Simply the Best-Hebrews 8:1-6

This week we are reentering the series we began last August in the book of Hebrews. Though this book is nearing its 2000^th birthday, some things never go out of style or lose their relevance.  This is true not only of this book as a whole, but it is also the case for what it has to say to us in the passage we will be looking at today as it addresses one version of an ancient issue involving mankind’s relationship with God. However, before we take a look at Hebrews 8:1-6, I want to call your mind to several things that were once prominent fixtures in our world, but are now rarely in use. VHS players have been replaced by DVD players and even more recently blue ray players. Travel agents have been largely usurped by internet sites like Hotwire, Expedia, and others. Maps, remember those? Who needs a map when every cell phone and most new cars are equipped with GPS?  Most classifieds in newspapers have been moved to websites like Craigslist or Monster.com. Even newspapers have taken a hit in our digital age of blogs and online news. Entire volumes of encyclopedias have been replaced by a little thing called Google. Good has also destroyed the need for the yellow pages. Even things as foundational as calling people on the phone have been replaced by texting for quick messages and Facetime for more meaningful conversations. In each of these cases, something new, something better, something more efficient has come to replace the old. The same is true of the way people related to God in the past and now can through what Christ has accomplished. What Jesus ushered in is far greater than the revolutions created by the digital age and far more important. In Hebrews 8:1-6, we are given three reasons why Jesus’ ministry is greater than those before it.

I. It is a Heavenly Ministry-8:1-2

Before we merge back onto the entrance ramp and continue our series on the superiority of Jesus Christ as presented in Hebrews, let us remind ourselves of where we are in the book. After reminding his listeners that God has spoken to the world through His Son in chapter 1, the preacher has so far made the case that Jesus Christ is superior to both the Angels of heaven and the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. Chapter 8 nears the end of this latter discussion and comes right after a lengthy comparison between Jesus Christ and Melchizedek’s priesthood. Unlike the tribe of Levi, from which all other priests hailed, Jesus is said to be a priest in a different order—an order that is established by God and lasts forever. All that has been offered in this sermon up to this point has been presented in an effort to demonstrate Jesus’ superiority over everything, especially the old way of relating to God.

This is explained further as Hebrews 8 begins, “Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens” (8:1). While many high priests in the Old Testament may have occupied special places in the synagogue and among the people they served, Jesus is said here to occupy the most powerful seat in the most exclusive boardroom in the universe. This special seat of power and prestige celebrated here was first identified in Psalm 110:1 when it says, “the LORD says to my Lord; Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”

As this passage works to continue the theme of Jesus’ superiority, it is important to compare where Jesus’ seat is and where the high priests of old used to sit. Jesus’ ministry as high priest takes place “in the heavens” while the priests of the Old covenant ministered on earth.

Not only that, but while the priests of the Old Testament were mortal ministers serving in an 

temporary building built by men, the one who sits at the right hand of the Majesty serves in the heavenly tabernacle built by the hand of the Lord, “a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man” (8:2). In others words, what was offered as a special place for man to communicate with God in the Old Testament (the tabernacle, and later, the temple), has been completely overshadowed by a permanent and perfect tabernacle in which the Lord Jesus intercedes on behalf of His people for eternity. 

Once God’s people were saved from their slavery in Egypt, God created a way for them to commune with him that involved a sophisticated tent structure that could be torn down and reassembled along the journey into the Promised Land. This tent was where Moses would speak to God on behalf of his people. Eventually, as the Promised Land was conquered, elements of the tabernacle structure became staples in the Temple that was constructed in Jerusalem, complete with a Holy of Holies where the high priest, like Moses before Him, would intercede on behalf of God’s people. However, both the tabernacle and the temple were mere shadows/shells of what Jesus would one day offer—unprecedented access before God in the “sanctuary and in the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man” (8:2). Where Jesus does His ministry is better than where the high priests of the Old Testament performed theirs because it is eternal and it is made by God. This renders Jesus’ ministry on behalf of His people superior to everything before it.

II. It is Not an Obsolete Ministry-8:3-5

Continuing the comparison between what Jesus brought about and what was once practiced, the preacher in Hebrews 8 writes, “for every priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices so it is necessary that this high priest has something to offer” (8:3). Having already demonstrated the superiority of Jesus’ ministry by means of where it takes place, the preacher is now going to demonstrate how Jesus’ ministry is superior because of what is offered. He recalls, as he did in 5:1, that every high priest, as part of his duty, performs certain rites and rituals—sacrifices, offerings, gifts, etc. Though it is not explicit, the following assumption will soon be made absolute clear: If the high priests of old offered gifts and sacrifices in the Old Testament tabernacle, then what Jesus offers in the heavenly tabernacle by means of His life is far superior.

This assumption seems to come into focus in 8:4 when the preacher says, “Now if He were on the earth, He would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer gifts according to the Law,…” In other words, if Jesus was on the earth, he could only offer what has always been offered under the Old Testament system. Though what was offered in the Old Testament system served its own purposes (reminding the people of God of their constant need for redemption, etc.), it was ineffective at providing lasting salvation.

In fact, the preacher says that these Old Testament practices/offerings/gifts, were not intended to provide lasting results. Instead these “serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things” (8:5a). Everything about the Old Testament practices, in part, served to telegraph what Jesus accomplished and is now performing in the heavens. Now, because of what Christ completed, every time we read about a lamb being led to the slaughter for a sacrifice, we envision Jesus’ sacrifice for us. Every time we witness in the pages of the Old Testament a priest interceding in the Holy of Holies, we catch a glimpse of Jesus who now is in the heavens, interceding on our behalf. In each of these examples, what Jesus did and who Jesus is, far outweighs what used to be done and what once was.

While what was offered the people of God in the days of Moses is called a copy and a shadow in verse 5, it is also called a “pattern,” “for ‘See,’ he says, ‘that you make all things according to the Pattern which was shown you on the mountain…”. This calls attention to Moses’ encounter with God on Mt. Sinai. While meeting with God on the mountaintop in the book of Exodus, Moses received a lot of gifts from God: laws promoting a safe and prosperous community, ordinances for righteous living, and instructions for constructing a way for people to commune with God in a special way—i.e. the tabernacle. However, these gifts, because of what Jesus accomplished, have become obsolete. They are mere shadows, copies, and patterns of something better—Jesus and His ministry.

III. It is a Current Ministry-8:6

This is made clear in the last part of this passage—verse 6—when the current covenant comes into view, “But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.” Here, the preacher comes right out and makes plain what he has been trying to intimate for the better part of this entire book—Jesus is the mediator of a superior ministry—superior even to the ministry of the Old Testament’s most beloved mediator—Moses. Jesus’ ministry is better because it is in the heavens—not on the earth, and because it is not obsolete. However, it is also superior because it is a large part of a better covenant—the New Covenant.

This New Covenant, of which believers are now a part, is first revealed in the book of Jeremiah 33:31-33.

Jeremiah 31:31-33: “’Behold, days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,’ declares the Lord. ‘But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’”

When did the covenant take effect? Upon the completed work of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. In fact, Jesus mentions this Himself.

Matthew 26:26-29-“While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body.’ And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.”

Both Mark and Luke also give their own portrayal of the beginning of this New Covenant program (see Mk. 14; Lk. 22). Jesus’ gestures and words at the Last Supper illustrate what was accomplished on the cross—total payment for sin and total access to God as a result. While in the old covenant a lamb had to be slain perpetually to appease the wrath of God so that man might enjoy limited access to the Lord, in the New Covenant, Jesus offered Himself as the perfect Lamb to be slain once and for all to appease the wrath of God so that man may enjoy unlimited access to the Lord.

Accompanying this superior covenant are superior promises—promises of a hope and a future. In fact, in each of the synoptic gospel’s portrayals of the Last Supper, the same promise (albeit in dissimilar wording) is given.

Matthew 26:29-“But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom” (see also Mk. 14:25; Lk. 22:18).

Here, Jesus promises an eternal heaven in which man and God enjoy perfect fellowship forever. This is something the Old Covenant could never produce nor promise in and of itself. For these reasons, Jesus’ management over the New Covenant is far better than Moses’ management over the Old.

So What?

Though the reasons given in this passage for Jesus’ superior ministry speak immediately against an old Jewish system of relating to God, it also speaks against what many people endorse in their own take on spirituality today. In fact, one might say that many “spiritual” or “religious” people have a problem that is even older than the old covenant system. I’m speaking of those who seek for earthly solutions to life’s problems instead of depending on Jesus’ superior heavenly ministry.  These must come to understand that nothing from the earth is going to yield eternal solutions. These also, like the Jews to which this was originally written, use obsolete systems with the hope of manufacturing something revolutionary. For them, tired works, ancient efforts, and age-old pietism are believed to earn them good standing with God. However, as the preacher reveals in this passage, religiosity is yesterday’s inferior model. Something new, Jesus’ superior ministry of grace, has replaced it! Those who believe they can work their way, sacrifice their way, or earn their way to God are endorsing an old, outdated, and inferior system. To these Jesus offers Himself, His ministry, and a new program (The New Covenant).