Hebrews 8 | The Supremacy of Christ and the New Covenant Part 1

Hebrews 8 and the Supremacy of Jesus in the New Covenant

If you would please turn with me in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 8, we will consider, this will be the first part of this sermon, part 1, we will consider all 13 verses, Hebrews 8, 1 through 13. Father, please, in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, in this moment, through your Spirit, speak to us, we pray, Amen.

The Supremacy of Christ Over the Priesthood

Alright, so our theme for this Wars Day is the Supremacy of Jesus and the New Covenant. This week we will focus on the supremacy of Jesus, Jesus over the priesthood, and that is found in the first five verses.

Now I have been reading the Bible a little over 20 years now, and the one thing that I can tell you more than anything else, more sure than anything else, is that in Scripture you find nothing greater than Jesus Christ.

He is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the only way to the Father. He is truth, and if you are in Christ, even though you die, yet shall you live. Look with me at our text. We will read all 13 verses, Hebrews chapter 8, 1 through 13.

Now the point in what we are saying is this. We have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man.

For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. Thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law.

They serve as a copy and a shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain.

But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is much more excellent than the old, as the new covenant he mediates is better, since it is enticed on better promises. For if the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.

For he finds fault with them when he says, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them out by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.

For they did not continue in my covenant, and I have shown no concern for them, declares.

The Lord.

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,.

Declares the Lord.

I will put my law into their minds and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest.

For I will be merciful towards their iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more. And speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what has become an obsolete is growing old, is ready to vanish away.

The Point of Hebrews 8: Christ Seated at the Right Hand of God

So in our outline, the writer of this book focuses on the supremacy of Jesus over the priesthood and the new covenant over the old covenant. Now these are the three things that I want you to notice. First thing is the point.

In our passage today, he's going to tell us the point of the book. Notice the point. Notice the place and notice the promises. As we transition, last week I gave a little analogy, a joke of sort, right, about the two hunters walking into the woods and they were hunting and they saw a well and they were thirsty.

And I told you that they stuck things over the well to see if they could hear if there was water in it because there was no bucket to let down. And then the point of the joke was that they found a transmission after they couldn't hear anything from a rock, a quarter, they couldn't hear from a rock.

So they grabbed a transmission and they threw it into the well and then a billy goat came.

Running at them.

And we come to find out by the owner of the property that this billy goat was tied to the transmission. So as they throw this transmission into the well, the billy goat comes running after them, and they dive out the way, and the reason why is because the billy goat was tied to the transmission.

It was kind of like the butt of the joke, right? And I told that as a way to explain what's going on at this time with these people. They were tied to the law, the Mosaic law, the Jewish sacrificial system, the priesthood.

They were tied to these things. And the writer seems to be telling them, if you continue following, being tied to these things, when they are destroyed, so will you be. That they were temporary. And if any of us focus and live our life on the temporary, and I pointed how they were temporary, and you and I have temporary things in our life, whether it be parents, loved ones, husband, wife, girlfriends, like these things are not bad things, but if we put these things, these temporary things, before the eternal, then it's sin.

Now what they were putting before God was the law, this law that was quickly coming to an end. So our writer is pleading with his listeners to untie yourselves from these things and to tie yourselves to the one who has entered in behind the inner place, behind the curtain that's speaking about his ascending into heaven and being at the temple that is in heaven.

And it talked about him being the anchor of our souls. And so we, our souls, need to be tied to the anchor that has went into the holy place. And so that's the writer's plea. And so today he's going to be focusing on the point of the whole book.

And so our first point is the point, it's kind of hard to say, our first point is the point, but before we read it again, I want to make clear the intentions of our writer. Here he will point out the reason behind the letter.

So what we're about to read again is the point behind the whole letter. I want you to notice the intro. He says, chapter eight, verse one, just this intro, now the point in what we are saying is this.

So this is like the center place of the whole book. He says, now the point in what we are saying is this. So what comes after this portion, what comes after this intro is the point of the whole book. Everything that we have studied and everything that we will study hinges upon what these next verses will say.

Now let's read the first three verses. Now the point of what we are saying is this, listen, pay attention. We have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty.

In heaven.

A minister in the holy places and the true tent that the Lord has set up, not man, for every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. Thus, it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer.

The writer is telling us that this is not for the immature. This is for the mature. Right, we read that in chapter five, chapter five, verses 11 and 12. About this we have much to say and it is hard to explain since you are dull of hearing.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.

But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers and disturbance trained by constant practice in distinguishing from good and evil. This letter is not for those who are on milk. He come to give meat.

He come to explain to us the Melchizedek priesthood. He came to explain to us that Jesus is the high priest and that this law is ending. This law that has captured people and enslaved them is ending. So the text gives us three things that the high priest, being Jesus, will accomplish.

And we will view these three things in light of the first heading, the point, but it will also carry it into the second heading, the place. So the three things that it names is this. One, he sat down.

That this high priest sits down. That he is a minister in the holy places. And that he offers gifts and sacrifices. So those are the three things that the high priest, this new high priest does. The text tells us that he, Jesus, sits down.

Notice Hebrews chapter 10, that the high priest never sits down after a sacrifice, but Jesus Christ does. Chapter 10, verses 11 and 12. Hebrews 10, 11 and 12. And every priest stands daily. Let me read that again.

And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. Remember, they only hit them, sweeping them under the rug. But when Christ had offered for all time, a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.

Also, chapter 9, verses 1 through 5. Chapter 9, 1 through 5. Now, even the first covenant had regulations for worship in the earthly places of holiness. For the tent was prepared, the first section in which were the lampstands and the table of the bread of the presence.

It's called the holy place. Behind the second curtain was a second section called the most holy place. Having the golden altar of incense and the Ark of the Covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, an errant staff that was budding, and the two tablets of the covenant.

Above them was the cherubim of glory, overshadowing the mercy seat. And of these things, we cannot go into detail. So the point that's being made here is that there's no seats. There's no place to sit.

Like I named off the furniture that's in the holy place and that's in the holy of holies, and there's no place to sit. Now, one would say, well, there's the mercy seat. Yeah, that's where the blood was spilt for the sacrifice.

There was no place for priests to sit, the point that our writer is trying to make. But yet at the very beginning of this book, so this is not something that's just introduced as we come into this Melchizedek priesthood.

At the very beginning of this book, Hebrews chapter one, one through three, more specifically we'll focus on 3C, but let's read verses one through three. Hebrews chapter one, one through three. It says, long ago, at many times in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.

But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom he also created the world. He, speaking about the son, is the radiance and the glory of God, the exact imprints of his nature.

And he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. So this son, this son of God who comes into the world, who now speaks for God, that he is the exact nature of God, the exact imprint, he upholds the universe by the word of his power, and he sits down at the right hand of God, the majesty on high.

And that's basically what our writer is repeating. In verse one, it says, one who is seated at the right hand of the majesty in heaven. He's basically reiterating himself, that the new priest sits down.

He is sitting down, it points us to the finished work, that there's nothing else to do. This, speaking of the sufficiency of the supremacy of his sufficiency, the sufficiency of Christ, this speaking of the sufficiency of Christ, showing that his sufficiency is supremacy.

It reigns over every other priest. Every other thing that has ever been done, what he has done is greater. What he has done has accomplished a greater purpose than all priests. That his being finished is greater than the continuing work that had to be done under the Levitical priesthood year after year.

That him entering in one time is greater than them entering in day after day after day, standing at the temple performing these works. His one offering, his one gift is greater. That the old priesthood had a sacrifice over and over and over, and then Jesus comes and he makes one sacrifice and he sits down.

The writer seems to be throwing this in their face. You're worshiping something that's fallen away. But Jesus has come and he has done it one time and it's greater. Speaking that that's the supremacy of his sufficiency, that his sacrifice is greater, that when he did it, he did it right.

And he done it right once and for all. That there's no going back and redoing what he did. Okay, you cannot go back and redo what he has already done. As a matter of fact, there's nothing to go back to.

The writer is expressing this while the temple is still standing. He says, stop it. There's nothing to go back to. Much less after 70 AD when there was actually nothing to go back to. Can you imagine the urgency of this message at this time?

We have a Jew who I believe to be Paul. People would argue who the writer is. That's why I only say the writer. Personally, I believe it's Paul. And if you don't, that's fine. You're not a heretic. But I believe it's Paul.

And the urgency of this message, it had to be spoken. Going back to the temple meant that they were denying the supremacy of his sufficiency. Going back to the temple meant they were denying the greatness of his sacrifice.

This was God's covenant people. The people that Jesus came to save. Jesus says, John chapter 1 verse 11 tells us that he being Jesus came to his own and his own people did not receive him. And so we have the writer here going to the people that Jesus came to save.

And even after the sacrifice was made, still some of them were not receiving him. Even those that were part of this congregation, were part of this people. This could have been, you know, because at this time you had families, you had tribes.

This could have been a tribe, a family of families that have came. And some of the older people probably received Christ, but some of the younger adults have not. Or the younger adults have received Christ and are carrying along with them their older relatives.

And they have not. They're still tied up to this Jewish system. That going back meant that they were denying the rightful place of Jesus sitting at the right hand of God. That going back meant that they were crucifying once again, the son of God to their own harms.

And our writer here cannot listen to the naysayers. He cannot listen to those that are looking at the temple, looking at how glorious and beautiful the temple was. And how their whole lives and the lives of their fathers and their forefathers all the way down to when Moses establishes this system.

That this was their life. This is how things were done. They were caught up with their traditions. Not only can he not listen to the naysayers, but he cannot pay attention to his own fears and insecurities.

I can tell you that when I go to street preach, I am so afraid. I'm so nervous before I get up and speak. Yes, my wife, I can barely eat. Like, I just, I'm not functioning correctly. I'm so afraid. I can't imagine what he must have felt like.

This was his people, his kingsmen according to the flesh. He probably had great relationships with them. But let me tell you something. I find it a lot easier to go down at this little corner right here and set up shop and street preach than I would go into a family reunion standing on a box and street preaching.

Because these folks know me. They know how broken I am. I imagine these people know Paul. They knew that Paul killed Christians. And the writer was given one message. And that was that Jesus, as our high priest, has accomplished forgiveness.

That's the message. Jesus, as our high priest, has accomplished forgiveness. That means you don't need temple. You don't need the temple anymore. You don't need any more lambs. And listen, you and I as Christians need to understand that we have a high priest.

And through him, he has accomplished forgiveness. Forgiveness of sins. And there's so many times, even as Christians, we can commit a sin. And we're so focused on our sin that it keeps us from pursuing Christ in the moment.

I can tell you that there's been moments when I hear a knock at the door and it's a Jehovah's Witness or it's a Mormon because I'm so focused because I might've snapped off at my child the night before or I had snapped off at my wife and I haven't apologized yet or I've done something.

And as we're talking, I'm so focused on what I just did moments ago or the day before that I cannot remember anything about Christ to defend him. I cannot give these boys the gospel because I'm so focused on my sin.

And so often we enter the church. You know, I mean, listen, I know all about this. You know, coming to church, repenting in the car, on the way here with the kids and the wives and the husbands, you know, I mean, it's tough.

And we get in here and instead of focusing on Christ,.

We're still back in the car. We're still stuck in yesterday.

These people were stuck in the sacrificial system and because they were stuck in the sacrificial, they could not see Christ. And that's even for us Christian. We can get so focused on our sin that we take our eyes off of Christ.

I gave this analogy many of times when you're driving down the road and if you're driving 50 miles an hour, 80 miles an hour, some of you women in here and you're looking at the rear view mirror and not the front glass, you're going to wreck.

You're going to wreck the car because you're focused on your past. You're focused on something else instead of going forward. And that's how these people are and that's how we are when we focus and take our mind off of Christ, whether it be anything.

You're focused on your wife too much or you worship your wife, you worship your husband.

And you don't worship Christ.

Your love for your wife, your love for your husband, your love for your kids should be the overflow of your worship of Christ. The overflow. Show me a man who is not in love with Christ and I will show you a woman that needs to break up with that man because he's not going to treat her right.

That's my opinion. Now, why is this? Because we have, because after making purifications for sins, he, Jesus, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. So because of what he has done, when we look to him, we're able to move forward.

And that's the message. Because of what Jesus has done, because after making purification for sins, after what he has done, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Because he has done that, we can drive forward, we can look to Christ and no matter what takes place, if I sin, guess what I do?

First John, confess it. If I'm mad at my wife, I might harbor it for a few minutes, but then I have to go and say, you know what? I know you was wrong and I forgive you. No, I apologize, right? I apologize.

If I say something out of, you know, like if Trinity comes at me and I'm working because I work at home and I say, leave me alone, I'm doing something. Moments later, I'll get convicted and I'll go in there and I'll apologize.

So I'm looking at Christ. I'm not gonna let my yelling at her keep me from focusing on Christ and listen to me saying it will. It will, it absolutely will. These people were so blind to their tradition that they could not see Christ.

And we can be so blind to our traditions, our loved ones, ours, just name it. Whatever it is that you're tied to, you can be so caught up in that you will not see the affections of Christ. So what does it mean that he sat down?

I believe that this is explaining to us what we've already pointed out before, that this points us to the resurrection. So him sitting down points us to the resurrection. So if you look at Acts chapter two, we will read verse 25 through 35, verses 25 through 35.

So what does it mean that he sat down? For David says concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me for he is at my right hand that I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced.

My flesh also will dwell in hope for you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your holy one see corruption. You have made known to me the path of life. You will make full, I mean you will make me full of gladness with your presence.

Brothers, I may say with confidence about our patriarch David that he is both dead and buried and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet and knowing that God has sworn with an oath to him that he would sit, listen, that he would sit one of his descendants on his throne.

He foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Christ that he will not abandon his soul into Hades or let his flesh see corruption. This Jesus, God raised up and of that we are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has promised, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.

For David did not ascend into heaven but he himself says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool. So the chair that Jesus sits in at the right hand of God is the throne of David and so this is the proof that the Bible gives of his resurrection.

So the temple inside this heavenly temple is the throne of David and that is where he sits. Not the earthly temple, there was no seats. But in the heavenly temple, the one that I believe Isaiah saw in Isaiah chapter six is the throne of David and our King Jesus sits there at the right hand of the majesty on high.

Now John MacArthur points out something. So the Sanhedrin at this time, so the Sanhedrin had courts and so when they would have a case and so like this would be where the main guy spoke. So the main Sanhedrin would speak and people would plead their case to him.

He had two seats. He had a seat on the right and a seat on the left and the seat on the right was if you did something so the one on the right would fight for you and the one on the left would plead against you.

And so John MacArthur is saying that Jesus being at the right hand of God is pleading for us and I really try to look into it. I don't see the connection because in the throne in heaven there is no seat on God's left side where the devil's sitting that's pleading against us, right?

The point is that Jesus is at the right hand of the father and I read last week that through his gospel, through this blood that's spilt, it pleads our case and Jesus is at the right hand of the father.

He sat down on the throne of David and because this is true, because this is so, you and I have forgiveness of sins. It doesn't matter if someone's on his left hand, which there's not. The Bible says nothing about this pleading against us.

The blood of Christ pleads for us. If there was anything at the left side, it would be you yourself when you hated God, when you were corrupt, before you were saved. That in Christ, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

The Heavenly Sanctuary and the True Tent

And as we transition, the rest of the point that the rider brings to bear, remember he ministers in the holy places and he offered gifts and sacrifices. And that brings us to our second heading, the place, Hebrews chapter eight, verse two and three.

First point, he sits. This point will highlight, he ministers in the holy places and he offers sacrifices and gifts.

So verse two,.

Speaking of Jesus, a minister in the holy places in the true tent that the Lord has set up and not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. Thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer.

Notice it says holy places.

This is plural.

This is not singular. Again, go back to chapter nine, verse two and three. For a tent was prepared. The first section in which the lamp stands and the table of show bread and the table and the bread of the presence is called the holy place.

First section, holy place. Behind the second curtain, second section is called the most holy place. Now, of course, this in our text is speaking about the heavenly sanctuary, not the earthly sanctuary.

The true tent that the Lord himself has set up and not man. So what the author is doing here is what we have seen him do several times before and other authors have done several times before in dealing with the earthly versus the heavenly.

Reason being, I believe that it's done this way is because there's only actually one author,.

The Holy Spirit,.

Who is communicating to man to write down his words. So what he's doing here is he's just reiterating the same thing of the heavenly and the earthly. Read with me verses four and five. Now, if he, speaking of Jesus, were on earth, he would not be a priest at all since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law.

Verse five, they are a copy and a shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect a tent, he was instructed by God saying, see that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain.

Now, again, chapter nine, verse one. Now, if the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness, again, it's pointing that there's two different things. There's a heavenly temple and there is an earthly temple.

So the writer is trying to bring his listeners to the idea of the earthly versus the heavenly. We actually saw it in our first heading also. We saw it when it comes to the point. The work of the earthly priest was never done.

Earthly priest never done. The work of the heavenly high priest Jesus, his work is done. The work of the earthly priest was done in holy places, meaning the holy place and the most holy place. And that will be pointed to the then standing temple that we know of as Herod's temple.

Before Herod's temple, it was Solomon's temple. Before it was Solomon's temple, it was the tabernacle and the wilderness. Now, somehow, which we'll get into as we can't go too deep into that right now, but eventually we'll get there.

But somehow Moses was given a pattern and these things on earth were to be a copy and a shadow that was in heaven. So somehow when Moses went up to the mountain to receive the tablets, he was given a pattern of what the temple looked like.

He was not taken into heaven and was shown like, you know, here, let me show you this corner right over here. He was not given a tour in heaven of what the temple looked like, but he was given a pattern, a painting, directions, a blueprint, something on how to build the earthly that would compare to the heavenly.

But he was not shown the heavenly temple per se. He was given a pattern, a blueprint. And that's what verse five points out that they were a copy and a shadow of the heavenly things. And them things being that we see inside, that we see here is the bronze altar, the bronze basin, the tabernacle, the table of showbread, the golden lampstands, the golden altar of incense, and the ark of the covenant.

It says that these things signify the work of the priesthood. So these things that I just named, these things that were a pattern of a copy of something that's in heaven, these things signify the work of the priesthood, the work given to them by the law, and they had to perform.

The heavenly side of this is that Jesus has offered this gift. He has offered the sacrifice, and that was his own blood, him being the lamb that would take away the sins of the world. Now, if you go back to verse three, it says for every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices.

So the earthly. Thus, listen to the heavenly, it was necessary for this priest to have something to offer. And oh, did he offer. What did he offer? His life, his death, his burial, and his resurrection.

The things upon which the gospel.

Is brought forth,.

Him living the perfect life, him dying the death, him being, him resurrecting, this speaking about him being the begotten son of God and in his ascension, him entering into the veil, entering into the holy of holies, the holy place.

Church, listen. It is based upon what Jesus has offered that you and I as a church have anything to offer. So because of what Jesus has offered right here where it says that he must have something to offer because of what he has offered, that's the only basis that you and I have anything to offer.

If Jesus had not left heaven, come down to earth and lived a sinless life and died a substitutionary death that actually atones for sins, then you and I would have nothing to offer the world. The only thing that we have to offer is the message of what Jesus Christ has offered up and that is of himself.

The only thing we have to offer is Jesus. That's the greatest thing you can offer anybody. That is the greatest thing you can offer anyway. Not to gear off on my subject, but you have, you know, what's greater, the manna that fills your belly or the manna that has come down.

From heaven?

What? The water. The woman at the well asked for, she was getting water from a well.

Jesus said, I have water.

That you know nothing about.

And if you drink it,.

You never thirst.

The earthly versus the heavenly. Yet you have a man, yet you have these four guys that are dragging their friend in to meet Jesus. The house was full. They carry him up on the roof. They open the hatch.

They let their friend in. He needed physical healing. Jesus forgave him of his sins.

What's greater?

He even healed him.

Of his physical disability. But what was greater? What was the greater purpose there? Was it him being able to get up, take his mat and walk? Or was it that his sins were forgiven? Right there we saw the earthly and the heavenly.

He made the man walk, but he forgave his sins. We have what the world does not have. We have the heavenly. And that is Jesus. Turn with me to Psalm 14. If I can turn my Bible. It's a short Psalm. We'll read it all.