Copies & Shadows

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, a minister of the sanctuary and the true tabernacle that was set up by the Lord and not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; therefore, it was necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now if he were on earth, he wouldn’t be a priest, since there are those offering the gifts prescribed by the law. 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.” 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.

This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

As we have now moved into Hebrews 8, the author is digging deeper into Christ’s priesthood. He has mentioned over and over that Jesus is a better priest, but in our passage today, he also states that Jesus serves in a better temple.

Today, we will see how the different aspects of the Old Covenant and the sacrificial system were just copies and shadows of the true tabernacle in heaven, and that worship in the Old Testament points us to Jesus.

Big Idea: The Levitical law always pointed to Christ.

Hebrews 8:1-2

The author summarizes what he has been trying to say so far in this book about who Christ is. One of the words that the author of Hebrews uses repeatedly to describe Christ is “better.”

In my sermon a few weeks ago, I listed the ways that Jesus was better according to the book of Hebrews. In Hebrews 1 & 2, we saw how Jesus is better and superior to the angels. In chapter 2, we saw the implication that Jesus is better than Adam. In chapter 3, we saw that Jesus is better and superior to Moses. In chapter 4, we see Jesus as better than Joshua. In chapter 5, Jesus is described as better than Aaron the high priest. In chapters 6 & 7, we saw that the priesthood of Jesus is greater than that of the Levitical priests of the Old Testament, and that he is the better Melchizedek.

In last week's message, we looked at how Jesus is the perfect high priest because he is holy, innocent, and undefiled. Christ has been exalted to the heavens and has sat down at the right hand of God.

When we see scripture say that Jesus sat down, that is not just a passive remark. There is a purpose for stating that Jesus sat down. It is because his work is completed until the day he returns in judgment. This is why Jesus yelled from the cross, “It is finished.” By saying it is finished, that means the work is done. PERIOD. There is nothing more that needs to happen to secure our salvation.

This also refutes any arguments towards a works-based righteousness. If our Salvation depends on our works, then Jesus did not finish the work himself.

Instead, Jesus completed the work, has been exalted to the highest heaven, and given his place at God's right hand, the ultimate place of favor. The Old Testament spoke of this in Psalm 110. This is the psalm that the author of Hebrews has used over and over again, saying that Jesus is a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. The very first verse of this psalm says this:

Psalm 110:1

This is the declaration of the LORDto my Lord:“Sit at my right handuntil I make your enemies your footstool.”

to my Lord:“Sit at my right handuntil I make your enemies your footstool.”

You may notice in your Bibles that the first “Lord” in this passage is L-O-R-D. The second “Lord” is L-o-r-d. This is because the Hebrew language uses two different words to describe this conversation. The first LORD is the word Yahweh, which is the holy name of God. When Moses encountered God in the burning bush, Moses asked God, “Who should I say has sent me?” God told Moses that his name was “I AM WHO I AM.” This word Yahweh literally means “I am.”

The second Lord is the word Adonai, which ancient Jews used as a way to reference God without possibly misusing the name of Yahweh. So when we look at it that way, the verse actually says:

This is the declaration of YahwehTo

To Adonai:“Sit at my right handuntil I make your enemies your footstool.”

:“Sit at my right handuntil I make your enemies your footstool.”

Obviously, God is speaking to someone in this passage. The use of these two different words for “Lord” means that God is speaking to someone like himself.

Our passage today also says that Jesus is a minister of the heavenly sanctuary and the Heavenly Tabernacle, which Hebrews calls the TRUE tabernacle, that was set up by God himself, not built with human hands, as the Earthly Tabernacle and temples were. This is another way that Jesus is a better priest than Melchizedek, Aaron, or anyone else in the Levitical line. He serves in a better temple.

Hebrews 8:3

For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; therefore, it was necessary for this priest also to have something to offer.

Earthly High priests were appointed to offer sacrifices and gifts to the Lord on behalf of the people. Last week, we looked at the sacrifices that the priests had to present in the morning and at twilight every day as part of the Old Testament law. The priests were also in charge of offering the sacrifices that people would bring for sin offerings, offerings for healing, or free-will offerings to the Lord.

Hebrews 5:1

For every high priest taken from among men is appointed in matters pertaining to God for the people, to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.

A big part of the function of the priest was to speak to God on behalf of the people. The priests did this by offering the sacrifices that were brought to them.

Since Jesus is described as our eternal High Priest, he too had to bring something to offer to God. He had to present a sacrifice to the Father for the sins of the people. And as I try to emphasize every week, in every single sermon, we understand that he offered his own life to the Father.

The Apostle Paul clearly states this throughout his letter to the Romans. but in talking about Jesus in Romans chapter 4, he shows that Jesus was the sacrifice for the sins of humanity.

Romans 4:25

He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

Now, as we continue through our main passage:

Hebrews 8:4

Now if he were on earth, he wouldn’t be a priest, since there are those offering the gifts prescribed by the law.

The author now states that if Christ were still on Earth, he would not be a priest, since there were already priests on Earth offering the sacrifices that were prescribed by the law. According to the law, only Levites who are direct descendants of Aaron could serve as priests in the temple. And since Jesus was born from the tribe of Judah, he was not eligible to serve as an Earthly priest.

Something really interesting about this verse is that it helps to date the book of Hebrews to before AD 70, when the temple was destroyed. The author states that there are priests currently, at the time of writing this book, offering the gifts that are prescribed by the Law. You may ask why that is important. Many detractors of the Christian faith claim that the books of the New Testament were not written until the second or third century. They use this idea to try to further claim that the original teachings of Jesus have been corrupted by those in power to control the people.

This is actually something that Muslims claim about the Bible. They believe that Scripture has been corrupted to show that Jesus is God. But there is an interesting reason for this. The Quran actually declares, multiple times, that both the Torah (The OT Law) and the Gospel (the NT stories about Jesus) are authoritative and are genuine revelations from God. Now, you may be asking, “Then why don't they follow what the Torah and the New Testament Gospels say?” It is because they have been taught to believe that those Scriptures have been corrupted and that what we have today in our Bible is not the original message given to men from God.

However, the mountains of manuscripts and archaeological evidence that show how well preserved the message of scripture has stayed for thousands of years refute claims of the corruption of Scripture.

We can assume that the book of Hebrews was written before the destruction of the Temple in AD 70 because there was only one place that was allowed to be used for the sacrifices. Sacrifices were only allowed to be offered in the temple at the holy altar. When the temple was destroyed by the Romans, the practice of offering sacrifices for people's sins ended. Though there were efforts to start up the practice of offering sacrifices in the second or third centuries, those efforts did not last long.

So if the author of Hebrews says that sacrifices are still happening, this book was written before the destruction of the temple.

But Jesus' ministry did not take place within the Earthly Temple. Jesus’ priestly ministry takes place in the heavenly temple.

Hebrews 8:5

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.”

As we saw in Hebrews 8:2, there is a better and true tabernacle in heaven. The priests and the tabernacle on Earth were not meant to be permanent. The author calls them copies and shadows of what is in heaven. This is why we see the warning to Moses in Exodus from God telling him to make sure to build the Tabernacle and all of the tools and instruments for worship exactly according to the instructions that God was giving him.

Paul says the same thing to the Colossians in chapter 2 of his letter to them. In this chapter, he is showing his readers that they have been saved by Christ and that they should not allow themselves to be taken captive by ways of thinking that are based on human tradition instead of on Christ. He says not to let anyone judge them based on what they eat or drink, whether they celebrate certain festivals, or if they celebrate the Sabbath in a specific way. And in verse 17, Paul tells them why they shouldn’t worry about people judging them for not observing those practices a specific way.

Colossians 2:17

These are a shadow of what was to come; the substance is Christ.

I believe this is part of why Jesus was continually confronting the Pharisees and Sadducees concerning what the law actually said and how the traditions of the elders interpreted it. The religious leaders were missing the point of the law and even of the temple.

We can fall into this same trap ourselves. I will be honest, I would love to have an actual church building for us to gather in, instead of renting an office space or warehouse space to meet together. Part of that desire is to have a building that actually looks like a church, making it easier for people to know that there is a church there. Before we put our signs up on the building, most people in Carnation did not realize that a church met here.

Even I need to be reminded at times that the church is not a building but the people of God. The point is not where we meet, but that we meet. We can't let Earthly distractions pull our Focus away from the truth that God has revealed to us. See, Paul continued in speaking to the Colossians, telling them that their focus should not be on the things of Earth.

Colossians 3:1-3

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Our focus should be on Christ. Our identity should be in him and him alone. The religious leaders of Jesus' time had put their focus and identity in the details of the law and how the law had traditionally been understood, instead of understanding the heart of what the law was actually trying to say.

With that, I want to take a look at what the Old Testament Tabernacle actually looked like, and compare it to how different portions of scripture describe the Heavenly Temple where Jesus now serves. Our Passage today shared a quote from Exodus where God told Moses that he was to make sure to construct the temple and the instruments for worship according to the pattern that God had given him on Mount Sinai.

Up in the right-hand corner of the graphic, you can see how big the tabernacle, the tent where the priests offered the sacrifices for the people, was. As you walk in the entrance, into the court of the tabernacle, you can see the tables where they would slaughter the animals for the sacrifices. This is where they would cut off and cut out the pieces of the animal that were to be burned as a sacrifice.

In the middle of all of the tables, we see the altar. This was basically a 7.5’ x 7.5’ BBQ grill. Except that whatever was put on there was to be burnt until it was ash. The fire was going constantly. This was where the offerings of sheep, goats, bulls, grain, and even wine were placed or poured out before the Lord.

Next, we see the bronze laver. This was a bronze hand-washing station. This is where the priests would do their cleansing rituals as they prepared to offer sacrifices.

Now, let's look more closely at the tent within the tabernacle.

We can see the outer veil that acted as the door into what was called “the Holy place. In this room was the table of showbread, the golden lampstand with its seven lamps (menorah), as well as the altar of incense. There was a particular recipe that the priests were to follow in making the incense for this altar. You can read in Leviticus 10 how Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, took their firepans with incense that God did not instruct them to use, and God struck them dead with fire where they stood. God is serious about our worshiping him in the way he has instructed us to do so.

Beyond the altar of incense, we see a veil that separates the tent into two rooms. We mentioned that the first room was called the Holy Place. The second room was called “the Most Holy Place.” This was where the presence of God rested among the Israelites as they wandered through the desert. This is the room where the high priest would bring the blood of the sacrifices for his sins and for the sins of the people. He would sprinkle the blood on the “mercy seat” of the ark of the covenant.

The mercy seat was the place on the lid of the ark, covered by the wings of the two cherubim. The high priest could only go into this room once a year, on the Day of Atonement. It was the veil in the temple, of Jerusalem that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place that was torn in two from top to bottom when Jesus was crucified, signaling that we no longer needed earthly priests to enter into God’s presence to offer sacrifices for our sins. Jesus had made that final sacrifice, offering himself to the Father, once for all time, and now we can experience the presence of God in our daily lives.

These are the copies and shadows that Moses was told to set up exactly according to the pattern that God had instructed him to in Exodus 25. This pattern was pointing to the real temple in heaven, where Christ is ministering for us today.

The Heavenly Temple

Ark of the Covenant - Rev. 11:19

Brazen Altar - Rev. 6:9-11

Altar of Incense - Rev. 8:3

Lampstand & Laver - Rev. 4:5-6

Temple and the Ark

Revelation 11:19

Then the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant appeared in his temple.

The ark of the covenant on earth was where the presence of God sat among the people of Israel. The ark was stationed inside the specific room within the tabernacle called the Holy of Holies, or the Most Holy Place. So when we see this vision of John in Revelation, and he mentions the temple of God being opened in heaven and the ark of the covenant appearing, we are looking at the throneroom of God. We are seeing what Isaiah saw in his vision found in Isaiah 6.

Brazen Altar

Revelation 6:9

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered because of the word of God and the testimony they had given.

In Revelation, we see the souls of the martyrs whose lives have been taken because of their confession of Christ waiting under the Altar for God to avenge their earthly deaths. In the Levitical sacrificial system, the offerings of animals, grain, and wine were to be burned on the altar as a “pleasing aroma to the Lord.” When we die for the sake of confessing Christ Jesus as our Lord and Savior, I believe Scripture is telling us that is an offering of self-sacrifice to proclaim the name and glory of our God, knowing that it will cost us our lives, is a sweet aroma to the Lord.

Altar of Incense

Revelation 8:3

Another angel, with a golden incense burner, came and stood at the altar. He was given a large amount of incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar in front of the throne.

The altar of incense symbolized both the presence of God in the tabernacle, as well as the seet aroma of the prayers of the people to God. In Isaiah 6, one of the seraphim uses tongs to take a burning hot coal from the Altar, which from my understanding was from the heavenly altar of incense, placing it against Isaiah’s lips to cleanse him of his sins.

The Golden Lampstand and The Laver

Revelation 4:5-6

Flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder came from the throne. Seven fiery torches were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. Something like a sea of glass, similar to crystal, was also before the throne.

We see these seven torches in God’s temple - this is obviously the menorah, or the lampstand. In Judaism and and Hebrew thought, the number seven equaled completion or perfection. This is why Revelation describes God’s number as 777, three persons of the trinity in perfect harmony and morality. We counter that with the number used to describe Satan, 666. The reason for this is because Satan tries so hard to imitate God. And while he may come close in our eyes at times, he can never fully measure up.

The Holy Spirit is often described with or as fire. When the Holy Spirit came on Christians on the Day of Pentecost, they could see tongues of fire above each other’s heads. So the lampstand in the temple is often viewed as a symbol of the Holy Spirit’s presence before the Lord.

The sea of glass is believed to be the bronze laver, or the ceremonial washing station for the priests in the temple.

As we can see, the earthly tabernacle was just a copy and shadow of the true temple in heaven. This is why God was so adamant that Moses do everything exactly according to the instructions God gave him.

We are moving into a time in the church calendar called Lent. This is the the 40 days before Easter (not including Sabbath days). Historically, this has been used as a time of reflection, repentance, fasting, and prayer. Observing Lent is not required. There are no regulations around it. In some ways, it has become a human tradition that can become Pharisaical.

In the Roman Catholic Church and in some Protestant denominations, Lent begins with Ash Wednesday. In ancient times, people who were in mourning over a loss of some kind would tear their clothes, put on sackcloth (much like a gunny sack), and put ashes over their heads. Part of the Ash Wednesday tradition is having a small cross drawn on your forehead with ash to symbolize your repentance and sorrow over your sin that sent Jesus to the cross.

Another aspect of Lent is fasting. In some traditions, people will fast from meat like beef and chicken, and only have fish. Perhaps this will only be on a specific day of the week during Lent. People in our modern culture will often choose other things to abstain from for the fasting part of Lent, things like TV, Social Media, candy, junk food, etc. But the point is not just not to do those things. During fasting, you are supposed to use the time that you would normally spend eating, watching TV, scrolling on social media, etc, and instead spend the time in prayer and reflection.

Next Step: I will fast from ________ for this Lenten season.

I would encourage all of us to consider some sort of observance of Lent. But in doing so, I would encourage all of us to remember that just going through the motions means nothing, but that the action of observing Lent is to point us to Christ. He is the substance.

Hebrews 8:6

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.

Jesus's ministry is superior to that of the Levitical priests and the Earthly tabernacle. Not only is his ministry superior, but he is also the mediator of a better Covenant than that of the Old Testament law.

1 Timothy 2:5

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

Jesus is the only mediator. The Roman Catholic church is wrong when it says that people should pray to saints or to Mary. It was not until just recently that the Pope officially stated that Mary is not a “co-mediatrix” with Christ, as many within the Roman Catholic church have claimed. And yet, they still pray to Mary, who will not answer their prayers. Neither will the saints that Catholics pray to. They are not mediators for us.

Only Christ is our mediator.

This better Covenant of his was also established on better promises. We saw in Hebrews 7:22 that God made an oath to bring about a better covenant.

Hebrews 7:22

Because of this oath, Jesus has also become the guarantee of a better covenant.

The first Covenant showed us our sin. It had promises for God’s people if they kept their part of the covenant. But the people were the weakness in the old covenant. This is why Israel and Judah were exiled into captivity in the Old Testament. That was God’s judgment against his own people for their disobedience.

This old covenant also provided a type for what Christ would eventually do for us. We can see the model of his sacrifice provided in the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. His sacrifice provides redemption and righteousness to humanity forever, which the Levitical sacrifices could not do.

Have you accepted that sacrifice? Have you repented of your sins and asked the Lord for forgiveness? Today is the day. You can be free from the guilt of your sins by laying them down at the feet of Jesus. This is not about going through specific acts like saying a prayer, or doing the right thing. This is about surrendering control of your life to God, letting him lead you and guide you on the path he has prepared for you.

Next Step: I will repent and submit my life to Christ.

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