A Better & Final Covenant (Hebrews 8:1-13)

In case you haven't picked up on this, as we've been looking through the book of Hebrews, Hebrews is probably, I'll go ahead and say it is the most Old Testament book of the New Testament.

It refers back to many people in the Old Testament. It refers back to the temple, to the sacrificial system, the promises made by God. It has large portions of the Old Testament quoted right there in it.

In fact, half of chapter 8 is essentially a quotation of Jeremiah 31 that Sean read for us earlier.

So many things that are happening in the book of Hebrews are a continuation of the Old Testament, of looking at it like that.

But at the same time, the book of Hebrews explains something new in greater detail than most of the places in the New Testament as well.

It explains in great detail this new covenant.

Now, I want us to be careful as we look at this today.

In no way, shape, or form are we suggesting that we do away with the Old Testament or unhitching ourselves from it or whatever you may say.

But to do so would not only be irresponsible, it would be unlike Christ.

Because if you remember from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said,

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets.

I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.

And so as we mentioned at the beginning of our study of the book of Hebrews,

as we think about the Old Testament and the New Testament, we see it much like a two-act play.

You have Act 1 and you have Act 2.

The Old Testament is Act 1.

New Testament is Act 2.

And if you only have the Old Testament, you have the beginning of the story without the resolution.

If you only have the New Testament, you have the resolution without the setup, without understanding where this is going.

And so if you go to see a play and you leave before the final act, you're probably going to be pretty disappointed.

In fact, you can't give a review on the play if you don't see the whole thing.

You can't say, oh, well, this is a bad play or a good play if you don't see the whole thing.

Because it helps to make the whole play make sense when we see it together.

Not because there's anything wrong with the first few Acts, but because the play wasn't finished.

And so we have to see it as a whole.

Michael Kruger, reflecting on the Old Testament, he describes it this way.

He says, it is a single coherent story that ends on a cliffhanger.

A story that needs an ending.

God spoke to his people.

And the cliffhanger is that he promised to send a redeemer for them.

And when Jesus came, he resolved that cliffhanger.

Cliffhanger.

Alistair Begg.

And I have to make sure that I enunciate this.

Because Clay, last time I said Alistair Begg, he thought I said Alex Trebek.

And so it is not Alex Trebek.

But Alistair Begg, he was making a statement recalling his Sunday school teacher when he was growing up.

How his Sunday school teacher explained the metanarrative of scripture, the continuation of scripture to him as he was growing up.

Now, before I get into this explanation, I just want to take this as an encouragement.

To you Sunday school teachers, to you parents who are training up your kids, what you tell your kids matters.

What our Sunday school teachers are teaching them matters because they listen.

And so this great preacher who has become incredibly influential over his life, who has PhDs, who is able to explain scripture in great detail in many ways,

he still refers back to what his childhood Sunday school teacher told him about how to understand the story of scripture.

And so he explains it this way.

He says, if you want to see the kind of the picture of the whole story, as you think of it like this.

He says, you think of it as the Old Testament.

In the Old Testament, Jesus is predicted.

In the Gospels, Jesus is revealed.

In the Acts, Jesus is preached.

In the epistles, which Hebrews falls under, Jesus is explained.

And then in Revelation, Jesus is expected.

And so you have Jesus predicted.

You have Jesus revealed.

You have Jesus preached.

You have Jesus explained.

And you have Jesus expected.

You see, the Bible is not a series of disconnected stories.

It is one story that has Jesus at the center from beginning to end.

And our passage today helps highlight this in great detail.

And so if you have a copy of God's Word, I want you to invite you to open with me to Hebrews chapter 8.

Hebrews 8 · chapter mention

And we're going to read all of chapter 8, the 13 verses here in chapter 8.

It says this.

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.

Since the 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 to 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.

For if the first covenant had been faultless, there would not have been, there have been no occasion to look for a second.

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.

For they did not continue in my covenant, and 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 minds and write them on their hearts.

And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

And they shall not teach each one his neighbor and each other his brother, saying,

Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.

For I was 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.

And so from this passage, there are two truths and a great promise that I want us to bring our attention to today.

Two truths and a great promise.

To begin with, I want us to clearly see that we have a better high priest.

We have a better high priest.

Last week, the author showed us in great detail that Jesus is a high priest after a different order.

He's a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

And as a high priest after the order of Melchizedek, he is both a priest and a king.

That was the point of what we were sharing last week.

And this week, he begins to explain what he means by that.

He begins to explain this, and he does so in great detail in the first five verses.

But I want us to read those first two again, just to bring our attention back to this.

So after he's talked about who Melchizedek is and how Jesus is a high priest after this order,

he says,

And it tells us he's appointed to this.

You see, this passage gives us at least a couple of reasons why Jesus is better.

Why he is a better high priest.

And to begin with, we see that Jesus makes a better offering.

Verse 3 tells us that Jesus is a better high priest because he offers a better offering.

His sacrifice, the sacrifice that he gave his life for to pay our sin debt,

Jesus, we are told, is appointed to this role.

He's appointed to this role as a high priest.

Now, kids, I want you to answer a question for me today.

This is for the kids.

This isn't for the adults.

So, kids, think about it this way.

Okay, if a person is appointed to the position of a firefighter or a fireman,

what would you expect them to do?

Okay, maybe we do need some adult help.

Fight fires.

Yes, exactly.

You would expect them to fight fires.

If someone is appointed to the position or role of a police officer,

what would you expect them to do?

You would expect them to keep us safe.

If someone was appointed to the role of a second grade teacher,

you would expect them to teach children how to read, how to write,

how to do those things to set them up for success.

And so, when the author says that Jesus was appointed to the role of high priest,

it would have triggered something in the reader's minds.

It would have triggered for them that Jesus is appointed for the purpose of making a sacrifice.

And this is exactly what he did.

Except his sacrifice was better than the Levitical priesthood sacrifice.

Remember, he's after a different order.

He's after the order of Melchizedek.

And so, his sacrifice is better because his sacrifice was lasting.

Because he laid down his own life for this sacrifice,

making this sacrifice final and complete.

So, I want you to put yourself into the shoes of these first century Jewish Christians

that would have heard these words.

What this is saying is that Jesus has achieved

what all of Israel have been longing for throughout the generations.

The real, full, and final forgiveness of sins.

And it's really easy for us to miss this in our reading today

if we don't have an understanding of how Act 1 paints the picture for Act 2.

If we don't understand how the Old Testament is paving the way for this,

it's really easy to miss this part where it says that Jesus

is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven.

You see, in the Old Testament, while the priests were doing their work,

when they were doing things,

they never completed their work.

They never sat down.

In fact, when you look at all the furnishings

that were to be put into the tabernacle and into the temple,

you had all of these great things that were supposed to go into the temple,

into the tabernacle.

You had these lamp sands.

You had these basins that were all made out of fine metals

and precious gold and different things.

You had different furnishings.

You had altars.

You had the Ark of the Covenant.

You had curtains.

You had all of these things that were meticulously laid out

that were supposed to be in the tabernacle and the tent.

But there was something that wasn't mentioned that wasn't in there.

There's something that isn't mentioned because it wasn't supposed to be in there.

And that's a chair for the high priest to have a seat in.

And it was intentional that this isn't in there

because in the Old Testament, the work of the high priest is never done.

It's never complete.

There's no need to put a chair in there because they can't sit down

because they're always working.

They're always trying to figure out, to try to follow the pattern,

to pay for these sins.

Because their work was never done.

Peter O'Brien notes, he says,

that Christ sat down as a priest

after his work of making purification for sins

shows that his work was finished.

Do you know what finished means?

It means it's done.

It means it's complete.

The atonement for sin is done and it is complete.

If something is finished, that means there's nothing you and I can do

to add to it or to take away from it.

If you are saved, then your sins, past, present, and future,

are paid for because Jesus' work is finished.

Jesus makes a better offering.

But what we also see in this passage

is that he's a better high priest

because he serves in a better place.

Verses 1 and 2 tell us

that Jesus is seated at the right hand

of the throne of majesty in heaven.

A minister in the holy places,

in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man.

See, one of the ways that we see

that we have a better high priest

is because Jesus serves from a better place.

He serves from a better place,

from heaven in the true tent.

Some of your translations right here

may use the word tabernacle instead of tent.

And I actually kind of like that translation

a little better here.

But on a very basic level,

tabernacle is the same as tent.

But more specifically,

tabernacle refers to the tent

where God met with his people

after the exodus from Egypt.

You see, the people needed a tabernacle

or they needed a tent

because they were wandering around

in the wilderness.

And the tabernacle provided a mobile place

to meet with God.

But Hebrews tells us

that Christ fulfills his ministry

in a tabernacle that the Lord set up.

It's not a tent on earth.

It's a superior tabernacle in heaven.

The tabernacle on earth was real,

but it wasn't the place

where salvation was finalized,

was finished, was won.

Full salvation takes place

in the true tabernacle in heaven.

Man does not make this tabernacle,

only the Lord does.

You see, the original is always better

than the substitute.

The real thing is better than a shadow

as it describes it here.

The original is always better

than the substitute.

As I was thinking about this week,

I was reminded of two vacations

that I went on when I was growing up.

I can remember the first vacation

that really just stands out to me

and really made a big impact in my life

and probably was one of my favorite vacations

ever growing up

was when I was in sixth or seventh grade,

our family went to Yellowstone National Park.

And we saw some different things around there,

but we went to Yellowstone National Park

and I just remember

it was an eye-opening experience.

Because we get there

and all of a sudden I'm seeing mountains

bigger than any mountains

that I've ever seen before.

I'm seeing wildlife

that you don't have around here.

I'm seeing all kinds of things.

I'm seeing lakes that are so big

that you can barely see to the other side.

Canyons, you're seeing these geysers

that erupt almost like clockwork.

And so it was just this amazing thing

and it really began,

my love for Yellowstone began there

and really was one of the reasons

that I wanted to go back

when I was in college

to serve with Baptist Collegiate Ministries

as a missionary in Yellowstone.

And so all of those things

were impactful about that.

But one of the things

that I remember from that

is one of the places that we stayed.

We stayed in the Old Faithful Inn.

Anybody ever been to the Old Faithful Inn?

Okay, a handful of you in here

have been to the Old Faithful Inn.

It's amazing.

It was built around 1900 or so.

And so it's a very old lodge,

a very old inn.

And so it was made

with a lot of the trees

that were from the air,

these lodgepole pines

and it has exposed beams everywhere.

You walk into this foyer

that you just see

multiple levels going up.

And so as soon as you walk in,

your eyes immediately

start looking at me like,

wow, this place is massive.

It's huge.

And each floor that it goes up,

it has an area there

where you can,

a little lobby on each floor

where you can go out at night,

enjoy cookies,

enjoy somebody playing on a piano

that just fills up the whole lobby

of this giant inn.

And it's really,

it's something that you should look up sometimes.

If you've never seen it,

you should look it up.

Now, not right now.

Don't get your phone out now.

But later,

look it up and see this

because it really is an amazing thing.

They have this observation deck

where you can go out

and look at Old Faithful

as it erupts on the hour almost.

And so it's an amazing place.

It truly is an amazing building.

It is beautiful and elegant

and rustic all at the same time.

But the other vacation

that I can remember very well

was a year or two after this vacation.

And it was when our family

went to Disney World.

I think I was in the eighth grade or so.

And we stayed at the Wilderness Lodge.

Anybody ever seen Wilderness Lodge?

Okay, a few more of you

have seen the Wilderness Lodge than this.

Some of you may have stayed there,

but it was a really beautiful, nice hotel.

But much of it seems to be based

on the Old Faithful Inn.

And so that was something

we noticed immediately

as we walked in.

Like so much of this,

it seems to be based

on the Old Faithful Inn.

It was a nice place.

We enjoyed our stay.

It had a great pool.

But the whole time,

we kept comparing the Wilderness Lodge

to the Old Faithful Inn.

We kept saying,

well, this is great,

but remember the Old Faithful Inn.

You know, this is really neat

that they're trying to make it look like this,

but remember the Old Faithful Inn.

And because as nice as the copy was,

it was not as impressive as the original.

What the author is telling us here

is that Jesus is mediating,

he's ministering from heaven

in a far superior place.

Using the language of the author,

he's not ministering from a copy

or a shadow,

but he's ministering from the real thing.

You see, we may run the risk

of thinking that because Jesus

ascended to heaven,

that he left earth,

that he is somehow less effective

because he is in heaven

and not on earth.

What the author is communicating here,

what the author is telling us

is that nothing could be further

from the truth.

He is more effective

because he is ministering

from a far superior place.

He lives to make intercession

for us forever.

He's ministering from the original,

not a copy, not a shadow,

but from the real thing.

So we see a better sacrifice.

We see he's serving

from a better place.

And hopefully we can clearly see

that we have a better high priest,

which leads us to understanding

this next truth.

We have a better covenant.

We have a better covenant.

We get this from verses 6 through 13,

where it says,

but as it is,

Christ has obtained a ministry

that is far more excellent

than the old

as the covenant he mediates

is better,

since it is enacted

on a better promise.

For if that first covenant

had been faultless,

there would have been no occasion

to look for a second.

Then in verses 8 through 12,

the author quotes Jeremiah 31,

highlighting the need

and promise of a new covenant,

followed by verse 13

that says this,

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.

Now, as we begin our discussion

of this better covenant,

I believe Kruger provides

some helpful guardrails for us

as we think about this

and making this comparison

between the old

and the new covenants.

He says,

As we enter into this comparison

between the old and new covenants,

we need to begin by remembering

the contrast between them

is not absolute.

We must be careful

not to overstate the differences

in a way that caricatures

the old covenant

as harsh, cold, legalistic,

and only concerned with externals,

nor should we present

the new covenant

as unconcerned with the law

or with obedience.

As we shall see,

the differences between the covenants

are often a matter of degree.

And so with this in mind,

let's look at some of these differences.

You see, Christ's work allows us

to directly and confidently

enjoy God's presence.

We no longer have to come before God

in a tabernacle made by human hands

because Christ has fulfilled

the tabernacle's purpose.

We can draw near to the very throne of God

and we can do this boldly and confidently

knowing that Christ,

our great high priest,

has made a way for us.

We can do this boldly.

Al Mohler, he says,

this great truth permeates

the pages of the Old Testament.

The king who ransoms his people

from their iniquities

and brings them to peace with God

has ushered in the new covenant

by his blood.

And the old covenant

is of far greater excellence

than the first.

And so in this passage,

it tells us the old covenant

had a fault.

Now, when he says it had a fault,

don't think of it like a machine

having a fault.

Or your computer showing up

with this error message

that something went wrong with it.

Or your check engine light

coming on your car

and you're needing to take it

into a mechanic for a repair.

Don't think of it as a fault like that.

But its faultiness

was rooted in its incompleteness.

Its faultiness

was rooted in its incompleteness.

The old covenant was faulty

because it was not final.

If it were the final covenant,

there would have been no need

for a better covenant

that is talked about here.

You see, the new covenant is better

because it makes the full

and final atonement for our sins.

No longer an endless cycle

that makes, and this is what makes

Christ's statement on the cross

all the more amazing.

When he says, it is finished.

When Christ says it is finished

on the cross, he was announcing

that the wrath of God

toward the sin of his people

was finally paid for in full.

Never again would there need

to be an animal sacrifice

because Jesus paid it all.

When you look at the Jeremiah passage quoted,

there's a promise of a relationship here.

A promise of not only forgiveness,

but remembering the sin no more.

What you see is a fulfillment

of the promise the angels made

of the shepherds at the birth of Jesus.

You remember when the angels were there

at the birth and announcing this birth,

and they said,

a heavenly host praising God

and saying, glory to God in the highest

and on earth, what?

Peace.

Peace among those with whom he is pleased.

Peace among those with whom he is pleased.

Ephesians 2 reminds us

that because of sin,

it's impossible to please God.

In fact, we follow the ways of this world,

the sons of disobedience,

and we're by nature objects of wrath

like the rest of mankind.

There is a condition

that we have no hope of peace

outside of the only begotten son

coming to the earth

and accomplishing

what we could never hope

to accomplish on our own.

But in the new covenant,

we get to experience new peace.

Peace that is final and complete.

And what does all of this talk about?

A better high priest

and a better covenant

actually change about our lives today.

Well, this passage

and especially the last couple of chapters

that we've looked at

in the book of Hebrews

are some pretty difficult chapters

to understand.

In fact, if you're just trying to read through

for completion the Bible,

you might get to these passages

and you're like, you know what?

I don't really have time to think about this.

I don't really have time

to dive into what this means.

And so I'm just going to read over this quickly

and then get to some other places.

But in doing so,

we miss some great promises

that we have in this.

We miss some great truths

that bring about this great promise.

There are passages that are difficult,

that are hard to study,

but really what we are doing

is we're growing

in our understanding of the gospel in this.

We're not growing past the gospel.

We're not checking a box

and going past this.

We're growing deeper

when we study this in a greater detail.

In this passage,

we are not growing past the gospel,

but simply growing deeper into it.

The more that we dive into it,

the more we clearly see God.

And what we must understand

is the true knowledge of God

always leads us to action.

True knowledge and understanding of God

is always going to lead us

to serving Him in greater ways.

And so it's my hope and prayer

that these truths

will help us to see this final promise,

a promise that declares

we have a better way

of experiencing God.

We have a better way

of experiencing God.

In other words,

what does this new covenant

change about us?

This new covenant changes

the way we approach God.

To begin with,

our better high priest

and better covenant changes

the way that we approach Scripture.

We read the Bible

as new covenant Christians,

which means that we distinguish

the Old Testament

and our Scripture

as our Scripture,

but not as our covenant.

All the Bible is true

from Genesis to Revelation.

All the Bible is our Scripture.

All the Bible is profitable for us.

All the Bible should be known,

but the Old Covenant

is not our covenant.

The Old Testament is vital

to understanding our new covenant.

Act 2 cannot be understood

without Act 1.

We should read it.

We should study it.

We should memorize it.

We should apply it.

In fact, I would say that without it,

it's impossible to understand

the New Testament.

But the Old Covenant

is not our covenant.

And so as we read the Bible

as new covenant Christians,

we take the commands of Christ

as given to us.

The final command that Christ gives

before He ascends to heaven,

the Great Commission of going

and making disciples,

this is for us.

Piper uses this to help us

to see another difference

in these covenants.

He says,

the Old Testament was more

come and see.

The New Testament is go and tell.

The Old Covenant at its core

was ethnic and tribal.

There were provisions for outsiders

to come into the covenant,

but by and large,

it was something that you were born into.

The New Covenant is not tribal

and ethnically centered.

You see, Jew is an ethnicity.

Christian is not.

It is not primarily

a come and see religion.

It is a go and tell religion.

It is a personal relationship

that you enter into.

This is why we practice

believer's baptism.

It's not infant baptism

because it's not a religion

that you are born into.

It's a relationship

that you are reborn into.

A relationship that has new birth,

one that requires you

to be born again.

One of the,

our better high priests

and better covenant

changed the way that we pray.

When you look at the Lord's Prayer,

or as I like to call it,

the Disciples Prayer,

Jesus begins this prayer

in a radical way.

Again, without knowing

the Old Testament,

this will be very easy to miss.

But the prayer that Jesus

teaches His disciples to pray,

the model prayer

that He models for them,

saying you need to pray like this,

He begins with a very bold statement.

He says,

when you pray,

pray like this,

Our Father,

Our Father in Heaven,

hallowed be Your name.

By addressing God as Father,

He gets everyone's attention.

Kent Hughes made the observation,

He says,

You can search from Genesis to Malachi,

and you will not find

one individual speaking of God as Father.

The New Covenant allows us

to go from God's enemies

to God's children.

Pray as a New Covenant believer.

Pray as addressing God as Father,

and end by doing so in Jesus' name.

Our better high priest

and better covenant

change our relationship

with God and others.

We now have a relationship with God,

not an impersonal relationship

of knowing that somewhere,

somehow,

there probably is a God,

but we can actually have

a relationship with this God.

By placing our faith

and our trust in Jesus,

we can go from death to life.

We can go from enemies

to His children.

We get to have a personal relationship

with God.

And so whether you are

a believer or not,

I hope and pray

that all of this covenant talk

that we've talked about this morning

helps us to see

the gift we have in Christ,

to experience a relationship

with God

that because of Jesus

is final

and it is complete.

Heavenly Father,

I thank You so very much

for Your Word.

I thank You for what

it teaches us about You.

I thank You that we can

look at it and study

passages like this

in the book of Hebrews

that can be difficult

to understand,

that can be difficult

to wrap our minds around,

but Lord,

what a privilege,

what an incredible knowledge

that we get

when we take the time

to dig into Your Word,

to understand

what You are communicating to us

by understanding the Old Testament,

by understanding this,

it paves the way for us

to be able to more clearly see

who You are

and what You've done for us.

So Lord,

I pray that today

that we see You

in greater ways,

that we see You more clearly

and by doing so

that we trust You

in a greater way.

So Lord,

I pray that there's someone

here today

that needs to know You

as their Lord and Savior,

that needs to go

from death to life,

that You would give them

the boldness

to step forward

and say,

God,

I'm ready to follow You.

I'm ready to place

my faith and trust in You.

I'm ready to stop trying

to do this on my own,

stop trying to do this cycle

of doing enough good,

being good enough

to finally earn something,

but realizing that I can't

and that when You said

on the cross,

it is finished,

that can be applied to me.

And so Lord,

I pray that there's someone

that needs to experience

Your saving grace.

You would give them

the boldness to do so today.

But Lord,

I pray that for the rest of us

who have placed our faith

and our trust in You,

that we would see You

more clearly,

that we would see

the gift You've given us

to live as new covenant believers,

understanding what You accomplished

on the cross is final,

it's complete,

it's done.

And so Lord,

help us to live in light

of that each and every day.

And we ask all these things

in Jesus' precious name.

Amen.

I'm going to invite you to stand.

We're going to sing

a song of invitation.

The Lord is speaking this morning.

And I want you to respond

as we stand together and sing.

Amen.