Better On All Accounts

Today's Old Testament reading is Psalm 110 on page 509.

Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter.

Rule in the midst of your enemies.

Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power in holy garments.

From the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours.

The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind.

You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

The Lord is at your right hand.

He will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.

He will execute judgment among the nations.

Filling them with corpses, he will shatter chiefs over the wide earth.

He will drink from the brook by the way.

Therefore, he will lift up his head.

New Testament reading is Acts chapter 13, verses 26 through 43.

Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham and those among you who fear God,

to us has been sent a message of this salvation for those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers

because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets which are read

every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him.

And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed.

And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb.

But God raised him from the dead.

And for many days, he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem who are

now his witnesses to the people.

And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us,

their children, by raising Jesus as also it is written in the second Psalm,

you are my son, today I have begotten you.

And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way.

I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.

Therefore, he says also in another Psalm, you will not let your holy one see

corruption.

For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation,

fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption.

But he whom God raised up did not see corruption.

Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man, forgiveness of sins

is proclaimed to you.

And by him, everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed

by the law of Moses.

Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the prophets should come about.

Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish for I am doing a work in your days, a work

that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.

As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath.

And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism

followed Paul and Barnabas, who as they spoke with them, urged them to

continue in the grace of God.

May we see you.

Take your Bibles this morning and let's turn to Hebrews chapter seven as we continue

on our journey to see the superiority of the Lord Jesus.

Hebrews chapter seven, I'll begin in verse 11 and read to the end of the chapter.

Now, if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received the law,

what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek rather than one

named after the order of Aaron?

For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well.

For the one of whom these things are spoken belong to another tribe from which no one has ever served at the

altar.

For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah and in connection with that tribe,

Moses said nothing about priests.

This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become a

priest not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the

power of an indestructible life.

For it is witness of him, you are a priest forever after the order of

Melchizedek.

For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness for

the law made no one, nothing perfect.

But on the other hand, a better hope is introduced through which we draw near to God.

And it was not without an oath for those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath.

But this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him, the Lord has sworn

and he will not change his mind, you are a priest forever.

This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.

The former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds

his priesthood permanently because he continues forever.

Consequently, he's able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him since

he always lives to make intercession for them.

For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent,

unstained, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens.

He has no need like those high priests to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own

sins and then for those of the people since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.

For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath which came later than the

law appoints a son who has been made perfect forever.

Let's pray.

Lord God, we now approach the understanding of your word.

We need your spirit to open it to us and especially Lord, to open it to us

in this day and this age in which we live, to make its message clear for us in the context in which

we live.

And so we're asking that he would do that.

We're asking now for a good understanding of this so that we can serve the Lord

Jesus better.

Help us to serve him better by understanding his priesthood.

Give us hope this day we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Oh, let's just imagine, let's go back centuries, backward for centuries.

If we could take a time machine, let's all get in it, let's go back.

Let's go back to the first century after Jesus has been raised from the dead.

You and your friend Moshe Ahrens live just outside Jerusalem.

You have both become followers of this new sect, this new

group of people who claim Jesus as the Messiah.

At first, it seemed difficult to walk away from the temple with all its festivals

and sacrifices and priests, but you're convinced that Jesus as Messiah has done

something, and that is he has saved you by his death, by his sacrifice.

But you know what?

Your friend Moshe's job is now at stake because his employer, the

one that he works for, doesn't care for this new sect, cares nothing for Jesus the Messiah.

In fact, he thinks it's a heretical thing, and he's really putting pressure on Moshe.

And it looks like if he doesn't return to temple worship, he loses his livelihood.

And so he's talking about returning to temple worship.

Would that be so bad?

I mean, would that be that bad?

I mean, really, when you think about it, he'd just be going back to something that God had instituted and that they had been

practicing for centuries.

This is something that God himself had instituted.

It would be bad.

It would be a great mistake.

And this letter or this sermon that we have before us that we now call the book of Hebrews

argues that you cannot go back to the old ways, and you cannot go back

because Jesus is God's final word on how to approach him.

And so as God speaks through this book, he reveals to us that Jesus is superior

in every way to the ways of the old covenant.

And that is particularly true when it comes to the priesthood.

Jesus far surpasses the old covenant priesthood.

And that superiority rests on the fact that Jesus is a priest of a

different order, the order of Melchizedek.

And on the basis of the fact that he is a priest after the order of Melchizedek,

then he is superior to the priesthood that all these people were used to.

And he's done that, he tells us that in chapter seven, one through 10, that his

superiority rests on the fact that he is the priest after the order of Melchizedek.

He argues that in chapter seven, verses one through 10.

And now in verses 11 until the end of the chapter, he lists the reasons

why this Melchizedek, this priest like Melchizedek holds a

superior position.

And so it's almost like he says, okay, let me give you the reasons.

One, two, three, four, five, six, okay?

It's almost as if he does that.

So we've already seen the first reason, verses 11 through 14.

Here's the first reason why he holds a superior position, because it is a better

order, verses 11 through 14.

In verses 15 through 17, he says, Jesus has a better

qualification for a priest.

In verses 18 and 19, he gives us a third reason.

He offers a better hope.

Reason number four, verses 20 through 22.

Jesus' priesthood has a better oath, verses 23

through 25.

Jesus offers better intercession.

And then the last one, verses 26 through 28, Jesus is better suited to us

than any of the old priests.

So we've looked at the first reason already.

Today, I want us to look at the next four.

And then the next time we come back to this text, we'll look at the last reason that he lists for us,

showing that Jesus' priesthood, because it's a Melchizedekian priesthood, is

superior to that of the old priesthood.

So we're gonna look at chapter seven, verses 15 through 25.

Let's look at those verses again, beginning in verse 15.

This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become a

priest not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an

indestructible life.

For it is witnessed of him, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

For on the one hand, a form of commandment is set aside because of its weakness and

uselessness.

For the law made nothing perfect.

But on the other hand, a better hope is introduced through which we draw near to God.

And it was not without an oath for those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath.

But this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him, the Lord

has sworn and will not change his mind, you are a priest forever.

This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.

The former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office.

But he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever.

Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him since

he always lives to make intercession for them.

All right, so let's look at our reasons this morning.

Here's the first one for this morning.

Hold fast to Jesus because of his better qualification.

Hold fast to Jesus because of his better qualification.

He begins by saying, this becomes more evident.

What becomes more evident?

That a new priesthood has arrived.

That becomes more evident when we consider this, right?

It's not difficult to discern the fact.

With the arrival of Jesus, a new priesthood has been introduced because he is after the order of

Melchizedek, an entirely new priesthood has been introduced.

He says, just look at it for a minute.

The Old Testament priests were appointed to office on the basis of a legal requirement

concerning physical descent.

There's no intrinsic value that you had in order to be a priest.

You didn't have to pass some kind of character test.

The only thing you had to show was that you had the right family tree, that you had the appropriate genealogical roots.

The only thing you needed to show was that you came from the family of Aaron in the tribe of Levi, that's all.

And that was the law.

You gotta be in this family, in this tribe in order to serve as a priest.

But Jesus possesses a radically different qualification.

And he's already made the point, right?

In verses 13 and 14, if you look at that, when he says, for the

one of whom these things are spoken belong to another tribe from which no one has ever served at the altar, for it is evident that our

Lord was descended from Judah and in connection with that tribe, Moses said nothing about priests.

So Jesus doesn't meet the first test.

There's no way.

He doesn't meet the Levitical test.

He can't be a priest under that system.

However, because he is a priest after the order of Melchizedek,

he has a much higher qualification to meet.

The criteria for his priesthood is so much higher for him.

Why?

Because the priest that was prophesied, that everyone was waiting for mentioned in

Psalm 110 must be a priest.

What?

Forever.

Isn't that what David says in Psalm 110?

You are, this is God speaking, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

All right?

He's got a higher qualification.

It's forever.

Not a genealogical one.

So Jesus is that priest on account of his resurrection, on account that he was ascended,

on account that he has been exalted to the right hand of God.

See, all the old covenant priests died, but Jesus has conquered death

forever.

He's actually conquered death.

He meets the superior qualification of forever.

Okay?

You are a priest forever.

Well, he meets it.

He's been raised from the dead, never to die again.

His resurrection is that, his resurrection, his exaltation is that which says, here

is your forever priest.

Here's the point.

The pressure's on.

It would be much easier to give your allegiance to some other kind of religion that does not make

so much of Jesus.

When the pressure's on, it'd be so much easier to just say, well, okay,

they don't say much about Jesus, but you know, for the Jews of our author's day, that was the

battle.

Go back to the old system.

For you, for you, right now, we're starting to feel it a bit,

and that is it costs to claim to be a follower of Jesus, at least a follower

who says, Jesus is Lord.

He's been raised.

He's died for sin.

He's been raised from the dead, and there's, say, these radical, heretical terms in today's culture.

He is the only way to God.

Are you saying that all other religions are wrong?

Yeah, yeah, you are.

That can cost you, and the cost may be getting higher, but you

can't abandon Jesus because there's no other way to God.

He's the only way to draw near to God.

He is superior because he is that priest who lives forever.

You have to hold on to Jesus because he's conquered death and serves as your priest forever.

All other ways, listen, all other ways of dealing with guilt

and shame and forgiveness are all temporary.

They all pass away, only to be replaced by the latest way of dealing

with shame and guilt and forgiveness.

My friends, you live in a world that's competing with Jesus as to how you

escape shame.

For one thing, our world tells us over and over, we live in a therapeutic culture that says, oh my,

oh, you should not be ashamed.

What's the answer?

The answer isn't a forever priest.

The answer instead is what you're doing isn't wrong.

Don't be ashamed of it.

Be who you are, right?

Who says that's wrong?

That's the answer.

There's a better answer in Jesus.

Hold fast to Jesus because of his better qualification.

He is the forever priest.

Second reason for today.

Hold fast to Jesus because he offers a better hope.

He offers a better hope.

Verses 18 and 19, for on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and

uselessness.

For the law made nothing perfect, but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced through which we draw near

to God.

On the one hand, you have the old priesthood which is gone.

When he says the former commandment, he's talking about all the regulations that dealt with that old covenant

under which they left.

That old administration has been abrogated.

Why?

Because it perfected nothing.

It was deficient.

It couldn't accomplish perfection.

That is to say, as our translation says, because of its weakness and uselessness.

Not meaning that it was useless, just meaning it was useless in terms of attaining perfection.

It was weak.

It couldn't do it.

It doesn't mean that it served no purpose because it did have a purpose.

It did have a purpose, but the purpose was not to achieve perfection.

It could never do that.

It was weak in that regard.

The law with its priesthood, sacrifices, and atonement could never achieve full

and final forgiveness, could never achieve a cleansed conscience.

That is, when your conscience just bears down on you and tells you just how bad you

are.

You can say to your conscience, okay, I agree, but I have a

high priest who intercedes for me, right?

The old law could never transform you.

It could never make you a new creature, nor did it restore human rule on the earth as Jesus

has done, as we saw in chapter two.

On the other hand, he says, verse 19, on the other hand, a new

hope has been introduced.

It proves effective because by this new priest, you can draw

near to God.

The old priesthood could not bring you near to God.

It did remind the people then just how distant they were from God.

It told them that their sins were never fully or finally forgiven.

When you look on Yom Kippur, you all see that on your calendars, Yom Kippur is the

day of atonement that's described in Leviticus 16.

Even on the day when the high priest, and that one time a year, goes into the most holy of holies,

only one time he could go in to make atonement for the sins of the people for the year.

That didn't draw people in.

It showed just how great there was a divide between them and God.

I mean, even the high priest couldn't go into the very presence of God, but once a year, and only then,

with a sacrifice that he made first for himself, and then for the sins of the

people.

The old covenant seems to emphasize that God is holy and you

are not.

And it didn't have the ability to draw them in.

That they could have an intimacy with God.

That they could draw near with boldness.

You see, this new hope produces confidence and boldness because we can actually draw near to

God.

Now listen carefully.

You must hold on to Jesus because he is the only one who gives you hope in

drawing near to God.

I want you to listen carefully now.

We may not go to priests, but often we act as our own priests

offering our own sacrifices.

Let me give you an example.

Here's what we do.

We say, look at me.

Look how bad I am.

Look how terrible I am.

Look how I failed.

Ah, I'm nothing, right?

Look how much I failed.

I'm just terrible.

I'm a terrible person.

And that's the sacrifice you offer to God.

You say, God, look how horrible I am.

And I'm offering up to you just how horrible I am so that you know how sorry I am.

Here's my sacrifice.

Now, I'm not here to tell you you're not as bad as you think.

In fact, you're probably worse than you think.

But the issue is not that.

The issue is who allows you or actually draws you

into the presence of God.

It's not you.

It's God.

It's Jesus.

When you offer those kinds of sacrifices, you know what you find?

They're only temporary.

They never last.

You're doing it again and again and again.

Instead, you ought to draw near to God through Jesus.

You can admit your failure and your sin.

You can do that.

But that's not where it ends.

That's not where it ends.

You look to Jesus who brought full forgiveness.

He's the one who brings you near to God.

He's the one who gives you confidence.

And you look to him to draw you near to God, not to how sorry you are, not to

admitting, just admitting how bad you are, which is a good thing.

But you don't stay there.

You trust that Jesus will draw you near to God.

Your hope in drawing near depends on this priest.

His name is Jesus.

Hold fast to Jesus because he offers you a better hope.

Thirdly, hold fast to Jesus because of a better oath.

Because of a better oath.

Verse 20, and it was not without an oath for those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath.

But this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him,

the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind.

You are a priest forever.

This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.

Now, the priests of the Old Testament did not take an oath in order to enter the priesthood.

Now, every four years, we see this happen.

Every four years, we see that whoever has been elected to the presidency of the United States

or reelected to the presidency of the United States, every four years, he stands before the people

assembled and he takes an oath.

He takes an oath that promises that he will execute the office of president and that he will

preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution.

This defines the presidency and it guarantees that he will do certain things, or at least

he's promising to do certain things, okay?

And that's supposed to stand as a guarantee.

He'll do it.

However, no such oath defining and guaranteeing the office of priesthood was ever administered

in the Old Testament.

You only needed to prove your ancestry.

I belong to the family of Aaron of the tribe of Levi.

That's all you needed.

There was no oath that you had to take.

And by the way, because no Levitical oath was given, and there is one for this priesthood, it shows the

inferiority of the old priesthood.

You see, Jesus has a superior priesthood because it was established by an oath.

But you say to me, Pastor Tim, I've read the Gospels tons of times.

I've read them.

I'll tell you what, I can't tell you how many times I've read the Gospels and I don't see one place where Jesus

takes an oath, right?

You're right, you wouldn't find it because he doesn't take an oath.

You know who takes the oath on his lips?

God himself takes the oath, right?

Notice that it's God himself who takes the oath upon his lips.

Verse 21, the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind you are a

priest forever, is quoting what?

Again, the reference he keeps going back to, Psalm 110.

He's given us, by the way, an exposition of Psalm 110, verse four.

He's given us an exposition.

You notice he's taken apart every word in order to help us understand.

And he says, you know who took the oath?

God took the oath.

It's a better oath than anything you could administer to a priest, but God took that oath.

God did not just say, you, you're gonna be a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

No, it says God swore that the coming king would be priest

forever.

God's the one who swore that.

God's the one who took the oath.

You see, you remember, as we saw in chapter six, remember, if we go back to chapter six, where it

says, in order to make it clear, God took an oath, right?

Well, what's going on there?

Remember that when God wants to show just how unchangeable his purpose is, how inviolable,

how certain, how unbreakable his promises are, he takes an oath to

assure you of that.

He wants to convince you just how committed he is to his

promises.

And so he promised a forever priest, but he didn't just

promise it.

He swore an oath that says, you, I'm swearing an oath that you

will be a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

And if that were not enough, he adds, and will not change his mind.

God swore an oath, and he will not change his mind.

Again, a double whammy, just like he did in chapter six.

He says, I'm not gonna change my mind about this.

There's no going back on this hope -giving, enduring priesthood.

This is it.

This is it.

Jesus, then, is the guarantor of a better covenant.

Now, remember, the covenant and the priesthood are inextricably bound to the other.

If you change the law, you have to change the priesthood.

If you change the priesthood, you have to change the law.

And because the priesthood changes, the covenant that God ruled his people with formerly

no longer holds.

There's a better covenant.

And since Jesus has become the superior priest, he guarantees that the covenant he

introduces is going to be superior, is going to be better than that old one.

And so by this oath, God says, this is it.

I stand behind this priest and him alone.

You got my stamp of approval.

We're not going back.

This is it.

So hold fast to Jesus because of a better oath.

Now, the fourth reason that we're gonna look at this morning is found in verses 23 through 25.

The former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office.

But he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever.

Consequently, he's able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him since he

always lives to make intercession for them.

Now you can see the obvious inferiority of the old priesthood because death was the

master of every one of those priests.

Priest after priest after priest, century after

century after century, died.

No priest lasted more than a generation.

Now consider, just consider what would happen if another priest did not succeed the one who

died.

What then?

There's no intercession.

There's none.

In fact, we don't even have to imagine it.

We can look at Judaism today what's missing

in the Jewish religion today?

You know what's missing?

Animal sacrifice.

You know, there's a synagogue in Mary and you can go to the synagogue Saturday after Saturday after Saturday.

You're never gonna see a lamb sacrificed.

It's never gonna happen.

Why not?

I mean, according to the law, the priests and the sacrifices are absolutely

necessary.

What happened?

You remember in AD 70, about 40 years after Jesus ascended,

the temple was destroyed.

No temple, no sacrifices.

For centuries, Judaism has gone on and on and on without sacrifices.

There are no priests to offer those sacrifices either.

Now, there's a priestly line.

If you ever meet someone named Cohen, C -O -H -E -N, that's the Hebrew word for

priest.

Imagine you could finally, you could figure out who the priests were in modern Jewish lines today, but that's pointless.

There are no sacrifices.

And according to the law, if you want to live by the law, I don't know how you

can evade the fact that there's no approach to God for you now.

You can have your synagogues, you can talk about repentance and mending your deeds and that's good enough,

but that's not what the law says.

Without a priest, you can't come to God.

And you know something?

That hasn't changed, has it?

You still need a priest.

But guess what?

You don't have to wait and see if there's gonna be another priest to succeed him.

He's a priest what?

Forever!

He's a priest forever.

He conquered death by his resurrection.

He was exalted to glory.

So his priesthood endures forever.

This priest will never die.

And because he serves forever, what does our writer tell us?

Because he serves forever, he can save you completely.

He can save you completely.

He saves fully, he saves finally, and he saves forever.

Those who draw near to God through Jesus can be assured that God will save them.

And that is because, what does he say?

Why is that true?

Right?

Because he continues forever.

Therefore, because he continues forever, he can save us to the uttermost.

Why?

Because, he goes on to say, he always lives to make intercession for

us.

He always lives to make intercession for us.

We never are lacking, and never will be lacking, someone

who'll intercede for us.

Now those old covenant priests interceded by means of the sacrifice.

They interceded by means of that sacrifice.

He offered it to God on behalf of the people.

He interceded for them by offering, in that intercession, offering the sacrifice to God.

Jesus offered himself as the sacrifice for sin.

And he offers that sacrifice to God for you, and that intercession, he says, look, I died.

Now, I don't think this happens in heaven, okay?

I don't think Jesus is standing in front of God, constantly and endlessly saying,

I'm for them, right?

He's trying to draw a picture, that because of his sacrifice, that intercession, and he's risen forever,

there is our sacrifice.

He's, there's our intercession right there, right?

John Bunyan, you've heard me tell this story.

John Bunyan talks about the time he was a man who was tormented by the fact that he was never good enough,

just like many of us do.

Oh, look how terrible I am, look how rotten I am.

And he did that, and he about had given up hope and was saying to himself, as bad

as I am and as hopeless as I am, why even try?

I'm just gonna live a godless life.

Might as well, there's no hope for me.

He talks about one day walking through a field, right?

He says, and then in my mind's eye, I saw Jesus sitting

next to the Father.

Now, he didn't have a vision, he was thinking.

And he said, wow, there is my righteousness.

There he is, my righteousness is right with God.

It's not how good a day you've had or how bad a day, it's him, and he's there

interceding with God.

He's given the sacrifice.

If you can imagine this for a moment, you can imagine him standing before God, showing the nail prints in his hands,

saying that's for them.

And you know what?

That intercession lasts forever.

There is not a day in your life when you don't have Jesus

interceding for you.

You need this kind of priest.

There are many therapeutic groups out there who promise to help you with your

guilt and your shame.

There are religious denominations who will help you with your guilt and your shame by telling you that

you're not guilty for who you are or what you've done, and so there's no shame.

God says you cannot go there.

And he says, you need not go there.

What God gives you in Jesus is far superior to what anybody else offers you.

Jesus is superior.

You have an intercessor who pleads his sacrifice.

You have a Savior who will always intercede for you.

He is the forever priest.

So hold fast to Jesus because he offers better intercession.

You know, these days you find an overwhelming array of cures and answers and solutions

to the problems of life today.

God says simply this, hold fast to Jesus.

Hold fast to Jesus because of his better qualification.

Hold fast to him because he offers a better hope.

Hold fast to him because he offers a better oath.

Hold fast to him because he offers better intercession for you.

Hold fast because he is superior.

Nothing and no one will ever be able to do

what Jesus does.

Father, how we thank you for our priest,

that we have hope,

unbelievable hope,

because of the superiority of Jesus.

Oh God, help us, I pray, to rest in him.

Father, we in no way want to say we're not as bad as we are.

That's not the answer.

The answer is as bad as we are.

We have a priest who is superior and can draw

us near to you.

God, help us to lay hold of that by faith

and to look to Jesus and not ourselves and not anything else

and not anyone else, but Jesus alone.

Thank you in his name.