Hebrews 8:1-6 - Homiletics

The chief point.

This passage does not present a recapitulation of the topics already considered; it emphasizes, as the crowning topic in connection with our Lord's priesthood, the fact that he has been "made higher than the heavens."

I. THE HEAVENLY MAJESTY OF OUR HIGH PRIEST . ( Hebrews 8:1 ) He dwells now in heaven, his native home. He occupies there the loftiest place; for he shares the sore-reign authority and the universal dominion of the absolute God. Aaron exercised his priesthood in an earthly sanctuary made by men's hands; Christ officiates as our High Priest in the eternal uncreated heavens. Aaron, when he entered the holy of holies once a year on the great Jewish fast-day, merely stood for a short time before the symbolic throne—his attitude one of lowly service; but Christ has "sat down " at the right hand of the Eternal—his attitude that of royal government. It is noticeable that in this treatise the doctrine of the resurrection of Jesus does not receive the prominence which is given to it in almost every Epistle of Paul. Indeed, it is only once mentioned ( Hebrews 13:20 ). But doubtless the reason of this is to be found in the unique design of the treatise. This book alone, of all the books of Scripture, expounds the doctrine of the priesthood of Christ; and it brings into the foreground, accordingly, only those acts which he performed as the Antitype of Aaron—his sacrifice of himself in the outer court of this world, and his passing within the blue veil of heaven to sprinkle his blood upon the mercy-seat. So the writer dwells only upon the death and the ascension of the Savior.

II. HIS HEAVENLY MINISTRY . ( Hebrews 8:2-6 ) The ministry of the Redeemer is not incompatible with his majesty; for he performs it as the Plenipotentiary of the Godhead, and in virtue of his session at "the right hand of the throne." The heavenly sanctuary in which Christ officiates is here contrasted with the Hebrew sanctuary. We are reminded that the Mosaic tabernacle and its ritual were nothing more than an adumbration of the realities of the true tabernacle. They were only a shadowy prophecy of the priestly ministry of the Lord Jesus. The very furniture of the sacred tent had a symbolic meaning; and every article was formed after a Divine "pattern" ( Hebrews 8:5 )—the snuffers and incense-spoons as well as the magnificent lamp-stand. But how different the scene of Christ's continual intercession from the Jewish tabernacle or temple! Having offered himself as a Sacrifice upon the altar of burnt offering which had been set up on Calvary, he had to appear within the sanctuary of God with his atoning blood. Not being, however, a high priest after the order of Aaron, he could not go for this purpose into the temple at Jerusalem; so, if he was to continue to be "a Priest at all' ( Hebrews 8:4 ), it behooved him to seek another temple. Jesus accordingly ascended to heaven, "the true tabernacle;' and he carries on his ministry there in "the sanctuary," i.e. in the holy of holies which belongs to that true tabernacle ( Hebrews 8:2 ). The Levitical high priests were but typical mediators, who performed typical services in connection with a typical sanctuary. Jesus is the anti-typical High Priest, who has offered a real sacrifice for sin, and who makes prevailing intercession for his people within the true archetypal tabernacle. His ministry, therefore, is "more excellent" than Aaron's.

LESSONS .

1. For the materialist. The Mosaic tabernacle was a "copy" of the celestial sanctuary; but are not all nature and all earthly relations just an adumbration of the unseen?

"What if earth

Be but the shadow of heaven, and things therein

Each to other like, more than on earth is thought?"

(Milton)

2. For the sacerdotalist. Jesus is the one mediating Priest of the New Testament Church; and even he is no longer a sacrificing Priest. He bled and died in the outer court; and he mediates in "the sanctuary" now by intercession.

3. For the formalist. How great the guilt of the man who, while professing to be a Christian, does not make the priesthood of Christ a main theme of his thoughts, and the joy of his heart!

4. For the Christian believer. The saint should more and more rejoice in Jesus as his Priest, and constantly re-commit his soul into his hands, to be introduced to God by him.

5. For the gospel minister. While the teaching of the pulpit ought to range, as far as possible, over the wide sweep of thought which is embraced in the orbit of the Bible, the doctrine of the mediation of our glorified Redeemer must be its "chief point"—the key-stone of all its utterances, whether evangelical or ethical.