Hebrews 9:11-28 // Jesus is better than sacrifices
Series: Greater than >
Title: Better than sacrifices
Scripture: Hebrews 9:11-28
Date: 16.11.2025
Coldplay KissCam
One of the most memorable images of 2025 is the Coldplay KissCam video. Back in July, at a Coldplay concert, as thousands of fans enjoyed a night of pop-rock, the stage camera panned onto a couple in a warm embrace. The couple were expected to kiss but instead they panicked.
As they uncoupled and tried to hide, lead singer of Coldplay joked, “Either these two are having an affair or they’re both really shy.” The video went viral as people made fun of the two, but the fallout wasn’t so funny.
Internet detectives quickly identified the man in the shot as Andy Byron, the married CEO of a multi-billion-dollar company. The woman was his company’s Chief People Officer, Kristin Cabot. The fallout was immense as Byron made a public apology and was placed on leave; Cabot resigned.
For me this incident highlighted a real problem we have today with guilt. Many of us (me included) were quick to judge the couple, but deep down we all know that if our private lives went up on the big screen for the world to see, we’d try to hide as well.
Now when I say we have a guilt problem, I don’t mean false guilt where we feel bad about things we didn’t do. I mean true natural guilt, when we know we’ve done the wrong thing, but don’t know how to fix it. Sometimes it’s easy to fix a problem by apologising or repairing the damage we’ve caused, but sometimes there’s guilt that we can’t fix or shrug off.
In our world today we sometimes try to medicate or rationalize our problems away, but guilt is a real problem and thankfully the Bible gives us a real solution.
The problem
Over the last few Sundays in our series on Hebrews we’ve seen how Jesus deserves supremacy in our lives. Reading Hebrews cover to cover you’ll see how Jesus is better than angels, Moses, the High Priest, and last week we saw how Jesus is the mediator of the New and Better Covenant.
V.11 of Hebrews 9 sums it up beautifully:
“When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. He did not enter by the means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place, once for all by his own blood, so obtaining eternal redemption.”
We’re reaching the climax of this whole book. All the concepts are coming together so we can see the supremacy of Christ in all things, but here a key concept is introduced: blood.
Now I don’t know what you think of when you think of blood but for the Hebrews this is the language of sacrifice. Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement, was an annual sacrifice where the High Priest offered sacrifices for the forgiveness of the whole nation.
After weeks of spiritual preparation, the high priest would offer sacrifices reconciling the people to God. He’d ritually wash himself and then go into the tabernacle (which was a little model of heaven). Once there he’d offer multiple sacrifices on the way to the centre of the temple which was called the Most Holy Place.
Once inside the Most Holy Place he’d sprinkle the blood of a sacrificed bull and goat on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of Covenant. This was at the centre of the tabernacle. It’s here that the presence of the Lord Yahweh lived among his people. The priest would sprinkle blood seven times before the mercy seat to atone for the sins of the people.
As the High Priest emerged from the Most Holy Place the people would breathe a sigh of relief. They would know that thanks to the sacrifices offered in faith for them, their sin was forgiven, and their guilt had been dealt with. An innocent life had been taken on their behalf, for they knew that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin.
Now if all this sounds like a strange way to deal with guilt, think about how we deal with guilt today. Some say that guilt is just a human construct, and we shouldn’t feel guilty at all. So we turn to alcohol or other drugs to turn off those feelings of guilt but it never lasts.
Some of us try to do good things to take our guilt away. We volunteer or give to charity is appease our consciences. This is a bit like spraying deodorant on a corpse, hoping it will hide the smell.
Some of us take our guilt and shame and put it on other people. Like the couple caught on KissCam, we find someone we don’t like and try to pass all our guilt and shame on others. Sure we’re bad, but these people are worse…
Sadly, none of these methods can permanently cure a guilty conscience. And while we might baulk at the gory Hebrew sacrifices, to a degree they worked!
At Yom Kippur the people would celebrate their forgiveness. They’d repent and recognise their faults, the blood sacrifices would remind them of the deadly consequences of sin, and then they’d commit to doing better next year. This is why Hebrew Christians were tempted to go back to the Jewish temple system with its traditions and promise of a clear conscience.
But this is where Hebrews again points us to a greater truth. God’s truth.
Hebrews 10:1 says:
‘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… It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.’
(Hebrews 10:1,4)
If the sacrifices were a permanent solution the Jewish High Priest wouldn’t have kept having to offer them each year. The people promised to do better but they kept on sinning, turning away from God, and the guilt problem remained. The sacrifices highlighted the problem, and they were offered in hope that God would provide a permanent solution.
The solution
This is why Hebrews keeps reminding us that Jesus is the solution. He is the better sacrifice.
If the blood of goats and bulls went to of the to sanctifying the people, so v.14 says:
‘How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the Living God’
(Hebrews 9:14)
While some may say that Jesus was just a great teacher, and we should forget all about the blood and the cross, here we see it’s central to God’s solution for sin!
This is what vv.16-17 are talking about. Jesus had to die for us, there was no other way for us to inherit God’s salvation, without Him dying for us first. In the Garden of Gethsemane before he died Jesus sweat blood and prayed: “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me, yet not my will but yours be done”
(Matthew 26:39)
The cross was the only way.
Now you might feel uncomfortable with all this blood and suffering. Surely God could have just forgiven us without all the yucky stuff. But friends here we need to see that forgiveness is never free.
Forgiveness always requires a sacrifice on the part of the forgiver. If someone has hurt you deeply you have two options: you can make them pay (in which case there is no forgiveness), or you can forgive. And if you’ve ever truly forgiven someone, you’ll know that this means you need to absorb the pain and say ‘the suffering stops with me’.
The cross is the price of our forgiveness. The price God is willing to pay for our sins to be forgiven and for us to be allowed back into right relationship with him.
Tim Keller puts it beautifully when he says:
‘When God looks at us he can either judge us and we suffer, or he can forgive us and he suffers.’
In the Bible we don’t meet a monster who demands blood sacrifices before good things can happen to us. Instead look at Hebrews 9:12 again, we have a Jesus who:
‘entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, so obtaining eternal redemption.’
(Hebrews 9:12)
The word for redemption here is from the slave market. If a slave was set free, a price would be paid to redeem them. We are slaves to guilt and sin until Christ our High Priest sets us free.
And friends notice that he did this once for all. This is why at communion we gather not around an altar of sacrifice, as if priests today offer the body and blood of Jesus repeatedly; every time we gather. No!
We meet as a family around a table and share the Lord’s Supper. Remembering his one perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world and celebrating that He is with us!
There is power in the blood
And so, friends let’s remember there is power in the blood of Jesus even today. We don’t need to keep offering sacrifices, because Jesus has already done it, and we don’t need to feel guilty or inadequate because whom the son sets free is free indeed (John 8:36).
Instead, we persevere in faith looking forward to the day when Christ will as v.28 says:
‘appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.’
(Hebrews 9:28)
So what does this waiting look like? Well, we’ll think more about that during Advent, but for the time being I want to point you to Hebrews 10:22-25 which says:
‘let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts cleaned from a 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 another to love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching’
(Hebrews 10:22-25)
Now that’s a big chunk of text but in summary, thanks to Jesus’s perfect sacrifice, I challenge you this week to:
1. Hold unswervingly to the truth that you are a blood bought child of God.
2. Think about ways you can encourage your brothers and sisters in Christ in love and good deeds.
3. Keep meeting together (with other Christians).
4. Look forward to Jesus’ return.
These are all ways we can honour the sacrifice given and forgiveness Jesus gave for us on the cross.
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Jesus took our sin, guilt, and shame and nailed it to the cross. Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to help us move past the problem, thank God our Father for providing the solution, and see that there is power in the blood Jesus for us all. Amen.