Thu July 16

Listen up, little ones

Especially for the littles in your household.

Listen for the words sacrifice and offering.

Reading

Hebrews 10:1-18—When Christ Came

Optional Reading

Psalm 40:1-10

Keys for kids

Also for the littles. Young households might choose, after Keys for Kids, to go directly to praise and prayer.

Jesus came to save His people from their sin.
He completed the OT sacrifices with His perfect sacrifice.
It was perfect because Jesus Himself was perfect.

Questions

(Some read the ?s before the notes/ ask them after.)

Why did Christ come the first time?
How did He accomplish what He came to do?
What should we do in response to what Jesus did?

Notes

(See Saturday for authors.)

Having just told us (Heb 9:28) that Christ will come again, not to deal with sin, but to bring full salvation, the author of Hebrews now tells us more about when Christ came the first time.

Christ came to do what couldn’t be done through the Old Testament sacrifices. Those sacrifices reminded the worshippers that something greater was needed—Some-One greater.

That greater one was Christ. The whole Old Testament speaks of Him. In our text, the author of Hebrews quotes from Psalm 40 telling us what Christ would do when He came the first time. He would do two things. First, He would do away with the Old Testament sacrifices. Second, He would do God’s will—perfectly.

The coming Messiah, as Gooding notes, realizes that though all down the centuries sacrifices were offered at the command of God and served their God-intended purpose, God’s heart was never satisfied with them. How could it be? It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. … And his one act of offering has so completely satisfied God that he has never needed, nor will ever need, to offer his body again. God has what he always wanted; animal sacrifices are obsolete and irrelevant.

Jesus could offer this once-for-all perfect sacrifice because He perfectly did God’s will. In His saving work, Jesus took our sin and gave us His righteousness. Thanks be to God!

Swedish Method questions

See the Sunday notes for meaning of the symbols.

Praise

Psalm 40a, 51a

Prayer

Rejoice that Christ came to offer a perfect sacrifice and make you righteous.
Pray for the preparation for preaching God’s Word this Lord's Day.
Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.