You have the Bible, let me invite you to turn with me to Hebrews 8. This evening we'll be reading verses 1-6. The thrust of the whole chapter is the contrast in verse 6. So as you're turning to Hebrews 8, perhaps you'll want to scan there.
There's a contrast in verse 6 that reads this way, but as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better and is enacted on better promises. So over the course of this chapter, over the course of weeks as we study, we'll be looking at the better promises we have in Christ, the better covenant we have in Christ, the better ministry, the more excellent ministry of Christ. Let's think on these things tonight. Let me invite you to give your attention to the reading of God's holy word from Hebrews 8 beginning at verse 1.
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, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man, for every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. Thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all.
Says there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. 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. 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 is enacted on better promises. Amen. Let's look at the Lord together in prayer.
Our Father speak to us through your word and by your spirit help us to see Jesus and to be encouraged and reassured in him. In his name I pray. Amen. Amen.
The first book of Hebrews is the most Old Testament book of the New Testament books. It is important to remember that. Keep the unity of all the books of the Bible together. It is really just one large book made up of smaller ones.
Some tend to read only in the New Testament. I don't know if that is true in your case. But if we do so, we miss the foundations upon which the later truth, the New Testament is built. If you like detective novels, think of the Bible like a detective novel in this way.
There are bits and pieces in the early chapters, important events, characters and such that only makes sense as you read further on the later chapters clarifying the earlier. And that is what we have. And the writer of Hebrews is pointing these things out to us. The clues we have given to us along the way of who the Messiah is and what he will do.
The Old Testament sacrificial system is like that. The Bible's way of atonement for sin is through the shedding of blood. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. And any Jewish child before the time of Messiah might have asked their father, you know, dad why don't we take the layams to the temple and why does the priest cut them in pieces and splatter blood everywhere?
The father would have answered because the only way that sin can be atoned for is by the substitution of the innocent for the guilty. That is the layams innocent and we are guilty my son. And if the lamb doesn't take our place then we'll receive what is due to us for our sins even to have an judgment. So bringing the lambs of course pointed to the need for the true, real we might say sacrifice and a willing one at that.
And then Jesus came and John the Baptist said of him to hold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So you know what is the expression of John the Baptist mean? You don't have the Old Testament. It would make no sense without it.
Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. What does that mean? And so when the ultimate substitution was made it was God himself who came and stood in our place and so we have in the Old Testament Jesus foretold. And in the gospel we have Jesus revealed and in the Acts of the Apostles we have Jesus reached and the epistles of which Hebrews is one we have Jesus explained and in the book of Revelation at the very end we have Jesus expected in his glorious return.
In his ministry the ministry of Jesus is much more excellent the writer says. Now why? Let me point out three things and we'll only have time to cover the first two this evening we'll hold the last one next week. Jesus in the first place sat down at the right hand of the majesty.
That's in verse one and then in verses two and three Jesus serves in the true tent of the Lord and then verses four and five Jesus is the substance of which the Old Testament portrayals are about a copy and a shadow. So what makes the ministry of Jesus more excellent? Notice in the first place Jesus sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high verse one. Now the point we're 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.
So the writers say don't ever look the point I've been making and this goes back to chapter seven. What was that point for verse twenty six it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest holy and innocent, unstained and separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens he has no need like those old high priests to offer sacrifices daily first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people since he did this once and for all when he offered up himself. So the writers saying and the point I'm saying is we do have this high priest. Now that may be old hat to us we've certainly been talking about it at great length over the last couple months but it was a new hat to the first century Jewish Christians and they needed to try that hat on and get a feel for how good that hat is so to speak.
So the writer reminds them our priest sat down at the right hand he sat down. Well what's the significance of that? Well this is startling this would have been shocking I mean it's certainly with something no Old Testament priest or high priest would ever do. They would never sit down because the work they were responsible to carry on was never finished.
If you remember in the Old Testament there was no chair in the Old Testament chamernacle. There was no chair for the priest to sit and he was forbidden to sit. They offered sacrifices morning and evening day after day and the work was never accomplished the very idea that they couldn't sit was to tell them it just needs to keep going on until someone comes and something comes that finally fully accomplishes everything we need. And so there are always more sacrifices to be offered and even once a year on the day of atonement the high priest offering atonement for his unsins and for the sins of the people for the whole nation.
Well that was great that was important in offering for the collective sins of the entire nation every year but the next guy had to do it the next year. There's a bridge there's a bridge in Edmond-Roskallen I've read that spans a mile and a half and it's always being painted. It's because they start on one end and by the time they get to the other the elements the salt air has destroyed what they've done and it needs to be done again it's never finished it's permanently maintained. Sort of like the interstate highway system in the most states I've ever lived in.
There always seems to be construction and you get a clean patch and the patch they've been a couple years as to be worked on again. Well it was kind of like that in a way in the Old Testament sacrifices it was just constant. But Jesus the writer says had something to offer a single sacrifice on the cross and then he sat down because his work was forever effective. It accomplished atonement for all time and that is so important for us to understand.
Some of you it's been some time of course but it had a massive following William Paul Young's book a heretical book called The Shack which was then made also into a movie and I just want you to be careful of his theology because he denies the gospel and listen to how he does in his different book he wrote lies we believe about God. Young says this of Christ's death. Who originated the cross? If God did, no this is this language.
Then we worship a cosmic abuser who in divine wisdom created a means to torture human beings in the most painful and abhorrent manner. Frankly it's often this very cruel and monstrous God that the atheist refuses to acknowledge or grant credibility in any sense. And young says and rightly so better know God at all than this one. Now do you guess what he's saying?
He labels the God of the cross, the God who spared not his own son that he might spare us a cosmic abuser. And so Christians have flocked to his book and to his movie like flies to honey. But we've got to see that the heart of the gospel, the point is this the writer says. The cross is essential.
Without the satisfaction of God's holy justice by Christ's death we who are unjust will get the fury of God's holy justice justly applied to us. God is a committed cosmic abuse. We've committed cosmic treason, treason against our good and loving, holy creator. And the good news is that God has loved us and the son of God has loved us and volunteered to come for us to die, the just for the unjust to bring us to God.
So so the atonement, it reconciles us to God and it and it doesn't depend. The writer is saying on our sacrifices for God, it depends on the completed sacrifice of Christ in our place. We will never be right with God because we make sacrifices or offerings to him or we as some put it in this kind of language. We surrender all to him and somehow that attones for our sin and makes us right with God.
No, we're not holy. We're not innocent. We're not undiviled. Our hope of being right with God must be in Jesus who is holy and innocent and undiviled and gave himself for us.
A friend said late night Facebook status update said this, brain please shut up. I don't want to remember my mistakes. I want to sleep. Well, could you relate to that?
You among us hasn't laid in bed at night thinking about the failures of the day or the week and finding it difficult to find rest for our soul. I mean, we fail in our love for others, even our family who we love. We fail in our love for God who has so loved us. What can quiet our conscience?
It is that Jesus has sat down at the right hand of the majesty on eye having completed all the work necessary for us to be right with God. And so it is that the writer says he's at the right hand. Now what's that? That's the hand of privilege and honor and authority.
He was given the right hand as opposed to the left. And it means more. This language of the right hand may have reminded his Jewish readers of the Jewish Sanhedrin, the highest court of a civil and ecclesiastical in their land. And the members of the Sanhedrin sat in a semi circle so that they could see one another while deliberating about the people being prosecuted before them.
And two clerks served them. The one on the right and the other on the left of the presiding judge. And the job of the clerks was to take down the votes, one to record votes of acquittal and the other votes of condemnation. And upon reaching a verdict or a judgment, the Sanhedrin would announce its verdict through one or the other of these two clerks, the clerk who handled submissions for acquittal sat on the right hand.
And the clerk who handled the submissions for conviction and condemnation sat on the left hand. When the judge reached a verdict of conviction, the clerk on the left would declare the judgment. And the accused was sentenced and condemned. But if the council found the accused innocent or not guilty, the clerk on the right declared that he's free to go.
He's declared righteous and set free. And Jesus, our advocate, though we're guilty, he on the right hand of the court of heaven, is there to pronounce our acquittal before the bar of God's justice, declaring us righteous and setting us free. For he came into the world, not that the world might be condemned through him, but that the world might be saved through him. But put your trust in him.
His ministry is much more excellent. He sat down at the right hand of the majesty with full authority, having accomplished redemption to declare his people righteous and set us free. That's the first reason. His ministry is more excellent than any Old Testament priest.
And secondly, his ministry is more excellent because Jesus serves, the writer says, in the true tent of the Lord. Look at that language, verse two, we have such a high priest, verse two, a minister in the holy places in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. So where does he serve in the holy places? This is sometimes, and many of your translations take it this way, translated sanctuary.
We have a minister in the sanctuary. We sometimes ourselves call this room or a room that we worship in, a sanctuary. We Christians, and listen, we often speak this way and use that term, a sanctuary loosely, frankly. And I'm not here to nitpick.
I'm not here to strengthen that. I use that term myself. It's shorthand. And everybody knows what I'm talking about when I say it.
I just do want to remind us that we don't really have a sanctuary on earth. For sanctuary means a holy place, as our translation makes clear, and we don't have a holy place on earth where God was with his people. Our holy place, the writer says, is the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. Our true holy place isn't here.
Historically, Presbyterians have called the room, we're meeting in the meeting house, the meeting room. The house where the church, the body of Christ meets together. And of course, with God, as he promises, and as by his spirit, he indwells us and condescends to meet with us and to bless us, of course. But not because the building is a holy place or the holy of holies.
God can certainly meet with us in Christ and by his spirit, just as readily in our field out there. That was our expectation and our experience during COVID when we started an outdoor service. I hope you understand the point I'm trying to make. The writer's point, as he says, is that the true holy place wasn't the tabernacle that traveled with Israel and got set up in their midst, set up by man, taken down by man, and traveled with them wherever they went.
And our true holy place isn't the temple. He's telling them. That temple that was standing as of yet when he writes this book, that permanent version of the tabernacle, not made with cloth and curtains, but made with stone in Jerusalem, which was also set up by man, built by man, and then destroyed as well by an army of men in AD 70. But we have a true tent, the writer says, and Jesus is a minister in the holy places, in the true tent, the Lord set up.
And it's the true here, and that doesn't mean that the Old Testament tabernacle was false or where the temple was false. That's not the contrast. And it's not even that he's making your contrast between God's true temple and all the false temples of the false gods. But it's true as distinguished from the shadow.
It's the heavenly true reality of which the Old Testament tabernacle was but an earthly copy. That's the contrast he's making. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 24 for Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but it had itself now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. So then what does Jesus do in the true tent?
Well, notice what he says. And says he ministers there, he serves there, his priestly ministry continues there, not of course a continuation of his work of atonement, which was once and for all, but certainly his continuing work of mediation and intersection. And so the writer says verse 3 for every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. Thus, it is necessary for this priest, that is Jesus.
Also that's something to offer. Now what's he saying? He's reminding us that an Old Testament high priest offered gifts and offered sacrifices. He brought them for himself, he brought the gifts and sacrifices of others.
The gifts were the unbloody and the sacrifices were the bloody offerings that were offered in the tabernacle and temple. And the writer is saying, in verse 3, Jesus himself had something to offer. But notice that word there is singular. He had something singular to offer, not plural, not gifts, plural, not offerings, plural, not multiple gifts, not multiple sacrifices.
It excludes all thought of multiple or of continuous. The one thing he had to offer the writer is saying, he offered, again, once and for all. That offering was the offering of himself upon the cross as a once and for all sacrifice of atonement. It was, it is finished with his cry.
But he does continue to serve and minister because he intercedes for us all the time. So his work of atonement is done, but his work of intercession continues. They are wonderful illustrations of the various postures of Jesus as we think of him in heaven. The writer here says he sat down at the right hand of the majesty.
In Acts 7, we get a different posture. This is where Stephen was stoned to death for preaching the gospel. And it says in verse 5 that he is even full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, behold, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.
So they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. So what's happening there? I mean, in Stephen's greatest hour of me about to be stoned to death for the sake of Jesus, he sees Jesus not seated but standing. What's going on then?
We're to think of him seated as regarding his accomplished atonement. We're to think of him standing as regarding his intercession. He's on his feet. And actually in Revelation 1, he's walking around.
In Revelation 1, the Apostle Paul saw the resurrected, exalted, glorified Lord Jesus. He says walking among the seven golden lampstands, which are the seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3. What is Jesus doing walking among his people? It was a reassurance.
He isn't far off. He isn't in some distant place, far removed. No, he's present among his people, watching and seeing and knowing and caring so that he can as a sympathetic high priest carry our concerns, carry our cares. He knows our weakness.
He knows our need. He knows our sorrow. And he brings them all to the front of God. He sends his spirit as another comforter, another helper to help us.
So there are all these postures of our great high priest. And notice also as part of his continuing ministry, what does he do? Well he presents us faultless in heaven. One of the kinds of people that Jesus helps is the person who's a perfectionist and struggles with perfectionism.
Some of us have that tendency for a variety of reasons, at least about some things. And for some of us we can be nearly paralyzed by it. On occasion we have whole areas of our lives. We don't engage because we know that, well we tell ourselves, we won't do it perfectly well, so we might as well just completely ignore it rather than getting started.
And there are other areas of our life that we do give attention to and then we struggle because we know that it's not going to be perfect and any Christian with a sensitive conscience who wants to walk with the Lord, reflecting on their walk with the Lord, feels frustrated, knows that they haven't done all that they ought to do and they fail to do what they ought to do and they ought to do. And of course, well when we get fixated on ourselves in that kind of circle of inward I forgot the word, but staring at ourselves, navel casing, there can be a great deal of pride actually associated with that, a great deal of self-righteousness and expectation that we will be in and of ourselves righteous and ought to be and while some of what we do actually is righteous enough and that sort of thing. And that's a great delusion of course because if we imagine that we can do anything perfectly well in this fall and world is falling people, well that's just silly and not true. But there's a passage though in the New Testament that can really help us here concerning the continuing ministry of Jesus and what he does for us.
The first Peter chapter 2 verses 4 to 6, Peter says this, as you come to him that is Jesus, you a living stone, well him a living stone rejected by men and in the sight of God chosen in precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house to be holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. That is as believing or believer priests, the priesthood of all believers, we all have direct access into God's presence through Christ our mediator, and we don't need to go through some human priests, and we don't need to bring the blood of a sacrifice, Christ's offering is sufficient for all, but the writer, Peter is saying we do offer spiritual sacrifices as holy priesthood, what are those sacrifices? Well a few examples, Romans 12 and 1, tells us in view of God's mercy to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, which is our spiritual worship. If you have his mercy, we offer our lives in living for him, and in the Philippian church, we have another example, they had taken up a collection for the Apostle Paul to meet his needs as a missionary of the gospel, and he calls their gifts in chapter 4 verse 18, a fragrant offering a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.
So our lives are offering, our monetary gifts to the Lord for his church and his ministry are offering, and Hebrews 13 verses 15 through 16 instructs us, through Christ to continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. That is, he says, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name, and he goes on to say, do not neglect to do good and to share what you have for such sacrifices, are pleasing to God. So that praising God from the heart and with our lips, as well as are doing good and sharing what we have, these are sacrifices we make, everything we do should be a thank offering to God through Christ, not a sacrifice of a tongue, but a sacrifice of thanksgiving, out of gratitude for what we have been given. But here's the point, why are these sacrifices that we make?
Why are they acceptable to God? And don't we feel often that as we make them, they're inadequate or impure, filled with faults, even at times mixed motives? We often feel that way about our praise, our giving, our doing good, our living for him. But Peter and Paul say they are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
They are presented faultless because they come wrapped up in Jesus, so to speak. Once a little girl went out to pick flowers for her father because she loved him. Knowing little about flowers, she began to pick mostly the wrong kinds of things. She picked a few daisies, but also picked boys in Ivy, boys in sumac, some thorns, some brambles, and then she brought them into the house as her gift to her dad, while she was walking in, her mother saw her bouquet, and she stopped the little girl and asked, what are you doing?
I picked flowers for daddy, she exclaimed. And her mother said, let's do a little work on that. And her mother took the bouquet and she removed the poison ivy and the thorns and the brambles, and she added some roses in with the daisies and said, let's take this into father. And the little girl took them in and the father was delighted.
And so for us, perfectionists included. We can serve God, pray, give, sing, worship, preach, and it's okay that it's not perfect yet, though in glory it will be. It's okay. We don't have to be paralyzed by the knowledge of our imperfection.
Jesus always lives to intercede. He removes, as it were, the sin and self-righteousness and think from our works of service. It makes them not only acceptable, but pleasing to the Father because he ministers in the True Tint, the heavenly, holy place, set up by God and on our behalf. What an excellent ministry.
Let's pray, say, let's pray. Lord Jesus, we bow and say thank you. We praise you. That you're everything we need and we have everything we need in you.
And so we ask that you would be adored and we ask that you would help us even to serve you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Let's stand together and sing.