OPEN: After the death of Elvis Presley it became fairly common to read headlines in the Tabloids such as: "I was Elvis’ Love Child" or "Elvis’ Ghost is My Father". Many people claimed to be related to "The King" either for the prestige of wearing his name or possibly to try and get a share of his inheritance. In the heat of all this activity, a Detroit radio station advertised that for just $2 and a self-addressed, stamped envelope, YOU TOO could be Elvis’ child.
For that sum you could receive an authentic birth certificate from the radio station signed by a Radio Disk Jockey named Dick Puritan. The certificate claimed it entitled the bearer to "appear on any talk show in the country." About 2000 people sent in their envelopes and became "children of the King."
APPLY: Everybody knew it was a worthless piece of paper. No one became Elvis’ child because of this certificate. And the people who bought those documents had no legal standing for anything.
BUT WHY? Why couldn’t you become Elvis’ child by purchasing one of those documents? Because the people at the radio station had no authority to issue the document in the 1st place.
I. What the writer of Hebrews is telling us is that there is now a legal document - a “New Covenant” - that literally makes us children of THE King.
In the prophecy from Jeremiah that was made hundreds of years before, God tells us “I will be their God, and they will be my people.” ( Hebrews 8:10b)
Or as John writes: "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" (1 John 3:1)
This New Covenant is what makes us children of the King. It has value because the one who offered it had the authority to do so.
As Hebrews 8:6 tells us,
“… the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs (i.e. the priests of the O.T.) as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.”
This New Covenant has better promises than the Old one did. Promises? What’s this NEW Covenant offer that we couldn’t have had before?
II. First, we have a new relationship.
The Old Covenant was something you were born into. If you were born of Jewish parents, you were an Israelite. You were an Israelite because all your family had been Israelites. It wasn’t a choice that you made – it was pretty much made for you.
But to become a Christians is something else again. You can’t be born “into the church.”
You CAN be born of Christian parents and be brought to church every Sunday of your life. But you can’t be “born” a Christian just because your parents were.
You have to be reborn “of water and of the spirit” (John 3:5). You have to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. You need to recognize that you are a sinner in need of forgiveness and repent of your sins. You need confess Jesus is your master, the one who will now run your life. And you need to be buried in the waters of Christian baptism and rise again to a new life.
No one else can make that decision for you. But when we’ve made that decision, Romans 8:15 tells us we have “… received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, <"Abba,> Father.”
ILLUS: I have two children. I have a son, age 7 and a daughter age 5. They live in my house, they eat at my table, they watch our TV and sleep in our bedrooms.
There are other children in the neighborhood that come into our house once in while. They can watch my TV, play the computer, eat at our table and even stay overnight… but the next morning – they go home.
Only my children have the right to stay in my house. Only they have the right to call me father, and daddy.
That’s what Paul was telling us in Romans. Because we have been adopted into God’s family, we now have the right to call God, Father and Daddy.
But we can’t be born into the Kingdom by being born of Christian parents. We have to make that decision ourselves – it can’t be made for us. Because of that, God tells us in Hebrews 8:11 “No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.”
The reason we don’t need to be taught to “know God” is because THAT is one of the basic requirements of belonging to God in this New Covenant.
So, one of the great promises of this NEW covenant is that we’ll have a personal relationship with God
III. In addition to that, we’ve received a new citizenship.
ILLUS: I am a citizen of the United States of America with all the rights and privileges that go along with it. But now I have a higher citizenship.
But wait, something is wrong here. Reread Hebrews 8:10: “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
Who’s this New Covenant made with? The house of Israel. But, I wasn’t born of Israelite parents. Neither were most of you. You and I were what people in Jesus’ day would have called Gentiles. Here in Hebrews we’re told the Covenant is being made with Israel, not Gentiles. How can I take part in this New Covenant if I’m not born a “naturalized citizen” of Israel?
TURN TO Ephesians 2:11-20
“Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called ‘uncircumcised’ by those who call themselves ‘the circumcision’ (that done in the body by the hands of men) — remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone."
What Paul is telling the Ephesians is:
1. Once you were just Gentiles
2. you were separated from Christ
3. excluded from citizenship with Israel
4. foreigners to the covenants
5. without hope
6. AND without God
BUT that’s not true anymore…
“… now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.” Ephesians 2:13
AND “… you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. Ephesians 2:19-20
I have a new citizenship. I’m a part of the covenant with Israel because where I was once “excluded from the citizenship with Israel,” I’m now part of Israel.
IV. God has made good on His promise He prophesied in Ezekiel
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh" (Eze 36:26).
Because of this new relationship and our new citizenship, we have a new heart and spirit placed within us. We are new people.
ILLUS: A man approached a woman in a restaurant. With a broad smile: “Dorothy! It’s so good to see you! I really love your new look. You’ve changed your hairstyle, the color of hair. And your new makeup highlights your loveliest features. And Dorothy (let me look at you) really love your new clothes.”
The woman was blushing and she said, “Sir, I think you have mistaken me for someone else. My name is Helen.”
The man paused for a moment and then said,
“Ho ho – and you’ve changed your name too!"
That woman suffered a case of mistaken identity – but with Christ’s blood there no mistake. We are Children of God, remade & reborn with a new identity.
As Paul wrote to Titus:
"(God) saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit" Titus 3:5
V. That’s what it means in Hebrews 8:12 when it says…
“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (Hebrews 8:12)
Hmmm. Wait a minute. Does that mean that under the Old Covenant people’s sins weren’t forgiven? Well, yes they were forgiven … but no they weren’t.
Hebrews addresses this conflict:
In Hebrews 9:22 we’re told “the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”
BUT Hebrews 10:4 declares “…it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
So, what’s going on? Did the sacrifices of Old Testament forgive peoples’ sins or didn’t they? Well, yes… and no.
ILLUS: (take out a credit card) I took my family out to eat this last week and when the bill came, I gave them this credit card and signed a piece of paper. Tell me, had I paid for my meal? The restaurant thought so. I didn’t have to wash dishes.
But did “I” really pay for my meal? No. I won’t pay for that meal until the end of the month when I receive the bill.
So also, the sacrifices of the Old Testament paid for people’s sins… but the bill came due at the cross. If Jesus hadn’t died on the cross for our sins, all the sacrifices of the Old Testament would have been worthless.
It is because of the blood of Jesus that we have any hope. AND because of the blood of Jesus that the New Covenant has any power
CLOSE: John Wesley was a popular evangelist in early America and often rode from one church to another to preach. On one such journey, outside of Hounslow Heath, he was accosted by a highwayman who shouted, "Halt, your money or your life."
Wesley got down from his horse, emptied his pockets to reveal only a handful of coins. He even invited the robber to search his saddlebags in which he carried his books. In disgust, the thief was turning away when John Wesley cried "Stop, I have something more to give you."
Puzzled, the robber turned back. Wesley then leaned bent over towards him and said "My friend, you may live to regret this sort of life in which you are engaged . If you ever do, I beseech you to remember this: ’The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s son, cleanses us from all sin.’" The robber hurried silently away, and the man of God rode on his way praying in his heart that the word might be fixed in the robber’s conscience.
Years later, at the close of a Sunday evening service, a stranger stepped forward and earnestly begged to speak with him. Wesley recognized him as the robber who had accosted him so long before, but now he was a well to do tradesman and better still, a child of God. Raising Wesley’s hand to his lips he affectionately kissed it and sad in deep emotion, "To you, dear sir, I owe it all."
Wesley replied softly, "Nay, nay, my friend, not to me, but to the precious blood of Christ which cleanses us from all sin."
SERMONS IN THIS SERIES
Better than Angels - Hebrews 1:1-2:9
The Jesus Fixation - Hebrews 2:14-3:14
The Only Priest - Hebrews 7:1-7:28
New and Improved - Hebrews 8:6-8:13
The Better Blood - Hebrews 9:11-9:28
