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This is The Gathering Surf City’s podcast for weekly messages.
The Gathering is a passionate worship community in Surf City, North Carolina that strives to Love God, Live Jesus, and Walk together in the Holy Spirit. We hope you enjoy worshipping and drawing closer to Jesus with us!
Alrighty, I like chapter eight,
Hebrews. Chapter eight.
The object of our worship.
We have been talking about the book
of Hebrews since the first of the
year. And we've been making our
way sort of verse by verse,
section by section.
All of God's word is about jesus.
And you can Find it all the
Way back to Genesis,
chapter three.
And it just keeps Pointing us
in the direction of jesus.
And so the book of Hebrews was sort
of the outline title that I gave.
It was the object of our faith,
because the book of Hebrews kind
of knits it all together for us.
It sort of puts it together in a fashion
that explains kind of how and
what, and sort of the progression of
what God was doing throughout the
Old Testament through the man,
Abraham, the family,
the people group,
the nation,
the temple,
the tabernacle,
the temple,
the sacrificial system,
all of it.
God sort of constructed it all
for us to point to Jesus.
And so we get to the
book of Hebrews,
and the book of Hebrews points to Jesus
because it says that in these
last days God has spoken
through his son,
Jesus. And Jesus is the son,
and he's the heir of all things,
and he is the creator of all things.
He's the sustainer of the universe,
he's the radiance of God's glory.
He's the exact expression
of the essence of God.
Jesus said himself,
if you've seen me,
you've seen the father.
He said,
if you knew the father,
you'd know me.
And then Jesus also said,
I am the way.
Now, that's the cool thing
about today's passage,
is that we're going to continue with
this idea of what Jesus says.
I am the way.
Not a way.
Not many roads lead to God.
Jesus says,
I am the way.
Absolute article.
Okay, definite article.
That's it.
See, it's been a long time
since I took English.
Hebrews, chapter eight,
one, six.
Here's how it reads.
Now, the main point of what
is being said is this.
We have this kind of high priest who
sat down at the right hand of the
throne of the majesty
in the heavens,
a minister of the sanctuary and the
true tabernacle that was set up by
the Lord and not man.
For every high priest is appointed
to offer gifts and sacrifices.
Therefore, it was necessary for this
priest also to have something to
offer. Now,
if he were on earth,
he wouldn't be a priest.
Since there are those offering the
gifts prescribed by the law.
These serve as a copy and shadow
of the heavenly things.
As Moses was warned when he was about
to complete the tabernacle.
For God said,
be careful that you make everything
according to the pattern that was
shown to you on the mountain.
But Jesus has now obtained
a superior ministry,
and to that degree,
he is the mediator of a better covenant
which has been established on
better promises.
All right,
let's pray.
God, we thank you for your word.
And we thank you,
God, that your word always shines
and points us to Jesus.
God, this morning,
we thank you that it's in this passage
that we're given the main point.
So, God,
help us to pay attention,
as we've said all year long so far,
help us to pay attention
to Jesus more.
God, I know that you loved us first.
God, help us to love you back.
Help us to love you
not just in word,
but God with our hearts,
our minds.
Help us devote ourselves to you.
Help us to adore you.
God, I pray for each person in the room
this morning that we would take
stock of our lives,
but God also to really evaluate
how much we love you back.
So help us to pay attention to you
this morning in Jesus name.
Amen. Amen.
I like this passage because any passage
in the Bible that starts off with
these words,
now, the main point of what
is being said is this,
man, you know,
when God,
by inspiration says,
right here,
guys, pay attention to this.
Don't miss this.
This is a big deal.
We have this kind of high priest.
What does it mean,
this kind of high priest?
Well, if you go back
to chapter seven,
he's holy,
innocent, undefiled,
separated from sinners,
exalted above the veil.
He is not as the weak men who
were appointed as priests,
but he is a son.
What does that mean?
He's the son of God.
He's the heir of all things.
That's what I just read through that
whole list of what we've learned so
far in the first seven chapters
of the book of Hebrews.
It's really interesting
to me that God,
by inspiration,
through the writers of Hebrew,
has given us chapters
to make the case,
to say.
Now, the main point is we've
got a high priest.
We've got this kind of high priest.
He's perfect.
He's separated from sinners.
He's the son of God.
He's the heir of all things.
And that one line in there that says
the exact expression of the essence
of God,
that's a deity statement,
folks. I mean,
there's no human being that is
the exact expression of God,
except God.
So we have the birth of
Jesus in a manger,
and we love that part of it,
don't we?
You know,
we got movies out there that point
out the whole baby Jesus thing,
right? Because we like Jesus,
the baby.
You know,
it's funny,
I listened to one preacher,
he said,
yeah, we like the baby Jesus.
We like the Jesus with
the free healthcare.
We like the Jesus with
the free buffet.
We like all that Jesus.
But the truth is we've got a high priest
because we need a high priest.
Why do we need a high priest?
What is it that a high priest does?
Priests serve to represent
mankind to God,
to bring the gifts and sacrifices
for repentance and forgiveness.
And we've been told up to this point
that the earthly representation of
priests and the sacrifice and the tabernacle
and the temple and the
offerings and all of that sort of thing
did not accomplish perfection.
So when we get to the
end of this passage,
where it says a better covenant and better
promises is the promise of the
perfection that only Jesus
can accomplish in us.
Okay? Jesus is that high priest.
And so when I look at this thing,
I'm thinking,
wow, I like it.
We have this kind of high priest who
sat down at the right hand of the
throne of majesty in the heavens,
a minister of the sanctuary.
What sanctuary?
That place where God dwells.
Right? You know,
you hear a lot of songs.
I know there's a song that we sang
as a singing group back in the
seventies, Beulah land.
How many of y'all know that song?
You're probably old.
All right,
sorry. Beulah land,
how I'm longing for you.
Right? This idea of going to heaven,
going home,
going to this paradise,
this eternal dwelling place.
What makes it all that?
It's not simply that it's a place,
a construction of some sort,
though it is.
It is a place.
What makes it that place is.
It's where God is,
you see?
It's where we get to spend
eternity with God,
right? And so when I look at this,
I'm thinking about all the
nuance of this passage,
because it says,
a minister of the sanctuary,
the dwelling place of God,
and the true tabernacle that
was set up by the Lord,
not by man.
Remember the tabernacle
in the Old Testament?
Moses was the one who set that up.
And he had all the artisans
and the specialists,
those people who,
who constructed the parts and the pieces
and the tents and the drapes and
the poles and the,
and all the pretty stuff,
right? But that's all human,
earthly, man made,
put in place.
See, what this is referring
to is that Christ,
when he had completed his work.
And many times in this,
you say when his work
had been perfected.
When he had been perfected,
he passed through the heavens atmospheric
veil into heaven,
the sanctuary,
the dwelling place of God,
and sat down at the right
hand of majesty,
the throne of majesty
in the heavens.
For in this verse three,
for every high priest is appointed
to offer gifts and sacrifices.
So all the high priests throughout
Israel's history were appointed
firstborn of the firstborn of the firstborn
of the firstborn to be the
high priest,
to go into the tabernacle,
to pass through the inner curtain
into the holiest place,
the most holy place.
But we've heard it for years
as the holy of holies,
because the outer place
was a holy place,
but the inner place was
the holier place.
And so the priest would
go in with what?
With blood from sacrifice first to
offer sacrifice for his sin.
What does that mean?
That means he sprinkled that blood on
the ark of the covenant so that God
didn't see the priest sin and strike
him down at the moment of his
presence. Because the glory of
God abiding in that place,
often referred to as,
like that Shekinah glory,
that burning glory of God.
And you walk in there with sin.
So what does he do?
He spreads the blood of the sacrifice
on the ark of the covenant.
So God sees him through the blood,
right? So that's what
the priest does.
He comes in and brings
gifts and sacrifices.
It was necessary for this priest,
our priest,
our high priest,
to also have something to offer.
And this is what we're breaking
down for the next.
We're in chapter eight,
nine and half of ten.
See, we spent seven chapters getting
ready for these two and a half
chapters because now God's going to give
us sort of the breakdown of the
high priesthood of Christ.
For every high priest is appointed
to offer gifts and sacrifices.
Therefore, it was necessary for this
priest also to have something to
offer. Now,
if he were on earth,
he wouldn't be a priest.
Since there are those offering the
gifts prescribed by the law.
We know that Jesus comes from
the tribe of Judah.
And Judah never had the priesthood.
They had kings,
but they didn't have the priesthood.
Only priests came out of
the tribe of Levi.
Levitical priesthood,
the ironic priesthood.
These serve as a copy and shadow
of the heavenly things.
Now what does that mean there,
this copy,
shadow?
There's the ideas being that
God showed Moses something.
What did God show Moses?
God showed Moses the tabernacle.
Now, you know,
and I listened to one
preacher this week,
got real heavy in the whole idea that
there is a spiritual unseen,
and there is.
We see that in scripture,
in a lot of places.
And that what God did was create
an imperfect creation,
a shadow,
and a copy of his dwelling place.
And yet,
at creation,
what God did was create perfection.
He said,
it is good.
It is very good.
You see?
Guess what?
And God hung out in that garden,
that sanctuary of creation.
So creation,
by God's hand,
by God's word,
was perfect sin.
Sin is what caused the fall.
And we know that from romans that even
creation groans under the effects
of the fall and is waiting
to be redeemed.
So when we see this,
it's not like,
you know,
there's.
Heaven is where God is.
And God showed Moses a tabernacle
to construct.
And he says,
for God said,
be careful that you make everything
according to the pattern that was
shown to you on the mountain.
So Moses was warned about how
to construct the tabernacle,
because what God was doing was
preparing all of mankind,
all of humanity,
for entrance into the sanctuary,
the heavenly tabernacle.
God said,
be careful.
And then he says this.
But Jesus has now obtained
a superior ministry,
and to that degree,
he is the mediator of
a better covenant,
which has been established
on better promises.
So Jesus,
the priest of heaven,
okay? The priest,
the highest priest,
the perfect priest,
the now forever priest,
sitting at the right
hand of the majesty.
A tabernacle that God pitched.
A tabernacle that God constructed.
The sanctuary of God,
the place of God's presence.
Right? You know,
it's interesting to me that
we revere these buildings.
We sit in like this,
right? We make them tall,
we make them pointed.
You know,
we decorate them up and do all
kind of stuff to them.
And then we call them church.
But it's not.
See, church is people.
Church is not building.
Okay? The building is.
I.
Every time I say this,
somebody gets mad at me.
But the truth is,
this is just bricks,
mortar and sheetrock,
okay? You know what makes it special is
that you're here and God meets us
here. That's what makes
the place special.
So what makes the sanctuary
of heaven special?
God is there.
What gives us entrance
into the sanctuary,
heaven. It's the high
priest of heaven,
which is Jesus himself.
See, Jesus would not,
could not be a priest on earth.
The priests of earth were weak.
That's what this text even says.
Oh, well,
no, let me go back.
Here you go.
Listen to verse 28 of chapter seven.
For the law appoints as high
priest men who are weak.
But the promise of the oath,
which came after the law,
appoints a son who has been
perfected forever.
This work of God that Jesus did is this
perfecting of God sin through his
own sacrifice.
See, the earth's sacrificial system was
but a shadow because of the sin
that pervaded it.
And so sin separated the sanctuary of
God on earth and the sanctuary of
God in heaven.
So I started thinking,
wow, I used to wonder
when I was a kid,
and I'll be honest about this,
and this is going to
point badly on me,
but I'm going to do it anyway.
I heard my preacher get
up one Sunday and say,
this is what heaven's
going to be like.
And I remember sitting there going,
oh, my,
I'm going to be bored.
I remember thinking that,
you know,
a little twelve year old kid sitting at
Cali self Memorial Baptist church
thinking, oh,
no, man,
I really,
really, really hope heaven's
better than this.
Well, that's what this
text promises us,
the earthly sanctuary.
And a lot of people call
it worship center,
a sanctuary.
A lot of people call it
that around here.
You know,
a lot of people call this,
oh, yeah,
this is what it's got.
No, folks,
we can't even find a multiplier that
would give us any idea of what the
difference of being in the presence
of God is going to be like when we
enter the sanctuary of heaven.
You know,
I came in,
I was pumped up this
morning coming in.
Think the problem was,
I started drinking coffee
last night,
but I walked in the door this morning
there Lee was here and a couple
others, and I walked in
the door and I went,
whoa. Right?
I mean,
I'm excited to gather and worship.
I'm excited to be in the
room with you guys.
I'm excited to open the word.
I'm excited to tell you what God's been
speaking to me out of the word
this morning.
But I want to guarantee
you one thing.
This.
When we walk into the presence
of God in heaven,
it's not going to be this,
you see.
It's going to be,
whoo.
Right? More excellent
Jesus ministry is.
The more excellent ministry,
the better covenant,
the better promises.
Everything about it is better than
anything we can possibly know.
This place,
folks, if we can't get
excited about that,
we got a problem or we're
not taking it seriously,
okay?
See, God has given us promises
of his abiding presence.
Yes, here,
but there in person.
Then we shall see face to face,
and we shall know as
we have been known,
man. I mean,
Paul even says at one time,
in vision or whatever it was,
he says,
I can't even describe the glories
of what I've seen,
folks. That's the main point
of what is being said,
is that our high priest
has made this possible.
Don't miss it.
Don't miss what God's done.
See, this morning,
if you know Jesus,
that's the promise God made you,
right? You've seen the
videos and the stuff.
I used to do a little thing with 6th
graders where it was career day.
And yes,
public school system invited the youth
pastor to come and share on career
day. Here's how it worked.
I'd go in there and do
a thing on choices,
making right choices,
and I'd have sealed envelopes.
One was decorated and one was not.
And I'd have 6th graders
pick an envelope.
They'd always pick the
decorated one,
and it always had the
worst stuff in it.
So then the second time around,
I'd fool them and I'd put the good
stuff in the decorated one,
and they'd come up and go,
okay, the last person picked a
decorated one and it was bad.
So I'm gonna pick the undecorated
one and it'd be bad,
right? I'm tricking them.
God's not trying to trick us.
God is telling us what
the good stuff is.
God is explaining to us how we are to
not simply pay attention to Jesus,
but we're to.
We're to focus our hearts,
our lives,
our minds,
our identities on the person
and work of Jesus Christ,
who has provided for us a perfection
that we can't earn.
We can't get there on our own.
It's dependent on him.
And it requires our devotion,
it requires our surrender.
You see,
in this part of what the outlines
of Hebrews say is that he is our
superior king.
He is our superior high priest.
See, Israel had known kings,
the hebrew people.
And for the most part,
the book of Hebrews is written to hebrew
Christians who are fighting with
the idea of going back.
I've known some Christians who kind of
get a little acquainted with Jesus
and go,
ah, it didn't work for me.
I go,
ah, you just didn't get there,
did you?
See? And hebrew people were fighting
with going back to the law.
So the writer of Hebrews makes this
case for why would you choose the
inferior over the superior?
Why would you choose an earthly
king over a heavenly king?
Why would you choose a weak high priest
over a perfect high priest?
That's the whole question that we're
gonna get into for the next two and
a half chapters.
You're gonna hear this a lot.
And I,
you know,
I mean,
I'm looking at it going,
all right,
you know what?
I'm gonna preach what it says.
Cause we're gonna get into some Jeremiah
and a little bit of Joel.
Gonna get into some of the prophetic
things that says,
this is what I'm promising you.
This is what I'm making a way for.
This is what I'm handing you.
Don't miss it.
Don't miss it.
I was reminded this week of a video.
It just reminds me of what
God's done for us.
See, if you don't know
Jesus this morning,
you need Jesus.
And I love it that you're here.
I love it that maybe you're here.
Cause somebody invited you.
Yay. You know,
that's the greatest compliment
that the gathering can get,
is that somebody invited somebody.
Yay. Thank you.
It's funny that right before Easter,
Kyle said,
do you think we should do a postcard
mailing for Easter to invite people
to come to worship?
I was like,
you think we need more people?
I mean,
in the next hour,
there won't be a seat in the room.
See, y'all got space.
Be grateful.
But here's the point.
We want folks to know Jesus.
We want folks to hear about Jesus.
If you don't know Jesus
this morning,
we want to introduce you.
So I'm going to encourage
you to know Jesus.
I'll be right here.
We're going to sing one more song.
If you don't know Jesus,
come on down,
we'll introduce you.
We got folks down here on the front
row tell you who Jesus is,
tell you about the gospel.
Maybe you know him,
but the distractions of the world,
the sin that's out there is just
way overwhelming to you.
That's a conversation between
you and Jesus.
Maybe you want to join
the gathering.
That's a thing,
too. You can come down.
As long as you love Jesus,
and you've been buried,
you're baptized,
meaning you've been under the water.
Then you can be a member
of the gathering.
But it's really more about
what God's doing here.
So I'm going to invite
you to pray with me,
and then we're going to sing.
Father, thank you for today
and what you're doing.
Thank you that you've
accomplished much.
And so,
God, we want to give back.
We want to surrender
ourselves to you.
We want to give you ourselves.
Hear our hearts this morning,
God. And if there's even one here this
morning that doesn't know you,
God, we want to introduce
him to Jesus.
Thank you for loving us.
Thank you for loving us first.
Now, God,
I pray that you would.
God, just help us to love
you back every day,
all day.
God, we praise you and we
thank you in Jesus name,
amen.