1. Title: When Religion’s Not Enough
2. Text: Hebrews 7
3. Audience: Villa Heights Christian Church, AM worship crowd, August 13, 2006, in the series “Nothing Better Than The Best”
4. Type: expository
5. Objectives:
• For the people to understand the necessity of having a High Priest in our relationship with God and to understand how Jesus is the best qualified for this role
• For the people to feel grateful that we have Jesus as our high priest and to feel desirous to recognize His priesthood in our lives
• For the people to recognize the priesthood of Jesus in their prayers and in their daily choices, understanding the gratitude that we ought to be reflecting as we live under the covering of His priesthood for us
6. Dominant Thought: the priesthood of Jesus is exactly what we need in order to have a right relationship with God the Father
7. When I’m finished with my sermon, I want my audience to understand the necessity of the priesthood of Jesus and to show our constant gratitude for it by the way we live
8. Outline:
Intro: Let’s drop all the talk about “If I were God.” Let’s get a little more realistic, shall we? None of us is every going to “be God.” That position has been filled. Let’s talk instead about “making God.” Yeah, that’s a little closer to home, isn’t it? After all, there are people who in their own minds are “making God” just like they want Him all the time. The Bible describes them as people who “worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator.” Making God. Sounds kind of fun, doesn’t it? But right away, there’s a whole list of hazards involved – a swarm of challenges that face the person who’s going to somehow fashion God to make Him better than He is. Imagine all the mistakes you might make trying to create God. Two of those mistakes are that you might make a god who’s too simple, or a god who is too distant:
1. For those who don’t know Him at all, there’s the possibility of thinking that accessing God is no big deal. After all, He must be pretty big, so, maybe getting in touch with Him isn’t so difficult. Surely He has a cell phone, doesn’t He? If I conclude that God hears everything and pretty much sees everything, then I can pretty much assume he’s easy to get a hold of and then throw in that he’s easy to get along with, right? That fits right in with my consumer world-view. So, the prayers of this kind of person sound kind of like an anonymous note to whoever might be listening – “Yo, God, if you’re out there, I want some stuff…” After all, if god’s there, he’s probably a pretty mellow dude.
There’s another mistake, another extreme, that people make:
2. For those who do know Him just a little, there’s the possibility of thinking that there’s no way we could contact Him at all. He’s too transcendent; too separated. Like the gods in Greek mythology – way off on Mt. Olympus somewhere. After all, it says in the Psalms, “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him?” This is the problem for people who understand God’s transcendence – that is, that God is above us, apart from us – so much that we can’t possibly begin to reach Him or expect Him to reach us. Why even bother talking to this kind of god? Why would he listen? You’re more likely to call up the White House and have the phone answered by George Bush to just chat for a while.
Both are mistakes. Both are a reflection of man-made religion, where the rules are the ones we write for ourselves, and the only god is the one we fashion to look and act like we want him to.
Either way, throughout history, man has understood that we need some way to get close to God – whether He’s the true God or a false god. In fact, that’s what religion is – it’s man’s attempt to get close to his god – to somehow find Him, please Him, appease His anger, pay Him, even to trick Him or force His hand. Guess what. It’s not enough. No one who uses religion to get close to God will ever be sure that they’re close enough.
By now I hope you’ve already looked at yourself and asked, “Is that me? Am I either of those?” Don’t be too quick to answer. Think about it. We come up with all sorts of creative ways to try to get this done. If you’ve ever come to the conclusion that you need to draw close to God – that you need to somehow be in good standing with God - how were you planning on getting that done? Who or what is going to be the channel through which you get through? Are you counting on knowing the right people, doing the right things? What’s your game plan for right now and for Judgment Day?
God has had a plan all along. He mapped it all out, and introduced it as early as Gen. 3:15. So, even if you don’t understand all this, understand
1. that God has laid out His plan, and
2. created a priesthood to administer that plan – the way people can be brought close to Him.
It’s a simple plan. There’s a list of rules - commandments. And there’s a group of people, the tribe of Levi - priests. To be right with God, you just keep all the rules, perfectly, and keep in touch with God through the priests. Do this, and you get to live.
Leviticus 18:5
Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the LORD.
But, a deeper look into God’s plan shows that it included another way. In fact, it had a built-in obsolescence, like a baby tooth. Did your parents begin to panic when you started losing baby teeth? No. They’re supposed to do that. They’re supposed to get replaced with permanent teeth. The same thing is true for the first part of God’s plan. It isn’t the permanent fix we need.
Hebrews 7:19
(for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.
What’s the better hope for us to get close to God, and how can I really be sure that it’s better? I want to answer that today. I want every person who walks out of these doors to have no question about why Jesus is the better and only way to be right with God. I want you to have a game plan for Judgment Day. So, let’s pray, and let’s pray that that’s how we leave here, OK?
(prayer)
Chapter 7 of Hebrews really just picks up the end of ch 6: [Jesus] has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.
We don’t know a thing about this guy Melchizedek, except that he just shows up in Gen. 14, he’s a priest, and a king. We don’t know about his parents, his lineage, or his life. He’s different from all other priests in the OT – and that’s the point. So is Jesus! Jesus is the different and better way!
When religion’s not enough…
I. The New Covenant is Powerful
Hebrews 7:12-19 (Contemporary English Version)
And when the rules for selecting a priest are changed, the Law must also be changed. The person we are talking about is our Lord, who came from a tribe that had never had anyone to serve as a priest at the altar. Everyone knows he came from the tribe of Judah, and Moses never said that priests would come from that tribe. All of this becomes clearer, when someone who is like Melchizedek is appointed to be a priest. That person wasn’t appointed because of his ancestors, but because his life can never end. The Scriptures say about him, "You are a priest forever, just like Melchizedek." In this way a weak and useless command was put aside, because the Law cannot make anything perfect. At the same time, we are given a much better hope, and it can bring us close to God.
When God set up His first covenant, it came through the priesthood of the tribe of Levi. V11 says that the law was given through the Levitical priesthood. Anyone who tried to do it differently was in trouble. Change that, and you’ve changed the whole OT law. Set aside the Levitical priesthood, and you set aside the whole foundation of that OT system. Can you do that? No. You can’t, but God can, and He did!
1. The new priest has better qualifications
V16 says that under the old system, someone became a priest because of his family line. You didn’t run for it in an election. You didn’t buy your way into it. You were simply born in the right tribe, and you were careful to make sure you kept yourself pure by marrying right, not eating unclean foods and not touching unclean things. That’s all there was to it.
How would you like to be depending on that for your right relationship with God? How would you like the whole system to rest on the fact that someone’s great, great, great, great, grandfather was from the tribe of Levi? By the time Jesus came, the priesthood had become completely corrupt. The priests who were in power got there by politics and money. It’s little wonder they were so against Jesus.
But Jesus has become a priest – not on the basis of His ancestors, but something greater – the power of an indestructible life. Jesus wasn’t from the tribe of Levi. He was from the tribe of Judah. He didn’t inherit the old priesthood. He was from a different and better priesthood.
2. The former command is replaced by something better
Here’s another reason we need something better: v18 – the former command was “weak and useless.”
Ill - Imagine going into your doctor and finding out you have a serious illness. So, he sits down to write a prescription for it, and talks to you, like doctors do: “Now, this medicine I’m writing up for you, is an old medicine. It’s been used for centuries, and it hasn’t ever worked once. In fact, no one has ever been cured by it. But, who knows, maybe you’ll be an exception. Think of it as an experimental drug.” Right about that time, you’re going to be looking for a better doctor who will prescribe something that’s actually going to help!
Read it again:
Hebrews 7:18-19 (NIV)
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.
Laws don’t make people good. Laws help us know when we’re wrong. Having rules tells us what we should do, but it doesn’t do anything to make sure we will. Listen to Paul describing a man-made religion to the Colossians
Colossians 2:20-23
Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"? These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.
God never intended that the OT Law would make people righteous. He gave it to us to show us that we’re not good law-keepers, and that we need a better way. If you’re game plan this morning is to be good enough to deserve heaven, you’d better reconsider. You need a better hope than that.
3. The new covenant is forever
Hebrews 7:20-22
And it was not without an oath! Others became priests without any oath, 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.’" Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.
It’s not very often that God makes an oath, so when we read “the Lord has sworn…” we need to pay attention. What’s so significant that God would pronounce it and swear to it? The fact that this different priesthood is forever. From the first day that God gave His Old Covenant, it had an expiration date. The Levitical priesthood would come to an end. The new priesthood, where Jesus is high priest, us forever.
So, God’s new covenant is powerful. For all that we learn from the OT, for all that it accomplished, God never intended that we would count on it to be right with Him.
Hebrews 7:11
If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the law was given to the people), why was there still need for another priest to come--one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron?
Answer: it couldn’t! There had to be another priest and another covenant!
Now what do you do about this? After all, how many of you here this morning are counting on keeping the OT law to get you into heaven? - that is, the 10 commandments and the other 603 commandments in the OT? If you are, you better check your clothing to make sure that you’re not wearing blended fabrics, and you’d better figure out what you’re going to do about the bacon you ate for breakfast, and you’d better check the ancestry of your spouse! OK, that’s not where you’re at.
But I’d be willing to bet there are many people sitting here this morning, some who have sat in the pews of a church for years, who are counting on the very same approach to make them ready for Judgment Day. You need to know that God has given us a better way. Being good enough isn’t good enough. God’s new covenant is powerful – more powerful than our weak inability to be perfect on our own.
When religion’s not enough…
II. The New High Priest is Permanent
For a moment, I want you to consider how we have a tendency to let the impermanence of people push around our relationship with God.
I’ve met a few people who’ve been disappointed by a person, and they let that disappointment stand between themselves and God. They live in my neighborhood, and I’m related to some.
• Somewhere, over a period of time, an engaging preacher gains a following of people. They flock to hear him speak. They fall in line under his leadership. Then, he falls, badly, and in the trail of his personal failure collapses a whole column of people who had made him the basis for their faith.
• Somewhere, a youth group flourishes under the leadership of a great youth minister. But he gets a better offer somewhere else, and moves, and the devotion of that youth group is suddenly tested – was it to Jesus, or to someone else?
• A dear old saint is responsible for leading you to the Lord. That person introduced you to Jesus, baptized you, and has been your mentor from the beginning. Suddenly, he dies, and now you’ll discover if your system of belief is your own, or just one that you borrowed from a stronger person.
• You grow up in a Christian home. Your whole life, from your parents, you’ve learned about Jesus and His plans for you. Suddenly, you find yourself sitting in a college classroom where the professor is telling you that anyone who believes in Jesus is either a fool or just plain weak. The previously safe setting where you believed is no longer where you live. So, now, what do you believe?
The role of other people in our relationship with God is important. In fact, how many of you who are Christ-followers here today became a Christian completely on your own – without anyone else at all telling you about or teaching you about Jesus? The problem is when we allow our relationship with God to be dependent on someone else. Because, no matter who that someone else is, they’re an impermanent factor. That person will one day be gone, or die, or could even fall away. When that happens, where will your faith be?
Hebrews 7:23-24-25
Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
What’s your game plan? If it’s resting on someone or something other than Jesus, it’s depending on something that’s going to be gone someday. When I get to heaven, I want to know that my attorney is going to show up. I want to know for sure that the One Who’s paying my entry is going to be there.
When religion’s not enough…
III. The New High Priest is Perfect
Hebrews 7:26-28
Such a high priest meets our need--one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. 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. 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.
Ill - Imagine going to an optometrist, who’s going to test your eyes for glasses, and he bumps into the wall. He tells you to sit down in the chair, and begins to talk off to the side. He starts to fumble around with the equipment, and, suddenly, it dawns on you – this guy’s eyes are worse then yours! He can’t even see you! Would you stick around and let him prescribe your corrective lenses?
Ill - Imagine going to a dentist – and as he tells you to lean back and open up your mouth and say “ahh,” you notice that his teeth aren’t all there – and, the ones that are there are all brown and gooey-looking. Will you stick around and let him work on your teeth?
That’s what we’re doing whenever we’re counting on something of human origin to make us right with God. The priests of the OT were there to serve as a go-between with the people and God. They would take the peoples’ sacrifices and offer them. But every time they did it, there was a problem: they needed forgiveness just as much as the people they were serving.
No matter how good they were, they had to offer a sacrifice for their own sins too!
I know there are some people in this room who might be willing to lay down their life for me. But when it comes to this punishment for sin thing, it wouldn’t do any good. Every person who might be willing to take my punishment for me already owes it himself. We’re all like a priest who has to offer a sacrifice first for himself, and then he’s OK to offer one for other people, but there’s only one life to offer! There has to be someone better – someone who doesn’t have his own sin in the way - one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.
Hebrews 4:15
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin.
Was Jesus really perfect? If He wasn’t, I’m wondering…What’s your game plan?
Conclusion:
Steve Winger from Lubbock, Texas, writes about his last college test-a final in a logic class known for its difficult exams: “To help us on our test, the professor told us we could bring as much information to the exam as we could fit on a piece of notebook paper. Most students crammed as many facts as possible on their 8-1/2 x 11 inch sheet of paper. But one student walked into class, put a piece of notebook paper on the floor, and had an advanced logic student stand on the paper.” The advanced logic student told him everything he needed to know. He was the only student to receive an "A."
The ultimate final exam will come when we stand before God and he asks, "Why should I let you in?" On our own we cannot pass that exam. Our human attempts to earn eternal life all fall short, but we have Someone Who will stand in for us
This is what Jesus was talking about when He said,
John 14:6
I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
We’re not narrow-minded to repeat those words. They’re simply the only way that you can be sure that you’re ready for heaven today. What’s your game plan?
