New and Improved (4 of 5)
Series: The Better Jesus
Jeff Strite
Hebrews 8:6-8:13
OPEN: After the death of Elvis Presley it became fairly common to read headlines in the Tabloids such as: ''I was Elvis' Love Child'' or ''Elvis' Ghost is My Father''. Many people claimed to be related to ''The King'' either for the prestige of wearing his name or possibly to try and get a share of his inheritance. In the heat of all this activity, a Detroit radio station advertised that for just $2 and a self-addressed, stamped envelope, YOU TOO could be Elvis' child.
For that sum you could receive an authentic birth certificate from the radio station signed by a Radio Disk Jockey named Dick Puritan. The certificate claimed it entitled the bearer to ''appear on any talk show in the country.'' About 2000 people sent in their envelopes and became ''children of the King.''
APPLY: Everybody knew it was a worthless piece of paper. No one became Elvis' child because of this certificate. And the people who bought those documents had no legal standing for anything.
BUT WHY? Why couldn't you become Elvis' child by purchasing one of those documents? Because the people at the radio station had no authority to issue the document in the 1st place.
I. What the writer of Hebrews is telling us is that there is now a legal document - a ''New Covenant'' - that literally makes us children of THE King.
In the prophecy from Jeremiah that was made hundreds of years before, God tells us ''I will be their God, and they will be my people.'' ( Hebrews 8:10b)
Or as John writes: ''How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!'' (1 John 3:1)
This New Covenant is what makes us children of the King. It has value because the one who offered it had the authority to do so.
As Hebrews 8:6 tells us,
''... the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs (i.e. the priests of the O.T.) as the covenant of wh ...
Series: The Better Jesus
Jeff Strite
Hebrews 8:6-8:13
OPEN: After the death of Elvis Presley it became fairly common to read headlines in the Tabloids such as: ''I was Elvis' Love Child'' or ''Elvis' Ghost is My Father''. Many people claimed to be related to ''The King'' either for the prestige of wearing his name or possibly to try and get a share of his inheritance. In the heat of all this activity, a Detroit radio station advertised that for just $2 and a self-addressed, stamped envelope, YOU TOO could be Elvis' child.
For that sum you could receive an authentic birth certificate from the radio station signed by a Radio Disk Jockey named Dick Puritan. The certificate claimed it entitled the bearer to ''appear on any talk show in the country.'' About 2000 people sent in their envelopes and became ''children of the King.''
APPLY: Everybody knew it was a worthless piece of paper. No one became Elvis' child because of this certificate. And the people who bought those documents had no legal standing for anything.
BUT WHY? Why couldn't you become Elvis' child by purchasing one of those documents? Because the people at the radio station had no authority to issue the document in the 1st place.
I. What the writer of Hebrews is telling us is that there is now a legal document - a ''New Covenant'' - that literally makes us children of THE King.
In the prophecy from Jeremiah that was made hundreds of years before, God tells us ''I will be their God, and they will be my people.'' ( Hebrews 8:10b)
Or as John writes: ''How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!'' (1 John 3:1)
This New Covenant is what makes us children of the King. It has value because the one who offered it had the authority to do so.
As Hebrews 8:6 tells us,
''... the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs (i.e. the priests of the O.T.) as the covenant of wh ...
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