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Themes in Hebrews: The New Covenant

I. The Main Point - Heb 8:1-2

The true High Priest of the true tabernacle has come.

II. A Better Covenant - Heb 8

  • Heb 7:22 - This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.

  • Heb 8:6 - 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 - For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.

  • Heb 8:8-9 - 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.

  • Heb 8:13 - 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.

III. What is a Covenant?

  1. A covenant is not a contract

    • A contract is a business agreement

    • It is impersonal

  2. A covenant is about relationship

    A covenant formalizes a relationship between two parties, and it does so in terms of promises, conditions, and signs.
    – Covenant Dynamics, Guy Prentiss Waters, TableTalk, 10/2020

IV. The Old and the New - Heb 8:7-13

 

  • The Old
    • National Israel, v9
    • External, v9
    • Worked by Man, v8-9
    • Must Be Taught to Know God, v11a
    • National Redemption, v9
  • The New
    • Spiritual Israel, v10
    • Internal, v10
    • Worked by God, v10
    • All Know God, v11b
    • Personal Redemption, v12

 

V. The Shadow and the Substance - Heb 8:14-10:18

The old covenant was INEFFECTIVE.

 

  1. Shadow
    • Earthly Tabernacle - Heb 8:5, 9:1-5
    • Made By Men - Heb 8:5, 9:2,24
    • Weak High Priests - Heb 7:28
    • Continual Sacrifice - Heb 9:6-7,25, 10:1,3,11
    • Restricted Access - Heb 9:8
    • Symbolic - Heb 9:9
    • Cannot Cleanse the Conscience - Heb 9:9, 10:2
    • External - Heb 9:10
    • Temporary - Heb 10:9
    • Never Takes Away Sin - Heb 10:1,4
  2. Substance
    • Heavenly Throne Room - Heb 9:11-12,24
    • Made By God - Heb 9:11,24
    • Perfect High Priest - Heb 7:28
    • Once For All Sacrifice - Heb 9:12,26, 10:10,12,14
    • Open Access - Heb 10:19-20
    • True - Heb 9:24
    • Cleanses the Conscience - Heb 9:14, 10:22
    • Internal - Heb 10:16
    • Eternal - Heb 9:15 - Heb 10:9
    • Sins Remembered No More - Heb 8:12

  3. Jesus’ Work Applies to Both Old and New Covenant Saints - Heb 9:15, 10:4

VI. The New is For You - Heb 10:19-25

 

  1. Since We Have …
    • Confidence - Heb 10:19

      The effective sacrifice of Christ gives us confidence.

    • Access - Heb 10:19-20

      to appear before God, clothed in His righteousness, not a righteuosness of our own.

    • A High Priest - Heb 10:21

      now in heaven making intercession for us.

  2. Let Us …
    • Draw Near - Heb 10:22
    • Have Sincere Hearts - Heb 10:22
    • Have Full Assurance - Heb 10:22
    • With Clean Hearts - Heb 10:22
    • Hold Fast - Heb 10:23
    • Stimulate Love and Good Deeds - Heb 10:24
    • Continue Gathering - Heb 10:25
    • Encourage One Another - Heb 10:25