HIS SWEEPING EXCELLENCE-III—Hebrews 8:1-13
Need:
If God is Almighty as you say, then how can I possibly relate to Him?
If I have changed my opinion(repented) toward this God, how can I relate that to Him?
How can I plead my case or be represented properly before His absolute perfection?
The writer to the Hebrews took a specific Old Testament prophecy & confirmed it as being fulfilled in Christ.
Hebrews divulges the sweeping excellence of Jesus’ ministry(High Priesthood) as confirmed thru the New Covenant.
The sweeping excellence of Jesus’ High Priesthood is confirmed thru the New Covenant.
What confirms the sweeping excellence of Jesus’ Priesthood?
Last time we looked in Hebrews, we found
3 confirmations of the sweeping excellence of Jesus’ priesthood were...
1. His SEATING(:1-2)
2. His OFFERING(:3-5)
3. His COVENANT(:6-7)
4—Confirming the sweeping excellence of Jesus’ priesthood is...
His FULFILLMENT(of the New Covenant)(:8-13)
A. FUTURE(:8)
B. Past FAILURE(:9)
C. PLACEMENT(:10)WITHIN(Knowing Intimately) vs. WITHOUT(Knowing About)
(CONT...)4—Confirming the sweeping excellence of Jesus’ priesthood is...
His FULFILLMENT(of the New Covenant)(:8-13)
D. HEAD(Rote) vs. HEART Knowledge(Experience)(:11)
:11—“None of them shall teach his neighbor, & none his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.”
These new covenant keepers will exist in such a state of familiarity with God that there will no longer be a need to “teach” one’s neighbor & brother to “‘Know the LORD’”. The need to encourage others to know the Lord will be a useless effort because “all shall know” God as keepers of the new covenant. Regardless of an unqualified “least”ness or “great’ness & all the relative judgments determining such designations, they will “all” know God.
“Teach”—didaskw—1) To teach—1a) To hold discourse with others in order to instruct them, deliver didactic discourses, 1b) To be a teacher, 1c) To discharge the office of a teacher, conduct one’s self as a teacher; 2) To teach one—2a) To impart instruction, 2b) Instill doctrine into one, 2c) the thing taught or enjoined, 2d) To explain or expound a thing, 2e) To teach one something.
“Neighbor”—plhsion—neuter of a derivative of pelav(near); (adverbially) Close by; as noun, A neighbor, i.e. Fellow (as man, countryman, Christian or friend):-- Near, neighbor.
“Know”—ginwskw—1) To learn to know, come to know, get a knowledge of perceive, feel—1a) To become known; 2) To know, understand, perceive, have knowledge of—2a) To understand, 2b) To know; 3) Jewish idiom for sexual intercourse between a man & a woman; 4) To become acquainted with, to know. A knowledge grounded on personal experience.
“Know”—eidw—1) To see—1a) To perceive with the eyes, 1b) To perceive by any of the senses, 1c) To perceive, notice, discern, discover, 1d) To see, 1e) To experience any state or condition, 1f) To see i.e. have an interview with, to visit; 2) To know—2a) To know of anything, 2b) To know, i.e. get knowledge of, understand, perceive—2b1) of any fact, 2b2) the force & meaning of something which has definite meaning, 2b3) To know how, to be skilled in, 2c) To have regard for one, cherish, pay attention to (1Th 5:12). To see with the mind’s eye, signifies a clear & purely mental perception. Strong— properly, To see (literally or figuratively); by implication (in the perf. only) To know:
“Least”—mikrov—Strong—Small (in size, quantity, number or (figuratively) dignity):-- Least, less, little, small.
“Greatest”—megav—Big (literally or figuratively, in a very wide application):-- (+ fear) Exceedingly, great(-est), high, large, loud, mighty, + (be) sore (afraid), strong, X to years.
Argumentation:
Necessity vs. Love/Passion
1Sam. 15:3, 7-9, 22-23—“‘Now go & attack Amalek, & utterly destroy all that they have, & do not spare them. But kill both man & woman, infant & nursing child, ox & sheep, camel & donkey.’””.....“And Saul attacked the Amalekites, from Havilah all the way to Shur, which is east of Egypt. He also took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, & utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul & the people spared Agag & the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, & all that was good, & were unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised & worthless, that they utterly destroyed.”.....“Then Samuel said: “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings & sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity & idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also has rejected you from being king.””
Rev. 21:7-8—““He who overcomes shall inherit all things, & I will be his God & he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, & all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire & brimstone, which is the second death.””
Parable of the soils:
Mat. 13:3-9—“Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; & the birds came & devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; & they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, & because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, & the thorns sprang up & choked them. But others fell on good ground & yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!””
3 of the 4 soils have not at all readied itself for the seed(Wayside, Rock, Weeds). One has...the good soil.
Illustration:
Some get married because they are not fit for single life/Yet they marry the very last person they would ever consider because they ‘Want-need to get married’/HEAD vs. HEART KNOWLEDGE
Paying taxes/No one agrees with it or likes it/Why?/The govt. is fallible!/People who are generally lost in regard to the things of God/I don’t want my tax dollars funding abortion, lotteries, govt. give-away programs/Yet I give knowing the giving is required of God to maintain a system of justice(though it is a flawed system)/HEAD vs. HEART KNOWLEDGE
Taking the SAT/Minimal requirement for entrance to college/Most? take it merely to get into college/Some take it as an opportunity to hone their comprehensive learning attained thru high school/HEAD vs. HEART KNOWLEDGE
Application:
?Has Jesus met the New Covenant’s HEAD(Rote) vs. HEART(Experience) aspects?
?The excellence of of Jesus’ priesthood confirmed in His FULFILLMENT?
?Has the Excellence of Jesus’ priesthood Swept all others away?
(CONT...)4—Confirming the sweeping excellence of Jesus’ priesthood is...
His FULFILLMENT (of the New Covenant)(:8-13)
E. DISCOUNT/Disregard(:12)
:12—“For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, & their sins & their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” ”
Thru a personal knowledge of God by His people(:10-11), He will thereby extend & apply His “mercy” to their “unrighteousness.” Thus God will forgive their inability to live rightly by Him.
God will choose to not “remember” the “sins” & “lawless” actions of His people. Those who indeed love the Lord their God will never have the fact of their “unrighteousness” used against them in any legal or judicial fashion by God.
“Merciful”—ilewv—Adj.—Propitious, merciful. Strong—Cheerful (as attractive), i.e. Propitious; adverbially (by Hebraism) God be gracious!, i.e. (in averting some calamity) Far be it:-- Be it far, merciful. Used 2X.
“Unrighteousness”—adikia—Injustice, of a judge; A deed violating law & justice, act of unrighteousness. Strong—(legal) Injustice (properly, the quality, by implication, the act); morally, Wrongfulness (of character, life or act):-- Iniquity, unjust, unrighteousness, wrong.
“Sins”—amartia—To be without a share in; To miss the mark; To err, be mistaken; To miss or wander from the path of uprightness & honour, to do or go wrong; To wander from the law of God, violate God’s law, sin; That which is done wrong, sin, an offence, a violation of the divine law in thought or in act; Collectively, the complex or aggregate of sins committed either by a single person or by many.
“Lawless deeds”—anomia—The condition of without law; Contempt & violation of law, iniquity, wickedness. Lawlessness, contempt of law, A condition or action not simply without law, as the etymology might indicate, but contrary to law. The law is usually by implication the Mosaic law. Strong—Illegality, i.e. Violation of law or (genitive case) Wickedness.
Argumentation:
Isa. 44:22—“I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, And like a cloud, your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.””
2Cor. 5:19—“....God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, & has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”
Rom. 3:23-26—“for all have sinned & fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just & the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
Illustration:
Parents with disobedient children/A child sasses her mother/The child is punished/However, Mommy doesn’t keep a record of disobediences/She instead chooses not to remember the past & work instead from the present with the future & her daughter’s well-being in mind/DISCOUNT/Disregard
Application:
?Has Jesus met the New Covenant’s DISCOUNTING aspects?
?The excellence of of Jesus’ priesthood confirmed in His FULFILLMENT?
?Has the Excellence of Jesus’ priesthood Swept all others away?
(CONT...)4—Confirming the sweeping excellence of Jesus’ priesthood is...
His FULFILLMENT (of the New Covenant)(:8-13)
F. OBSOLESCENCE/Temporary(:13)
:13—“In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now :what is becoming obsolete & growing old is ready to vanish away.”
The fact that the New Covenant is in fact “new” means that God has made the “first” covenant(the Old one) “obsolete” or actually ‘old/ancient.’
That which is “becoming obsolete” is that which is unusable & left untouched, to the elements. It will soon be completely gone & unused. With the coming of the church, there is no use for the law, for the law is contained within her by means of Christ.
:13—“In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now :what is becoming obsolete & growing old is ready to vanish away.”
The fact that the New Covenant is in fact “new” means that God has made the “first” covenant(the Old one) “obsolete” or actually ‘old/ancient.’
That which is “becoming obsolete” is that which is unusable & left untouched, to the elements. It will soon be completely gone & unused. With the coming of the church, there is no use for the law, for the law is contained within her by means of Christ.
“Obsolete/Old”—palaiow—To make ancient or old; To declare a thing to be old & so about to be abrogated. Strong—To make (passively, become) worn out, or declare obsolete:-- Decay, make (wax) old. Used 4X.
“Growing old/Decayeth/Obsolete”—ghraskw—V.—To grow old; Of things & institutions: to fail from age, be obsolescent. Strong—To be senescent:-- Be (wax) old. Used 2X.
“Ready”—egguv—Near. Strong—from a primary verb agcw(to squeeze or throttle...); Near (literally or figuratively, of place or time):-- From, at hand, near, nigh (at hand, unto), ready.
“Vanish away/Disappear”—afanismov— Disappearance, destruction. Strong—Disappearance, i.e. (figuratively) Abrogation:-- Vanish away. Used 1X.
From—afanizw—meaning to snatch away or out of sight; Vanish away; Deprive of lustre—render unsightly.
Argumentation:
Heb 9:15—“And for this reason He[Christ Jesus] is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.”
2Cor. 5:17-21—“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, & has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, & has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Illustration:
My first computer was an Apple Macintosh Classic/It had 4Mb of RAM(Random Access Memory)/40 Mb HD memory/8 MHz processor/Floppy disc drive/9" blk. & white display/Cost from $1000-$1500/
Comparable Mac today is iMac/Comes standard with 4GB RAM/500GB-1TB HD expandable to 2TB(?X larger)/2.5-3.1 GHz processor/21.5-27” display supporting millions of colors/Cost from $1199-$1999+/Peripheral devices supported are—Thunderbolt, Firewire, DVI, VGA, 4 USB2.0, Ethernet, Attached video camera & microphone/OBSOLESCENCE/Temporary—Hopelessly outdated
Application:
?Has Jesus met the New Covenant’s OBSOLESCENCE aspects?
?The excellence of of Jesus’ priesthood confirmed in His FULFILLMENT?
?Has the Excellence of Jesus’ priesthood Swept all others away?
CONCLUSION:
Visualization:
Action:
Confirming the sweeping excellence of Jesus’ priesthood is...
4. His FULFILLMENT(of the New Covenant)(:8-13)
D. HEAD(Rote) vs. HEART Knowledge(Experience)(:11)
E. DISCOUNT/Disregarding(:12)
F. OBSOLESCENCE/Temporary(:13)
A. FUTURE(:8)
B. Past FAILURE(:9)
C. PLACEMENT(:10) WITHIN(Knowing Intimately) vs. WITHOUT(Knowing About)
1. His SEATING(:1-2)
2. His OFFERING(:3-5)
3. His COVENANT(:6-7)
Presented 08/21/2011pm to:
Needmore Baptist Church
1620 Mt. Vernon Rd.
Woodleaf, NC 27054
