HEBREWS 9: A NEW AND BETTER COVENANT // INTRO Let’s start this morning with a recap of the 8 chapters of Hebrews we’ve covered so far: We started with the Supremacy of Jesus Christ over and above all things The text explicitly tells us that “Long ago, at many times and 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 also he created the world.” Therefore, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, we who share in a heavenly calling, ought to consider Jesus, The Apostle and High Priest of our confession Those of us who have believed on Him have entered into His rest And at the end of the day, though Moses was used by God, and the Jews still venerate him, the fact is that Jesus is greater than Moses! And we read that every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God We call them intermediaries So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed as an intermediary by Him who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you” And he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek” So the text tells us to leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity for God’s Word is not for the faint of heart Take Abraham for example! After having patiently waited, only then did he obtained the promise, just as we wait now to be with Jesus, obtaining that Promise of rest!!! So we have this as a sure and steadfast anchor for our souls And we read that Jesus learned obedience by what He suffered But Jesus was greater than Aaron, because He was the perfect Son of God And He became the Author of salvation for all who put their faith in Him Looking back, every High priest in the Old system was appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices They served a copy and shadow of the heavenly things For this was the covenant that God made with the house of Israel after those days, by a declaration from the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people For 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 So for all of you who have hope and faith in Christ Jesus, hold fast to what you have until He comes! And with that, Let’s go to the text! // TEXT & EXPOSITION Hebrews 9 [1] Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. [2] For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. Regulations are something that we generally disdain as a culture, but I think that is because we don’t know (or care to know) what those regulations are for, or why they were put in place When I hear the word “regulations” I immediately think about the military (though i was never in the military) But the dictionary gives us 3 definitions for the word: The act of regulating or the state of being regulated A principle, rule, or law designed to control or govern conduct A governmental order having the force of law And these regulations were placed in that first covenant by God, but why? And the answer is that Man had already sinned and brought the Curse of God upon the earth, and the intent of that first covenant was to offer a way for people to come to relationship with God through that first Covenant But it was a covenant of works There were things that the individual had to do in order to stay in right standing before God What I’m saying is that there ONE right way to approach God in that covenant, and all other ways of coming to God were forbidden And the penalty for disobedience or not keeping that covenant was death Numbers 35 is about the institution of cities of refuge for those who committed manslaughter Verses 30-31 read, “If anyone kills a person, the murderer shall by put to death at the evidence of witnesses, but no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness. Moreover, you shall not take ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death.” Isaiah 28:18 says, “Your covenant with death will be annulled; your agreement with the realm of the dead will not stand. When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by, you will be beaten down by it.” All of that to say that covenant was an untenable covenant from the perspective of God’s people, and He set it up that way on purpose It was a stacked deck from the beginning And someone will ask, “Why was it a stacked deck against the people of God?” And the answer is that God had a better covenant in mind What we now call the Old Covenant was a covenant of works - something the individual had to DO in order to stay in His good graces And this was always God’s plan for salvation The Lord set it up so that the first Covenant to the Jewish people was impossible to keep, though they kept trying (and still largely try today) It was a covenant that spoke the letter of the Law, the minutiae of the text, and everything had to be done right, with no mistakes But because the Jewish people of that day insisted that they were able to keep that covenant, God let them try, and it failed Sometimes we only learn the hard lessons by failing! Praise God for allowing us to learn from others instead of having to always make our own mistakes! [3] Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, [4] 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, and Aaron’s staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. [5] Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail. When the High Priest entered into the Tabernacle, there was a second curtain behind which was The Holy Place That room known as the Holy of Holies It was the innermost and most sacred area of the ancient tabernacle of Moses, and later in the Temple of Jerusalem The Holy of Holies was constructed as a perfect cube, and it contained only the Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of Israel’s special relationship with God It was only accessible to the Israelite high priest, and only once a year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement The High priest was permitted to enter the small, windowless enclosure to burn incense and sprinkle the blood of a sacrificial animal on the mercy seat of the Ark on behalf of the people In doing so, the High Priest was atoning for his own sins and those of the people The Holy of Holies was separated from the rest of the tabernacle/temple by the veil, a huge, heavy drape made of fine linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn and embroidered with gold cherubim The Lord God Himself said that He would appear in the Holy of Holies (Leviticus 16:2), and hence, the need for the veil, because if you looked upon God, you would immediately be dead Therefore, this is the reason why that barrier existed between man and God The holiness of God could not be accessed by just anyone, but only by the High Priest, and only once a year, after He Himself had gone through preparations and rituals Habakkuk 1:13 says that “God’s eyes are too pure to look on evil” He cannot tolerate any sin at all So the veil and the elaborate rituals performed by the Priest were a reminder that man was not free to approach God any old time for any old thing! To come carelessly or irreverently into God’s awesome presence would be the last moment that you breathed air And again, even the Priest had to wash himself, put on special clothing, bring burning incense to let the smoke cover his eyes from a direct view of God, and bring sacrificial blood with him to make atonement for sins (and we find that in Exodus 28) [6] These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, [7] but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. Think of all that went into this elaborate setting and careful ceremony The priests enter in and begin their duties and rituals and prayers on behalf of the nation of Israel But it is only the High Priest who second section of the Tabernacle And He is required to bring with him the blood of bulls and goats He has come to intercede for the people of Israel, but before he can do that, he must make a sacrifice for himself! There is also enough blood for the priest to make atonement for all of those unintentional sins of the Jewish nation Wow! Think about that! That’s why we need grace so deeply! His holiness is really scary and a little off-putting You and I have never dealt with a person on earth that was as holy as that! When you think about it, it’s actually pretty overwhelming It’s all got to be done just right, staying within the boundaries Leviticus 4:2–3 notes this example: “When anyone sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord’s commands—If the anointed priest sins, bringing guilt on the people, he must bring to the Lord a young bull without defect as a sin offering for the sin he has committed.” The book of Leviticus requires different offerings based on whether a sin was intentional or unintentional However, there was no offering available for when a person sinned intentionally Numbers 15:30–31 states, “Anyone who sins defiantly, whether native-born or foreigner, blasphemes the Lord and must be cut off from the people of Israel. Because they have despised the Lord’s word and broken his commands, they must surely be cut off; their guilt remains on them.” Those who rebelled in committing intentional sin were to be cut off or separated from the people I hope you are getting a heavy does of how heavy the Old Covenant was, and why being under the New Covenant is significantly better We have much to be thankful for as recipients of the New Covenant [8] 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 [9] (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, [10] but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation. At the time of the writing of Hebrews, this was true But now, it is not the case When Jesus came into the world, He split time, and in that former time or dispensation, it was true that the offerings of men, the blood of animals, were all insufficient to open the way to God But the point of v8-10 is stated quite plainly! Gifts and sacrifices were always finite and unable to perfect those who were coming with their offerings This is because the sacrifices only offered temporary respite In other words, it had to be done again and again with no end in sight Can you imaging being back in that system and over the course of your life have to keep coming back and back again to the Tabernacle? And then later the Temple? And into this repetitive cycle, the Son of God steps in to make a change! [11] But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) [12] 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. The veil was near the very center of the tabernacle It was was made of finely twisted linen according to Exodus 26:31 The curtains were violet or a darker purple And just for fun, I added this factoid: this color required 12,000 murex snails to only 1.4 grams of pure purple dye I don’t know if they crushed the snails or milked them, or what?!?! But the color was known for its association with both divinity and royalty in the ancient Near East, which reinforces for us the idea that Yahweh was both the sacred deity and the King enthroned in the midst of Israel within the tabernacle! So then the use of royal colors and materials should come as no surprise The height of the significance of the Holy of Holies when it comes to Christians is found in the events surrounding the crucifixion of Christ When Jesus died on the Cross, an amazing thing happened “When Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” (Matthew 27:50-51a) The veil was not torn in half by any human hand It was a supernatural event done by the power of God, and He was making a very specific point The point of all of this is that HE has done it HE has accomplished this Not us. Not in any way shape or form We are beneficiaries of what He has accomplished for us We have not added any good to that situation, as it was our sin that held Him to that cross We are not saved by the blood of bulls and goats - and neither were the Jews of old It was a temporary covering to buy time It was to show the world that we cannot WORK our way into God’s good grace! No one has, and no one ever will, except Jesus Christ, the saving One! [13] For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, [14] how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Those offerings were temporary They were a stop-gap in order that the Lord might continue to have a people set apart for His own purposes in the world No amount of bulls and goats could ever atone for our sins And this is precisely what God set it up this way We learn best in doing Human beings capture and store lessons that involve doing, not just knowing This is especially true with younger children But God was showing the Jewish nation (and us later) that the offerings and blood of animals could never fully cover or atone for sin All of the sacrifices under that system were TEMPORARY They were a stop-gap! And ultimately, God was showing humanity the inadequacies of that system Think about it! Why would God need the blood of animals (who don’t sin, but are given over to their impulses) to cover over the sins of people? This was all pointing ahead to what was to come This was all foreshadowing Jesus What had been a repetitious offering year after year would eventually come to an end, and that final sacrifice would be of such a nature that it would become the covering over sin once and for all (for those who believe)! So let us leave dead works, and the text admonishes us, and go on to better things! [15] Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. Jesus is our Mediator, and here’s what that means: A mediator is one who acts to work with opposing sides in order to bring about a settlement or agreement That person attempts to influence the outcome of a disagreement between two parties The goal is to resolve a dispute And the Bible tells us that there is only one Mediator between mankind and God, and that is the Man, Jesus Christ God has a dispute with humanity (due to sin), and this is why Jesus is our mediator, and we would be foolish and doomed if we tried to represent ourselves before God This is all because of sin, which is described in the Bible as transgression of the Law of God Sin stands between all of us and God God hates sin, and when He looks on us, He sees that, “There is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10). All humans are sinners by nature We have an internal proclivity towards sin, and only in Christ Jesus can we battle that proclivity and overcome sin And there is only ONE just penalty for sin, and that is death according to Romans 6:23 (the wages - what we earn because of our sin, always ends in death, both physical death and spiritual death which means being in Hell forever as a just punishment) Nothing we could do on our own would be sufficient to mediate between ourselves and God No amount of good works or keeping God’s Law could make us righteous enough to stand before a holy God And if you want to dig into those, I’d suggest Isaiah 64:6, Romans 3:20, and Galatians 2:16 But without a mediator, we would be destined to spend eternity in hell By ourselves, and in our own effort, salvation from our sin is impossible But still there is hope! (and this hope should be shouted from the rooftops!) “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5) So Jesus is the Representative for those who have placed their trust in Him before God’s throne of grace Thus, He mediates for us, much as a defense attorney mediates for his client, telling the Judge, “Your honor, my client is innocent of all charges against him.” That applies for us also! Some day we will stand before the Lord and face Him, but we will do so as totally forgiven sinners because of Jesus’ death on our behalf The “Defense Attorney” took the penalty for us! [16] For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. [17] For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. This is pretty basic, as many of us have dealt with the passing of loved ones and what was left in a will But what the text is saying is that there is no need for an Executor if the individual has not died An executor of estate (also called “executor of the will”) only steps in and takes over the management of a person's assets after they die But in Jesus’ case, He rose to life again! HE IS RISEN! (He is risen indeed!) If you go back to Matthew 26:28, here’s what Jesus said that fateful night: “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Paul repeats this in 1 Corinthians 11:25: “In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”” And this is perfectly in keeping with all that the Old Covenant as it is laid out The late Chuck Missler used to always say that, “The NEW Covenant is in the OLD Covenant concealed, but the OLD Covenant is in the NEW Covenant revealed” So, if you place your finger in your Bible at Genesis 12, and place another finger at Acts Chapter 2, what you have between those two fingers is all about Israel! And God made certain covenants with national Israel And many people are shocked to discover that all our rights and privileges, even as a Church, derive from these covenants So we need both the doctrinal understanding AND the devotional understanding as well, when it comes to the Word of God We need to give ourselves fully to understanding these irrevocable commitments that have been made by God [18] Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. [19] For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, [20] saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.” [21] And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. [22] Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. The main theme here is purification! With the Lord, all must be clean and pure And as we’ve been seeing, under the Old Covenant that was accomplished by and through the blood of animals that were sacrificed unto the Lord But in our New Covenant context, we don’t approach God in that way any longer There is no more Tabernacle Currently, there is no Temple in Jerusalem (though that’s going to change quite rapidly in the near future! Whether we’re here to see it remains to be seen!) But the text is pointing us to the fact that we have a better covenant, not one predicated on continual blood offerings, but one that has been done once and for all on our behalf All one needs to do is to become clear before the Lord is to put one’s faith solely and fully in Jesus and His finished work on our behalf So our cleaning is not with the blood of bulls and goats, but by the precious atoning blood of the Lamb of God, who offered Himself as the ultimate sacrifice, being pure, righteous, and without blemish! And that sacrifice is efficacious That means that it can be applied to ANYONE who comes to Christ desiring salvation! All the individual need to is put his or her faith in Christ as the ONE who has done it all on our behalf It is by faith alone through grace alone! [23] 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. [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 text is telling us that even the man-made copies of these things in the Tabernacle on earth had to be purified, so that they may be used accordingly by the men who were Priests We’re going to see those things in Heaven, but we’re going to need new eyes to see them (along with new, glorified bodies!) But going back to the OLD Covenant, there was and still is something greater! The failure of the Jewish nation is largely in not being able to see that those paradigms were temporary Their eyes are largely blind because all they can see is Moses and that Old Covenant But that covenant wasn’t meant to be the paradigm between God and Man forever That covenant was fading already, even in the time of Mose Only that which is in Heaven lasts forever And this is why Jesus Christ went to the cross of Golgotha, was stripped, beaten, and murdered He took all of that pain and suffering that belonged to us and because of us and our sin, and bore it Calvary so that all our sins would be expunged from our record forever! Jesus was the Paschal Lamb - the sacrificial lamb of God He was and is our Great High Priest forever! [25] Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, [26] for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. So this was not, nor is not an annual cleansing as was done under the Old Covenant This is something different It’s a once-for-all covering, not made through the blood of animals, but by the precious blood of the Son of God himself! But this was not FOR Himself - He’s perfect in every way as the Son of God in the Heavens This was FOR humanity, and any human being can apprehend and embrace this sacrifice of the New Covenant, and be made clean before God And as for “works” in this covenant? Well, they are simply the overflow of all that the Lord has done for us and given to us It reminds me of the lyrics of one of my favorite Christian songs from the last few years Oh, I've heard a thousand stories of what they think You're like But I've heard the tender whisper of love in the dead of night And You tell me that You're pleased, and that I'm never alone You’re a good, good Father - it's who you are And I’m loved by You - it’s who I am You are perfect in all of your ways to us, O Lord! Jesus said, “It is finished - It is done!” He has accomplished it for us And now we stand under the blood, as recipients of God’s incredible grace [27] And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, [28] so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. As for death, it comes for us all! Death is a release from the finitude that we all experience, and what awaits all people is either everlasting life and peace OR everlasting torment and death This is because Jesus is eternal and everlasting Both His rewards and His punishments go on forevermore And I know I beat this drum all the time (too often for some of you) but this life is all some have, because what awaits them is Hell, and then after the 1000 year reign of Messiah on earth, Hades/Gehenna will be emptied into the Lake of Fire forever and ever Born Once - Die Twice OR Die Once - Borntwice "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our lord." (Romans 6:23) Usually, when we talk about death, we’re talking about "physical death" This is the death we usually mean by that term The Bible points out that the physical body is dead when the spirit separates from it according to James 2:26 If that soul never put his or her faith in Jesus, that one will experience the second death, which is Hell forever But there’s another option If you are Born Twice then you will only Die Once When one is reborn in the Spirit, they have 2 births - the natural and the supernatural "Jesus answered and said unto him, 'Truly, truly I say unto you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God... unless one is born of the water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (John 3:3,5) The way to avoid the Second Death is to be a partaker in the Second Birth! And folks, I know that over the years here at ER, I have beat that drum to the point of making some frustrated enough to leave our fellowship But hear me, please! If this is not the call of Jesus, then feel free to tell me to shut up about evangelizing the lost In fact, you’d be doing us all a favor BUT…if this is actually part of the Great Commission which our Lord instituted and has called every Believer in Christ to engage in, then we need to reevaluate what we’re doing, and engage with our Lord’s agenda And I’ll say no more about it….today… // APPLICATION God knew what He had in mind He had already planned a NEW Covenant which was going to be far surpassing when considering the Old So as we wrap up, I want to just share some OT prophecy - 2 sections from Zechariah Zechariah 12:8–9 [8] On that day the LORD will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the LORD, going before them. [9] And on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. Zechariah 13:7–9 [7] “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me,” declares the LORD of hosts. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; I will turn my hand against the little ones. [8] In the whole land, declares the LORD, two thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left alive. [9] And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’” And now I’ll tell you what I think this means I believe that all of the Jews who live through prophetic OT chapters we just read, will come to faith in Jesus our Messiah - Yeshua haMashiach And though it’s out of order in the Biblical text, I really want to emphasize the chapter previous to what we just read: Zechariah 12:10 [10] “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. This was and is one of God’s promises At some point in the future (near future, the way things are looking now), the Church is going to be Harpazo’d / Raptured and Israel will be in the fight of her life Pray for the peace of Jerusalem Pray that your neighbors might come to faith And be willing to let the Lord use you in these last days as He directs Be malleable Be moldable Be willing Let the Holy Spirit use you as HE directs and sees fit! This is the calling of God in Christ Jesus! I want to wrap up with this as we finish this morning… There is a Fountain ( just stanzas 2 & 4) Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood Shall never lose its pow’r, Till all the ransomed church of God Are saved to sin no more: Are saved to sin no more, Till all the ransomed church of God Are saved to sin no more. When this poor, lisping, stammering tongue Lies silent in the grave, Then in a nobler, sweeter song, I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save: I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save, I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save; Then in a nobler, sweeter song, I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save. Praise be unto our Great God and Father Praise be to the Son who took our place Praise be to the Spirit who lives in the Believer Father, Son, and Spirit, 3-in-1 // BENEDICTION May the grace of the New Covenant be with you, and may the Holy Spirit fill you so that He might use you for His purposes in the world! Yield to Him, as you in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ And walk in obedience to the Lord