Sermon Tone Analysis

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message.

The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

Engagement

Growing up, how many of you had a TV that looked something like this?

We did.

It was a black and white TV that only got three channels.

And the only remote it had was when our dad asked one of us kids to get up and change the channels.

But how many of you still own a TV like that?

Unless you go to an antique store, you can’t even find one like that today because they are obsolete.

And how many of you once owned a phone that looked like this?

My guess is that many of you here are so young, you wouldn’t even know how to make a call on a phone that looks like this.

How many of you still own a phone like that?

Even if you still have a land line, which is becoming increasingly rare, you probably don’t have one of these rotary dial phones, because they are also obsolete.

Tension

As we continue our study of the book of Hebrews this morning, our passage is going to focus on something that was already obsolete in that day - the Jewish religion that the audience of Jewish Christians was considering going back to.

But as the author of Hebrews keeps pointing out, that would have been just as ridiculous as us trying to buy a black and white TV or a rotary phone.

There was something new that was far superior to that obsolete way of trying to approach God.

While it’s unlikely that any of us here today are in danger of going back to the Old Testament system of priests and animal sacrifices, it is certainly possible that we might be tempted to revert back the ways we have tried to approach God in the past - perhaps through religious traditions or rituals, or even through our own efforts to serve God in order to earn His favor.

But as we’ll see this morning, those practices would also be just as crazy as trying to use some product that is now obsolete when we now have something that is far superior.

Truth

Go ahead and turn with me to Hebrews chapter 8.

The first two verses serve as a transition from previous section that began back at the end of chapter 4 to the following section that will take us all the way through the end of chapter 10.

The author begins by looking back to the previous section which focused on the appointment of Jesus as our great high priest - one in the order of Melchizedek - and then it looks forward to the next section that will focus on the ministry of Jesus as our great high priest.

The author introduces the argument that will continue all the way through the end of chapter 10 - the ministry of Jesus is superior to that of the earthly priests because of where it takes place - at the right hand of God in the holy places.

The author calls that the “true tent”, or literally the “true tabernacle”.

We’ll see in a moment that is in contrast to the earthly tabernacle where the Jewish priests ministered.

Let’s continue reading:

Here is the argument that the author is making to the Jewish Christians who were considering going back to their Jewish religion.

The earthly tabernacle is only a copy and shadow of the real tabernacle, which is in heaven.

So therefore the ministry that takes place there is inferior to the ministry of Jesus that takes place in heaven.

Or, as I’m going to phrase it this morning...

The Old Covenant is obsolete because it is merely a shadow of the New Covenant, which is the substance

The idea of a covenant is central to this chapter.

We’ve already seen it used twice in the first seven verses and it will be used five more times by the time we get to the end of the chapter.

So let’s take a moment to define what that term means as it is used in the Bible.

Here is the best definition of a covenant I found this week:

“a chosen relationship or partnership in which two parties make binding promises to each other and work together to reach a common goal”

A lot of us probably think that a covenant is the same as a contract.

While the two are related, the biggest distinction is that a covenant is relational and personal.

Contracts generally focus on the self-interest of both parties but a covenant focuses on what is mutually beneficial to both parties.

While God designed marriage to be a covenant, unfortunately in our culture it tends to be viewed more like a contract.

When that happens, one or both of the parties in that marriage begin to focus on their individual rights, like the “right to be happy”, rather than on fulfilling their vows for the good of the relationship as a whole.

And that is the root cause of the high divorce rate in our culture.

In the Bible, covenants are initiated by God and they are for the benefit of man.

While some identify seven, or even eight, covenants in the Bible, the general consensus is that there are five explicit covenants:

Noahic

Abrahamic

Mosaic

Davidic

New

The first four are all part of the Old Covenant, and all but the Noahic covenant deal with God’s chosen people, Israel.

But as the author points out here, that Old Covenant was not “faultless”.

If it had been sufficient, there would have been no need for a new one.

In verse 5, the author quotes from Exodus 25:40 to explain why that Old Covenant could not possibly be “faultless”:

The NET Bible translates the beginning of verse 5 like this:

The place where they serve is a sketch and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary...

Although I can’t be dogmatic about this, the Scriptures do seem to indicate that God gave Moses a glimpse of the true tabernacle in the heavens and then had him sketch it out, kind of like an architect sketching out the plans for a new building.

But that earthly tabernacle was only a copy and a shadow of the real thing.

As I illustrated with the kids earlier, a shadow only gives us an outline of the real thing.

It is not the substance, but only a fuzzy picture of the substance.

So the earthly tabernacle would always be inferior to the one in heaven and thus the ministry of the earthly priests in that earthly tabernacle would always be inferior to the ministry of Jesus in heaven.

The author is now going to quote from the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah as one more proof that God has always intended the Old Covenant and its system of priests and animal sacrifices to be temporary.

This is the longest quote of an Old Testament passage in the entire New Testament.

Here the author quotes the entire text of Jeremiah 31:31-34.

Even though this is a long quote, the author of Hebrews focuses on just one word here - NEW.

He is pointing out that even in Jeremiah’s day, God was planning a “new” covenant because the current one was growing old and would one day become obsolete.

In Greek, there are two primary words that can be translated “new”:

neos - recently produced

kainos - fresh existence or quality

We see how Jesus used both words in the same sentence:

But new [neos] wine must be put into fresh [kainos] wineskins.

(Luke 5:38 ESV)

Jesus was making the point that His ministry was new in quality.

It wasn’t just another branch of Judaism.

The author of Hebrews uses the Greek word “kainos” throughout this passage.

He is conveying the idea that the New Covenant is different.

It’s not just an attachment to the Old Covenant.

It has a fresh quality to it that distinguishes it from the old.

This quotation from Jeremiah provides us with...

THREE REASONS THE NEW COVENANT IS SUPERIOR TO THE OLD

The law is internalized (v.

10a)

Under the Old Covenant, the law was external.

It declared God’s holy standard and it focused primarily on external behavior.

But its biggest drawback is that it never provided the power that was needed for the people to obey it.

So time after time the people of Israel claimed that they would obey the law, but they continually fell short.

Under the New Covenant, the law is put into our minds and written on our hearts.

That obviously doesn’t mean that we don’t still need to read the Scriptures.

But what it does promise is that when we do that, God’s Holy Spirit will guide us into truth and change our hearts, which then gives us the ability to obey God’s commandments.

So we are transformed from the inside out.

That obviously doesn’t mean that any of us will obey God perfectly, however, since we still have our sin nature.

I’ll talk about that more in a moment.

But it does mean that in Christ we have been given the power that we need to overcome sin, not by changing our external behavior or circumstances, but rather by allowing Jesus to change our hearts.

The relationship with God is personal (v.

10b-11)

Under the Old Covenant, the relationship with God was primarily corporate.

God made covenants with Israel and the blessings and curses that resulted from obeying or disobeying the law largely applied to the entire commonwealth of Israel.

The idea of knowing God personally really wasn’t present because the people needed a priest to provide a bridge to God and/or an “expert” to teach them about God.