“Better Promises” [Matt's Messages] ~ Matt Mitchell

“Better Promises”

Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus

The Letter to the Hebrews

Lanse Evangelical Free Church

July 5, 2026 :: Hebrews 8:1-13

What is keeping you going these days?

There are a lot of things that threaten to knock us off course, aren’t there?

There are a lot of distractions out there. So many troubling things are happening in our families, community, nation, and world. So many loud voices are trying to steal our attention through our phones, our TV’s, our culture. What was it this week for you? ...

And there are many many things that threaten to discourage us. Things that beat us down. Sometimes it’s hard to keep going. Sometimes it’s hard to get out of bed.

Anybody have a hard time getting out of bed?

I don’t mean that you’re sleepy and comfy there and want to hit the snooze button again. I mean you’re scared and depressed and anxious and de-motivated and discouraged.

And even if you get out of bed, you are just going through the motions in life, just covering the bases–not joyfully fulfilling your purpose as a follower of Jesus Christ and living each day for Him.

It’s easy to fall into that. Especially when you have a real sense of your own failings and shortcomings and weaknesses and sinfulness. You feel guilt and shame. You know that you are not what you should be. And so it’s hard to get out of bed and keep going.

What is keeping you going these days? What is getting you out of bed?

The pastor who wrote this letter to these Hebrew Christians knew that they were struggling to keep going. They were tempted to quit. They were tempted to throw in the towel which would be worst thing ever for them to do.

So he wrote these anxious Christians this letter with this message:

Fix your eyes on Jesus.

Because He is greater. Jesus is better. Jesus is worthy of our attention, and He’s more worthy than anything else. And if we fix our eyes on Him, we can keep going and going and going.

Jesus is greater. Jesus is better. This writer is laser-focused on convincing his readers (and therefore us) that this is true. Jesus is better.

He loves that word “better” or “greater” or “superior.” We’ve seen a lot of comparisons and contrasts in this book so far, and there are more to come.

In verse 6 of chapter 8, he says it 3 times. Jump down to verse 6. He says:

“But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.”

There’s our title for today, “Better Promises.”

These are the kind of promises from God that will get you out of bed if you can really take them to heart.

We’ve reached the heart of the Book of Hebrews which we’ve said could be summed up with what three words?

Great High Priest.

His readers (knew what we often miss) that we all need a great high priest. We all need a great high priest to safely represent us to a holy God.

His readers knew that because they knew all about priests. They had priests. We call them the “Levitical Priests.” They were the priests that the Law of Moses prescribed in the Old Covenant (the Old Testament), and they were all from the Tribe of Levi and more specifically all from the sub-tribe of Aaron, Moses’s brother, the first high priest of Israel.

The Levitical priests represented the people of Israel to the holy God of Israel with gifts of thanksgiving and sacrifices for sin.

And once a year on the Day of Atonement, the high priest would offer a sacrifice for himself and then take a sacrifice of atonement, not just in the the holy place, but the Holy of Holies, the Most Holy Place behind the curtain and present that offering at the Mercy Seat, at the Atonement Cover at the Ark of the Covenant which stood for the very throne of God.

They knew that. But they needed to know (and the Old Testament taught when you paid close enough attention to it), that God had promised to send another kind of high priest. A better kind of high priest.

#1. BETTER PRIEST.

A priest that doesn’t come from Team Levi or Team Aaron, but from another team, a more ancient team, a more enduring team. A team whose members are not just priests but kings at the same time.

What team am I talking about? Team Melchizedek!

In Psalm 110, the LORD promised David’s Lord, the Messiah that He would be a priest. Psalm 110, verse 4.

“The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind: ‘You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.’”

The last two weeks as we’ve studied chapter 7, we’ve unpacked both of those phrases.

First, the order of Melchizedek, of which Jesus is the greatest team member of all time.

Second, that Jesus is a priest forever in that order, on that team.

I won’t go back over it all, but remember the list of the contrasts we saw last week between Team Levi and Team Melchizedek? The Levitical Priesthood versus Jesus’ Priesthood.

Which one looked better?

Team Levi wasn’t bad. Team Levi was God’s own idea.

But Team Melchizedek?! His team is so much better. Especially because Jesus is alive. He is now indestructible. Jesus cannot die.

Did you think about that at all this week? What kind of a high priest He can be because He lives forever and ever? “Because he always lives to intercede for” us (Hebrews 7:25)!

Now, in case you’re wondering if this is a side issue for this letter or a rabbit trail that the author has gotten off on, he says this in verse 1:

“The point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man.”

This isn’t a rabbit trail. All of this Psalm 110 stuff. All this Melchizedek stuff is the main point. We need a high priest like this, and we have a high priest like this. His name is Jesus!

“We do have such a high priest who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven.”

If anyone asks you what is the point of Hebrews, you can say, “Great High Priest.”

Notice that he says once again that Jesus sat down. That’s important him, and it should be important to us. He said it in the very first paragraph of this letter. And he’s repeated it a few times. He’s going to come back to that again in chapter 10 and chapter 12.

“Jesus sat down.”

Why is that important? What would you say to that? I’m not going to tell you more today. You think about it. Why is it important that Jesus sat down? There are several reasons. (And yes, it has something to do with His priesthood being better.)

Where did He sit down?

Church, where is Jesus right now? “At the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven.”

In heaven. That’s important, too. In fact, that’s what he’s stressing in these first five verses of chapter 8. It’s the location of His priesthood. Jesus’ ministry as a priest is better because it’s located in heaven. You see that in verse 2?

“We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man.”

What is he talking about? Where does Jesus do His priestly ministry? In the holy place in heaven.

Did you know there is a sanctuary in heaven? I don’t know if that’s more metaphor or if there is something literally in the heavenlies like that. It’s hard to think in those categories.

Regardless, it’s more real than what we consider real.

Jesus serves as our great high priest in the “true tabernacle,” the true worship tent that was pitched–not by Moses and his team at the end of Exodus but–by God Himself! Jesus serves as a great high priest in the very presence of God. What does our memory verse say? He “has gone through the heavens...”

And He takes with Him an offering. That’s what high priests do. Look at verse 3.

“Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer.”

Every high priest does. What was the sacrifice He brought? Was it the blood of bulls and goats?

No. What did we read last week in chapter 7, verse 27? “He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.” We’re going to learn more about that in chapter 9.

Verse 4 keeps us focused on the location of Jesus’ ministry. Verse 4.

“If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already men who offer the gifts prescribed by the law.”

Think about that for a second. He says that Jesus if he were on earth, he wouldn’t be a priest in the temple. Did you ever think about how Jesus never went into the temple as a priest? He never went into the holy of holies.

He could have! He belonged there! He cleaned out the temple and said it was His house. His Father’s house. He cleaned house. But He didn’t take in the blood of bulls and goats or spotless lambs into the Most Holy Place. No, He died on earth, making Himself an offering, and then He passed through the heavens and into the heavenly tabernacle and presented His blood directly in God’s presence.

In the realest temple in the universe! The tabernacle on earth and the temple were just shadows of the one in heaven. That’s what he says in verse 5.

“They [Team Aaron’s priests] serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: ‘See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain’” (vv.5-6).

That’s Exodus chapter 25, verse 40. And it’s mind-blowing. Apparently, Moses was shown a pattern, a blueprint(?), a template, or map of some kind on top of Mount Sinai of what it’s like (so to speak) in the heavenly temple and he was to build the tabernacle (the mobile temple) according to that pattern.

So that we could catch a glimpse of what it was like in heaven!

That means that tabernacle and the temple were special for their day, but they were just a “copy and shadow.”

Which is better: the copy or the original?

Which is better: the shadow or the substance?

The original. The substance.

So why would we cling to the shadow? Why would be cling to the copy?

He’s going to say more about this in chapter 9, but you can feel how many more contrasts he’s making here for us to see how much better Jesus is as our great high priest.

Let’s fill out the chart.

Levitical priests minister on earth. Jesus serves in heaven!

Levitical priests minister in a sanctuary that men built (by God’s design!) but Jesus ministers in the sanctuary that the Lord build by Himself!

Levitical priests minister in a copy or shadow temple. Jesus serves in the true tabernacle.

Which one is better? It’s really no contest.

The only thing that might be a little better about the one on the left is that they could see it. You have to be reminded where Jesus is. We don’t see Him right now. We have to remind each other.

Church, where is Jesus? He’s seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven. Which is SO much better. Verse 6.

“But the [great high priest] ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs [Aaron’s sons] as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.”

#2. BETTER PROMISES.

Now here, the writer is not leaving the subject of Jesus’s priesthood. He’s got a lot more to say on that. But he’s going to switch the focus a little bit from what kind of a priest Jesus to what kind of a covenant His priesthood is connected to.

You see his logic? Look at verse 6 again.

“But the [high priestly] ministry Jesus has received is as superior [contrast word “better”] to theirs [the Levitical priests] as the covenant [that word showed up for the first time last chapter, but it’s going to get a lot of treatment in the next few chapters] of which he is mediator is superior [better] to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.”

So Jesus’ priesthood is better.

The covenant He represents is better.

And it’s better because the promises of the covenant are better.

Now, what’s a covenant? A covenant is like a contract. It’s a binding agreement on two or more parties. And in the ancient Near East it was a big deal.

The Bible is full of covenants. Covenants between humans. And covenants between and God and humans.

We have learned over the years about the Abrahamic Covenant. Genesis 12, 15, 17 and so forth.

And we have learned about the Davidic Covenant. 2 Samuel 7. What do we typically call the covenant that was connected to the Levitical Priesthood?

We call it the Mosaic Covenant because it came with the Law of Moses. Another name for it is the Old Covenant. Or here it’s called (v.7) “that first covenant.” And we’ll see why in a second.

Let me ask you a question:

Was the Mosaic Covenant good or bad? Was it a good deal for God’s people or a bad one?

It was very good! The Mosaic Law Covenant was a gracious gift to a sinful people. It came after God rescued His people from Egypt, and when they understood that He was making a covenant with them and providing them with a priesthood to safely represent them to Him in a holy sanctuary, they were being given a tremendous gift!

They were being told what God is like and what He likes! They were given His Law which is a wonderful thing. Read Psalm 119 to find out just how precious the Law was. To know what God wants! To have priests with sacrifices to safely represent you to God when you sin against His law.

What a tremendous gift the Old Covenant was!

But it was also weak. It was also...what did he call it two weeks ago in chapter 7, verse 19? “Weak and useless.” It was ineffective. It was inadequate. It was good, but it wasn’t good enough.

And that was on purpose. Because God always had a plan for another covenant, another binding agreement, another big deal. Look at verse 7.

“[Jesus’ covenant of which He is the mediator is superior...] For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. [But there was something wrong with it.] But God found fault with the people and said: ‘The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah” (vv.7-8).

This is what Keagan read to us from Jeremiah chapter 31:31-34. In fact, this is the longest quotation from the Old Testament copied and pasted into the New Testament. The writer to the Hebrews is switching over from explaining and expounding on Psalm 110 to explaining and expounding on Jeremiah 31.

The promise of the “new covenant.”

How many remember when we studied the Prophecy of Jeremiah in 2022 and 2023?

I went back this week and listened to my message on Jeremiah 31 in that series to give me a refresher.

Jeremiah was a broken record about the broken covenant. Remember that? For forty years, Jeremiah was a broken record about how the nation of Judah had broken their covenant with God. They had spiraled into idolatry again and again. And they were going into exile. That’s why Daniel takes place in Babylon and Esther takes place in Persia.

The Old Covenant, as glorious as it was, did not transform the people of God. They needed something...better.

And God promised to send it. “The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.”

Do you remember that phrase, “the time is coming” or “the days are coming?”

It was far in the future for Jeremiah. But God had promised it, and it was sure to come. He promised it to Israel (Israel and Judah). He isn’t starting over with a whole new group, though we find out in the New Testament that the Gentiles get grafted into this promise, too (see Romans 11). We are included even if we aren’t Jews. We get to be a part of the better covenant. Different from the first one. Verse 9.

“It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord.”

There’s some scary words. “I turned away from them, declares the Lord.”

This new covenant will be one where the Lord never turns away from His people. And where His people never turn away from Him. Look at verse 10.

“This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.’” (vv.10-12).

That’s the new covenant. And it’s got better promises for God’s people. Can you see them? I noted at least three.

- DEEPER CHANGE.

In the new covenant, God promises not just to give them His law, but to embed it in their minds and their hearts. Inside the minds and hearts of every true member of the New Covenant.

In the Old Covenant, you could be a member of the covenant community and not be transformed by the covenant. But in the New Covenant, every genuine member of the new covenant community gets a new heart! The Holy Spirit takes up residence inside of us and gives us a new heart and begins the inevitable transformation of our hearts and minds.

The New Covenant guarantees true life change. It doesn’t happen all at once, and it doesn’t happen in a straight line. But it happens for all true New Covenant members. Guaranteed.

Isn’t that encouraging? Won’t that get you out of bed?! That will keep you going.

The LORD has promised to change you from the inside out and conform you into the image of your great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. And not just some of us, but all of us who are believers. Deeper change.

- WIDER KNOWLEDGE.

“I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest” (vv.10b-11).

Now, that doesn’t mean that we don’t have teachers in the New Covenant. It means that every single person who is a New Covenant member has the Lord inside of us teaching us. And that all who belong to Him know Him personally. From the littlest kid who believes to the oldest Christian who lives.

And there are no class distinctions. It’s not just the priests or the pastors who know God. It’s every one of us in this room.

Sometimes, people joke with me about the weather. They’ll say, “Can’t you do something about the weather. You have that special connection with God, you know?” And they are joking about whether or not I can change the weather.

But I always say, “You can have the knowledge of God that I do.”

Every single true Christians knows God. And one day, everyone everywhere that lives on the earth will know Him in that way, too. The knowledge of the LORD will cover the globe like the waters cover the sea!

That day is coming. That’s a better promise. And that’ll get you out of bed. That will keep you going.

And here’s why we can know Him this way:

Because our sin will not stand in our way.

Deeper change.

Wider knowledge.

- FULL FORGIVENESS.

Look at verse 12. It’s from Jeremiah 31:34.

“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

This was said to Jeremiah during some of the darkest days of Judah. God was turning away from His people and sending them into exile. But He had a plan to provide a new covenant that was full of superior promises include the promise of full forgiveness for all of God’s people.

And now that covenant has come. The last days have come (Heb 1:1-3)!

Jesus Christ is the mediator (the guarantee and the go-between) of the new covenant. He is the great high priest of the new covenant. And all of these better promises are being fulfilled for us through Him.

Isn’t that encouraging? How do we apply this passage to our lives today?

The author doesn’t directly say in the passage we’re studying today. But it’s clear from the rest of the book how he wants us to respond to it. I can think of three applications right off the top of my head:

- Be Encouraged

- Be Steadfast

- Be Thankful

Just thinking about how great a high priest Jesus is and how great these promises are is so encouraging to me. This is what I need to hear. I am going to be changed. I know the Lord and I am His, and I am forgiven. That will keep you going. Especially when you realize that these promises are strong as Jesus’ life is strong. As long as Jesus continues to live, these promises will be true for His people. And He will never die again. Be encouraged.

Be steadfast. What does our memory verse say? “Since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess” (Hebrews 4:14).

Hold firmly. Don’t go backwards. Don’t let go. That’s the point of verse 13 as we round out the chapter. Verse 13.

“By calling this covenant ‘new,’ he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.”

The Old Covenant was going to disappear. It was temporary. It was being phased out. The New Covenant is here now, so the Old Covenant is old. You can’t go back to it. But why would you want to

The New Covenant is so much better. Fix your eyes on the high priest of the New Covenant and don’t let go.

And guess what? He will hold you fast. Deeper change. Wider knowledge. Full forgiveness.

Because of Jesus.

Be thankful.

Our better high priest offered Himself once for all so that the better promises of the New Covenant would all be fulfilled for us. What can we say but, “Thank you?!”

***