Hebrews 8:6

But now he, and the he here is Jesus, has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as he is also a mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Finding fault with them, he says, "Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant, and I disregarded them," says the Lord.

"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days," says the Lord. "I will put my laws in their mind and write them in their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." In that, he says, a new covenant, he has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

Father, would you give us wisdom and insight as we consider the text here in Hebrews chapter eight? We believe that your word is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. We believe that it is inspired by you and is useful for our instruction in righteousness so that we would be thoroughly equipped for every good work. We pray, God, that you, by your Spirit and through the power of your word, would transform us by the renewing of our minds today. Teach us and help us to see what it is that you want us to apply from this passage today. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all those that agreed said, "Amen."

You can be seated. In 1974, a 30-year-old film director was shopping a movie treatment and a rough screenplay around to a number of movie studios, looking for funding. He had already had a two-picture deal with Universal Pictures, and they had just completed...

The first movie was getting ready to be sent out to see if it would stick. When the Universal executives looked over this new movie treatment, they weren't very interested in what the director had to offer. They said, "Well, you can go shop it around somewhere else." So he did, and he finally found an open opportunity with Fox Studios.

As he was in negotiations through his agent with the executives at Fox, they said, "Listen, we'll do this movie. We'll give you $50,000 to write the screenplay, $50,000 to produce the movie, and another $50,000 to direct the movie." While they were in negotiations, his first film with Universal came out and it was a runaway hit. It instantly made a ton of money. His agent came back to him and said, "Listen, I think we can get more than $150,000. I think we could get a half million, maybe a million dollars for this new movie if we shop it around a little bit more."

However, the director wasn't interested in a half million or a million. In fact, he wasn't interested in more money from the studio. He said, "No, I want something else. I want a new deal to be drafted up." He asked for something that had never been asked for before, and no one has ever done since. Fox Studios said to him, "Yeah, you know what, sure, we'll give you what you want." What he wanted were the sequel rights to this movie. He was also hoping for all the licensing rights to any merchandise that would be made from this movie because he was hoping that this single movie would become a series of nine movies called Star Wars.

Now, 40 years after it came out in 1977, that has proved to be a much better deal. In the 40 years since Star Wars was released, the franchise has brought in over $31 billion. He retained the licensing rights, and George Lucas Films retained the licensing rights for the entire movie, which they sold in 2012 to Disney Pictures for $4 billion. George Lucas is now the 294th richest man in the world, with a net worth of $5.1 billion, because his agent brokered a better deal and came up with a better plan—something that no movie studio will probably ever do again.

Fox still kicks themselves to this day for letting go of the licensing and sequel rights for Star Wars, which now has seven films, with two more coming out over the next several years. Obviously, Disney Pictures is making a lot of money off of that one. But there was a better deal that was brokered; someone negotiated a much better contract going forward.

Over the last four months, we've been going through the book of Hebrews. We've been working through this New Testament book in which the author has been defending...

The position that Jesus is better is a central theme in this discussion. So far, we have seen that Jesus is better than the patriarchs, the fathers of the Jewish people and the Jewish religion. He is better than the prophets, better than angels, better than Moses, and better than the priesthood. He is also better than the high priests. This whole book serves as an apologetic; it is a defense for Jewish readers 2,000 years ago who were leaving Judaism to put their trust in Jesus.

These individuals were being tempted, or perhaps told by some of their family members and friends, that they needed to return to Judaism. This letter was written to defend the superiority of Jesus, emphasizing that He was better than all the things they had held onto in their old form of life and religion. As they faced the temptation to revert, they were being encouraged to abandon Christ and return to the covenants, the promises of the Jewish religion, the temple, the ministry of the priesthood, and the ministry of the law.

In response, the author, whom I believe to be Timothy, states in verse six, which we just read a moment ago, that Jesus is our high priest. Reading from the New Living Translation, it says, "Jesus is our high priest, and he has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God." He is the one who negotiates or brokers a far better deal on our behalf. Much like George Lucas's lawyer negotiated a better deal, the deal that Jesus brokers is far better than that, even though Lucas's deal yielded some 35,000 times the amount of money that Fox originally contracted to give him.

The author poses the question: Why return? Why go back to the covenants, to the promises, to the ministry of the temple, the priesthood, and the law? Why revert to Judaism?

Point number one on your outline is that the author contends that Jesus is the mediator of a far better covenant. The Jewish people 2,000 years ago, who would have been the first recipients of this letter, understood the concept of covenants probably much better than we do today. We do not often use the idea or concept of covenants in our culture unless you are a...

A contract negotiator is typically a lawyer in the field of contract negotiations or someone engaged in business related to covenants and contracts. This is not a topic we usually discuss, especially in relation to our religious experience. We don't spend much time thinking about covenants. However, Jewish readers 2,000 years ago were steeped in this concept because their entire identity and life were wrapped up in covenants.

If you read their literature, from Genesis to Malachi, the first 39 books of the Bible are referred to as the Old Covenant. This was the entirety of the holy scriptures for the Jewish religion and the Jewish people. In these 39 books, covenants appear quite frequently. In fact, there are seven major covenants between God and humanity that are outlined from Genesis through Malachi, specifically from the time of the book of Genesis until the establishment of the Jewish monarchy.

For much of their history, the Jewish people did not have kings ruling over them. However, there came a point when they expressed a desire for a king to rule over them. Their first king was not the best, but their second king, David, was significantly better. He was a man after God's own heart. From the time of Genesis until the time of David, there were seven major covenants in which God brokered agreements with the people.

The first covenant was made through Adam, and there were actually two covenants associated with him. Following that, God made a covenant with humanity through Noah. Then, there was a covenant made specifically with Abraham and his descendants, the Jewish people, with Abraham serving as the negotiator. After Abraham, the covenant with Moses is particularly significant for the Jewish people as seen in the Old Testament.

Another covenant was made with the priests of the nation of Israel through a man named Aaron, who acted as the negotiator. Finally, there was the covenant that God made with David and his family. The people of Israel would have understood this idea of covenants, as every covenant has a mediator or broker. The author of the book of Hebrews states that Jesus is the one who has brokered a far better covenant, a far better agreement between God and man for us, better than what had come before.

Came through Adam, better than what came through Noah, Moses, Abraham, David, or Aaron. Jesus ushers in a much better deal for us. Why, though? Why is the deal that Jesus brokered better than what came through Adam, Noah, Moses, Abraham, David, or Aaron?

Well, look at what the author says in Hebrews chapter eight, verse six. He tells us that Jesus is also the mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. Point number two on your outline: His is a better covenant because it is based upon better promises. The reason that his is a better covenant is that it is based upon better promises.

Now, I think it is difficult for us to understand the weight of what the author of this book was presenting to his original readers, his first intended audience. The Jewish readers of this letter had their entire national, geographical, historical, and cultural identity as a people completely centered upon these covenants, most especially the covenant that came through Abraham, Moses, Aaron, and David. These things really established who they were for centuries.

Their entire identity as a people group, along with all of their faith and outlook, was built upon these covenants. The land they lived in, the promised land, came to them through the covenant with Abraham. Their identity as the chosen people of God came through the covenant with Moses. The way they were able to approach, interact with, and connect with God came through the covenant that God had made with Aaron, the priestly covenant. The hope of looking forward to a king who would be on the throne from their descent for eternity came through the covenant that God made with David.

For 1,500 years, their entire identity was wrapped up in these things. Everything about who they were and what they would become as a people centered upon these covenants. Now, the author of the book of Hebrews comes in and says to them that all of this is essentially unnecessary and unimportant from this point forward. All of that which they trusted in, all of that which they looked forward to and looked back to, is being redefined.

Everything that you found your identity in can be set aside. You can walk away from it. Your identity is no longer that identity; you have been given a new identity. Even though most of us, probably all of us, are not from a Jewish background today, we are also entering into that new identity. When you become a follower of Jesus and put your trust in Him, you have a new identity. The Bible describes it as being an identity that is found not in Moses, not in Abraham, not in the priests, not in the temple, and not in all the feast days. Your identity is now found in Christ.

The author of the book of Hebrews is writing to these Christians who came out of their identity as Jewish in every respect. He is saying that you can walk away from that because you have a totally new identity. Now, I'm sure you can imagine that it would be a difficult step to leave everything that makes you who you are culturally, nationally, and historically. To walk away from that is no small feat. He says you can step into this new covenant, which is a far better covenant.

Of course, they would ask, "How is this possible? How is it that this is a better covenant? What makes it better?" It is better than the covenant that Moses brokered for us. It is better than the covenant that made us the people of God, which has really been our entire identity for fifteen centuries. It is better than all of that. How could that possibly be the case?

To answer the question that these people were wrestling with, the author of this book, Timothy, does what he routinely does. He goes back to the holy scripture, the writings that came out of that first covenant. He takes us back 500 years from the time in which this was written to the book of Jeremiah, to the prophet Jeremiah. In verses seven through eleven, he quotes from the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah. You could turn there if you'd like; you'll see that the language is almost identical for the most part.

Jeremiah is right about the middle of your Bible. If you are in the Psalms, you can turn to the right. You will pass Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Isaiah, and you will get to Jeremiah chapter 31. The author of the book of Hebrews is quoting from Jeremiah when he writes these words. If you are in Jeremiah 31, you will see that the words written there almost identically mirror what I am going to read here in Hebrews chapter eight, verse seven.

Eight, seven. For if the first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Finding fault with them, He says, and now quoting Jeremiah chapter 31, verse 31: "Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant, and I disregarded them," says the Lord.

Timothy steps back. He says, "I know that this is a stretch for you. I'm asking you to leave your national, geographical, cultural, and historical identity to put your trust in Jesus alone. Step away from everything that you've known in those covenants that you had with Moses, David, Aaron, and Abraham. Walk away from that and put your trust completely in this new covenant."

You may object and say, "I can't do that. These covenants are important." Then he says, "No, there's a better covenant based on better promises." This is not something that you should be ignorant of because your own prophet, 500 years ago, said God speaking 500 years before through the prophet Jeremiah: "I will make a new covenant. Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah."

God promised prophetically that one day He would bring about a new covenant. Essentially, what the author of the book of Hebrews is saying to his original audience is that you should already know this. You should know that you are going to be stepping away from that old covenant, specifically the covenant under Moses, because God promised that there would be a new covenant.

But why a new covenant? What was wrong with the old covenant? What was the problem with that agreement that God had made with the children of Israel through Moses? When you look at the covenant itself, when you examine the language of the contract, you won't find anything wrong necessarily with the covenant. There was nothing wrong with the language, but there was still a problem.

Point number three on your outline: The fault of the first covenant is the fault in the failure of Israel and not the covenant itself. The fault of the first covenant is the fault in the failure of Israel and not the covenant.

We see that very clearly here in Hebrews chapter eight. Look again at verses seven and eight. Follow carefully along with me. For if the first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Finding fault with them, He says, "Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord, "that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah." A new covenant was necessary, not because the covenant was broken, but because there was a problem with the people with whom God was making the covenant.

Back there in Jeremiah, which he quotes from here, He says, "I'm making a new covenant because you broke my covenant." At this point, it would be legitimate for someone studying this, reading this, to say, "Wait a minute. If God is who the Bible presents Him to be, if He knows all things and if He knows us, He knows our nature, then isn't it on God for brokering a broken covenant with a broken people? Isn't it His own fault if He drew up this perfect contract and He knew full well that the people with whom He's going to make that contract are going to fail? Isn't it completely on Him for drawing up a bad contract?"

I mean, I'm sure a number of you here today have had a contract before. When you're entering into a contract, even if it's for something as simple as someone coming over to your house and working on your plumbing, you make sure to look on Yelp and see what the rating is. Are they really going to follow through on this contract? You probably pick, like I do, the people to come and do work for you or to enter into an agreement with someone you can trust. If someone tells you, "I don't know about that person," you may not want to enter into a contract with them. You might say, "Oh, wait a minute. Why? Tell me. Do tell. What's the problem?"

You see, I would assume that we're probably pretty good at making sure that we enter into agreements and contracts with people who are going to follow through on those things. Maybe you've had someone break a contract with you before. If you enter into a contract with someone who you know is probably going to break the contract or is probably not going to do the work, you are a fool for doing it. So, God, you knew full well that Israel would not be able to keep this contract and all the agreements and all the clauses of it.

Why would you enter into a contract with someone who had a one-star rating on Yelp? It's not smart; it just doesn't fit. God, why would you do that? You would be right to think that of God if His purpose and His point in the old covenant contract with Israel was that they would keep it and that it would make them perfect. If God's purpose in the old covenant was to see them follow through on the covenant, then it would have been foolish for Him to enter into that covenant because He knew full well that they could not bring it to pass.

But this begs the question: what then was the purpose of the old covenant and its commandments? I suggest to you that when you read through the Bible, the purpose of the old covenant, the law, the temple, and everything that took place in the Old Testament through Moses was not salvation. It was never to purify or perfect the people. The purpose of that covenant was not to take away sin.

How do we know that? If you're in Hebrews chapter 8, just turn a couple chapters over to chapter 10 and look at Hebrews chapter 10, verse 1. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 1 states that the law, which is the old covenant, having a shadow of the good things to come and not the very image of those things, can never, with the same sacrifices which they offered continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. The old covenant cannot make you perfect; for then would it have not ceased to be offered? If it could have made you perfect, you would have kept doing that.

We would still be going to a temple and offering animal sacrifices, for the worshipers, once purified, would have no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year. Note this verse: for it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sin. God did not enter into the covenant with the children of Israel through Moses that gave them the law, the temple, and the sacrificial system. He did not enter into that covenant hoping that they were going to keep it and that through it they would be perfected or receive salvation. He knew full well that they would never be able to keep it.

So, what was the purpose of that covenant? In the New Testament book of Romans, chapter three, Paul gives us some insight. He says in Romans chapter three, verse 20, "Therefore by the deeds of the law, by the keeping of the old covenant, no flesh will be justified; for by the law is the knowledge of sin." The old covenant provides the knowledge of sin.

A few chapters later, in Romans chapter seven, verse seven, Paul states, "I would not have known sin except through the law." God gave the old covenant under Moses, the law of God, not so that you, I, or the Jewish people could keep it and bring about their salvation, purification, or perfection. God gave the law so that we would know that we are breakers of the law.

In Galatians chapter three, verse 24, Paul says, "The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith." The whole purpose of the old covenant was to show us just how sinful we are. If you realize that this is the purpose of the covenant, you understand that it was really effective at that. The law is holy, just, and good, and it is very good at showing us that we are total and complete failures.

If you are trying today to make yourself right with God by doing the works of the law, perhaps you even came to church thinking that attending would make you more right with God. You are in deep trouble. It is never going to make you righteous. You cannot do enough good to undo your sinful works, and neither can I. Even all of our righteous works are as filthy rags before God, as stated by the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 64, verse six.

The fault of the first covenant was that you and I are complete and total losers and failures. That's the problem; it's not the covenant. The covenant is great. Its requirements are given to show your guilt and my guilt before a holy God, and it is really effective at that.

So then, what now? Once we realize our failure, look at what he says next. In Hebrews chapter eight, verse ten, he continues to quote from Jeremiah. God is speaking through the prophet Jeremiah, 2,500 years ago, and he says, "For this is the covenant that I will make."

This is Jeremiah chapter 31, verse 33. This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their mind and write them in their hearts. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, "Know the Lord," for they shall know me from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.

Notice the five "I wills" of God in this passage of Scripture. This was 500 years before Jesus came, 500 years before the author of the Book of Hebrews wrote the Book of Hebrews. God is speaking through the prophet Jeremiah to the nation of Israel, who is under the covenant system of the old covenant. He says, "I'm going to make a new covenant with you because you guys broke my covenant. You could never keep it. The whole purpose of the covenant was to show you how completely lost you are, but now I'm going to make a new covenant with you. I will make a new covenant. I will put my law in your mind and your heart. I will be your God. I will be merciful to your unrighteousness. I will remember your sins no more."

Point number four on your outline: His new covenant is faultless because it relies entirely upon his faultlessness and it forgives our failures. The Apostle Paul, writing in Romans chapter 8, said this: the law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do by sending his Son in a body like the bodies of we sinners. In the body, God declared an end to sin's control over us by giving his Son as a

To God, there is no possible way for us to fulfill the old covenant. It was conditioned upon our perfect keeping of the requirements that we were bound under. The new covenant, however, is unconditional for us. God says, "I will, I will, I will, I will, I will do it." It is conditioned upon Him fulfilling it. You can be certain of this one thing: God fulfills His end of the deal completely and perfectly in every way.

Hebrews chapter eight, verse 13, states that God, through the prophet Jeremiah, says a new covenant. He has made the first, the old covenant, obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

Point number five on your outline: the new covenant has rendered the old obsolete and unnecessary. This is why we preach the gospel of the new covenant and do not go around preaching the laws of the old covenant. The old covenant has become obsolete and unnecessary.

A Jewish reader of this 2,000 years ago might ask, "What about the structures, the instruments, the implements of the first covenant? What about the temple and the tabernacle? What about the Holy of Holies? What about the altar of incense? Are you really saying that all of this is unnecessary and obsolete? Do we not need the temple any longer?"

Open your Bibles to Hebrews chapter nine. Look at what he goes on to say. Hebrews chapter nine, verse one states, "Then indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances and divine service and an earthly sanctuary." In the old covenant, there was a tabernacle or a temple, and there were priests that served in these rituals and ordinances.

Verse two continues, "For a tabernacle was prepared for the first part, in which there was a lampstand and a table of showbread, which was called the sanctuary. Behind the second veil was the part of the temple, which is called the holiest of all, which had a golden censer and the Ark of the Covenant overlaid on all sides with gold. In it was a golden pot with manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat."

Of these things, we cannot speak in detail. He said, "Listen, under the old covenant, there was a temple and a tabernacle, the holy place, and all these different instruments and priestly things that were there."

Now, verse six states that when these things had been thus prepared, the priests always went into the first part of the tabernacle, performing the services. The priests were there serving, but into the second part, only the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people's sins committed in ignorance. The Holy Spirit indicated this, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing.

It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience. This was concerned only with foods, drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation.

What is Timothy saying? He said, "Listen, under the old covenant, there was a priesthood, a temple, and all of these instruments in the temple, along with sacrifices and divine services." All of that was a shadow of what was to come at the reformation.

Look at verse 11: "But Christ came as high priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation." Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood, He entered the most holy place—not the holy place here on earth, but the most holy place in heaven. He entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the body, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

For this reason, He is the mediator of the new covenant by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

What is he saying? He says that all of us are transgressors of God's law under the first covenant, and the first covenant cannot deal with our sin. All of the sacrifices of the first covenant are not enough to pay the debt of my sin and yours. So, Jesus came at just the right time to give His life as the one sacrifice once for all, that we might receive the new promises, the better promises of the new covenant.

And what is the better promise right there at the end of those verses? In verse 15, it says that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. What's that? Eternal life. That's the much better promise. The first covenant could not touch that. The first covenant offered veiled access to God on the basis of the limited atonement of perpetual animal sacrifices, conditioned upon the absolute perfect fulfillment of impossible-to-fulfill conditions, commandments, and requirements.

The new covenant offers mercy for our unrighteousness. It offers forgiveness for our iniquities on the basis of His unlimited atonement through His death, burial, and resurrection for our sins, once for all. That is called good news. Amen.

Would you stand with me as we close in prayer? Jesus, we thank You. I thank You today that You are the broker, the mediator of a much better deal. God, we could never buy our own works, our own ability, our own strength. We could never make ourselves right before You, a holy God.

I'm sure that many, if not most of us here today, Lord, have tried to do better, to do away with our own sin, to live righteously for Your glory. But God, apart from Your strength, apart from Your work working in us, we have absolute inability. God, we need Your grace.

Lord, we try to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, but we thank You that it is You who works in us to will and to do Your good pleasure. We thank You, Jesus, that You died once for all, the just for the unjust. You did what we could not do, what the law of Moses was unable to do because of the weakness of our sinful nature.

We thank You that You became sin for us, that we might receive Your righteousness. We thank You that You lived a perfect and holy life for us so that we would receive Your forgiving grace. Lord, help us to walk in the rest and the liberty of Your forgiveness, to rejoice in.

It is my prayer that the joy of that forgiveness would be seen in our lives by everyone who comes in contact with us. We praise You, Jesus.

It may be that as we stand here today, you have been trying in your own strength to deal with and undo your sin. You may have been trying to keep some sort of law, some standard of righteousness, in hopes that someday you will stand before God and He will say, "Good job, you did a great job." However, the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ so that we might be saved by faith, not by the keeping of the law, because there is no way we can keep the law perfectly enough.

If you have been trying to deal with your own sin by your own works, the covenants of the Bible say it is impossible. But Jesus did for you, and He did for me, what we couldn't do ourselves. If you would like to receive His forgiving grace, I want to give you a chance to do that today. If that is you and you want to receive His grace, would you just lift up your hand high so I can see it?

Anyone here this morning? God bless you; I see you in the front. Anyone else? Praise the Lord. If that is you, I want to lead you in a prayer of confession and faith today. Just simply pray with me where you are at.

Dear Jesus, I recognize my need for You. I pray that You would come into my life, that You would forgive me of my sin, and that You would help me to follow You by faith. In Jesus' name, amen.