Hebrews 7:26-8:13
We need to constantly be reminded of what we have, don’t we? One of the reasons that I like the Thanksgiving holiday here in the US is that for a day or two, most of us take some time out to reflect on what we are thankful for. In fact, social sites on the Internet, like Facebook, experience a dramatic one-day, redemptive transformation, when everyone overflows with posts about what we are all grateful for. But, the very next day after we celebrate how grateful we are for what God has provided, we immediately become focused on what we don’t have and what we want to get instead. We are prone to forget the great freedoms, the great privileges and the lavish provision that most of us have very quickly.
Now, I’m not against sales and making wise purchases and I’m not against retailers or purchasing gifts for others or even getting a good bargain on something we would have bought otherwise. But this time of year, it is very easy for us to get caught up in becoming more aware of what we don’t have, or what we can’t afford, or what we want, and begin to lose sight of what we do have and what is most important. And when we lose sight of what we do have, we can become discontent and lose our focus on what is meant to make us truly joyful.
I remember when I was young, my parents used to try to make me grateful for food that was being served to me, like peas and boiled okra. They would remind me that starving orphans, in some far away country would be grateful to have even a handful of peas to eat. They were right of course but I didn’t understand their point then. Now that I’m older, I understand that they were trying to get me to see what I really had and to enjoy it.
The people that the book of Hebrews was written to probably did not fully grasp what they had in Jesus Christ. They probably didn’t understand who He was and what they had in Him. Not only were they lacking a clear sight of who Jesus was, they were in danger of losing hope because they were tempted to look for something else and turn back to the religion of their past. They needed to be reminded of just who Jesus is and what they have in salvation through Him. They needed to refocus on what is true and most important and not be satisfied with a religion that was soon to vanish away.
The author of Hebrews has been laying out systematically, an explanation of who Jesus is and why Jesus is better than any alternative. He has been explaining what hope we have in Jesus and why we can hope in Jesus. In the first part of chapter 7, we learned that Jesus is a priest of a different and better order. We learned that the priesthood of Jesus replaced the Levitical priesthood of the Old Covenant in order to give us a better hope. And we learned that Jesus is a better High priest because He eternally intercedes for us and He is able to save us to the uttermost – something that no priest of old could ever do.
In our passage for this morning, the author of Hebrews will give us three more reasons why Jesus is a superior High Priest; three more reasons why we can trust in Him; three more reasons to be grateful for who He is and what we have in Him.
The main idea that we will call attention to in the text this morning is that Jesus is better because of who He is, where He is and what He brings us.
Hebrews 7:26-28 “For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27 He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. 28 For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.”
If you were appointed to pick the best candidate for ambassador to the United Nations, to represent our country, it wouldn’t be fitting to have someone represent your country who was an open scoundrel. You would probably look for someone who had impeccable character, because they would better represent your country’s values and what you believed.
Even more so, if you were living in 500 BC and you were told to choose a High Priest of the Old Covenant, you would definitely make sure you chose someone who was morally upright and who demonstrated the utmost integrity in all that he did. But even then, you couldn’t be sure if the High Priest would be acceptable when he went into the Holy of Holies, where God’s presence was manifest in the tabernacle in a unique way. You couldn’t be absolutely sure, because no one is perfect and you would have to hope that he would be accepted by God to atone for the sins of the people once a year, or else, your sacrifice may not be accepted. And even if you did pick just the right man, you had better hope that he stayed pure and didn’t let the position go to his head and become proud. In the end though, whomever you picked would one day have to be replaced because no one could ever atone for sins once and for all.
What the writer of Hebrews is saying is that it isn’t like that for those of us who have placed their faith in Jesus as their High Priest. We can have confidence that our sins are completely atoned for because we now have a perfect High Priest, who has offered Himself up as a perfect sacrifice, and He serves forever, never needing replacement and never going away.
And the first point that we will look at, is that Jesus is better because of His perfect Character.1. Jesus Is Better Because of His perfect character (7:26-28)
· The text says, it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest. Why was it indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest?
· If we are to be truly saved to the uttermost, it requires a High Priest who is fit to save us completely. Only a perfect High Priest is fit to meet all of our needs and save us. If we are to truly receive help, we need to be helped by someone who has overcome all sin, so it is fitting that he is holy, innocent and unstained.
· The high priests of old were not holy unstained and innocent and they couldn’t really help those in need. We have a high priest who is truly holy. His whole life was completely pure and He was pleasing to God in His purity. He was completely blameless; He was free from all guilt and completely innocent. He was untouched by any moral imperfection or defect in character. No fault or failure stained his character or reputation in any way. He was above and beyond any just cause for reproach.
· And now, He has gone into the heavens and been separated from us, exalted above the heavens because that is the most fitting place for His ministry, in the presence of God. If we want help that is stronger than us, then we need an exalted helper. So it is fitting that Jesus would have direct access to all of the power, might and help of God Himself.
· He was the first and He is the only perfect High Priest. He is the only one who can stand before God’s holy presence on His own merit. And verse 27 tells us that He didn’t need to deal with His own sin first.The high priests of old offered sacrifices daily, showing that they were not finally effective in atoning for sins. The other High Priests were all unqualified to offer themselves, since they were all sinful. Jesus is ultimately qualified, since He is absolutely perfect and sinless.
· Unlike the other priests who offered animals both for themselves and for others, Jesus offered of Himself for others. The sacrifices of the Levitical priests could not finally secure redemption but the sacrifice that Jesus offered of Himself as the perfect, spotless lamb was definitive. It was final, because no other sacrifice was needed. His sacrifice ended the whole sacrificial system because His offering of Himself as our perfectly holy, blameless, pure and undefiled substitute was a once and for all sacrifice. His is the sacrifice to end all other sacrifices because with His sacrifice, He has forever secured the redemption of all those who place their faith in Him.
· In chapters 9 and 10, we will unpack the sacrifice of Jesus more, so we won’t spend any more time on it this morning, knowing we will spend much more time on it later. But the point of verses 26 and 27 here is to show that Jesus is a superior High Priest because He was perfectly sinless.
· Verse 28 of our passage tells us that the priests of old were appointed even in their weakness. But Jesus was not appointed in any weakness, He was appointed as the ultimately powerful Lord of all in perfection, by the oath of God. And as we saw earlier in chapter 7, God’s oath appointing Jesus, is superior to the appointments of the old Priests. He has been made perfect forever through His obedient life, His perfect offering of Himself as the final atoning sacrifice for our sins and His reigning at the right hand of the Father interceding for us.
· So why does it matter that Jesus was perfect in character? Do you ever feel like God doesn’t accept you? We can trust that His sacrifice of Himself was perfectly acceptable to God on our behalf. We don’t ever need to wonder if God will accept us if we are trusting in the sacrifice of Jesus. He accepts us because He has accepted the perfect character of Jesus as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. He accepted Jesus’ sacrifice once and for all. There needs to be no more sacrifice for sin ever. Nothing more can be offered to atone for our sins and make us any more acceptable to God.
· Do you ever feel like God may not accept you tomorrow if you fail? He has been made perfect forever. He will never fail us. His sacrifice will always be perfect and always completely sufficient forever. God will always accept those who come to Him trusting in His son’s perfect character and this is meant to give us great hope!
Hebrews 8:1-5 Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 2 a minister in the holy places, in the true tent1 that the Lord set up, not man. 3 For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. 4 Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. 5 They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, "See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain."
· The point of these verses that we will see is that Jesus is better because He serves in the true temple and no mere shadow2. Jesus is Better, because He serves in the true tent (8:1-5)
· Verse one tells us that He is a better High Priest because He has sat down beside God. No earthly high priest could ever sit down, because their job was never finished.
· When the Levitical priests came into the tent of God’s presence, it was a continually, year-after-year coming into the most holy place where there was a replica of the cherubim and a replica of a seat over the ark of the covenant, which in some sense housed some of the presence of God in a unique way. Jesus doesn’t just serve at a replica of the mercy seat though; He serves at the actual seat of all mercy to mediate mercy to us. He doesn’t just enter into where there were statues of angels. He enters into where angels minister in the very presence of God Himself, covering themselves because they cannot look on Him.
· The priests entered into a shadow but our passage tells us that Jesus sits at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven. And the fact that He has sat down, means that no further work is needed; no other sacrifice is necessary and His atonement for us was accepted completely. He continues to intercede for us but there is no more sacrifice that will ever be needed.
· And verse 2 tells us that He is a minister in the true temple. What the author of Hebrews is saying, is that the tent - the tabernacle in the Old Testament was not the true tent. It was not the place where God truly was but it was only a shadow of God’s presence and it was meant to make us long for the true presence of God.
· I used to work for a company called Electronic Arts and the company makes a bunch of realistic looking games that are based on capturing the actual motion of the sports personalities that they depict. One of the games they used to make was called Tiger Woods golf and to make it they captured Tiger Woods actual movements.
· Now imagine if you had never heard of the game of golf and never played it but I gave you this video game and told you that this was the game of golf. And then imagine you played it and even got very good at the video game and then I took you out to a real golf course and told you that what you had played was really only a copy of the real thing and then you tried to play the game of golf. It would change your whole view of golf and you would see that the real thing was so much better than the copy and so much more enjoyable
· In Tiger Woods golf, the courses and the scenery look like the real thing. But the game isn’t the real thing, it is just a copy of the real thing. The game is only a shadow of reality.
· The author of Hebrews is trying to show the original readers that they should not return to trusting in the High Priests who only served in the shadow of the greater reality, when Jesus is a better High Priest who serves in the true tent of God’s presence, where God dwells in all His fullness.
· For us, we can try to trust in so many other things; so many other mere shadows and copies of the real thing. Some worship nature, but it is only a shadow of God’s beauty. Some worship other people or pleasure but these things are only a shadow of the pleasures we are meant to find in God. Some worship fitness but this is only a shadow of the new bodies that we will possess and our earthly limitations are made for us to hope in heaven. Some worship earthly wealth but this is only a shadow of the riches we have in God. Even our earthly homes are only a shadow of the mansions he has prepared for those who are in Him.
· What this text in Hebrews is saying is that we shouldn’t hope in the shadows of the real thing. We are made to hope in Jesus, because He is a minister in God’s very presence, where there are no shadows but the full reality of His all-sufficient majesty. God has set up the true tent; the real sanctuary of God. And when the text says that it is true, it means that it is real and it remains. It isn’t a mere replica. It is what the replica tent on earth was modeled after. And Jesus is the One through whom we enter into God’s actual presence now
· Christ serves in the heavenly temple, in the direct presence of God. The OT priests only served in a small part of the presence of God, never directly seeing God and speaking with Him. But Jesus sits at the right hand of the throne of Majesty. The Levitical priesthood offered sacrifices that addressed sin but never fully atoned for sin. Jesus’perfect sacrifice fully atoned for sins. The Levitical priests offered up dumb animals who didn’t know what they were doing when they died. Every priest must offer something and so, it was necessary for Jesus to have something to offer. And as verse 27 told us, He offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice.Jesus offered Himself with great forethought and He knew what He was doing when He died for us.
· The entire system of offering sacrifices in the tabernacle was but a shadow of the real thing. It was only patterned after the real thing in the way that a miniature is patterned after the real thing. It is a dim picture of reality, like an impressionist painting of the seashore is beautiful but can never really capture the beauty of the ocean, sand and sky, nor the smells of the sea air nor the warmth of the sun. But Jesus serves in God’s own presence, not just in the tabernacle or temple that was patterned after what Moses saw on Mount Sinai.
· Jesus ministers in the real thing. Jesus is better because of who He is and where He serves.
Hebrews 8:6-13 But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. 8 For he finds fault with them when he says: "Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more." 13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
The third point this morning is that Jesus is better because He is a mediator of a better covenant.
3. Jesus is better Because He mediates a better covenant.
· “A covenant is a binding agreement which provides an established basis for interaction between its parties” · The previous agreement that God made with man allowed for man to have some interaction with God and for God’s presence to be amongst His people to some degree and it was based on the Levitical priesthood and sacrificial system. But the people never fully kept their part of the agreement.
· The ministry of Jesus as our priest is more excellent than any ministry of the priests of old because the covenant He mediates is much more excellent than the old covenant. Jesus brings us a new agreement by which we can have direct interaction with God, which is something never given in the old covenant. And the old covenant had promises of blessing if the people obeyed it but in the new covenant, we are promised more than just the blessings of the Old Covenant. Hebrews tells us this agreement that we have is enacted on better promises
· So, what are these better promises? The better promises that we who enter into covenant with God through Jesus have are a new heart for God, knowledge of God personally experienced, and the complete forgiveness of sins.
· The fault in the first covenant was not with God’s part of the covenant. He kept it perfectly. But the fault was with the fact that it never could completely atone. Animal sacrifice could never fully satisfy God’s wrath. And the primary fault lied with the people of God and their inability to keep the covenant.
· The author of Hebrews quotes Jeremiah 31:31-34 to show that God had always planned a new covenant, because the old covenant was designed to be insufficient, to point to the need for a different kind of agreement not based on the sacrifices of animals or on the performance of imperfect people, but based on the perfect sacrifice of the only perfect man.
8 For he finds fault with them when he says: "Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
· This new covenant is initiated by God. In verse 8 God says “I will establish”, in verse 10, He says “I will make”, “I will put, I will write” “I will be their God”. This new covenant is all about God’s work to bring a people to Himself through His own means and the faithfulness of His own Son. Where mankind couldn’t keep the covenant, God would send His own Son to keep very part of the covenant as fully man and yet still fully God.· Do you ever feel too weak to follow God, to obey God? You can trust that God will make you able, God will give you a new mind and a new heart for Him and God will be your God. Stop looking at your own weakness and start looking at our covenant making, almighty God. He will do it!
· Verse 9 tells us that the fault that was found with the Old Mosaic covenant was that the people did not continue in God’s covenant with them. God took them by the hand and led them out. He strongly and compassionately led them out of slavery. But, even in the first generation of people who saw God’s mighty works, who witnessed His great deliverance of them, who ate the manna that God fed them with, who drank water that God made flow from a rock, who were protected on every side and given victory over their enemies, this same generation couldn’t keep the covenant. How much less would later generations be able to keep the covenant! But, as Hebrews 2 told us, now, Jesus has taken hold of us to help us and led us out of slavery finally and completely. He gives us a new covenant in His own blood.
· In Jeremiah, God had prophesied over 500 years before Christ that he would make a new covenant, where He would give them a new mind to be able to understand and follow His laws. Now, instead of being written on tablets of stone, the new covenant is written on the hearts of all of those who have Jesus as their High priest, so that we actually desire to obey Him.
· In the past God’s people were commanded to write His laws on their minds through much effort. Now, God is the one who writes the law on their hearts and minds and enables people to live lives that are pleasing to Him through His enabling And it is the giving of a new heart that God does, which actually enables us to obey His will.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
· This promise of a new heart that actually wants to do God’s will and a new mind that is able to do God’s will is truly a better promise! The new covenant is not about externals any longer. It is about knowing God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit personally. No other religion can say this about their God. But God has made a new covenant with us, so that we can know Him personally.· A follower of Buddha doesn’t and can’t say he knows Buddha personally. A follower of Mohammed can’t say he knows Mohammed personally. A follower of Joseph Smith can’t know Joseph Smith personally. A follower of any other religion cannot have a personal relationship with the founder of their false religion. But God wants to know His people personally, in their minds and hearts; in their thoughts and desires. And God gives a new heart and His own Spirit to enable those who trust in Him to truly know Him, obey Him and confidently approach His very presence for help and mercy in time of need. This knowing of God isn’t limited to a special cast of people or based on your lineage or where you come from or how smart you are or your abilities either. This ability to know God is equally available to all who will repent and believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins.
12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more."
· The word “for” in this sentence, tells us that the basis for the promises, the basis for having a new heart and knowing God is that He will be merciful to those in this new covenant and remember their sins no more.· God in His grace has determined to forgive completely and fully all those who trust in Jesus because of the once and for all sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross. And part of the wonder of the new covenant is that God is merciful to those who have Christ Jesus as their High Priest and God says He will remember our sins no more! Imagine that – not only is God merciful towards our iniquities, but He actually chooses to no longer remember our sins.
· Some families are torn apart and ravaged by an on-going remembrance of sins and an on-going choosing to not forgive and to hold the other party responsible. Some families punish each other because of their past sins and never let each other forget their sins. But we who are in God’s family will never have our sins remembered.
· I love this quote from P.R. Williamson who put it wonderfully when he said, “sin cannotimperil the divine-human relationships guaranteed by this new covenant, for sin will not be brought into account: God will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
· The new covenant is radically new. He will never punish us for our sins against Him. He will never hold our sins against us or remind us of our sins. He will never accuse us nor be bitter or resentful against us. He will remember our sins no more if we have placed our hope in our great mediator Jesus Christ who always stands to make intercession for us!
· Verse 13 is saying that the Old Covenant is becoming obsolete. So why would we hope in something obsolete? Why would we still hope in trying to keep God’s laws on our own?
· It is like hanging onto some ancient technology hoping that one day it will be used again. But technology has moved on past the beta-max tapes and moved on from even their replacement of VHS. We don’t even make video tapes anymore and it would be silly to hope for some inferior thing like VHS to return, when we have 3d-Blue Ray players.
· By saying it is growing old and is ready to vanish away, in effect, it says that the old covenant has passed its expiration-date and is ready to go away. It is like milk that was once good but has now passed its expiration date and is rotten and ready to be thrown away. Why would we drink of it to be refreshed? That would be silly. We have a new covenant that is so much more excellent than the old covenant, and the author of Hebrews is asking them why in the world would they want to hang onto hoping in the new covenant, when not only is it obsolete, it is ready to vanish away.
· In fact, since the Book of Hebrews was written, the entire sacrificial system and all of the priestly laws have vanished away. Sure, the Jewish people remain and there is a remnant of a religion, but all of those who hope in the old Judaism are hoping in an obsolete system that has gone away. It is sad, because if you are hoping in the Old Covenant, there is no way that you could ever keep the old covenant – the temple is gone.
· The Ark of the Covenant is gone. The tablets of the law have disappeared. There is no longer any holy of holies on this earth because it has been done away with. The entire temple was destroyed shortly after the book of Hebrews was written. And since 70 AD, when the temple was destroyed, it has never been rebuilt and there has been no place for any priest to offer sacrifices to God. But we have a great High priest in a temple that still remains and will forever remain.
· We have no sad system to hope in; we have a glad hope in an eternal High Priest who doesn’t serve in the shadows but who serves in the presence of the eternal God forever.
· As we start this advent season, looking forward to celebrating the birth of our Great High Priest, let us remember that we have the Son; we don’t need to trust in any shadows. No earthly system will satisfy. No earthly thing can bring us peace or joy or happiness. But Jesus has brought us true peace, true joy, true happiness, that can’t be taken away even if all we have is taken away from us.
· Our sins are remembered no more and we can know God. What greater gift could we ever want?
Potential Application Questions:
1. As we have been studying the book of Hebrews for the past 15 weeks, how has Jesus become more amazing to you? What aspects of who Christ is and what He has done are you most grateful for?2. When you find that you can’t be good enough, and don’t feel like God accepts you, how does knowing that Jesus was perfect in character make a difference in your perspective? How should it make a difference?
3. When do you commonly struggle with not feeling accepted by God? What does this say about where you are looking for your worth?
4. How should knowing that God credits the perfect character of Jesus to us affect the way we think, feel or act?
5. What shadows (personal performance or merit, things, people or circumstances) are you tempted to trust in?
6. Jesus serves in God’s direct presence as our mediator. How should this give us confidence to come before God’s throne of grace to receive mercy and grace in our time of need?
7. How does knowing that God doesn’t remember our sins; that we are completely accepted by God and seen as righteous by God affect our joy in Jesus? If it doesn’t, how can we keep these truths at the center of all we do and cultivate joy?
8. In the sermon, Matt mentioned the better promises that the passage speaks of. What are these better promises and why should it matter to us?
9. Spend some time as a small group, in prayers of public thanksgiving for the promises of God that we have in Jesus. Perhaps you could close in a song of worship as well.
