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Growth Groups Homework

Hebrews 9:1-15 2 November 2014
A Time of Reformation

GETTING TO KNOW YOU

1. Have you ever struggled with the difficult passages in Scripture regarding how worship was to be done under the Old Covenant?

APOLOGETIC

2. Respond to the following:
• In the Old Testament people were saved by rituals and by now it’s by faith.
• The Old Testament is irrelevant and we shouldn’t spend time on it, we are under grace not law.
• The sacrificial system of the Old Testament was a waste of animal life and gross cruelty to animals.

In your responses, and in your own words, explain the link between the gospel and the blood of Jesus.

INTO THE BIBLE

3. The regulations for the Tabernacle are given in great detail in Exodus 25-27. These three long chapters give detailed instructions as to the dimensions, the composition of the building materials and how they were to be put together. Then if that were not enough, Exodus 35-39 recount in even greater detail how those instructions were carried out point by point.

At first glance, this kind of repetition seems unnecessary. After all, Moses could have merely written, "God told us how to build the Tabernacle and we followed His instructions." That would have been one verse instead of the eight chapters which are devoted to this subject. Why such attention to detail? Was it merely filler that was needed? Was Moses getting paid by the word? Was this a homework assignment which required a certain number of pages? No, I believe that there was a special reason for this great detail. It is because the entire Tabernacle and all of the ordinances therein were a giant picture of Jesus.

9:2 There was a tabernacle prepared And the Word became flesh and dwelt [literally "tabernacled"] with us... (John 1:14).
The lampstand "I am the light of the world..." (John 8:12).
The table and the sacred bread "I am the bread of life..." (John 6:35).
9:3 The second veil Represented the body of Jesus.
A golden altar of incense Represented prayers of intercession.

• What is the relationship between the tabernacle and its furniture and Jesus?

• What does this mean for us as we read the Old Testament?

• Explain then the link between the way atonement was made in the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

4. Leviticus 16:1-34 is a great place to go to gain a better understanding of the Old Covenant system of sacrifice, read the passage and consider the following:
- What features of the solemn Day of Atonement make the biggest impression on you? Why?

- From the context of Leviticus how would you define “atonement”?

- From Ephesians 2:4-6, what does it mean that, spiritually speaking, we are already with Christ in the heavenly places, in His heavenly sanctuary?

- According to 2 Corinthians 5:17 what kind of lasting change did Christ’s death on the cross make possible for you?

GOING DEEPER

5. “What does this passage have to say to a Christian who struggles with a guilty conscience, and is therefore afraid to approach God?

6. What Old Testament religious custom or ritual do you understand more completely as a result of this text? What practises do you wish to understand even more clearly?
7. The sacrifice that Christ made by willingly offering himself to become a man and die on the cross ought to inspire us with a deep sense of gratitude. In what ways can your life reflect a deeper sense of thankfulness for the superior sacrifice of Christ?