Sunday Morning Service (Hebrews 4:14-Hebrews 5:11)

Hebrews 4:14-Hebrews 5:11

Audio Access Available Above

“Now THAT'S a High Priest!” • 12.10.17 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service

Intro

- Our author has put his audience on high alert. They are caught between wanting to go further into Christ and making a swift return into the safe confines of Judaism.

- The author has answered each of their objections. Jesus is superior to prophets, to angels and to Moses. He offers a perfect rest that can't be found in Sabbath days or in Holy Lands!

- It seems that one major objection remains: If Christianity is superior to Judaism, where then is your High Priest? Who meets with and represents your soul to God?

- If you have no background in the Old Testament, please understand that this was a matter of extreme importance to the Jewish mind.

- God had set up an entire worship system, manned by 1/12th of the nation's people, solely to grant access through the Priesthood and there was only one High Priest.

- This is no minor question, but there is a major answer! If you guessed that it is Jesus, you are absolutely correct and here is why! Chapter 4:14.

Text

• Hebrews 4:14-16 : "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." : Christians are not without a High Priest. In fact, we have a great High Priest! Literally, He is a mega High Priest! This isn't a new thought.

- The author made this proclamation earlier in this letter when he called Jesus "the High Priest of our confession." (Hebrews 3:1)

- In this verse, we see that Jesus is superior to High Priest of the Temple because of where He serves! He has passed through the Heavens!

- The earthly High Priest passed through a thick curtain veil, an emblem representing the heavens, which separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies.

- He was allowed to enter once a year, on the Day of Atonement and he was not allowed to remain. It was in fact, a very tenuous stay.

- Unlike the Temple High Priest, the way this reads, Jesus passed through the Heavens and then stayed there!

- He lives in the place that was represented by the Holy of Holies, a place so sacred that it, the copy, the model could only be visited by one man once a year!

- Jesus is superior because of where He serves and because of who He is!

- Jesus is the Son of God! There wasn't a Priest on earth that could make that claim! Jesus is the unique Son of God, a title again denoting His equality in the Godhead!

- Because He is our High Priest, let us continue to hold on tightly to the same beliefs that brought us into our walk with God! The NLT reads "let us hold firmly to what we believe!"

- Don't let go of what first brought you into the faith! The faith that initially saved you from your sin is good enough to keep you until the end!

- There isn't any need for new or updated information and there isn't any substitute Priest that could replace the Living Son of God!

- Incidently, this is the recurring challenge of the Christian faith. We are called to remain completely satisfied with what brought us into the faith to begin with!

- When we came into Christianity, we rejected our own worthiness and received by faith the righteousness that our Savior Jesus embodied!

- It was good enough to save us. It is good enough to keep us! It is all that we will ever need! And it is good news because our High Priest isn't aloof or removed from our circumstances.

- As God, He has the power to represent us before the Godhead. Because He had taken on human flesh, He has the power to relate to us! He can sympathize.

- He has the power to be touched by our infirmities because He experienced every temptation that we have faced! This doesn't refer to specific manifestations. It refers to general categories.

- He didn't have an internet where women made it their life's work to "blow things up," but there has always been libido and sexual temptation.

- He didn't have a corporate structure to fight against, but there have always been unreasonable people with unreasonable demands and the pride that inspires retribution!

 - As a human being, He lived through and experienced every single category of temptation that we have faced but did so without ever succumbing to a single one. Consider that!

- Jesus Christ is a superior High Priest because He knows what it takes to resist the impulse to sin! You might cry "foul" as many often do: "He had no sin nature!" That is true.

- Jesus took on a human body but never inherited the nature that is endemic to human beings bending them toward sinful expression. He is the car but there is no motor.

- Because He lacked the engine, you assume that there still wasn't a possibility that He might have sinned. You forget that Adam was without sinful nature as well when he sinned!

- Jesus could have sinned theoretically, but His sympathy isn't related to the actual sin.

- It's related to the struggle we face not to sin! He knows what it's like personally.

- That is why we are invited to approach the throne of grace with boldness. This was a mind blowing concept! The Jews weren't even allowed to look at the furniture of the Holy of Holies!

- Now, because of Jesus, we are given bold access. This isn't an irreverant invitation. It is a matter of belonging! You are walking into a place where you belong because of our High Priest!

- This is yet another reason that His Priesthood is superior: He offers greater access!

- What we will find with Him is mercy in exchange for what we deserve and grace for what we could never have earned!  Think of what a comfort that is?

- The God that knows our every thought and can employ that in our just judgment, can also, because He knows our ways, offer His hand to help us! For those that enter in, that is what they find!

- How many have come to Christ seeking mercy and been turned away? How many have needed grace in time of need and went away needy? I don't believe I'd hear of even one! Chapter 5.

• Hebrews 5:1-4  : "For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness. Because of this he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sins. And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was." : The high priest that served in the Temple was an appointed man, consecrated, set apart to serve other people.

- Generally, this human was the son of the previous High Priest. If he did not have a son, a man was chosen and confirmed by the Sanhedrin, Israel's governing authority.

- Once appointed, he went and stood between them and God, offering to God, the gifts and sacrifices that would be brought by the people of God to cover their sins.

- As a man, he has the ability to express compassion toward those that have acted in ignorance. That word doesn't express a lack of knowledge.

- Ignorance, biblically, speaks toward an unwillingess to accept certain facts. That is what we are expressing when we sin knowingly. We are choosing to ignore what we know to be true.

- This human priest can have compassion on them because he has seen others with the same condition. Additionally, he has seen man who have been seduced to wander out of the way.

- The human High Priest knows how difficult it is to walk with the Lord. He's even had to bring offerings for his own sins. He wasn't immune from the nature that plagued his entire kind!

- With regard to a final prerequisite, no High Priest could campaign for this position. There had to be a call of God upon his life like there was on the life of the original high priest, Aaron. Verse 5.

• Hebrews 5:5-8 : "So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him: 'You are My Son, today I have begotten You.' As He also says in another place: 'You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek'; who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered." : We have our next reason to consider Christ's Priesthood as superior to Aaron's: He has a better endorsement!

- You cannot ask for a better endorsement than that of the Most High God!

- When Jesus walked the face of this earth, He didn't glorify Himself in any way. He didn't seek honor or esteem from men. Rather, as Philippians 2 says, He took on the form of a servant!

- He accepted humiliation and because of that, God the Father bestowed upon Him that Name that is above all Names! It was God who said, "You are My Son, today I have begotten you!"

- Our author is again quoting from Psalm 2:7, a Psalm which speaks of the exaltation of God's ultimate King. He quoted this verse in 1:5 as well.

- The beginning of that writing refers to the rejection of God's King by men. There is even a sense of an agreed conspiracy against God's plan to install Him, but God has the last laugh!

- He alone sets His King upon His Holy Hill of Zion and then makes this declaration.

- Follow then the concept: Christ came into a very real, very humble human existence and was rejected based upon His humanity. The religious world of the time thought it could defeat Him.

- When He died, the Jews thought that the story was over, but Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, He passed through the heavens, while eyewitnesses watched!

- On that day, God declared unequivocably what we have known in retrospect: Jesus is the God Man who has come from the Father, that the Father endorses as having come from Him!

- "Begotten" refers to Christ, not in His incarnation, but in His ascension to the Throne post resurrection! That is the ultimate proof of His deity! He sits on the Throne without rival!

- Jesus is God's King and He is also God's choice for High Priest. If you were a priest that served in the Temple, you would have to be a Levite, a High Priest from the lineage of Aaron.

- According to His humanity, Christ was of the Tribe of Judah, through the line of King David. The Jewish audience must have cried out "Aha!"

- The issue is that God was not going to have His High Priest come from that line. Our author quotes from Psalm 110 as he had in 1:13.

- Keep in mind how important scripture is in making his argument. He is not making things up as He goes along.

- He is quoting scripture, reconciling his theology with what his audience believes to be authoritative. They have read these verses, but have not put the theology together.

- "You guys want to follow the Word of God? Look at what it says!" Truthfully, anyone that wants to follow Judaism has to do so at the expense, not the endorsement of scripture! 

- Jesus, the Bible asserts, will serve as God's High Priest forever according to the priesthood of Melchizedek. Melchizedek is an obscure character that we meet in Genesis 14.

- In that chapter, we find Abram on a mission to rescue his nephew Lot, who had been taken captive by a victorious band of Kings. Despite overwhelming odds, Abram succeeds!

- It's shortly after that victory that Melchizedek comes out of nowhere to greet Abram. He is a mysterious character, but he holds two offices: He is the King of Salem and the Priest of God!

- These two men meet over a specific meal of bread and wine! Sound familiar?

- There were many Kings that would have liked to have been Priests. I believe that David would have rather been a Priest than a King. A few even tried with disastrous results.

- Think of what happened to Saul's Kingdom because of the priestly offering he made or Uzziah who ran into the Temple. One lost their Kingdom, the other the privilege of their health!

- But none were qualified to hold both offices because of the limitation of the Aaronic line. Melchizedek's line had no such limitation! Our High Priest is also our King as Melchizedek was!

- You can see this in the nature of Christ's earthly ministry. His ministry was not like that of a King making decrees and issuing orders.

- Like a temple priest, Christ offered up prayers and supplications for the people that He encountered with great passion.  

- God listened to Him, not because He was a Son, but because of His reverence for the Father. Jesus didn't presume upon His Nature. He learned to submit Himself to God's decrees.

- He learned this through suffering. That doesn't necessarily refer exclusively to the Passion event, but the general suffering that is felt by all priests that attempt to aid those that walk with God!

- Think about Christ's response to Martha and Mary when their brother Lazarus died. Jesus wept! Consider Christ's words as He looked over Jerusalem and it's rejection of Him.

- Don't you think that it might have entered His mind once or twice, that He could simply, as God, force conditions to alter people's perceptions?

- Instead, He submitted Himself to God and learned that God the Father is trustworthy, even when there is suffering involved.

- Of course, when His path led Him to a place where His personal suffering alone would bring about the redemption of many brothers, He learned that obedience brought glory!

- Think about that: As God, He never knew what it was like to obey. It was when He took on human flesh that He discovered how difficult that it was. Verse 9.

• Hebrews 5:9-11 : "And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, called by God as High Priest 'according to the order of Melchizedek,' of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing." : Our author offers a final note upon the superiority of Christ's High Priestly function. He offers a better covenant!

- Jesus has been "perfected." That word brings up connotations that aren't intended by the author. Jesus was never imperfect in any way.

- Generally, the term implies a full and finished state. The idea here is that Christ has now come finally and fully into who He was always intended to be.

- He has come into the highest place and has become the author, most of the other translations prefer the word "source," of eternal salvation.

- Becaue He is in a perfected state, He alone can dispense a full and final salvation to those that obey Him! The entire Jewish sacrificial system was based upon the sustainability of sin.

- Year after year, animal sacrifice after animal sacrifce, all of it reminded the Jewish nation that their atonement was temporary and that another sacrifice was necessary.

- The work was never complete. Jesus though is able to definitively offer those that obey Him eternal salvation! The word "eternal" refers to that which has no beginning or end. From age to age.

- Jesus is the cause for eternal salvation, in that, He is so worthy of honor, it will take eternity to express it toward those that obey their High Priest!

- All of the rich inheritance that is given to God's people when they pass onto the eternal shore will be given to them on the basis of what Christ deserves to receive!

- Consider the alternate implication: If there is eternal salvation to all who obey Him, there is eternal damnation for those that refuse Him! This is a very important principle going forward.

- I might add that it is the most important principle for you to wrestle with if you have not!

- The author wants tell them more about Christ's Melchizedekian priesthood, but it will be difficult for them to receive it. They've become dull in their hearing!

- "Dull" refers to lazy or sluggish in their hearing. Through the process of time, the Hebrew audience that is listening to this has unknowingly become slow in their comprehension.

- There has been a steady digression in their capacity to digest sacred information.

- The NIV translates, "You no longer try to understand!" What an indictment! The author wants to deliver greater truths to them, but is finding his task virtually impossible.

- It's not for a lack of words or time. It's because his audience has not remained sharp. That is something to consider. How have they dulled? What does he mean? We'll consider that next week.

Conclusion
- Christ never wore the vestments of the High Priest, nor was He allowed as a Man to serve in the Temple. But He is a superior High Priest in every way! Add it up with me.

- Jesus Christ is superior because His Priesthood is practiced in heaven's realm. He is welcomed there because He is the Son of God!

- He is a superior High Priest because He never needed a sacrifice for His own sin. He didn't have any that required forgiveness!

- He is superior because He became the sacrifice for all that have struggled against their sin and He serves us with compassion, offering us mercy and grace because of it!

- He is a superior High Priest because He is God's choice that will endure forever! "You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek!"

- Finallly, Christ is a superior High Priest because He alone is allowed to dispense eternal salvation to all that obey Him an offer that no earthly High Priest had the pay grade to back up!

- Our High Priest serves in a greater Temple, is a greater person, with a greater basis, His own righteousness, to dispense forgiveness!

- His is a greater term of service, forever, with a greater offer, eternal salvation, than anyone else! There is no question: Jesus Christ is our superior High Priest and He is worth our trust!