Move Over Clarence Darrow

Move Over Clarence Darrow

Hebrews 8:1-13

Intro: We have heard a lot about trials in the past few weeks haven’t we? We had the Jodi Arias trial where this woman was convicted of brutally killing her boyfriend. We had the Gosnell trial where a doctor was convicted of murdering three children in the abortion clinic that he operated. After their convictions, it seems that there lawyers have now tuned into negotiators or mediators for their lives. As I prepare this sermon Dr. Gosnell was spared the death penalty through the mediation of his lawyer that he cannot appeal his conviction. The jury is still out as they say in the arias trial.

. As I read and studied our scripture this morning it lead me to understand that this is what Jesus is doing for us right now.

. The lawyers or mediators would love to negotiate their clients off of death row. That is their goal now that they have been found guilty.

. In our scripture this morning, that is what Jesus is doing right now.

. We all have been found guilty of sin. Judgment has already been passed on all mankind.

. Romans 5:12 says this:

. 12When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.

. All mankind has been found guilty and is now on death row

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. Here mankind sits and the only way man can avoid death is to get a pardon.

. In 1830, a man named George Wilson was convicted of killing a government employee while robbing the U.S. Mail. He was tried and sentenced to be hanged. Andrew Jackson, then President, issued a pardon for Wilson, but Wilson did a strange thing: he refused to accept the pardon and no one seemed to know what to do.

. What must that warden have said when his delivery was rejected? I imagine it was something like, “Pardon me? You don’t want the President to pardon you?”

. The matter went all the way to the Supreme Court…to Chief Justice Marshall, perhaps one of the greatest Chief Justices we ever had, and he concluded that Wilson must be executed. “A pardon is a slip of paper,” wrote Marshall, “the value of which is determined by the acceptance of the person to be pardoned. If it is refused, it is no pardon. George Wilson must be hanged.” And he was.

. This is what our scripture teaches us this morning. It teaches us what this pardon is and how it will affect our lives.

. Jesus, our mediator, our attorney is doing His job in Heaven right now.

.He is providing a pardon for all because they have been found guilty and are deserving death.

. We are back in Hebrews this morning

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. Hebrews chapter 8

. 1Here is the main point: We have a High Priest who sat down in the place of honor beside the throne of the majestic God in heaven.

2There he ministers in the heavenly Tabernacle, the true place of worship that was built by the Lord and not by human hands.

3And since every high priest is required to offer gifts and sacrifices, our High Priest must make an offering, too.

4If he were here on earth, he would not even be a priest, since there already are priests who offer the gifts required by the law.

5They serve in a system of worship that is only a copy, a shadow of the real one in heaven. For when Moses was getting ready to build the Tabernacle, God gave him this warning: “Be sure that you make everything according to the pattern I have shown you here on the mountain.”

6But now Jesus, our High Priest, has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better promises.

7If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace it.

8But when God found fault with the people, he said:

“The day is coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah.

9This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt. They did not remain faithful to my covenant,

so I turned my back on them, says the LORD.

10But this is the new covenant I will make

with the people of Israel on that day, says the LORD: I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.