Oakbrook Evangelical Free Church

Introduction:

Heb 8:1-6  “Now the 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 heaven,  a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus 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 serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.

Heb 8:7-9  For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.

Heb 8:10-13  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.  For I will forgive their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

This new priesthood is not one based on the law
Based on the power of his indestructible life!, 7:16

Jesus Is our King-Priest and He meets Our Need For Security and Assurance!, Hebrews 7

A.        The Oath – Psalm 110:4  “The Lord has sworn”
B.        The guarantee
C.        The Result

Heb 7:25 “Consequently, he is able to save completely those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”

Rom 8:31-34 “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died–more than that, who was raised–who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

Davie Crowder Song

Here is our King, Here is our Love (Priest!)
Here is our God who’s come to bring us back to him
He is the one, He is Jesus

Mat 26:26-28 “And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

Exodus 24:8  “And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

Moses used the blood of an animal.
Jesus used wine to symbolize his own blood.

Moses spoke of the covenant of the law.
Jesus referred to the new covenant of grace.

Moses spoke of God’s words which provided for the partial covering of sins so God could remain with his people
Jesus promised the actual remission of sins so God could live within his people forever.

1 Corinthians 11:23-26  “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

It is this New Covenant which Hebrews 8-10 talks about.

I.          Jesus is our royal high priest who serves in the control room of the universe, 8:1-6
The covenant rests on the priesthood.
The Old Covenant could never be more effective than the priesthood it represented.

So, the New Covenant could never do more than the high priest from whom it flows.

My point: we have a King – Priest!
He sits on the throne of universal authority.

Psalm 110 A Psalm of David.
The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”  The LORD sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies! Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power, in holy garments; from the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours.

The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”

The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. He will drink from the brook by the way; therefore he will lift up his head.

Mat 28:18-20  “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

His universal authority is exercised in the control room of the universe.

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), located in Batavia near Chicago, Illinois, is a US Department of Energy national laboratory specializing in high-energy particle physics. As of January 1, 2007, Fermilab is operated by the Fermi Research Alliance, a joint venture of the University of Chicago and the Universities Research Association (URA). Fermilab is a part of the Illinois Technology and Research Corridor.

Supersized by the LHC = Large Hedron Collider
The LHC is the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. The LHC lies in a tunnel 17 mi circumference, as much as 574 ft beneath the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland.

MLB and NFL video control rooms…
Jesus is our royal high priest who serves in the control room of the universe.  He does not serve in the shadow but the reality!

Family pictures!  “Is this my grandson?”

II.         The New Covenant
Since the two divisions of the OT Kingdom are referred to (Israel and Judah) distinguished these promises are clearly literal.

Ezekiel 37:15-23
Jeremiah 31:31-34

It is clear that the provisions of the New Covenant have been applied to the redeemed human spirit today.  But this does not mean that God does not still have a plan for Israel in the future.

Isa 66:8  “Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth in one moment? For as soon as Zion was in labor she brought forth her children.”

Paul confirms this
Rom 11:26-27  “And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”

The writer of Hebrews clearly applies the New Covenant to the church
He doesn’t tell us his basis for this but Paul does…

Rom 15:4 “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

III.        The Terms of the New Covenant

1.         New understanding of truth and motivation –
“I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts”

Whereas there was great confusion before, now the truth makes sens
And our motivation to know and live truth is not external but internal.
Not because someone tells us to do so but because we have internal motivation.  Why do husbands do what they do? Etc., etc.

John 8:12  “Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

John 8:31-32  “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

John 14:26  “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

James 1:5  “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”

Reading the Bible
Associating with Christians – small groups / church / etc.

New life and new vitality on the inside!]
This is the practical experience of the promise of the NC to give new and inner understanding to the ways and will of God.

2.  Intimacy!

The inner sense of belonging to God in a new way.
“I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me”

A drastic change in your understanding of God.
From being a stern judge who is to be feared – to being your loving heavenly Father to whom you can go any time night or day.

No longer a stranger or outsider but a real part of God’s family.

Galatians 4:6-9  “Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?

Have you met your “soul mate”?
He is our ultimate soul mate!

John 17:20-26  “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

It is this new intimacy with God that becomes the solid foundation of fruitfulness / effectiveness and of emotional stability in the Christian’s experience!

John 15:5  “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

John 14:27  “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”

Philippians 4:6-7  “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

3.         Absolute forgiveness for all sins

Difficult for us to believe!
Forces us to

1.         Face our own wickedness!

Rom 7:15, 18-19, 22, 24  For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate…For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing…For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being…Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

2.         Believe that through Christ’s all sufficient sacrifice God has already set aside the wickedness that continue dogs our trail and pops its ugly head up in our lives so that He continually treats us as his beloved children.

We only have to acknowledge our sin and he sets it aside!
God is just.  And for him to do justly toward us rests totally on the sufficient work of Christ on the cross.

1 John 1:9  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

God is always for us.  He is never against us.
He does not ignore out wickedness.
Our sin hinders the effectiveness of our prayers.
It dampens the heat of our passion for Christ.

But God is always merciful toward us.

Matthew  24:12  “And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.”

Rom 8:1-4 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

Psalm 103:10-14  “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.”

Isaiah 43:25  “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”

This is the personal, moment by moment reality experienced by every believer.

Father Day slides!