Hebrews chapter 8, verses 16 through 13.

And the Hebrew writer writes this. He says, 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. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. For He finds fault with them when He says, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in My covenant, and so I show no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My laws into their minds and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall not teach each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. And speaking of a new covenant, He makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete, obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

My wife and I are opposites, and I guess they say opposites attract. She loves game boards, any kind of game. Like, just set up with the game. She’s ready to go. She’s locked in for four hours. Like, she’s going to win. It gets ugly. Like, she is going for the win. I’m the opposite. I hate playing board games. I don’t love, I mean, I just, I get bored really quick. I start playing like really dumb, and everyone gets mad at me. I’m like, I just, I just get bored really quick. The worst board game out there is this, Candyland. And you know why Candyland is the worst game ever? Because there’s zero strategy. And Darcy loves to play Candyland. And every once in a while, against my will, I’ll sit down and play Candyland with Darcy. But Candyland, it’s a stack of cards, and the game’s decided. There is no strategy. It doesn’t matter how hard you work. It doesn’t matter what you do. It’s just going to end up the way it’s going to end up. It’s not really a game. It’s a waste of time, is what it is. But I guess it’s entertaining for children, so they sell the thing.

Very much so, unlike that, the Hebrew writer is writing his audience, and he’s trying his best to say to them in this whole letter, what you do and how you live matters.

Yes, by the grace of God, you have been saved. But in being saved, it doesn’t mean live this passive lifestyle. It means that we get to live a very active life, of obedience to God. The Hebrew writer is writing them because they’re experiencing social persecution. They’re being tried for their faith. They want to just give up. What’s this matter? Let’s just go back to something easier. And he’s appealing to them, don’t go back to something easier. Because what you think is easier is not better.

His promise to these folks he’s writing to is this, Jesus gives you a better life because Jesus is a better, a better minister under a better covenant. And whatever you think you’re facing that’s too hard, whatever season of dryness you’re in, Christ is good for you there, and Christ is good for you in the future and in eternity. So he’s reminding them, and friends, we need it often in our Christian life, regardless of how long we’ve been believers, we need a constant reminder of this Jesus who is better. This Jesus who is precious. This Jesus who is dear. You can replace knowing Christ with living for Christ.

Replace living for Christ in such a way that knowing Him goes on the back burner of life or not at all. And the Christian life becomes stale. So what he’s really reminding us to do is really it’s a discipline. It’s a discipline of saying, Jesus, You are better. Jesus, You are worth it. Jesus, You are here in my struggle and You will be with me to the very end. Jesus is a better minister under a better covenant. That’s His grace. That’s a great argument to them. And friends, it’s going to be, I think, a great encouragement to us as well. In verses 6 and 7 there in chapter 8,

he says, 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.

For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. So Jesus, the writer, sets forth, He’s got a better ministry than the priest, the Levitical priest of the Old Testament. He’s able to minister to, prepare, equip, care for God’s people in a way that they never could have. And it’s important to think about the context of the two different ministries, the context and place.

Jesus’ place of ministering as a priest is heaven. So His ministry is a heavenly one. It says earlier in chapter 8 that He’s a minister in the heavenly places. He is at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven. It says in verse 5 that He ministers in the real thing, not the copies and shadows of the real thing. The Levitical priest had a good ministry, but their ministry was in the earthly tabernacle that God told them to construct, not the heavenly tent, not the heavenly abode. Their ministry was a shadow, of Christ’s ministry, which is better.

And what’s better than this even, He says, Jesus’ ministry, it’s to those, He says in chapter 3 of the book of Hebrews, those particularly who have a heavenly calling. You’ve been called out to be a citizen of heaven. You’ve been called out to have eternal security in Christ. So Christ’s better ministry exists for those who have a heavenly calling, for His followers, for His people. Yes, for the future, but also Christ and His ministry ministers to us now in our struggle. Now, what did the Levitical priest do? Well, they did a lot of things. They took care of the tabernacle. They were to really know the law, instruct the law. The most important thing the Levitical priest did was they made sin offerings for the people. We talked about this, I think, a couple weeks ago, a little bit. They made various kinds of animal sacrifices for various kinds of sins. And now, why did they do that? Why did they have to do this perpetually over and over again? Because the people would never stop sinning. That’s why. So the priests over and over make these animal sacrifices because the people perpetually broke the law. And the reason He says that this ministry then is so much better than their ministry is He says their covenant, it was a faulty covenant. And there’s a better covenant that Jesus’ ministry is happening underneath.

A better covenant, a better ministry. Now, when we read the word covenant here, it’s maybe not quite what we think of when we think about a covenant or a contract. Usually you think about two parties that negotiate. They agree on the same terms and both parties are expected to hold up their end of the deal. That’s not the same thing when we’re in the Bible we’re talking about God and man. When it comes to God and man, God sets the terms. God says, here’s the covenant. Here’s the deal. Man has no say. With great finality, God says, this is the covenant I will make with you. Do you accept or refuse it? But the word covenant here in the Greek is diatheke and that word more implies will or testament. You know, like when someone passes away, this is someone’s final will and testament. This is what they say they want to happen with their stuff. Who inherits what? Who gets what? So man has no say in what God has said. It is an accepting or refusing of what God has said.

So the writer is so sure that this covenant is better than the old covenant that it’s going to give the people the eternal security they need and the present power to live for Jesus in all adversity. So here’s what the Hebrew writer does. He pauses his own appeal and he quotes Jeremiah. So Jeremiah is an Old Testament prophet in the Hebrew Scriptures. So they would have been very familiar with Jeremiah. And so he’s using their Scriptures to prove his point. So they love these Scriptures. Hey, these are from your Scriptures, so let me prove my point to you from your stuff. That’s basically what he’s doing. He’s making his appeal with their Scriptures as Hebrews who would have known the Torah. They would have known the prophets. He’s going to show the better covenant and the better ministry. But to appreciate that new covenant and that new ministry, we need to first consider the old covenant and the old ministry. The one that the people were unable and unwilling to keep. And what we’ll see the new covenant and the new ministry can do for us is this. It gives us perfect desire, which is what we lack. I’m going to turn to Exodus chapter 19, verses 3 through 6. It says in Exodus 19, 3,

The Lord called to him out of the mountains, saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the people of Israel, You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, there’s the big if word, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel. So we’re all probably very familiar with the story. God’s people, they’re in bondage 400 years in Egypt, which you’ve never thought about it. They’re bonded to the Egyptians. It’s a picture of their bondage. They’re in bondage and slavery to sin. But God has, with His own hand, miraculously saved them out of their bondage. He saved them out of their slavery and He’s saying to them, Hey, you’re special to me and here’s the deal. If you obey my covenant, I’m going to give you my perfect rules under this covenant. They’re really good rules. They’re perfect laws for you to know how to live your life in front of me, know how to live your life with one another. If you would keep all those rules, you’re going to be my treasured possession and you’re going to be different and set apart from the rest of the world. You’re going to be different from the rest of people. And they go, that’s a pretty great deal, isn’t it? So Moses says, hey, God just said this to me that if we’ll keep all of His rules, we’re going to have this special relationship with God. It’s going to be great. And what do the people say? All that the Lord has spoken, we will do and we will obey. They’re quick to say it.

So, after this, God gives Moses the book of the covenant. You get laws about slavery, laws about restitution, laws about social justice, all these laws about how to interact with God. And with people. So He gets all these laws and Moses says, okay, I’m going to read to you the book of the covenant. So He reads the whole thing to them. And they say, all that it says, we will do. We will obey. They say it twice. And then right after this, it’s ratified. They have a ceremony. Moses reads it. He pours blood on them. He pours blood on the altar. And the covenant is ratified. They’re in the covenant now.

Moses goes back up the mountain to get more laws and rules from God.

And almost immediately,

what happens in chapter 32? We read that the people break the first and second commandment. They put a God before the God. They carve an image. They make the golden calf. They immediately, like they even go for like a lower one, like disobey your mother and father. They went for like the top. Two at the same time. They just went for the throats.

They disobeyed like all the way. And you guys said, why couldn’t you have like waited or something? Like why did you do this? Like you just had the covenant. He did all the miraculous signs, bread and water and all this crazy stuff that God provided for you. And He’s given you all these perfect rules. And what do you do? You go make a golden calf immediately?

Friends, it’s a painful reminder of this.

As good, as good as God’s laws are, and they are good, as perfect as God’s commandments are, and they are perfect, you can never legislate a person’s heart.

It doesn’t matter how aware you make someone of right and wrong. It doesn’t matter how much education and information you give. It doesn’t matter how many laws and policies you could pass. It will never change the fundamental, inherent, depraved nature, of a person. At our core are evil intentions. From birth, the psalmist says, we are born this way. That’s our desires in our hearts. The law, a very good law, it is external. It is outside the man. It is not within him. What is within the man are desires that run counter, desires that run opposite to God’s desires, to God’s ways. All people will find in some way how to bend, twist, pervert, what God says is good and right and true in some way. We’re all guilty of doing that. And we’ve talked about this ad nauseum over the last several months, but we’ve all inherited that sin nature from Adam. Since we’ve inherited a sin nature, friend, it’s laughable that we could achieve reform on our own. It would be like trying to heal a wound by making it worse. That’s about the best that we can do. Or, you know, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress, likens it to a room full of dust. And the more you sweep, the more you just make it worse. You can’t get it up. It’s outside of us. So this first covenant then, all it is is condemning. It just shows us we love and desire what God hates and despises. From the so-called innocent white lie to the most egregious sin that you could think of. And if you think, I don’t know, I’m a pretty good person, the first covenant is here this morning to assure you it simply is not so. I want to read it how Paul says it in Romans chapter 3 verse 19.

Paul says, Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God. In other words, whatever everybody thinks and wants to be true, however everybody wants to act, at the end of it all, all of our mouths are going to be stopped and our actions taken into account against God. God’s holy, perfect law. Everyone is accountable to God’s law. Verse 20, For by works of the law, no human being, no human being, will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. So he says, no matter how much you try to live up to that law, all that law is going to do is say, look how great I am and look how bad you are. You keep trying to live up to the law, but all the law is doing is revealing we cannot, we cannot live up to it. Because we have the inherent sin nature. It’s something that we can’t fix. We have imperfect desires for God. We have imperfect power to carry out obedience.

And that’s the very bad news about reality for us as a human race. But then there’s very good news. And the very good news is this, friends. God did something incalculable. God did something extraordinary.

Knowing that we are entirely capable of carrying out obedience to God. Knowing that in our own power we’ll die in our sins. God steps in and in verse 10 He says, I will. I will put My law into their minds. I will write it on their hearts. I will be their God. They shall be My people. What was outside of our reach and grasp, God has internalized and made part of who we are. That we wouldn’t just hear God’s law, but love it and have the power to obey it. How did He do that? He made a new and better covenant. It’s the covenant of Christ’s blood. In this new covenant, He hasn’t said, hey, all you people, live up to My law. Because He knows we can’t do it. Rather, He sent His Son Jesus who alone had a perfect desire to do all the will of God. Jesus who alone had the perfect power of God to obey and fulfill the law which made Jesus the one unique sacrifice to atone and do away with all of our sins so that once and for all, Christ alone, He lived for God. He died according to the law in His resurrection. He was living proof. He was living proof that He accomplished all that He said He would. He fulfilled the law. He died as a payment for all of our sin. In His resurrection life, you know, it’s just like the first covenant. In the first covenant, God said, hey, everybody, you want to be a part of My covenant? Okay? Do this, do this. This time, the second covenant, He still says, hey, you want to be a part of My covenant? Great. But this time, you don’t have to do anything. All you have to do is come to My Son Jesus and believe He did it for you. Friends, it’s a better covenant. It’s a better minister. Nobody but Jesus can love us like this.

The glorious realization, friends, of the empty tomb is that Jesus has sent His Spirit within us. That in all times, we would all have, we would all have the exact same access to God. That we would love the Lord our God and have the power to obey the Lord our God. We all have it within us. There’s not tears of Christians. You know, there’s Christians and we’ll let them hold the doors open and they’re still trying to find out where the book of Genesis is. You know, like they’re down here. And there’s some people and they can like lead a Bible study sometimes. You know, it’s a little shaky, but it’ll do. And then there’s people that are evangelists, man. And then there’s people that love reading theology books. That’s not the case at all. We all have the same access to the same Spirit of Christ empowering us for victorious living right now. Empowering us to know we’re going to be with Jesus in glory someday. It’s a work of the Spirit. Paul says we’re sealed. Paul says He has replaced the heart of stone within us with the heart of flesh making us real and living in Christ. He’s a better minister under a better covenant.

John Newton, who famously wrote the hymn Amazing Grace, once said, I’m not what I ought to be. I’m not what I want to be. I’m not what I hope to be in another world. But still I am not what I once used to be. And by the grace of God, I am what I am. By the grace of God, I am what I am. Friends, we are what we are not because of anything that we’ve done, because Jesus has chosen to minister to us and love us and meet us in our deepest needs.

I think that’s why gospel people should be a savoring people. You know, like fast food, it’s fine, but you know, in its very nature, it’s fast because you’ve got somewhere to go. You can’t sit there and linger, right? It’s fine. You know, it gets old after a while. It’s different though, isn’t it, when on a special occasion you get to go to like an expensive restaurant and spend, you know, more money than you should on like a nice steak. And you don’t throw that down like you’re just tasting every bite. And you’re savoring it. Friends, the gospel is not a pass-by thought. The gospel is something, it is just to savor. It’s something to marinate yourself in, just to dwell on the truth of who this Jesus is. You live a busy life moving from one moment to the next, one day to the next. You’re not going to live in the power. You’re not going to live in the presence. You’re not going to be shaped by the Spirit to have a greater desire for Christ. Friends, the gift of the gospel is we have the freedom to chase Jesus and become more like Him. So by God’s grace He did it. But friends, by His grace as well, He’s calling us to work at our salvation, Paul says, with fear and trembling. We get to, in the power of the Spirit, live a victorious life. So if you’re constantly feeling frail in your Christian life, you’re constantly beat up and woe is me and I’m struggling with all this stuff, let me assure you, you may be failing, but your Savior is not failing you. You have all access in Him. And I’m not saying every season of the Christian life is victorious when you never struggle. I’m simply saying Christ is always there and ready and available to see you through everything. He’s ever present with us. Christian life is not about showing up to heaven. It’s about traveling towards eternity as if eternity already resides in our hearts. And because of the gospel, because of the better minister it does, it’s the power of the cross, the power of God in us now, friends, to secure our future, but also to fortify us for faithfulness right now. Do you live like you have the presence and power of God within you every day? Are you mindful of that? Is it just a passing thought and one of many things you’re juggling every day? Or do you dwell on, do you savor the King of glory? He rests inside of you. You have been made one with Him. And I think on a pastoral level, I’m going to sound all sappy, you know, but I don’t want to think that I have failed, not that I can do it without the power of the Spirit to preach the gospel to you in such a way that in everyday life you aren’t equipped to rest in that knowledge. I want a church of people, man, I rest in knowing that whatever’s going on, Christ is good here now. Christ has given me the desires for who He is now. Whatever sin, whatever temptation, whatever fight, whatever struggle, the gospel means Jesus is here with me. Jesus is here with us now. And whatever happens around me, I know that not just tomorrow, tomorrow is secure, but I know 10,000 years from now is secure because of Jesus and what He did. I want a quiet rest for you. It’s not something I can give you, but it’s something I can preach to you. It’s something you can receive from Jesus alone. The world doesn’t have it. The world can’t give it. But in Christ alone, friends, we’re given a desire for heaven and we’re given the very power of heaven itself within us. It’s a better ministry.

This better ministry under this better covenant gives us another thing. It gives us a perfect record. Look at verse 12.

In chapter 8, the Hebrew writer says, For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,

and I will remember their sins no more. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,

and I will remember their sins no more. No more. It’s interesting that if we were to flip back to Jeremiah and read this passage in Jeremiah as we’re reading here in Hebrews, it would read a little different. And the difference would be this in verse 9. It says, Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the lands of Egypt. It says take them by the hand. It also says because I was a husband to them.

So the Hebrew writer doesn’t say that because he’s quoting the Septuagint, which is the Greek version of the Old Testament. But that’s still a fuller rendering of it. And I think if you think about those two phrases the Lord uses, I took them by the hand and I was as a husband to them. And it’s interesting because that’s not… I mean, we were really good buddies.

Or we were like business partners and we had a good thing going. It’s not what he says. You know, you don’t just hold anybody’s hand, do you? You don’t. You shouldn’t. You don’t just have anybody for a husband either. I hope it’s the same thing. Those are very intimate terms, aren’t they? We’re getting in those two phrases the very heart of God. He is saying to the Israelites, His people, you were exclusive to Me. You were a treasured possession to Me. I belong to you only. You belong to Me only. And we made a covenant together that said so. So these are very intimate terms about God joining Himself to His people.

But of course, Israel played the harlot quickly as we saw. They quickly sinned against God. They quickly broke God’s law. They quickly brought sin. They quickly brought trespasses. And we’ve talked about what’s a trespass? It’s going outside the lines and boundaries. So God said, hey, here’s the law. Here’s all My commandments. Let’s live in this circle together. Because this is what’s good. And they immediately went outside the lines. So what do you have when you break a law? You have a record. Right? Now I’ve got a record. And when you get a record, it means you’ve got consequences of things you can’t have anymore.

So Israel got the same thing Adam and Eve got. It’s just a recapitulation of the garden. They were holding God’s hand. They were literally walking with their God in the garden. Yet they pulled their hand out. They sinned and created great distance. They lost the nearness. And in the very same way, the people of God, when they sinned against God, they lost nearness to God. They had a record. A sin record. And that sin record kept them from the presence of the Holy God. This is why the ministry of the Levitical priests was so imperative. Because without the Levitical priests, there was no one to be their advocate in the presence of God. You could go into the presence of God only if you were a priest. And you could especially only go into the Holy, where the presence of God resided on the Day of Atonement if you were the high priest to make a sin offering for the people. So the priests, and even though they’re sinful people, and this is a shadow, that’s the closest that they could get to having true fellowship with God. What they gave up. What they lost.

And the animal sacrifices again and again would never be enough to close the gap. It would never be enough to remove the stain. You know you get stained on something like your favorite shirt and it doesn’t matter what you do. I had mustard. I hate mustard. And I ate something with mustard on it the other day. And I was going out in public and I had mustard on my favorite pair of shorts and Jessica had already washed them. It’s like they’re in ruin. I can’t get the mustard out of my pants. And so a stain, it ruins a favorite piece of clothing and it’s embarrassing. It’s embarrassing to have a stain on you. It’s embarrassing to have a record. It’s shameful when people know you’ve done something you shouldn’t have done.

Friends, we have shame on our heads.

There’s a great consequence of the corruption of our hearts. We have ran from our God. We bear that under God’s law. There’s nothing that we can do about that.

But Jesus, as a better husband, did something for His bride, the church.

Jesus, Jesus, the better husband, He took the sin. He took the embarrassment. He took the shame. He took the guilt. He took the stains. And He wore all of that on Himself. Naked and beaten on the cross. And He credited to our account all His cleanness, all His perfection, all His righteousness. And in so doing that, you know what He did? He made us qualified to be in the presence of God. Jesus ripped the veil in two by sacrifice and washed us and cleaned us in His blood that we could be in the presence of His Father and we could be with Him forever. Jesus has been to us, friends, a priest as little vehicle priests can never do. Those priests could go in on our behalf, but Jesus, He has taken us into the holies of holies themselves to be with our God again and forever. Friends, Jesus is a better minister. He’s a better help. Because by His own blood, He enacted a better covenant.

You ever had one of those bad dreams and you feel stuck in it and it lasts a long time and you’re sure you did the thing? I’m not going to mention some of the things I’ve dreamed up I’ve done. And you’re like so embarrassed and you’re like, how did this happen? And you wake up and it’s the sweetest relief because you remember, oh, it was just a dream. I didn’t do that. That didn’t happen to me. It wasn’t real.

And the power of the cross is this, though we have done what we’ve done,

Christ has made it untrue. Christ hasn’t just given us a new future. Christ has given us a new past. Christ has given us a new record so that when the Father looks on us, He sees the purity, He sees the cleanness, He sees the rightness of His Son Jesus and He welcomes us into His presence. That’s not just what we’ve done. It’s what we do and what we’re going to do. And that’s difficult for me. Like, no, I deserve a whack. Whack me, God. I did something wrong. Like, hold that one over my head. Like, hey, I love you and forgive you. But remember that time you did that? Like, I don’t know if I can forgive you. Can grace go that far? And the good news of the Gospel is that the blood of Christ, friends, it’s atoned for all of our sins so that we’re always in the presence of God and the presence of God is always within us. Remember their sins no more can also be rendered to change the state of things. Jesus on the cross has changed the state of things. We were once without hope destined for hell and destruction. We had criminal records. We were sin-saturated. But Jesus changed the state of things. He gave us a perfect record. He readied us. He prepared us. He is readying us. He is preparing us for eternity with Himself and with His Father. He was wounded and pierced for our transgressions that we would be healed. Jesus is a better minister under a better covenant.

And if I want rest for you to know you have, friends, the presence of God on you now, I want you to have rest and security for the future. I don’t think Christians should be a worrying people. And that message is to me first. Christians should not be a worrying, anxious people. They should be a resting people. And there’s rest in the Gospel because of what Jesus has done on our behalf. And Christians should be a joyful people. You know what joy is? Joy is happiness that no one can take away because no one else can change the state of things. Friends, no one can change the state of things because Jesus has changed them and they’re unbreakable. Christ did live. Christ did die. Christ was resurrected. The tomb was empty. You do have a perfect record. That can’t be changed, friends. There’s eternal joy in Jesus.

Rest. You’ve been given a perfect record.

In verse 13 of chapter 8,

he closes out that argument by saying, in speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete.

And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

Friends, Christ is our better minister because He chose to make a new and better covenant. He made it with His blood. Friends, by His blood, we are forgiven. We are truly, not kind of, not sort of, we are truly given a new record. We’re clean before the Father. Because of His Spirit, we’re changed and we’re being changed to look just like Jesus, to be transformed into His image. And by His grace, we are saved. We will abide in Him to the very end until we’re whole and complete with Christ. Jesus has chosen to be our help by His grace. Jesus is our better minister.

If you look in John chapter 11,

verse 38,

you know, Jesus’ friend Lazarus has passed away.

And Martha… Martha doesn’t think there’s anything that can be done. It says, Then Jesus deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave. And a stone lay against it. And Jesus said, Take away the stone.

Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to Him, Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for He has been dead four days.

So she’s saying, nothing can be done. Let the process of decomposition happen. Let’s not interrupt that. There’s nothing that can be done. But Jesus said to her, did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?

So they took the stone away. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, Father, I thank You that You heard me. I knew that You always hear me. But I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that You sent me. When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out. The man who had died came out. His hands and his feet bound with linen strips, his face wrapped with a cloth. And Jesus said to them, unbind him and let him go.

Friends, it’s a beautiful picture, one of what Jesus did, when by His own power, He raised Himself up from the dead. But it’s also a beautiful picture of what happens, not if we do anything, but if we trust and come to Jesus. You know what Jesus will say to death?

Unbind him and let him go. I’m going to give you my desires. I’m going to give you my desires. I’m going to give you my power. I’m going to give you my Spirit. I’m going to give Him, I’m going to give her my perfect record. I’m going to hold on to them, and I’m never going to let them go. Jesus says, He will be your better minister under a better covenant, and He will never leave, and He will never forsake. But He says to you, do you, will you believe? Do you believe?

Let’s pray.

Gracious Father,

I pray that in this moment, we would not waste this moment that we’ve been given to reflect on Your Scriptures, the truth about who Your Son Jesus is to us,

in us, for us, by Your grace. Lord, we have not merited that.

But You have been good to us. And Your Son Jesus has been good to us, and the Spirit is good to us. You love us with an everlasting love. Your compassion, Your kindness, it knows no bounds. As far as the east is from the west, You have removed our sins, and You have called us beloved.

You’ve called us Your own. You’ve called us special. You’ve called us unique to You.

Lord, unworthy as we are, by Your grace, here we stand. Your grace is amazing.

Lord, I just pray this morning for every soul in this room, that Lord, if we’re struggling with fighting temptations, if we’re struggling with just the monotony of life, Lord, it would be a fresh reminder that Your presence and power are here now. That You love us, and You always have a purpose for us, and nothing is meaningless, and You are seen, and You are with us through whatever we’re going through. And Lord, I pray this morning that we would rest in Your Spirit, knowing that we are eternally forgiven, and You’re for us, and You will never cast us out. You will never throw us out. You will always hold us close to Your chest.

Jesus, what can we say but just thank You.

Just thank You.

We just love You. Lord Jesus, we just want to always be found praising You, thanking You, blessing Your name.

Jesus, it’s in Your name that we can pray.

Amen.