The Covenant Of Jesus Series

Simply Jesus

The Covenant of Jesus

Hebrews 8:1-13

REVIEW (vs 1-5)

-I hope you brought your Bibles this morning.

-We’re going to be cruising through another big chunk of Scripture today in our Hebrews series.

-Chapter 8 is kind of a culmination of what’s been said so far in this book. Our author has been building up to a big point.

-You know that he’s about to make his main point because verse 1 begins with this statement: 1 Here is the main point:

-I figured all of that out, on my own!

1 Here is the main point: We have a High Priest who sat down in the place of honor beside the throne of the majestic God in heaven.

-He’s saying this as a contrast:

-No Old Testament priest was ever seated in the place of honor, at God’s right hand.

-Last week we saw that the Old Testament priests had two inherent flaws: They were sinners like us and…they kept dying!

-So there are no OT priests enthroned in power, but our NT priest Jesus Christ is enthroned in power at God’s right hand.

-The theme of this letter to the Hebrews is that under Jesus everything is better.

-Unlike the OT priests, he lived a sinless life here on earth.

-He did die, but unlike the OT priests, he rose from the grave.

-And now he continues his ministry from heaven’s throne because Jesus Christ is God! All that means that…

-JESUS IS A SUPERIOR PRIEST! In every possible way.

-But there more to it than that.

2 There he ministers in the heavenly Tabernacle, the true place of worship that was built by the Lord and not by human hands.

-Those earthly priests served in a Tabernacle. (means tent)

-It was the most elaborate tent of all time.

-It’s the only tent in history that could have been on MTV Cribs.

-There were golden utensils, and furniture and it had gold woven into beautiful handcrafted fabric.

-It took a the whole tribe of Levites to set it up.

-The Tabernacle was the place where people went to see a priest

-But that’s not our arrangement.

-Jesus doesn’t need a tent built by human hands. He doesn’t need a facility to minister from…vs 2 says

-JESUS MINISTERS FROM A SUPERIOR TABERNACLE.

-He ministers from a place called “heaven”. And look at verse

3-4 And since every high priest is required to offer gifts and sacrifices, our High Priest must make an offering, too. 4 If he were here on earth, he would not even be a priest, since there already are priests who offer the gifts required by the law.

-The OT priests offered animals, oil, incense, wine, and grain on the altars in the Tabernacle.

-And they did this day after day. But what did our high priest do?

-JESUS MADE A SUPERIOR SACRIFICE.

-And he did something that no other priest ever did, or even considered doing.

-Jesus was the only priest to offer himself as the sacrifice for us.

-And He was the only priest who could offer himself….sinless.

-Now why is our author comparing and contrasting all of these OT and NT things?

-Because he’s trying to make his main point.

-This is something that every Christian really ought to know.

-You will never understand your Bible until you get this point:

5 They serve in a system of worship that is only a copy, a shadow of the real one in heaven. For when Moses was getting ready to build the Tabernacle, God gave him this warning: “Be sure that you make everything according to the pattern I have shown you here on the mountain.”

THE OLD COVENANT IS A SHADOW OF THE NEW COVENANT

-A few years back some friends and I decided to climb Mt. Hood.

-Climbing Mt. Hood is challenging.

-You starting hiking at Midnight because the snow is hardened and easier to walk on…but I am not a night owl.

-From Timberline lodge to the top is only 3 miles, but you gain 1 mile in elevation while walking those three miles.

-And it’s cold up there…on that glacial mountain!

-But when we got towards the top something amazing happened.

-You get above the clouds right about sunrise. It was fantastic.

-And I want to show you a picture I took from up there.

-This is the shadow of Mt. Hood on top of the clouds.

-Standing on a mountain, looking down on its shadow on the side of the clouds we never see. It was amazing!

-But that shadow wasn’t the mountain. It’s only a shadow.

-It’s just a copy of the real thing or a silhouette.

-The shadow gives you an idea about the real thing, but it’s not the real thing.

-And that’s the point our author has been working up to.