The Better Priest for the Better Tabernacle

Introduction: I want you to imagine waking up in a hotel room after a long day of travel (maybe its the first day of vacation or maybe it’s the first day of a work conference). You're groggy, your eyes barely open, and your first thought is, I need coffee.

As you peel yourself out from underneath the covers on the bed, you spot the tiny coffee maker on the dresser—the one that comes with a couple of vacuum-sealed pods labeled “Premium Roast,” though you know better because you’ve been tricked by them before. Still, you’re desperate. You fill it with tap water, slide in the pod, and hit the brew button, telling yourself, It’ll be fine this time. I just need something to get me going.

The smell that fills the room isn’t great, but you hold onto hope. You wrap your hands around the flimsy paper cup, bring it to your lips, and take that first sip...

And it’s awful. If Folgers were to write a commercial about this coffee, it would indeed be the worst part of waking up.

It’s Bitter, watery, and a little plastic-y. It somehow manages to both taste burned and weak at the same time. You stare at the cup in disbelief, thinking, How is it even possible to produce a coffee this bad?

And in that moment, your mind drifts to your favorite coffee shop back home. The one where the barista knows your order. Where the beans are ground fresh, the air is filled with rich aroma, and that first sip is always smooth, bold, and satisfying.

Compared to that, this hotel coffee isn’t even in the same universe. It’s a cheap imitation—something that pretends to satisfy but leaves you disappointed and still longing for the real thing.

Well, according to the writer of Hebrews, that’s exactly what the old covenant was like.

It had the shape of real forgiveness. It offered a taste of the fellowship with God that was to come. But it never actually got the job done, and it was never meant to.

Which is why, as we turn our attention to Hebrews 8:1-6 this morning, we see what the writer of Hebrews has been working up to over the last several passages. Jesus is the better Priest serving in better tabernacle as the mediator of a better covenant with better promises.

Read Hebrews 8:1-6

The Better Priest (Hebrews 8:1)

“We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens...”

He is seated

Hebrews 10:11 “And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.”

Hebrews 1:3 “who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”

He is at God’s right hand

Jesus sitting at the right hand of the throne may have reminded some Jews of the Court of the Sanhedrin

The scribe sitting at the left hand of the right was responsible for recording condemnations

The scribe sitting at the right hand of the judge was responsible for recording acquittals

Hebrews 7:25 “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”

Transition: And as the better priest, it is only fitting that Jesus serves in the better tabernacle.

The Better Tabernacle (Hebrews 8:2-5)

Read Hebrews 8:2-5

“...a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man...”

The word true is not used here as the opposite of false. The writer of Hebrews is not comparing the true tabernacle against the false and pagan worship centers of the false gods, neither was he saying that the tabernacle of the Old Covenant was somehow false. He was saying that the tabernacle of the Old Covenant was temporary and inadequate and was by no means a permanent solution to the problem of sin.

Hebrews 9:8–9 “the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience—”

Greek philosophers believed that everything we experience with our senses is but a shadow or reflection of a real counterpart in another world

Although the writer of Hebrews was not necessarily agreeing with that in all points, it is exactly what he was saying concerning the relationship between the Old and the New Covenants

2 Peter 3:13 “Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”

“For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this One also have something to offer.”

Discuss the difference between gifts and sacrifices

Colossians 3:17 “And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

Ephesians 5:20 “giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,”

“For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”

Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead, preached, forgave sins, and called Himself God’s true Son, yet he never claimed to have the right to minister in the temple. He never went any further into the inner sanctuaries of the temple than any other Jew of His time. And, as we have already seen, He was not of the priestly tribe and was not qualified for the old, earthly ministry.

Jesus ministers offerings under the New Covenant and in the true sanctuary of which the Old Covenant was just a pattern and not the original.

Transition: Jesus’ better seat and His better sanctuary are evidences of His better ministry, and His better ministry is evidence of the better covenant, of which He is the better mediator of better promises.

The Better Covenant (Hebrews 8:6)

Read Hebrews 8:6

“But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.”

Mediator = someone who stands between two people and brings them together, a go-between in a dispute or conflict

Example: Moses mediated between Israel and God.

Deuteronomy 5:5 “I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord; for you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up the mountain.”

Conclusion: So why keep sipping on something that was never meant to satisfy… when the real thing has already been poured out for you?