Shadows & Substance | Charles Zimmerman | Calvary Church

So, I have a question as we get started.

Are you uh are you confused,

afraid,

discouraged,

frustrated?

Well, that's good because you're in the

in the exact situation that the

recipients of the letter of Hebrews were

in. And they were tempted to turn back

to what was familiar, to what was

comfortable. And in turning back, they

were going to turn away from the gospel

and from Jesus. And so what we've been

doing in this series is walking through

some key passages of Hebrews saying

Jesus is better. He's better than Moses,

better than the angels, better than the

sacrifices, better than the temple.

Jesus is better than everything. And

this morning we come to the climax of

the book, which answers the question,

why is Jesus better? Why is he better?

Well, if you have your Bibles, we're

going to look at two chapters today. I

really wish we could read them. We can't

read everything in them, but uh you

should read them at some point. Chapters

9 and 10 of Hebrews. And we're calling

this message, Shadows and Substance. And

if you want to know where that title

comes from, you need to look at the

first verse of chapter 10 because I just

took this right from Hebrews 10. Here's

what chapter 10 verse one says. The law

and the writer there means everything in

the Old Testament, the covenant, all

that stuff. The law is only a shadow of

the good things that are coming, not the

realities themselves.

Shadows, not the substance. So, I

thought a lot about shadows this week.

And so, I think we had a picture of a

shadow up here in a tree. And you know,

there's a big difference between reality

and a shadow. So if you look at a

picture up there, the tree itself

has substance. You can climb up it. You

can't climb up a shadow. A tree is

three-dimensional.

A shadow is two-dimensional. A tree, the

real the reality is colorful. A shadow

just shades of gray or black.

What's the writer of Hebrews saying? All

of the stuff in the Old Testament, the

temple, the sacrifices, the priest, all

those things were shadows, Jesus is the

reality. And so just the shadows kind of

show the basic shape. Just the shadows

can show the contours, but there's

always a little bit of distortion. And

the distortion increases as the sun

begins to turn to a different angle.

There there's reality there. The shadows

tell us something about the substance,

but the shadows are not the substance.

And that's what the chapters we're going

to look at today say Jesus is better

because he's the reality. He's the

substance. Better than all of those

things that are shadows. The greater

creates the shadows of the lesser. So

this morning we're going to look at

chapters nine and 10 and talk about

Jesus, why he's better because he's the

substance, not the shadows. Uh well,

we're going to look at two two shadows

and they're in chapter nine. The first

shadow that we see is um the shadow of a

day, a day that had to be repeated. Now,

the day that's described there is

actually the day of atonement, but the

day of atonement is actually one in a

number of Old Testament feasts. Now, you

could translate feast a couple of

different ways. You can translate feasts

as festivals. They were celebrations.

People would gather together and they

would celebrate what God had done. But

they weren't just festivals.

They were rehearsals. They were

rehearsing what God had done, reminding

themselves, looking back and reminding

themselves. But every one of the feasts,

every one of the festivals, every one of

the rehearsals look forward to what God

would do. They're looking forward to

what Jesus ultimately does. And so Jesus

the reality casting the shadows over all

of those forms in the Old Testament and

all of the feasts all the festivals they

were all shadows distorted somewhat but

the reality was making the shadows. So I

remember as a kid growing up uh a couple

of the feast my my two favorite Jewish

feasts were uh Rosh shana yum kapour

they were usually celebrated September

October and I really like those as a kid

because we got off school for the Jewish

holidays remember you they were always

two and they're 10 days apart the first

one is Rashashana that that's the new

year it was a time of celebration now if

you were living in the old testament the

time of celebration you'd celebrate God

has seen you for another year. God has

graciously enabled you to have life.

He's provided for you. But during that

10day window between the day of Yom

Kapoor, what happened? There was

introspection. You looked inside and you

realized, boy, God has been gracious. He

showered all of his provision and love

on me as undeserving as I am. And what

would happen on Yum Kapor? What would

happen on Yum Kapour is that the priest

would go into the Holy of Holies and he

would make atonement. He would cover

their sins. And so there were lots of

feasts. They all did the same thing.

They're all shadows. They looked back.

They rehearsed as they projected

forward. Interestingly, we have

something similar in the New Testament

and we call it communion. And what

what's communion do? What do we do? We

look back. We look back at what Jesus

has done. And what do we do? We look

forward to the ultimate completion of

that. Communion is kind of like a

shadow. It's a reminder, but it's also

the prelude to the ultimate reality that

is still to come. So uh we got

festivals, feast, rehearsals. Let me

read a few verses from um chapter nine.

So if you have your Bibles, turn to uh

Hebrews 9 and I'm going to read the

first nine verses. I want to read it

all, but I'm only going to read nine. So

you'll see that what's described in

Hebrews 9 isn't all of the feast.

It's the main feast. It's yum kapor. You

can read about that when it was first

enacted in Leviticus 16. So let me read

about it. We'll talk about it for a

couple minutes. Now the first covenant

had regulations for worship and also an

earthly sanctuary. A tabernacle was set

up. In its first room were the lampstand

and the table with its consecrated

bread. This was called the holy place.

Behind the second curtain was a room

called the most holy place which had the

golden altar of incense and the golden

or the gold covered ark of the covenant.

This ark contained the gold jar of mana,

Aaron's staff that had budded and the

stone tablets of the covenant. Above the

ark were the cherubim of the glory

overshadowing the atonement cover. But

we cannot discuss these things in detail

now. When everything had been arranged

like this, the priests entered regularly

into the outer room to carry on their

ministry. But only the high priest

entered the inner room and that only

once a year and never without blood

which he offered for himself and for the

sins the people had committed in

ignorance. The Holy Spirit was showing

by this that the way into the most holy

had not been disclosed as long as the

first tabernacle tabernacle was still

functioning. This is an illustration for

the present time indicating that the

gifts and sacrifices being offered were

not able to clear the conscience of the

worshipper. It was an illustration. It

was a shadow. Now, so what actually

happened on that day of atonement? Well,

it started early in the morning and the

high priest, only the high priest, was

allowed to go into the Holy of Holies,

right in that little cube in the center

of the tabernacle. And he would show up

early in the morning. And he would show

up early in the morning because before

he made um reconciliation, before he

made atonement for all of the people, he

had to first make atonement for himself.

And so he'd show up early and he would

have to offer sacrifices for himself

because he was just as screwed up as we

are. So he would show up and he would

first you know take an animal lay lay

his hands on the animal symbolically his

sins would be transferred to the animal

the animal would then be sacrificed his

sin would then be covered after that he

was then ready to represent the people.

So after he was kind of cleansed, right,

with that illustration, he would then

put on the clothes and he put on the

high priestly garments. And when he put

on the garments, the garments constantly

reminded him that he wasn't just doing

this for himself. He's doing it for the

people. In fact, after he put, you know,

kind of the robe on, he tied a

breastplate on him on on his on his

chest. And you know what was on the

breastplate? 12 stones.

And each stone had one of the Israelite

tribes engraved on the stone. So what

did that symbolize? When he walked into

the Holy of Holies, when he went in, he

was representing all of Israel. He's

representing the people of God. So he

already had taken care of his sin. His

sin was atoned for by the sacrifice

earlier. He now goes into the Holy of

Holies or before that representing the

people of God. Now another animal has to

be sacrificed for the sins of the

people. Their sin is now going to be

covered. So he walks in representing the

people, but he's got to do that with

blood. And you notice when I read how

the ark's kind of done, the law of God

is kind of underneath. We mess up all

the time. We break the law. So what has

to be done? That sin that we've broken

has to be covered. And it's covered with

the blood of the innocent victim dying

for the guilty. That's the picture. And

so once a year that high priest would go

into the Holy of Holies. First he took

care of his sin. Then he represented the

people. He made atonement for their sin.

He went into the Holy of Holies. And if

everything worked out well, he'd come

out and the sin of the people of God was

atoned for. That's the first picture.

the first picture about the feast

and and the second piece of that, the

day of atonement. The highlight of all

of the feast was the day of atonement.

Well, that's kind of shadow number one.

A day that had to be repeated. They did

that every year. When I was in

elementary school, we got off those

holidays every year. And if you lived

during the Old Testament, you went to

Roshes Shana and you went to Yom Kapore

every year, over and over again. every

year the high priest and if he died his

son right down the line they had to go

through it every year the day that had

to be repeated. Well the second shadow

we've kind of hinted at. The second

shadow um has to do with the priest and

now what what's up with the priest? He's

a man

but he had a stand. Now we actually

actually talked about what he did. He

would take care of his sin. Then he

would represent the people, take care of

their sin. And he would go in and he had

to do this every year. And Carlos

mentioned a number of weeks ago, one

thing in the temple, one thing in the

tabernacle, no chairs, no stools, no

kneeling benches. The priest had a

stand. He was busy that day. Don't you

think? I, you know, we all say, "Oh,

no." Could you imagine? You got to kill

an animal for your sin, then you kill

another animal for the people's sin. I

mean, that that's a full day's work.

second shadow, the priest. Now, what are

the actions? We talked about those, but

it's kind of interesting if you read

Leviticus 16 because it's not just the

actions of the priest. They're actually

two goats. Did you know that? Now, when

I say goat, I don't mean Tom Brady and

Michael Jordan. There are other kind of

goats, right? The goats of Yom Kapoor,

the goats were actual goats. And they

would bring the goats to the temple and

then they would kind of uh you know have

a little lottery see which goat's going

to be first goat, second goat. And the

key is there. You didn't want to be the

first goat because the first goat got

sacrificed on the altar and the blood

was taken in the holy of holies. The

second goat got released. They would

kind of take him outside the camp and

they would let him go. Shadows, right?

Shadows. All that Old Testament stuff,

all the pictures, shadows of the

reality. They're communicating two

things about the gospel. Number one, our

sin has to be covered in order for us to

have a relationship with God. Atonement

means there's reconciliation. Two

parties at enmity. Two parties opposed

to each other. There's conflict between

them. Atonement means they've been

reconciled again. If you don't pay your

car payment, eventually they come and

repossess the car, right? If somebody

pays the payment for you, you're now

right with the car lender, right? That's

that's atonement. Your debt has been

atoned for. That's the first debt.

That's the first goat made atonement.

What's the second goat symbolize? The

one that's let go. Oh, that one's called

the scapegoat. Kind of interesting how

that's coming into our language, right?

What happens to the scapegoat? Well, the

high priest lays his hands on the

scapegoat's head, too. But he doesn't

get sacrificed. They take that goat

outside the camp and let him go. Why did

he do that? Our sin has to be covered.

First goat and our sin has to be removed

from us. Second goat. Two shadows, two

different things. Both of them happen in

the gospel. Both of them happen in

Jesus. Our sin is covered. Just like you

know a couple weeks ago, right? Snow

covered all the filth of the ground.

That's what the go. It covers all the

filth of our sin. But our sin also is

removed from us. Two shadows, one day.

The actions of the priest and two goats.

Shadows about the reality. Shadows that

describe something about the reality of

the gospel. All right. Well, we've

talked enough about the shadows. Let's

talk about the substance. Well, the

substance actually shifts from te from

chapter 9 to chapter 10. And the verse

about the shadow, the one that I read at

the beginning, that's the hinge verse,

right? So, what's the writer of Hebrews

say? The law is only a shadow of the

good things to come. He's been writing

about the shadows in chapter nine. Now

he's going to write about the substance

in chapter 10. The shadows of nine were

cast by the greater substance of chapter

10. So let's read uh the first few

verses of chapter 10. The substance.

The law is only a shadow of the good

things that are coming, not the

realities themselves. For this reason,

it can never by the same sacrifices

repeated endlessly year after year make

perfect those who draw near to worship.

Otherwise, would

would they not have stopped being

offered? For the worshippers would have

been cleansed once for all and would no

longer have felt guilty for their sins.

But those sacrifices are an annual

reminder of sins that it's impossible

for the blood of bulls and goats to take

away sins. They're shadows. They can't

really do the job. Therefore, when

Christ came into the world, right,

incarnate Christmas, when Christ came

into the world, he said, "Sacrifice an

offering you did not desire, but a body

you prepared for me. with burnt

offerings and sin offerings. You were

not pleased. Then I said, "Here I am. It

is written about me in the scroll. I

have come to do your will, my God."

First he said, "Sacrifices and

offerings, burnt offerings and sin

offerings, you did not desire, nor were

you pleased with them, though they were

offered in accordance with the law."

Then he said, "Here I am. I have come to

do your will." He sets aside the first

to establish the second. And by that

will, we have been made holy through the

sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ

once for all. Day after day, every

priest stands and performs his religious

duties again and again. He offers the

same sacrifices which can never take

away sins. But when this priest has

offered for for all time one sacrifice

for sins, he sat down at the right hand

of God. He sat.

So what's going on with the substance?

Well, what's the basic comparison right

on the surface? Well, the basic

comparison or the contrast goes like

this. The old high priest, he had to

first make sacrifice for his own sins.

And so before he could represent the

people and go into the holy of holies

with the breastplate on, he first had to

take care of his own sin, make sure his

own sin was removed, make sure his own

sin was covered, Jesus didn't have to do

that because he didn't have any sin. And

so there's no prior sacrifice for his

sin. He has none. And what's the second

thing?

He does it once and for all. And he sits

down. There's no repetition. There's no

endless repeating of that day of

atonement. It was done once and for all.

Well, that then uh raises a question.

What are what are some lessons then from

the shadows? What do we need to remember

about the substance? Well, let me share

with you a couple lessons. Here's the

first one.

Sin's pretty serious and we often don't

treat it seriously.

The problem is pretty deep. Let me

explain it this way. If you've uh

if you've got blood, right, is all blood

in these chapters, right? If you've got

blood pouring out of your head,

streaming out of your mouth, you must be

a hockey player. I know you've got a

problem, right? And you've got a serious

problem. If you're making a puddle of

blood on the floor, you've got a

problem. What's all this sacrifice?

What's all this blood about? Here's the

point. Sin is serious. It can't just be

colored over. It can't just be, "Oh,

well, I I'll forget it." No, no, no. Sin

is serious and it has to be covered. It

has to be removed and something serious

has to be done to remove the seriousness

of sin. If you're talking about blood, a

lot of blood, somebody's got a problem.

We even say it that way, right? Um

someone who's guilty. What do we say?

He's got blood on his hands. Blood on

his right. What's that mean? That

person's guilt. May not. We use it as as

a figure of speech, right? That person's

guilty. The blood of the incident is on

their hands.

You know what?

You watch CSI once in a while, right?

You can't wash it away, right? They have

that. This was really scary the other

night. I was trying to think of what

that chemicals called that you spray it

and you see the blood even if they tried

to clean it. And so I'm sitting there

and I said, "Kim, what what's that

called when they spray?" Luminol

immediate. It's not good when your wife

immediately knows the chemical that

shows blood is luminol. Kim had it on

the tip of her. It was like she was

waiting for me to ask the question.

Well, if you watch, you can wash it all

you want in human effort. You can bleach

it. You can scrub it. You can bring out

the you and you know what? You can't

wash away the stain. That guilt is deep.

Blood is there and it's going to be

found out.

Sin is serious.

But what's that? What do what do these

shadows and what do the substance

communicate?

The power of the solution.

Yeah, the problem is deep. Blood sy

blood poured out of your head, out of

your mouth. You got a problem.

But the gospel is the solution powerful

enough to bring healing.

You know, we live in a world when uh we

throw the word around word the word

forgiveness around pretty lightly. Um,

but you ever stop to think for a minute?

If there is a sin, an infraction,

right? If there's a debt that's

incurred, somebody has to pay.

Give you an example. Suppose um you come

up after the service and you say, "Hey,

Charles, I got a errand to run. You

know, Kim can come, you can go home with

Kim. Um, can I just borrow your car this

afternoon? It it won't just for a few

hours. I'll drop it off at your house."

Well, suppose there are lots of other

people around. So, I feel guilty saying

no, which I wanted to do. But

eventually, I Okay. Okay. So, I give you

the key. Now, suppose at 4:30 this

afternoon, right as the Phillies are

wrapping up, you pull into my driveway

and it was obvious you sideswiped three

or four cars. You were rearended because

you slammed on the brakes. There's smoke

coming out from under the hood and the

car is a mess. Here's the reality.

Somebody's got to pay.

And you may be saying, "Yeah, the

insurance company. I've got $500

deductible. Somebody's got to pay." And

the reality, if I say to you, "Oh, don't

worry about it. Don't worry about it.

It's just a car." I wouldn't say that,

by the way. It's just a car.

If I say it's okay, I forgive you. I'm

going to pay. I'm going to write that

check for $500 deductible. And the

insurance company's probably going to

raise my rates because you drove my

stupid car like a maniac, right?

Somebody's got to pay.

That's the power of the solution. And if

we've got a really big problem, a deep

problem where blood coming out of our

heads are to remind us of the

seriousness of it. What's the gospel?

The shadows show us that the solution is

powerful.

The solution covers those sins.

Just like after, you can't say a week

after the snow, just like an hour after

the snow that all of the filth is

covered. So because of what Jesus has

done, our sin can be covered and nothing

but brilliance and whiteness are seen.

And your sin can be removed just like

the scapegoat who symbolically ran out

of the camp never to return and all the

sin went with him. So Jesus took all of

our sin on himself. He had none of his

own. He covered our sin and he removes

the sin from us. The power of the

solution that will cleanse you all the

way down. Well, that brings a one more

question.

Well, does that really bring change?

Well, the transformation is actually

pretty extensive. the extent of the

transformation. Um, let me explain it

this way. Everybody knows,

everybody knows there's a gap. There's a

big gap. There's a gap between you and

God. There's a big gap between what you

should do and what you actually do.

There's a gap between how you should

live and how you actually live. There's

a big gap between what we ought to do

and what we actually that gap is

enormous and everybody knows it. They

may deny it once in a while. They may

say that, well, you know, I think I'm

doing okay. They know there's a gap.

Isn't that what every religion seeks to

do? Every religion seeks to bridge the

gap. Everybody knows there's a gap. And

so, every religion, every worldview

that's ever that's ever been dreamed up

does speaks about closing the gap. How

to fix your life, how to be right with

God, how to be right with the universe,

whatever, they're going to try to close

the gap.

What's the gospel do? The gospel

actually closes the gap. The gospel

actually covers your sin. The gospel

actually removes your sin so that now

you have access and acceptance with God

the king of the universe. And that means

once you and God are connected, once you

and God are reconciled, notice all those

theological terms. Once we are

connected, reconciled together, your sin

has been atoned for, reconciliation has

been brought about. Now in that

relationship, you have the power of God

through the spirit within you to live as

God calls us to live. We won't do it

perfectly, but we should be moving on a

trajectory of correctness, a trajectory

of moving closer to him. And what we

should be

well, we've looked at a couple shadows.

You looked at the substance. Three

lessons from the substance. Well, uh,

what's the invitation? Oh, I'm glad you

asked.

Because actually, chapter 10

ends with an invitation.

So, here's how the writer of Hebrews

kind of knew what he was doing, right?

He um says Jesus is better. Jesus, it

lists all these things Jesus is better

at. Then he describes in chapters 9 and

10 why Jesus is better. And then at the

end of 10, he says, "Uh, so what should

you do about it?" Well, let me read

verses 19- 25. And I'm just going to

close in prayer. The writer of Hebrews

offers you the invitation.

And every time he invites you, he will

begin the invitation with these two

words.

Let us.

Why don't you add your yes after each of

the let uses?

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since

we have confidence to enter the most

holy place by the blood of Jesus, notice

we get to enter, not just a high priest,

we get to enter

by a new and living way open for us

through the curtain that is his body.

And since we have a great priest over

the house of God, let us

draw near to God with a sincere heart,

with full assurance that faith brings,

having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse

us from the guilty conscience, and

having our bodies washed with pure

water. Let us hold unswervingly to the

hope we profess, for he who promised is

faithful. And let us consider how we may

spur one one another on toward love and

good deeds. Let us not give up meeting

together as some are in the habit of

doing but encouraging one another all

the more as you see the day approaching.

Festivals look back and remember

look ahead. Reality is on the way. Let's

pray.

Father, we give you thanks for the

shadows that we looked at today and for

lots of other shadows that uh we often

don't take account of. And Lord, I pray

that we realize that we have shadows

that you've built into our lives. Help

us not so fo not to so focus on the

shadows that we think they're the

reality but to look through the shadows

to the reality the greater reality

that's casting the shadow and we know

from Hebrews we know from the rest of

the Bible Jesus is the substance the

greater substance that cast all the

shadows may the shadows lead us to the

substance we pray in his name amen