Sermon Notes: The Superior Priesthood of Christ (Hebrews 7:23 - 8:2)

Hello members of Living Faith and others: As promised, I am posting a summary and recap of this Sunday's sermon and I would like to do it in 4 posts, the first focused on the introductory items and then the next 3 on each of the aspects mentioned that speaks to Christ's Superior Priesthood, which Lord willing I will add over the next 3 days. I look forward to comments and questions from those who would like to weigh in.

For Christ!

Introduction: The theme of the book of Hebrews:

Hebrews is centrally about the absolute sufficiency and superiority of Jesus Christ as the revealer and mediator of God's grace.

By sufficiency we mean Christ is wholly adequate to:

• Account for the gulf betwen God's holiness and our sinfulness
• Absolve the white hot wrath of God's justice in dealing with our rebellion against his glorious rule
• Address the real material needs of his people in this broken world
• Provide a sense of godly purpose in a world bent on self-exaltation and carnal satisfactions

By superiority we mean Jesus is gloriously and overwhelmingly the best option for living in true peace and satisfaction/joy, overcoming what one philosopher (Jean Paul Sartre, for those interested) called the nausea of living in a world of pain and unpredictability. The writer of Hebrews note his superiority specifically in the following:

Hebrews 1:1-3, Christ is superior to the prophets

• The prophets relayed God's message / Christ is God's message
• The prophets spoke for God in the 2nd person / Christ speaks as God in the 1st person
• The prophets could only share what God said to them / Christ speaks what he has seen and experienced with the father, and authoratatively shares what he is privy to in his knowledge of the secret counsel of the triune God

Hebrews 1:4, Christ is superior to the angels

• The text does not appeal to Christ's deity for the exclamation of his superiority over angels, but instead looks to what came out of his ministry (he became, he inherited)
• It's the achievements of Christ that are in view here, it is his guardianship of the plan of redemption and grace that is focused on...

Hebrews 3, Christ is superior to Moses

• Moses was a faithful servant, made equivalent to a hired hand or employee
• Christ is faithful as a son, i.e. as an owner...his is a personal stake in the outcome

Jesus is superior to all competition for our devotion or religous commitment

• He is superior to the Koran and its vision of a military and its vision of a military God who will submit the world through conquest, Christ wins through the reformation of hearts as the Spirit regenerates people, writing God's laws on their hearts...not by power, not by might but my Spirit says the Lord! [no offense to potential muslim readers here, just making honest comparisons...don't come at me with a fatwa...let's talk instead!]
• He is greater than the Declaration of Independence and its vision for political democracy and human liberty...democracies are imperfect, witness the spectacle of this year's election, or what we observe around the world in post-liberation democracies, but when the Son sets you free you will be free indeed...
• He is greater than all economic systems: Capitalism can only provide reaches that are insecure and Marxism claims to be for the people but only Christ said come unto all that labor and are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest...

So, the writer of Hebrews is lifting up the superiority of Christ to Jewish Christians receiving his letter so they will not abandon the faith and fall away [this is not "losing one's salvation"...editorial note]...but will persevere in the faith and thereby actually inherit what has been promised.

Aside: I do not believe the writer of the Hebrews is addressing two different camps within this congregation or congregations, as many suggest, i.e. that there were some in the number of recipients who were not really committed or saved. Though this is true in most if not all congregations, there is nothing to suggest in the text of the letter that the writer was trying to evangelize the marginal. Instead, he addresses all in the same way, assuming they all share the same standing in Christ.

Another aside: There is nothing to suggest in the letter, I humbly offer, that the writer is addressing a special temptation on the part of these recipients to revert back to Judaism or to become Judaizers. The comparison of the two covenants was simply to emphasize the superiority of Christ and not warn against reverting to legalism as we see in Paul's letter to the Galatians.

So, I believe the book of Hebrews has a universal objective and therefore a universal principle and application for all believers everywhere and at all times, namely by lifting up the sufficiency and superiority of Christ, the writer wants Christians to see and wholeheartedly commit to Christ, thereby we are kept forever safe in the faith. This would be a good time to summarize the book of Hebrews again:

• Theme - The sufficiency & supremacy of Christ
• Objective - Exhort believers to enduring faith

So, wrapping up this post, there are three advantages to Christ's Priesthood which will explore in later posts this week:

• The Permanence of His Priesthood
• The Character of His Priesthood
• The Location of His Priesthood

Looking forward to the dialog...if you want the full audio version, you can get it here (it's a bit distorted, we're still working on our audio recording facilities): http://www.mediamax.com/dwilliamso012/Hosted/The%20Superior%20Priesthood%20of%20Christ%20-%20audio.wma