Simply Jesus
The Covenant of Jesus
Hebrews 8:1-13
REVIEW (vs 1-5)
-I hope you brought your Bibles this morning.
-We’re going to be cruising through another big chunk of Scripture today in our Hebrews series.
-Chapter 8 is kind of a culmination of what’s been said so far in this book. Our author has been building up to a big point.
-You know that he’s about to make his main point because verse 1 begins with this statement: 1 Here is the main point:
-I figured all of that out, on my own!
1 Here 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.
-He’s saying this as a contrast:
-No Old Testament priest was ever seated in the place of honor, at God’s right hand.
-Last week we saw that the Old Testament priests had two inherent flaws: They were sinners like us and…they kept dying!
-So there are no OT priests enthroned in power, but our NT priest Jesus Christ is enthroned in power at God’s right hand.
-The theme of this letter to the Hebrews is that under Jesus everything is better.
-Unlike the OT priests, he lived a sinless life here on earth.
-He did die, but unlike the OT priests, he rose from the grave.
-And now he continues his ministry from heaven’s throne because Jesus Christ is God! All that means that…
-JESUS IS A SUPERIOR PRIEST! In every possible way.
-But there more to it than that.
2 There he ministers in the heavenly Tabernacle, the true place of worship that was built by the Lord and not by human hands.
-Those earthly priests served in a Tabernacle. (means tent)
-It was the most elaborate tent of all time.
-It’s the only tent in history that could have been on MTV Cribs.
-There were golden utensils, and furniture and it had gold woven into beautiful handcrafted fabric.
-It took a the whole tribe of Levites to set it up.
-The Tabernacle was the place where people went to see a priest
-But that’s not our arrangement.
-Jesus doesn’t need a tent built by human hands. He doesn’t need a facility to minister from…vs 2 says
-JESUS MINISTERS FROM A SUPERIOR TABERNACLE.
-He ministers from a place called “heaven”. And look at verse
3-4 And since every high priest is required to offer gifts and sacrifices, our High Priest must make an offering, too. 4 If 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.
-The OT priests offered animals, oil, incense, wine, and grain on the altars in the Tabernacle.
-And they did this day after day. But what did our high priest do?
-JESUS MADE A SUPERIOR SACRIFICE.
-And he did something that no other priest ever did, or even considered doing.
-Jesus was the only priest to offer himself as the sacrifice for us.
-And He was the only priest who could offer himself….sinless.
-Now why is our author comparing and contrasting all of these OT and NT things?
-Because he’s trying to make his main point.
-This is something that every Christian really ought to know.
-You will never understand your Bible until you get this point:
5 They 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.”
THE OLD COVENANT IS A SHADOW OF THE NEW COVENANT
-A few years back some friends and I decided to climb Mt. Hood.
-Climbing Mt. Hood is challenging.
-You starting hiking at Midnight because the snow is hardened and easier to walk on…but I am not a night owl.
-From Timberline lodge to the top is only 3 miles, but you gain 1 mile in elevation while walking those three miles.
-And it’s cold up there…on that glacial mountain!
-But when we got towards the top something amazing happened.
-You get above the clouds right about sunrise. It was fantastic.
-And I want to show you a picture I took from up there.
-This is the shadow of Mt. Hood on top of the clouds.
-Standing on a mountain, looking down on its shadow on the side of the clouds we never see. It was amazing!
-But that shadow wasn’t the mountain. It’s only a shadow.
-It’s just a copy of the real thing or a silhouette.
-The shadow gives you an idea about the real thing, but it’s not the real thing.
-And that’s the point our author has been working up to.
-The Old Testament was just a shadow of the real thing.
-It was only there to give people a preview at what was coming.
-It was only there to point people to the real thing.
-THE OLD COVENANT/TESTAMENT ANTICIPATED THE NEW COVENANT IN CHRIST JESUS.
-That raises a lot of questions about the Old Testament:
-Was the Old Testament a mistake?
-Did God somehow change his mind about things?
-Was Jesus a backup plan?
-The most common thing I hear about the OT is “I don’t get it!”
-God didn’t change his mind. God doesn’t change his mind because things always go exactly the way he knows they’ll go.
-The OT wasn’t a mistake, God doesn’t really do those!
-And Jesus was not a backup plan…he was the plan all along.
-The OT was a shadow that gave people a glimpse of what was coming…Jesus the Savior.
6 But 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.
-This is what he’s been working up to.
-THE COVENANT OF JESUS IS SUPERIOR.
-Think about what the Old Covenant was about.
-I’m going to break out some advanced Bible stuff on you for a moment, so if your neighbor assumes the fetal position….
-A covenant is a contract. It’s a deal. It’s a formal arrangement.
-COVENANTS HAVE PARTIES, TERMS AND PROMISES.
-IN THE OLD COVENANT:
-The parties were God and the descendants of Abraham.
-Terms: 10 Commandments…the law of Moses
-God agreed to be their God, give them land, protection, to bless them and make them a blessing.
-Promises: That if they were faithful to the covenant they would prosper, and if they were not faithful they would receive wrath.
-IN THE NEW COVENANT:
-The parties are God and people who trust in Jesus.
-Terms: Grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
-But you’ll notice that the promises in the New Covenant are different and vs 6 it says they are better.
-We have better, superior promises, than the people in the OT.
-We are not promised land…we are promised heaven!
-We are not promised protection from earthly enemies…we are promised victory over our great enemy the Devil!
-We are not just promised that God will be our god; we are promised that God’s Spirit will take up residence in our hearts.
-And all of those promises are because of Jesus!
-His Covenant is superior in every possible way.
-But the people who received this letter were thinking about going back…they wanted to go back the Old Covenant.
-They wanted the old arrangement, the old deal.
-But it just doesn’t work that way, it doesn’t make sense.
-Our country has been going through a major recession.
-It seems to me that one of the most visible evidences of this recession is the housing market.
-Our whole neighborhood changed when the Adjustable Rate Mortgages suddenly “adjusted” & priced people out of their home
-But a strange benefit of this recession has been the drastic reduction in interest rates on home mortgages.
-And many people have taken advantage of that…refinanced.
-When you refinance you take your old deal to the lender and say can you make me a better deal?
-Can you get me a lower interest rate? That means your monthly payment goes down and the amount of total interest you’ll pay on the loan is going down too.
-And if they can offer a lower rate…they draw up loan papers.
-And just like a covenant…there are parties…you and the bank.
-There are terms…4.5% interest, $1000 monthly payments, etc.
-And there are promises: I promise to make the payments.
-They promise not to sell the house to someone else.
-And as long as both parties keep their promises, the contract is valid and binding…and benefits both the bank and the buyer.
-And when it’s all said and done in theory, you have a better deal. -The old deal is gone and there is a superior deal its place.
-And you know what never happens? People never come back and say, “I want my old interest rate back.”
-No one says, “I would like a higher interest rate, and bigger monthly payments please.” That’s crazy.
-The old deal is gone. It doesn’t exist anymore. It’s been replaced by something better!
-And that’s what happened with the New Covenant.
-It has replaced the Old Covenant, and no one in their right mind would want to the Old Covenant. No one.
-Do you want to make trips to Jerusalem to worship?
-Do you want to offer animal sacrifices?
-Do you want to memorize and follow the Law of Moses?
-Do you want to talk to priests in order to get forgiveness…I don’t even speak Hebrew!
-Do you want to convince your friends that they have to be circumcised to get to heaven?
-NO ONE wants to go back to the Old Covenant.
-There are people who think that God will reestablish the Levitical priesthood in the end times.
-Why would he do that when he’s stated here, that the priesthood of Jesus is superior in every way?
-There are people who think God will rebuild the Temple in the end times, but here we see that our priest ministers from a better place called heaven.
-There are people who think that God is going to give the Jews one deal and everyone else gets another deal.
-They get land in the desert and we all get heaven.
-Why do they say that?
-Because they believe the first covenant, the old covenant is still in effect….at least for the Jews.
-They believe that if God doesn’t give Israel the Promised Land forever, that God is a liar.
-Now I want to be honest here. Many people think that, and they think it with good reason.
-We don’t have to agree on all of this; it’s not a salvation issue.
-But here is what I want you to think about and wrestle with.
-Why would God keep the Old Covenant in place, when there is a superior covenant offered through Jesus Christ?
-Now let’s read vs 7 & 13
7 If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace it.
-If the bank gives you a better deal, you don’t call them liars!
-You don’t accuse them of breaking their promises. You rejoice, because the new covenant has more than met your expectations.
13 When God speaks of a “new” covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete. It is now out of date and will soon disappear.
-Our passage says it has been replaced. It is obsolete.
-The Old Covenant was a shadow of the real thing.
-And 2000 years after this was written our authors words have come true…it has disappeared.
-How does this square with what Jesus said?
-Matthew 5:18 “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose.”
-THE OLD COVENANT SERVED ITS PURPOSE; IT POINTED OUT OUR NEED FOR JESUS.
-The Old Covenant was designed to show people that they couldn’t measure up to God’s standards on their own.
-The OC was designed to reveal our universal tendency to sin.
-The OC was designed to highlight people’s need for s Savior.
-And the whole purpose of his people Israel was to bring forth the Messiah, the Savior who would extend salvation to all.
-The OC served its purpose.
Generations of people proved that men and women will never measure up to God’s standards….on their own.
-The OC confirmed that all people have a tendency toward sin.
-The OC confirmed that all people everywhere need a Savior.
-And yet these Hebrews were ready to walk away from Jesus, their Savior…and go back into the Shadows.
-But there is nothing there for them. Only the same old stuff.
-That’s the tragedy of walking away from Jesus. Whatever it is that lures people away…ultimately just leads back to darkness.
-Some of you have come out of the shadow of addiction…Jesus.
-Some of you have saved marriages by the power of Jesus.
-Some of you have overcome your past…through Jesus.
-All of you who have accepted Jesus have been forgiven & saved.
-Saved from anger, pride, greed, fear, shame…and yet even this morning some of you are teetering on the edge.
-You’re playing around with the idea of going back…back into the shadows instead of living in the light.
-There is only death in the shadows. Only more pain. Heartache.
-More broken marriages, broken kids, broken lives.
-And here is the shocking truth about covenants. Everyone is in some kind of covenant with God…
-If you have placed your trust in Jesus you have the promises of salvation, blessings, Holy Spirit, Heaven, more. Covenant of grace.
-But if you don’t know Jesus you only have the promise of wrath.
-Jesus established this New Covenant by shedding his own blood on the cross at Calvary.
-It was predicted by Jeremiah and the prophets (vs 8-12)
12 And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”
