Heb 8:1–6 — Our Priest in the True Tabernacle

We Have Such a High Priest

The title of the sermon today is Our Priest in the True Tabernacle. I have derived that from the first two verses of our text. We have the point, and what we are saying is this, we have such a high priest in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tabernacle or tent, but tabernacle is probably the, we are most familiar with as we think about the Old Testament tabernacle that Moses and the people of Israel built. We have a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven, and the emphasis is on that word in heaven, a minister in the holy places in the true tabernacle that the Lord set up, not man. So the title then is Our Priest in the True Tabernacle. And you can see my point there. That in the true tabernacle is another way of saying in heaven. That is what the author of Hebrews is saying. Heaven, where Christ is, is the true tabernacle. We have such a high priest in heaven.

Now notice that the text begins with this word here, such. Did you notice that word such? It is found in verse one. The point in what we are saying is this, we have such a high priest. Why does he use the word such? He is pointing back to everything that he has said in the previous chapter. Which we have been looking at over the past several weeks. In Hebrews chapter seven, what has the author of Hebrews said? He has said that Christ is a priest after a different order, not the order of Aaron and his sons, but the order of Melchizedek, a completely different order, a superior order of priesthood. Another argument that the author of Hebrews has made in the previous chapter is that unlike the Aaronic priests, this priest, after the order of Melchizedek, has a permanent priesthood.

Not like the Aaronic priest, where after Aaron dies, then he passes on that role to his son. And then after his son dies, it passes on to his son and down through the generations. This priest, Christ, is not a mortal priest. Who can only serve for a time and then must hand on his priesthood to someone else, to a successor. This priest, Christ, has no successor. He is the final occupant of that office. Because he suffered and died upon the cross, but he was raised again from the dead and exalted to the highest heavens where he now lives forever as a permanent priest.

And as a result of that, because he lives forever, he is able to save to the uttermost. I am quoting here from verse 25. He is able to save to the uttermost. He is able to save to the last degree. He is able to save all the way to the end. Those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

So the author of Hebrews here is embarking upon a new stage of his argument. This argument now is going to begin here in chapter eight, verse one, and it is going to continue all the way down to chapter 10 and verse 19. Chapter 10, verse 19 says, therefore, Remember that passage, it is a wonderful call to worship that we sometimes use here in church.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he is opened for us through the curtain, that is through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us hold fast. Let us draw near with a true heart and let us hold fast our confession. And the author of Hebrews then is making that application to the people, telling them not to drift away from Christianity and go back to a Christless form of Judaism, not to abandon Christ and try to worship God in the temple using the earthly priesthood that was set up in the time of Aaron, but rather to draw near to God through Christ. Christ, since we have this high priest who is far superior to the priest of the old covenant, and since we have access into the presence of God through this priest, let us draw near in worship. And he is talking about corporate worship, because he says in verse 25, do not neglect to meet together as is the habit of some, but let us encourage one another. Let us draw near in corporate worship as we do every Lord’s day, as we are doing right now, to worship the living God through Christ.

Chapter 7 was a preliminary stage in the argument dealing with this point that the Aaronic priesthood is temporary, and now we have a priest after the order of Melchizedek. And he is using Psalm 110, verse 4 as his main proof text for that, because God said to Christ, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Seated in Heaven

And he is emphasizing that word forever. He is a priest that lives forever, who continues forever. But having made that argument from Psalm 110, now beginning in chapter eight, verse one, and continuing all the way down to 10, 19, he is going to make a further argument from that, which is that we have this high priest who is in heaven.

And because he is in heaven, he is there in heaven for us, and he is paved the way for us to also draw near to God and to have access to that heavenly realm in him. We have such a high priest, this one who is after the order of Melchizedek, who lives forever, who does not have successors.

He is the last occupant of this office, and he will continue in that to the end. And because of that, that gives us great encouragement to know. That we have confidence that he will save us to the uttermost. That is, he will bring us safely to heaven. He is going to not only grant us faith, but he is going to preserve us in the faith, and he is going to glorify us one day and bring us into that heavenly realm forever. There is another point we need to think about here, and that is this emphasis on heaven. So he is making a transition now. He is argued about this fact that we have a priest after a different order, and this different order means that he is a permanent priest who lives forever. But now he is beginning to transition to another thought, which is that he is in heaven. So the author of Hebrews is really underscoring this for us. He says in chapter eight, verse one, Now the point and what we are saying is this. So whenever that in the text, you got to kind of perk up a little bit because this is not, some minor point. This is not a footnote. This is like, I am telling you the main point of what I am driving at here.

The whole reason why I am writing this letter to you is to teach you this doctrine that we have such a high priest who is in heaven. He is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven. Gotta emphasize that last phrase there. He is in heaven. The point of what we are saying is, is we have a priest who is in heaven now. And so we need to think about that. What exactly is heaven? What does it mean to say that we have a priest in heaven? And he is in heaven now. And he is there for us now. What does that mean?

Now the word heaven is a little bit, it has different meanings. Sometimes we use the word heaven in a future sense. In fact, I used it that way a few minutes ago when I said that Christ is able to save us to the uttermost and one day he will glorify us and bring us into heaven.

I was using the word heaven there in the future sense of referring to What happens after Christ returns, when Christ returns, he is going to raise all of his people from the dead. Those who are alive will be transformed and give them glorified bodies. And then he is going to bring us into the new creation. The creation itself will be glorified and made to be a place where God will dwell with his people forever.

So sometimes we use the word heaven in that sense, in that future sense, to refer to what will happen at the end when Christ returns, to refer to the new heavens and the new earth, to refer to the eternal state after the second coming of Christ. But there is another usage of the word heaven in scripture, and that is the usage that refers to the present reality of this heavenly realm where God dwells in the midst of his angelic hosts, and where he is full of light and glory and power. This is the usage of the word heaven that is first found in the Bible. In fact, it is in the very first verse of the Bible.

In Genesis chapter one, we are told that in the beginning, God created the whole universe, but he created the whole universe to have two parts to it. He created the heavens and the earth. He created the universe with a bipartite structure. There is the heavens and there is the earth. And later on in Genesis 1 and 2, it will talk about how after looking back upon the six days of creation, it will say, and so God finished creating the heavens and the earth and all their hosts.

That is all of the inhabitants of those two realms. The hosts of the earth is all of the creatures that God made on the sixth day of creation, all the animals and man himself. But what are the hosts of heaven? The host of heaven are the angels. And so the Bible talks about this two part structure to reality. And when we use the word heaven in our text, when it says that Christ is now seated at the right hand of the majesty on high in heaven, we are referring to heaven in that second meaning, not the eschatological heaven at the end, the new creation, but rather this second aspect of reality that permeates the entire cosmos.

In Colossians chapter 1, In verse 16, the author is Paul, and he explains, he is commenting on Genesis 1:1, and he explains what heaven and earth refer to. He explains it this way, he is talking about how Christ is the one through whom God created all things.

He says, Colossians 1:16, by him, that is by Christ, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. So by adding that phrase visible and invisible, he is defining and explaining what the word heaven and earth mean. Heaven means the invisible realm and earth refers to the visible part of creation.

The True Tabernacle

That is what the author of Hebrews is referring to here in our text. We presently, at this moment, have a high priest, not in the future heaven of the age to come, but we have a priest now in heaven, in that invisible realm. He is a minister in the holy places, as it says in verse two, in the true tabernacle that the Lord set up, not man. Why does he say the true tabernacle that the Lord set up?

Because he is referring back to Genesis 1:1. The Lord set up the true tabernacle that is this heavenly invisible realm.

The Lord set it up in Genesis 1:1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. In the beginning, God created this invisible realm that was set up by God himself as opposed to The physical tabernacle that was made in the time of Moses, recorded for us in the book of Exodus, after they came up out of Egypt, after God gave them the law, then God said to the people of Israel to build this tabernacle, this place, where God would dwell with them on the earth.

That tabernacle, according to the author of Hebrews, is not the true one. It is merely a copy of the heavenly one. He says that in verse five of our text. He says that the current priests, we believe that this letter was written before the destruction of the temple in AD 70. And so he is saying the current priests that you now see that are serving God in the temple, they are only serving a copy and a shadow of the heavenly things.

The Earthly Copy and Heavenly Reality

For when Moses was about to erect the tabernacle, he was instructed by God saying, and then the author of Hebrews here quotes from Exodus chapter 25, see that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain. In other words, that earthly tabernacle made of various animal skins and wood and so on, And then later on, it would be replaced by Solomon’s temple made out of stone. It was much bigger and grander, but it was still in continuity with that earthly tabernacle. That earthly tabernacle, or if we are talking about its Solomonic form in the temple, was merely a copy, an earthly replica of a true reality that is in the heavenly invisible realm.

This is an amazing thing to think about. Incredible to think about because we are so tied to this visible realm. Our whole experience in life, day-to-day existence, is based on this earthly visible world that we see and that we interact with all around us every day. And it is very easy to forget that there is an invisible realm as well. There is this heavenly spiritual reality.

Now what is interesting is that throughout the Bible, from time to time, God will give his people, usually a prophet, will give his people a little glimpse behind the veil. It is as if there is a veil, a curtain, that is separating us from that invisible realm.

But every now and then, God will pull back the curtain just a little bit and let us look through the keyhole, as it were, just kind of getting a little glimpse of what is there behind the curtain. For example, in Ezekiel chapter one. Remember in Ezekiel chapter one, that is the passage that talks about the throne room of God and the wheels and all the four living creatures and so on. That is picked up by the book of Revelation in Revelation chapter four, that talks about Christ seated among the four living creatures. Which are cherubim. These are angelic beings. But notice this verse here.

The very first verse of the book of Ezekiel says, in the 30th year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I, Ezekiel, was among the exiles by the Chabar Canal, do you not just love that, kind of very earthly? It is set in a very real time. This is after the exile, but Ezekiel is with the exiles in Babylon by the Chabar Canal, and he is dating it to an exact time in his own experience. But what does he say then?

He says, in that time, at that moment, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. He is an earthly man. He is just a man. But God gave him a little peek behind the curtain. And God opened the heavens for a moment. And he saw visions of God. He did not see the divine essence of God, because God is not visible. God is a spiritual being. But he saw a manifestation of God.

In fact, it even says at the end of chapter 1 It uses this very interesting language at the end of the chapter of Ezekiel 1, after it mentions that he saw what looked like the appearance of a human being sitting upon a throne. We do not want to say that is God, per se, because God does not have a body. So what does he say in Ezekiel 1, verse 1, or verse 2? In verse 28, he says, he saw such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. He does not say, I saw God directly. He says, such was the appearance, appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. All these layers.

That are trying to express that he is not seeing the divine essence. No one can see God, but he is trying to communicate this idea that he saw visions of the glory of God. It is as if he is seeing God, because God is manifesting himself in this glorious way. God is not literally a man sitting on a throne. But he represents himself that way in this vision. So the heavens were open. There is a peak behind the curtain.

There is this heavenly reality that is real, even though most of the time we do not see it. And most of the time we do not experience it. I am sure that was true for Ezekiel too. Most of his life was spent simply going to the people of Israel and calling them to repent for their sins. But here in this one moment, God gave him a vision of that heavenly reality of the invisible realm. The invisible realm became visible for a moment. Although we could even question whether he literally saw it with his actual eyeballs, or was it some sort of a spiritual vision? We do not know exactly.

Remember, the same thing happened at the baptism of Jesus. You remember that? At the baptism of Jesus, it says, this is in Mark chapter one, verse 10. Mark is the only gospel that records this detail. After his baptism, Jesus saw heaven being torn open. That is what it says. He saw heaven being torn open. Mark 1 verse 10. That is the same language of Ezekiel in Ezekiel 1 verse 1. He saw heaven being torn open. Did everybody else around him see that?

Probably not. It just says Jesus saw it in some sort of spiritual vision like Ezekiel. This is the reality of heaven. Not a future eschatological reality in the new creation. Yes, that will be one day. But a present reality now. And it has been that way ever since the beginning, ever since Genesis 1 verse 1. Maybe one helpful way to try to explain this is to use the analogy of light. That light is technically electromagnetic radiation. That is what light is. Those of you that took physics in high school, remember the classes on electromagnetic radiation?

And visible light that we can see right now is only a tiny part of that electromagnetic spectrum. Above it, in frequency, is ultraviolet radiation, which our eyes cannot detect. Below it in frequency are infrared, as well as radio waves. These are frequencies that our eyes cannot perceive.

In fact, we are surrounded in this day and age with devices. We were surrounded all the time by cell phone signals and Wi-Fi, broadcast television, radio. All of these signals are all around us, but they are just at such a low frequency that they do not have much power, and they do not have the ability to harm us.

But the fact that something is invisible does not mean it is not real. So this kind of helps us then to see that heaven is real, this invisible realm where God is dwelling in his glory and power, this invisible realm is real, even though we do not see it, at least not yet. Our existence in this life is very limited. Our experience of reality is very limited to what we, at this moment, are able to perceive with our senses. But there is another dimension to physical reality that is utterly unseen, that is absolutely glorious. It is the heavenly realm inhabited by the angels.

Let me give you an illustration of this from the Old Testament in 2 Kings. Do you remember the story of Elisha and his servant? Elisha was the successor of Elijah. And remember, Elijah was taken up into heaven in a whirlwind. The horses and chariots of fire came and took Elijah up into heaven.

But later on, this is in 2 Kings 6, Elisha, the successor of Elijah, is in a town named Dothan, and the enemies of God’s people, the king of Syria, who is persecuting the people of God, they are trying to nab Elisha. The reason is that Elisha has been giving away the location of the king of Syria’s armies so that the king of Israel can avoid being attacked.

And the king of Syria is wondering, how does he know? How does the king of Israel know where I am sending my armies all the time? And someone told him, well, he has a prophet named Elisha who tells him. He is always able to escape. And so the king of Syria says, I am going to nab Elisha. So he sends his army and his army, a literal physical army with horses and chariots is surrounding the whole city. And Elisha and his servant are surrounded. Elisha is not afraid because he knows that God is more powerful, but his servant, He starts to get very anxious and afraid. He says to Elisha, what are we going to do? Look, we are surrounded by armies. There is no way of escape. We are in trouble. We are sitting ducks here.

And then it says that Elisha prayed to the Lord and said, Lord, would you please open his eyes so that he can see the true situation here? Not just the one that he perceives with his physical senses. This is 2 Kings 6, 17. So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of the horses and chariots of fire, the same ones that brought Elijah up into heaven.

He finally saw the true reality that those who are on our side are far greater than the earthly horses and chariots of the king of Syria. We have God himself. We have heaven itself. We have the armies of heaven all around us, protecting us to deliver us.

But he had to have his spiritual eyes open so that he could see the truth of the situation, so that he could get a little peek behind the curtain to see what is real, even though it was not immediately obvious. So returning to our text then, the author of Hebrews is saying, the point of 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, who is currently a minister in the holy places, that is the true tabernacle that the Lord set up and not man. Now he is making this argument that is continuing the main thrust of this letter, which is to these Jewish believers, they are Jewish Christians, but they are contemplating, they are thinking about abandoning the Christian faith, or at least honing down their Christian beliefs to fit in with the Judaism of their neighbors. And the author of Hebrews is saying, do not do that because we have the reality. What they have, what the current Jewish leadership has in the current earthly temple and the current priestly staff who are serving in that earthly temple, what they have is merely a copy and a shadow of the true tabernacle in heaven.

The true tabernacle is heaven itself. That is why, that is why in various passages like in Isaiah 6, when Isaiah saw God on the throne, or in the book of Revelation, when it talks about that heavenly realm, it describes the furniture of heaven in ways that sound a lot like the earthly tabernacle and the earthly temple. It mentions that there is an altar in heaven, the altar of incense. Isaiah mentions that in Isaiah 6. In Revelation, it mentions the Ark of the Covenant being up there in heaven. Does that mean that literally there is a literal Ark of the Covenant or a literal altar up there in heaven? No, because this is a spiritual dimension. The best way to understand this is to think of it in two directions, two directions of the way that the Bible speaks. So the first direction is from heaven down to earth. So that first direction is the direction that our text talks about.

When Moses was about to erect the tabernacle, he was instructed by God, see that you make everything according to the pattern that you saw when you were up on the mountain. So when Moses was up on the mountain, the top of Mount Sinai, that was a lot like Ezekiel having the heavens open and seeing God himself, or at least seeing that visible representation of God. So Moses saw he was up there in that heavenly realm and he saw heaven. He got a peek into the heavenly furniture of the heavenly tabernacle.

And then he came down the mountain and said to the people, okay, now let us make an earthly replica of it. That is the first direction from heaven down to earth. Moses makes a copy on earth of what he saw in heaven. But there is a second direction where now it loops back. Okay. And that is from earth back up to heaven. Biblical language, like Isaiah 6 mentioning the altar in heaven, or the book of Revelation mentioning the Ark of the Covenant in heaven, biblical language will use the earthly copy the literal tabernacle and the literal temple and the literal furniture there that was on earth, as a way of providing us with metaphorical language to try to, in as best as we can in our earthly finite capacity, to try to describe what heaven is like. So the first direction is from heaven down to earth. Moses makes the copy from heaven down to earth.

The second direction is later prophets and biblical writers will then use the earthly language to talk about the heavenly reality. So do not take it too literally, okay? It is a dimension of creation. Heaven is a dimension of creation. It is not a literal place with literal earthly furniture. And God is not a literal man sitting upon a literal throne. Those are all ways of trying to explain the unexplainable, trying to explain in human terms something that totally transcends our earthly capacity to grasp. Maybe one helpful verse that might sort of speak to that idea of the fact that we are talking about unspeakable realities that completely transcend our earthly capacity would be a passage like 2 Corinthians chapter 12.

Remember that passage? 2 Corinthians 12 says, I know a man, he is talking about himself, but he uses this language. I know a man who 14 years ago was caught up to heaven. And he says, whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know, only God knows. But I know this, that this man was caught up into heaven and he heard things that cannot be told, things which man may not utter. That is 2 Corinthians 12, verses one through four. But my emphasis there is on the fact that it is unutterable. It is completely transcendent because we are talking about God. We are talking about God and his power and glory and holiness.

So that is why you cannot take these descriptions of heaven, whether it is Ezekiel one, or whether it is Isaiah six, where it mentions that God has a robe and the robe, the train of his robe fills the temple. Does God literally dress up in robes? No, but it is metaphorical language taken from the earthly level to explain the unexplainable, things which cannot be uttered.

The apostle Paul is using this in a way to say, Look, you Corinthians, you want a pastor, you want an apostle who is super spiritual, and you do not like the fact that I am constantly suffering and getting thrown in jail and having all these difficulties? You want somebody who is really powerful and super spiritual? I could, if I wanted to. I could go and tell you about all my visions, like Ezekiel’s vision. But I am not going to because I am not going to boast in those things. I am going to boast in the cross. I am going to boast in my sufferings because those show that I am united to Christ and united to him, not only in his sufferings, but in his resurrection glory.

The Apostle Paul also mentions in 1 Corinthians that the glory of the heaven to come. Now I am talking about the future heaven, but it is related. The glory of the future heaven is what no eye has seen, nor ear has heard, nor the heart of man imagined.

Our Priest Is There for Us

These are the things that God has prepared for those who love him. That is first Corinthians two, verse nine. But here is the wonderful thing. Here is the wonderful application of all of this. Going back to Hebrews 8, verse 1, the point of what we are saying is this. We have such a high priest in heaven. He is there in that heavenly reality, in that spiritual dimension that is beyond our capacity to understand. And he is there for us. He is there to intercede for us. One of the main things about this heavenly dimension, this spiritual place, is that it is a place of holiness.

That is why it is called the most holy place. Just like in the earthly tabernacle, there is the outer court, and then there is the holy place, and then there is the most holy place. And that most holy place is so holy that no one can go in there. Only the high priest can go in, and only once a year. And he has to go in with sacrifice, otherwise he would be killed. Heaven is the most holy place. Because that is where God is. The presence of God is a place of fearful holiness. Just like Isaiah said, when Isaiah saw God exalted upon his throne, what did Isaiah do immediately? The very first thing out of his mouth is, woe is me. I am a dead duck. I am in serious trouble because I know that I am a sinful man. I am a man of unclean lips. And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

So when we talk about this spiritual dimension, it is not simply a dimension that is interesting to think about. It is God himself. It is God’s own holy presence. And it is a place of fear for us because we are full of sin that bars us from that holy place.

But thanks be to God that we have such a priest. Who is there for us already. He has paved the way. He is the forerunner who has gone there and he is there permanently for us. Thanks be to God that we have such a priest who has made a way of access for us into the presence of God in heaven.

And through this priest, through this mediator who is in heaven for us right now, we can draw near to a holy God. We can draw near to a holy God, even though we ought to shrink back in fear and dread like Isaiah and say, woe is me. Yet we can draw near with confidence. We can draw near with full assurance, knowing that he accepts us through Christ. Christ has entered into that heavenly holy place.

In Hebrews 9:24, it says, he has entered not into holy places made with hands, like the tabernacle, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. And that is a reality that all believers in Christ enjoy 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Even when you are asleep, And you are not thinking about this wonderful stuff. That is a reality.

You have a high priest who is there in heaven for you and who secures your access to God and your acceptance before God in spite of your sinfulness. Another wonderful application though is not only does this give us great assurance to know that we are accepted before a holy God, it also gives us great encouragement to join with God’s people for worship. Because is that not what we do in worship? We are entering to that holy place. In fact, it even says that, I mentioned already in Hebrews 10, 19, the application of this whole section is let us draw near in corporate worship, not forsaking the assembly. But later on in Hebrews, what does it say in Hebrews 12?

It says, we have come to Mount Zion. Mount Zion is simply another biblical term for heaven. Heaven could be called the true tabernacle. It could be called Mount Zion. It could be called the top of the mountain where Moses went, Mount Sinai being a prefiguration of Mount Zion. But Hebrews 12 says, you and I, brothers and sisters in Christ, when we gather together for worship on the Lord’s day, as we are doing right now, we have come to Mount Zion. We have come to that heavenly realm. We have come to heaven itself. That very place where Isaiah saw the king in all his glory, where Ezekiel saw the appearance of the glory of God. We have come there and we experience it in a greater way. It is as if, would not you say this? I think this is the application.

That for us, we are not prophets like Isaiah and Ezekiel, but for us, God gives us our little peek behind the curtain every Lord’s day when we gather together for worship on the first day of the week. And even more when we come to the Lord’s table, because there the risen Christ in heaven welcomes us into that heavenly place. And we experience in a greater way communion with the Lord. It is only a matter of degree. In principle, we have that, even like I said, even when we are asleep, even when we are not thinking about these things, we have it in principle because our high priest is there. But the Lord gives us these additional tokens of his grace and his love. Every week to encourage us, to remind us, just like that servant of Elisha needed to be reminded, he is shaking in fear, saying, what are we going to do? And the Lord opens our eyes for a little moment to see it, so that we can rest assured that we are accepted before him.

And then one day, one day, the glorious reality is there is going to be a future heaven as well. And one day, the current veil, the current curtain that separates the visible and the invisible realms will be done away with. And we will enjoy unbroken, complete communion with God in that heavenly reality, which then will be the entire creation, the whole creation.

It says that in Isaiah 6, when Isaiah saw the Lord on his throne, he says, he heard the angels crying out, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. The whole earth is full of your glory. Did you notice that? The whole earth is full of your glory. That is a true reality now, but in that last day when Christ returns, we will see it. We will be given the eyes to see it and heaven and earth will be one.

And we will enjoy the eternal presence of God in a perfected way, in a way that is far greater than now. All the sin will be gone. All of our struggles with the flesh will be gone. All of the difficulties of this life, sin, and mortality, and sickness, they will all be gone.

We will have perfect, unbroken communion with God forever. Here in church, we have a foretaste of that heavenly reality.