Jesus Is Superior To Aaron 11-9-25 PM
I. His position (Hebrews 8:1-2, 4).
a. The High Priest we have is set on the right hand of the throne of God.
b. This shows that His position is much better than any earthly high priest.
c. To be on the right hand of someone has always been a position of power.
i. We still refer to someone very important to our work as our right hand man.
ii. The right hand is where the sheep are going to be at the judgment.
iii. It is said that in the court cases that came before the Sanhedrin, there would be two scribes, one on either side of the judge.
iv. The scribe on the left hand would write the guilty sentences and the scribe on the right would write the acquittals.
d. The high priests who descended from Aaron were on earth and could only go in before the presence of God once a year.
e. Jesus, is in heaven in the presence of God.
f. There are numerous passages that tell us that Jesus would be on the right hand of God.
i. Psalm 110:1.
ii. Jesus said He would sit there (Mark 14:62).
iii. When Jesus ascended to heaven, He sat down at the right hand of God (Mark 16:19).
iv. Peter preached that Jesus was there (Acts 5:30-31).
v. While at God’s right hand, Jesus is interceding for us (Romans 8:34).
vi. At the death of Stephen, Jesus was seen by Stephen standing at God’s right hand (Acts 7:55-56).
g. Jesus is ministering to us in heaven.
i. The writer says that Jesus is a minister in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle made by the Lord not by man’s hand.
ii. This is heaven, since it made by the Lord it is of a spiritual nature.
iii. Jesus is over a spiritual kingdom so it is fitting that He is ruling from a spiritual tabernacle.
iv. We know such to be the case because of Hebrews 9:23-24.
h. This tabernacle was pitched by the Lord.
i. The word “pitched” carries the idea of pounding tent pegs into the earth.
ii. Heaven has been created by the Son Himself just as He said He would go and do (John 14:1-3).
i. Verse four contrasts “on earth” with “in the heavens” of verse 1.
i. This verse proves where Jesus is.
ii. Jesus couldn’t be a priest on earth because He was not of the right tribe to be a priest as was mentioned in Hebrews 7:14.
iii. There were already priests on earth who would offer gifts and they did so according to the Old Law.
j. This is an important verse when dealing with Premillenialists.
i. The Bible plainly teaches that Jesus will be a High Priest in His kingdom (Zechariah 6:13).
ii. If Jesus is to reign on earth as the Premill’s teach, He is going to have to give up His priesthood or this verse is wrong.
iii. Truly though, Jesus is in heaven reigning now over His kingdom as both King and Priest.
k. Jesus is superior to Aaron and His descendants because of His position in heaven at the right hand of God.
II. His purpose (Hebrews 8:3).
a. The purpose of the high priest was to offer gifts and sacrifices.
i. Gifts are those offerings brought to God out of a thankful heart.
1. With these, there was no sin involved.
2. They were given of the free will of the one who brought them.
ii. Sacrifices are those offerings brought because of sin in life of the one who brought them or those required by God for various reasons.
b. This was his purpose all the time.
i. He was over the sacrificial system.
ii. He served the people as a mediator between God and the people.
c. Our writer then tells us that it was a necessity for Jesus to offer something.
i. He has already told that Jesus offered Himself (Hebrews 7:27).
ii. This is the “somewhat” that Jesus offered.
d. Something that is very important to note here is the tense of the phrases of the verse.
i. The tense of the phrase which talks about the high priest offering gifts and sacrifices is in a tense that indicates repeated offerings.
ii. The tense of the last phrase is that of a one time offering with no need to ever offer another.
iii. We know that Jesus is the perfect sacrifice that takes away sin so there is no need for further offerings.
e. The purpose of Jesus was to offer only one offering, Himself, where Aaron and his descendants had to keep making offerings.
III. He fulfills the pattern (Hebrews 8:5).
a. The priests of the Old Testament were a type of Christ.
i. They were an example of what was to come.
ii. They were a shadow of Who was to come.
b. All the things in the Old Testament were pointers to what was coming in Christ.
c. Jesus fit perfectly the pattern that was shown by the priesthood of Aaron.
d. Notice what Paul wrote to the Colossians (Colossians 2:16-17).
e. Moses was told by God to build everything according to the pattern laid out in the mount because all those things pointed to what was coming in Christ.
f. We need to camp out here as we finish this section of scripture.
i. Our God is a God of patterns.
ii. He wants things done a certain way and that way is the way He has laid out for us.
g. Moses was not allowed to deviate at all from what He was given.
i. If Moses could not deviate when it came to something that was going to be replaced, what makes us think we can deviate from that which will never be replaced?
ii. Yet how many people talk bad about what they call “pattern theology”?
h. There are patterns laid out in the New Testament and God intends for us to follow them exclusively with no deviations.
i. There are patterns for worship, organization of the church, entrance into the church, church discipline, and other things.
ii. We have no right to change any of them.
i. Jesus is superior to Aaron because Jesus is the fulfillment of the pattern God laid out in the Old Testament.