Our Great High Priest
Hebrews 8
Emmanuel Christian Church 7.27.25
INTRODUCTION: This morning, we’re going to take on the subject of High
Priests. Prior to the destruction of the Jewish Temple by the Romans in AD
70, there were those who held the office of Jewish High Priest. In the
Catholic Church, one might say that the Pope himself is the High Priest of
all Roman Catholic Priests. Even the Church of Satan claimed to have a
High Priest!
PROPOSITION: But here’s our question for this morning- “Do we as
Christians have a High Priest?” The answer: “Yes!” Who He is, and what
you need to know about Him is the point of this morning’s message from
Hebrews chapter 8.
Hebrews 8:1 The point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a
high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in
heaven, 2 and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by
the Lord, not by man.
TRANSITION: From chapter 7, we already learned that our Great High
Priest is none other than Jesus. His priesthood was NOT that of the
Jewish order of Levi, but that of the mysterious divine order of
Melchizedek established 400 years earlier by the oath of God the Father
Himself.
His priesthood is unique. It is not limited by death, for our Great High
Priest, Jesus, conquered death in His Resurrection. It is not limited by
time, for He Himself, God the Son, The Alpha and Omega, Savior/Creator
God, exists eternally outside the constraint of time!
Where He is right now, and what He is doing this moment is
answered in these first two verses regarding…
His Tabernacle 1-2
- “What is a ‘Tabernacle’?”
- Literally, it means “A tent”. Remember, the first place of worship for
the Jews was just that- a tent.
- It wasn’t a fixed location, but rather a portable one that the Jews
carried with them during their wandering in the Sinai desert.
- It wasn’t until the reign of King Solomon that the portable tabernacle
was replace with the permanent Temple in Jerusalem.
APPLICATION: Why was the Tabernacle portable and NOT fixed in one
particular place? God was making a point that His presence could NOT be
confined to one place, but was to be among His people - wherever they
might be. As a matter of fact, everything about the earthly Tabernacle (and
later, permanent Temple) was nothing more than an illustration of a reality
that exists to this very day in Heaven.
Let me say it again: the purpose of the earthly Tabernacle was to
illustrate God’s presence among His people. Keeping that one thought in
mind, I want you to hear an opening statement to John’s Gospel in a way
you may have never thought of before:
John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his DWELLING among us.
We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the
Father, full of grace and truth.
- In one sense, Jesus is not only our Great High Priest, but His presence
on earth was God’s living, breathing tabernacle!
- Upon Jesus’ resurrection and ascension back to the Father, our text for
today tells us that He now resides in the “true tabernacle” at the right
hand of the “Majesty” of the Father in heaven.
- Another important point is this: in that “true tabernacle”, at the right
hand of the “Majesty in Heaven”, Jesus is SITTING!
- This is a BIG difference from the earthly Tabernacle/Temple! In there,
there were NO places to sit! As a matter of fact, the earthly priests of
the Tabernacle/Temple could only stand while performing their duties!
- There was only one “seat” in the earthly Tabernacle/Temple- it was
located in the “Holy of Holies”, between the outstretched wings of the
Cherubim, over the Ark of the Covenant, and it was called “The
Mercy Seat” (“kapporeth” Exodus 25:17 NIV- “cover” cr. Hebrews
9:5) - the very dwelling place of the Presence of God Himself!
- Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest would enter
the Holy of Holies and sprinkle the blood sacrifice on that mercy
seat- AND LEAVE fearing for his life.
- In the true tabernacle of Heaven, Jesus entered and offered His own
blood for our sins- AND HE SAT DOWN! Jesus IS OUR Mercy
Seat!
- This important fact points to our Great High Priest and…
His Superiority 3-6
Hebrews 8:3 Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and
sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this one also to have something to
offer. 4 If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already
men who offer the gifts prescribed by the law. 5 They serve at a sanctuary
that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was
warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you
make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” 6
But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the
covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is
founded on better promises.
- How is Jesus superior?
- The offering of His own blood for the payment of our sins is:
- PERSONAL
- PERFECT
- POWERFUL
- The Sanctuary in which Jesus made His blood offering for our sins is
the REAL, AUTHENTIC ARTICLE- not the earthly copy attended by
imperfect human priests!
- Jesus’ promises are superior!
- REAL forgiveness of sin.
1 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who
reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of
reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ,
not counting men’s sins against them.
- Eternal life
John 6:40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and
believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last
day.”
- A new body
1 Corinthians 15: 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but
we will all be changed — 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the
last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised
imperishable, and we will be changed.
- A new home
John 14:1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in
me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have
told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that
you also may be where I am.
APPLICATION: The Gospel message is simple- our only hope is Jesus. If
for eternal life you are trusting in yourself, something else or someone
else- your hope is tragically misplaced.
Peter stood before the religious elites of his day whose trust was in
anyone but Jesus, and made the point VERY clear:
Acts 4:12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name
under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
Jesus is superior to anyone or anything- period. Everything that came
before Him, pointed toward Him. The Old Covenant, along with the
Prophets, all served to set the stage for His coming into the world. And
when He finally came, He brought with Him a New Covenant between man
and God: a covenant drawn up in His own blood.
His Covenant 7-13
Hebrews 8:7 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant,
no place would have been sought for another. 8 But God found fault with
the people and said: “The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will
make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of
Judah. 9 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when
I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not
remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the
Lord. 10 This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that
time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on
their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 11 No longer
will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the
Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the
greatest. 12 For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their
sins no more.”
Hebrews 8:13 By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one
obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.
- The Old Covenant
- It was weak and useless in restraining sin because it could not change
the desires of our sinful broken hearts.
- It was a covenant written on stone that only served to point out the sin
of our hearts. (Even while Moses was on the mountain receiving the
Law of the Covenant, the people were down in the valley breaking the
first commandment: “You shall have no other gods before me.”!)
- The Law of the Old Covenant only served to make us the lawbreaking
enemies of God. It’s point was to lead us to the point of desperation
where we would long for a New Covenant with God. The Apostle Paul
put it this way:
Galatians 3:23 Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the
law, locked up until faith should be revealed. 24 So the law was put in
charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that
faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.
Now, consider…
- The New Covenant
- It is written, not on tablets of stone, or the skins of dead animals, but
written on the living flesh of our minds and hearts!
- It has the power to transform the way we think.
- It has the power to transform what we desire. Our “got to’s” change
into “get to’s”
- It is the enabling transformation that gives us the power to keep the
Greatest Commandment: “Love the Lord with all of your heart, mind,
soul and strength”!
- It has the power to transform relationships.
- Once the enemies of God, we become the People of God, His very
own adopted sons and daughters!
- Once enemies with each other, we become not just “neighbors”, but
brothers and sisters!
- It has the power to transform our criminal record of sin against God -
causing it to be remembered no more!
CONCLUSION: Jesus is our Great High Priest! His blood pleads our case
in the very presence of God. His promises of forgiveness and a bright
future give us comfort and confidence in the here and now. His
transformation of our hearts and minds restore us with both God and man!
The Apostle Paul sums it up nicely in his open to his letter to the
Ephesians:
Ephesians 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in
Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be
holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted
as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will
— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the
One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the
forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he
lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. 9 And he made known
to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he
purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times will have
reached their fulfillment — to bring all things in heaven and on earth
together under one head, even Christ.
If Jesus is your Great High Priest, REJOICE! You are TRUELY BLESSED!
