[Prayer]
Today’s message is from Hebrews 4:14-5:10. The NIV gives this passage the title Jesus the Great High Priest. In the Old Testament, the priests were the intermediaries between the people and God. If you wanted to or needed to make a sacrifice to God, you would bring the sacrificial animal to the priest and he would offer the sacrifice on your behalf. Once a year, the high priest would offer a sacrifice for all of the sins of Israel, including his own sins. In the Old Testament and under the Law of Moses there were human priests and a human high priest to make the sacrifices and offerings. Now, under God’s grace, we have Jesus, our Great High Priest who has already made the sacrifice for our sin once for all time.
Now we will read the passage. But before we read it, remember, as always, as we read it, that we are reading the word of God. God’s purpose for his written word is that we may know him and that our minds, our thinking, our hearts may be conformed to his mind and thinking and heart.
Also, as always, I remind you to read your Bibles every day. Meditate on the word of God. Have it written in your heart. The Psalmist says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” (Psalm 119:105)
Now, let’s read the passage—remember that we are reading the word of God—Hebrews 4:14-5:10:
14Therefore, 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. 15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. 16Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
5:1Every high priest is selected from among men and is appointed to represent them in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness. 3This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people.
4No one takes this honor upon himself; he must be called by God, just as Aaron was. 5So Christ also did not take upon himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him,
“You are my Son; today I have become your Father.”
6And he says in another place,
“You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”
7During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him 10and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 4:14-5:10)
Today’s passage starts out with “Therefore”—“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens...” So I’m going to review the end of last week’s passage to see what the “therefore” proceeds from. Let me read the last three verses from last week’s passage, Hebrews 4:11, 12 and 13:
11Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.
12For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:11-13)
The rest that we are exhorted to make every effort to enter (make every effort to enter that rest) is the rest of salvation. It’s the rest of ceasing from trying to earn your way into heaven. It’s the rest of ceasing from thinking that you have to earn your way into heaven. And it’s finally the rest of being in heaven itself. The writer of Hebrews says (God says), “Make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.” The Israelites disobeyed God because of their unbelief. They refused to go and take possession of the land that God was promising them because of their unbelief. Hebrews 4:1, 2 (also from last week) says:
1Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. (Hebrews 4:1, 2)
The Israelites heard the good news of salvation but, because they didn’t combine it with faith, they didn’t enter God’s rest.
Verse 12 in last weeks passage says, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
The word of God convicts us of sin. It shows us our sin. It shows us that we are sinners—and not just how we sin outwardly, but what is in our hearts.
It’s God’s Holy Spirit that makes the word of God active and alive. God’s Holy Spirit, through the word of God, convicts us of sin. God’s Holy Spirit shows us what’s in our hearts. Verse 13 says, “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” God doesn’t judge by outward appearances but looks at our hearts.
The apostle Paul said that he kept the Ten Commandments—which is much more than what most of us can say. But when he looked at the tenth commandment, do not covet, it brought forth every sort of covetous desire in him. (Coveting is something you do in your heart. God looks at our hearts.) And you know what? I believe Paul was breaking the first commandment, also. It says, “You shall have no other gods before me.” When you covet, you are not trusting God to provide. You are making something else more important to you than God. God looks at our hearts. Everything is laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. “...the one to whom we must give account.” Do you know who that is? It’s Jesus. Jesus is the judge. He is the one to whom we must give account. He knows our hearts. Verse 14, the first verse in today’s passages, starts out, “Therefore...”
“Therefore” means that what the writer is going to say follows from what he has just said. And what he has just said is that the judge of all the universe—our judge—knows everything that’s in our hearts! “Therefore, 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.”
Our judge is also our high priest. Let’s jump ahead in the passage and look at what the writer of Hebrews has to say about high priests. I’m going to read verses 1 through 4 from chapter 5:
1Every high priest is selected from among men and is appointed to represent them in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness. 3This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people.
4No one takes this honor upon himself; he must be called by God, just as Aaron was. (Hebrews 5:1-4)
I’ve already pointed these things out. The high priest represented the Israelites before God. He was the one who offered the sacrifices for the people of Israel. Jesus is our high priest. He represents us before God the Father and he is also the sacrifice for our sin. The human high priest also knew that he was a sinner and the sacrifices he offered had to be not only for everyone else, but for himself, also. The sacrifice had to be a perfect animal without any blemish or defect. Jesus was without sin (still is, as a matter of fact). Because Jesus was without sin, without any blemish or defect, he was able to offer himself as the sacrifice for our sin.
Verse 2 says that the high priest could deal gently with those who were ignorant and were going astray because he knew that he was weak, too. (Do we take into account other people’s weaknesses? The high priests evidently had a much better attitude about this than we do much of the time! Let’s repent!) Verse 4 says that God is the one who chooses high priests. They don’t decide that they are going to be high priests. God decides. God chose to send Jesus.
Now let’s go back to chapter 4 verse 14, the first verse in today’s passage: “Therefore, 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.” It says that Jesus has gone through the heavens. The heavens is heaven. (The Lord’s Prayer literally says, “Our Father who art in the heavens. I’m not sure why they make it singular in the Lord’s Prayer and plural elsewhere, but they do.) Jesus, after he rose from the dead, was taken up through the clouds to heaven.
The high priests, as I mentioned before, offered a sacrifice before God for all of Israel once a year. To do this, he took the blood of the sacrificial animal into the most holy place. The most holy place was the innermost part of the temple (the innermost part of the tabernacle before there was a temple). That’s where the Ark of the Covenant was (the ark that Indiana Jones spent so much effort trying to find back during World War II, by the way). Now there is neither a tabernacle nor a temple on this earth. They’ve been destroyed. But they were only representations of what is in heaven. Now Jesus has taken his own blood into the most holy place in heaven to offer it before God the Father for our sins. (The writer of Hebrews talks much more about these thing further on, so we will, too, when we get to them in chapter 9.
Verse 14 says, “Therefore, 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.” Let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. It actually doesn’t mention faith in the Greek and in most of the translations. The NIV translators added it. It just says, “Let us hold firmly to our profession (or confession in some translations). I looked up the word translated profession or confession. I’m going to read the definition:
A basic meaning of speaking in agreement with a proposition or person confession; (1) objectively, a statement of allegiance expressing binding assent and public commitment profession, acknowledgment, confession; (2) subjectively, an inner commitment of loyalty to such a statement of allegiance that leads to a public expression a confessing, a bearing witness.
So what is your profession as a Christian? Can you make a statement of allegiance to Jesus expressing binding assent and public commitment to the truth of his gospel? Do you have an inner commitment of loyalty to such a statement of allegiance that leads to a public expression— a confessing, a bearing witness? What is your commitment to Jesus? Verse 14 says that we must hold firmly to our profession!
Now let’s look at verses 15 and 16:
15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. 16Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:15, 16)
Just like the human priests, Jesus was tempted in every way. Think of all the ways you have been tempted. Think of all the ways you have given in to temptation and sinned. Jesus was tempted in all those ways and yet did not sin. And you know that there are some things that, although they are absolutely not a temptation to you, there are other people who are severely tempted by them. Jesus was tempted in all those ways, too—in every way just as we are—and yet without sin!
You know, I compared Jesus with the human priests. But Jesus himself was fully human. Though he was God, he became a man—fully human. He knows what it’s like to be tempted and how hard it is to resist temptation. I think I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again. We tend to think, “Well, Jesus was God, so it was no big deal for him to resist temptation. In fact there would really have been no struggle at all. He would have just said, ‘No,’ to temptation.” Think again. Was it a struggle for Jesus to go to the cross? He sweat blood in making the decision to obey his Father in heaven and go to the cross. Do you remember the Passion of the Christ movie? When Jesus was praying, Satan was pictured as a serpent who was there tempting Jesus. Although the Bible doesn’t mention Satan being there, I think that was an accurate representation. Satan was there tempting him. But, Jesus crushed the serpent’s head and went to the cross, just as the Lord said he would back in Genesis chapter 3. Jesus was fully human and still is. He was also fully God and still is. And he is able to sympathize with all our weaknesses. Verse 16 says, “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
How do you approach the “throne of grace”? When you approach, are you fully aware that you need mercy and that it is only available through God’s grace. (Grace is an undeserved gift. None of us deserves mercy. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be mercy. Years ago, back in the early sixties, I heard on the radio that some protest group was demonstrating and demanding their ‘welfare rights’. I was absolutely astounded that anyone could have the gall to call welfare a right. But sometime after that welfare began to be called ‘entitlements’. Let us never think that we have the right to God’s mercy—never think that we are entitled to it! But, nevertheless, if we really believe that we need mercy and don’t start to believe that we have a right to mercy or that we deserve mercy, we can be confident that God is merciful. We know that he is because of the cross!
You know, when we approach the throne of grace, Jesus is our lawyer. He knows that we are guilty, but he can say, “I already paid the penalty for him, so he is free and innocent (or she).” What human lawyer would volunteer to pay the penalty for us in a worldly court? I doubt if you could find many that would even pay your traffic ticket let alone a prison sentence or the death penalty. If they did (pay the traffic ticket), they would have to pay everybody’s, so they would say no even if they might be inclined to do so. But Jesus did pay for everybody. And it wasn’t traffic tickets! It was the death penalty! It was, in fact, to rescue us from hell!
Let’s look at verses 5 and 6 in chapter 5:
5So Christ also did not take upon himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him,
“You are my Son; today I have become your Father.”
6And he says in another place,
“You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 5:5, 6)
Verse 4 says that the high priest had to be called by God—that he didn’t take upon himself to be high priest. That was true of Jesus also. Verses 5 and 6 are quotes from the Old Testament to show us that God the Father appointed Jesus the Son as high priest. Verse 6 mentions Melchizedek. The writer of Hebrews is going to say quite a bit more about Melchizedek. We’ll get to it in future weeks, the Lord willing. But for now, I’ll just say that he was the one who served the bread and wine to Abraham back in Genesis and that his name means King of Righteousness. He was also the king of Salem, which means king of peace. Melchizedek.
Let’s look at verses 7 through 10. I’ll read them:
7During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him 10and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 5:7-10)
Again, this doesn’t sound much like what we usually think of when we think of Jesus being God. He had to pray to be saved from death? He was heard because of his reverent submission (not because the Son of God)? And how could he have had to learn obedience—and by suffering? But that’s what it says. And it’s the word of God.
Well, I don’t think Jesus could have disobeyed. (But I can’t really say for certain. I think whether he could have disobeyed or not is beyond determining from the scriptures. But I’m not really sure of that either. The arguments I’ve seen that Jesus couldn’t have disobeyed are not arguments from the scriptures—at least not directly.)
But here’s what I think (and I talked about these things some when we were back in chapter 2). In heaven (before he came in the flesh), Jesus could not have possibly experienced first hand the concept of disobedience. When he was with the Father in heaven, the question of disobedience would not have even come up—like something that would not even enter your mind. Chapter 2, verse 17 says, “For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.” Except for the fact that Jesus did become like us in every way, we would be still dead in our transgressions and sins—lost and without hope. But he did become like us. He had to know what it was like to be tempted to disobey and to overcome. He had to know what it was like to be helpless to save himself and completely dependent on his Father in heaven. (And by the way, did you notice that it says that Jesus’s prayers were heard because of his reverent submission. I think that applies to us also. The more nearly obedient to God we are, the more likely he is to hear our prayers.)
What about Jesus’s being made perfect? You have to be imperfect before you can be made perfect. For us, we would think of having been sinful and disobedient and then being forgiven and going on to sin no more. But Jesus never sinned. He always obeyed. How could he be made perfect? Well, what it means is that he was made complete. He had undergone all the preparation that was necessary for him to be our Lamb of God and our high priest that who is able to sympathize with all our weaknesses. (And I should point out that sympathize doesn’t mean overlook. Sympathize come from the Greek words suffer with. Jesus has shared our suffering. He has shared the suffering of all of the world and much more, in fact. He has suffered the suffering that we would have had to suffer for our sin and disobedience.) Jesus’s preparation was completed when he went to the cross. That’s what it means that he was made perfect. After this full preparation, he was designated high priest in the order of Melchizedek. He is our high priest! Amen!
[Prayer]