Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

Conclusion to our series on Covenants

Author of Hebrews: Unknown, speaks of direct revelation from the Lord 2:3 although form and style are unclear as to who wrote it.

It was most likely written in and around 65-69 AD since the writer mentions the current operation of the Temple and levitical priesthood.

We know that in 70 AD the Temple was destroyed by Rome.

The purpose of Hebrews: Written to Hebrew Christians, who were being tempted to desert the faith in Christ during growing persecutions.

Among those were Jews possibly weighing the options of trusting Christ but yet have not committed to him by faith.

This is why the writer makes the continual contrast of Old Covenant practices with Jesus as better than the angels, a better Mediator, of a better covenant with better blessings and better promises for a new people.

Reason: For the church on this Resurrection Sunday, we find great hope and encouragement for looking to Jesus as the guarantee of the New Covenant.

This New Covenant was sealed by his blood and has better promises for God’s people today.

A New Covenant does not mean a faulty covenant in the past.

As we have seen through our study in the covenants, God links each of these as the structure of his grand redemptive story that culminate in Jesus.

Our passage in chapter 8 today is a great passage summarizing the truths of the New Covenant to serve as an encouragement for believers as we look to Christ, our King, High Priest, and Salvation!

A Better King v.1

The writer begins perfectly for our context this afternoon as He announces the position of Christ in the heavenly places.

How did he arrive at the throne of heaven to sit in the place of honor…he had to defeat sin and death by rising from the grave and ascending.

The writer of Hebrews declares by the moving of the Holy Spirit that Jesus is there, sitting in the place of Honor at the right of the Father.

Sitting in this context speaks of great authority.

We understand from eastern cultures that kings sat to rule the kingdom, teachers sat to teach the word and sitting reflected the permanence of the position of Christ.

He is not just King, he is king permanently, for all eternity.

His resurrection and ascension brought great hope to the disciples on the Mountain as the angels informed his friends that He did not just leave, but that he would return again in the same way.

Therefore his resurrection from the dead, his ascension to heaven and his return all reflect the glorious nature of Jesus as King.

As a servant, he was born in a meager state, grew up in obscurity, humiliated and rejected by his peopl, mocked and beaten by his enemies, crucified, stabbed and upon his death, buried in a borrowed tomb.

This was his stage of humiliation.

But at his resurrection, He came forth in victory, casting off the bondage of the grave, rising as victor over sin and death.

He accentuated that rising from death after 40 days to rising to glory, seated at the Father’s right hand in honor and power.

The angels remind the disciples what they were already told by their Lord in John 14:1-3

Jesus surpasses all the Kings of Israel in every way.

Their reign over Israel were corrupted by sin in their own lives and the lives of the people.

Jesus rules in a bette way, sinless in every way, with all knowledge wisdom and power.

You and I can trust him as an impartial, loving, good king who rules sovereignly over the heavens and earth.

Do you submit to him?

A Better Priesthood vs.2-4

The scene continues for the writer of Hebrews, as we read that Jesus is not just King but High priest as well.

We have learned many truths about the High Priests in our study through Ezra and Nehemiah.

We learned of their access to God in the Holy of Holies that no other Jews had access to.

The High Priest mediated or stood between God and man, representing man to God and acting on God’s behalf for man.

High priests served in the Temple and they were destined for this office by the lineage of Aaron, the brother of Moses.

Consecutively, the High Priest served his role until he died and a son, being in the line of Aaron took up the office.

In chapter 7, we read two clear obstacles to the priesthood under the lineage of Aaron, serving the Old Covenant,

no perfection under the law (7:11)

Heb 7:11 “11 Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron?”

the priests could not offer a cleansing of the soul from sin.

Their acts of sacrificing were external acts of service to God but the guilt of sin upon the consciences of the people remained.

The law reminded them that sin offended a holy God.

Therefore continual sin was needing atonement so sacrifices were continually offered.

no priest lived forever (7:23)

the priestly office of Aaron was necessary to continue on throughout history because death end the service of each priest

Jesus was not from the tribe of Levi, under Aaron so being an earthly priest wasn’t an option.

Jesus came from the Kingly line of Judah and yet not disqualified.

The levitical priesthood served the commands of the law, Jesus fulfilled the law and therefore transcends the law’s demands and becomes priest by appointment, appointment as Son of God

Hebrews 7:14-16 “14 For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests.

15 This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, 16 who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life.”

Jesus is a better high priest and the final one because he provided the perfection need by fulfilling the law in every way.

He offered not a sacrifice for his own sins, like the earthly high priests but instead he offered himself as a gift of sacrifice for the sins of his people.

Because He is the eternal God, who could not be held by the grave 7:16, then the resurrection is the evidence that Jesus is the final high priest because He carries on into eternity, never to lose that office to death or to another.

So Jesus as High Priest, as as the worthy sacrifice for sin, accomplishes what the earthly High priests could not by his power.

He is able to remove the stain of sin on our consciences, that alarm system of the soul that the law of God informs us when he have violated the law of God.

In the old system, the guilt of sin legal could be covered but the human heart still felt the weight of sin.

But now under Jesus, when sin is removed the guilt and shame is miraculously extracted from our souls.

The gospel informs our minds that Jesus is victorious over sin and guilt remains no more.

Heb 9:13-14

13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Illustration:

During Covid I remolded my kitchen.

I tore out a wall in my kitchen to open it up some.

I repaired the ceiling were the wall tied in and I laid new tile.

All aspects of that walls existence has been removed.

It would seem silly for me to walk up to that area and act as though a wall was still there.

Trying to open a door that doesn’t exist.

Application:

The New Covenant reminds us that in Jesus his work on the cross removes our guilt and shame.

Why do you hold on to that shame for that which Christ has removed?

You cannot wear that shame of your sin because your Lord adorned himself with it when he went to the cross.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!

My sin, not in part but the whole

Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, o my soul!

A Better Access v.5

In verse 5, the writer explains the tent of meeting that was described to Moses.

In giving the blueprints to Moses, the design was from God and it reflected a copy of heaven where God dwelt.

The writer uses synonymous terms to communicate that the tent and the temple were “shadows” and “copies” of heavenly things.

The tent in the wilderness and the temple in Jerusalem was the presence of God dwelling among his people.

To approach the temple or tent was a holy journey and although you could not go worth into the most holy place, your approach was an astonishing journey towards God.

With that came the denial of access, like Israel at Mt Sinai, they could go near the mountain but they could not touch it.

Only Moses could near the presence of God’s glory and even he could not look fully at God’s holiness.

With the OC, the separation from God and man remained because of sin.

The Temple was the place to approach heaven in a sense, or at least of the reflection of God’s presence in heaven.

The writer in v 5 makes the comparison of that tent of shadow in comparison to the real existence of heaven and God’s presence.

The perfect tent is heaven where God’s presence dwelt and we are assured that Jesus entered as High Priest offering himself as the final and complete sacrifice for sin, that can purify the conscience and appease the wrath of God against sin.

There is nothing else needed Jesus has not provided for us!

This gives God’s people a better access to God because of the work of Christ.

What was once fear and separation now becomes worship and access into the throne room of God

Application:

The resurrection ensures that by the victory on the cross and from the grave, we can have an intimate relationship with the Creator of all things.

Through Jesus, you can approach the throne in prayer by a united relationship with the Lord.

Is 53:5 “upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”

Peace with allows us to call him Father.

Peace with God allows us to cry to him and know that He will answer us according to his will.

Peace with God means his wrath is not coming on us, it has already come on His son.