JJESUS THE BETTER WAY:
JESUS OFFERS A BETTER RELATIONSHIP
HEBREWS 7:1-28
Big Idea: Jesus is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
Supporting Scripture:
• Reading from the Old Testament: Jeremiah 31:7-9, 31-34
• Reading from the Psalms: Psalm 34:1-8, 19-22
• Epistle: Hebrews 7:18-28
• Reading from the Gospels: Mark 10:46-52
INTRO
When Vickie and I had young children at home we had a will drafted. The point of the will was to make sure our children were taken care of if we died. A couple of years back we ran across that will and realized it was providing instructions regarding our children that were no longer relevant. I did call Craig and Tiffany (who were both married by then) and inform them that we were still watching our for them and that of we died they we still required to go live their aunt and uncle in Georgia.
Needless to say the will was weak and useless. It needed to be replaced with one that relevant. It was too old and out of date to be any good whatsoever. As we read Hebrews 7:18-28 in a moment I would like you to keep that in mind.
I mentioned to you last week that the author of Hebrews was not content to let his readers be immature and dabble in “elementary teachings” (5:11 – 6:3). I mentioned to you that he expected “better things” (6:9) of them and that he was going to take them into “meaty” subjects and wean them off of the milk of the word. Well, brace yourselves, because that is exactly this writer’s next move. He begins to show them, in a full assault type manner, that the way they understand relationship with God has radically changed with the coming of Jesus.
Today’s passage does not mince words about this.
HEBREWS 7:18-28
18 The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless 19 (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.
20 And it was not without an oath! Others became priests without any oath, 21 but he became a priest with an oath when God said to him: “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: ‘You are a priest forever.’ ” 23 Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; 24 but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood.
25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. 26 Such a high priest meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. 27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. 28 For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.
If we are not careful we will begin to think that the interaction we have with God is all a legal thing. You know the song, “I owed a debt I could not pay He paid a debt He did not owe …” Even the best of us must beware of thinking that “salvation” is a weighing of scales; my sin in one pan of the scales and my righteous deeds in the other. Hebrews joins the remainder of the New Testament in declaring that this whole “Christianity thing” is about so much more than legal debts being satisfied – it is first and foremost a relationship. God longs to restore a relationship that was shattered at the fall (Genesis 3). He is willing to go to great lengths to do it. This is illustrated throughout the Bible; it is illustrated very emphatically and specifically by Jesus Christ’s life and teachings.
• A loving father – looking daily for the return of a prodigal
• A woman desperately scouring the house looking for a lost coin
• A shepherd leaving other sheep in safety to go out into the wilds to find a lost sheep
• Or – more pointedly – God becoming incarnate (flesh) and doing whatever is necessary to secure the relationship.
This idea of relationship with God was, as I explained a couple of weeks ago, a new thing to the Jewish mind which understood God as “wholly other” and only knew Him through the Old Testament. As you know, the word “testament” also means “covenant.”
Did you catch that? They knew God through an “OLD” covenant. It is no longer in effect – it has been fulfilled / satisfied and no longer applied … AT ALL!!!
18 The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless 19 (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.
22 Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.
25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
Jesus offers a “better hope” therefore a “better covenant” which means we have a better relationship! We can now “draw near to God.”
GOD HAS A NEW WAY OF RELATING TO US. It isn’t like the Hebrews weren’t told this was going to happen. God told them through the prophets hundreds of years earlier but it seems many missed it.
Listen to this passage from Jeremiah 31:31-34. Incidentally, when he gets to chapter 8 the writer is going to quote this passage verbatim.
Jeremiah 31:31-34
31 “The time is coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
34 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
In the former days that Jeremiah speaks of (he is referring to Exodus 24) God entered into a covenant much like (exactly like) an ancient marriage or a business relationship. This is a bilateral agreement where one party says I will do “x” and the other party says they will do “y” and as long as both parties keep their part of the agreement the covenant stands. This is how business contracts and marriages were understood. This is also how the “old covenant” in Exodus was constructed. Hebrews 9:19-20 refers to this (and references Exodus 24): 9 When Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. 20 He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.”
As I said, this is a bi-lateral agreement – almost a contract – and it is the way God designed the old covenant. There is a very specific word used to describe this kind of covenant. It is never used to describe the New Covenant but it is used for the old. It is “sunetheke.” But, even as we read in both the Old Testament prophets and in Hebrews, Israel could not keep their part of the “sunetheke” bi-lateral covenant. The covenant did not work because they strayed and continued to stray.
What we now know is that the Old Covenant (laws and all) were inadequate to deliver us safely into the presence of God. Hebrews 7-9 is very clear … it was totally incapable of doing it. Hebrews 7:18 go as far as to say it was “weak and useless.” That’s not my word – that is God’s word.
So God createda new covenant – a new relationship with man. This one is certain to work because it is based upon the character and work of Jesus not the sin-wrecked weakness of human beings – even sincere human beings. This new covenant is known in Greek circles as “diatheke.” And this “new” covenant is not only new in reference to time but in quality. The word used for “new” (kainos), makes this clear … it is like saying the cell phone is a “new” way to communicate compared to Morse Code or phones that required connecting lines and a switch board. The cell phone, you see, is “new” in quality as well as time – it is a “new” way of accomplishing the old task.
And this “New” Covenant is new in the same way … this relationship that is both new in time and quality … and it works “perfectly” (v.28). 25 … he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
As we read through the remainder of this book you will see some striking contrasts between this relationship we now have and the one that had a built-in failure rate.
The New Covenant changes man’s relationship with God in at least four ways:
1. We have a “Better Hope” – not just wishful thinking (chapter 7).
Genuine hope of living in the presence of God is made available.
Listen again to verses 18--19.The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.
And maybe verse 27 too, “Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.”
1. We have a “Better Hope” (chapter 7).
2. We are changed from the inside out and empowered for service and obedience (chapter 8).
Genuine hope – and genuine change. Heb 8:6 says, “But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.”
For the first time ever we are we are transformed from the inside out and there is no denying it is a “better” thing (chap. 8). Whereas it used to be that we had to try and obey the law to be in relationship with God – now we please God through the obedient work of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 5:18). He satisfied the need that we could not.
Now we obey (we actually can obey) because of the Holy Spirit gives us a new birth and writes God’s law on our hearts. In other words, we don’t obey to be in relationship we obey because we are in authentic relationship.
1. We have a “Better Hope” (chapter 7).
2. We are changed from the inside out (chapter 8).
3. We have a clean and clear conscience (chapters 9-10).
Chapters 9 & 10 make it very clear that, for the first time since before the fall, the conscience of man is clear before God. Jesus actually took away your sin! God literally “made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him!” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Our conscience is clear:
• Not because we finally got to the bottom of the contamination and removed it
• Not because we earned enough favor to override its consequences
• Not because we finally found the right person to blame
• But because God took the sin away by His sacrifice on the cross!!
Jesus removes the stain and guilt and cleans the conscience!
“If your religion drones on about your sin, repeatedly inflicts guilt and tells you that you are still failing and might only make heaven by the hair of your chinny chin chin then you need to introduce your religion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. His blood solved your sin issue – period! You are free from the penalty and the power of sin. If you still struggle with a troubled conscience I know a living and loving God that can and will forgive your sin and set you free!
Get rid of your religion that focuses on sin and come to Jesus Christ and be set free to live in victory!
Hear me. Hebrews teaches emphatically and explicitly that the difference between religion and Gospel is our relationship to sin. The blood of Jesus takes away sin and cleans the conscience – the nagging awareness of sin is gone. The very fact that sacrifices are offered again and again (according to Hebrews) shows that the law cannot remove sin.”
Hear me. Jesus’ power to save is many times stronger than sin’s grip and punishment. Regardless of your sin, God can save and deliver you! Sin has been defeated! Stop looking at and being defeated by your sin and start looking at the Savior!
1. We have a “Better Hope” (chapter 7).
2. We are changed from the inside out (chapter 8).
3. We have a clean and clear conscience (chapters 9-10).
4. Fear has been eliminated (chapter 12).
I am going to talk about this specifically when we look at assurance so suffice it to say that, when sin is removed dread is gone. When dread is gone we can – as I said in the beginning of this sermon – be in relationship with God like we were intended to be in the Garden of Eden.
Here’s the deal that the New Covenant provides in relation to fear:
• We do not come to a mountain that cannot be touched – we come to Mount Zion (Hebrews 12:18-24).
• We are do not shrink back from God in fear (phobos) but cling to Him. Yes, Hebrews 12:28-29 does teach us that “our God is a consuming fire” and deep “reverence and awe” is evoked but not a fear or dread of being in His presence – that is not a Gospel message.
Fear is a result of sin – it is a consequence of the fall (Genesis 3:10). It is not part of a relationship with a God who redeems, restores, and relates.
Wrap-Up
Does this describe you?
• Do you have a sense of anticipation and hope of being in God’s presence?
• Have you experienced an undeniable transformation (like being born again)?
• Do you have a clean conscience regarding your sin and God’s judgment against it?
• Has fear and dread been replaced with love and relationship?
Or, does this describe you?
• You are trying to be good enough for God to like you … love you … accept you.
• You want to do good but lacking the power to see it happen.
• You have a nagging sense of internal condemnation.
• You fear meeting God someday.
If the latter describes you, you could be working under the premise of the “weak and useless” relationship format. You are trying to please God – to earn His favor and good graces – to impress God with your righteousness.
I invite you to come and rest … genuinely rest … in the completed and fully capable work of Jesus Christ. Come meet the Savior who washes sin away and “ever lives” to maintain your relationship with the living and loving God.
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This sermon is provided by Dr. Kenneth Pell
First Church of the Nazarene
Broken Arrow, Oklahoma
www.banazarene.org
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Jesus: The Better Way
(A Congregational Prayer from Hebrews)
Leader: Heavenly Father, giver of all good gifts,
Leader: Because Jesus is better than our legends
All: We will look to Him for character
Leader: Because Jesus is better than our human potential
All: We will look to Him for strength
Leader: Because Jesus is better than our family pedigree
All: We will look to Him for identity
Leader: Because Jesus is a better mediator
All: We will look to Him for reconciliation
Leader: Because Jesus serves as a better guide
All: We will look to Him for direction
Leader: Because Jesus offers a better relationship
All: We will look to Him for communion
Leader: Because Jesus makes better promises
All: We will look to Him for assurance
Leader: Because Jesus ensures a better peace
All: We will look to Him for comfort
Leader: Because Jesus provides better possessions
All: We will look to Him for satisfaction
Leader: Because Jesus instills a better motivation
All: We will look to Him for purpose
Leader: Because Jesus establishes a better family
All: We will look to Him for belonging
Leader: Because Jesus awards a better inheritance
All: We will look to Him for our future
Leader: Because Jesus imparts a better life
All: We will look to Him for an example
Leader: In the name of Jesus, the Better Way, we pray.
