Better Ministry, Better Covenant – Hebrews 8:1-13

1. Pray & Intro:
   1. Do you make time to stop and think that intangible realities are of greater and more lasting significance than that which is material and more readily observable? Or that external behaviors can be markers of our internal life, but they cannot substitute for it? – Jesus is better by far than any religious activity that we hope will please God. And gaining personal and intimate relationship to God through Jesus is better by far than material things and accolades from men & even power and influence. That’s the point we’re heading for today.
   2. That’s why I chose the two parts for our scripture reading from this middle section of Hebrews. (4:14-16 & 10:19-23) They form brackets around this entire discussion of Christ’s superiority in priestly ministry and make abundantly clear why that matters to us!
   3. So with all these recurring details in Hebrews about the insufficiency of the old covenant, and since we likely don’t find ourselves tempted to return to the practices of Judaism, perhaps it could be too easy to lose sight of the overall aim the author has for his readers here: This high priest, who is himself far superior and has a higher appointment, mediates a better covenant and performs a better ministry. By that mediation he brings us into covenant relationship with God.
   4. Read 8:1-6
2. The hinge verse in ch. 8 is v. 6 – Christ is high priest of a more excellent ministry and a new and better covenant. àvv. 1-6a – a heavenly ministry of better offering à vv. 6b-13 – a new covenant of better promises
   1. Our high priest’s heavenly ministry of better offering (vv. 1-6a)
      1. V. 1, The point = we have such a high priest – Heb. ch. 7 vv. 22-28 has explained: He is a perfect priest forever. Christ’s priesthood is better than the old because he is a permanent priest rather than a temporary one. He is a perfect priest, a complete priest rather than a limited and imperfect one.
      2. Here – His exalted status, enthroned in glory, indicates his completion and fulfillment of the work he came to earth to accomplish. But Hebrews aims to point out the equal truth that as our high priest, through what he accomplished, his ministry on our behalf continues. – This ministry is depicted in vv. 2-5 as better in a couple primary ways: (these verses are a sort of survey of themes to be developed further in chs. 9-10)
         1. It is a ministry in a better place of truer worship. (vv. 2,4&5) – not earthbound, but heavenly… in the true tabernacle (the comparison btwn an earthly tabernacle and Christ’s spiritual ministry is delved into fully in ch. 9, including discussion of his blood offering a better cleansing.) – But this true worship is set up by the Lord, not man – Moses was a man who built a tabernacle according to what he was shown. And the pattern he was given was merely meant to reflect and represent the primary spiritual realities (thus copy –model, example- and shadow –foreshadow, shade cast by the reality), realities now fulfilled in Christ!*
         2. *John 4:21&23-24 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. […] But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
         3. It is a ministry of better sacrifice. (v. 3) – This is developed in the first part of ch. 10, contrasting again the temporary and partial effectiveness of priestly offerings according to the law vs. Christ’s once for all complete and permanent sacrifice. (once for all sin and for all time) [display 7:27]
      3. In short, Jesus is not an earthly priest but a heavenly priest. And that’s better!
      4. Now let’s look to the next section, that the covenant he mediates is better: Read 7-13
   2. Our high priest’s new covenant of better promises (vv. 6b-13)
      1. What’s really intriguing here is that in quoting Jeremiah 31:31-34 (longest OT quote in the NT), is that he does very little to explain in detail here what this quote says about how the new covenant is better. The simple and direct point is emphasized that such a prophecy about a second covenant means that the old one was insufficient. (v. 7)
         1. (v. 8a) It was weak and ineffective, not wrong. Not even because of the limitation of the covenant itself, although it is the case that it was limited and temporary, but because of the weakness and inability of those with whom the covenant was established. (v. 9b)
         2. The previous covenant proved to be insufficient (which was in the plan and purpose of God) because it was a conditional covenant based on the external obedience of Israel. (v. 9) God’s covenant blessing depended on their continued faithfulness to his law. – But man’s inability to achieve perfection, even having God’s law, is what creates a need for a new and better covenant (7:19). – Which as you can tell from the prophecy, was always in God’s plan.
         3. The law covenant needed replacing with something better. – This promised new covenant should make sense to the hearers now through the ministry of Jesus! A new and better covenant has been initiated by God through the person and work of Jesus Christ.
         4. And the arrival of the new makes the old obsolete (v. 13). The new covenant replaces the law covenant in the sense of both fulfilling it and superseding it. The old covenant needed replacing, and has been replaced with something better. So the old is therefore not something we should place ourselves under. Through Christ’s we stand beneath a better covenant—that’s the clear point.
      2. Another, perhaps more subtle emphasis, is how the scripture quoted indicates a covenant of better promises!(end of v. 6) Of course there is continuity and discontinuity between the covenants, but the second is better because it is fully effective and sufficient. Bc it is enacted/established on better promises.
         1. What better promises are made than the old: “I have chosen you to be my people. If you obey me, I will bless you.”? – Well, in vv. 10-12 we see a new covenant of an internal transformation, based on God initiative, in which God invites us to be forgiven completely and permanently and to therein be invited to know him personally. It is a promise of… (the first two things I’m emphasizing are found in v. 10b)
         2. An internal change – Ezek. 36:26-27
         3. Initiated by God – God showed us that without his initiating and internal transformation in us, we are powerless to meet the law’s demands. Rom. 8:3-4
         4. In which we are invited into a personal knowledge of God (v. 11)
         5. Which is possible through full and final forgiveness. (v. 12) – Whereas the law magnified and piled up our iniquities, and the law brings death - but Jesus’s sacrifice completely and permanently purifies and our sin. His sacrificial death brings spiritual life (Heb. 10:20). The blood of bulls and goats can’t take away sins (10:4 – it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins), but Jesus… 9:12!
         6. We have such a high priest! One who has a heavenly ministry and better offering, and who mediates a better covenant of better promises. We have such a high priest.

• Where should we go with this truth today?
  1. God in his mercy, applies the promises of this new covenant through Israel to all people you receive Christ by faith! That includes you. Eph. 2:11-13,18 – How? 2:4-5,8-9
  2. The new covenant is about a relationship with God established by the work of Christ and the forgiveness of our sins. The Christian life is then lived out by the internalization of God’s laws…
     1. So we don’t cast aside morality, or kindness, or even church attendance. Rather, we perform good deeds in keeping with the transformation enacted by God to make us his own. The letter of Hebrews itself will point this out. – but we need mercy and help, which we gain by drawing near to God through Christ (4:15-16)
     2. Nor do Christians completely stop sinning altogether, nor are we given license to sin. Rather, we are instructed that people of the faith cast off other weights and avoid entangling sin to pursue Jesus. 12:1-2
     3. And our personal knowledge of God doesn’t mean that we can stop striving to know him better and please him more! In fact, that progress in knowing God more produces growth to maturity.
  3. What do people hear from you and see in your life when you aim to share and gospel and live it out? – The new covenant IS relationship with God through Jesus Christ! (7:22&25) That is the gospel! Jesus restores us to God, and it is good news. – It is that hope which securely anchors our souls in God.

Better Ministry, Better Covenant – Hebrews 8:1-13

Christ is high priest of a more excellent ministry and a new and better covenant. (v. 6)

Our high priest’s heavenly ministry of better offering (vv. 1-6a)

• It is a ministry in a better place of truer worship. (vv. 2, 4&5)

• It is a ministry of better sacrifice. (v. 3)

Our high priest’s new covenant of better promises (vv. 6b-13)

• A prophecy about a new covenant means that the old one was insufficient. (vv. 7-9, 13)

• It is a covenant of better promises! (vv. 6, 10-12)

Application:  

• The promises of the new covenant can be yours (or are yours)! (Eph. 2)
• In personal relationship to God, we internalize God’s laws—for living differently, for battling sin, and for growth to maturity. (Heb. 4:15-16, 12:1-2, & 5:11ff)
• In the way you live it out and in the way you share it, are people hearing the true gospel? – The good news of the new covenant is relationship with God through Jesus Christ! (Heb. 7:22&25)