Dr. Rodney Plunket

Hebrews 8-9

Please open your Bible to Hebrews (Heb) 9:13-14 and follow along as I read:

For if the blood of goats and bulls, with the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, 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 worship the living God!

I would like you especially to notice the three word English phrase at the beginning of verse (v) 4:  “how much more.”  Just a few days ago, it occurred to me that this little phrase encapsulates a great deal of what the writer of Hebrews is saying in chapters 8 & 9 of this book.  You see the writer is seeking to show his readers that in Jesus Christ they have so much more.  Specifically, he is declaring that his readers have so much more in Christ than is available in the religion of the Jews.  But I believe this book can also help readers today realize how much more there is in Christ than anywhere else.  So let’s look at the “much more” message of Heb 8 & 9.

This “much more” message is based on the revelation given by the writer in Heb 7.  There, as we noted last week, the writer demonstrates that Jesus Christ is a high priest “forever, according to the order of Melchizedek” (v 17).  Now please look with me at Heb 7:20-22 to see what the writer of Hebrews builds upon this fact that Jesus is a priest forever.  Heb 7:20-22:

This was confirmed with an oath; for others who became priests took their office without an oath, but this one became a priest with an oath, because of the one who said to him,

“The Lord has sworn

         and will not change his mind,

          ‘You are a priest forever’”—

accordingly Jesus has also become the guarantee of a better covenant.

Those last three English words are what I particularly want to emphasize:  “a better covenant.”  Those three words are extremely important because that concept of the better covenant is what the writer is going to use to prove that in Christ we have so much more.  In Heb 7:20-22 the writer demonstrates the superiority of Christ’s covenant by showing that only the Melchizedekian priesthood of Christ is covered by a divine oath.  A priesthood covered by a divine oath, the writer indicates, is clearly superior to a priesthood without that kind of coverage.  Therefore, Jesus has indeed “become the guarantee of a better covenant.”

In chapters 8 & 9 the writer further supports the better covenant status of Christ’s covenant with a variety of proofs.  But most of those proofs center around the message highlighted by the title of our lesson this morning:  “Into Heaven Itself.”  That title comes from Heb 9:24, but an emphasis upon the heavenly nature of Christ’s priestly work is found over and over again in Heb 8 & 9.  Let’s look at that emphasis together.

Please follow along as I read Heb 8:1-7.  Notice, as I read, this passage’s emphasis on the heavenly aspect of Christ’s work.

Now the main point in what we are saying is this:  we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent that the Lord, and not any mortal, has set up.  For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; hence it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer.  Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law.  They offer worship in a sanctuary that is a sketch and shadow of the heavenly one; for Moses, when he was about to erect the tent, was warned, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.”  But Jesus has now obtained a more excellent ministry, and to that degree he is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted through better promises.  For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need to look for a second one.

The writer begins by drawing attention to Jesus “in the heavens” seated at the right hand of God.  He then refers to Jesus as “a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent that the Lord, and not any mortal, has set up.”  The reference to the “true tent” serves to contrast the heavenly sanctuary, the true tent in which Christ ministers, with the earthly tabernacle or tent of ancient Israel.  The heavenly focus of this passage is clear.  Then the writer demonstrates the superiority of the heavenly sanctuary by quoting Exodus 25:40.  That passage refers to a “pattern” which Moses was shown on Mount Sinai.  That, this writer says, demonstrates that Israel’s earthly tabernacle was only a copy modeled after the true sanctuary in heaven where God dwells.  That means that the Jewish priests serve only in a copy of the real thing.  The superiority of Christ’s priestly ministry is realized when one understands that Jesus, our high priest, serves not in a copy of the heavenly sanctuary but in the heavenly sanctuary itself.

Now please look with me at Heb 9:11-14.  There we read,

But when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation), he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.  For if the blood of goats and bulls, with the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, 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 worship the living God!

Notice that the writer refers to “the greater and perfect tent,” and says of this tent that it is “not made with hands” and it is “not of this creation.”  So “the Holy Place” that he refers to is the actual sanctuary in heaven where God dwells.  Again the superiority of Christ is due to his ability to perform his high priestly ministrations in the very presence of God in heaven.

Now let’s look together at one more passage.  Turn please to Heb 9:23 & 24 and follow along as I read.

Thus it was necessary for the sketches of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves need better sacrifices than these.  For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

Just prior to these verses the writer describes the purification rites that were performed to consecrate the tabernacle and all of its accoutrements.  In verses (vv) 23-24 he points out that even “the sketches” (or the copies/the patterns) “of the heavenly things to be purified . . . , but the heavenly things themselves need better sacrifices than these.”  The “better sacrifices,” he makes clear, are presented by Christ; and Christ presented those better sacrifices when He “entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.”

It seems fairly clear to me that the people to whom this letter is sent are being drawn back to the earthly worship taking place in Jerusalem.  They want a priesthood and a sacrificial system.  They want an altar and a holy sanctuary.  Hebrews declares that to go back to Jerusalem is to leave the high priest who serves in the holiest sanctuary of all.  It is to leave the high priest who serves God in heaven itself.

I want now to remind you of why the Book of Hebrews was written.  It was written to revive a group of Jewish Christians whose faith was weakening.  Their fervor was cooling.

The writer says what he does in Heb 8 & 9 to revive his readers’ faith.  He does that by giving them a splendid picture of Jesus in heaven serving as a high priest in the very presence of God.  Whatever is happening on earth, whatever is bombarding their faith––the writer knows that they will deal effectively with it when they lift up their eyes and see the glorified Christ serving as their high priest in heaven.

I do not know what your struggles are today.  I do not know what is assaulting your faith.  I do not know how Satan is seeking to cool your fervor.  But I do know a force that will conquer the struggles, the assaults, the satanic attacks.  That force is the Christ of heaven serving in the presence of God.  Let’s keep our faith focused there.  Heb 9:24 tells us that Christ appears there “in the presence of God on our behalf.”  Whatever your struggle, take it to the Christ of heaven.  Take it to your high priest.  Take it to the one who sits at the right hand of Almighty God.

Turn you eyes upon Jesus,

          Look full in His wonderful face,

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim

          In the light of his glory and grace.