Let me give you the sort of quick remembrance right of where we are in the book of Hebrews as we catch up in this new year. Here's what's going on. The theme of the book of Hebrews is one of the easiest themes to remember, right? In fact, you know it because you all put it on a t-shirt at the end of last year, which is fantastic. And the theme is what? Jesus is better. Now, that theme is understood within the context of Hebrews. Remember, the author of Hebrews is writing to a group of Christians who were once Jews. They converted to Christianity. They followed Jesus as the Messiah. But this group of people he's writing to are now having doubts. They're having second thoughts. They're thinking to themselves, Hmm, this Jesus thing isn't working out so great. Maybe I don't really know if I want to stick with Christianity. Maybe I don't really want to stick with Jesus. Maybe I want to go back to what I knew before, the comfortable ways of the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, where I can

go and offer animal sacrifices and look to the high priest to be my intercessor before God. And so, there's an audience here in the book of Hebrews that was sort of second-guessing their Christianity, wondering, Hey, maybe I should give it up. Maybe I should go back to the old ways. And by the way, we all have a point in our life when we think that, right? We're thinking, Hmm, I'm not sure this is working out so hot. And our author has a very simple message to his audience, who were formerly Jews and became Christians: Don't go back to the old ways because everything you go back to, Jesus is better than that. He's better. He's the more perfect Savior at everything you'll turn to. And what's great about the book of Hebrews, it's actually really simple because every chapter, he just picks a new thing that people are relying on other than Jesus, and he says, Jesus is better. Remember chapter one, it was angels. You look, you guys love angels, right? he says to his

audience, you're fascinated with him, you're enamored with them. Well, Jesus is better. Chapter two is the Prophet. So, you think the prophets are gonna save you and redeem you? No, Jesus is better. He's the better prophet. Chapter three, it's Moses, right? Oh, you think Moses is fantastic, he's impressive, he was a great leader. Jesus is better. How about Joshua in Chapter four? He was fantastic too. No, Jesus is better. And then in Chapter five, he started a whole new series of arguments, and that was about the priesthood. He goes, Oh, you're looking to the descendants of Aaron, those high priests that can go under the Holy of Holies and represent you before God, what's known as the Aaronic priesthood. You think they can save you? No, Jesus is better. And so, starting in Chapter five all the way through seven, right up to our text today, the theme has been Jesus as our better high priest. And you remember in Chapter 7, at the very end of our study last year, it was milk

acidic Jesus in the line of Melchizedek, but now he picks up that same theme again about Jesus as the greater high priest. He's just gonna continue barreling down the path. He's not gonna let him escape. It's like everywhere they turn, he blocks them, right? No, Jesus better. Can't go there, can't go here. Jesus is the only path of life, and that's where we'll pick up here in chapter 8, verses 1 through 6. And this is just an exciting section where he makes the case again that Jesus' priesthood is so much superior. Alright, so let's dive in. Verses 1 through 6. Let's listen to this passage. Now the point in what we are saying is this. What you level and authors do that, by the way, here's my points. Don't miss it. We do have such a high priest, one who's 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 we were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offered gifts according to the law. They serve a copy and a 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. Amen. Let me pray for us as we dive into this passage today. Let's pray. Lord, we think of this text and ask your help. Lord, we know we always need your help any time we study your word, and we ask it again, not just for today, though, Lord. We ask your help in this entire year. So, Lord, we pray for this study, but

we pray for the whole year now, Lord, as we commit it to you and ask that your grace, your word, your power would encourage and strengthen us in the year to come. Open up this passage today, Lord, that we might see afresh that Jesus is our most superior High Priest. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. So, there's this phrase I hear all the time in our culture today. It's the phrase, Are we okay? You've heard someone ask that of you, maybe there's a strained relationship, and you don't know if you're really getting along with somebody, and there's a doubt about whether there's a rift between the two of you, and someone will come up to you and go, Are we okay? or Are we good? Is everything harmonious between us? That's pretty common in our world today. And one of the things I've observed that I'm sure you've observed is that as human beings, we have a tremendous amount of angst over broken human relationships. We worry about them a lot. Imagine right now as you

sit in this room. There's probably someone in your life that you're worried about your relationship with. It's broken. It's fractured. There's some sort of enmity or hostility there. You almost want to go up and say, Are we okay? Are we good? How can we fix and repair this? And we spent a lot of time and a lot of energy worrying over broken human relationships. But here's the other thing I've noticed, is that human beings, although they have a lot of angst over broken human relationships, rarely have anything remotely similar in terms of how they worry about the relationship with God. There's hardly any pause in most people about whether their relationship with God might need to be asked the question, Are we okay? In fact, most people skip through life thinking, Well, God is pretty pleased with me, and everything's just hunky-dory and fine, and I need to worry about some sort of broken relationship because all is perfect, and they don't really reflect upon it all. And it's human relationships they're worried about, but everything with the divine must be perfectly okay.

there's a sense in which people, it doesn't dawn on them for a moment that their relationship with God might actually be broken. Now, of course, you know the biblical story. You know the story of Hebrews. It says every human being is born a sinful person, sort of a strain from God, if you will, that there is a broken relationship with God. There is something not right. If someone who's the sinner goes to God and says, Are we okay? the answer is no, we're not okay because I'm a holy God and you're a sinful person. Something needs to be done to fix this. We need to have something to repair the relationship. We need to look to something to bridge this gap. What would that possibly be? Now, our author in the last few chapters of Hebrews, and he's going to do this today, he goes, I have an answer to that question. In fact, what he in effect says is, Wouldn't it be great, wouldn't it be amazing if we had somebody that could actually go into God's presence directly?

and repair the relationship on our behalf. Wouldn't it be great if we had a high priest like that? Wouldn't it be great if somebody could fix this problem, this big gap between us and God, with me, grapes, ants, someone who could go in that kind of spot and do it? And our author today, and he does this in the very first verse, it says we do have a prior to priest just like that. And here's what I want you to see about this passage today's all right. This passage is good news, is really good news today. Our author is saying in effect to us, if you are longing for someone who can go and fix this relationship with God, you have that person in Jesus Christ. And given what he's done, and given how he completed, and given that he's the most perfect better High Priest, if you ask God, are we okay in light of Jesus, the answer is absolutely, you are my beloved daughter or my beloved son, because through Christ you have been forgiven of your sins. This passage is good news. Here's the trick though, passages like

this is only good news to people who might reflect upon and wonder about whether their relationship with God is broken. For people who are just skipping through life, completely convinced everything's fine, passages like this seem boring, right? In other words, they don't see that there's not a problem. So what problem? Why do I need a high priest? There's no problem to solve here. Passages like this are only meaningful if someone is desperately looking for someone to stand in the gap between them and a holy God. If someone doesn't think God's holy and someone's pretty convinced they're righteous, then a passage like this is like, well, that's not really great news. I don't really think this matters that much. So here's the trick today: a passage like this is great news if you put yourself in the position of the Jews of the ancient world who realized there was something broken about their relationship with God and needed someone to fix it. Who can that be? And the answer is Jesus. Now here's what I was gonna do: he's gonna lay out why that's the case. What

is it about Jesus that makes him about our high priest and Aaron or any other high priest that's gone along? And if you're gonna understand the answer to that question, you have to understand what a priest did, okay? And here's the way we're gonna break down our study today. A priest did three things in the Old Testament, and I've got them there in your outline. These three things every priest did, and here's the trick: Jesus does it better. In fact, he doesn't just do it better; he's the only one that actually does it. He's the only one that actually gets it done. Look at your outline with me for a second. We'll look at the big picture, and then we'll dive in. The first thing that Jesus does better is he offers a better sacrifice. In the Old Testament priests, Roman numeral two, he does it in a better location, in the very presence of God himself. And then thirdly, it's a better result. He was actually successful and sat down when it was done. Now to get why

We have those three parts in our outline. They're coming from the text, and I'll show you in a moment where they come from the text. But you have to understand what a priest did when it came to sacrifices. These were the three steps that priests had, and you can see at the very top of your outline there, I have this sentence that's called Old Testament context. At the very top there, priestly work involved three simple things. They would go to the tabernacle or the temple. They first of all did make a sacrifice. They would slaughter an animal. Now, step one was, was that a good sacrifice or a bad sacrifice? Was it worthy to get the job done? We'll come back to that, but that's not the only thing to do. Then there's step two. They take it into a particular location. A priest takes the blood from a sacrifice. He goes somewhere with it. Where does he go? The high priest goes inside the Holy of Holies and sprinkles the blood in there in the

presence of God. In other words, he takes the blood, and he applies it, and he represents it in God's presence. That's the second thing a priest does. And then, you know what the third thing a priest does in every situation is? They wait for the results. Did this work? Was it effective? Do I have to do it again? That's the priestly life. So, once again, you offer sacrifice, you take it to a certain location, and you wait for a result. We're gonna take those same three things, and we're going to show you how Jesus does each of those better and more successfully than any priest the Old Testament could ever do. And that's exactly what our passage is doing today. Alright, let's dive in then to our text, starting with Roman numeral one. We'll start with the better sacrifice. Now, keep in mind, we're gonna go a little out of order here because those three things pop up at different places in the text, but the better sacrifice of Jesus is contrasted here to the way Old Testament

priests do it. So what an Old Testament priests do? Well, they offered sacrifices. Look at verse three. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. What are these sacrifices that the Old Testament priesthood offered? Well, animals. Now, this baffles people, and we're gonna come back to this later in the book of Hebrews because we're gonna pick it up in chapters 9 and 10 as well. People look at this, and it sounds so barbaric and so weird and so ritualistic. Why would you go kill animals? What is that really doing for you? Well, obviously, it's symbolic, right? It's saying that sin, your sin, requires a life. It requires the shedding of blood. It's a symbolic picture that when you sin, you breach that relation with God, and your sin must be punished, and this sacrifice is representing you in a sense. And when you take its life, that's in one sense a substitute for your life. And so, the sacrifice has had a huge theological point for anyone who's willing to listen.

but here's the cash. Even in the Old Testament, no one thought an animal sacrifice actually satisfied God. I mean, is it enough for a bull or a goat to be sacrificed? Is that really gonna take away your sin and my sin? No, we'll see in a second. Here's what's happening on sacrifices. Those were just simply looking forward to something else. They were simply anticipating the real full sacrifice that would eventually come. So, what I want you to see here in this first point is that, yes, Old Testament priests offered animal sacrifices. You see that in point A. But it would never get the job done. The blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin. Now, you might think, Well then, why bother doing it at all in the Old Testament? The answer is clear. It is that God set this up on purpose to give people a representation of the Savior who would come, right? It was a picture of what Jesus would do. We'll come back to that later. That's a really key point.

Here's what our author is saying. Though those Old Testament priests offered animal sacrifices, yes, but don't really think those got it done. You need someone to offer a sacrifice that could really get it done. This is what Jesus did. Under Roman numeral one, you see point B there. Jesus offers himself. Look at the back half of verse three. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. That's the Old Testament high priests. Then notice what our author says. Thus, it is necessary for this priest, Jesus, also to have something to offer. He's saying Jesus has to have a sacrifice if he's gonna be our high priest. So, what does Jesus have to offer? An answer, of course. We saw in the prior chapters, he offers what no other priests in the history of Israel has ever, ever done. He offers himself. You ever notice that? It's the Old Testament high priests. They could always offer some third party, namely the animal. Jesus says, No, I am both the priest and the sacrifice. I'm offering myself. Would

that get it done answer yes because Jesus was an absolutely perfect high priest. And this is where I want you to bump up a few verses to the end of chapter 7, because this is the way, this is what our authors building on. Look at verse 26 of chapter 7, just a few verses up the pipeline there. Look at what it says: For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest. Listen to the language. He describes him in wholly innocent, unstained, separate from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the sins of the people, since he did once for all when he offered up himself. In other words, our authors saying Jesus's sacrifice is better because it's absolutely perfect. And when God pours out his wrath on Jesus, it satisfies God completely because he's a perfect, unblemished sacrifice. Step 1 then here in this whole scenario is that you've got a scene.

where Jesus offers a sacrifice that's so much better and so much more perfect than any Old Testament priest could ever offer. Here's what's surprising about this: you might think, Well, who would ever go back to other ways then? You know what's interesting about reading the Bible is that whenever people lack faith or stray off the path, don't we have a tendency to just look at them and shake our heads and go, What were you thinking? Isn't it plain as the sun in the sky that Jesus is the greater sacrifice? Why would you look to the priests of Aaron to do it when you have Jesus? Why would you go back to the old ways? I can't believe you did that, but then guess what we realize about ourselves is that we do the same exact thing. There's a sense in which we stray off and look for other people, to other ways, if you will, to make an acceptable sacrifice to God. The Old Testament Jews may have gone back to Aaron, and our author is saying, Don't do that. Jesus is better. We probably aren't tempted to go back to

the ironic priesthood here in this room, right? But what do we do in our lives? We have other things that we're gonna put on the altar before God and say, See, God, I'm acceptable. See, God, you should love me. See, God, our relationships good, right? Are you okay with me? Are we good? We should be because look what I've done. So, in other words, what we do is we actually, in one sense, in our lives, don't rely fully on Jesus as our perfect sacrifice because we try to offer other things. That's Paul's on that form. What are supposed other sacrifices we offer that we think, If I do this, God's gonna be good with me. We're gonna be a-okay. I don't need to worry about the Aaronic priesthood or Jesus. If I do this, I can kind of be my own priest. What are some of those things, right? Yeah, let me see your hand. Yep, yep, okay. This is a good one. Being involved in ministry. If I'm worried about my relationship with God

well then I'll go out, and I'll get involved in my church, and I'll be a member, and I'll help people, and do ministry, and then God will be pleased with me, right? Because that's how it works. No, not so much. That alone isn't gonna do it. What else do we rely on? Yes, service. This is a big one in churches today, right? If I can go work at the soup kitchen, and I can spend a lot of extra time helping people, maybe I'll give a lot of money away, then God, you and I are okay, right? Because that's how that relationship repaired. If I just do enough good things, then God is gonna accept me, and so I'm gonna go to my own little altar and offer my service and my money, and then God, hey, don't worry about your sin, all's good, our author assistant. Oh, that's not gonna work. What else do we trust in? Yes, law-keeping. Absolutely, that's a good one. Like, I'm there, I've got the perfect attendance.

record at church or at Bible study and RTS. I'm gonna show up on time, and I'm gonna do the right things. I'm gonna be the good Christian, and then that's kind of our little sacrifice for God, and that's enough, right? Or about this one. This was in my mind this week. Ever felt like one of the things we do that we offer as a sacrifice to God is just feeling bad about our sins? God, if I really feel really bad about what I did, if I just let it sort of haunt me, and I feel guilty about it, and I go through this penance, then that solves it, right? We're okay. No, in all those instances, we who are not that different than the audience with the book of Hebrews, we go chasing other things to. Here's what you see about the Roman numeral one is that there's no better sacrifice on the planet to put you in a better stead with God than Jesus. In fact, he's the only one that can put you in

good stead with God. He's the only way you can repair that relationship with God. And what our author is saying, you've got a priest that gives you the ultimate perfect sacrifice. Don't go through life thinking, Well, I can do better than that. And then amazing, we think, Well, having Jesus only gets me part of the way. If I just offer my own other things, that'll finish the job. No, Jesus has finished the job. It's the perfect sacrifice. Don't go back to the old priesthood when you have a glorious sacrifice like Jesus. That's the first point our author wants to make. Let's look at our second Roman numeral here. It's not just a better sacrifice; it's also a better location. This sounds like a strange thing, right? Better location. Here's what I want you to realize. When a priest of the Old Testament made a sacrifice, they took that blood somewhere in a certain locale. And what the priest in the Old Testament would do is they would take it inside what was called the tent. In fact, you saw that in our passage.

we'll go back and read it again. That's all. That's known as a tabernacle, okay? And in the Old Testament times, this is what they used in the desert. If you remember the wilderness wandering, Moses had a tent or a tabernacle that represented God's holiness. And when they had a sacrifice, they went inside that tent and they sprinkled the blood on the altar. And then when there was a permanent temple built, the same principle, right? You go inside the Holy of Holies and you sprinkle the blood of the altar there. This is what Old Testament priests did. We can see that in our text here. Look down in our passage and you'll see this passage say is that very thing. Verse 5, the Old Testament priests serve a copy and a shadow of the heavenly things. We'll come back to that in a moment. When Moses was about to erect the tent, the tabernacle, he was instructed by God, See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain. In other words

remember when Moses was up on Mount Sinai. God gave him all the laws, all the instructions. One of the things he said, Moses, it is: I want you to build me a dwelling place, this tent. I'm gonna come into all there, and when you have a sacrifice, you take the blood into that location 'cause that's where I'm at. Okay, that sounds pretty good, right? Why wouldn't that get the job done? You imagine a Jew in the Old Testament hearing this, thinking to himself, Well, that sounds pretty good to me. Why can't Aaron take that blood and go inside the tent and offer it there, and that solve my sin problem? Our author's gonna give a very simple answer, and that is this: because that was simply a man-made tent that was symbolic of the real dwelling place of God. Did God dwell in the tabernacle? In a sense, yes, in a sense. But where's God's real holy of holies? Where's God's real dwelling place? Where's his ultimate temple? Not in a man-made building, tent, or structure.

God's own places in heaven itself. What you need then, says our authors, actually you've never thought about it. You need a high priest that gets you really in the presence of God. And going into a man-made room, you think that does it. What you realize then is that there's a grand contrast here between what Christ has done and what the Old Testament priest has done. And this is where you realize this term in verse five. Once you look back at verse five, because this is a very important language here. These tents and tabernacles were a copy and a shadow of the heavenly things. It's fascinating language. God was very particular about how Moses should build this, but not because going into a man-made tent solves your sin problem. Because it was a symbolic picture of the real glory and heavenly dwelling place of God, up and up in his true throne room. So are we really to think that taking a man-made priest with or a priest that's just human with an animal sacrifice in a man-made tent is really gonna solve your

sin problem or authors gonna say no. It's not gonna solve your sin problem. It doesn't mean it was a bad thing to do. It's just it was all symbolic and pointing forward to the thing that actually would. And this is what Christ does here. Look at point B under that second Roman numeral. He does his work and the very presence of God himself. Let's get back up to verse 2 for a moment. You'll see this language here. He says Jesus we have such a high priest and verse 1 who's at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven. And look at verse 2 a minister in the holy places describing Jesus. He's a minister in the holy places. Now by the way that phrase holy places. If you are a first century Israelite and you heard the phrase holy places you would assume that what the author meant at first was that Jesus was a minister in the Holy of Holies in the temple down the street. But look what happens. That's not what he means. Back to verse 2 a

minister and the holy places in the true tent. Ah, that word is key in the real tent and the ultimate tent, in the fulfilled tent. The Lord set up, not man. Uh, here's the contrast. This is a big one. The contrast is, are you really gonna trust in human priests and animal sacrifice, going to a man-made tent, and that's your hope? It's amazing how many people today who live in the world have hopes very similar to that. They look to man-made things and man-made structures and man-made rituals, and they think, if I can just do that, then God's happy with me, He's pleased with me. And even in the Old Testament time, our author is saying, no, no, you see, that was all symbolic, what's to come. It's all a picture of what Jesus would ultimately do. Going into a little room like that does not solve your sin problem. He, somebody can really march into the presence of God Himself. Who could do that? Who could actually go and march into the very presence of God? Human beings will say that they'll do

that someday I'm always shocked by people who tell me what they'll do when they meet God someday. Ever had that conversation with someone? I can't wait to meet God someday. When I get in His presence, I'll tell Him what I think. Let me know how that goes for you, right? I'll march in the very presence of God, and I'll give Him a piece of my mind about what I think about the way He rules the world and the way He let my life unfold. Yeah, I don't think it's gonna go like that. Human beings like you and I are sinners who march into the presence of God, are subject to be destroyed by God's holiness, especially if we go in wagging our finger. Who could withstand that holiness and represent us? We need someone who could go into heavenly places. We need someone who can go into a new location. And this is where He turns to Jesus and says, Do you realize that Jesus has done exactly this? What makes Jesus wonderful is that

he has gone into the real Holy of Holies in heaven itself. What things that most people don't ever think about when they read the Gospels is it never dawned on them that when Jesus lived his earthly life that he never went into the earthly temple, into the Holy of Holies. Ever thought about that? I talked about this in last year's Bible study about the way the temple in the Old Testament was set up. It was set up with restrictions all over the place, right? Every layer was another layer of holiness and a layer of purity that you had to have in each step along the way. People, more and more people, were restricted, and it was only in the tabernacle that the priest could go, and only in the Holy of Holies could the high priests go. And you know, no one was holy enough to get in there, and everybody was blocked. But Jesus wasn't blocked. Jesus could have gotten in, you know, got into Jerusalem and walked into the temple and passed every barrier and walked right through the curtain.

Holy of Holies, and we've been perfectly fine because he's the Son of God himself. If anybody would have had the right to do it, it would have been Jesus. But you know what's interesting? Jesus never even tried. Why? Because his Holy of Holies that he was gonna go into with his blood was in a totally different place. Location, location, location. And the rule of real estate, top three rules of real estate: Location, location, location. I've got top three rules for picking a redeemer: location, location, location. Can you think of another redeemer that can do that? You can't do that. Your pastor can't do that. Your buddy can't do that. Your theologian friend can't do that. No other religious figure can do that. Buddha can't do that. Mohammed can't do that. Jesus is the only one that can do that. Location, location, location. Here's the other thing interesting about the second point: it also reminds us just the way Old Testament and New Testament relate to each other. This word shadow is an important word.

for you to capture because it's gonna come back up later in the book of Hebrews. The Old Testament, in one sense, is a shadow of what Christ is gonna reveal in the new. That's a pretty good way to describe it. Ever had someone ask you how the Old Testament and the New Testament relate to each other, and then you froze, and you're like, Who can answer such a question? Well, it's very complicated, but here's one answer. The author says you can think of the Old Testament like the shadow and the New Testament like the reality. Think about a shadow for a moment. If I look at the lights on the ceiling, I can see my shadow on the floor a little bit right here. Shadows can tell you a good bit about someone, right? By someone's shadow, you could probably tell whether they're male or female. You could probably tell a little about their wearing. You could probably tell a little bit about their features and so forth, maybe even a little bit how tall they are depending on where the light is. You can learn a lot with someone when you

look at their shadow, but what if you actually beheld the real person? Would you ever go back to the shadow if you saw the real person? Would you say, actually, I'd rather have a relationship with your shadow? Know the person's in full color, all their details filled in. That's the way ship doing the Old Testament, the new. Now, make no mistake about it, when you realize that shadow is a good way to think of it, you realize also there's not a conflict between the old, the new either. Some people want to put the Old Testament against the New Testament if they contradictory each other, but that doesn't work either because shadows don't contradict you. They're just an incomplete picture of you, right? Your shadow is not at odds with you, so I like my shadows in contradiction with me unless Peter Pan. My shadow and I are harmonious, right? This is a great way for you to think about the relationship to you, all in the New Testament. You recall last year when we started the book of Hebrews. I said that one of the things you're

gonna learn throughout this whole course or through this whole study is a more sort of profound sense of how to relate to and MT. This is it, okay? Those animal sacrifices, that physical tent, that whole infrastructure, there's something sinful or wrong or contradictory about any of that which is incomplete. I was always looking forward to something more ultimate, and so when you find the thing that's more ultimate, you don't go back to the thing that's incomplete. Another way to think of it is it's a way to relate a blueprint in the actual house, okay? You have a blueprint, and then you end up building the house that it's based on. You don't go back to the blueprint. You can live in the real house now. Why would you worry about the blueprint anymore? That's in effect what the relationship between the old and the new testament is. What you have then in Christ is the true ultimate Savior who can go into the real presence of God and really get it done, okay? That leads to the third Roman numeral here, and this is

the crescendo of the whole thing. So recall the steps here. Step one, you got to have the right sacrifice. Animals don't get it done. Jesus is the perfect sacrifice. Step two, you got to have the right location. Going into a man-made tent, really? That's your hope? You're gonna bank your whole eternal life on a man? No, you got to go to the heaven itself and to the real presence of God. That's where the blood of Jesus is, is representing us. And then thirdly, you wait for your results. Did it work? Ah, here's the thing that's stunning about our passage for Jesus. It absolutely worked because it tells us he sat down. Look at verse 1. Now the point in what we are saying is this. We have such a high priest, one who is seated. Stop right there for a moment. If you mark in your Bibles, you can mark this. One who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven. Now when you read that, you don't even think about it. You're like, is that

significant. Yes, it's to give again. And the way the reason is anybody's good again. Put yourself in the shoes of a first-century Israelite who's reading this passage, and he's used to the Old Testament infrastructure. He's used to the Old Testament Tabernacle and the work of the Old Testament priests. They never sat down. If you walked into the Holy of Holies, the early tent, there's no chairs in there. There's no chairs. You don't go in there and just rest and sit down. No, you are always busy offering sacrifices. And you wake up the next morning, you do it again. You offer sacrifices at this temple, and then the next temple, the next festival comes around, you offer them again, and you offer them again, and you offer them again. The work of the earthly priest was never done. Why was it never done? Well, we learned later in the book of Hebrews, it's never done for the same reason we talked about, 'cause the blood of bulls and goats can't actually take away sin.

they're just symbolic if they never get it done. You just keep offering them as a way to point people to Christ, but you never finished. I want you to realize here in this third point. Look at the way I phrase point-a there under that third bullet. The work of Old Testament priests never really took away sin, so they never sat down. The work was never finished. Never had a job you felt like just never got finished, just went on and on and on, drove you crazy. For some of you who are everyone laughed at that, right? There's like yes. For some of you who are mothers right now of young kids, or can you think back to the time when you had young kids. How many days did you finish day and you think yourself, I don't think I've ever sat down today. I think the entire day I ran around taking care of my kids. I don't think I ever sat down. And what's crazy is I gotta get up tomorrow and do the same thing again. The work of the priests in the ancient world was kind of like

this like it never got finished. I think about it in my wall. I'm like one of the things that drives me crazy in the summers. I can't kill these crazy weeds in my yard. And every time I kill them, I'm mad about it because I know that in another week, I'll have to kill them again and then kill them again. Melissa is laughing over here really hard. She knows I'm out there. She goes, Did you just do this? Yeah, I did just do this. I need a real high priest to come to my yard right. Here's the trick is that people live their religious lives like this. And what they do is they enter the grind of religiosity and day in, day out, they kill themselves to make God pleased with them. And the work is never done. How sad. You know, it's not that different than the Greek tragedy of Sisyphus, if you know it. One of the famous mythological stories is the Greek tragedy of Sisyphus. Sisyphus was

doomed to push a boulder up a hill. And you know the story, right? He's at the very bottom of that hill, and he's got this heavy boulder. And he shoves it, he pushes it, and he strains over it. He pushes it up the hill, and then what happens? When he gets to the top, it rolls right back down. And what does he have to do? Start over all again. The story of Sisyphus is kind of like the Old Testament priesthood. They just did it over and over. Is that where you want to place your hope for eternity? Just in this sort of over and over and over again. People live their religious lives like this, and if they're not looking to the ironic priesthood to do it, they're looking to their own efforts to do it. And every day they wake up in the morning, they say to themselves, Today I've got to find a way to please God. Today I've got to find a way to make God love me. Today I've got to wake up and prove

myself so they push the boulder up the hill. It rolls back down. They're like, Well, tomorrow I guess I got to do it again. Do you realize that most religions, and I would argue that in a sense even all religions other than Christianity, that is what you do? Here's the good news today: you have a high priest that got it done, okay? He sat down. I want you to look down at verse one again and just let it soak in. We have such a high priest, one who is seated, one who was seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven. Absolutely got it done. Some of you may know the story of Martin Luther, the monk who started the Reformation. Talk about a guy who got up every morning to roll the boulder up the hill. Man, this guy was like intent on proving himself to God. He was, he had all this angst and worry over God's holiness and his sinfulness, which is, by the way, the right angst and worry because that's a real problem he's had.

the wrong solution. So, every day he got up and goes, Oh, I'm gonna out monk all my other monks. If I out monk all my other monks, then I'll be right. It'll be good. So, he did that. He would, you know, sleep without blankets, and he would do all kinds of penance. He'd go up the stairs on his knees, praying each time. He would punish himself and self-flagellation, and he just did everything. And then the next day, he got up, and guess what? He did it all again. And then one day, Martin Luther's reading the book of Romans. Think back to Romans study. He comes across his pass about how the people are justified before God by faith alone in Christ. And he's like, Oh, by faith? I can trust in a Savior who really got it done? You mean I don't have to do that every day to prove myself to God and again to love me? He loves me because of Christ? He answers absolutely. The good news today for my authors is you have a high priest who offered the best sacrifice.

you went to the right location, and he really got it done. The result was perfect. Think about what Christ said on the cross when he died: It is finished. Now, if that's true, and it is true, then that's gonna change the way you live your life right now. Some of you are gonna take that and go, Well, if it's finished, I was gonna go out and do whatever I want to do. No, no, no, that's not the result. The result is you were overwhelmed, bowled over by the grace and love of Christ, energized to follow him more faithfully. But now, following him had a guilt or legalism or pushing the boulder up the hill, falling out of joy and freedom because it's done. And when you mess up or you stumble, guess what? It's done. When you screw up, and we all do screw up, it's done because you have a faithful final High Priest who's actually in heaven for you. That's the eternal hope you have, not going into some earthly tent, your journey, do the

heavenlies, and he's still there interceding for you before the throne of God, and he got it done. That's the good news I want you to take away from our time together today, and that's the good news I want you to talk about in your groups. So, let's transition out of that. Let me just mention one final thing here in your notes. The room name role for this was just in there as a filler because all that leads to a reality that Christ gave us a covenant. In next week, when we come back, we're gonna talk about the new covenant because the rest of chapter 8 is all about that amazing reality. But you have to understand verses 1 through 5 lead-up to verse 6 where we learn that we get that better covenant. Now, for those of you that are new to the groups here, you realize that we have a time of discussion at the end of each study where you get together and you go through these questions. A couple things to keep in mind: one is if you're new to

the group. You do some introductions, right, if you got some new folks. Secondly, remember the questions are just guides that you don't have to take them as mechanical, right? Whatever's on your mind as you reflect upon this study, keep them on. You can talk about it and reflect upon it and apply it in whatever way your group wants to do, but these questions are a good start, and they can get you out of the gates. I hope they're helpful, and then we'll all close this out as I always do, right, at a quarter till to keep us on time. All right, let me pray for us, then we'll transition into our groups. Lord, we're so grateful for a new year. Lord, what a great way to start just to think about it being done. Lord, we need to rest, and Lord, we can't rest by pushing that boulder every day. Thank you for pushing it to the top of the hill and being complete and finished. Lord, may we rest in you as our great High Priest.

Charlotte: Women’s Bible Study (Hebrews) w/ Dr. Michael Kruger; Episode 18

In the fall of 1966, Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) opened its doors for resident studies in Jackson, Mississippi with an enrollment of seventeen students.  Since that time, RTS has grown to eight campuses and an online program. RTS Global Education offers three fully online distance education MA programs. Today, RTS teaches more residential MDiv credit hours than any seminary in North America. In addition, RTS offers classes at international locations in partnership with other ministries and schools.

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