Better Than We Realize (outline)

Title: Better Than We Realize

Series: Christ-Centered Endurance

Text: Hebrews 8:1-13

Replica - “exact copy or model, especially one on a smaller scale”

Illustration: Holy Land Experience in Orlando

App: Sometimes we get so wrapped up in what’s in front of us that we don’t see the greater - Life on earth can be pretty amazing, but we are meant for something better than things as they currently are...

What is the goal of the sermon?

To convince the hearers that what Christ mediates is far better than anything else.

Why is this goal needed?

Because trying circumstances reveal how often to live like the replica is most valuable.

Did you live this week as if what mattered most was invisible or eternal?

Because trying circumstances reveal how we tend to trust in the goodness of mankind.

How much faith do you have in the goodness of mankind?

Because there is something better that is completely available but only through Christ.

If you had access to the ultimate solution for living life well in a broken world, would you want it? Would you reach for it?

How will you go about to accomplish this goal?

Preview: By showing that the replica is evidence of the real, but that it is worse than the real. By showing that the real is better because of divine promises which Christ, as the better High Priest, mediates to us.

(1) The replica is evidence of the real (8:1-7)

(a) A Clarifying Statement (v. 1-2)

OT Tabernacle

To the Unfamiliar - Exodus 25:40 “40 And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount.”

Dwelling of God

HP daily/annual sacrifices

(b) Function of the H.P. & Evidence of the True (v. 3-5)

App:

(i) Doubters should think carefully

We should remember that the temporary, in this instance, is actually a replica of what is real. There are a few ways to consider this:

(a) Historical consideration

Illustration: Trip to Tunis

(b) Practical consideration

Priesthood, Sacrificial system…whim of man?

Comparison to other systems

Distinct from other systems:

God wants to be with his people

God makes is possible through substitution

God is love

Where did it come from?

One of the ways you know that Heaven is real, the presence of God is real, sin is real, Christ is real is by taking a thoughtful look at the things that are seen — in this case, the existence of the earthly tabernacle and the earthly High priest.

Answer/Meaning of Point: The replica is evidence of the real. This means that the earthly tabernacle, sacrificial system, and high priests were only copies of the TRUE in Heaven.

Doubting Ones

So, to the doubting ones, you are not merely doubting what you cannot see. You are doubting what is more real than what you can see.

Illustration: You see the trail, but you deny the destination. Lucky Charms approach is wrong...

Not asking “why” the replica actually exists...

Emotional and moral rejection

Romans 1:18-20 says as much about the importance of creation. The visible creation points to us about the reality of the invisible God.

Christians

Temptation to Live for the Replica

Because of hardship

Because of lusts

When we don’t reflect

Why we Seek what We Seek

Pleasure for pleasure rather and for God.

Listen to lusts more than to the Lord

Expend for the temporary rather than the eternal

Decision for immediate gratification at the expense of God’s glorification

Illustration: Is it not immature children who are thinking about getting the candy first, tasting the candy first, getting in line before others; but the mature Christian sees the value in laying down so that others can go first, in serving so that others can be edified.

Worse: Using temporary as excuse for not serving eternal

Godly sorrow leads to repentance

Transition: Certainly, the existence of the tabernacle and high priest should point us to the true. We should also consider why the replica is worse than the real and why.

(2) The replica is worse than the real (8:7;8-9)

(a) The Second Covenant Covenant brings the Real to the place of the Replica (v. 7-9)

(v. 7) A first and second covenant connection is made.

Replica worse: One primary reason

(v. 8) See v. 8. The replica involved mankind who had faults.

Illustration: Homeland Security’s Disinformation Governance Board - Executive Director Nina Jankowicz

The heavenly true involved the perfect God. Consequently God makes a promise of a second covenant to come:

in Jeremiah 31:31-34 “31 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, That I will make a new covenant With the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers In the day that I took them by the hand To bring them out of the land of Egypt; Which my covenant they brake, Although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: 33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, And write it in their hearts; And will be their God, And they shall be my people. 34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: For they shall all know me, From the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: For I will forgive their iniquity, And I will remember their sin no more.”

Answer/Meaning of Point: The fault in the replica was not with God, but the fault was with mankind.

App:

(i.) Caution about Faith in Self...

Promises we cannot keep

Cave under pressure

Give in to temptation

Place faith in religious deeds

(ii) Christian neglect shows your faith in self.

Functional Declaration: Attempts to endure without word time, prayer time, mediation and contemplation...

Let this be a reminder that, while mankind has many good, creative qualities that resemble the good God, we are sinners who fail to keep covenant.

Illustration: Johnny Depp and Amber Heard: very creative/talented but quite imperfect.

Transition: So, what does God do? Remember that the chief distinction between the replica and the real is that one is in Heaven with the perfect God, and the other on earth with imperfect mankind. God gives something better based on better promises.

(3) The real is better because of divine promises (8:10-13)

In each of the promises of this new covenant, we are made more aware of what needed to happen.

(a) Better ‘cause healing of our deepest corruption…(v. 10)

Internal vs. external

“mind” and “heart”

“God does not merely speak to us or offer terms of life through the preaching of the gospel. God really and effectually renews the mind to understand the gospel, renews the heart to believe it, and renews the will to desire and respond to God.” - Beeke, Puritan Theology

Worship-reorientation - “I will be their God”. This latter phrase implies that this new covenant will reorient our worship to Him.

Deeply intimate - “And they shall be my people”

Illustration: Who could ever want someone like me? Best-selling movies make $$$ on this narrative, but the biblical one is True, and those movies are merely glimpses or replicas...

(b) Better ‘cause we will know the Lord (v. 11)

“Know the Lord”

Rather than remaining in darkness, we will be in relationship with Him in this new covenant; and it is not only for the least but also for the greatest.

Do you see what is conspicuously missing from this new covenant?

Answer/Meaning: Each of these “I will” statements are promises, and they are better because they exclude fallen mankind.

But what exactly is he talking about?

(i) Jesus coming to earth?

(ii) The New Birth

doctrine of regeneration. Regeneration is the work of God’s Holy Spirit to bring life where there is death. In the story of Nicodemus, it is what it means to be born again.

John 3:8 “8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” John 1:13 “13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

Jesus has been exalted to the right hand of the Father,

there is the dawning of a new time in which God giving new hearts to those who have the Son.

And, these individuals do not need to enter through an earthly Tabernacle, but they have direct access through the Son.

Transition:

The replica is evidence of the real. The replica is worse than the real. The real is better because of divine promises. The real promises are mediated to us by the better High Priest...

(4) The real promises are mediated to us by the better High Priest (8:6)

The Necessity for Mankind to Live Up to Law

How did that happen?

Jesus, is that High Priest who now mediates a better covenant established on better promises.

You say, how can I get a new heart, a new mind, a new life?

There is only One Source. A Mediator is an arbitrator or a go-between. This new life is only given to those who have believed in Jesus and called upon Jesus as Lord.

To others of you, you do believe that you are a sinner, and that Jesus Christ has paid for your sin; but you have not called upon the Lord as a confession of your faith. Romans 10:13 “13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

What are you waiting for?

To frustrated Christians — frustrated with the battle against sin, the balance in life, the sinful thoughts…etc, You can do two things:

(1) Esteem/Consider what you have in Christ as better than anything else in your life

What do you savor? which you never want to come to an end?

Illustration: Change screen savers, schedules, set up pictures…etc

(2) Discipline yourself, in the strength of His Spirit, to make choices that reveal faith.

Give yourself to the spiritual disciplines. Say yes to serving the body through hospitality, congregational singing, faithful church attendance, nursery, children’s ministry, VBS…etc.

Did you live this week as if what mattered most was invisible or eternal?

I still have not answered how Jesus mediates this better covenant, but it is real simple. Jesus mediated this New Covenant:

(1) By being treated as unfaithful and faulty, for the truly unfaithful and faulty.

(2) We get new minds because Jesus was mentally pressed beyond measure.

(3) We get new hearts because Jesus’ heart was crushed.

(4) We get to belong to God because Jesus was forsaken by God.

In short, hear the words of Jesus regarding this new covenant, “the same night in which he was betrayed took bread…said, “Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you:…This cup is the new covenant in my blood...”

Answer/Meaning: The Son was birthed, broken, and excluded so you could be birthed, spared, and included.

Conclusion:

What we have in Jesus Christ is better than we realize.

But the more we realize what we have in Him, the more we love Him. The more we love him, the more we can endure by faith in this life.

Response Questions:

If you are the doubter, have you carefully considered (as opposed to purely emotionally) why the replica exists?

If you have believed that Jesus is Lord, have you confessed this truth to God?

If you have confessed this truth to God, have you confessed this truth through open baptism?

If you are a true Christian, then are you living in in light of the TRUE or the replica? What does you life reveal?

Link Tree:

I am a doubter, but I would like to know more about the truth.

I have chosen to trust in Jesus Christ as Lord, and have confessed this to God today.

I need to be baptized.

I am praying that the Lord will help me to live in the light of the true.