"Building a Church Through Outreach"
The High Priest
ELCOG 3/16/08
Hebrews 8:1-8:13 (Heb. 4:14-16)
A covenant was more than just a treaty. It was both a legal contract and a formalized
bond of life and death sealed with an oath.
The mediator of such a covenant was the priest. He was the one who would represent man to
God and God to men. He officiated over the sacrifice and he brought the blood to the
altar. He went into the presence of God on behalf of men.
Jesus is our high priest.
A BETTER HIGH PRIEST
Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who
has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,
Everything that has been said in Hebrews up to this point has been to bring us to this
one main point — we have a high priest in the person of Jesus. We saw at the very
beginning of this epistle that God has spoken in a Son who sat down at the right hand of
the Majesty on high. This is now repeated nearly word for word. We have come full circle
to see Jesus.
It is one thing to see Jesus as our high priest. It is quite another to see Him as our
high priest who has taken His seat. The one thing that no Old Testament priest ever
did was to take his seat. Priests in the temple always stood. There were no seats in the
temple or the tabernacle. The only seat was God’s seat - the mercy seat. This was the
lid of the Ark of the Covenant and no priest would ever have dreamed of even touching the
Ark let alone actually sitting on it. But Jesus did exactly that. He is the priest who sat
down. And notice where it was that He sat — at the right hand of the throne of the
Majesty in the heavens.
Jesus sat as our high priest was not in any earthly tabernacle or temple. His place of
honor was in heaven itself.
There are two things of which we ought to take note with regard to Jesus sitting at the
right hand of God.
1. To be seated at the right hand was to be seated in the place of honor. The right
hand was used for fellowship and for eating. The left hand was used for more mundane
tasks. Jesus has been given the place of honor in heaven.
2. In the Sanhedrin, the supreme court of Israel, it was the custom for two scribes
to sit on either side of the judges of that court. The scribe who sat on the right hand
side would write the acquittals. The scribe who sat on the left hand side would write the
condemnations.
Jesus has been given the seat of pardon. His ministry has been one of bringing
pardon and forgiveness to men.
But that is not all. In Revelation 3:21 Jesus promises that to Him who overcomes, I
will grant to sit with Me in My throne. There is coming a day when we shall not
only see Jesus seated at the right hand of God, but when we shall sit with Him. This is
not because we are good or deserving, but because He has been good and deserving in our
place.
You want to know about redemption? Look at the Tabernacle, for it is pictured there.
Propitiation is represented on the altar. A substitutionary atonement is seen in the
sacrifice lamb.
* The Tabernacle had a lampstand — Jesus is the light of the world.
* The Tabernacle had a table of shewbread — Jesus is the bread of life.
* The Tabernacle had a veil — Jesus’ glory was veiled to the world and He passed
through the veil into the presence of God on our behalf.
* The Tabernacle had an altar — Jesus is our sacrifice offered on our behalf.
His blood we are healed.
Everything in and about the Tabernacle was representative of the spiritual reality that we
have in Christ.
A BETTER SACRIFICE
For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; so it is necessary
that this high priest also have something to offer. (Hebrews 8:3).
The major function of any priest was the administration of gifts and sacrifices. That was
in their job description. Sometimes these were big sacrifices like an oxen or a bull and
sometimes they were little sacrifices like a pigeon or a dove. But they always offered
sacrifices.
For Jesus to be a priest means that He also had to offer a sacrifice. But He did not offer
an animal. He offered Himself. He is the high priest who sacrificed Himself, placing
Himself upon the altar of God’s holy condemnation.
A BETTER TABERNACLE
Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer
the gifts according to the Law; 5 who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just
as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle; for,
"See," He says, "that you make all things according to the pattern which
was shown you on the mountain." (Hebrews 8:4-5).
The realm of Jesus’ priesthood is not on earth. This is evident because there already
exists an earthly priesthood and Jesus did not fit the criteria for that priesthood. He
was from the wrong tribe. He was from the tribe of Judah while all priests descended from
the tribe of Levi.
The reason we can say that Jesus is a legitimate priest is because His priesthood is
heavenly in nature.
The earthly Tabernacle and Temple were nothing but shadows. A shadow has no independent
substance or existence. When a shadow exists, it is evidence of a reality which created
that shadow.
When Moses was given the directions for building the Tabernacle, they were extremely
precise as to the dimensions and the building materials. He was warned not to deviate from
this pattern. Why was this so important? It was because it was all a shadow of a spiritual
reality.
A BETTER COVENANT
But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator
of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. (Hebrews 8:6).
The priests were the mediators of a covenant.
There is nothing wrong with the Old Covenant. It was made between a holy God and His
covenant people. But today there is a better covenant — a New Covenant. It is a new
thing which was previously unknown. God has done something new in Christ that He had never
done before. It is both new and it is better.
THE OLD COVENANT ASSUMED A BETTER COVENANT TO COME
For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought
for a second.
For finding fault with them, He says, "Behold, days are coming," says the Lord,
"when I will effect a new covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of
Judah; 9 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them
by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in my
covenant, and I did not care for them," says the Lord. (Hebrews 8:7-9).
One of the Old Covenant promises was that there would eventually come a day when a New
Covenant was established. The promise of this coming New Covenant can be found in several
places in the Old Testament.
There is a problem in the Old Covenant which needs to be remedied by the New Covenant.
You’ve heard the old saying, "If it’s not broken, don’t fix it."
If the Old Covenant was not somehow lacking, then there would have been no need for a New
Covenant to be given to take its place.
The fact that a New Covenant was promised while the Old Covenant was still in effect
assumes that there was a need for something better than the Old Covenant that was in
place. The writer to the Hebrews points this out by quoting a portion of the promise:
WHAT MAKES THE NEW COVENANT BETTER
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those days,
says the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts.
And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11 And they shall not teach everyone
his fellow citizen, and everyone his brother, saying, ‘know the Lord,’ for all
will know Me, from the least to the greatest of them. 12 For I will be merciful to their
iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more."
When He said, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is
becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear. (Hebrews 8:10-13).
We have already noted that the New Covenant is better than the Old Covenant. Now we shall
see four specific reasons why this is so.
1. The New Covenant is Better because it is an Internal Covenant: I will put my laws
into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts (8:10).
The participant in the New Covenant has something that the believer of past ages never
had. He has the Holy Spirit living within him. He has the Keeper of the Covenant
indwelling him. And that makes a big difference. It means that God has gifted His people
in a special way, working from the inside out.
2. The New Covenant is Better because it in All-Inclusive: And they shall not teach
everyone his fellow citizen, and everyone his brother, saying, ‘know the Lord,’
for all will know Me, from the least to the greatest of them (8:11).
The Old Covenant was primarily Jewish in scope. It was focused upon the land of Israel and
upon the sacrifices that took place in Jerusalem.
3. The New Covenant is Better because it Forgives Sins: For I will be merciful to their
iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more (8:12).
The New Covenant is not written upon tablets of stone. It is written in men’s hearts.
And because it is written in men’s hearts, it brings with it the means of fulfilling
its obligations. How can you possibly fulfill the obligations of the New Covenant? It is
only by trusting in the One who fulfilled them on your behalf. That is what verse 12
says: For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.
This was the greatest failure of the Old Covenant. It could not forgive sins. It
could temporarily cover sins with animal sacrifices that looked forward to a future
fulfillment. But the blood of sheep and goats can never take away sin. For this there
needed to be a New Covenant relationship.
4. The New Covenant is Better because is does not become Obsolete: When He said,
"A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming
obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear (8:13).
The days of the Old Covenant are gone. We are to live by the Spirit, trusting in His power
and walking in the light of His teaching. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law and has
brought us into a New Covenant relationship with Himself. And therefore we are called to
hold onto Jesus.
Taken from excerpts from John Stevenson: SermonCentral.com