Technology changes daily. This is true of all technology such as smartphones, tv’s, tablets, cars and laptops. New technology comes and goes so rapidly and is often replaced by faster, smaller, more efficient and more powerful development. I remember corded phones, 8 track tapes, and cassette tapes from analog to digital. However, the problem with technology is that the latest greatest gadget is ungraded in just a few months’ after you purchase it. All that sacrifice of premium dollars to purchase to latest and greatest is old news in a year.
Murphy’s law. Eventually everything we have becomes obsolete – everything man made that is. Anything made will eventually breakdown, deteriorate or become irrelevant. Jesus said in Matthew 6:19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy.” Anything subject to change or corruption is not worthy of our sacrifice or worship.
The author of Hebrews will make this point clear, when he demonstrates that the old covenant – established under specific conditions, for a particular people, at a particular time was never meant to last forever.
The old one has been replaced with things far superior and has a guarantee of a better covenant. Jesus’ new covenant is superior to everything that has come before it.
Through Jesus we have a new covenant that brings a better honored Priest, a better Sanctuary and a better Ministry.
How about you? Are you still involved in a religious system that God says is outdated? Any religious ritual or a church asking you to be focused on meeting their requirements is not necessary. The main point is Jesus Christ is all we need for our justification, sanctification, salvation, preservation and righteousness.
Notice verse 1, the main point is that Jesus is a better way than religion, rituals and keeping a list of do’s and don’ts. Hebrews 8 highlights the fact that Jesus outshines any religious system, priest, or minister in the world.
Hebrews 8:1 “Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,”
The fact that Jesus sits on the throne in heaven helped Jesus disciples face persecution and even death as they witnessed for Christ. The Hebrew Christians needed that same charge, Jesus is on the throne in Heaven and in control.
When I began my study of this verse it brought to mind the book of Revelation.
I had in mind a picture of 10,000 times 10,000 angels massed around the throne, the twenty four elders and seraphim with wings…all singing Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is to come” – Revelation 4:8
I imagined the sight of this awesome place. Sparkling like ice, with an emerald throne, and there sits One Who has the appearance of glowing jasper, and sardius. “…behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald. – Revelation 4:2-3
Then there is The LAMB looking as if it had been slain, in the center on the throne and all those around the throne fall prostrate before Him and sing… “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and Honor and glory and praise.” – Revelation 5:12
This Hebrew people are told about Jesus who ascended to take His seat at the right hand of the Father as our eternal High priest. Recall with me as Jesus prayed the night before the crucifixion. “Father glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” – John 17:5.
In Hebrews Jesus is transfigured from the Lamb to the supreme High Priest. His hair becomes white like snow, His eyes become like embers, and His face like the sun as He majestically dons a priestly robe that falls to His glowing feet and girds Himself with the golden sash of a High Priest. Look at this description in revelation of the great High Priest.
“Son of Man, dressed in a long robe, with a golden sash around His chest. The hair of His head was white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes were like a blazing fire. His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace, and His voice was like the roar of many waters.” – Revelation 1:13-15
Jesus sits in the place of all authority “at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in Heaven.” He will cause everyone to bow before Him, as He takes His place as the Sovereign Lord of all.
An interesting conflict for the 1st century Hebrew readers mind is that they had religious leaders that liked to sit in the bests seats in the synagogue. These were seats down front that faced the congregation, and they were reserved for those who held the highest honor in the congregation (J. Macartney Wilson, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, 1915).
Synagogues today still have those seats.
But the main point is that Jesus sits in an even better seat, a seat of highest honor. He sits at the right hand of God the Father. It is the place of all authority, which means that Jesus is the Sovereign Lord of the Universe!
There can only be one response, and that’s to submit to Him as Lord. Humble yourself before Christ as this Muslim convert to Christ wrote about in his daily life of toil.
He prayed, “O God, I am Mustafah the tailor, and I work at the shop of Muhammad. The whole day long I sit and pull the needle and the thread through the cloth. O God, you are the needle and I am the thread. I am attached to you and I follow you. When the thread tries to slip away from the needle, it becomes tangled and must be cut so it can be put back in the right place. O God, help me to follow you wherever you lead me. For I am really only Mustafah the tailor, and I work in the shop of Muhammad on the great square.” (Pamela Joy Anderson, You Are the Needle and I Am the Thread, WestBow Press, 2014, page xi; www.Preaching Today.com)
SUBMIT TO CHIRST WHO SITS IN A BETTER SEAT.
Trust the One who sits in the Highest Seat. Worship Christ who sits in highest honor. 2nd…
Hebrews 8:2 Jesus is… “a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.”
REVERE CHRIST WHO SERVES IN A BETTER SANCTUARY.
Respect Jesus who sits and ministers in heaven. Worship Jesus Christ who made the throne and Sanctuary in heaven. Every Temple and every Synagogue will only last a time. Eventually all of them are destroyed simply because they are manmade. Not so with this Sanctuary, there is no improvement on this nor corruption or decay. Never… ever needing to be replaced by a better place or built better.
The author’s main point: The Hebrew people are told to trust Jesus who sacrificed Himself on the cross for all sin. They can depend on Jesus Christ whose shed blood cleanses from all sin.
RELY ON CHRIST WHO OFFERS A BETTER SACRIFICE.
Hebrews 8:3 “For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this One also have something to offer.”
Jesus offered Himself once and for all Hebrews 7:27 “who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.”
All the other priests continually offer sacrifices, which could only temporarily cover sin. Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself “cleanses us from all sin” forever!
Maybe you can remember as a kid when your mom told you to clean up your room. Maybe you would throw a lot of the junk under the bed and then make the bed with the covers hanging down over the side. We would manage to cover up the mess, hoping to appease our mother. But somehow, though, she knew it wasn’t clean. Placing things under the bed, behind a closest door or moving things around couldn’t clean up the mess. It only covered over the mess.
The old covenant sacrifices covered over the “mess” in people’s lives. The priest’s sacrifices only covered the sin for a short while, temporarily appeasing a holy God through obedience. On the other hand, “The blood of Jesus Christ [God’s] Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Jesus’ one act of sacrifice will cleanse us from sin forever!
The main point therefore is that, we must keep the main thing the main thing and that is to focus on Jesus our Great High Priest who makes intercession for us. “We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.” – Hebrews 8:1
Honor Him, Worship Him, and obey Him alone
God is so Holy, that He revealed a prophetic a vision of angels singing solely of the holiness of the Lord (Isaiah 6:3). And because God is holy, He calls for us to be holy as well just as He originally created us to be holy.
The Hebrew people wanted to live a life of peace and righteousness and that is found in Jesus Christ. And we should want that reality.
The fact that we can have peace and righteousness is the embodiment of the new covenant. As I close, this was also the prayer of the apostle Paul.
1 Thessalonians 5:23. “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”