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Reflection Post Glenn Martinez TH242 A More Excellent Ministry Hebrews 8:6 Introduction A salient feature of contemporary American evangelicalism is the desire to tame the names of our churches and our ministries. We go to great lengths, consult with marketing experts and complete surveys in order to ensure that our church names are innocent and inoffensive. A seeker-friendly name such as Rock City would seem to avoid any association with the Bible-thumping churches of yesteryear. A name that taps the nostalgia of seemingly lost values such as The Family Church or perhaps a name that appeals to our generation’s desire to live and be happy such as The Celebration Center. And to the extent that the attendance rolls and the bank account of these ministries expands, we might even think that they are successful ministries.  And this same tendency, I would argue, has spread from public ministries such as churches and infected our own private and more immediate ministries. Have you ever heard someone say: “I want be a friend to my daughter so that she knows she can tell me anything?” They say: “I was terrified of my parents and so I just never told them anything. I don’t want that for my kids. I want them to relate to me.” And so we put up a façade and we tame and sanitize anything that might seem offensive. In Hebrews 8:6 we read about the true and excellent ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. The ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ is a ministry that is purchased with the price of blood and that is supremely effective. It is a ministry that supersedes all others because it is rooted in “the holy places in the true tent that the Lord pitched not man.” In considering this true and excellent ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, then, I would like to invite you to consider the character of your ministries and the ministries that you are a part of. Are these ministries drawing you and others closer to Christ? This is the incontestable mark of a true and effective ministry – that it points you and prods you to a more excellent ministry, the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. I have titled today’s message A More Excellent Ministry hoping to draw your attention to the amazing and awe-inspiring ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. I will be focusing today on Hebrews 8:6 where we read: 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. The main point of the author of Hebrews in this text is to demonstrate that the excellence of the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ is his high-priestly mediation of God’s eternal covenant of grace with you and with me. This excellence was underscored by Calvin in his Institutes when he wrote: We or our prayers have no access to God unless Christ, as our high priest, having washed away our sins, sanctifies us and obtains for us that grace from which the uncleanness of our transgressions and our vices debars us. I would like to point out three aspects of this text in order to draw out the excellence of the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ that Calvin so eloquently expressed. First, I would like you to consider that Christ has obtained his ministry. Second, I would like to call your attention to the nature of this ministry – Christ mediates a better covenant. And third, I will point out the foundation of the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ – better promises. Christ obtained his ministry In the text we read: “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.” Notice that Christ obtained the ministry: it was not assigned to Him, it was not bequeathed to Him. He obtained it! The Greek verb tungxano means “to secure, to effect, to bring to pass”. In this passage is it is a perfect active suggesting that Christ himself secured, effected or brought to pass his ministry. So, how did Christ obtain this singular, more excellent ministry? In order to answer this question, we must consider two fundamental issues 1) who Jesus Christ is and 2) what Jesus Christ did. The Heidelberg Catechism in Lord’s Day 5 Question 15 asks: What kind of mediator and deliverer should we look for then? The answer: One who is a true and righteous human, yet more powerful than all creatures, that is, one who is also true God. Then in Lord’s Day 6 Question 18 it asks: Then who is this mediator – true God and at the same time a true and righteous human? The answer is an emphatic: Our Lord Jesus Christ! Christ obtained his ministry on the basis of who he is – very God and very man. The incarnation is central to Christ’s ministry. We read in Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin.” He was truly human! And yet at the same time, he was truly divine. We read in Hebrews 8:1-2: “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.” The Nicene Creed affirms this succinctly: We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, begotten from the Father before all ages, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made; of the same essence as the Father. Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, he became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary, and was made human. Christ obtained his ministry through the incarnation. Through the taking on of human flesh and, as church historian Andrew Walls has argued, translating the divine into the human of his own initiative. But Christ’s ministry was also obtained through what he did. As synthesized in the Nicene Creed: He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate; he suffered and was buried. The third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures. He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead. His kingdom will never end. The high priestly ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ was obtained through his own real and true sacrifice. A sacrifice of which the animal sacrifices under the Levitical priesthood were nothing more than a “copy and a shadow” (Hebrews 8:5). We read in Hebrews 9:11-12:               But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing eternal redemption. Christ obtained his ministry through who he is and what he did. Nothing is more central, more critical, more consequential to your Christian walk, to your Christian ministry than your understanding of the person and work of Jesus Christ. Today, in our age of science and facts it grates on the ears of our contemporaries to hear us proclaim that Jesus Christ is God himself. In the early church, the problem wasn’t so much whether Jesus was God but there was significant doubt as to whether he could truly be human. Both extremes nullify Christ’s excellent ministry. The excellent ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ is founded on the fact that Christ is man and that Christ is God. There is no intermediary position, no middle ground. Christ, the mediator of the Covenant The text teaches us that just as Christ’s ministry is grounded in who he is and what he did, it is substantiated in his effectual and essential mediation of a better covenant. “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.” Covenant is a theological term with a rich meaning. The ordinary definition of the word is something like an agreement between two parties, a treaty or a pact. The theological meaning of the word, however, differs substantially. And because of this substantive difference, I think it is worthwhile to quote the definition provided by Herman Hoeksema in his Reformed Dogmatics at length. Hoeksema writes: Now the Scriptures teach very clearly that God is in Himself a covenant God. He is a covenant God, not, in the first place, because of any relation wherein He stands to the creature. The creature can participate in and taste His life according to the measure of the creature; but it cannot enrich that life. Thus it is also with the covenant. It is eternally of God. It is eternally perfect in Him. He is the covenant God in himself. And His is the God of the covenant, not according to a decree or according to an agreement or pact, but according to His very divine nature and essence. For God is indeed One in Essence, but he is not lonely in Himself. If nothing else could be said than that God is One, He would not and could not be the living God, who is in Himself the ever-blessed one. A God that is lonely does not know Himself and love Himself, does not live and is not blessed, is a cold and dead abstraction. But God is One in Being and Three in Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And as the Triune God, He is the living God, who lives the infinitely perfect covenant life in Himself. Theologically, then, the covenant is a reflection of the harmony, the friendship and the intimacy that exists within the Godhead. And it is because of this that Covenant Theologians locate the inauguration of the history of redemption not in the Garden of Eden, not in the Valley of Shaveh, not on Mount Sinai and not at the hill of Calvary. No, the inauguration of the history of redemption is located in eternity past in the counsel of peace, the pactum salutis or the covenant of redemption. It begins in the harmonious and intimate agreement within the Godhead to effectuate redemption for all of the elect. And redemption consists of a gracious extension of this friendship and intimacy from the Creator to the creature. Jesus Christ is the mediator of the covenant. He is the one who stands between God and man and makes possible the intimacy and friendship that God offers eternally by grace through faith. In 1 Timothy 2:5 we read: “For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.” And it is all of God. 1 Corinthians 1:30 says in the King James Version: “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” It is all of God! Are you foolish? Christ is of God made unto you wisdom. Are you wicked? Christ is of God made unto you righteousness. Are you wayward and becoming worse and worse each day? Christ is of God made unto you sanctification. Are you desperately in need of friendship and intimacy with God? Christ is of God made unto you redemption. It all depends on Christ!! Our friendship with God depends fundamentally on Christ. We cannot water down the Gospel and expect that our relationship with God will grow. On the contrary, the more we cover it up, the more we sanitize, the more we tame our name – the further and further we drift away from God. Christ is what keeps on course. Christ is the pioneer, the captain of our salvation, of our interaction, our intimacy and our friendship with God. You see, spiritual drift is not about getting preoccupied with the things of this world. It’s not about getting bogged down. It’s about drifting away from Christ and the more excellent ministry that he provides us. Christ is the one who gives us access to God. And yet, we become comfortable within a dualistic mindset where we compartmentalize everything. Science here, religion there. Politics here, morality there. But the fact is that Christ needs to be present and pervasive everywhere. Christ needs to be as central to our science as he is to our worship service. He needs to be as present in our politics as he is in our parenting. The excellence of his ministry is what demands this pervasive, all-encompassing presence. Everything we do should draw us and others closer to Christ, not because we say the words “Jesus Christ” in every other sentence, but rather because He is present in all that we do. Christ and his better promises Our text says that the covenant that Christ mediates is enacted on better promises. What are the promises that ground the covenant relationship that our Lord Jesus Christ mediates? In John 14:1-4, Jesus tells his disciples: Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going. In this passage, Jesus promises his disciples that the heavenly tent from which he ministers is also their heavenly tent. The reality that Jesus came to fulfill is not a distant reality but a tangible one. The covenant that Christ mediates is enacted on the promise that He will be with us. In 1 John 2:25 we read: “And this is the promise that he made to us – eternal life.” The promise upon which the covenant is enacted not only secure our place with Jesus Christ but they also secure that place eternally. The consequences of Christ’s ministry are eternal consequences. Finally in Acts 2:39, Peter tells his listeners at Pentecost: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” The promise upon which the covenant is enacted is an all-encompassing promise one that extends to you, to your children, to those who are far off and to everyone who God calls to himself. And all of these promises rest in Christ himself and in his more excellent ministry.     Conclusion So, let’s go back to where we started. What does your ministry in the home look like men? Is it drawing your wife and children closer to Jesus Christ? How about you, moms? Is your ministry with your children pushing and prodding them towards a closer relation with our Lord? How about you young people? How are your actions and attitudes at work and at school reflecting the more excellent ministry of Jesus Christ? As we live out the ministries with which God has entrusted us, it is essential that we ground ourselves in who Christ is and what he has done. Jesus Christ is not just something you talk about on Sundays. He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. As we live out these ministries, it is also critical that we understand how to apply the reality of Christ as the Son of the Living God. Christ mediates our friendship and intimacy with God. He applies this friendship and intimacy to us. It is all of him. There is nothing more dangerous and toxic to your ministry than the illusion that you are somehow the one responsible for making it work. It would all fall to pieces if it weren’t for you. Wrong! It is all of God. We are instruments of God’s handiwork and mouthpieces for his glorious gospel. We put ourselves in his hands so that it is his hand wielding us and not us wielding him. Finally, as we live out these ministries, we need to remember the promises upon which Christ’s more excellent ministry is enacted. They are promises that all-encompassing. They are promises for you, for your children and for those who are far off. I think it is easy for us to forget that. We act as if the promises are only for us or only for our children. But the more excellent ministry of Christ is a ministry that extends beyond us to those who are far off, to the stranger within our gates as well as to those who live thousands of miles away. They are also promises with eternal consequences. They impact not only the here and now but also the heavenly and the eternal.