Guaranteed

This or That

Intro

This morning as you turn your Bibles over to Hebrews 7:20-28 we are going to conclude the chapter and our series The Eternal High Priest.

Politics

Before we read the passage, let me comment that a lot of things that we put our hope in are things that are fleeting. Politics tend to be this way. Every 4 years we vote on a president and every 2 years we vote for members of congress, but win or lose those positions are temporary. If you like a political administration, just wait, in what will seem like just a short time they will be gone and someone you dislike may be in office. The same is true to the contrary isn’t it? If you dislike the current presidential administration, the next election really isn’t that far off.

Job

Every once in a while a look around my house and the life that my wife and I have built and I realize how fragile it really is. What happens if I lose my job or get sick? Really, our family — Everybody’s family are relying on thing to prop us up in this society that we have absolutely no ultimate control over. Sure, we can do as much as we can to stack the deck in our favor by working hard and showing our loyalty, but that only goes so far.

Religious System

Any religious system that can only provide the same instability as the institutions that this world can provide is no comfort.

I want you to keep in mind this conflict between permenance in impermenance as we read this mornings passage. Hebrews 7:20-28

Hebrews 7:20–28 KJV 1900

20 And inasmuch as not without an oath he was made priest: 21 (For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec:) 22 By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. 23 And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death: 24 But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. 25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. 26 For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; 27 Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself. 28 For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore.

Our message this morning is entitled Guaranteed

Let’s pray

An Assault on Permanency

Post-Modern Society

There is a term that sociologists use to describe the era in western society that we live in today. The term is Post Modern. It’s not a very creative name, it just means that there was an era referred to as the Modern Era, that era has past and we are living at a time that is now post modern — After the modern era.

The modern era was a time that established most of the societal norms that we find pushed back upon by our current society.

Modern society built the framework of the nuclear family, the post modern society is almost defined by the explosion of that nuclear family.

Modern society was based upon stability and following the expected path for the expected outcome. Post modern society is constantly evolving and changing.

To live in this Post Modern Society is to live in a time of great instability. It’s not marked by conforming to a central western culture but by sub cultures all with their own values. And as time progresses even those sub cultures evolve and change. The rules you are playing by to conform to society may be different from one year to the next and to make things worse, what gets you accepted by one sub culture will have you ostracized by another.

A Fleeting Priesthood

I don’t think that the dynamics of our society would be hard to explain to a Jewish person living in the first century.

Priests came and went. The High Priest especially. Caiaphas was an outlier: he was high priest for around 18 years, most priesthoods lasted only a couple of years, the 3 priests that preceded him each had terms of only 2 years.

When we read what is repeated in this chapter, that read again in v21

Hebrews 7:21 (KJV 1900)

...Thou art a priest for ever...

It is no insignificant thing and it established a stability that is outside of anything that this world, or even any religious system could hope to offer.

The Guarantor

This stability comes only from the Guarantor of our faith. Hebrews 7:22 says of this

Hebrews 7:22 KJV 1900

22 By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.

This word surety ἔγγυος (engyos) in the Greek means security, but not like how we use it most often today. engyos isn’t alarm systems, cameras, guard dogs, and strong fences. The word security is like a security deposit.

It’s putting something of yours on the line to make sure you don’t back out of your end of the deal. There are a couple of chemical plants that I visit on a regular basis for my bi-vocational job and when i go into their plant they issue me a pass; but, in exchange for that pass I have to give them my drivers license. They know that when I turn my license over to them I am giving them something that I am going to want back, its valuable to me, and so I am not going to drive off with their pass when I leave the plant.

That is a pretty trivial example that we can relate to, but if you lived in the ancient world a guarantee wouldn’t be for trivial matters and the stakes would likely have been much higher. Livestock was often used for a guarantee. An outer coat which was often someones most prized possession could be left behind. Or things more valuable still, we have some very grave examples in scripture:

Judah as Guarantor

In Genesis 43 Joseph’s identity was still unknown to the brothers who had sold him into slavery and he told them to leave and come back with their younger brother Benjamin. Their father Jacob, who was given the name Israel at this point, protested letting his youngest son be taken, but Judah and I want you file this point away in your mind: Judah the patriarch of the house of Judah became the guarantor himself when he said to his father:

Genesis 43:9 KJV 1900

9 I will be surety for him; of my hand shalt thou require him: if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame for ever:

Paul as Guarantor

In a New Testament example we find Paul offering himself as guarantor to Philemon for his fellow brother in Christ, Onesimus the run-away slave. Paul implores Philemon to accept Onesimus back into his service saying:

Philemon 18–19 KJV 1900

18 If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on mine account; 19 I Paul have written it with mine own hand, I will repay it: albeit I do not say to thee how thou owest unto me even thine own self besides.

Christ as Guarantor

Turning back to our passage, and as we read, Christ is the guaranteer of the better testament. The New Testament.

I’m jumping ahead a couple of chapters so you will hear this again, but when we read testament here in Hebrews, or for that matter on the page in your bible right before Matthew chapter 1 — You can read there “last will and testament”. — Hebrews 9 makes this clearer in v16

Hebrews 9:16 KJV 1900

16 For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.

And this makes sense to us I think, when is somebody’s last will and testament executed? After that person dies.

But it is by the divine nature of Christ that he is able fulfill the role of testator, meaning the person whose will is being executed. He is able to be the blood sacrifice that confirms and seals the testament. And he, be his perfect and eternal priesthood is able to be the guarantor of the testament.

Your salvation isn’t a trivial matter.

If you grocery shop at Aldi you need to remember to bring a quarter with you. For those of you who aren’t familiar, there is a mechanism on the carts that requires you to put a quarter deposit in the cart as a surety that you will return the cart when you are finished with it. — It is a relatively trivial amount but the stakes are relatively trivial.

When you go to purchase a house on the other hand, the amount is significantly higher. Usually when you make an offer on a house you put up something called earnest money. Typically 1-2% of the offer on the home. That really adds up when you consider how much homes cost these days, the security deposit alone could easily be $2,000.

There is a reason that it naturally feels absurd to suggest putting $2,000 down to check out a cart from Aldi, but equally absurd to only put down 25-cents as earnest money for a house. We are talking about vastly different stakes here.

But take that point the rest of the way. They guarantee that was put down for your salvation wasn’t 25-cents or even $2,000. What was put down in surety for you is the eternal life of our Great High Priest Jesus Christ.

This post-modern world that we live in often places a low value on the life of the individual but I want to encourage you this morning of this: God values you greatly and Christ is His demonstration of that Love.

Complete Salvation

Christ is Guarantor of that Salvation but I also want to point this out from our passage in Hebrews this morning: Our salvation is complete.

Verse 25 of Hebrews 7 says it this way:

Hebrews 7:25 KJV 1900

25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

Some have taken the word uttermost in this passage to mean that we are talking about people in distant lands. It is true that we find the word uttermost used in that way in places in our Bible. Uttermost, παντελής (pantelēs) means completely. This isn’t a commentary on people of the gentile nations being saved — we can find that conversation elsewhere — what this is saying is that salvation obtained by Christ complete. It is perfect. There is nothing lacking in it.

Continual Sacrifice

There was no biblical requirement for daily sacrifices for sin. But the ancient Jewish historian Philo tells us that the high priest had to make sacrifices for sin every day. F.F. Bruce in his commentary on this passage said the following:

The Epistle to the Hebrews G. Superior Because of the Character of Jesus (7:26–28)

There is indeed no explicit command for a daily sin offering to be presented by the high priest on his own account; but inadvertent sinning, of the kind provided for in Lev. 4:1ff., could well have been a daily hazard. And the high priest occupied a special position; an inadvertent sin on his part brought guilt on the people. It was wise therefore to take precautions against the very possibility of his having committed an inadvertent sin.

Complete Sacrifice

There are a lot of people, even christians that are still living as according to the old Covenant.

Now, I need to be careful here. I am not saying that moral law or the righteousness of God that we find codified in the Old Testament are no longer in effect. We are talking entirely about the sacrificial system here. Christ’s sacrifice once-for-all was complete and in no way required additional sacrifices to be made.

When i say that some Christians are living under the Old Covenant what I am saying is this — There are a lot of people who are so overcome with guilt because even though they were made free in Christ they are living under the bondage of sin that has been laid upon them by false teaching. They are so oppressed by this idea that they need to add to the sacrifice Christ already made, that they can take no joy in the Christian walk. Religion for this is a series or rituals and walking on glass — A futility that often leads to a rejection of the faith because they are so overburdened with sin that has already been atoned for.

Now, am I saying that a Christian can go on sinning freely? To give Paul’s response in Romans 6:1-2

Romans 6:1–2 (KJV 1900)

1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. (By No Means) How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

But even with that in mind please take heart in knowing that Christ’s work as our Priest is continual and our salvation is complete. Complete for your sins today, and complete for your sins tomorrow.

A Better Testament

Earlier I told you to note that Judah gave himself as the guarantor to his Father for his younger brother Benjamin’s life. But it is descendant Jesus Christ, the Lion from the Tribe of Judah who is the guarantor of testament for which we get our eternal inheritance.

Today, if your hope is in those fleeting things we spoke about to open the message then you probably will get some temporary satisfaction in what security those things bring. You can feel temporarily secure that your candidate is in office so things are going to go they way you think is best. You might feel temporarily secure in your income and your ability to provide for your family. It may be that you feel secure in religion or in a life that you believe you are living virtuously.

But all of those things will fail eventually, they always do. This morning if you know that you haven’t given your heart to Christ I am inviting you to do so now. I’d love to talk with you more in just a few moments after we close in prayer. If you are watching from home you can send a private message and I will get back to you as soon as I am able. But my ask for anyone who hasn’t, please put your faith and trust in him as your savior and Lord. In doing so you will be saved. To the Uttermost.

Let’s Pray