Jesus is the WORD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
He’s
a better promise (6)!
He’s
a better priest enacting a better priesthood (7)!
He’s
a better covenant (8)!
We ended here last time…
·
The presence of a superior high priest in heaven
demands a superior covenant.
· The better covenant is ministered by a better
Priesthood.
·
The better covenant is ministered in a better
tabernacle.
·
The better covenant is founded on the promises
of Jeremiah.
Why all of these OT passages?
o We’ve
been seeing that what God has given is good, but what He is doing now is even
better.
o What
we have is true, but it isn’t the whole truth.
o What
we know is important, but more important is what God is planning to do now.
o It
has all now arrived in Jesus, so whatever you do, don’t go back to the old
things.
o There
was a flurry of short passages designed to say that Jesus was God’s son and
superior to the law.
o Psalm
8 showed him as the better human.
o Psalm
95 showed him as the better rest.
o Psalm
110 showed him as the better priest.
o Jeremiah
31 shows him as the better covenant.
o All
these streams of thought continue. The writer wants us to understand that if
God has established the new things He had always promised, then to go back to
the old is foolish and disloyal.
Why
would you play the video game when your favorite sports team is right there?
(STEDMAN 87) On the night when he was
betrayed, Jesus took a cup of wine, passed it on to his disciples and said:
“Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured
out for many for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26:27-28).” With those words
and that symbolic action, he borrowed the phrase used by Moses when he took the
blood of an animal, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of
the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with these words
(Exodus 24:8).” The contrast was deliberate. Moses used the blood of an animal;
Jesus used wine as a symbol of his own blood. Moses spoke of the covenant of
the law; Jesus alluded to the new covenant of grace. Moses spoke of God’s words,
which provided for the partial covering of sins so God could remain with his
people; Jesus promised the actual remission of sins so God could live within
his people forever. It is that excellent new covenant which… Hebrews now
expounds.”
He’s
a better tabernacle!
KEY
VERSES:
·
9:13 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.
·
9:22 Indeed, under the law almost
everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is
no forgiveness of sins. 23 Thus
it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with
these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than
these. 24 For Christ has
entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true
things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our
behalf.
Notes
·
Read 9:1-28
·
Review the tabernacle as set up in Exodus (WW
117).
·
All of this was symbolism and not the spiritual
reality. It was this fact that made the tabernacle inferior.
·
(WW)
The sacrifices offered and the blood applied to the mercy seat could never
change the heart or the conscience of a worshipper. All of the ceremonies
associated with the tabernacle had to do with ceremonial purity, not moral
purity. They were “carnal ordinances” that pertained to the outer man but that
could not change the inner man.
·
The blood of Jesus paid for our sin so that the
Spirit could live within us.
·
The blood of Jesus purifies our conscience.
·
Exodus 25:40 – heavenly temple shown on the
mountain
·
(WW)
In the book of Revelation, where the heavenly scene is described, we can find
parallels to the OT tabernacle. John stated that there is a temple of God in
heaven (Rev 11:19). Of course, there will be no temple in the eternal state,
because the city of God will be a temple (21). For example, there is an altar
(6:9-11), as well as an altar of incense (8:3-5). The sea of glass (4:6)
reminds us of the laver and the 7 lamps of fire (4:5) suggest the lampstand in
the tabernacle.
·
The blood of beast and the ashes of sacrifice
was the best that the law-system had to offer; no inner purging of conscience
was possible, only the sense of temporal relief, while knowing that the whole
process would have to be repeated again and again.
·
When Christ died and the veil of the temple was
torn from top to bottom God was saying: “The time has come; the way of access
is fully open; the need for pictures is over.” (Matthew 27, Exodus 26, 1Kings
6)
·
The death of Jesus happened once for all. It
cannot and should not be repeated. The priests in the Temple had to regularly
offer their sacrifices.
·
We are now the temple!
o Hebrews
3:6
o John 14:23
o 1
Corinthians 6:17
·
The work of Jesus is completed, final, and
eternal. On the basis of this, He is ministering in heaven on your behalf
Comparing
the OC and NC ministry…
ISSUE
|
OLD COVENANT
|
NEW COVENANT
|
Sacrifice
|
Repeated
|
Once for all
|
Blood
|
Of others
|
His own
|
Sin
|
Covered for a time
|
Put it to death
|
For who?
|
Israel only
|
All sinners
|
On the day of
atonement the Priest
|
Left the Holy of
Holies
|
Entered heaven and
remains there
|
The priest and the
people
|
Came out to bless
the people
|
Will come to take
His people to heaven
|
Parallel
Passages:
·
Numbers 31:21-24
·
Leviticus 17:11
·
Isaiah 53:10
Jesus’
sacrifice is better because it reaches to the depths of the personality. Jesus
has gone into the very heart of the presence of God, into the place where God
lives in light and holiness.
So,
the effects of His sacrifice shouldn’t just be felt on the outside and a bodily
sense for us. But, it’s felt in the inward depths of who we are… in our holy of
holies at our core… where we are who we really are.
We
will speak more times about the “conscience” in 9:14, 10:22, 10:22 and 13:18.
Each time stressing the fact that under the new covenant there is purification
which goes to the very center of things.
Now,
God’s people can serve Him gladly and joyfully without even the slightest
shadow or blemish on our consciences.
We
are free from fear and guilt. We can love, serve, encourage and work with joy!
Even
the angels in heaven veiled their faces (Isaiah 6:2).
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