January 31, 2021 Worship Service
New and Improved: The Better Covenant • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 1:14:13
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A covenant can be defined as a formal arrangement between two or more parties by which they organize their relationship to each other. The marriage relationship, for example, is a covenant — a husband and wife make a commitment to each other that governs their relationship for the rest of their lives.
When we talk about the “new covenant” and the “old covenant” we are referring to 2 different agreements between God and mankind about the way in which God and man relate to each other. In our study of Hebrews we are learning that the new covenant that came into effect through Jesus Christ is better than the old covenant instituted through Moses. Last Sunday we examined the first argument the author offers to support that truth - that Jesus belongs to a better priesthood than the old covenant priesthood, and, therefore, the covenant he belongs to is better.
The portions of Hebrews 9 that I’ve read a moment ago develop a second argument in favor of the superiority of the new covenant Christ instituted. The new covenant is better than the old covenant because it has a better temple. The temple is the place where the priests carry out their ministries. And in this 9th chapter we have a contrast between the place where the old covenant priests perform their ministry and the place where Christ Jesus performs his ministry.
In thinking about the things we are told in the scriptures I’ve read today, it occured to me that two words capture the essence of what the author of Hebrews wrote — reason and result. He tells us why the temple Jesus ministers in is better (reason), and then helps us understand the difference the ministry in the better temple makes. So I’ve organized what I’ll say using the words “reasons” and “result.”
Reasons
Reasons
This chapter of Hebrews opens with a description of the physical layout of the tabernacle the Israelites set up during the Exodus from Egypt. We have a description of the two parts of the tent - the holy place where priests performed daily rituals, and the most holy place where the high priest alone went on the Day of Atonement to offer a blood sacrifice for the sins of the people. We also have a description of the furnishings that were in each part of the tabernacle. By this means the author of this letter helps us visualize the place where old covenant priests ministered.
In contrast, 9:24 identifies the place where Christ carries out his priestly ministry -- heaven.
The comparison, then, is between heaven and a tent put together carefully on earth. There are two reasons that the earthly tent where men ministered to the people of God is inferior to heaven where Christ ministers to the people of God:
1)The earthly tent is a copy of heaven.
1)The earthly tent is a copy of heaven.
(which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper,
The word translated “symbolic” in this verse is parabole from which we get the word “parable.” A parable is a story intended to illustrate some important point. The physical arrangement of the earthly tabernacle and the temples which followed is intended to illustrate something important. What do they illustrate? Look at vs 23-24:
Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
The holy places made with hands (i.e. the earthly tabernacle/temple) are copies of the heavenly things. The earthly tabernacle illustrates heaven. The reason it was so important for Moses to ensure that the tabernacle was constructed according to the specifications provided by God at Mt Sinai was because he would be illustrating heaven itself.
The fact that the earthly tabernacle was an illustration and copy of heaven makes it clear that heaven is more important in two ways:
By definition, what is copied exists before the copy that is made. It is impossible to produce a copy of something that doesn’t already exist. If I told you to go photocopy the notes of the Easter sermon I want to preach this year, you would ask me for a printout of those notes. And when I say to you, “I haven’t written them yet,” you would be right to be upset with me for telling you to do the impossible. You cannot copy what doesn’t already exist. So the earthly tabernacle, as a copy of heaven, shows that the place where Jesus has gone to minister as our high priest is greater because heaven existed before the tabernacle.
By definition, the value of a copy comes from its accuracy to what it is a copy of. A “good copy” is one that is a clear representation of what it depicts. If it isn’t accurate, it loses value. Since the purpose of the copy is to be true to the original, the copy can never be more valuable than the original. Its worth depends totally on the original.
Jesus performs his high priestly ministry in the original temple. He has not entered into the earthly copies, but into heaven itself. Acts 1 tells us that, forty days after his resurrection, Jesus ascended into heaven. I think a lot of people see that as little more than a magic act -- like the Las Vegas performers who make themselves vanish from the stage. What the author of Hebrews is telling us here is that the great High Priest has entered the only temple that really matters. We should have a much greater sense of wonder and joy about the ascension of Christ than exists in the church today. The High Priest has entered the real temple.
2)The earthly tent reveals its own inadequacy.
2)The earthly tent reveals its own inadequacy.
Verse 8 describes something crucial for us to understand:
By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing
I find the way the ESV translators handled this verse to be difficult. The Greek word which they have translated “opened” is one which means “to make visible, display, show, reveal, expose, etc. It is a word that has to do with the ability to see, whether that seeing is physically being able to see with the eyes, or intellectually being able to see by understanding a thing.
What this verse says is that the Holy Spirit, in providing the physical layout of the temple under the old covenant revealed that the way into the holy places is not revealed as long as we look at that physical layout. Part of the design was an obstructed view. The Most Holy place where the sacrifice of atonement was brought once a year was completely hidden from view behind a veil.
If we could turn the tabernacle into a person with the ability to speak, it would say to us, “Don’t look at what happens in this earthly tent and think you have the ultimate answer to your relationship with God. I’m just an illustration. And part of what I’m illustrating is that the way to the true Most Holy place can’t be seen here on earth. You must look somewhere else.”
Woven into the very fabric of the tabernacle, quite literally, was the message that the real solution to reconciliation between God and mankind would not be found through the rituals performed in the earthly representation of heaven, but in heaven itself. Someone had to go into heaven, into the true temple, so that man might be reconciled to God. And someone did:
For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
Results
Results
(which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.
These vss highlight the limitations of the performance of rituals by priests performed in an earthly temple:
They can only produce an outward display of holiness without affecting true, inward holiness.
They cannot perfect the conscience of the worshipper.
The reason that the earthly tabernacle is ineffective at what is most deeply needed is that it is on earth. The deep issues of the purification of the soul and the perfecting of the conscience of man must be attended to in heaven. The earthly temples are only representations of heaven, not heaven itself.
I want to take time to talk about the perfecting of the conscience. The conscience is the part of our inner being that alerts us to the fact that our relationship with God is broken. It provides the ability to distinguish between right and wrong and produces a negative, guilty emotion when we have done wrong and a positive, contented emotion when we have done right. The greatest need we have is for our conscience to be right before God. The defilement of our conscience is the root cause of all our other problems. A defiled conscience tells us that the most basic thing for which we were created has been broken. That produces fear and anxiety. We live our lives from a base of insecurity because we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We all have defiled consciences, whether we recognize it our not.
There are two ways of handling the defiled conscience: Deaden it or correct it. The deadening of the conscience is the default means of handling the feelings of guilt we have because of sin. Adam and Eve, immediately after disobeying God’s command, hid and covered themselves. It was the first attempt to deaden their consciences — to avoid the awareness that they had done wrong and were exposed to God in their sin. The tools we employ to deaden the conscience are almost beyond counting: self-justification, trying to compensate (good deeds to outweigh our sins), denial (“There’s nothing wrong with what I did), blaming (“It’s my parents fault that I am this way”). Alcoholism, drug addictions, pornography addiction are attempts to numb our minds to the reality of our defiled consciences. I’m convinced that many anxiety disorders are the result of the violation of our conscience and are a mechanism for avoiding the real issue — that we have defied God and broken the one thing that will give us peace.
During the 30+ years I have been a pastor I have been witness to a deadening of conscience in our culture and the evangelical church. We have become a people who cannot discern right from wrong. In general, we appeal to our feelings to define what is right. And within the evangelical church we have set up a couple of morality test to define right while ignoring sin in our lives. As long as we are opposed to abortion and can identify homosexual behaviors as sinful, we think just about anything else we do is right. Canada has become blind to sin and, I fear, Christians in Canada have become blind to sin in our lives.
The only other possibility for dealing with a defiled conscience is to correct it. And what our passage tells us is that there is no ritual that can be performed here on earth to correct the conscience. Nothing done on earth can correct the defiled conscience that each of us possesses.
That sounds bleak indeed, until we pay close attention to what this passage says about the better temple. Notice vs. 24:
For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
The place of Christ's priestly ministry is not on earth, but in heaven itself. He ministers on our behalf in the presence of God. Not in a place that represents God’s presence, but in his presence in heaven.
Then look at what vs. 12 says:
he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
He has secured an eternal redemption by entering the temple of heaven. Redemption from what? Well, in the context provided by vss. 9-10, redemption from the defilement of our conscience. We are stuck in this situation in which our heart tells us that we have disobeyed God. Our conscience is defiled. But no earthly ritual can perfect the conscience. We are trapped, held captive with all the problems that grow out of our guilt for sin.
But Christ died, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. He has appeared in the presence of God on our behalf and secured eternal redemption. Because of his ministry in the better temple, we are ransomed. Our guilt has been removed because he entered once for all the holy places by means of his own blood.
Do you see the hope that comes from having a high priest who has gone into the true temple in heaven? Through faith in him, there is an alternative to the deadening of our defiled consciences. It isn’t necessary to suppress and numb our negative reactions to the knowledge that we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. It is possible to acknowledge our sin to God and be set free from guilt and shame because Christ has gone into heaven, and paid the price of our redemption for God to declare that our guilt is removed -- not deadened, but removed. And because that has happened in the presence of God on our behalf, we can have a clear conscience.
Oh what a precious gift it is to have a conscience that does not condemn us. This is what you and I need more than anything else.
If there is guilt in your soul today, bring it to Christ to correct. Confess your wrongdoing to Christ. You won’t surprise him with it. He already knows all about it. Jesus, and Jesus alone, can provide what you need most. He is the only priest who has gone into heaven. He alone appears in the presence of God on our behalf. He alone secures eternal redemption. It is not necessary to suffer under the burden of guilt and shame. Come to Christ and be set free. Amen.