LAUGH 'N LEARN

An Encouragement Ministry of Verde Valley Christian Church Of Cottonwood Arizona
http://www.vvchristianchurch.net/

Issue # 360    January 25,  2010

LAUGH

LEARN

Jim's Manuscript

January 24, 2010

"It's The Real Thing"

Better In Every Way--Hebrews Series (Part 8)

Text:  Hebrews 8

Intro:  "It's the Real Thing" 1971 Coke Commercial

What the world wants today...Is the real thing.

I'd like to teach the world to sing.  I'd like to teach the world to think.  I'd like to teach the world to SEE.  I'd like to teach the world to believe the Real thing.  The World Wants The Real Thing.  Coke won't last, but Christ will, and He's the Real Thing!

How many of you have cell phones?  How many of you have cell phones AND a land line?  How many of you have only cell phones?  I still like my land line, but I tell you what, I'd never want to go back to the days when the best rapid long distance communication was through Morse code on a telegraph! 

Of course, some of you still use what seems like Morse Code to me as you tap away at your phone texting. 

The point of all this is that some new things which accomplish goals better totally make the old things obsolete.  Let's just say the Old Covenant was like the Telegraph for connecting with God and it has been made obsolete now that we can connect with God on the Cell Phone of the New Covenant!

Focus:  The whole Old Covenant system, its tabernacle, priests, and sacrifices, was a temporary training model foreshadowing the real thing.

I.        The Main Point of Hebrews... (8:1)

Hebrews 8:1 (NIV)  The point of what we are saying is this:. . .

A.      We Do Have A High Priest (8:1)

Hebrews 8:1 (NIV). . . We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,

He sat down in the place of honor at Heaven's Throne.

Our High Priest is the Real thing!

B.      Who Serves in the True Tabernacle (8:2-5)

Hebrews 8:2-5 (NIV) ² and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man. ³ Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer. ⁴ If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already men who offer the gifts prescribed by the law. ⁵ They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: "See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain."

True, as in Real, Permanent, Eternal (not as in opposite of false).  This is the heavenly palace that the earthly tabernacle was patterned after.  The Sanctuary, Holy Place, House of God is the one that was Built by the Lord (not Man).

Why did the inspired writer to the Hebrews call the Temple, by the old name, "Tabernacle", or "Tent"?  He does this, I think, because the movable Tabernacle/tent was a temporary structure for the fixed Temple.  However, now we are to understand that even the Temple itself was temporary and provisional, only copying the pattern of what is real, in heaven.  The whole temple system was provisional and soon to be obsolete.

The Heavenly Tabernacle is the Real Thing!

C.      And Who Mediates A Better Covenant (8:6-13)

Hebrews 8:6-13 (NIV) ⁶ But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises. ⁷ For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. ⁸ But God found fault with the people and said: "The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. ⁹ It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord. ¹⁰ This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. ¹¹ No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. ¹² For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." ¹³ By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.

The New Covenant is the REAL Thing!

II.       So, Why Go Back to What is Obsolete?  (8:13)

¹³ By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.

This passage is one of the strong indicators that Hebrews was written before AD 70 when the Temple was destroyed.  The present tense throughout, see for example the use of the present tense in 8:4 and 8:5.

Hebrews 8:4-5 (NIV) ⁴ If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already men who offer the gifts prescribed by the law. ⁵ They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: "See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain."

There is nothing said in a way that implies that the Temple has already been destroyed.  There is not a shadow of doubt that had this been the case already, it would have been a strong argument in favor of the entire message of Hebrews.  But the writer makes no mention of the destruction of the Temple.  Therefore, it must have been written before AD 70. 

The inspired writer's words in 8:13 demonstrates that he sees the Old Covenant will soon disappear, but that it had not yet disappeared.  "Will soon disappear" is right.  This was something Jesus also predicted would happen.  The provisional Temple system did disappear, in 70AD. 

But here in this passage, to Jewish Believers who are tempted to go back to the Old Covenant, the writer makes his plea.  Why go back to what is obsolete, aging, and will soon disappear?   Why tap at a telegraph wire, when you have a cell phone? 

We do not have access to God through the provisional system.  We have personal access, real access, not through human mediators, but through Jesus, and by his Spirit.  Our Personal Access to God through Christ is the Real thing!

III.       The New Covenant Is Better (8:6)

Hebrews 8:6 (NIV) But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.

Some of these better promises will be what he lays out for us to see in 8:10-12.  Look at all of God's promises, when he says, "I will".  One way of contrasting the promises of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant is that in the Old, the people heard the Law and said, all these things we have heard "We Will Do".  It was kind of like saying, "I Do" at a wedding.  But they didn't.  Many people today also say, "I Do", but they don't!  The good news of the New Testament is that where WE CAN'T, GOD CAN, and SAYS, "I WILL".  God takes the initiative, and gives us his power and ability in the New Covenant.  We aren't on our own to do what we couldn't do before.  In Christ God gives his Grace.  God gives his Spirit.  God gives his forgiveness.  God gives eternal blessings.  Look at all the "I Will" statements, these are better promises.

Hebrews 8:10-12 (NIV) ¹⁰ This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. ¹¹ No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. ¹² For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

These are better promises.

Whereas the promises of the Old Covenant, were for a nation, and promised national blessings, with the "Promised Land" and entering into "Rest".  These promises are now "his people" in the New Covenant, and they are eternal and individual blessings.  Heaven is the "promised land" and the "rest" we enter into.  The New Covenant promises are better, because the goals of the New Covenant promises are superior goals.  A promise of God is reliable whether Old Covenant or New.  The difference between the quality of these promises has to do with the superior goals or results of the New Covenant promises.

Let's look how these promises are better, and how the New Covenant is better a little more closely.

A.      It Works From the Inside Out (8:10; 2 Corinthians 3:3; Philippians 2:13)

Hebrews 8:10 (NIV) This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

Some people today misunderstand what is stated in this change.  They think that the New Covenant does not have Law.  That the Law is gone, nailed to the cross.  And we are free under grace to do whatever.  This is a gross misunderstanding of God's New Covenant. 

In the Old Covenant the Law was external.  It was something written down on Tablets of Stone, something we learned, and heard, and tried to follow to the best of our ability.  It is something God wanted people to follow, to adopt, to live.  It was what the covenant people said "I Do" to in their covenant with God.

When people of the Old Covenant failed, and EVERYONE DID, they followed the Old Covenant prescription for failure, you sought out the human mediator to the Holy God, to be forgiven your failures.  This too was a copy, or prototype of what is to come. 

How is the New Covenant different?  The New Covenant is different in many ways.  But before we inumerate the differences let's remove the gross misunderstanding right up front.  The New Covenant does not remove God's commandments and replace "law" with "love".  The New Covenant also has God's Will, and commandments clearly taught.  God's holiness remains the central essence even of the New Covenant.  God has not changed.  What has changed is how the covenant between us now works. 

What we could not do, Jesus does for us, and because he also brings true atonement for our sins, our lives are made clean, forgiven, and acceptable, so that God's Spirit can be given to help us with his will!!  So when we say, "I Do" it is with the understanding that we receive HIS "I Will", or HIS "I DO".  And we really are not signing up for the "Do's" so much as the dependence upon him to do what he says he will do.  With all that incredible grace and love coming our direction, it changes everything from DUTY and obligation, to a whole new level of LOVE and TRUST. 

Some people see the Old and New as the difference between Law, and Love.  But that is not right.  As if God is an angry God at first and a more loving God later.  That is not right.  As if the law made people stern and judgmental, and now we are to be gracious and loving.  Don't get mushy in your thinking.  Don't start thinking we should eliminate all judgments, and barriers.  Just love everybody.  Love all the time.  It's all about love, as if all the commandments have just disappeared.  This isn't it at all.

Here is the problem.  Love, without boundaries and banks is like a river in flood stage.  Without the boundaries, without the standards, without the commands, the beautiful river of love becomes the raging, flooding, destructive force.  Love needs standards, and boundaries.  The New Covenant did not eliminate LAW when it emphasizes Grace and Love.  Grace makes no sense without Law.  Grace is what God DOES as it relates to his LAW when we are weak and unable to do the LAW on our own.

The New Covenant is filled with commandments.  Jesus said, "If you love me, you will obey my commands".   Jesus preached Kingdom ethics that were far more strict even than the 10 commandments.  How are the commands of the New Covenant more strict?  Jesus deals with the heart issues, not just external legal boundaries.  Why?  Everything is from the inside out in the New Covenant. 

2 Corinthians 3:3 (NIV) You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

In the New Covenant it isn't knowing the commandments but WANTING to keep them, that is written into the heart.  We want to please the God who loved us and saved us.  And we don't have human mediators regulating our relationship with God, but we approach God personally through the Holy Spirit.  Do you see how God's "I WILL" is in this.  God gives us himself.  God's Life enters in.  God's Spirit.  Our hearts our changed by this.  We don't ACHIEVE this, we simply RECEIVE this.  We don't ACHIEVE holiness or righteousness, we RECIVE his holiness or righteousness.  It begins when we receive Christ, but it also continues to be a daily "receiving".  We need to get this.  Not a daily "achieving" but a daily "receiving". 

The New Covenant is a completion of the Old Covenant in that the commandments are now the Commandments we WANT to keep.  When we receive this, our hearts are changed.  If you don't want to please God, there is a VERY GOOD CHANCE you are not in the New Covenant relationship with God.  You might still be looking at the whole deal the OLD way, through duty, religion, ACHIEVING, and you just don't WANT it.  If you don't WANT it.  Ask God to help you to want it. You need a savior.  Your heart is bad.

Here's how people TODAY are making BIG errors.  They say, "I believe in Jesus" and go on their merry way, and by merry, I mean, they live as if all there is to life is their own personal happiness that they go about pursuing any way they want to.  So they "Eat, drink, and are merry" according to their own decisions, and they set their own rules according to their own desires.  Oh, they believe in Jesus, plan on going to heaven, but as it relates to their personal ethics on sexuality, or morality, their choices bear little resemblance to the life of Christ and the commands of Christ! 

According to the Bible, these people are fooling themselves.  They have a level of belief in Jesus that is little different than the kind of believing that demons have.  The demons know who Jesus is, and believe in him with more conviction, and even fear, but they choose to continue in their rebellion, and they will face judgment for their rebellion!

People think they are in the New Covenant relationship with Jesus, when they accept him as their savior.  How do you think the Groom feels about his bride if while he has made promises to her, and she supposedly has made a commitment and promises to him, then she continues to go out on him regularly and meets with another in date after date!?  That's how God looks at such foolishness as it relates to Covenant!

We are in a covenant with Christ, he is the groom, and we are the bride.  How does it make Christ feel, when we choose to break our date with him each Sunday for whatever convenient reason that comes up?  Many so called Christians commit spiritual adultery with regularity because their beliefs about GRACE are ALL WRONG!  They have become friends with the system of the world, far more than they are loyal to their covenant spouse Jesus Christ.  James calls this spiritual adultery!

The New Covenant WRITES GOD'S WILL ON OUR HEARTS!

2 Corinthians 3:3 (NIV) You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

The New Covenant completes the intent of the Old Covenant.  The New Covenant is not such a complete break with the Old, as if there is no longer God's Will.  God still is a HOLY and MORAL God.  The New Covenant is still filled with commands.  But here is the GREAT DIFFERENCE:  God writes HIS WILL and the DESIRE to do his will on the hearts of those who enter into the NEW COVENANT!

And now we are not alone, and left in our own power to try to obey. 

Philippians 2:13 (NIV) for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

The Holy Spirit is in our lives because we have believed and accepted what Christ has done for us.  He works righteousness into our lives from the INSIDE OUT!

RIGHTEOUSNESS FROM THE INSIDE OUT IS THE REAL THING!

B.      It Is Based on Relationship Not Religion or Ritual (8:11)

Hebrews 8:11 (NIV) No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.

Everyone in the New Covenant will "Know" God (8:11)

It is based on relationship, based on love, rather than based on Law.

How does he do this?  He does this not by fear and guilt and compelling us by the constraints of the law and its consequences, but he does this by love and trust because of his mercy and grace.  This is individually experienced mercy and grace.  This is more than something taught theoretically.  This is the growing love for God because we love him for the mercy and grace we experience from Him. 

Relationship with God through the New Covenant is the REAL THING!

C.      It Gives Us A Clean Slate  (8:12)

Hebrews 8:12 (NIV) For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

Matt Woodley wrote:

My friend Emilio owns a tiny pizzeria that makes the best New York pizza on Long Island. Emilio hates "organized religion." Above the stove where he sticks the orders, he also collects small newspaper clippings about flawed and fallen ministers. I call it his "rack of shame." Every time I come in for pizza, he leans over the counter, slides a few clippings on to the counter, and whispers, "Hey, look at this. This padre walked off with $80,000. This pastor slept with three church members. This guy abused little boys for twenty years. Okay, do you get why I don't need your church?" Then, with a triumphant flair, he sticks the articles back on his "rack of shame."

A few months ago, fed up with his clergy-bashing, I blurted out, "What does this prove, Emilio? So priests and pastors do despicable things. What if I started a rack of shame for people in your profession and then declared that I will never eat pizza?" Actually, over the next few weeks I tried rummaging through newspapers looking for articles about pizza guys doing nasty things--spitting in the bread dough or using cheap Ragu instead of homemade sauce--but apparently pizza guys live pretty clean lives.

Finally, after a month or two of bickering back and forth, I came to Emilio and said, "I need to order two slices of cheese, and I need to ask your forgiveness."

He bristled and shot back, "Is this a joke or a trick?"

"No, really, Emilio, I'm truly sorry for being a jerk and for arguing with you--and I want the cheese slices, too. The truth is that ministers do screw up. We can be pretty decent people; but sometimes we're frauds and hypocrites. Sometimes I'm a sham."

Emilio immediately softened, and we've actually become friends. But I didn't say this as an evangelism strategy. I said it because it's true and it's the gospel. I love the line that summarizes the gospel this way: "We are more flawed than we'd ever dare to admit; we're more loved than we'd ever dare to imagine." I'm not sure why it's so hard to get this simple truth. I qualify for the cosmic rack of shame, but through God's infinite mercy, Jesus took my place on the rack and set me free.

Emilio, my outraged, anti-clerical, unchurched, pizza-making friend, helped me see the gospel again. I guess he evangelized me. I guess I have to be more careful: Jesus keeps sneaking up on me. I never know where he'll pop up next!

Matt Woodley, "Evangelized by the Pizza Man," from his blog "With Us" (8-13-09)

"We are more flawed than we'd ever dare to admit;
we're more loved than we'd ever dare to imagine."

John 3:16 (NIV) "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

FORGIVENESS THROUGH CHIRST IS THE REAL THING!

He doesn't just forgive.  He forgets!

Hebrews 8:12 (NIV) For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

Does this mean God who has the greatest mind in the Universe and outside the Universe actually can forget something?  Here is what I think it means.  It means, God CHOOSES to forget.  He CHOOSES NOT TO REMEMBER.  It means this:  God DECIDES NOT TO HOLD OUR SINS against us. 

Forgiveness cost something of God.  God is able to move on and let is go, because he absorbed the sin, paid for its debt, in the act of justice, causing the penalty to be judged in Christ. 

The judgment of God already burned against our sin, in Jesus.  Because Jesus paid for our sin already, God does not have to REMEMBER to judge the sin again later.  If your sins have been judged already in Christ, God no longer holds this sin against us. These will not be judged again.  He forgets them!

But if we refuse the mercy, the mercy is not applied to our sin.  We stand before God without a priest.  We stand before the judgment with all our sins still needing to be judged. 

Here's the New Covenant offer.  Jesus absorbed your sins, and the consequences of your sin for you.  That's mercy.  He took your place.  But if you reject him, and his mercy, and the forgiveness made available to you through him, you stand alone before a holy God about to face judgment for your sins, including rejecting the greatest good ever done for you. 

Heaven or Hell waits, mercy or judgment, which will you choose? 

"We are more flawed than we'd ever dare to admit;

we're more loved than we'd ever dare to imagine."

We can independently stand for our flaws, or we can lean on his love, depending on the extended mercy of Our Priest, Savior, and King.  Which will it be?

(C) Jim Hammond

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