Focal Point

Dave Drew: Today on Focal Point with Pastor Mike Fabarez.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Ceremonies, all of them, all the ceremonies have been replaced with Christ. Why? Because they were only parables and illustrations of him. Everything that the ceremonies were about pointed to Christ. Now Christ is in the room. And if Christ is in the room, my attention moves from the ceremonies to the person. That's what the New Covenant is asking us to do.

Dave Drew: Read through the Old Testament and you'll find many detailed ceremonies that the people of God were to perform. They encompassed everything from national holidays to family worship and personal hygiene. So how many of these rituals are Christians supposed to follow?

Today on Focal Point, Pastor Mike Fabarez helps us see why we don't have to keep all those Old Testament ceremonies. Those old and rigid ways of connecting with God became outdated the moment Jesus appeared. Let's find out why as we turn to Hebrews chapter 9.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Went to the dentist this week. Put a new crown on molar number 18. The old crown wasn't working too well. It was painful. Any cold beverage was shocking, made my eyes water. So I went into my great dentist and I said, "Hey, I got a problem." And he said, "Well, we'll fix it." So he made me a new one and sat me in the chair and pulled my old one out and then he put it in a baggie and he handed it to me.

Weird, but I don't know what to do with it. It's made of gold, so I'm not inclined to throw it away. Looks like a tooth, but it's not good for eating, so I'm kind of stuck. My new one's great. I love my new crown. I used it this morning on my Egg McMuffin. Plan on using it for lunch. My new one's great. Doesn't hurt. It's a keeper. My old one, well, I'm stumped. I don't know what to do.

We've been studying the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews has been helping us to understand that the Old Covenant's been replaced with the New Covenant. It might be good to refresh your memory and take a look at the last few verses of chapter 8. As a matter of fact, the last verse of chapter 8 that I think is most important for us.

Here is a statement about the transition from the old to the new. After stating this prophecy from Jeremiah 31, in verse 13 he says, "By calling this covenant new, he, that is God, made the old one—" now this is hard, this is a big word, "obsolete." Antiquated, outdated, outmoded. "And what is obsolete," he says, "is aging and will soon disappear."

The new one's good, it's a keeper. The old one, well, what do we do with this? If you look elsewhere in scripture, you find these grandiose statements about the Old Testament. As a matter of fact, when Paul wrote Timothy, one of the most quoted verses about the importance of the Bible, really Paul had the Old Covenant and Old Testament scriptures in view. And he says about scripture that all scripture is inspired. It's God-breathed and it's useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. That's a pretty big list for something that's obsolete.

Conflicting ideas. Paul said that the coming of Christ, he puts it just tersely in Romans, is the end of the law. And then all of a sudden, we have Jesus talking so dramatically and majestically about the importance of the Old Covenant, Moses, the law, and the prophets.

The new one and we know it's good. It's great. As a matter of fact, the New Covenant we've been learning in the last few chapters is perfect. It does everything it's supposed to do. It does exactly what God intended it to do. It's a keeper. But the old one, how do we deal with that?

Chapter 9, you would think after saying that the Old Covenant is obsolete, we'd be done with it and move on to New Covenant truths. Well, he now waxes on for verses about the Old Covenant way of worship. Look at it with me as he's going off into the details of the Tabernacle. For something that's obsolete, I'm thinking, "Why are you taking time with it?"

Look at verse number one. The first covenant—this is chapter 9 of Hebrews—had its regulations for worship. It had its earthly sanctuary. A Tabernacle was set up. Now he's going to tell us about the rooms. In the first room, you got a lampstand, you got a table, you got the consecrated bread. That's called the holy place.

The second curtain has got a room behind it. It's the most holy place. And it's got this golden altar of incense or at least it's used in the Holy of Holies annually on the day of Yom Kippur. It's one of the most important things that the priest brings in with him to the Holy of Holies.

The gold-covered box we learned about on Raiders of the Lost Ark. You don't want to look in it, but if you want to know what's in it, here's what's in it. You had a gold jar of manna. That was the stuff God fed the children of Israel in the wilderness with. You had Aaron's staff that budded, that picked him by divine providence, a miraculous budding of a stick to show that he was going to be the priestly line and the high priest of Israel. Then you had those tablets, the stone tablets of the covenant, the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments. All of that was in the box. But don't look in it. Just kidding. Verse 5. Melt your eyeballs. Did you see the movie? It's been a long time. I'm going to watch it tonight.

Above the box, the ark, were the cherubim of the glory. Those are angels and they're crafted out of gold and they sit above the overshadowing the atonement cover, which is a bit of a play on words because atonement means cover, covering of our sin. But, bottom of verse 5, we can't discuss these things in detail now.

Again, I'm thinking, "Why? What? Why are we discussing it at all?" You just said it was obsolete. I mean, you're apparently giving us the clue here that you're going to talk about this in-depth later. This is important to you. Then he says, verse 6, when everything had been arranged like this, the priests entered regularly into the outer room to carry on their ministry.

Only the high priest entered the inner room, the Holy of Holies, and that but once a year and never without the sacrifice of blood, the animal, which he offers for himself because he's imperfect—we learned in the earlier chapter, chapter 7—and for the sins of the people, even the sins they'd committed in ignorance.

Now, the Holy Spirit, verse 8, was showing by this—now circle that little demonstrative pronoun and put an arrow. I don't think it's just the curtain and just going in once a year. It's the whole thing. The curtains, the inner room, the holy, the Holy of Holies, all of this. He was showing by this that the way into the most holy place had not yet been disclosed.

He's not talking about the room in the Tabernacle or Solomon's Temple or Herod's Temple. We're talking about the thing he was talking about in the last chapter: entrance into the presence of God. That the high priest that's supposed to represent me is not getting me into God's presence just because he's getting into an inner room.

All of this indicated that we're not quite there yet, that I don't really have full and complete access to God. This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and the sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. The New Testament authors like that phrase to talk about it: it really didn't take our sin away. We were still guilty. It didn't cleanse us from our guilt.

They—that is, all this stuff, all this illustrative stuff—is only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings. That's a good word to underline, too. That'll be important in our discussion. External regulations, not internal. This is external stuff applying until—underline that three times, your Bibles are getting marked up today—until the time of the new order.

When Christ came as High Priest of the good things that are already here, that's when the new order started, when he finished his earthly ministry. He went through the greater and more perfect Tabernacle, and we're not talking about the one made by man. That is to say, not a part of this creation. We're talking about he really did bring us into the presence of a holy and perfect God. He accomplished that.

Access to God is needed if I'm ever going to survive throughout eternity. Either get access to God and get his favor and get his blessing or be cast away into outer darkness. I want his blessing. I want to get in with God. The ceremonies didn't do it. The priests of the Old Testament didn't do it. The Tabernacle and the temple really wasn't the real deal. We learned that last week. And now he's saying Christ really did that. That's the New Covenant truth.

Why all this time on the Old Covenant? What is this all about? And you're telling me in verse number 5 we're going to talk about this more? He's going to teach on this more? The Old Covenant, what do we do with it? It's odd. Us Christians, we believe it. We say it's God's word and yet when we read through it, we see all kinds of things that we pick and choose whether or not we're going to do these things or follow these precepts.

As you look through the Bible, there's all kinds of really seemingly bizarre things that God is telling his people to do. Like, if you cut your sideburns, men, recently, you are in sin if you're living under the Old Covenant. You're not supposed to buy one of those things and cut off all the gray hair, minimize the gray as much as possible. You're supposed to let it go and grow. You're not supposed to let the razor touch the sides of the hair on your head.

You're not to have clothing on that mixes two different kinds of fabric. Check your label. You're in sin, most of you. You can't eat bacon of all things? No ham? The Egg McMuffin gets really skinny, right? This is a problem. God says, "You want to be holy? You want to follow me? You keep these rules." And we say, "Well, that just for some reason, that doesn't apply to us." We like the stories. The stories are good. Joshua and Moses and Aaron and David and all of that's good.

I think we need to approach the Old Covenant a little bit more intelligently. We need to understand why people who say the Old Covenant's obsolete continue to teach on it. We need to know that if he's really done all the stuff that makes this Old Covenant really outdated and antiquated, why is it that we carry on Bibles that have all those 39 books in the left side and why is it that we decide to teach it and you, if you follow our reading schedule, read it every single year? What do we do with the Old Testament?

Obviously, if we're to summarize all up to this point in Hebrews and we're looking about the Old Covenant's antiquated and outdated but the new one's replacing it and all of that, then we need to simply say and agree on this simple statement. Number one, be assured—and we should be completely assured—that Christ fulfilled the Old Covenant. He fulfilled it.

Here we're saying Christ came and somehow fulfilled the Old Covenant. He actually did everything that was required in the Old Covenant to live up to all the expectations and all the rules of the Old Covenant. Be assured Christ fulfilled the Old Covenant. And didn't Christ say that when he said in Matthew 5:17, "Don't think I came to abolish the law"? He said, "I came to—" there's our word, "—fulfill it." Complete it, satisfy it, accomplish it.

That's the funny thing about Christ. His ministry was to set the Old Covenant aside and fulfill it and yet he kept it all. Didn't he go up for the Passover every year? He was even hanging out on Hanukkah. Remember that message a long time ago? He was fulfilling all the festivals, all the days, doing everything the Old Testament required. Circumcised on the eighth day, he did all the stuff.

Let's jot this down. Letter A. His ministry—because this is the focus of chapter 9—his ministry fulfilled all the ceremonial rules. And here's why he fulfilled them all: because they were only parables of him. Now back with your eyes as soon as you get all that written down. Slow down, Pastor Mike. His ministry fulfilled all the ceremonial rules because they were only parables of him.

I say parables because I made you underline that word "illustration" in verse number 9. This, all this stuff, is an illustration for the present time. That's the Greek word parabole. Para-bole. That's how we transliterate that into English. A parable. Two parts. Bolo means to throw. Para, the Greek preposition in front of it: alongside of.

The point of a parable and what a parable is, is when you have a truth you want to communicate and Jesus would tell a story that would be thrown alongside of that to kind of analogize that and point your attention to the truth. The story wasn't the truth. That wasn't the concern of the teller. The point of the corresponding point of the actual fact and the theology behind it, that was what he was trying to communicate.

When Jesus talks about lost coins, he doesn't want us to go out looking for coins and buying one of those things at the ocean where you go and look in the sand. Is that the point of the parable of the lost coin? No, some of you do it, but that's not what it means. What it means is that Christ in his ministry is allowing because of what God is doing in seeking us, he's allowing God to actually find us.

The lost coin, the lost sheep, it's not about finding animals. It's about the truth of Christ pursuing us and bringing us into his family. A parable is a story told alongside the truth to correspond to it, to point to it. He says all of these ceremonies, they've all been fulfilled not because Christ went and took the sensor and the incense and swung it around in the Holy of Holies. But he fulfilled it because the sensor in the Holy of Holies was a parable of him.

All the truths of the Tabernacle—the holy place, the outer place, the lampstand, the showbread, all of that—was an example, an illustration, a parable of Christ. All of that's a parable. Therefore, by a mere ministry, an existence of doing what he's doing in chapter 7 and 8 of Hebrews, fulfilling his calling as High Priest, he has fulfilled all the ceremonial pictures, illustrations, parables of him. So in that regard, all the ceremonies, they're done. They're fulfilled. They're satisfied. They're accomplished.

The real important part that we seem to focus on more often—and we ought to because it's just integral, it's the foundation to our salvation—is he not only fulfilled that part of the Old Covenant, he also fulfilled all the ethical and moral demands of the Old Covenant. Because isn't that what it was all about in Deuteronomy? Do the right thing and you will live and be blessed. I want to be blessed, but I don't do the right things.

Not only did Christ by way of his ministry fulfill the parables and pictures of him, he also fulfilled all the ethical demands of the law, which is: you should never lie, you should tell the truth. You should never covet your neighbor's camel or Escalade or boat. Sorry, it's just my neighbor. You should be content with what you have. I mean, think of all the ethical demands of the law. We don't keep them perfectly, but Christ came and did that for us.

Letter B. Let's just jot that part of it down. In fulfilling the Old Covenant, Christ fulfilled it all. He also by his human conduct, letter B, fulfilled all the moral rules. Now here's the great thing about salvation: which he can now credit to us. Isn't that what salvation's all about? God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God. A sinless one can now credit his sinlessness and his perfection to us and all of our sin gets laid on him.

Christ paid the penalty for your sins. That's why he died on the cross. But why didn't he just show up the day before the crucifixion? That would have been handy, right? Wouldn't have had to waste all that time growing up in Nazareth. Why? He had to live the life that you didn't live. Did you ever talk back to your parents when you were a kid? He lived a perfect life. He didn't do that.

Did you ever fail to get up and help your parents do the chores around the house? Well, you know what? He did that when you didn't do that. He lived every perfect thing. He did everything right. And that had to be credited to you so he had to in his human conduct fulfill all the moral rules. He sat around and watched the Escalade drive up and said, I'm content with my Chevy. No problem. He told the truth when he was tempted to twist it or tweak it or to deceive. He told the truth. He did everything right.

Now, let's get this really clear in finer points of theology here. Christ just didn't fulfill the moral law or the ceremonial law. He fulfilled them both. All the laws of the Old Covenant, he fulfilled. One by virtue of his ministry—he fulfilled the picture. And one by his virtue of his conduct and righteousness—he fulfilled the requirements, the ethical requirements. Therefore, we can say this: the Old Covenant has been completely fulfilled. There is nothing in the Old Covenant that still needs to be done when it relates to the ceremonies or the morals. It's been accomplished.

In that regard, we can say, "Hey, I can see where you'd say it's obsolete." I mean, it's been fulfilled. Problem: when we read a passage like this, we got people that grew up in a Tabernacle, the people that think, "Well, there's got to be the candles and there's got to be the showbread and there's got to be the incense and there's got to be this box in the middle of the room and we pray to this particular direction." And he says, "Okay, now here's the deal. I know you all grew up with this. I know you have these experiences."

Take a look again at Hebrews chapter 9. If this is an illustration for the present time in verse number 9, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper, then here's what they are, verse 10. They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings. External regulations applying until the time of the new order. The new order is here, according to verse 11 and chapter 7 and chapter 8. Therefore, they don't apply anymore.

We need to, as we approach the Old Testament, be very careful how we apply it. Be very careful how you apply the Old Testament. Because you're carrying around 39 books and I hope that you are. I hope you just don't have half the Bible. You got all 66 books. And when you got that Old Covenant, I want you to have it and I want you to understand it, but I want you to be careful about how you approach it and how you apply it.

Because you can read things in the Bible because simplistically we want to obey this book and say, "Well, if it says it and it's clear and to be godly you got to do this, then I'm thinking maybe I should do that." I gotta know how to deal with the principles and precepts of the Old Testament.

First thing. All the ceremonies have been replaced with Christ. They've been replaced. Why? Because they were only parables and illustrations of him. And if he came and did his ministry, our attention and our focus should move from the ceremony to the person.

Now, that was hard for the first-century Jew because they grew up looking at the ceremonies and experiencing the ceremonies. For us, it's a distant thing until someone comes and says, "Well, why don't you do this? And why don't you eat this food? And why don't you worship on this day? And why don't you do all these things that they did?" And then we start scratching our head.

We don't do it for this reason: because in a big summary statement, everything that the ceremonies were about pointed to Christ. Now Christ is in the room. And if Christ is in the room, my attention moves from the ceremonies to the person. Grab the reality and leave the ceremonies behind. That's what the New Covenant is asking us to do.

Dave Drew: There's still more we need to hear about how to approach the Old Testament. We'll pick up in our study when we come back next time. You're listening to Focal Point with Pastor Mike Fabarez and a study called "Christ Changed Everything." We've been walking through the book of Hebrews. Anything you've missed along the way is waiting for you online at focalpointradio.org.

While you're there, grab the free Focal Point app or pull up the podcast and subscribe. Either way, you'll be able to take these messages wherever you go and have new programs come straight to you without having to think about it. Now, if the idea that the Old Testament is really one long story pointing toward Jesus caught your attention, this month's featured book is a tool you're going to want to follow up with.

Edmund Clowney's "The Unfolding Mystery: Discovering Christ in the Old Testament" walks you through the whole of the Old Testament with that lens, showing Christ not as a late addition to the story, but as the point of it all from the very beginning. It's the kind of reading that changes how you open your Bible. Request the book "The Unfolding Mystery" when you give over the phone by dialing 888-320-5885 or go online to focalpointradio.org.

You can also donate through the mail by writing to us at Focal Point, P.O. Box 2850, Laguna Hills, California 92654. Programs like this one exist because there are people out there who believe this kind of teaching matters and who put something behind that belief every month as a Focal Point partner. If that's you, well, thank you.

And if you've been thinking about stepping up to support this work because these Bible teachings have impacted your own walk with God, we'd love for you to join the team that makes it all possible. Become a monthly partner with a recurring gift of any amount by calling 888-320-5885 or go online to focalpointradio.org. I'm Dave Drew. Glad you took time out for today's broadcast. Don't miss more from our important study about the Old Testament Thursday here on Focal Point.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Pastor Mike here. I pray today's message will help you live out your faith with truth and love. After all, that's the kind of biblical faith that changes lives and transforms a crooked culture. But if you haven't truly surrendered your life to Christ, then I'd like to invite you to get in touch. We'd love to pray with you and help you discover God's plan of salvation. Visit focalpointradio.org.

Dave Drew: Today's program was produced and sponsored by Focal Point Ministries.