Sermon text: Hebrews 8
Sermon theme: God appointed His Son Jesus to be our prophet, priest and king, mediating the newer and better covenant of grace, whereby He will be our God and we will be His people, whereby our sins are forgiven by Him.
God insists on your redemption; he insists on your blessing; He insists on your coming to this table. Isa 55 says come to the waters; Rev 22, the Spirit and Bride both call us to come to Christ. Do we continue in sin? Yes. But God keeps inviting you to His house for dinner, every week. He insists that you come. Don’t bother offering to bring something for the meal, you can’t. You need what He has, and only He can serve it.
The only requirement as you come is to be grieved over your sin, to seek to turn away from it, and to trust Christ to have paid for it at the cross. This is the new covenant in His blood, and we re-enact His institution of this glorious covenant every week as I hold the cup high. Don’t let the every-week occurrence dull into routine. Realize the shock of the words. For centuries, Israel celebrated God’s act of redemption from Egypt with a cup of redemption. He made them His people this way. But now there is a new covenant; a new redemption coming. “This is His blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” Jesus makes us His covenantal people as He sheds His blood for us.
Jesus redeemed us; He paid the price with legal tender. The legal tender was His life of perfect obedience to God. You have eaten the sign of it – His body, offered up to God, a pleasing sacrifice. The price was His blood, which was poured out by the altar, by the cross, showing He really died for sin. You hold the symbol of that blood in your hand. In the OT, the blood was sprinkled on us, or thrown against the altar. Now, more richly, more intimately, we drink in our Savior, Jesus Christ.
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