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Welcome to day 4 of our look through Hebrews chapter 9. We're looking at verses
24 to 26 today. In fact, let me begin by reading those verses.

"For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true
one. He entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence. Nor did
he enter heaven to offer himself again and again the way the high priest enters
the most holy place every year with blood that is not his own.

Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world.
But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin
by the sacrifice of himself. " Yesterday we talked about the suffering, the
sacrifice, the salvation that are in the blood of Jesus.

Today there's a second question. Yesterday we looked at what does the blood
mean? I'd like to take a look at the question that is confusing to many, many
people.

And that is how exactly does the blood work? What happened on the cross? We say
I know he died.

I know he shed his blood. I know he died for me. But our American way of
thinking, our more modern way of thinking is how does that work?

How did him dying result in me being forgiven? The Bible has a very clear answer
about why Jesus died on the cross and what it meant. Now not surprisingly we've
come up with some of our own answers over the years about why he died on the
cross and what it meant.

The truth is it's very uncomfortable to think about the fact that somebody died
for me, had to die for me. And it's very uncomfortable to think that I may have
been, in fact I certainly was in some small way or truth in some great way the
cause of that. So because of that people have come up with different ideas about
why Jesus died on the cross.

Let me tell you a couple of those wrong ideas and then share with you what the
Bible says really happened on the cross. One wrong idea is that Jesus was dying
just to give us an example of how we're supposed to live for others, sacrifice
for others. It's called the moral influence theory of why Jesus died on the
cross.

It was just a great moral example that Jesus was willing to die on the cross for
his principles. And that's really all it means like any other person who died
for their principles. Now obviously Jesus' death is an incredible example of
love but the truth is there is much much more to what was going on on the cross
than just an example of love.

A second wrong idea of what was going on on the cross is called the ransom to
Satan theory. There are several forms of this but the one that really heads you
down the wrong road is that the idea that Jesus was dying to pay Satan off, to
complete some kind of transaction between God and Satan, that gives Satan way
too much to do. Jesus' death was not a payment to Satan.

It was a sacrifice to God. Jesus did on the cross destroy the power of Satan no
doubt but what happened on the cross is much deeper than some spiritual
transaction between Satan and God. What was going on the cross?

What was happening? It wasn't moral influence. It wasn't paying Satan a ransom.

It was substitution. That's the word to keep in mind. Jesus died as your
substitute.

Jesus died in your place. Jesus took my punishment. Jesus took your punishment.

My sins put him on the cross. Your sins put him on the cross. It wasn't the
cowardly disciples who put Jesus on the cross.

It wasn't the Jewish leaders who put Jesus on the cross. It wasn't the Roman
soldiers ultimately who put him on the cross. I understand they were the
instrument that rose that cross.

They were the instrument that drove those nails but who put him on the cross?
God could have kept any of that from happening but he allowed Jesus to go to the
cross and the reason that God allowed it to happen is my sin. It was my sin that
put Jesus on the cross.

It's our sin that put Jesus on the cross. So when you think about the fact that
Jesus died, he substituted for me, what does that mean for you? What does that
mean for me?

What does the blood of Jesus Christ mean for me personally? It means
forgiveness. The Bible has always painted the picture of blood being shed for
the forgiveness of sin.

In verse 22, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood and
without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. And now in verse 26 we're
told that he did away with sin. He brought forgiveness by the sacrifice of
himself.

You might want to just right now just sort of take a deep breath in and let it
out and say thank God. Thank God that I'm forgiven because of what Jesus was
willing to do for me. We do not have it in ourselves to say, as we prayed
yesterday, to say or to pray enough good things to thank him, to thank him.

Jesus gave himself on the cross. It means forgiveness. It also means ownership.

The blood of Jesus Christ means ownership. Acts 20, 28 says, "Be shepherds of
the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. " When I give my life to
God in salvation, that means now he is my leader.

He is my guide. He has an ownership over my life. Now he's the one who's always
owned it anyway.

I'm just recognizing his ownership. And now I can live in light of that
ownership. He paid for my life with the dearest price possible, the blood of his
own son.

It means forgiveness. It means ownership. Ultimately, it means the blood of
Christ, the sacrifice, the substitution.

It means relationship. Ephesians 2, 13, "Now in Christ Jesus, you who once were
far away have been brought near. " And here in this chapter, chapter 9, we're
told that we can enter in to God's presence because of the blood of Jesus
Christ.

The blood of Jesus brings us near to him. It means that you and I can have a
relationship with him. It means that I can realize that someone loves me enough
to die for me.

But it's not enough just to say, "I know someone loved me that much. " I also
have to accept the gift that his sacrifice opened the door for me to have a
relationship with him. Let me tell you something that happened to me years ago
during a viewing of the movie "The Passion," which depicts the death of Jesus
Christ in very, very stark detail.

We were watching as a church staff this movie before it actually was brought out
into theaters. A number of pastors had come from around the country to watch
this with us. And in the midst of the movie, just about the time that Jesus was
reaching the hill that he was going to walk up to be crucified, as I'm sitting
with a group of our church staff watching this movie, a large group, someone
comes and taps me on the shoulder and says, "We need you outside.

" So I went outside and they said to me as we were walking towards the door,
"There's a man from our community who's shown up who's having some real trouble.
Could you go out and talk with him? " I went out and I met with him and I found
out that he was a pretty desperate young man.

He'd had some tough times in his life. He was at a point in his life where he'd
lost almost everything and he finally decided, "I'm going to go to the church
office to get some help. " Well, we were all watching the movie.

So when he got to the church office, he actually saw a sign that said, "Closed
today. " Can you imagine if you're desperate and the one day you go to the
church office it's closed? He said to me, "Something drew me up to the campus.

I saw all these cars up here. So I found somebody, I asked for help and they
went out and they got you. " So he and I sat down to talk with each other by
some palm trees outside of our worship center and somewhere in the conversation
we started to talk about a relationship with Jesus, what it meant to live in
relationship to Jesus, to know him, to have a sense that he was present in
everyday life.

I asked him, "Do you have that kind of relationship? " He said to me, "No, I
don't. I've been coming to church for quite a long time.

I've heard a lot about that, but I know I don't have a relationship with him
yet. " We talked some more about what he was going through in life and then I
asked him, "Would you like to have a relationship with him? " And he said, "Yes.

" I said, "Well, let me lead you in a prayer that starts a relationship with
Jesus. " And I talked to him about the prayer we were going to pray, a prayer of
saying, "Jesus, I want to get to know you. I want to recognize your forgiveness.

I want to live in relationship with you in the day-to-day life that you've given
me. I want you to be my leader and guide. " As I was talking to him about this
prayer that we were going to pray in just a moment, I noticed that although we
were sitting outside the church, we couldn't see the movie that was playing.

There were speakers outside and we could hear what was in the movie. And the
sounds in the background at that moment were the sounds of the nails being
driven into the cross through Jesus' hands, driven into the cross through Jesus'
feet. I looked at him and I said, "This is very strange.

Here we are talking about this and these sounds that we're hearing right now,
those are the sounds of the fact that God loves you so much that he gave his
life for you. " I said to him, "You know, I don't know what you think might have
drawn you up here today, but I think what drew you here is the fact that God
wanted to remind you that he loves you more than you could ever imagine, no
matter what you're going through. " And then through tears, his tears and my
tears, we prayed together.

He asked Jesus Christ into his life. He began a relationship with Jesus that
day. That's what the cross is all about.

That's what the blood of Jesus is all about. God wants to have a relationship
with you. He wants to live in relationship with you.

Would you pray with me? You may need to pray a prayer just like that. Jesus, I
want to get to know you.

I want to recognize your forgiveness. I want to live in relationship with you in
day-to-day life. I want you to be my leader and guide.

You may need to remind yourself of that prayer in your life and live in light of
that prayer that you live in relationship with him. Jesus, we do thank you.
Thank you that you gave your life.

You substituted for us. You died in our place. You took the punishment that we
deserved.

Thank you so that we can live in relationship with you, so we can have
forgiveness in life. Help us to live in that life today. We pray in your name.

Amen. Tomorrow, we're going to look together at three appearances of Jesus that
change the way you and I can look at everything.