When John the Baptist saw Jesus for the first time...."Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." John 1:29.
What did the prophet mean by those cryptic words? Why did he call Jesus a lamb, and how could He take away the sins of the world? To get the answers to those questions, we must leave the banks of the Jordan River and travel back hundreds of years in time to the banks of the Red Sea. If you study why the requirements for this temporary structure were so exacting, and why God command Moses to make it precisely after this pattern is important. The answer becomes self-evident as you understand the daily symbolic worship rites which were divinely ordained for every Israelite to carry out in that tabernacle.
Lambs were killed and sin offerings were given.
Heb 9:21 Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry.
Heb 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and
without shedding of blood is no remission.
The priest then placed some of the blood on the horns of the altar in the outer court and ate a small piece of the meat, thus taking upon himself the sins of the individual worshippers. Afterward, the priest killed a sin offering for himself, and carried the blood into the holy place where it was sprinkled before the veil. Thus all sin, either directly or indirectly, eventually found its way into the sanctuary where it was recorded through the sprinkled blood.. Day by day, for an entire year, the sins accumulated in the sanctuary by the daily ministry of the priests in the holy place.
Then came the annual
Day of Atonement when a final disposition was made of their record of sin in the sanctuary. It always fell on the tenth day of the seventh month and was called the "cleansing of the sanctuary." To this day, that solemn observance (Yom Kippur) is regarded by every Jew as a day of judgment. Symbolically a blotting out of the blood-recorded sins took place as the high priest, alone, entered the holy of holies to sprinkle the blood of a goat.
The high priest alone passed through the veil to sprinkle blood on the mercy seat and to cleanse all the record of sin from the sanctuary. When he emerged from the holy of holies, the final atonement had been completed and a symbolic judgment had been made concerning sin and its penalty.
Time does not permit us to examine the wealth of symbolisms in the desert tabernacle which illuminates almost every aspect of the great plan of salvation. Christ, the sacrificial Lamb, was foreshadowed in the bread, the incense, the lamps, the mercy seat. But most of all, He was represented by the high priest who carried the blood into the Shekinah presence of God. When you look at the book of Hebrews, all the earthly types had to be fulfilled by the ministry of Jesus
in the heavenly sanctuary. How and when Jesus entered that priestly work is the thrilling subject of Daniel's most impressive vision (Daniel 8 and 9).
The book of Hebrews assures us that all which was foreshadowed in the earthly sanctuary must be carried out in the heavenly sanctuary by the heavenly High Priest. "We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty
in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the
true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man." Hebrews 8:1,
2.
Here is an important question: Did the prescribed services in the earthly sanctuary relate to the work Jesus would perform in the true temple in the heavens? Hebrews describes the Levite priests as those "who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God, when he was about to make the tabernacle: for see, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount." Hebrews 8:5.
Here the inspired writer explains why God required Moses to carefully copy the pattern revealed in the mountain. The earthly was to serve as an "example and shadow" of the ministry of Christ before the Father. By observing the work of the priest in the two apartments here on earth, men would understand the special intercessory work of Christ after He ascended back to heaven. In Hebrews 9:1-10 we read in much detail how the daily service and the once-a-year cleansing service was conducted in the earthly sanctuary, which was an example and shadow of the heavenly. Here, after describing the solemn entry of the high priest into the most holy place on the Day of Atonement, Paul wrote: "The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing." Hebrews 9:8.
Clearly, this verse is saying that Christ's ministry in the true heavenly sanctuary would only begin after the earthly had fulfilled its typical role as an example and pattern. When He ascended, Jesus entered the first apartment of the heavenly sanctuary as evidenced by John's description of Him walking among the candlesticks (Revelation 1:13). This fulfills the example of the holy place ministry on earth. When He entered into the heavenly holy place, He did not carry the blood of lambs or goats, "but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." Hebrews 9:12.
But just as surely as He fulfilled the type of the daily ministry in the holy place, Christ also must fulfill the example of the most holy place mediation. Paul wrote: "Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this
the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Hebrews 9:25-28.
Do not overlook the connection of that word "judgment" with what Jesus does in the most holy place. He did not need to go in every year but only once "in the end of the world." His work of cleansing the heavenly sanctuary of the record of sin was absolutely necessary to fulfill the example and shadow of the earthly-type Day of Atonement. The biblical statement to this effect is unequivocal and undeniable. "And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." Hebrews 9:22-24.
By understanding the day of atonement, you can understand what Jesus is doing in the most Holy place today.
Rev 14:6 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
Rev 14:7 Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him;
for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
i could have given many more texts and points but i tried to keep it short,,, sorry i failed.