Not A Copy

Please stand in honor of God's word. I'll be reading from Exodus chapter 25

Beginning in verse 31 You shall make a lampstand of pure gold the lampstand shall be made of hammered

Work its base its stem its cups its calyxes and its flowers shall be of one piece with it

And there shall be six branches going out of its sides three branches of the lampstand out of one side

Out of one side of it and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side of it Three cups made like almond blossoms each with calyx and flower on One branch and three cups made like an almond blossom each with calyx and flower on the other branch

So for the six branches going out of the lampstand and on the lampstand itself there shall be four cups made like almond blossoms with their calyxes and flowers and The calyx of one piece with it under each pair of the six branches going out from the lampstand

Their calyxes and their branches shall be of one piece with it and the whole of it a single piece of hammered work of pure gold

You shall make seven lamps for it and the lamp shall be set up so as to give light on the space in front of It its tongs and their trays shall be a pure gold it shall be made with all these utensils out of a talent of pure gold and See that you make them after the pattern for them which is being shown to you on the mountain

The New Testament reading is found on Acts 7 44 through 50 page 915 and The pew

Bible. This is the

Word of our God our fathers Had the tent of witness in the wilderness

Just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern that he had seen our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they

Dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our father So it was until the days of David who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the

God of Jacob But it was Solomon who built a house for him yet The Most High does not dwell in house made by hands as the

Prophet says Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool What kind of house will you build for me says the

Lord or what is the place of my rest? Then did not my hand make all these things you may be seated take your

Bibles Let's return to the book of Hebrews chapter 8

Hebrews chapter 8 Our text for this morning is found in verses 1 through 6

You follow as I read 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 a copy and 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 you on the mountain

But as it is Christ has obtained a ministry That is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant.

He mediates is better Since it is enacted on better promises

Let's pray Lord God as We do every Lord's Day when we open your word

We ask we must ask That you would open the eyes of our hearts

To the truth of this text that your spirit would make it come alive for us in our hearts

That you would challenge us that you would help us Give us understanding not so we know more but give us understandings that we serve you better and that we rely on you and your son more and To that end

Lord. We ask that you help us Amen, I was walking down the street in the city of Tirana Albania some years ago and I saw a fast -food place that had these broad bright red and white stripes, and I thought

Wow Kentucky fried chicken and as I got there, I saw this fast -food place called

Albanian fried chicken Okay, walk down the street a little bit more and came to an

Apple Store Which Looked like an

Apple Store But it really wasn't an Apple Store and was selling products that looked like Apple products but they were not a

Couple of days later. I was in another city and I saw the golden arches But they were not

McDonald's now in Albania You can copy things

Without getting into any legal trouble and so they did there was all kinds of copies of things that I was familiar with all over that country

But they're not as good as the original you know what that McDonald's Was a disappointment.

It just wasn't the real thing now in our text this morning as We've just read we're going to see how important the original is and how this all relates

To Jesus now our writer directs our attention once more to Jesus our high priest

Remember God wants you to embrace Jesus as your greatest and your only

Hope and like the people back then We have a tendency we contend to drift away and even

Abandon Jesus if we're not careful But Jesus is vastly superior to anyone or anything that claims to have the answers for us to things like guilt and shame and how to truly relate to God Again he wants you to find your only hope in Jesus who is as we have seen throughout this book the final the best the superior high priest

Now as we come to chapter 8 we begin another section of this book another argument of this book

We've come up to this place so far now in chapter 8 verse 1 all the way to chapter 10 verse 31

He engages us in another Discussion and in this section our writer will discuss three important ideas covenant sacrifice

Sanctuary, those are the three things are going to occupy his Eyes occupy our attention for the next few chapters and Even in these verses he touches on them ever so lightly

But in a way that points us to Jesus He brings these ideas to the fore in order to move us to a steadfast hope in Jesus Now again,

I can't say this enough this book is

Intended to move you to a steadfast hope a steadfast faith in one person and that's

Jesus That you don't go looking anywhere else but to Jesus Now in our text you are told first of all put your hope in The heavenly high priest verses 1 & 2 and then put your hope in the ultimate high priest verses 3 through 5 and Finally put your hope in the superior high priest verse 6

Put your hope in the heavenly high priest He tells us in verses 1 & 2 now the point in with 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 The writer begins here by saying here's the main point.

Here's what I want you to grasp. We have Such a high priest the high priest

He says I've just described and as we've looked at in chapter 7 The one who brings a better order the one who has a better qualifications the one who offers a better hope who has a better oath who offers better intercession and Finally who is perfectly suited to meet our needs

We have that high priest That's the one we have and that's the one whose benefits we enjoy

But he goes on to say that's not all this high priest sits on the right hand of the

Majesty in heaven He is seated at the right hand of God himself Not only do we have such a high priest as the one

I've described for you Though all these wonderful things these qualities that belong to him. Not only do we have such a high priest but He is seated at the right hand of God himself

He is the promised priest to whom God said in Psalm 110 Remember, we've been mining the depths of Psalm 110

It is in Psalm 110 that God promised this one that he must sit at his right hand

This is the priest King who rules from heaven This is the priest King who transcends all earthly corruptions and limitations

This is the priest King who exercises transcendent power. This is the priest

King that we have And not only that he says not only is he ascended to God, but look where he serves

He serves there look where he serves now oftentimes we Gauge the effectiveness or importance of a ministry by where one ministers

Someone says Tim Passaman ministers in the room and another says love what? Another person says

Tim Keller ministers on Manhattan in New York City Everybody's going wow, that's impressive now whether or not we're right or wrong.

Normally we're wrong in Evaluating ministries that way whether we're right or wrong in that what we see here is

Jesus this high priest Ministers in the holy place that is the very sanctuary of God where he ministers really tells us that it's an important ministry

He is in the very sanctuary of God. He is in the place where God himself dwells

That is to say he's in the sanctuary That is the true tabernacle the one set up by the

Lord not one built with human hands Now, please understand all of heaven is not constructed like the tabernacle if we as a congregation today could ascend to heaven

We wouldn't find a bunch of people milling around in an outward court with a giant labor and a giant altar and we wouldn't walk into the holy place and then walk in one more step into the holy of holies to find a

Ha there's God He's not saying that rather this is the sanctuary the dwelling place that God himself constructed

This is his heavenly dwelling place. This is the very sanctuary of God Now you remember that God made his presence known at the tabernacle in the

Old Testament and he made his presence known By that great Shekinah cloud Resting on the tabernacle go back and read the stories.

Here is this great pod You remember the cloud of fire? the pillar of fire and the cloud cloud and day

Fire at night that would lead the people whenever they had to travel that would lead them Where he

God wanted to take him when they stopped and they erected the tabernacle that great cloud Settled on the tabernacle and if you would if you had the ability which you couldn't but once a year if you could go in To the very holy of holies you would see the brilliance of God's glory

There in the holy of holies it was to represent God's dwelling place among men

All right But that tabernacle was derived it was built by men

It was a derived tabernacle. It was a temporary residence for God This isn't where he permanently resided

It was a temporary residence and it could never rival God's heavenly dwelling place in fact

When the temple was built the next thing that did rival the glory of the tabernacle when the temple was built

You remember Solomon said at its dedication ceremony as he prayed, but will God indeed dwell on the earth?

But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you how much less this house that I have built

So we're talking about this this heavenly dwelling that nothing could rival this earthly dwelling

This tabernacle shared the defilement of its builders and had to be cleansed

With the blood of animals, it was subject to decay like all the other

Pieces that that exist in creation, but the sanctuary in which

Jesus serves Is eternal, incorruptible, undefiled

Dwelling place of God. That's where he serves

No longer No longer in a derived temporary defiled decaying

Sanctuary he doesn't serve there. He serves in the eternal undefiled

Incorruptible dwelling place of God where God Has always been in where God is and so our high priest serves us in the very presence of God He is our heavenly high priest.

Don't miss what he's saying here. He is our heavenly high priest He represents you in the very presence of God face to face with this eternal

Universal King he transcends all Limitations and all corruptions that you find on earth and this priest can never fail to have

God's Attention because he's in the sanctuary where God dwells. This is where your priest serves

He's a heavenly high priest put your hope in this heavenly high priest No longer in the priests that serve in in this derived corruptible tabernacle

But in the priest who is actually in the very presence of God who serves in this heavenly sanctuary put your hope in him

Put your hope in him not in earthly things But in this one that serves in the heavens

He goes on to say to put your hope in the ultimate high priest verses 3 through 5

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 a copy and 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 you

On the mountain put your hope he says now in the ultimate high priest

Since Jesus has been appointed. He says to the office of priests He serves a particular function and that function is to offer gifts and sacrifices gifts for worship sacrifices for atonement

Here is the duty the essence the function of any priest to bring you access to God To bring you access to God and because Jesus has been appointed to be a priest

He has to serve the same function as all other priests and that is He has to offer sacrifice in order to give you access to God He has to serve the function of just like any other priest since he is a priest.

That's what priests do That's what he does or did But he says in verse 4 he cannot serve that function in the same way as other priests

He can't serve it in the same way as other priests if he were on earth. He would be subject to the

Levitical law that law had genealogical requirements remember and Jesus could never meet them a

Descendant someone who's descended from Judah could not do the work of a priest because he was not descended from the tribe of Levi So if you're on earth

He'd be subject to the Levitical law the the law that they used to offer the sacrifices and he wouldn't be able to do that Only those descendants of Levi could offer the sacrifices

Judah's descendants were not allowed to offer sacrifices on the altar or Sprinkle the blood on the

Ark of the Covenant on the Day of Atonement Only the Levites only the high priest coming from Levi could do that But remember that he is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek He has been he is an exalted priest at God's right hand who's been appointed a priest on Entirely different grounds.

This is one because of his qualifications who serves here and not here

If he served here, he wouldn't meet them. But he is one. He is the Melchizedek Ian priest who's been

Exalted and he serves here and his requirements are different His qualifications are different.

Remember what they are better oath, right an indestructible life All these things that we've noticed this is what equips him to be our priest

He is God's promised heavenly priest. And so he's not subject to the law of other priests

Now if he would serve on earth, he could not be a priest at all, but he doesn't

He doesn't not only that But he could not serve as a priest on earth because earthly priests serve in a replica of the true sanctuary

He would have to serve then in a replica of the true sanctuary not in the real sanctuary now several years ago

Remember I was a little church down in Asheville, North Carolina Would ask me

I think asked me about three or four times to come out and do come down and do a Bible conference for them and and There was a guy in the congregation.

His name was Werner. He was from Germany But Werner worked at the

Biltmore mansion near near Asheville and so the

Biltmore mansion was this incredible place that the Vanderbilts owned and It had times.

I mean just incredible acreage all around it. It was almost like a Castle with all its

All the people serving it and Werner worked there and so we have we're on a tour of the grounds and we came to this one particularly luxurious part of the

Of the grounds and there was a White House They had been filming a movie there and they thought these grounds kind of looked like DC And so they erected a replica of the

White House on these grounds. So there was the White House It's probably made out of plywood if that Right.

It was just made for this movie. It was a replica, but I'll tell you what We would never think of bringing the commander and the chief the commander -in -chief

Or the President of the United States to that replica in order to carry out the duties of his office.

He's in the real deal He's not gonna come and do it in the replica And so it is that Jesus could not should not or would not serve in a replica of the heavenly places

He serves in the real deal He's in the original Not the replica and notice the words to describe this

Tabernacle the tabernacle that we read about in the Old Testament This applies as well to the temple in which he says there but copy a copy and a shadow of the heavenly things and that Moses had to follow a pattern

Okay a pattern that was shown him on the mountain and and he quotes in fact

Ezekiel, I'm sorry Exodus chapter 25 verse 40 Where where we read how?

God says build it like I tell you because I show you the pattern now you need to do it So it's a copy.

It's a shadow. It's a pattern of the true heavenly things So the writer quotes those instructions that God gave

Moses. He was to build a replica of the heavenly realities What does that say what does

God reveal to us then about that Earthly sanctuary. This is a copy.

This is a shadow of the original Okay from the very beginning

From the very beginning of its construction. It's obvious that the tabernacle signified a greater reality from the very beginning by God saying

You got to make this after a pattern that I'm going to show you It became clear that that signified a greater reality.

It was intended to be temporary It was intended to be in place for only a limited time in salvation history

God intended it to be a Pointer a pointer to a greater reality the greater reality of the heavenly sanctuary so then

Jesus is the ultimate high priest Since he serves in the ultimate sanctuary

He serves in the ultimate sanctuary Why? Listen, why abandon your hope in Jesus for a hope in the shadow in the copy in the temporary?

That's the point Let me ask you. What sort of temporary hopes do you have?

Where do you place? your hopes Think about that We're doing this all the time.

We have to be caught up short We're putting we all have temporary hopes. We're all

Staking our happiness on certain things. I'm staking my happiness on the way people treat me. I'm staking my happiness on my reputation

I'm staking my happiness on whether I I gained so much money or resources or pleasure

We have temporary hopes. This is our only permanent one This is the ultimate high priest only he can give us the things that we

That we tend to desire and not to give him he doesn't serve us by giving the things we want

But he gives us the permanent sorts of things that God intends for us Here's the last thing he says in verse 6 put your hope in this superior high priest verse 6 but as it is

Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more Excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better since it is enacted on better promises

Put your hope in the superior high priest now Jesus serving in the real original Sanctuary as the heavenly and the ultimate high priest has obtained a more excellent ministry

Than that than there ever was before than that of the old covenant You can say that the ministry of Jesus has excelled anything proposed for you today

He is a superior high priest because of this most excellent ministry

He obtained it because he mediates a new covenant now Moses was the mediator of that old covenant under which

Israel lived and If you're here in Sunday school today We talked a little bit about that and we saw if you want to look at it

It's in Exodus 24 we saw how Moses assembled the people how he read the book of the covenant to those people and then he offered a

Sacrifice to ratify it and he took the blood and he sprinkled it on the people which brought that Covenant into force.

This is now the rule of life for them This is now there if you will

Constitution it constitutes them as the people of God and what's expected of them

But Jesus revealed a new covenant to God's people He shed his blood to ratify that covenant and we have been

Sprinkled with that blood to bring us under that new covenant to bring that covenant into force

You remember Peter in Pete and 1st Peter chapter 1 identifies us as God's elect according to the foreknowledge of God the

Father in the sanctification of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for Sprinkling with his blood we have all been sprinkled with the blood of Christ and that Thus he has brought into being he has brought into force

He has brought us into a new covenant now. We're inclined to think that new always means better Frankly, if you get old like me you get kind of tired of that Young people being better.

We we live in a culture that tells us new always means better Okay, if I were to go out regardless of what you think of Honda's, okay

Regardless of what you think of Honda's, I would go out and buy a brand new Honda Accord, I think

I Would probably be thinking this is a better car than my 2005

Toyota Corolla, it's almost blasphemy in this congregation.

I know But you get the point Right. It's brand new. It's better But the covenant that Jesus mediates is not better just because it's new

New doesn't always mean better New doesn't always mean better New sometimes means worse

But it's not better just because it's new it's better because it's been enacted on Better promises than that old one.

There are better promises in this one Now our writer is going to go into detail about those better promises in the rest of the chapter to which we will return

The rest of the chapter we will look at that next but for now you have to see the foolishness of Hoping in anyone or anything else because this priest is superior on account of the superior covenant that he mediates

The very rule of life that we live under is better than that old covenant

It's better Suppose you lived in a country Where only particular members of a certain tribe could be citizens?

where only one religion was allowed to be practiced and You had to just obey the decrees of the royal family

Suppose there was a revolution and there was a new Constitution put into place a Constitution that said if you live within these borders, you're a citizen and You can have you can worship as you want we're not going to force you to worship in a particular way and All your laws have to be passed by an elected assembly.

Would you consider that a superior Constitution? Yeah, we would consider that a better one why would you want to go back to the old one then?

Why would you possibly what could possibly move you to go back to the old one? And so it is don't go back to the old ways

You have a superior priest because he is his priesthoods enacted on a superior covenant

Now none of you here are tempted to go back under the old covenant that once governed Israel I mean,

I can't help but imagine some of you gonna have pork barbecue this afternoon Or tonight because this afternoon we'll all be over there.

I don't know what we're having but You know what you want to go under an old covenant where you can't go to city barbecue anymore

Right. I'm gonna go back under a covenant You know, we're after you give birth to a child

You got to stay away from everybody for so many days. You want to go back under that covenant?

You want to go back under a covenant where someone? You bring you know Where the

Parkers would bring one of their goats over and you'd slit its throat and put it on an altar and burn it

Right. Is that what you want to go back to you said? No, none of us are tempted to go back to that But listen, you are tempted to go back to the old ways and if you're not careful those old ways

Especially when going back to the old ways is going to cost you less than following Jesus those old ways of the flesh and the world entice you and say

Why are you going to stand for righteousness when everybody else around you your friends in?

high school your friends where you are think that you are a narrow -minded harsh bigot

Because you don't believe that if a girl says she wants to be a boy she shouldn't become a boy

She shouldn't even try What kind of a person are you and the temptation is going to be to abandon this superior?

High priest to go back to those old ways because it costs too much to give my allegiance

To one who's given me something better But it's gonna cost me

This is a superior high priest because he has a covenant that's so much better It's better than those old ways that are enticing you back.

It's better than those ways There is nothing left for you in the old ways

There is nothing there that will deal with your shame. There's nothing there that will deal with your guilt

There's nothing there that will help you relate to God There's nothing there. Why do you want to give up that?

For those old ways don't go back put your hope in this superior high priest because his

Covenant still has better promises than anything else that beckons you with its promises from the old way

And so here is Jesus Once more he brings us to focus on Jesus and he says here is

Jesus the heavenly high priest Representing you in the sanctuary of God here is

Jesus the ultimate high priest who offers for you the perfect sacrifice here is the superior high priest who

Enacts a new covenant some of you here Your believers and you know what honestly some of you here

Some of you today may be here. You're a believer, but man, you're in a wrestling match right now

You're in a wrestling match that says oh Those old ways they look good

They look good and and there's something about it. There's something about where you are in life. There's something about your experience

There's something going on where you're toying with the idea of Thinking I don't know if this is worth it.

Listen Listen to me There's no hope There is no hope in any other way

There's no hope in any other way Jesus is your greatest and your only hope in all of life

Some of you here Some of you here may not buy any of it. Just saying.

Yeah, you know pastor team you talk about Jesus and I come and I listen and you know, it's

Sometimes it's interesting. I Need to Jesus listen

There is no hope for you without him none None, you may be sitting here

Thinking when is this guy gonna be over? I want to I want to beg you to listen to me

There is no hope in this world without this priest

Count on Count on it because God says

He's your greatest and your only hope let's pray father

Father you know every heart here and there are people on the spectrum from I don't buy any of it

I'm totally committed to this Jesus God wherever Wherever hearts are on that spectrum.

I beg you to work in those hearts give those hearts something to think about Give those hearts something to glory in something to hope in The very least something to seriously consider

So God move in the hearts that are here today in the way that seems best to you

We're asking you to move in hearts. So every heart here will say

Jesus is My greatest and my only hope

Granted we pray for your glory and the good of your people In the name of our high priest