Sermon Text: Hebrews 8:1–13
Preacher: Pastor Brian Sauvé

Covenants In Contrast

I’d like to remind you of what it is that the author of Hebrews is aiming at with this entire book. Even though in some ways Hebrews is a very complex book—unfolding complex theological concepts, intricate relationships between Old Testament concepts and their New Testament counterparts, and the like—at the fundamental level, it is actually one of the simplest books in the whole New Testament.

Maybe you’ve already seen why. It’s a simple book, because it’s really built to do one thing above all, and that is to show us that Jesus is better than all of his forerunners and rivals. The whole message of the book could be summarized simply by saying, “Jesus Christ is preeminent, so you would be a fool to worship any other over him.”

And so the book has relentlessly asserted the supremacy of Christ in every possible category, especially the categories a Jewish Christian would think in: He’s the better speech, revelation of God, the final Prophet. 

He’s superior to Moses, Joshua, Aaron, with a better conquest than Canaan’s conquest. He’s a better priest than the Levitical priests—the great and immortal High Priest of Heaven after the order of Melchizedek.

That’s where we’ve come so far. And now, we will see that Jesus is also the mediator of a better covenant. Look with me, if you would, at verse one of chapter eight. This is the Word of the Living God:

“Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, [Ex. 25:40] “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” 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. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. 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.

For they did not continue in my covenant,
and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, declares the Lord:

I will put my laws into their minds,
and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor
and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
for they shall all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
and I will remember their sins no more.”

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.”

-Hebrews 8:1–13

Covenants in Contrast

Now, there’s one, big point at the heart of this chapter and therefore of this sermon: The New Covenant is better than the Old Covenant. You may remember, Hebrews was written to Hebrew Christians, who are teetering on the edge of a cliff. 

They face the temptation to shrink back to Jerusalem, to the Old Covenant and everything that goes with it—Levitical priests, Temple sacrifice, ceremonial law, etc. They don’t realize that all of that is now, and I mean since the coming and life and death and burial and resurrection and ascension of Jesus, at the bottom of a cliff—that they can’t go back to the Old Covenant without jumping off to their spiritual death.

The Lord knows what he is about to do—namely, covenantally divorce Israel, destroying their Temple and city through the armies of Rome for their rejection of his Messiah. That event is just over the horizon for these Christians, and the Lord in his grace sends them this warning, remember, “Jesus is better! Don’t go back!”

And so this eighth chapter of Hebrews underlines that point by way of contrast—contrasting the Old Covenant with the New in order that we might see the greater glory and unalloyed superiority of the New. 

We’ll see four major contrasts in these 13 verses. We’ll spend the largest portion of our time in the second of these four contrasts.

1. The Old Covenant priesthood was mediated by mortal, earthly priests, the New Covenant by an immortal, heavenly High Priest.

Look at the first two verses again, please.

“Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man.”

-Hebrews 8:1–2

This, in contrast to the ministry of the Levitical priests, whom we’re told in verse 5, “…serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things.”

Much more on this dynamic of the Old Covenant being an earthly copy of a heavenly reality in a moment, but for now see the contrast the author is making: Don’t go back to the Old Covenant, because the priests of the Old Covenant—the Levites—are inferior to the priest of the New Covenant, Jesus. 

The worship of the Old Covenant was administered on earth by fallible, mortal, earthly priests. But the New Covenant is administered in heaven by a perfect, immortal, divine High Priest—a priest who is also the perfect Liturgist. 

The word “minister” in verse 2, that Jesus is “…a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up , not man,” is the word from which we derive the word “liturgy,” which is like the order of service, the order of worship. 

Refuge has a certain liturgy—we begin by responsively reading together from the Scriptures, God speaking. Then we respond as an elder prays, asking God to minister to his people. Then we sing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Then we open the Bible and God speaks again from his Word. Then we come to the Lord’s Table, where we remember Christ and receive the bread and the cup. 

That order of worship shapes us, not just its content, but our participation in the shape of it. And Jesus is the great heavenly Liturgist of the New Covenant, our minister—the one who serves and orders the worship and substance of the New Covenant from heaven.

He orders the worship, the intercession, and the sacrifice. He pleads and prays and rules and serves. And he does all of it perfectly and immortally—totally superior to the Levite priests of the Old Covenant.

He’s not, as they were, ministering shadow-sacrifices in a shadow-tabernacle for a shadow-covenant. He’s ministering the true sacrifice in the true tent, the true tabernacle, for the truly substantive Covenant.

This brings us to the wider contrast that really the whole chapter centers on, number two…

2. The Old Covenant was a shadow. The New Covenant is the substance casting that shadow.

This is the one we’ll camp out in a bit longer than the others, because it’s foundational. Let’s widen our view a bit and take the first five verses as a unit to understand this idea better:

“Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” 

-Hebrews 8:1–5

Here’s the big idea: The Old Covenant was an earthly copy, or shadow, of something heavenly. The Old Covenant is a shadow of the New Covenant—and so it was full of types and earthly images of heavenly realities. The specific element of the Old Covenant that the text focuses our eyes on is the Tabernacle.

Now, we’re not Jewish, and we never were involved in Temple worship, so we need to take a moment and orient ourselves in the story of the Jewish Tabernacle and Temple.

There are five movements in Scripture and history that help us to understand this biblical theology of the Tabernacle and how it connects both the Old and New Covenants, as well as heaven and earth:

1. The Garden Temple: The Garden in Eden was a Garden Temple. We don’t have time to get into all the weeds here, but I’ll give you the 30,000 foot view to show this:
   
   Adam was told to work (abad) and keep (samar) the Garden in Genesis 2:15. The priests of the Temple were to abad and samar the Temple (1 Chronicles 23:32).
   
   The tree of life was the living model for the lamp stand of the Temple, which was shaped like a tree. The Temple was also full of carved garden images: trees, flowers, pomegranates, etc.—all to evoke the glory of the Garden (1 Kings 6:18, 29, 32, 35). Further, the priests who ministered there wore precious stones, stones that could be found in the Garden (Genesis 2:12; Exodus 25:7; 28:9, etc.)
   
   You entered the Temple on the East side, on a mountain that faced Zion (Exodus 15:17), just as you entered Eden from the East (Genesis 3:24), on a mountain, since the rivers flowed out of the Garden, and as pictured in Ezekiel 28:14–16.
   
   A river flowed out of Eden (Genesis 2:10), just as a river flows out of the eschatological Temple of Ezekiel 47:1–12 and Revelation 21:1–2. Further, Ezekiel gives Eden the name “holy mountain of God.” This is language deeply evocative of the Old Testament Temple and Tabernacle language.
   
   When Adam and Eve are driven from the Garden, the way back is barred by an angel with a fiery sword. The way into the Temple is through the cut throat of the sacrifice and the burned flesh of the sacrifice.
   
   So creation began by God preaching to us through this Garden Temple in Eden and all that came with it. Preaching what? Well, that God wanted to inhabit and dwell with us. That we were to be priests in his temple, working and keeping his creation.
   
   Because of sin, Adam and Eve were barred from this Temple and their purpose, and because of sin, we are barred from this purpose—unless a sacrifice is pierced to shed blood and burned with judgment. This sermon continues in the second movement of the Tabernacle story…

2. The Old Covenant Tabernacle: When God freed his people from slavery to Egypt and brought them to Mt. Sinai to receive the Law on their way to the Promised Land, he also gave Moses instructions, while on the mountain, to build the Tabernacle.
   
   That’s what our text is referring to in verse 5, “For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, ‘See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.’”
   
   The model for the earthly tent was a heavenly tent. Again, what was God preaching? That he would dwell in the camp of his people, bring heaven down. But it required sacrifice and priestly ministry. And the people continually sinned and broke covenant. Israel was more like an unfaithful whore to her heavenly husband than a faithful bride.
   
   So what did God do? Movement number three in the story of the Tabernacle, the part that stumbled the Jews and was folly to the Gentiles, but which is the very glory of God:

3. The Living Tabernacle: He brought down a living Tabernacle, the very body of Jesus. John writes this peculiar phrase in the opening of his Gospel, that, “…the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.”
   
   He brings the tabernacle down in his flesh—Immanuel, God with us! We couldn’t ascend the mountain to God, and so God descended from heaven to us. Knock this temple down, he said, and it would be raised up in three days.
   
   And it was. This Tabernacle not only identified with us, his flesh was the true sacrifice, to take away our sin. And so in his death, burial, and resurrection, the Lord unites us to himself, brings us into union with the very Tabernacle of his flesh. And then, in the fourth movement of the story of the Tabernacle, he brings us back up with him.

4. The Heavenly Tabernacle: This is where we’re standing in Hebrews 8—Jesus, the living Tabernacle of flesh, to whom we are united by faith, ascends to the heavenly holy of holies, sits down as the great King and Priest and Liturgist, you and I seated with him!
   
   And so we now worship as his heavenly people. Even though we’re sitting in wooden pews together this morning on earth, we are truly seated in the heavenlies with Christ! So Hebrews 12:22–24,
   
   “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”
   -Hebrews 12:22–24
   
   The New Covenant is better, because it doesn’t stay on earth in shadow, but comes down and then brings us up. And finally, the fifth movement of this Tabernacle story is seen in the advance of the Church in history, culminating in the completed New Heavens and new Earth:

5. The Descent of the Tabernacle: In the final movement of this story, this heavenly Tabernacle—Christ and his people—comes down out of heaven to earth.
   In Revelation 21, in a prophetic vision, a typological picture of history and history’s great culmination, we see the Bride of Christ, the people of God, presented as an awesome city that descends from heaven to earth.
   
   And in this picture, something very interesting happens: The city is measured. Now this is really cool, because if you read your Bible, you’ll find that the center of the Temple, the holy of holies, is a perfect cube—20 cubits by 20 cubits by 20 cubits, something like 30 feet cubed.
   
   And guess what? This New Jerusalem, God’s Bride, his people, what is it? It’s a perfect cube, but massive—12,000 stadia cubed, which is almost 1,500 miles.

Ok, so what’s the point of all of this? It is that God is and has been from the very beginning in his Garden Temple in Eden, bringing his dwelling place down to be with us, to dwell with us.

In the Old Covenant, this was all presented in little pictures—we’d call them types, shadows, prefiguring, etc. But the New Covenant is the heavenly reality the Old Covenant was modeled on. 

It has been the point the whole time, and Jesus is the Priest, the Mediator, of this better New Covenant, that expands the holy of holies from 30 cubic feet to the entire cosmos.

So the Old Covenant was shadow, the New Covenant substance. Contrast number 3…

3. The Old Covenant came with promises, but the New Covenant came with better promises.

Hebrews 8:6–7,

“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. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.”

-Hebrews 8:6–7

His ministry is much more excellent than the ministers and ministry of the Old Covenant—why? Because it is enacted on better promises. See, the Old Covenant made promises, but the New Covenant makes better ones.

The Old Covenant promises the coming of a Seed of Abraham in whom all the nations will be blessed. The New Covenant provides that Seed and blesses all the nations.

The author of Hebrews basically asks the question, “Why would the Old Covenant include promises like Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36, promises of a New Covenant, if the Old Covenant was enough?” His answer is it wasn’t enough. The Old Covenant couldn’t actually save anyone! This brings us to the fourth contrast, which explains why the Old Covenant didn’t save anyone, but also why the New Covenant can and does:

4. Where the Old Covenant condemned, the New Covenant enables.

And at the center of those better promises was this great, big promise that God would overcome the sinfulness of humanity that the Old Covenant could only reveal. Look at Hebrews 8 again, starting in verse 8, and the author will bring us back to the prophet Jeremiah to help us understand:

“For he finds fault with them [that is, with the promises of the Old Covenant] when he says [and now he’s going to quote from Jeremiah 31:31–34]:

“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.

For they did not continue in my covenant,
and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, declares the Lord:

I will put my laws into their minds,
and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor
and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
for they shall all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
and I will remember their sins no more.”

-Hebrews 8:8–12

See, the Old Covenant contained this perfect Law, but it couldn’t help anyone actually obey that law! It could condemn every single human being under the sentence of death and unrighteousness, but it couldn’t make anyone righteous. It could show everyone their sinfulness in bright neon, but it couldn’t overcome that sinfulness. Paul calls it “the ministry of death, carved in letters of stone” in 2 Corinthians 3:7.

The New Covenant is better, because the New Covenant infuses the law into the very heart of its members. The New Covenant conquers the sinfulness that the Old Covenant could only point at. And so Paul concludes in that same section of 2 Corinthians, in verse 9 of that chapter, “For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory.”

None of this is to say that the Old Covenant was bad—it wasn’t! The decisive problem with the Old Covenant was not the Old Covenant, but the people under it. The New Covenant is better because it transforms the people under it.

I hope you saw it in the prophecy of Jeremiah, right? How does the New Covenant work? What makes it different from the Old? Well, the Old could point at you and say, “Hey, you! Yeah, you. I know you think you’re a pretty good guy, but you actually have a heart of granite.”

And the New Covenant reaches into our dead chests and it rips out those granite hearts and it puts in a living, beating, new heart, and that heart has the very law of God that used to condemn us written on it!

Jesus Christ overcomes our sinfulness by making us new men and women by his resurrecting grace. Not only does he forgive our sin, he also makes us a people who obey God’s holy law from the heart. This is why none of this diminishes the Old Covenant, not a whit. The New Covenant doesn’t destroy the Old, it fulfills it and then implants it in a people.

And it does so permanently. I hope you saw it in verse 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.”

-Hebrews 8:13

The Old Covenant as a system vanishes away, because it has been fulfilled and implanted into the hearts of God’s New Covenant people. It is now obsolete, and when the original Hebrew Christians read this letter in the late 60s AD, the very last vestiges of it were about ready to vanish away with the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD.

See, this is why we’re not waiting for some future Temple to be rebuilt, for the systems and practices of the Old Covenant worship system to return—none of that. It’s gone. It’s never coming back, because the fulfillment of it is living and beating in the new heart of every single one of God’s saints.

And this is why you would be a fool to trust in any home-brewed version of the Old Covenant you might cook up on your own. We love to do that, don’t we? Maybe we don’t appeal to the dietary laws of Leviticus for our salvation, but we love to make our own, don’t we?

But listen: If the perfect law of God in the Old Covenant couldn’t save you, how could your cheap, plastic knockoff of a law do it? It can’t! And listen, even if your law could save you, it wouldn’t. Why not?

Because you couldn’t even keep your own laws! Let me leave you with an illustration that I’ve used before, but which comes to mind as helpful.

Imagine you had a special device that you wore around your neck that automatically turned on and recorded your voice every time you plodded your way up your own personal Mount Sinai and issued a legal decree. “Thou shalt not go under 80 MPH in the fast lane!”

Or to your kids, “Stop fussing! Don’t you know that whining never changed anything? Why won’t you just stop crying and be reasonable?”

Well, let’s write down those laws of yours. Then let’s open the book where God has written down your every thought, your every desire, your every idle word, your every social media interaction, your every deed, your everything—and let’s see how you do against even your own law.

Do you get it now? As we close the book this morning, remember the point: Never go back. Don’t you dare trust in any of Jesus’ forerunners or rivals. Don’t trust even in the perfect shadow of his righteousness, the perfect Law of God. Christ alone can save you, and he alone has saved you—by his very blood and by his very body, the true and Living Tabernacle of God. Because you couldn’t keep it, but he did.

Let’s look to him now as we come to the meal of this Covenant, the Lord’s Supper.