A Better Minister

0:03I'm going to say two quick things as we get into the sermon this morning. The first of those is with regards to the Good Friday service. We'll have a service this Friday, as Brother Dave mentioned. It will be a first Good Friday service that we've ever done. So it will be dark than normal. It will be quiet, reflective, somewhat of a somber service, lots of scripture reading, prayer, and then we will do communion together as well. So yeah, if you can make it come be a part of that service as we remember, as Brother Stephen said, in Sunday school, it's only good because of Sunday. Otherwise, Friday would have been a very bad Friday. The other thing I'll mention with respect to this offering, Brother Gerardo is going to give a little, I don't know why I'm struggling with the word to say here, talk, speech, whatever, right after this sermon about a little missions thing that we're going to do. So anyway, that's it for now. Open your Bibles to the book of Hebrews. You were already there. I didn't hear anybody turning, so you all must have anticipated. We're in chapter 8. We've made it to chapter 8, covering verses 1 to 6 this morning. And the theme for us this morning, for those who are taking notes, is this Christ, our better minister. Christ, our better minister. And God willing will develop that. I am going to do my best to avoid this morning, and I think I have avoided picking on the Catholic Church. I think that this text has more than enough for us to discover and to discuss within our own ranks. But I will say this. Certainly, but also needed to reform us each individually. Okay, so today is Palm Sunday, the day in which we remember our Lord's entry into Jerusalem, where he was worshipped. And we hear he was praised by his people who sang, or shouted rather, Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. And we know that perhaps many of those were the same ones who were later shouting, crucify him. But nonetheless, we do get a picture there or a glimpse of true worship. What true worship of our Lord really is. And how quickly is that worship distorted when the object of our worship does not meet our expectations. But thanks be to God that he does remind us what true worship is. And he calls us into that true worship through his word. Bless you. There have been two many errors, but two great errors in the modern Protestant church with regards to worship and with regards to the ministry of the church. The first of those that I'll mention this morning were or was is the worship wars, as they were called. Driven mostly by a seeker-sensitive model of church growth, the Sunday worship experience was altered to make things more appealing for the seeker. The liturgical motivation was not biblical faithfulness or the edification of the saints. It was how do we appeal more to the lost? How do we make them feel more comfortable in our service? Less about faithful worship, more about broad appeal. So the sanctuaries slowly changed from convictingly beautiful to comfortably familiar. Less like a house of God and more like an Apple store. The music shifted, more instruments, more singers, more lights, more entertainment, much more experience driven. Worst of all, the church divided over these things. Often the older generation feeling like they were being cast aside in the name of relevance or growth. Second great error was this of the celebrity pastor, and I'm not a huge fan of that term. It's used, so whatever. I think it misses some of the more subtle examples whereby a man becomes the face of the church as opposed to Christ. The man who preaches the word on a Sunday morning more from simply one who is making every effort to rightly divide the word and faithfully present Christ to one who was the defining characteristic of the church. We don't primarily look to him to show us Christ, but rather look to him as our guide in all things, as our stay in all things. The pastor becomes more than like a priestly mediator. Even looking to him for fashion advice. Is it Christ's church or is it Fertig's church? I know these things are things that we perhaps get tired of talking about. I don't want to talk about them either. But we're foolish if we don't think that we don't need to be continually reminded of our tendency to supplant Christ as the leader of the church. We will always likely be tempted to conform and transform our worship and our service to appeal to man as opposed to honoring God. I know this because it's been happening since the first century. My prayer this morning is that we will once again see that in this new covenant, Christ has established a new and final way to worship, with new access to God, including a greater communion with God, with Christ as our minister. And may the Lord open our eyes to those truths this morning. So stand with me then as we read our text this morning. Hebrews 8, starting in verse 1. 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 a 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. 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. This is the word of the Lord. Please speak now for Christ's sake. It is in his name that I pray. Amen. Lots of encouraging things. Many very convicting things. Even quite a few confusing things, as we have seen in verse chapter seven. All forming a consistent theme that Jesus is better. Better than what? Yes is the answer. He's better. Jesus is better. We're helped out very much by our text this morning when the author says in verse 1 of chapter 8, the point in what we are saying is this. Our tendency there is perhaps to say, well, couldn't you have just started with that? Saved us a lot of head scratching throughout chapter 7. I hope you fight that tendency, and we're blessed and encouraged by all of the truth, albeit hard, difficult truths throughout the book to this point. We do, though, get a bit of a summary here that ties up what he has been labored on specifically over the past couple of chapters, but really the entirety of the book thus far, and that is this: that we have such a high priest, he says. The second half of verse 1 there. We have such a high priest. What does he mean, such a high priest? The kind of priest he has been describing since chapter 1. One who is the final word of God. The very glory of God radiated to mankind in flesh. One whose name is greater than all the other names. One who even though even the glory of the angels does not surpass his glory. One who laid the foundation of the earth. One who will never change, never grow weary, one who is in control of all things, and to whom all things are in subjection. One who tasted death for us. That by the grace of God the sting of death would be forever vanquished. One who through his suffering became the founder of our salvation. And by that he is our brother. He's unashamed of us. One who is better than Abraham. Better than Moses. Better than Joshua. Better than David, better than Aaron and the whole Levitical order of priests. Better even than Melchizedek, who was but a shadow of the true and final priest. One who was promised to us by the Father. And through whom all the promises of eternal life are founded on and secured through. One who went ahead of us and anchored our souls to the very heavenly places by entering into the holy place and forever making a sacrifice worthy of cleansing us. One who is holy, innocent, unstained, and exalted above the heavens. One who is now seated, having completed his work, and now resides as the true and lasting minister, the true and lasting sanctuary that he established, not man. Praise and thanks be to God that we have such a high priest as that this morning. Amen. I don't think there is any dispute about that. But our text this morning gives us greater insight into that worship that perhaps we miss. And I would say that history shows that we do miss it. Verse 2 of our text says that Christ is a minister in the holy places. A minister in the holy places. Interestingly, perhaps more than interestingly, that word minister in the Greek is the word liturgos in Greek, from which we get our word liturgy. More specifically for our purposes this morning, where we get the word liturgist or liturgist. What exactly is liturgy? In simplest terms, a liturgy is a pattern of worship. With worship being the fullness of how we worship God on Sunday morning, for instance. But it is certainly more than that. So to translate then Christ as our minister, as the text, my English version translates, this is certainly true. He is our minister, but the Greek does encompass more than that. Christ is our liturgist. He is our worship leader. He patterns and orders our worship. And is in fact leading us in all aspects of our worship. He is not only the object of our worship, but is also the leader of our worship. And has established the place of our worship in the heavenly places. We worship in the heavenly places. That is what true worship really is. Liturgy that is formed around Christ as the object, led by him through his word, that transports us to the heavenly places, that we may worship with him and to him there. So when our worship even asks the question, how can we be more appealing to an unbeliever? We have already strayed from biblical worship. Because when we form our service around the unbeliever, we are setting up a tent made by man, not God. We are attempting to bring people into the outer rings of the temple so that maybe some of the holy of holies will rub off on them. But in doing so, we are depriving the saints of entering into the true tent established by God. And I don't mean to be insensitive here. Perhaps this is worded for intentional shock value. But the real question we should be asking is how can we make our service less appealing to the unbeliever? If our goal is to be led by Christ into the holy places, if we're to worship him in spirit and in truth in the heavenly places where he is, this is going to make unbelievers uncomfortable. The ones whose heart is still hardened to the glory of Christ should leave feeling uncomfortable. Perhaps saying, Yeah, I don't get that. But for the one who has been transformed by the power of the Spirit, we feel as though we have been transported to the Holy of Holies and ministered directly to by Christ Himself. By his Spirit and through His Word of truth. I know I've said this before, but we often joke about having sinned and needing to go to church, right? Maybe something makes us angry, and we let one of those not so nice words slip out. I know that no one has done that here. And we say, I need to go to church now. And it's funny and we laugh. But this perhaps demonstrates the flaw in our thinking about our access to Christ. Turn, if you wish, to John chapter 4. John chapter 4, verse 21. This, of course, is uh the familiar story of the Sumerian woman, Jesus at the well, and these words of Christ come just after her referencing the place or the proper place of worship. Verse 21. Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know. For salvation is from the Jews, but the hour is coming and is now here when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father is seeking such people to worship him. In verse 24, God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. And then you can flip back to Hebrews 8, now that you've seen that, and to connect that with our text this morning. In verse 3 of chapter 8, it says this 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. He has done something far better than local rites and rituals could ever do. He has opened up our access to him continually. Anytime, anywhere, by the Spirit and through His word. Meaning that we can enter into His holy presence and receive His grace and forgiveness all the time. But the anointing that you receive from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about everything and is true and is no lie, just as it has taught you, abide in Him. John is not saying that we don't have to listen to anyone, right? Or that we can just shun all biblical teaching, but rather to demonstrate this concept that I really think Hebrews is trying to make here. A minister of the gospel, and I say minister, earthly minister of the gospel, does not have some special access to God that requires you to come to church to receive. A priest does not have some special phone by which he can call Christ and get an inside track on forgiveness. All believers, by the grace of God through the Spirit, have the same continual access to the triune God at all times. There's plenty of scriptural support for corporate worship, right? What we're doing here this morning, so don't hear me say that corporate worship is unnecessary. I'm not at all saying that. But at the same time, I would not be faithful in showing you the grace of God in your access to him, if I somehow tried to demonstrate that there is some special portal that is opened to you on Sunday morning where it is only here, guided by my profound and eloquent words, where you can truly meet God in worship and hear from him. This is nonsense. And to even loosely suggest such things would be to return again to the shadow of our heavenly realities. This reality is that because the sacrifice of Christ, his perfect once-for-all sacrifice, not only do we have access to worship him, worship with him in the heavenly places, but we have this access directly at all times, in all places. That's profound. It really is. That brings me then to the final point I'll make in our text, and that is that we have, and that is that such a high priest as Christ offering such a sacrifice as himself gives us such a communion as is afforded to us in this new covenant. Verse 6 from our text this morning. 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. We'll do that after Easter. But as an overview, the terms given to us through the prophet Jeremiah that we're going to look at, verses 8 and following. The ministry of Christ is putting his word in our minds, writing his word and his truths in our hearts, that by the grace of God, we won't simply know about God, but that we will know him. It's often hard for us to articulate when someone asks why we follow Christ. How do we know he's real? Of course, we trust his word. We believe the historical accuracy of Christ. But it's more than that, isn't it? We have this communion with him, where he is our God. We are his people. And intellectually we can attempt to explain it, and I can present you with all the facts and the figures, I can explain how he's always shown up for me. And even when I know I didn't deserve it, he showed me loving kindness and grace. But until you have experienced that, felt that sense of deity, as Calvin calls it, it is hard to explain. Impossible, perhaps. And that kind of worship led by Christ that we enter into when we have received him is something that you don't quickly forget. That is true worship. I heard Sinclair Ferguson use this analogy. So true. He basically asks the question this ask someone what their most memorable worship experience was, or the time in which they felt as close to God as they possibly could feel on earth. It's a good question. Think about for yourselves. I have been to many, many worship services that would be characterized as excellent air quotes by our modern standards. Full of bands, lights, fog machines, emotional preaching, and I honestly can say that I remember very little one from the other. Eight years ago, though, I broke my leg. As many of you know, I spent multiple weeks lying in my bed. It was one of the darkest times of my life, miserable, helpless, feeling worthless, burdensome on my family. And we came to church in this building, actually, before it was Crossroads Bible Church. And I sat right over there. Roberta might even have been here on that Sunday. And we sang, How great is our God that week. As long as I live, I will not forget that experience. I was so overwhelmed by the presence of God and so ministered to him, ministered to by him, I stood up and I wept as I sang, How great is our God. I've been to Guatemala, worshiped with children who basically had nothing but the clothes they were wearing, and experienced their joy, heard them sing to God, and even though I had no idea what they were saying, was ministered to by Christ. Further, I've had times during a regular sermon prep week for me, alone in my office on a Tuesday morning, nothing special. Just reading through the text when everything aligned in my life and in that week, what was on my heart and the spirit of the word, or the spirit through the word just wrecked me. My family can certainly attest that almost always in our times of family worship together, I can't even make it through a prayer or a reading without choking up. And these aren't elaborate experiences. So what was so different and memorable about those? Certainly wasn't the excellency of the worship. Wasn't the eloquence of a pastor. Because in those cases, it really wasn't anything special. Rather, it was and is the excellency of Christ. Ministering to the worshiper. It was the communion with Christ. Where through these varied circumstances, by the Spirit, we are brought into the presence of God. Where our gracious and divine liturgist leads us into unexplainable worship. And church, that is what we must strive to do each week. In our homes, with our families, in our personal times of devotion, and certainly here in corporate worship. And may it be that we enter into holy communion with Christ, drawing near to him by the Spirit and through the truth of his word and being ministered to by our faithful high priest Jesus Christ. May also add that this doesn't mean that we don't strive to do worship well, right? Because we should. We should worship well and preach well and administer the sacraments and ordinances well. We should and we will. And we will in fact never find salvation and the joy that comes with salvation when we only take him on our terms. When we only worship him as we wish, when we only strive for man-centered appeal, when we only rely on our works. But when we see him humbly riding in on a donkey, as the Lamb of God being led to the slaughter, to take our pain, to receive our punishment, to die our death, so he could be our priest, then maybe we can shout those words and really mean them. Save us, we pray. To the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Praise and worship be to the better minister of a better covenant. Amen. Save us, Lord. We thank you that you did save us. We thank you that you are leading us now to worship you. Lord, in leading us in worship. We pray and I ask that you would open our hearts, Lord, to worship you as you are. May we worship you continually, Lord, in our lives, in spirit and in truth, in our homes, Lord, here. May our sole motivation be to just worship you, to enter into those holy places with you, to be ministered to by you. We need your ministry, Lord. Be with us this week, Lord. Ask all these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.