Hebrews 5 (TBD)
Notes
Transcript
Bronze is Better
Bronze is Better
How many of you like change? Like maybe you change jobs or maybe get a new boss or co-worker, or maybe changing schools or like my son moving from private school to public school in the middle of a pandemic. Maybe you favorite sports team had some players traded off and now you have a new quarter back. So I ask again how many of you like change? In the midst of this pandemic we have faced alot of change, something like the way we do church itself is different.
we have been walking through the book of hebrews over the past five weeks we have continuly disscussed that one of the major themes this letter was dealing with the fact that the Hebrew Christians that were struggling with Change and wanting to turn back to life before the cross.
it is so important that while we read these letters that we understand the intent of the author of the letter as well as the current state of the audiance of the letter…
Change brings uncertainty and uncomfortablness. Change takes the familurearity of routine order and turns it in to a game of chaos navigation. Chhange brings fear, fear of the unknown, fear of confusion, fear that what has past is now the past. The Hebrew Christians where dealing with the fact that everything they once knew to be true and right and good is now no longer fashionable. And something else has replaced the old faithful of our life has been replaced and now we have to adjust.
5 weeks ago we opened our Hebrew series with an over view of a letter written to Hebrew christians whom were struggling of turning back from the freedom they had gained in Christ to Old Testament Judaism. The author of the book of Hebrews wrote this letter with a purpose to show the superiority of Christ and the New Covenante, teaching that now they had a High Priest whom offered a final sacrifice that they could rest in, a High Priest who's work was completed and now was seated! A work that supplied rest and freedom, rest from sacrificial work and the death penatly of sin. A work that was rooted in their Hebrew heritage and history as recorded in scripture.
We have taken the time to explore the first 7 Chapters of this letter and discovered for ourselves this same truth that the original author wanted these early Christians to understand that the Old System, Old Covenant, served its purpose but “Christ is Better”
Which brings us to this week, the start of Chapter 8, a point where the author takes a deep well need breath and brings full circle his point that he was commissioned by God to speak…
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 there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. They serve a copy and 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 you on the mountain.” But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.
Like I said the author takes a deep breath and opens up this passage with here is the point, then he goes on to summize the first 7 chapters into one thought and ends that thought with the new covenant is better!
The author is saying this… Everything that came before lead to this, a better covenant built on better promises, with a better High Priest, Jesus Christ.
Like bronze the new covenant is better, but unlike bronze the author gives a very good reason why the NC is better actually 3 good reasons..
#1. Christ is the Man
#2. The foundations are solid
#3. it is Faultless
Christ is the Man
Christ is the Man
This is a concept that the whole letter to the hebrews stands on the Supremacy of Christ.
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
And to which of the angels has he ever said,
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?
For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.