Services | Jesus: The Mediator of a Better Covenant

Bulletin

FBCWest
October 10, 2021

“God is Spirit, and those who worship Him.
must worship Him in Spirit and truth.”

Praise and Worship
SCRIPTURE READING – Psalm 66:1 - 4
“This is What We Live For”
“Your Promises”

Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“Jesus: The Mediator of a Better Covenant”

PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection
“Egypt”


Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
“Great is Thy Faithfulness”
OFFERTORY PRAYER
SPECIAL MUSIC – By Pru Hungate

Continued Praise and Worship
“Words”
“Help Me Find It”

Benediction “Egypt”

Acknowledgements and Announcements

Sermon Notes
Hebrews 8:1 & 2 Jesus, as High Priest, sat down at eh right hand of the Father in the true tabernacle
Hebrews 8:3 A high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices
Hebrews 8:4 & 5 Jesus would not be a priest under the Law. Earthly priests serve only in a copy/shadow of the true tabernacle
Hebrews 8:6 Jesus has a more excellent ministry as a mediator of a better covenant
Hebrews 8:7 -12 A new covenant predicted by the previous covenant
Hebrews 8:13 The new makes the old obsolete

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Scritpures

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Transcript of Service

If you have your Bibles, turn to Hebrews chapter 8.

Now for the last number of sessions.

The writer of Hebrews has been talking about Jesus as our high priest and explaining why Jesus as high Priest is better kind of distorting it. One of the reasons Jesus as high priest is better is that he has a better position. He is a priest after Melchizedek which was superior to Abraham who was blessed by him. He was also.

Better because excuse me, I'm going to sneeze.

Excuse me

answer and he was better because of the.

Fact that he was a priest forever as opposed to in duration. And now we're gonna talk about that. He was a priest better because of location. He's going to describe that Jesus is a high priest in the.

Tabernacle or the temple in God and in heaven, and that the.

The vertical priesthood was a priesthood in the earthly Tabernacle. The next chapter he's going to kind of show the differences between the two.

But that's, uh, for next week, so Hebrews Chapter 8, starting with verse one says this. Now the main point. And I know in King James it says basically in summation, and I'll let you argue whether who's right 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 heaven.

A minister in the sanctuary and in the true Nab Tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man, and so.

What he's saying here. Jesus is better because when the high priest

their services in the earthly Tabernacle, they would go in twice. They would go in for their their sins and then go in for the sins of the people and then leave.

So they would go into this earthly Tabernacle, but they would go in year after year after year. They would never sit down because their job was never finished.

They didn't. If you will belong in the Holy of Holies, Jesus because of his sacrifice and because it was once for all, his job is done. If you will, as that and so. Therefore as he said on the cross, it is finished. It is confirmed by the fact that he sits down. There's no further work for him to do. Now. The only time we also see him standing is when Steven.

Is.

Martyred.

And then Stephen says I see him standing at the right hand of God, which means Jesus doesn't take passively. What happens to his people, but for his job, if you will it, his sacrifices was once for all, and therefore he sat down. But he also belongs. The high priest didn't belong in the Holy of Holies because he was a sinful man. Jesus as being a perfect.

Human and God.

Home is heaven, and therefore he sits at the right hand of God and again at the right hand, which shows power and privilege and honor. And all of these things Jesus has. He doesn't sit on the left hand. He sits on the right hand of God the Father. And again it says that he sits down in the heavenly Tabernacle, not made within. And so while the priest would go into the earthly Tabernacle to Minister, Jesus is location if you will is better.

Because he ministers in heaven.

Which is no small difference.

And notices which was pitched or made by God and not by man. So it says in verse 3 for every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. So it is necessary that this high priest also has something to offer.

Now, if he were on Earth.

He would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the law, who serve a copy and a shadow of the heavenly things.

Just as Moses warning who goes on and off over that. So he's saying that.

Jesus.

Isn't it earthly high priest? Because the law doesn't say anything about a descendant of Judah being a priest, but only Levi. But he's saying that his ministry being in heaven still needs something to offer, and so he brings his blood as an offering. So he says so it is necessary for high priest to bring gifts and off and sacrifices and so.

It's necessary for them to offer that. Now if you were on Earth, he would not be a high priest, so he's saying don't get confused.

Hebrews Jews

Jesus has a high priest ministry, but it is above better and superior to the earthly one. They aren't the same and so the requirements are the same and as he said.

The high priest under Levi did so because the law Jesus as a high priest under the Melchizedek Order did so because he was appointed by God.

And everyone says who serve a copy and a shadow of the heavenly things.

When the high priest would go into the Tabernacle and eventually the temple.

And notice when the.

Writer here is talking to.

Use the temple.

As an example, but he doesn't. He uses the Tabernacle as an example, the one that was a temporary while they were in the wilderness traveling well. Why does he do so?

Because the Tabernacle was built based on specific patterns that God gave so that they would see that it was similar to but not exact as the heavenly one. The temple was made because architects decided that it ought to be grand and beautiful, and these types of things, but the dimensions and how it was setup was not exactly so. The writers talks about the Tabernacle.

Which again is important because God tabernacled he lived with his people in the temple. It was well you go there to meet God in the Tabernacle he.

Moved with his people.

That's why you will hear or. You'll see if you read commentaries when there is an example of somebody who has a similar function as Jesus. They will say that that that person is a type of Christ. I don't like to use that word 'cause one it's.

Kind of strange.

I prefer what the writer here says, so when, for instance, going back to Melchizedek, people will say, well, most esoteric was a type of Christ.

I prefer that Melchizedek was a shadow.

Of Christ he wasn't the real substance, he was a shadow of what Jesus would be. He wasn't just a type, he was a coffee. And the writer here is saying the Tabernacle was a shadow, a copy of what was in heaven.

But Jesus is administering in this shadow the copy Jesus has ministering in the real location that the Tabernacle was built on.

Just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the Tabernacle for C, He says that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown to you on the mountain. So God says.

Erecting the Tabernacle is important.

I want you to do it exactly because it is a symbol of the Heavenly Temple.

And as I keep repeating, God takes his symbols seriously.

If you don't ask Moses when we get to heaven when he struck the rock instead of speaking to it, 'cause the scriptures tell us that rock was Jesus, he was to be struck once after that to be spoken to, and so God takes his.

Symbol seriously, so he warns Moses make the Tabernacle just like the heavenly 1.

But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry by as much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which he has been enacted on better promises.

So Jesus is a better mediator than the high priest.

Because the high priests were.

Acting in a shadow, not the actual. The high priests were temporary, not permanent. The high priest didn't live forever.

Jesus has an indestructible life, but more than that he has become a mediator of a better covenant.

Well, the covenant in the Old Testament was if you do these things.

You can live in the land if you don't do those things.

I'm going to take you out of the land.

Our covenant is.

God is going to dwell with us. Our covenant is God is with us. Our covenant is nothing can separate us from the love of God, not even ourselves. We have a better covenant because we have better promises. We don't have to worry about whether we're going to live in this land or not live in this land. We have a promise that says he is always with us, but notice it says that he is a mediator.

When you have a mediator, basically you have people on on two sides that have.

Opposing viewpoints.

Currently in the court systems, because the court is so backed up prior to COVID that they would send cases out to be mediated, which means that there would be somebody who would be there, either retired, judge or an attorney or somebody who would listen to both sides and try to get them to come to an agreement.

Now, as I told people before we go to mediation. The mediator doesn't care who's right or wrong.

He just wants it settled.

And so he'll tell your case you have a lousy case. You need to settle on, even if you think you have a good case, by the time you go to court and or whatever. So just settle and you'll tell the other side. They have a lousy case and no matter what, they need to settle and he just wants it settled. But he's a mediator trying to get two parties who have opposing views to reconcile.

Jesus is a mediator because God on one side is angry at sin.

He's not neutral.

He hates sin and it says that there is a wrath of God because of sin.

On the other hand, there's us.

Who we can't get our own way. We send whether we want to or don't. Even Paul the great Apostle says I don't do the things I want to do and I do the things I don't want to do.

Which is amazingly honest.

Because all of us understand that. So we have those of us who can't meet God's demand.

And God can accept.

Our sinfulness?

So we have a mediator, but our mediator does care the result.

Our mediator wants us to be reconciled with God, not to just settle it. Not for just gotta say, OK, I'm not angry anymore. No no Jesus as mediator makes us from enemies to children.

He is a more excellent mediator because he not just reconciles so that we come to a meeting of minds and not just that right. God, you're right, I'm a Sinner and I said now what are you gonna do about it?

And Jesus mediates between the two, so we go from adversaries to children.

So we have a better mediator.

Of a better covenant.

Which was enacted on better promises.

Notice.

Again, everybody wants to just dump the Old Testament, the old covenant because of the new.

It's not a replacement.

Because it's old.

Replace because what we have is better.

But you need to understand what they all said so that you know how better than you is.

So that we walk with him by faith.

And then he's going to explain again why the Old Testament.

Is not as good as the New Testament or the New Covenant.

For a verse 7, four of that first covenant had been faultless. There would have been no occasion sought for a second, so he said.

We have a problem with the old because if it had no faults.

There'd be no need for a second.

It's kind of.

Obvious.

Why do you need a second if the first one is doing well? So he says OK, here it has its faults.

For finding fault with them, he says, behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will affect a new covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah, notice something here.

The Old Testament.

Isn't.

Replaced because the New Testament necessarily says so. The Old Testament says the Old Testament is going to be replaced.

Jeremiah is the one speaking on behalf of the Lord, telling us that there is a new covenant coming. So the Old Testament understands that it had a particular purpose. That purpose was to teach us that we were sinners.

It wasn't good us to become children of God. It was to tell us we needed a savior. We needed a Lord. So he says I want to make a new covenant.

Again with the House of Israel without would you do not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, for they did not continue in my covenant, and I did not care for them, says the Lord.

Where is it? I delivered them out of slavery?

They had cried and wailed and petitioned, and prayed for 400 years to be free.

And I freed them.

I took him by the hand.

And they still continued to be far from me. So God says I stopped caring about him.

It's a matter of fact, he told Moses.

Let's just start over. When I just wipe them out and start with you.

And if God had done that, we wouldn't be so much concerned about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all we did just said Moses and go on from his lineages.

So.

For this reason, the covenant that I will make with the House of Israel and with the says this. I will put my laws into their minds and now write them on their hearts.

And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

When God delivered Israel.

From Egypt.

He took them.

To Mount Sinai.

And the plan was for them and Moses to go up to Mount Sinai and to for God, to make them a Kingdom of priests.

Because of what was going on the mountain and the the smoke and the trembling of the Earth and all that they said, Moses will stay here you go on. You talked to God and tell us what he said.

And while Moses was gone for a period of time, they decided, well, something must have happened to Moses and they decided to come up with a new God.

And they made a golden calf out of it and they started having an **** and doing all kinds of despicable things. Doing the exact opposite of things. That would be a holy people.

And he goes.

Instead of writing the 10 commandments on tablets.

As I repeatedly say, he will choose to write on a substance harder than stone. He will choose to write on a substance harder than diamonds.

He will write it on the human heart.

Which is desperately wicked.

And evil.

And he writes his law.

On his people's heart.

So that they.

Well, acknowledge that God.

Is there God?

And God acknowledges we are his people.

And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizens, and everyone his brother, saying no, the Lord for all will know me from the least to the greatest of them.

Before apart if you were to read Deuteronomy, where is this here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one you shall love, the Lord our God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul only string it goes on to say that you need to write phylacteries. You just put the law on your forehead and on your wrists and do all of these things and to teach your children and to do these things you notice is there's going to come a day that you don't need to write it here. You don't need to write it here. You don't even need to teach your children 'cause they will know me.

Oh, if that day would come soon.

For the least to the greatest.

For I will be merciful to their iniquities.

He's going to be merciful.

For our wickedness.

Our own righteousness.

Our sin.

And I will remember their sin no more.

Now men who are married.

You ought to rejoice at this.

Somebody doesn't remember what you did.

'cause if you've been married for any length of time and you've messed up like we all men do.

And we ask after.

Way too long a time for forgiveness.

And our spouses, I forgive you.

And we think, OK, that settles that I'm cool. And then six months or a year or ten years later, when you screw up again, she brings it up.

Well wait wait a minute I I thought you forgave me. I forgave you. I just didn't forget.

God not only forgives, he forgets.

Which is important.

Again, I I want to kind of to drive this point home. I'm I want to tell little story, which isn't necessarily factually true, but I want you to understand the emphasis. That would be like us.

When we are children.

And let's say we copied somebody else's homework.

Which isn't right, and in case you're a student and you think that's right, it ain't it's wrong.

Cheating is cheating. It's like lying and stealing, and so let's say you after a day or a week or a year or whatever, you start to feel guilty about it.

Until you say God, please forgive me for copying off of.

Johnny's Homer.

Now I never copied off of other people's homework, and the reason why is 'cause I always thought I was the smartest kid in the class, so why would I copy off somebody was Dumber than me.

But that's just me, you know so anyway, so I have a lot of other problems. That's why I'm using cheating because.

I don't feel guilty and so you feel you know if you feel guilty because I cheated off of somebody's homework and you say God forgive me for cheating. Well, if God is true to his promises and God is true to his promises, he is merciful to forgive our sins and forget them.

But what do we do?

The next time we're feeling guilty, God, please forgive me for cheating off of my homework.

And then the next time God please forgive me for cheating off at homework.

In the next time, God please forgive me for cheating off my homework.

In the interim, God keep going but cheating.

But cheating.

'cause I don't remember that anymore.

Don't hold it against you.

I have not only forgiven you, I have forgotten it. There is nothing that is between us because I remember your sins no more.

That is the awesomeness of the Jesus sacrifice that not only are we forgiven.

And not only are we continuing to do things we're not supposed to do and not do things that we are supposed to do, Jesus is blood covers that so much then nothing.

Interferes with our relationship with God.

I remember your sins no more.

Now, if you take nothing out of this, not only this message, but this whole series that gone.

Because of Jesus isn't upset with you, but he's merciful and loves you and has forgiven your sins and doesn't hold them to your account. Then you want to be living life, saying praise God glorify his name because there's one person.

The most important entity in the universe who loves me so much that not only does he love me in spite of myself, he loves me because there's nothing about in spite of myself.

So stop caring around the guilt that God has forgiven. Now if you're holding onto something and you don't want to ask for forgiveness, will talk about it. But it says once you have confessed your sins, he is righteous and just to forgive you of your sins and will give.

Not remember those sins any more.

When he said a new covenant has made the first obsolete.

But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear. Now notice he didn't say it has disappeared.

The Old Testament.

Has value.

It helps us to understand what God is doing presently.

The Old Testament has value.

Because it didn't disappear, it is still presently fading.

So here.

Is how?

We should look.

At the comparison.

He quoted.

Some scripture in the Old Testament. How a new covenant is coming.

Let's take a look at what God did.

In that old First Testament.

He told the people.

To take an unblemished lamb.

And sacrifices.

And then place the blood on the doorposts and the lentil.

And if he saw the blood, he would pass over.

It didn't matter how corruptible and how guilty.

And who you were on the inside. The scripture said, if I see the blood, I will pass over.

Well, Jesus is our Passover lamb.

Just as that Passover allowed the children of Israel to be free of slavery.

Our Passover lamb has freed us and that blood has caused our sins to be passed over so that we may no longer are slaves of sin.

And he took us by the hand, and lead us out of that slavery.

It's personal.

He didn't say he didn't say I.

Which probably should have took him by the nose. Now I took him by the hand.

And I brought him out and he has. And if you are a believer, you understand this. He took you by the hand.

And lead you out.

And then he, after going through various miracles of separating the Red Sea and doing all kinds of things and leading them by a cloud of pillar by day, and a pillar of fire by night, and God has provided his presence for us and his word to light as a lamp unto our feet.

He brought them to Sinai where?

He issued the law.

On the very same.

Day later.

On the issuance of the law was on Pentecost on the very same day.

Much later, after Jesus death, burial, and resurrection, there was a Pentecost where his spirit poured forth.

And he wrote.

His law.

On our hearts and on our minds.

And while those people back then tabernacled with God.

As I said, he gave Moses an exact copy of the temple that they might be so that God's presence might be in that Tabernacle, and that they might see his shekinah glory at that Tabernacle. He has, instead of living with us in a Tabernacle, he has Tabernacle within us.

His spirit dwells within us. We are the Tabernacle of God.

A better promise. Let me tell you, it must have been great.

To see a tent.

With the presence of God.

But I wouldn't trade that for the fact that God dwells in me.

And the scripture says.

That when Jesus offered himself that he sat at the right hand of God the father.

The Scriptures will tell us that there's going to tamade when he's leaving.

That

temple

I'm convinced it's called.

The Day of atonement.

Before that, there's going to be some chauffard blowing, and then there's going to be a show far that's going to announce.

His return and he's going to get up from the right hand of God the father, and he's going to bring with him those who have died before.

And their bodies and their spirit, their new bodies in their spirit, will reunite, and those of us who remain after giving everybody else a 6 foot head start.

We are those who have been cremated or buried in the ocean, whatever. When God reassembles that body into a new body and those of us who remain are caught up with him and we shall always be with him.

And there will be a new heaven and a new Earth after 1000 year reign.

Better promises.

It's no longer if you do what I say.

You get to keep the land now it's if you trust me.

You get heaven.

And all this too.

So you might think it's strange.

That are.

Song of reflection.

Happens to also be our benediction song.

But I couldn't think of a better song to tell us.

That he has not just freed Israel.

He's freed us.

He's not just free to Israel and freed us. He has caused himself to dwell within us. He has written his law in our. There is so much similarity between the Old Testament and what's happening in our lives. You lose all that valuable understanding if you just say, well, that's old. It's obsolete, don't need to pay attention to it anymore. The Old Testament tells us how rich the promises of God are and how certain they are.

And how he is no longer content with just being.

Us being his people, but that would we would be a holy Nation, a royal priesthood following our high priest, and that our sins are forgiven and remembered no more.

If that doesn't cause you to say Hallelujah.

I don't know what else will.

So stop carrying around the burden of failure and sin.

'cause Jesus offered it his blood.

For us to be forgiven.

And for us to be set free not only from sin, but from our own shame and our own self loathing.

If God loves you.

Then you can love yourself.

And all God's people said.