Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Good morning. If you got your Bible, you can turn to Hebrews chapter eight. That's where we're going to unpack.
[00:00:07] I heard from a few people. They were like, I thought you were going to start in the. At the beginning of Hebrews.
[00:00:12] I'm sorry, Hebrews 7, 8, and 9 is a little capsule of an argument that's being made in the bigger book of Hebrews. But I figured after 10 months of just walking through Exodus, we're going to jump into this little section. And. And I'm really excited. I keep telling the staff. I was like, I can't wait to get to chapter nine. Like, I got to get through seven and eight to get to chapter nine. That. That next week. I'm super excited. Just. But it's as this argument builds that we really get the insight into what the author of Hebrews is doing. He's pulling this Old Testament stuff, and he's saying, I think, like, do you see Jesus? Do you see Jesus in everything that the Old Testament was pointing us to? And so this morning, as we jump into chapter eight, I just wanted to maybe start us kind of in thinking a specific way that if I asked you, and at the sake of losing all of you to lunch, but what was your favorite meal you ever ate? Like, if you think about the best meal you ever ate, think too hard. But it's probably something incredible. But my guess is that no one in this room actually was thinking about, there might be a few little babies, but the peas and carrots in, like, those little jars that are all mushed up, I don't think any of y' all adults would be like, man, that was the best.
[00:01:38] If I could just go back to that, right? If I could just go back to that. That was incredible, right? Like, nobody's wanting to go back to that old stuff. Why? Because what you've experienced is so much better that that you have experienced. What steak or salmon or whatever your favorite meal is that you've experienced that. And so it would be crazy to be like, man, could I go back to that? Actually, as a student pastor, I have some of my former students in here, but we played baby food roulette.
[00:02:12] What that looks like is you pass around the grossest flavor of baby food that you could possibly imagine, and if the music stops on you, you have to take a bite. And if you want to see little kids, teenage kids gag, like, that's the way to go. It's like, you used to love this stuff, but now you can't even smell it, right? Like, why Would we go back to the old when we've tasted and seen and experienced the new?
[00:02:40] And that's a glimpse into where we're going.
[00:02:43] In Hebrews chapter 8, the author of Hebrews is going, and Jesus has brought a new covenant.
[00:02:52] He's brought something so much better.
[00:02:57] Why would you go back to the old when you can taste and see and experience the new?
[00:03:05] Would you pray with me and then we'll jump into unpacking this.
[00:03:12] Lord, we pray that by your spirit you might give us eyes to see and ears to hear this morning, that there wouldn't be confusion as we look at this text and as we track the argument that's being made that points us to Christ and what Christ has done for us. Lord, I pray that we might grasp that this morning and God, that in grasping that which is true and in seeing the beauty of what you have accomplished for us and who you are on our behalf, Lord, that we might live lives of worship, Lord, that the awe of you and our love for you might buffer us against temptation and sin, Lord, but that we might fall more in love with you to run to you in our times of need. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:04:03] What I'd like to do is I want to read our whole text. It's 13 verses with a really large quote from the book of Jeremiah. But let's read this all together so that we get the full argument. And then we're going to go back and we're going to begin to unpack it together.
[00:04:20] Hebrews 8, verse 1.
[00:04:23] Now, the point in what we are saying is we have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy place, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man.
[00:04:39] For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. Thus it was necessary for this priest also to have something to offer.
[00:04:48] 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, they serve a copy and a 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.
[00:05:09] But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is much more excellent than the old, as the covenant he mediates is better, since it's enacted on better promises.
[00:05:21] For if the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.
[00:05:27] 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. 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. And for they did not continue in my covenant. And so I showed no concern for them, declares the lord, 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 mind and write them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
[00:06:05] 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, for I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. 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.
[00:06:34] Let's just begin starting at the top of this. He, he, he begins with this summary statement. Now, the point in what we are saying is this. That's a super helpful statement because it narrows us and goes, okay, what has he just been saying? In the first seven chapters of Hebrews, he's making this argument pointing to how Jesus is better. And specifically chapter seven, he makes the argument that Jesus is a better priest, that he serves as a better priest. What was a priest?
[00:07:02] A priest was a mediator.
[00:07:05] You have a holy God and a sinful people. And how can those two dwell together?
[00:07:12] And we learned as we walk through the book of Exodus that they can't, that the holiness of God makes them utterly separate. And yet a priest, a mediator, can be a go between, can go from God to the people and say, thus says the Lord, but can also go from the people to God and say, here's sacrifices and atonements for their sins. Be gracious and merciful to them. That this mediator was a go between.
[00:07:38] But as we saw in the book of Exodus, that this Levitical priesthood, through the line of Levi, Aaron and his sons, they were priests and they would go between God and sinful people. And there was a specific way that they had to go between, that they had to offer sacrifices and they had to wear royal garments and they had to do ceremonial washings because they themselves were sinful as well, right? So you've got a go between, but the go between is flawed in and of themselves. And that was the argument last week that Jesus serves in A different priestly line.
[00:08:21] A priestly line that came actually before Abraham.
[00:08:25] A priesthood line that came before. Before Moses and the law that told them what they had to do. A priestly line that comes before David, who was a king. And so you have Jesus, who is a better priest than any of the Old Testament priests because he serves as in a different priestly line.
[00:08:47] And so we get to 8, 1, and it says, his point is that we have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven. Now, it's important here, because he's zoning in, that we have this better high priest. And you see what he's doing here, that his action is that he's not constantly working.
[00:09:11] He's seated.
[00:09:14] He's seated because his work is finished.
[00:09:17] Could illustrate it like this. I have four kids at home. I don't sit down.
[00:09:22] The work's not done.
[00:09:24] And so you sit down when your work is finished.
[00:09:29] But Jesus, our high priest, is seated because on the cross he cried out, it's finished.
[00:09:41] That all of the atonement work was done. That he offered himself as the sacrificial lamb once for all, for all sin, all people of all time, for those who would put their faith in him, they have been redeemed.
[00:10:00] It's incredible, this high priest that had all of these duties, that if you just think of a priest in the Old Testament times, that he had 2 million people ish in Israel at the time where we first see the priesthood established, there's sacrifices that have to be made for all of those people and for all of those families and for themselves and in morning and in evening.
[00:10:25] And that's a lot of work just to mediate and go between God and his people.
[00:10:32] And yet Jesus, our high priest, is seated.
[00:10:38] But look at where he's seated.
[00:10:40] He's seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty on high. That he's seated at the right hand, which is a position throughout the scripture, that at right hand is a position of authority.
[00:10:52] That he's seated because he has the authority.
[00:10:57] That we have a high priest who has accomplished all the work and who is seated in a position of authority to where he can say, y', all, come on, you have access.
[00:11:13] That he sits in a position of authority where he can proclaim and declare righteousness, where he can give access.
[00:11:26] That he sits because it's finished. And he's at the right hand because he has all authority.
[00:11:34] Verse 2, it says that he is a minister in the holy place, in the True tent that the Lord set up, not man, that we see in this position, that the tabernacle was just a shadow of what heaven was, and the temple was just a shadow of what heaven was. And when you think about a shadow, then you cast a shadow based off of that which is real, but the shadow is not real.
[00:11:56] It points you to that which is real.
[00:11:59] And so we see that Jesus offers us access into the true tent, into the dwelling place of God, because that's where he is in the holy of holies, that he is fully God.
[00:12:16] And he gives us access to the Father because of his sacrifice and because of his work as a mediator for sinful people to dwell in the holy of holies. You can just imagine, like, how radical this was, that there was a place which was representative of the holiness of God and God's presence.
[00:12:39] And one person got to go in there once a year.
[00:12:44] And now he's saying, we have access to that.
[00:12:49] We have access into the holy of holies. We have access because of what our Savior has done.
[00:12:57] It's pretty incredible. But that's just the beginning of his argument that goes, hey, yeah, we have this priest. But now let's look at the argument of what he's making. He argues that we have a better priest, but now he's going to argue that we have a better covenant. And so we're venturing into the deep end. So if you struggle swimming in the deep end, hold on to somebody, right? We're going to follow this argument. And I want you to track with me as we walk through this argument, because as we get to the end of it, it's going to have incredible application for our life.
[00:13:27] So here's the argument that he's about to make, is that we have a better high priest who offers a better covenant, a better promise. All right, so let's look at this. Verse 4.
[00:13:40] Now, if we were on earth. If he were on earth. Or verse three, sorry. Every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. Thus it was necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Okay, so what's happening here?
[00:13:55] As you go from a sinful people to a holy God, the priests would have taken sacrifices to offer on behalf of the people and on behalf of themselves to cover their sins, that God would be gracious and merciful to them, a sinful people.
[00:14:15] The blessings that then would return, that the priest would then take to the people is that that he would take blessings from God, that God would dwell in their midst and bless them based off of their obedience. To his commands in offering the sacrifices.
[00:14:31] And so he says that every priest would have taken these gifts and sacrifices.
[00:14:38] And so what was the gift and sacrifice that Jesus took?
[00:14:43] Jesus offered himself as the sacrifice. That's what. That's what he took. But if you look at verse four, that if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. Now here's where it gets deep.
[00:15:01] The priests were obeying what God had commanded.
[00:15:04] God had given his law, and it was the Ten Commandments.
[00:15:08] Now, God's law, the scripture tells us, isn't a burden. It's actually a blessing for us because it tells us how to live a life of flourishing. It tells us how to be a people of God, a holy people. And so the law was given in order that it might instruct us on how to live godly lives.
[00:15:30] But these priests were offering gifts according to the law. It was these sacrifices that they had to give in order to appease the justice of God.
[00:15:44] So they would have taken bulls and goats and sheep and birds, and they would have offered these sacrifices of grain or of oil or of barley. And they have. They would have offered these sacrifices according to what God had told them, according to the law.
[00:16:01] But Jesus is offering something different.
[00:16:05] He's offering something not according to the law that he's doing.
[00:16:11] He's doing something different. Look at verse five. So these serve as a shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he instructed.
[00:16:20] He was instructed by God to say, see that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain.
[00:16:28] So again, the people's relationship and covenant with God was according to their obedience to his commands. Y' all tracking with that?
[00:16:39] That's what the law was doing.
[00:16:42] How does a holy God live with sinful people? You have to do exactly what I command, because that's how you can dwell with me. That includes these sacrifices, that includes these rituals. That includes obedience to everything that he commands.
[00:17:01] Here's where it gets good. Verse 6.
[00:17:05] But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that's much more excellent then the Old.
[00:17:13] As the old covenant he mediates is better, since it's enacted on better promises. Okay, so the author of Hebrews is just telling us that there's something better than the law that was given to the people of Israel. And we go, whoa, wait a minute, time out.
[00:17:31] So was what God gave them flawed?
[00:17:37] No, it wasn't that his law was flawed. It's that the people's Hearts were flawed.
[00:17:46] That's why it was flawed. Let me illustrate it this way.
[00:17:50] When I tell my kids, here's my rules, that if you want to experience blessings in life, you obey these rules, then it's not the rules that are flawed. When my kids break them.
[00:18:06] Y' all tracking with that that the rules aren't problematic.
[00:18:12] What's problematic is that we can't obey them.
[00:18:17] It's flawed because we're unable to keep them.
[00:18:20] It's flawed because we can't obey the law perfectly. And that's what the Law shows us, is the Law shows us a need for a savior. The Law shows us a need for what he's about to argue and a new heart.
[00:18:33] The Law shows us this is what a life of flourishing looks like. The problem is that we can't keep it.
[00:18:40] And so the law just condemns.
[00:18:42] It doesn't actually provide life, it doesn't give life, because we can't keep the law. And so what he's arguing here, and he's about to unload on this, is that Jesus offers something new and something better because it's something we can keep because he enables it.
[00:19:01] It's something we can do because he accomplished it for us.
[00:19:06] So he mediates a better covenant because it's built on better promises. And so I want to walk through what is it that makes this covenant better? What is it that makes these promises better? I want to give you three things as we walk through this passage in Jeremiah, the three ways that he makes the new better.
[00:19:30] Number one.
[00:19:31] He promises a changed heart. He promises a changed heart. Look at verse 8. 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. Okay, so this is the people of Israel. The context of when this is written through the prophet Jeremiah, is that the people of Israel have royally failed this old covenant. They have not obeyed God's laws, and therefore God is bringing about consequences and judgment, punishment because of their disobedience.
[00:20:05] To the extent that the temple that they've built, the dwelling place of God, is about to collapse to the extent that Israel, God's people, are about to be captured and put into slavery and taken into exile, where they will be brought out of the land which God had promised to them.
[00:20:30] To the extent that Jerusalem, God's holy city, was about to fall and be captured.
[00:20:38] That all of these things showed that the people had failed God's covenant faithfulness. They had failed God's Law hadn't failed, but they had failed to keep the covenant with God.
[00:20:54] So God makes a promise that in these darkest days there are days coming when he will establish a new covenant with them. Not like the covenant that he made with their fathers on the day when he took them up by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. The days when the people of Israel were in captivity and slavery. And it wasn't because of their obedience and it. And it wasn't because of anything that they did. But God reached down and he rescued them and he brought them out and he said, I'm going to dwell with you. Just obey my commands and I'll be your God and you'll be my people if you'll obey my commands.
[00:21:31] Not a covenant like that, but something new.
[00:21:37] For they did not continue in my covenant. And so I showed no concern for them, declares the lord. But verse 10, here's where we get the glimpse.
[00:21:45] 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.
[00:21:55] Oh, that's different.
[00:21:58] Where were God's laws with the people of Israel before?
[00:22:02] Written on a stone?
[00:22:04] Written on a tablet?
[00:22:06] They weren't written in their hearts, they weren't written on their minds. They were. There were something that there was out there. There was a checklist of things I've got to do, I've got to obey.
[00:22:18] But God says, I'm going to do something different.
[00:22:21] See, he promises this changed heart and therefore he promises to address the problem.
[00:22:28] Not that God's laws were the problem, but that their heart and their inability to obey was the problem.
[00:22:37] Through Christ he gives us a new heart. That's what Ezekiel, chapter 36, verse 26 and 27 are just going to say that he's going to remove the heart of stone and he's going to give us a heart of flesh.
[00:22:52] That the high priest offers a better covenant. Because when Jesus Christ came and offered up the sacrifice once for all, then he said to all who would believe he gave the right to be children of God, that he would come and dwell in his spirit in us to change our abilities, removing the heart of stone and giving us a heart of flesh, writing his law upon our mind and on our heart, that we might delight in obeying Him.
[00:23:24] See, this wasn't just behavior modification. This was heart transformation.
[00:23:29] This wasn't just trying to keep the law so that I can be in God's good graces. It was heart transformation. See, let's just begin to apply some of this.
[00:23:40] So if I were to ask you, how are you doing in your walk with the Lord?
[00:23:48] My guess is that it would probably delve into, well, I should try to do better.
[00:23:57] Well, I should go to church more.
[00:24:00] I should probably read my Bible more. I should probably pray some more. I should.
[00:24:05] You would. In one sense, I'm asking you about a relationship and you're pointing to a checklist.
[00:24:15] But why would we go back to the mushed up peas and carrots when there's something better that's offered, when what is actually offered? Here is. The second aspect of how this new covenant is better is that he gives us access.
[00:24:34] That our access to God is not because of this checklist of reading our Bible or praying or going to church or doing good things or not doing bad things.
[00:24:43] Our access isn't because of any of that. What he actually says is that our access is because of what Christ has done on our behalf.
[00:24:54] He says, I'll put my law on their hearts and in their minds, and I'll be their God and they will be my people. That's covenant language.
[00:25:02] And they shall not teach each one his neighbor or each one his brother saying, know the Lord. The second aspect is that they would know the Lord.
[00:25:11] Access.
[00:25:14] I can come home to my family and I can walk in the door, and my wife and my kids know my mood because they know me, right?
[00:25:28] I don't have to tell them, but they know me.
[00:25:32] There's a difference in knowing about God and knowing God.
[00:25:37] There's a difference in judging your relationship based off of facts you know about him and actually knowing him.
[00:25:47] Listen, here's the thing that the author is pointing us to is that in this new Covenant, we have a high priest who has accomplished all of the sacrifices once for all. He sat down at the right hand of the Father, and now we sing about it in these songs. But you can just imagine this, that he sits in the holy of holies and he says, hey, the veil's torn. Y' all come on in.
[00:26:11] That you've got access.
[00:26:14] Not based off of anything that you did or didn't do this week or last night or in the past.
[00:26:23] Based off of what I've done for you, you have access that you would know him, that you would walk with him, that he would be so real to you that as you face trials and temptations, that. That he would be near to you and you would go, oh, that. That doesn't offer what he offers.
[00:26:47] Oh, he's so much Better that you have access through Christ.
[00:26:55] The third thing that we see in this text, that he promises a changed heart, he promises access. And then third, he promises forgiveness. Look at verse 12, says, For I will be merciful towards their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more.
[00:27:15] That you have forgiveness, That there's no condemnation. What is he talking about here? That the Lord will remember their sins no more. Is this some divine amnesia? That some men in black little pen thing that makes you lose your mind and forget anything you saw? Right, like, that's not what he's talking about.
[00:27:36] What he's talking about is that he. He holds them against you no more.
[00:27:40] The psalmist would say that. That he casts our sins as far as the east is from the west, that.
[00:27:48] That he remembers them no more. You have access. And so why are you not forgiving yourself when God has already forgiven you?
[00:28:01] Why do you think that you still have to work off your sin or clean yourself up first? When he stands, he sits because it's finished. And he goes, you got access. And you go, I don't know if I can come. He goes, no, it's been granted. You've got full access.
[00:28:18] Your sins are forgiven.
[00:28:21] They're not held against you.
[00:28:25] I just can't imagine in a room with this many people that there's not a few people in here that are going, man, I've never been able to forgive myself for the things I've done in my past or I don't feel like I'm good enough to really have access.
[00:28:43] And I just want you to hear the truth of God's word, that because of what Christ has done, not because of anything you've done, but because of what Christ has done. That when he offered himself as the sacrifice for our sins on the cross and he brought that as the blood which would atone for our sins, then your sins are forgiven and you have access.
[00:29:14] He doesn't hold it against us.
[00:29:18] Now, this new covenant that he's speaking of, it's not that it minimizes sin, it's not that it makes sin less.
[00:29:27] What it does is it magnifies Christ.
[00:29:31] Our sins were costly.
[00:29:34] They cost him his life.
[00:29:38] But he willingly went to the cross in order that we might have access.
[00:29:45] That's the better high priest who mediates a better covenant.
[00:29:53] So why would we go back to the old thinking that we had to earn our way there through obedience?
[00:30:01] It's Christ's obedience on our behalf. And now we live lives of worship.
[00:30:08] Next week we're going to look even more about what that work actually accomplishes for us in chapter nine.
[00:30:16] But here's the truth I want us to see.
[00:30:21] We have access because of what Christ has done.
[00:30:28] We've been forgiven because of what Christ has done.
[00:30:34] We can live holy lives with a changed heart because of what Christ has done.
[00:30:43] Would you pray with me?
[00:30:50] Lord, we do thank you for your word.
[00:30:53] Which reminds us of what's true or that all the things that we've studied and looked at in the Old Testament are shadows of what was to come and what was accomplished in Christ. That. That you fully satisfied the penalty that was required.
[00:31:12] You've given us access.
[00:31:16] You've forgiven us that you don't hold our sin against us, that there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ.
[00:31:27] Lord, we thank you for the fact that we do have a high priest who's seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, who intercedes for us based on the sacrifice which he offered for us, that we might have access.
[00:31:45] Thank you, Lord.
[00:31:47] Amen.
