suffering by bearing His reproach. He is directly and boldly telling them to get rid of the Jewish religious system. This is also a call for separation from the world, and separation unto God. We are to go forth in life “sharing the insults intended for Him (Weymouth). Looking back, the Hebrew Christians of the first century were experiencing persecution by non-Christian Jews from following Jesus.
F. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. (Heb. 13:14). Believers looks not into earthly city; they have a heavenly city awaiting them, as did the heroes of faith of old (Heb. 11:10; 12:27). This world is not our home. We are citizens of the coming city. The Lord has prepared us mansions in His Father’s house. (Jn. 14: 2)

III. Spiritual Sacrifices (Heb. 13:15-16)
A. By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. (Heb. 13:15). The Christian’s altar is the cross, our High Priest is Jesus Christ, we are also to offer sacrifices, spiritual sacrifices.
B. Spiritual sacrifice is something done or given in the name of Christ and for His glory.
C. Note that the word “spiritual” is not in contrast to “material,”. because material gifts can be accepted as spiritual sacrifices (Phil. 4:10-20). The word “spiritual” means “spiritual in character, to be used by the Spirit for spiritual purposes.” A believer’s body, presented to God, is a spiritual sacrifice (Rom 12:1-2).
D. The Word of God gives us lists of Spiritual sacrifices.
1. Praise is such a sacrifice (Eph. 5:18-19; Ps. 27:6 and 69:30-31).
2. Good works and sharing material blessings are also spiritual sacrifices (v. 16).
3. Other spiritual sacrifices include the believer’s body (Rom. 12:1-2);
4. Offerings (Phil. 4:18);
5. Prayer (Ps. 141:2);
6. A broken heart (Ps. 51:17);
7. Souls won to Christ (Rom. 15:16).
E. The other meaning of praise is worship. There is no greater nor more important activity for man to be involved in than the worship of God.

Illustration/Application: Is It a Sacrifice?
People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice which is simply acknowledging a great debt we owe to our God, which we can never repay? Is that a sacrifice which brings its own reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny? It is emphatically no sacrifice. Rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, danger, foregoing the common conveniences of this life—these may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing compared with the glory which shall later be revealed in and through us. I never made a sacrifice. Of this we ought not to talk, when we remember the great sacrifice which He made who left His Father’s throne on high to give Himself for us. David Livingstone

Illustration/Application: His Unused Rifle Was Loaded
George Atley, a young Englishman with the heart of a hero, was engaged in the Central African Mission. He was attacked by a party of natives. He had with him a Winchester repeating rifle with ten loaded chambers. The party was completely at his mercy. Calmly and quickly, he summed up the situation. He concluded that if he killed them, it would do the mission more harm than if he allowed them to take his life. So, as a lamb to the slaughter he was led; and when his body was found in the stream, his rifle was also found with its ten chambers still loaded.
—Heart and Life Encyclopedia of 15,000 Illustrations: Signs of the Times.

IV. Conclusion
The Hebrew Christians lost their temple and its priesthood and sacrifices, but in Christ, they gained far greater than what they have lost. They were also exhorted to bear the reproach of Christ and to offer spiritual sacrifices. Will you bear the reproach of Christ also and offer spiritual sacrifices?