Sermon #33[1] Hebrews Notes

Title: THE MAIN POINT

Text: Hebrews 8:1-5

Readings: Lindsay Campbell and Bob Poncer

Subject: The Superiority of Christ’s Priesthood

Date: Tuesday Evening – November 14,2000

Tape # W-9b

Introduction:

I cannot tell you how often, when I am reading books, articles, and sermons, or when I am listening to other men preach, I think to myself, “I wish he would just get to the point.” Very often, when I hear men preach, after they have roamed around the world, trying to prove or disprove something, I think, “He would have done himself and all who heard him a great favor, if he had just given us the main point and left everything else out of the sermon.”

Tonight, I want to do what I know ought always to be done when writing or preaching. I want to get to the main point, and leave every thing else out of the message. In fact, the title of my message tonight is – The Main Point. My text will be Hebrews 8:1-5.

Hebrews 8:1 "Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;"

Those words, “this is the sum,” would be better translated, “this is the main thing.” Here the Holy Spirit is telling us that what is before us in this eighth chapter of Hebrews is the main, primary, most important thing for us to know and understand regarding the priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In the last five verses of chapter 7, we are given a marvelous display of Christ’s superiority over all the priests of the Old Testament. The writer wants us to marvel at the superiority of the priesthood of Christ’s priesthood over that of the Aaronic order, which he came to fulfill and replace.

Five Superiorities of the Priesthood of Jesus

1. First, Our Lord Jesus Christ is a sinless priest (v. 26).

Hebrews 7:26 "For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;"

We have a High Priest who is "holy, harmless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens." No other priest could ever say that. They were all sinful, like you and me. But not Christ. He was tempted but never yielded to the point of sin.

2. Second, because he was sinless, our Priest did not need to make atonement for himself. Therefore, he could and did offer himself as a sacrifice to God for us (v. 27).

Hebrews 7:27 "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."

The Lord Jesus did not have to offer sacrifices for himself, but instead could offer himself as a sacrifice. "He does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins, and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself."

The Lord Jesus was radically different from all those previous priests. They had sins of their own that had to be dealt with first. Never in a million years would it have entered their heads that they could actually be the sacrifice for the sins of others. But Christ changed everything. He needed no sacrifice for himself. Rather, he became a sacrifice in himself. That leads to the third superiority:

3. Our Lord’s sacrifice of himself was "once for all."

We see that at the end of verse 27. -- "This He did once, when He offered up Himself." This is a great word -- "once.” It means “once for all," or one time, conclusively, with finality.” This declares that Christ’s death at Calvary is the center of history.

Every work of God's grace in history before the sacrifice of Christ looked forward to the death of Christ for its foundation. And every work of God's grace since the sacrifice of Christ looks back to the death of Christ for its foundation.

Christ is the center of world history, the center of Bible history, and the center of the history of grace. There is no grace without him. Grace was planned from all eternity, but it was planned with Christ at the center and his death as the foundation.

Paul says in 2 Timothy 1: 9 that God's "grace . . . was given us in Christ Jesus before the worlds were made." It was given to us in him as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

4. The fourth superiority of Christ over all other priests is that they were appointed by the Law in their weakness, but he was appointed by the very oath of God himself as the perfect Son (v. 28).

Hebrews 7:28 "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."

The oath of God here is the oath given in Psalm 110:4, "The LORD has sworn and will not repent, Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." The oath came after the law and pointed to the end of the Law as a ritual system, even in David’s day.

The oath is spoken to the Messiah. In Psalm 110:1, David says, "The Lord [God] said to my Lord [Messiah], sit at my right hand." Thus, David declared that the final High Priest is the Messiah, the Son of God, after the order of Melchizedek, not after the orders of Levi or Aaron, and is installed by an oath, not by the Law, which has now passed away. Therefore, we read in Psalm 110:3, “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.”

5. The fifth superiority of Christ over all other priests is that He is a Priest forever (v. 28).

Look at the last part of verse 28: The oath "makes the Son, (a Priest) who is consecrated forever." The Lord Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, shall never die. He shall never be replaced. He has an indestructible life. He will outlive all his foes. He will be there for us long after everyone we depend on is dead.

Sometimes children fret that Mommy or Daddy won't live to take care of them. And sometimes we parents fret that we won't be alive to take care of our children. That is why this truth is so precious. The priesthood of Christ -- the one who prays for us, as we saw last week, and the one who is sympathetic with us, as we saw in Hebrews 4:15, -- has been perfected forever. Not for a decade or a century or a millennium. But forever. It is to him that must we look when we think about how uncertain our lives are.

The great point of this text at the end of chapter 7 and the beginning of chapter 8 is that we have a great High Priest, Jesus Christ, who came into the world as the Son of God, lived a perfectly righteous life, offered himself as a perfect sacrifice for the sins of his people, rose to everlasting life, and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High. There he who loves us with a distinguishing, everlasting love, prays for us and bids us draw near to God through him.

There is no priest between God and man, but Christ. Oh, but, what a Priest he is! In John 17, we are given a glimpse of our great High Priest’s intercessory work, as he prays for his elect, seeking for us…

· Pardon – The Non-Imputation of Sin.

· Protection.

· Preservation.

· Perfection.

Proposition: This is the main point. – The Lord Jesus Christ did not come to fit into the old system of priestly sacrifices. He came to fulfill them, put an end to them, and replace them. He is the reality; they were but shadows, types, and pictures of him. When the Real Thing comes, the shadow passes away. That is what we are told in chapter eight at verse five.

Hebrews 8:5 "Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount."

Those last words in Hebrews 8:5 ("See that you make all things according to the pattern which was showed thee in the mount.") are a quotation from Exodus 25:40. God spoke those words to Moses.

The point being made in our text is that all the furnishings and the actions of the Old Testament tabernacle were but types, shadows, and pictures of Christ, of “heavenly (spiritual) things.” They served only to point to heavenly, spiritual things. Once the heavenly, spiritual things came, they vanished forever.

The whole point of the book of Hebrews is that Jesus Christ, God's Son, has not just come to fit into the earthly, carnal, Old Testament system of things, as the best and final human priest. He came to fulfill and forever abolish that system and to turn our hearts to himself, ministering for us in heaven. The Old Testament tabernacle and priests and sacrifices were shadows. Now the reality has come and the shadows have passed away. That is the message of our text.

Hebrews 8:1-5 "Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; {2} A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. {3} For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer. {4} For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law: {5} Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount."

The Lord Jesus Christ is precisely the kind of Priest spoken of and typified in the Old Testament Scriptures.

I. He is a Priest in Heaven, seated upon his royal throne as God in human flesh.

Hebrews 8:1 "Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;"

1 John 2:1-2 "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: {2} And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."

II. His body is that true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man.

Hebrews 8:2 "A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man."

Hebrews 9:6-12 "Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. {7} But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: {8} The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: {9} Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; {10} Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. {11} But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; {12} Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us."

III. Our Lord Jesus, as our Priest, must have something to offer as a Sacrifice to God.

Hebrews 8:3-4 "For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer. {4} For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law:"

Hebrews 10:1-5 "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. {2} For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. {3} But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. {4} For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. {5} Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me."

V. All the law and services of the Old Testament were but pictures of true, heavenly, spiritual worship.

Again, this is the main point in all that has been said is this passage: -- We have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary, and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.

The point -- the main point of it all -- is that the one Priest who stands between us and God our Father, that One who makes us right with God, who prays for us to God is not an ordinary, weak, sinful, dying, priest like Aaron and Levi. – Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God, omnipotent, sinless, with an indestructible life.

Not only that, he does not minister in an earthly tabernacle with all its limitations of place and size, a tabernacle that must wear out with time and use. Our Priest is ministering for us in a "true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man." This is the real thing in heaven. Christ is the pattern shown to Moses in the Mount..

Implications

What is implied by all this? What does this mean to us? “Christ is the end of the law!” The High Priesthood of Christ fulfilled and forever brought to an end all the carnal ordinances of legal worship required under the Mosaic law (Col. 2:11-23). The tabernacle, the temple, the priesthood, the priestly garments, the priestly service, the priestly sacrifices, holy days, sabbath keeping, the commandments, the whole thing (Rom. 10:4).

The worship of God has been radically altered. Divine worship is no longer an external, material thing, but an internal spiritual matter. The external is still important, but now the spiritual is radically pervasive. We do not worship God at specified holy places, or upon specified holy days, or under the rigors of specified vestments, liturgy, etc.

The believers life of faith in Christ is a life of worship (Rom. 12:1-2; 1 Cor. 6:19-20; 10:31). Indeed, the very acts of obedience to Christ are now, in Christ, by his merits and his blood, accepted of God as a sweet smelling sacrifice (Phil 4:18; 1 Pet. 2:5). Salvation is life in the Spirit. It is worshipping God in the totality of our beings. It is the continual consecration of our very lives to Christ.

All true worshippers worship God in the Spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24; Phil. 3:3).

· No Crosses, Pictures, Icons, etc.

· No holy thing, but Christ!

· No altar, but Christ!

· No priest, but Christ!

· No sacrifice, but Christ!

· No sabbath, but Christ!

· No access to God, but Christ!

· No mercy-seat, but Christ!

· No ark, but Christ!

· No holy thing, but Christ!

Application:

1. Salvation is doing business with God in the holy place.

2. Worship is living for the glory of God.

3. Evangelism is carrying Christ, to poor needy sinners by the gospel.