The Wicket Gate

Introduction

Good morning, open up again to the book of Hebrews. We have made it to chapter 8 and will covering verses 1-6 this morning. The theme for us this morning and for those who are taking notes is this: Christ, our better Minister. God willing, we will develop that more as we go.

I am going to do my best to avoid picking on the Catholic church this morning as I think this passage has more than enough for us in our own ranks but I will say this. The fundamental principals of this text and really much of Hebrews 7 were the very principals that Luther applied to reform the church in the 1500’s. These same principals are still needed today to continually reform the modern church but also very much needed to reform each of us, individually.

Today of course being Palm Sunday, the day in which we remember our Lord’s entry into Jerusalem where he was worshipped and praised by his people saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” We know that perhaps many of those were the same ones who were later shouting “Crucify him!” but none-the-less we do get a picture or a glimpse of true worship of our Lord. 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 of what true worship is and calls us into that true worship through his word.

There have been two great errors in the modern protestant church with regards to worship and the church. The first of those were the worship wars. Driven mostly by a seeker sensitive model of church growth, the Sunday worship experience was completely altered to make things more appealing for the seeker. The liturgical motivation was not biblical faithfulness and edification of the saints, it was how do we appeal more to lost and 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 a Apple store. The music shifted, more instruments, more singers, more lights, more entertainment. Much more experience driven. Worst of all the church divided over all these things. Often the older generation feeling like they were being cast aside in the name of relevance and growth.

The second great error is that of the celebrity pastor. I am not a huge fan of that term because I think it misses some of the more subtle examples whereby a man becomes the face of a church as opposed to Christ. The man who preaches the word on Sunday morphed 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 and our stay. The pastor becomes for more like a priestly mediator. Even looking to him for fashion advice. Is it Christ’s Church or is it Furtick’s church?

I know these are things maybe we get tired of talking about and believe me, I don’t want to talk about them anymore either, but we are foolish if we think we don’t need to be continually reminded of our tendency to supplant Christ as the leader of the church. We will likely always be tempted to conform and transform our worship and our service to appeal to man as opposed to honor God. I know this, because it has been happening since the 1st century.

My prayer this morning is that we will see once again that in this new covenant, Christ has established a new and final way to worship, with a new access to God, including a greater communion with God, with Christ as our minister. May the Lord open our eyes to these truths this morning.

Hebrews 8:1–6ESV

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.” 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.

Such a Minister

The author of Hebrews has said a lot of things to this point hasn’t he? Lots of very encouraging things, many very convicting things, and even quite a few confusing things. All forming a consistent theme that Jesus is better. Better than what? Yes, the answer is just yes. Jesus is better. We are helped out very much by our text this morning when the author tells us, “The point in what we are saying is this:” Our tendency is to say, “Well, thanks you could have just started with that and saved me a lot of head scratching.” I hope you fight the tendency and were blessed and encouraged by all the truth to this point.

We do though get a bit of a summary here that helps tie up what has been labored over the past couple chapters. That is this: We have such a high priest. What does he mean such a high priest? The kind of priest that he has been describing since chapter one. One who is the final word of God, the very glory of God radiated to mankind in the flesh. One whose name is greater than all the other names, one who even the glory of the angels does not surpass, one who laid the foundation of the Earth and who will never change and never grow weary. One who is in control 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 and is 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, whom 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 has anchored our souls to the heavenly places by entering into the holy place and forever making a sacrifice worthy of fully 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 of the true and lasting sanctuary that he has established, not man. Praise and thanks be to God that we have such a high priest this morning, Amen.

The connection I want to make here on Palm Sunday centers around worship, as I have alluded to in the introduction. We know that Christ is to be worshipped and I don’t think there is any dispute about that but our text this morning gives us a greater insight into that worship that perhaps we miss. I would say history shows, we do indeed miss it. Verse 2 of our text says that Christ is “a minister in the holy places.” Interestingly that word minister in the Greek is the word “leitourgos” from which we get the word Liturgy or more specifically for our purposes this morning, liturgist.

What exactly is a liturgy? In simplest terms a liturgy is a pattern of worship with worship being the fullness of how we worship God on a Sunday morning, for instance. So to translate Christ as our minister is certainly true, he is our minister but the Greek encompasses 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 not only is the object of our worship but is also the leader of our worship and has established the place of our worship, namely the heavenly places.

This is what true worship really is isn’t it. 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 him and with 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.

I don’t mean to be insensitive but the real question we should be asking is how can we make our service less appealing to an unbeliever. If our goal is to be led by Christ into the holy places and worship him in spirit and in truth in the heavenly places where he is, this is going to make unbelievers uncomfortable. The one whose heart is still hardened to the glory of Christ should leave feeling uncomfortable and perhaps saying, “ya I don’t get it.” 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.

Such a Sacrifice

I know I have said this before but we often joke about having sinned and needing to then go to church, right? Maybe something makes us angry and we let one of those not so nice words slip out and we say, “I need to get to church.” Sure it’s funny and we laugh but perhaps this demonstrates the flaw in our thinking about our access to Christ. Turn if you want to John, Chapter 4, starting in verse 21. This is of course the familiar story of Jesus and the Samarian women at the well. These words of Christ come just after her referencing the proper place of worship.

John 4:21–24ESV

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 the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

To connect that with our text this morning in verse 3 it says this:

Hebrews 8:3–4ESV

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.

These rites and rituals done in certain physical places are only to serve as a copy and a shadow of the heavenly things. Because of Christ’s once for all sacrifice and him entering into the holy of holies and tearing the curtain that was separating us from him there, 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 sprint and through his word of truth. Meaning that we can enter into his holy presence and receive grace and forgiveness all the time.

John says in 1 John 2: 26-27

I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you received 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 or that we can just shun all biblical teaching but rather to demonstrate the concept that I think Hebrews is trying to make. A minister of the gospel does not have some special access of God that requires that you come to church to receive. A priest doesn’t have some special phone by which he can call Christ on 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 is plenty of scriptural support for corporate worship so don’t hear me say that corporate worship is unnecessary, 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 opened up on Sunday where it is only here guided by my profound and eloquent words where you can truly meet with God and worship him and hear him speak. That’s nonsense and to even loosely suggest such things would be to return again to a shadow of our heavenly realities.

This reality is that because of the sacrifice of Christ, his perfect, once for all sacrifice, not only do we have access to worship him, with him, in the heavenly places, but we have this access directly, at all times, in all places.

Such a Communion

That brings me then to the final point that I want to make this morning in our text 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 the new covenant.

Hebrews 8:6 ESV

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 ministry that Christ has obtained through his sacrifice is based on better promises through a better covenant. I mentioned last week that we would begin to look at the specific terms of this new covenant and Lord willing we will mine those depth after Easter but as an overview the terms given to us through the prophet Jeremiah concerns not being taught the law externally but rather has an emphasis on knowing the Lord internally. The ministry of Christ is putting his word in our minds and writing his truths on our hearts that by the grace of God we won’t simply know about God, but we will truly know him. It’s often even hard for us to articulate when someone asks why we follow Christ or how do we know he is real. Of course, we trust his word and believe the historical accuracy of Christ, but it really is more than that isn’t it?

We have this communion with him where he is our God, and we are his people and intellectually I can attempt to explain it. I can present to you all the facts and figures, I can explain how he has always shown up for me and even when I know I didn’t deserve it he showed me such loving kindness and grace but until you have experienced it, felt that sense of deity as Calvin called it, it’s hard to explain. That kind of worship, led by Christ, is something you don’t quickly forget.

I heard Sinclair Ferguson used this analogy and it’s so true. Ask someone what their most memorable worship experience was or the time in which they felt as close to God as they could possibly feel on Earth. I have been to many, many worship services that would be characterized as “excellent” by our modern standards. Full bands, lights, fog machines, emotional preaching, and I honestly don’t remember one from the other. 8 years ago I broke my leg and spent 2 weeks laying in my bed. That was one of the darkest times of my life, miserable, helpless, feeling worthless, burdensome to my family and we came to church in this building actually, before it was Crossroads Bible Church. We sang How Great is Our God that week. As long as I live I won’t forget that experience. I was so overwhelmed by the presence of God that day and so ministered to by him that I stood up and just wept as I sang How great is Our God.

I’ve been to Guatemala and worshipped 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, I experienced the ministry of Christ. Further, I have had times during a regular sermon prep week, alone in my office on a Tuesday morning just reading through the text when everything aligned in my life that week or what was on my heart and the spirit through the word just wrecked me. My family can attest that almost always in our times of family worship I can never make it through a prayer or reading without chocking up. These are elaborate experiences so what was so different and memorable about those times? It certainty wasn’t the excellency of the worship or the eloquence of a pastor because in those cases it really wasn’t anything “special” but rather it was and is the excellency of Christ ministering to the worshipper.

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. Church, this 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. 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 be ministered to by our faithful high priest Jesus Christ.

Let me also add that this doesn’t mean that we don’t strive to worship well and preach well and administer the sacraments well. We should and we will but everything we do must be centered around only one goal. Worshiping our Lord in Spirit and in truth.

Conclusion

So again this is Palm Sunday. A day in which we should be reminded not only of the ministry and mission that Christ enters into and the sacrifice that he endured for us but also that our call is to worship and serve him for who he is, not for what we want him to be. We will, in fact, never find salvation and the joy that comes with salvation when we only take him on our terms, only worship him as we wish, only strive for man centered appeal, or 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, and die our death so he could be our priest then maybe we can shout those words and really mean it.

“Hosanna (save us, we pray) to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” Praise and worship be to the better minister of a better covenant. Amen.