Crosses, Crowns, and Covenants: Jesus Changes Everything

Introduction

How many of us have ever been told this statement before, “There’s a better way to do that”? I’ve been on the receiving end of that statement often and it can be a little frustrating if we have a system that we’ve always used or a program that we’re familiar with. Now, change can be a little scary, but let’s think of the change that you have witnessed during your life in the realm of cell phones. Believe it or not, kids, there was a time before the iPad, iPhone, tablet, and laptop - shocking, I know! Some of you had landlines in your houses while others might have had to share a landline with a neighbor. Others of you might have been privileged enough have a phone in your car called a bag phone that would take up half a seat and maybe last a call or two in an emergency. Things have certainly changed here! New things have replaced older things. There’s a better way, a cheaper way, a smaller way. This is fascinating to think about - think back to Apollo 11 over 50 years ago. This mission utilized IBM system 360 computer. Do you have any idea how big these computers were? They were nearly the size of a car and cost $3.5 million a piece. Their core memory was 250,000 bytes - now that might sound like a really big number… Lets contrast that to the new iPhone 14. The iPhone 14 has up to 1 terabyte of memory… 1 terabyte is 1 trillion bytes. That means that your iPhone 14 in your hand has more power than 4 million IBM computers from 50 years ago. The phone that cost you about $1,000 can store as much information as $140 trillion worth of IBM computers. Now, sometimes newer isn’t better, but other times it simply is! You would be insane to pay millions of dollars to use an IBM system 360 computer when there are cheaper and better options out there.

Learning to do something new can be daunting. Leaving behind something comfortable can feel impossible. Sometimes, change can be hard but there are times where it is necessary. A doctor from Johns Hopkins shared that nearly 2 million people in the United States receive heart procedures to clear up clog arteries and things of that nature each year. His research shared that of the people who receive a heart bypass, 90% of them do not change their lifestyle. They know that what they are doing is bad for them. They know that they are in trouble. They know that they might’ve nearly died… but they can’t change, even though the doctor told them Change or Die.

Change or Die… that’s a tough statement to hear, but isn’t that the reality that we find ourselves in as human beings? As we study Scripture we see that we have a fundamental problem and it’s our sin. We are sinners and we choose to sin, therefore, something must change or else we’re going to be in big trouble. As we dive back into the book of Hebrews, we find ourselves in Hebrews 8 this morning, and we’re going to see what God has done to save and change people like you and me. We’re going to see how God sent Jesus to bring about something called the New Covenant to bring about eternal change in our hearts, not because of how awesome we are, but because of how desperately in need of Jesus we are. There’s a better way, and this morning we’re going to see that Jesus is in fact that way and we all need Jesus to change us today!

Hebrews 8 CSB

1 Now the main point of what is being said is this: We have this kind of high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a minister of the sanctuary and the true tabernacle that was set up by the Lord and not man. 3 For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; therefore, it was necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. 4 Now if he were on earth, he wouldn’t be a priest, since there are those offering the gifts prescribed by the law. 5 These serve as a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was warned when he was about to complete the tabernacle. For God said, Be careful that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain. 6 But Jesus has now obtained a superior ministry, and to that degree he is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been established on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second one. 8 But finding fault with his people, he says: See, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 9 not like the covenant that I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. I showed no concern for them, says the Lord, because they did not continue in my covenant. 10 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 write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 11 And each person will not teach his fellow citizen, and each his brother or sister, saying, “Know the Lord,” because they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them. 12 For I will forgive their wrongdoing, and I will never again remember their sins. 13 By saying a new covenant, he has declared that the first is obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing old is about to pass away.

Because of our sin, we’re in trouble before God. What Jesus does, though, is He offers Himself in our place on the cross and brings about permanent change in the lives of His people. Through the cross, we receive a crown, and find ourselves in a covenant with a God who promises to always be faithful, even when you and I drop the ball. That’s some good news, isn’t it? Let’s pause and give thanks to God for what Jesus has done for us.

3 Things God Provides:

A Better Priest (1-2)

Last week we celebrated the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday - the greatest news in history that Jesus not only died on the cross for our sins but that He defeated death and is alive today! As we always do at FBC Salem as we study God’s Word, it’s impossible to study Scripture and not be blown away by God’s amazing plan and His love, grace, kindness, and mercy in sending Jesus to do for us what we could never do for ourselves. See, Scripture really is all about Jesus. The Old Testament looks ahead to Jesus and the New Testament explains what Jesus Christ has done. Hebrews is no exception to this. Hebrews is all about Jesus. Through our first 7 chapters of this book (which we’ve been studying since last October), we’ve seen this theme over and over. Jesus is better. He’s better than the prophets, angels, priests, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, Abraham, and the list goes on and on! This book to this point has been looking at Who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. If you remember from back in March, we wrapped up Hebrews 7 and we find this in Hebrews 7:25

Hebrews 7:25 CSB

25 Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, since he always lives to intercede for them.

Aren’t you thankful that this is the Jesus that we worship? Not a genie in a lamp who is just like you and me, but a Jesus who is able to save us completely, fully, faithfully, and perfectly from the punishment of our sins, the power of sin, and one day from the presence of sin? This is amazing news and this is the entire point of Hebrews - focusing the spotlight on Jesus, the hero of Scripture, who saves sinners like you and I. This morning as we unpack Hebrews 8, we’re going to see clearly the grace of our God as He has provided so much for us that we could never deserve on our own. First, we see a summary statement in verse 1 that God has provided a high priest who is sitting down in the heavens. This is the exact same phrase we saw back in Hebrews 1:3

Hebrews 1:3 CSB

3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

This is Jesus. He offered Himself as our sacrifice for sins and after His resurrection He ascended back to heaven where He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. We talked about the significance of this months ago, but we’ve had holidays and lots of sleep between now and then, so lets refresh our brains about why this matters so much. Priests had a job to do because of the sins of the people, there was always more sin so there always had to be another sacrifice! Parents, we might think of this in terms of laundry with our kids. So long as you have kids, you will have to do more and more laundry because your clothes get dirty and the solution to dirty clothes is to wash and dry them so they get clean. This is the entire Old Testament, once a year it was laundry day for sin - the Day of Atonement - as the high priest would offer a sacrifice that would cover their stinky sin for a year. What would happen the very next day, though? The people got dirty because they sinned again and the priest would have to go back to work. The work never stopped because sin never stopped and the sacrifices they offered could not forgive sins - only cover them up. So, mom’s, you’re not alone with a seemingly unending job of cleaning dirty clothes.

What we see about Jesus, though, is something different. He too, as we saw in Hebrews 7, is a high priest but He isn’t said to be standing ready to offer more sacrifices… He is sitting down in heaven. How can He do this? Because His sacrifice for sins is a one time thing never to be offered again.

Hebrews 10:14 CSB

14 For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are sanctified.

This is amazing news! Jesus will never have to offer another sacrifice for sins - our sins past, present, and future were taken by Jesus to the cross as Christians. In fact, we see in Romans 3:25 that this is how all people, even in the Old Testament were saved as God passed over their sins (they were covered by the blood of bulls/goats, not forgiven) until Christ came and bore them in full on the cross. In this sense, we can say that Jesus is the only way anyone has ever been saved and Jesus is the only way anyone ever will be saved! God provides this better priest to offer a better sacrifice to give us a better hope. His work is finished - He is in heaven today praying and interceding on our behalf right now.

A Better Place (3-6)

Think about this idea of Jesus being at the right hand of the Father in heaven and praying and ministering for us this very minute. You and I face a lot of stressors on a regular basis. We’re bombarded by a godless society. We’re tempted to bend the knee to culture. Some of you are here and you question the idea of there being such a thing as genuine hope in this twisted and broken world. Scripture teaches us that our hope in this world comes from its Creator and our Sustainer. Robert Murray M’Cheyene put it like this, “If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.”

We have a Jesus in the throne room of heaven who is praying for us today. Can you visualize this scene? See, so often we get a little confused during worship and this is a growing trend in our world, especially in the United States. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked with people of all ages, but especially my age, and they’ll say something along these lines: Ugh, service went too long. I didn’t like the message and I really didn’t like the songs because the music was too loud or not really my style. Let’s do a quick heart check here: If that’s how you feel, you might not like heaven all that much. See, worship is not about us. It’s never been about us and it will never be about us. Worship is about Jesus and giving Him the glory and praise that He rightly deserves! We see in the heavenly sanctuary that there will be praise and worship taking place and the song that the seraphim are singing is this

Isaiah 6:2–3 CSB

2 Seraphim were standing above him; they each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3 And one called to another: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Armies; his glory fills the whole earth.

For thousands of years, this is the song they’ve sung - Holy, Holy, Holy. They’re not arguing about singing another song or complaining to the worship leader because the music is turned up too loud. They’re worshipping in the heavenly sanctuary - and one day we will do the same as followers of Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, these priests led worship and made sacrifices for God’s people. Jesus is no different. He is the object of our worship and He sacrificed Himself in our place - He deserves our praise!

Worship is something that God takes seriously! Look at verse 5 - we see that God gave very specific instructions regarding the tabernacle that Moses built and this is to demonstrate that what Jesus does not only impacts us in our worship today, but it will impact us forever. In other words, as we worship here, we take part in the eternal worship of God. We join in something so much bigger than just FBC Salem and ourselves. This church, as beautiful and lovely as it is, is but a shadow of what is to come. The worship led by priests in the Old Testament was purposeful for a period of time, but not eternal. Jesus changed all of this whenever He sat down before the Father, and Jesus will change our place of worship whenever He calls us home.

How can Jesus do this? How can He give us hope of worshipping Him in eternal glory? Because of Who He is and what He has done. Think of the priests in the Old Testament and pastors of Christ’s church today. These churchgoers in Hebrews came from Judaism and they probably had a favorite priest just as we all have a favorite pastor. They might’ve had a conversation like this, “Do you remember our old priest, Jehoshaphat? He was an awesome worship leader. He knew God’s law so well. He was a great guy.”

“I miss him! Where is he now?”

“Oh, he died.”

“Well who is the priest now?”

“Some young guy - he doesn’t know what he’s doing… but he’ll die too and we’ll get another one and hopefully he’ll be better.”

This is our lives in this place. We face death and loss, even the leaders of God’s church. But this is not the case with Jesus and this is what the preacher of Hebrews is taking time to share in chapters 7 and 8, Jesus remains a priest forever. His priesthood and kingdom know no end. He is a better minister. He is a better mediator. His work is founded on better promises.

1 Timothy 2:5 CSB

5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus,

Jesus does something better than we could ever deserve or imagine, He represents us before God. He dies in our place. He brings about something better for us and this is what we see called the New Covenant in Scripture.

A Better Promise (7-13)

The New Covenant is something that some of you have likely heard about as you’ve read your Bible as it appears in both the Old and New Testaments but for others of you you might be a little confused by this. If God is perfect, why does there need to be anything new in the first place? If God keeps His Word, why does He need to make a new covenant? More and more people, though, ask this question, “Why can’t God just forgive the sins of the people and wipe the slate clean once and for all with the snap of His fingers? After all, He’s God.”

We see the reality of sin in our lives and throughout Scripture. Sin must be dealt with. Some think that God should just forgive without there being any expense. This isn’t how God designed things, though. Sin is so infinitely serious, that it always carries with it a cost.

Hebrews 9:22 CSB

22 According to the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

We’re stuck between a rock and a hard place here, friends. See, the Old Testament law tells the people of God what to do - the instructions are clear as day - but they continue to fall short and rebel against God. We have the same struggle today - we know what we should do, but we make mistakes. We see this in our world as well, people know that there are laws and there are consequences whenever laws are broken. There are also consequences whenever God’s laws are broken. The Bible teaches us that the wages of our sin is death (Romans 6:23) and that God finds fault with His people here in Hebrews 8:7-8. See, if God’s people simply obeyed His Word like they were supposed to, then there would have been no problem. But they, like us, are sinners. They, like us, went astray to their own way. See the purpose of the first covenant was to point out the shortcomings of God’s people and the holiness of God Himself. So many in our world want God to snap His fingers and eliminate all the evil on our planet but there’s a fundamental problem with that request… who would God also have to get rid of if He got rid of all the evil in the world? You and me!

Yes, God is a God of love. But God is also holy and He is also just. He cannot let sin go unpunished - there must be atonement for sin and this is what the Old Testament is looking forward to. The day in which sin is punished and God establishes a New Covenant with His people. What exactly is a covenant? That’s a foreign word for some of us. We’re familiar with a contract, but not so much with a covenant. Think about a contract - take our contract with Centurylink for our internet at the church. We have an agreement in writing, a contract, that we will pay Centurylink a certain amount of money each month for them to provide us with a certain internet speed. We pay, they provide. This is a contract, and when both parties do their job, it works great! But we live in a broken, fallen world where people don’t always do their job. Let’s say that we forget to pay our internet bill. What happens? Centurylink will de-activate our internet and we won’t be able to livestream our service like we are today or use internet in our church offices. If we fail to pay, they will fail to provide, because we have broken the terms of our contract.

Now, think about our relationship with God in terms of a contract like in the Old Testament. God promised covenantal blessings whenever His people obeyed and covenantal cursings whenever they disobeyed. Obey and live, disobey and be destroyed. God has given us the standard and expectation, but it doesn’t take long to realize that we break that contract every single day. There isn’t even an ounce of hope with this - this leads us to despair. We’re no different than the Israelites who failed to enter the Promised Land and ignored God’s faithfulness and promises. We break the contract. Therefore, God doesn’t make contracts with His people… He makes covenants. What is the difference between the two?

In a covenant, 2 parties would agree to certain terms and the less powerful party would walk through the animals who had been sacrificed to demonstrate their inferiority and agree that if they broke the covenant, there would be a consequence. In Genesis, God makes this covenant with Abraham. Abraham is the less powerful party in this situation and it would be his responsibility to walk this path and be liable to punishment should he mess up in the future… Look at what God does in Genesis 15:12

Genesis 15:12 CSB

12 As the sun was setting, a deep sleep came over Abram, and suddenly great terror and darkness descended on him.

Genesis 15:17 CSB

17 When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the divided animals.

Did Abraham pass between the sacrificed animals? Nope - God did. What does this mean? God takes on the responsibility of upholding this covenant. Even when His people are faithless, God will remain faithful - we see this in Genesis 15 and we see this on the cross with Christ. This is His promise - to be faithful and do the things that He promises to do. Even though God remained faithful to the people of Israel, we see that they went their own way. They broke the covenant, so God does something remarkable. He has pledged Himself to be faithful to these faithless people. He has promised to bless these fallen people. How can God be just and punish sin while maintaining His promise and covenant? The Old Covenant must be fulfilled and the New Covenant must be founded on something greater than tablets of stone.

In Jeremiah 31 we see that God will make a New Covenant with His people and Hebrews 8 quotes Jeremiah 31 and here we find the longest single Old Testament quotation in the entire New Testament. Again, if you want to understand the Old Testament in a Christian way, read Hebrews! The point in this quotation is to demonstrate that God promised hundreds of years before Christ to instigate a New Covenant where His law would be written on the hearts of His people rather than on tablets of stone. That His Spirit would reside within His people and that all of His people would know Him and worship Him and stand forgiven before Him. This is unique because in Jesus’ day there were Jewish people who did not know and worship God. They were Jew in name only but not in practice. They did the right external deeds but they were hollow and empty. They were Jewish but they weren’t saved! See, in the Old Covenant you could be a member of ethnic Israel and be lost as lost can be. This is not the case in the New Covenant because entry into the New Covenant is found in being born again by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit - this is good news for each one of us because we can be assured that no New Covenant member will ever fall away (see Hebrews 6:1-8)

In the New Covenant we see that Gentiles like you and I can be grafted into God’s redemptive plan and saved from our sin. Romans 11:17-18

Romans 11:17–18 CSB

17 Now if some of the branches were broken off, and you, though a wild olive branch, were grafted in among them and have come to share in the rich root of the cultivated olive tree, 18 do not boast that you are better than those branches. But if you do boast—you do not sustain the root, but the root sustains you.

Each person in the New Covenant is saved and each person in the New Covenant knows the Lord because each person in the New Covenant is a forgiven sinner through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in our place on the cross. If you are a born again Christian this morning, think of all of the wrong that you have done in your life and all of the things you’ve done contrary to the Word of God. We’ve given God millions of reasons to reject us and drop us, but because of the blood of Jesus, our sins are forever forgiven and Hebrews 8:12 tells us that God doesn’t even remember our sins. What a forgiveness! What a promise! Michael Kruger shares that, “The heart of God is such that He pursues even those who wander and flee.” He has gone every extra mile to pursue us and save us and that God will never forsake or abandon us either. We can take Him at His Word that He has forgiven us as Christians and He will not hold our sin against us on the last day because of what Jesus has done for us.

Jesus changes our standing before the Father. In the New Covenant, Jesus takes our cross and gives us His crown. We die to self and He raises us to walk in a brand new life!

Unlike every other religion out there, Christianity offers complete forgiveness from sins not through our works or merit or what we deserve because we could never do enough good to deserve that. Buddhism teaches that you have to continually work and work and work some more in order to destroy selfish desires in the heart. Hinduism teaches that karma rules the day and there is no forgiveness because everyone will reap what they sow for every action they’ve ever done. Islam offers no forgiveness of sins as there are works to be done in order to tip the scales from bad to good and hopefully in the end the person has done enough good. Mormonism is the same way and we could think of other works based religions. What about Christianity? We see the cross. We see that Jesus accomplished the Old Covenant in full - He fulfilled the law - and through the cross and empty tomb, Jesus has accomplished everything necessary for our salvation. The work is finished. The end is written. Jesus Christ is our living hope who saves sinners like you and me!

1 Thing God Demands:

A Bold People

If this is what God has provided for us, a better priest, place, and promise, then what type of people does God want His New Covenant followers to be? Not a timid people. Not a faithless people. Not a culture pleasing people. Not a go with the flow people… The New Testament speaks of the early followers of Jesus Christ as a bold people. We see this in the book of Acts time and time again. The early Christians began to be thrown into prison simply for preaching the Gospel and we find this as their statement in Acts 4:18-21

Acts 4:18–21 CSB

18 So they called for them and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 19 Peter and John answered them, “Whether it’s right in the sight of God for us to listen to you rather than to God, you decide; 20 for we are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.” 21 After threatening them further, they released them. They found no way to punish them because the people were all giving glory to God over what had been done.

Historically, Christians have been a bold people because we serve a risen Savior who has raised us from death to life and written His law on our hearts. He has taken our cross and given to us a crown that is everlasting! The same God who forgives sinners is the same God who writes His law on our hearts so that we proclaim His Word boldly for all to hear. That demands our devotion and our boldness as we follow Him and tell others about the forgiveness that we have experienced through His death in our place.

John Dickson, commenting on the early Christians, said this, “They believed that true power to change the world lay not in politics, the judiciary, or the military, but in the message of Christ’s death and resurrection.” Friends, we have the best and most powerful message to share - Christ has saved us to be a bold people and to go and glorify Him by proclaiming His Gospel and making disciples of our neighbors and the nations.

Have you experienced this forgiveness today? If so, are you proclaiming the Gospel with boldness to those around you? If you have not been forgiven from the guilt and stain of your sins, why delay another day? The New Covenant promise of eternal life is still active today. Jesus is still saving sinners. You can have the hope of being with Him for all eternity. We must Change or we will die. Jesus alone can change us. Because of Jesus, the old has gone, the new has come. Repent of your sins, trust in Christ as Lord, and follow Him boldly today.