Sanctuary: Christ in The Heavenly
Sanctuary: Christ in The Heavenly
Sanctuary: Christ in The Heavenly
Sabbath Afternoon
Read for This Week’s Study: Rom. 8:3, John 1:29, Rev. 5:12,
Heb. 7:1–28, 9:11–15, Lev. 16:13, Heb. 9:20–23.
Memory Text: “God exalted him to the highest place and gave him
the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth”
(Philippians 2:9, 10, NIV).
T
alking about Jesus in the heavenly sanctuary, the book of
Hebrews says: “where the forerunner has entered for us, even
Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order
of Melchizedek” (Heb. 6:20, NKJV).
Scripture, especially the New Testament, is so clear about Christ’s
role as our High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary—a role He took after
He completed His work as our sacrifice here on earth (see Heb. 10:12).
This week we will explore the ministry of Christ in the heavenly
sanctuary. His intercessory work is crucial to the preparation of His
people to be ready for the end time. So, we have been given this crucial
admonition: “The subject of the sanctuary and the investigative judg-
ment should be clearly understood by the people of God. All need a
knowledge for themselves of the position and work of their great High
Priest. Otherwise it will be impossible for them to exercise the faith
which is essential at this time or to occupy the position which God
designs them to fill.”—Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 488.
What is Christ doing for us in the heavenly sanctuary, and why is it so
important for us to understand it, especially in the last days?
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S unday April 29
(page 39 of Standard Edition)
Supreme Sacrifice
Studying the supreme sacrifice of Christ does so much to prepare
believers for the end time. Often humans look to the goal ahead of them,
and that makes sense. But it is also good to realize that the goal is behind
them. We speak of Calvary. The goal, reached here by Jesus for us, is
irreversible and final, and it gives certainty to the goal ahead, as well.
Read Romans 8:3, 1 Timothy 1:17, 6:16, and 1 Corinthians 15:53. Why
did God send His Son into the world?
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God sent Christ to be a sin offering in order to condemn sin in the
flesh. What does this mean? As an immortal Being, Christ could not
die. Therefore, the Lord became a human, taking our mortality upon
Himself so that He could die as our substitute.
Although divine, and although in nature God, Jesus took on “human
likeness,” and He humbled Himself “by becoming obedient to death” on
the cross (Phil. 2:6–8, NIV). In a way known only to God, the divinity
of Christ did not die when Jesus died on the cross. In some way beyond
human comprehension, the divinity of Jesus was quiescent during the
nine months in the womb and in the days in the tomb, and Jesus never
used it to aid His humanity during His life and ministry here.
Read Luke 9:22. What does this tell us about the intentionality of
Christ’s death?
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Christ was born to die. We can imagine that there was never a moment
in eternity when He was free from thoughts of the mocking, the flog-
ging, and the heartbreaking crucifixion that He would face. This is
unparalleled love, never witnessed before and not fully understood.
What can we humans do in the face of this kind of love but fall
down and worship in faith and obedience? What does the reality
of the Cross tell us about the worthlessness of human merit?
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M onday April 30
(page 40 of Standard Edition)
Read Hebrews 7:1–28. What is the author saying here about Jesus?
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Although these verses are so deep, so rich, the essence of what they
are saying is that Jesus Christ has a better priesthood than did the
priests from the line of Aaron in the earthly sanctuary service. But
now, instead of an earthly priesthood in an earthly sanctuary, we have
a heavenly High Priest ministering for us in the sanctuary in heaven.
So when we focus our eyes on Jesus, we can focus them on Him as our
High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary.
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T uesday May 1
(page 41 of Standard Edition)
Read Hebrews 9:11–15. What has Christ obtained for us through His
death and now His ministry in heaven?
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Hebrews 9:12 says that Christ has “obtained eternal redemption”
(NKJV). The Greek word translated as “redemption” also means
“ransoming,” “releasing,” and “deliverance.” It’s the same word used
in Luke 1:68, when Zacharias declares that God has “visited and
redeemed His people” (NKJV). The reference to Christ’s blood—the
blood of the only sufficient sacrifice—means that it was Christ, as
the sacrificial Lamb, who obtained this redemption, this deliverance.
And the great news of the gospel is that Christ obtained this not for
Himself but for us, and it becomes efficacious for all who accept
Christ’s sacrifice for them.
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W ednesday May 2
(page 42 of Standard Edition)
Our Intercessor
Although sin brought a fearful separation between God and human-
ity, through Christ’s sacrificial death we as human beings are brought
to God and can continue to have access to Him. See Eph. 2:18, 1 Pet.
3:18.
“Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stead-
fast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the fore-
runner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever
after the order of Melchizedek” (Heb. 6:19, 20). According to these
verses, what has Jesus done for us?
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Read Hebrews 9:24. What does this text say that Christ’s work
includes?
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Jesus is the forerunner, having entered as our Representative into the
heavenly sanctuary, even into the very presence of God for us. That is,
Jesus is standing before the Father, ministering the merits of His atone-
ment, the “eternal redemption” that He “obtained” in our behalf.
Yes, when we accepted Jesus our sins were forgiven, and we stood
before God pardoned and cleansed. But the fact remains that even
though we have become Christians, we at times still sin, despite all the
wonderful promises of victory. In such cases, Jesus intercedes as our
High Priest in heaven. He represents the repenting sinner, not plead-
ing our merits (for we have none) but pleading His own on our behalf
before the Father. “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost
those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make
intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25, NKJV).
What born-again Christian does not sense his or her own need of
Christ’s continuing mercy and grace? That is, despite the new life
we have in Jesus, despite the wonderful changes in our existence,
who doesn’t realize his or her own constant need of pardon and
forgiveness? Why, then, is the knowledge of Christ as our High
Priest so precious to us?
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T hursday May 3
(page 43 of Standard Edition)
The first angel’s message declares: “Fear God and give glory to
Him, for the hour of His judgment has come” (Rev. 14:7, NKJV).
The reality of the judgment points to the nearness of the end.
How should this reality impact how we live?
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F riday May 4
(page 44 of Standard Edition)
Discussion Questions:
Look at this quote from Ellen G. White: “As anciently the
sins of the people were by faith placed upon the sin offering and
through its blood transferred, in figure, to the earthly sanctuary,
so in the new covenant the sins of the repentant are by faith placed
upon Christ and transferred, in fact, to the heavenly sanctuary.
And as the typical cleansing of the earthly was accomplished by
the removal of the sins by which it had been polluted, so the actual
cleansing of the heavenly is to be accomplished by the removal, or
blotting out, of the sins which are there recorded. But before this
can be accomplished, there must be an examination of the books
of record to determine who, through repentance of sin and faith in
Christ, are entitled to the benefits of His atonement.”—The Great
Controversy, pp. 421, 422. What does she say are the two things
that reveal those who are entitled to the “benefits of His atone-
ment”? Why is it so important for God’s people to grasp what
these two things are, especially in the trials of the last days?
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i n s i d e
Story
On Czech Television
by Andrew McChesney, Adventist Mission
Irena Metzova doesn’t know why she narrowly missed boarding a passen-
ger jet that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. But the sparing of her life allowed
her to share the Sabbath on national television.
Irena had planned to fly from New York to her native Czech Republic after
a summer of working as a volunteer cook for a group of student literature
evangelists, including her college-age son. But the airline, KLM, suspended
flights amid an industrial strike and rebooked her on a Swissair flight at the
last minute. She alerted her sister in the Czech Republic about the change
of plans, and the sister agreed to meet her at the Prague airport the next day.
In the morning, the sister woke up to the news that a Swissair DC-10 jet had
crashed about two hours after takeoff from New York. It was her sister’s plane.
In tears, she called Irena’s husband. “I lost my sister. You lost your wife,”
she said.
But Irena hadn’t taken the flight. When Irena approached the Swissair desk
to check in for Flight 111 at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, the Swissair
representative said something that changed everything.
“Mrs. Metzova, you are Czech,” the airline representative said. “We can put
you on a direct flight from here to the Czech Republic on Czech Airlines. How
would you like that?”
Irena liked the idea of not having to change planes in Geneva, and the air-
line representative printed her a new boarding pass.
“You have 15 minutes to catch the plane,” the airline representative said.
“Run!”
At 10:30 p.m. on September 2, 1998, the Swissair plane crashed off
Canada’s coast, killing all 229 people onboard, including a Seventh-day
Adventist college student planning to study for a year in France. An in-flight
fire was blamed for the tragedy.
As the world mourned, Irena’s sister learned about the change in the itinerary.
Irena, now 68, can’t explain what happened. But several years after the
tragedy, she was given the opportunity to speak about her faith on Czech
national television. On the television program, Answered Prayers, Irena told
about God’s goodness amid repressions in Communist-era Czechoslovakia.
She read the fourth commandment about the Sabbath.
Many people heard about the biblical seventh-day
Sabbath for the first time, said her son, Kamil Metz,
international coordinator for the Giving Light to Our
World (GLOW) tracts ministry.
“After the program aired, other Adventists told us that
their relatives had called them and said, ‘We never knew
that the Sabbath was in the Bible,’ ” he said.
All because Irena somehow missed a flight.
Learning Outline:
I. Know: The Priest in Heaven
A What role does Jesus play in the heavenly sanctuary?
B What is the meaning of His intercession?
C Why is this heavenly service necessary for the salvation of the
world?
Summary: Christ is still at work to ensure the process of judgment and to help
us prepare for the kingdom of God in our hearts.
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teachers comments
Learning Cycle
STEP 1—Motivate
STEP 2—Explore
Just for Teachers: This lesson will cover the three main phases
of Christ’s ministry: (1) His sacrifice as the Passover Lamb, (2) His
high-priestly ministry in heaven, and (3) the eschatological Day of
66
teachers comments
Bible Commentary
I. The Lamb of God (Review John 1:29 with your class.)
The sacrifice of the lamb at Passover was a “type,” pointing to the sac-
rifice of Christ. It is thanks to the blood of this lamb that the angel of
death “passed over” the doors of the Israelite houses, thus preparing for
the Exodus salvation (Exod. 12:13, 14). Along the same lines, Isaiah
compares the atoning “lamb” to the Suffering Servant, who will save
the world by taking their sins on Himself (Isa. 53:7; compare with Acts
8:32).
The same association of thoughts is found in the New Testament. Luke
uses the word “decease,” or exodus in Greek, to refer to Jesus’ death (Luke
9:31), thus alluding to the spiritually liberating and redemptive effect of
His death. Yet, when John the Baptist identified Jesus as “the Lamb of
God,” he added to the Passover lamb another surprising dimension: divinity.
For this Lamb was of a divine character. The phrase “lamb of God” means
in Hebrew grammar “the divine lamb.” For John, God had become this
Lamb that was sacrificed at Passover. Significantly, the “lamb” is the most
important and most frequent symbol in the book of Revelation, where
it appears from the beginning to the end (Rev. 5:6, 22:3, etc.). To save
humankind, the great God of the universe identified Himself with the most
vulnerable victim.
II. The Priest Forever (Review Psalm 110 and Hebrews 7:20–28 with your class.)
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teachers comments
Consider This: Why did the priestly intercession move from earth to heaven?
Explain why the event of the Cross does not complete the process of salvation.
Why did Stephen see Jesus “ ‘at the right hand of God’ ” in heaven (Acts 7:56,
NKJV; compare with Ps. 110:1)? What does this vision mean in regard to the
new covenant (Dan. 9:27)?
III. The Day of Atonement in Heaven (Review Hebrews 9:26–28 and Daniel 8:14
with your class.)
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teachers comments
Discussion Question: Why are the Cross and the judgment two com
plementary events?
STEP 3—Apply
Just for Teachers: Why is the biblical truth of the judgment often
difficult to understand and teach? Compare it with other important
truths, such as scientific truths (physics, medicine, etc.). Why is it
necessary that some of these truths be difficult to grasp?
STEP 4—Create
Activities: Expose various ideologies that have been put forth to save
the world (socialism, liberalism, absolutism, anarchism, etc.). Why did
all these propositions fail? Why is the creation of a new world the only
solution to the problem of the world? Why, and how, does the biblical
truth of the eschatological Day of Atonement respond to that question?
69
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