The scripture reading for the sermon tonight will be Hebrews chapter 8 verses 1 through 6. The title of the sermon is The Finished Yet Ongoing Work of Christ. Hebrews 8 verses 1 through 6. Hear now the reading of God's inspired, inerrant, and infallible word. 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. Grass withers and the flower fades. but the Word of the Lord endures forever. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that You would bless the proclamation of Your Word, that You would accompany it with Your Holy Spirit, with great power and deep conviction, and that You would cause us to see by faith Jesus Christ crucified, raised, ascended, interceding for us, and that You would give us grace and faith to continue to follow Him and walk in the light of his word. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen. Reformed theology historically has emphasized very properly that the work of Jesus Christ is finished. His atoning sacrifice is the perfectly and unrepeatedly acceptable offering that satisfies the wrath of God and removes sin. Unlike the Roman Catholic tradition that says Jesus is sacrificed again and again and again in the Mass, the Reformation properly affirmed that Jesus has offered himself once for all, and that being a temporal completeness never to be repeated. And this is certainly true. In fact, when biblical authors discuss the work of Christ, frequently they have in mind the events of the past. Christ's earthly ministry, His life, His death, His satisfaction of wrath, And that focus is in the book of Hebrews. Remember in Hebrews 9.26, what do we see? Christ has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. And remember when we looked at that, what does it mean? It means this. it means that the judgment of God against your sin intruded into time and befell Christ in His once-for-all substitutionary sacrifice for you. That is the good news of the Gospel from the standpoint of Christ's humiliation. Hebrews 10.10 puts it this way, We have been sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus once for all. And again, it's the single and unrepeatable offering of Jesus in His sacrifice on earth that gets such a great emphasis in the book of Hebrews. Our salvation is bound up with the unrepeatable sacrifice of Christ. But Hebrews 8, beginning in verse 1, offers us something that's vitally important and supplemental to what we saw in Hebrews 9. Rather than focusing on the past once-for-all character of Christ's death, we find instead a reference to the ongoing, continuing ministry of Christ in his life. 8.2 tells us that we have a high priest who currently serves as a minister in the true heavenly sanctuary. So that not only has Christ accomplished salvation once for all in His earthly ministry, but He continues to serve His church in heaven, interceding for His people in the heavenly sanctuary, the true tent pitched by the Lord. To push this one step further, the book of Hebrews encourages us to see this, that Christ's work as a past and completed reality for us on earth should never be understood apart from his ongoing priestly mediation for us in heaven. Christ's atoning death in the past was always with a view to His ongoing mediation and service in heaven right now. What Jesus did once for all continues to have significance for us because He lives to intercede for us in heaven. Let's unpack that a bit. The intimate connection between Christ's past sacrifice on earth and his present ongoing ministry in heaven become really clear when we look at verses 2 and 3. Look at them. Verse 2 focuses attention on Christ's present work in heaven, but verse 3 alludes to his sacrifice. You see, the fact that it was necessary for Jesus to offer a sacrifice is a direct allusion to His earthly ministry and His sin bearing on behalf of His people. Christ had to offer a sacrifice. Christ had to be made like His brothers in every way, without sin, so that He might be a sympathetic High Priest. But while he had to offer a past once-for-all sacrifice for sin, he serves in the sanctuary in heaven. In fact, Hebrews 7.25 makes a statement that's counterintuitive to us. Listen to the first part of it, and then I'll complete it. Christ is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him. Why? You would probably finish it because he died once for all for them. But 725 says this, because he always lives to make intercession for them. Jesus' ability to save you to the uttermost, please hear this, depends not only on his death, but absolutely demands that he lives. If you were to be saved to the uttermost, Jesus Christ must not only die, but He must live, and He must have the power of an indestructible life. Christ's ability to save is rooted not only in His death, but in His life. And this leads us to consider what I think we can call this, the finished yet ongoing work of Jesus Christ. The finished, yet ongoing work of Jesus Christ. Notice how these two play out in our text. On the one hand, Christ is seated at the right hand of the Majesty in Heaven, verse 1. That is, He has done the one thing that the old covenant high priest could never do, and that is sit down. because he has made atonement for sins. He has borne the wrath of God. He has faced the tribunal of divine judgment. He has taken away the sins of his people once for all. And when he rises and ascends and sits at the right hand of God, it is a stamp that authorizes the perfection of his priestly sacrifice on earth. The symbolic significance of sitting conveys the idea of perfection and completion. In fact, the author of Hebrews, in Hebrews 10, 11, and 12, brings out the very point in contrast to the Aaronic priest. Listen to what he says in 10, 11, and 12. Every high priest under the old covenant stands daily at his service. offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins." So, as the high priest stands and serves, what is that standing conjoined to? Imperfect, repeated sacrifices. But, verse 12, when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God. Christ sits because His one sacrifice never needs to be repeated and cannot be improved upon. It stands as the sole, perfect, sacrificial basis for the salvation of His people. Christ brings into the heavenly sanctuary as ascended the perfection of His own blood, the offering of His own body for you, in contrast to the high priests of the Old Covenant who stand offering sacrifices that Hebrews 10.4 says cannot take away sins. But notice this. While it is the case that Christ sits at the right hand of God, He also serves in the heavenly sanctuary. Now think about that for a moment. Notice the deliberate incongruity between the two acts. When a king sits on his throne, what usually occurs? Servants come into His presence and they serve the one who is seated. If you go into a restaurant and sit down, hopefully someone comes within 15 or 20 minutes and asks you what? How may I serve you? Sitting usually brings into view a posture of one who will be served by another, by a vassal. by a waiter or waitress. But the logic of verses 1 and 2 is this, that Christ's service is naturally related to his sitting. That is, Christ's sitting focuses attention on his completed work, but his service points to his ongoing activity and the two belong together. It is just because Christ sits at the Father's right hand that He is qualified to serve in the heavenly sanctuary. He sits in heaven because His work is perfect and complete. And He serves in heaven because His work is perfect and complete. At a profound level, you can say this, that Christ sits in order to serve, to serve His people. The Christ of the past is the Christ of the present. The Christ who sacrificed for sins is the Christ who has ascended to sit and serve at the right hand of God, the Father. All that he has accomplished in the past, in his death and resurrection, grounds and directs his present ministry as a high priest. Contrary to the old covenant order, whose continued priestly activity, when standing, pointed to provisionality, pointed to imperfection, Christ's sitting and serving gives you assurance that you belong to the One who has washed you and cleanses you and He serves you even now in the heavenly sanctuary. And that is why it makes no sense at all to revert to the shadowy, promissory economy of the Old Covenant under Moses. But a reference to the shadows and types of the Old Covenant brings us to look at another aspect of Christ's high priestly ministry, and that's its location. We hinted at this last night. Notice verses 4 and 5. If Christ were on earth, He would not be a high priest at all. Why? More than likely, this book was written somewhere between 67 and 69 A.D., prior to the fall of the temple. And at that time, high priests in the order of Aaron were serving in the earthly sanctuary. And the author of Hebrews says this, if Jesus is serving in the earthly sanctuary, He wouldn't be a priest at all because He does not come through the line of Levi. Therefore, the author of Hebrews says, he must be a priest in a location that transcends the earth. He is a priest according to the order of Melchizedek. He is a priest on the basis of the power of an indestructible life, Hebrews 7.16. And so, his ministry cannot be an earthly priesthood in an earthly sanctuary. Why? Well, here's why. The author of Hebrews says in verse 5, that those priests serve a copy and a shadow of the heavenly things. And he uses Exodus 2540 as his proof text. He says this. They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was told to make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain. Now, I want you to understand what this text means. This text means that when the Lord raised Moses up to Mount Sinai, and descended on Mount Sinai in smoke and fire and thunder and lightning, and He gave Moses the Ten Commandments written, as it were, by His own finger. And when He passed before Moses, as we saw two nights ago, and showed His glory to Moses, and that glory came to rest in a creaturely fading way on His countenance, He also did something that is mind-boggling. He opened that barrier that distinguishes the invisible heavens from the visible heavens and earth. He opened heaven and showed Moses the heavenly sanctuary, which would be the pattern after which the earthly sanctuary was to be built. He unveiled before the eyes of Moses the glory of the heavenly throne presence of God and the glory of the upper register, invisible, created, holy place. He unveiled that as the archetype, as the pattern after which the earthly was to be built. And for that reason, the author of Hebrews says that the earthly tabernacle is a copy and a shadow of the heavenly sanctuary. The language of copy, it's hoopadigmati in the Greek, that brings into view the likeness between the earthly sanctuary and the heavenly original that it copies. What you have in the Most Holy Place, for instance, is an earthly sketching of a heavenly reality. And so there is a strong likeness in that the earthly is a copy of the heavenly. But notice also, it is a skia, a shadow. And the language of shadow reminds you that no matter how much the heavenly and the earthly are similar, the earthly is nonetheless a shadowy form of the radiant glory of heaven. So that on one sense, from one perspective, while the earthly tabernacle reveals the glory of heaven, it also veils it. It reveals the glory of heaven in that it's a copy. It veils the glory of heaven in that it's a shadow. And so built into the logic of the tabernacle is this unveiling yet veiling of the glory of the heavenly tabernacle itself. And the author of Hebrews says, this is the far greater true tabernacle, verse 2. the heavenly sanctuary, and that is where Jesus serves. He serves in the true tabernacle which the Lord has set up, and not men. He serves in the heavenly reality itself. But I want to ask you this question. You can read systematic theology textbooks and other volumes on this And you'll recognize immediately that Christ serves in heaven. He is a minister in the true tabernacle. But have you ever asked yourself the question, why is He still serving? Why is Christ still serving in the heavenly tabernacle? What is He doing in that heavenly tabernacle for His people as they remain on earth. This gets us to the heart of the Gospel from the standpoint of the book of Hebrews. Let me put it this way. Jesus serves in the heavenly tabernacle. And He serves as a high priest in the heavenly tabernacle. until such a time that He brings you where He is. If you think about the book of Hebrews more broadly, Hebrews 3.7-4.11, which I talked about in the question and answer time, presents the church's experience right now as a place of wilderness testing. You, as the people of God, are a new wilderness community given the inauguration of a new exodus by one greater than Moses and Joshua, Jesus Christ. You are a people of God whom the Lord has called out of the world in order that you might enter into rest. Hebrews 4.11, a Sabbath rest awaits the people of God. This Sabbath day is a type and a shadow of never-ending rest in the presence of God. Sabbath rest in its fullest sense of the term, in the full magnitude and scope of the idea. And Jesus Christ serves as a high priest so that He might give you grace and extend to you mercy in your time of need in the wilderness. Hebrews 4, 14-16 says that you have a High Priest, Jesus the Son of God, who has passed through the heavens and who might give you mercy and grace to assist you in your time of need. Your time of need is your time in the wilderness. And Jesus, as your High Priest, serves in heaven so that He might guard you and protect you as your King, that He might speak to you and teach you as your Prophet, and that He might save you and raise you and redeem you as your great High Priest. Jesus continues to work and serve in Heaven until such a time, listen, as the one who is presently seated rises up and returns to raise you up out of the wilderness and bring you into Sabbath rest. And His work will continue until the time that He brings you where He is, frees you from the wilderness, raises you into rest. Put a complementary way, as Hebrews 2.10 says, Christ lives that He might bring many sons to glory. that He might bring many sons to glory." Listen, I want you to recognize this. Every single time the Word of God is preached to you, Jesus Christ, by the power of His Spirit, is bringing you to glory. He is drawing you closer to Himself, raising you up, and bringing you to the glory that He possesses as enthroned and glorified at the right hand of God. He will not give you the fullness of His own glory as the Son of God or Mediator, but He will bring you to glory and rest. What He has entered into He has done as a pioneer. He has done as the one who opens the way for the rest to follow. So when Jesus was raised up into heaven to sit at the right hand of God, He was raised and ascended that He might bring you permanently where He is to rest, Hebrews 4.11, to glory Hebrews 2.10. We are waiting then for the priest who is seated to rise and return in glory. We are waiting for what we now perceive by faith to give way to sight. We are waiting for Jesus Christ to come for His people and take them forever to the right hand of the Majesty on High, where the psalmist says, there is pleasure and joy forever. We are waiting for the unveiling of that heavenly tabernacle and the fundamental difference between what Moses saw and what you will see is this. Moses saw an empty sanctuary, an empty heavenly exemplar. You will see the incarnate Son of God descending out of heaven to take you where He is. Look heavenward to this Christ whose entrance into heaven is for you. so that He might return to take you forever where He is and confer upon you glory and rest in the presence of God forever. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for Jesus Christ, for our great heavenly High Priest. We pray that You would bless us in Him, that You would fill us with all of His fullness, We pray that You would encourage us and strengthen us in the Gospel. And we ask that You would cause Your Word to sink deeply into our hearts, that You would accompany that Word by Your Holy Spirit, and that You would fix our eyes on Jesus Christ, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at Your right hand, where He might intercede for us and where he might bring us on the last day. We ask that you would now seal these truths to our hearts, bind us to Christ by the power of your word and spirit, and strengthen us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.