Our Great High Priest

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0:00It is great to be with you all today. The week after Easter, Easter was wonderful and it's great to keep worshiping with you all today. We are continuing our sermon series in Hebrews and I want to also say welcome to visitors. If you're visiting with us today, thank you for being here. I hope that you really encounter God first and foremost today and that you also feel warmly welcomed by the people here. So, ten years ago or so, I did something to my back.

0:32I still don't really know what it was. But over the course of a couple of days, it got worse and worse really quickly until I woke up one morning and I literally couldn't get out of bed. For the next few days, my neck and my back were just stiff as a board. I just could not move them. I tried to move and it was so painful. I had never been so incapacitated before. And I was like, it was just a big effort with Nikki helping me just to swivel around and put my legs out of the bed and then get up the courage to try to stand up.

1:13It was so difficult. And it wasn't very long before I started thinking, well, what if this doesn't get me better? And that was not a good thought. I started thinking, well, what if life is just like this from now on? Because I didn't know where it came from. I didn't know what caused it. What if life is like this, I thought. And then I immediately started thinking of the people I knew whose life was already like that, who had been dealing with crippling pain for years of one kind or another, who struggled to get out of bed.

1:58I started thinking about them and thought, well, their life is already like this. And the experience left me much more sympathetic towards them. And that's the way it is with sympathy. You don't get sympathy by watching a movie or reading a book or even listening to a guy like me talk. You get sympathy through experience. You get experience of suffering. And it leads to sympathy. In fact, you better hope that suffering leads to sympathy because the only other alternative is that it makes you bitter.

2:41So there I was. I was more sympathetic because of my back pain. But the problem was I couldn't help anybody. I was bedridden. The very thing that made me more sympathetic disabled me from helping all that much. Now, we all want compassion for the needs that we have. And today, we're going to see that Jesus is the most compassionate and sympathetic person that you'll ever meet, that you'll ever encounter. And unlike me lying in bed, He is actually able to help you.

3:16So He's more compassionate than you or me ever could be. And He's able to help us. And He does that because He has fulfilled a special role that God set apart and created a long time ago. A role you might not have thought about. So this sermon series is called Toward an Enduring Faith. And we can endure because of Jesus, the one who is described here in Hebrews 4 and because of what He did. This is a transition point in Hebrews. He's transitioning from describing mostly who Jesus is to what He does.

3:56That's what the next few chapters are all about. What He does. What He did for us. So turn with me to God's Word as we read about Him and as we prayerfully, as the Spirit leads us to submit our hearts to Him and take joy in Him. This is God's Word. Let's attend to it with faithful hearts, open ears, expectantly, knowing that the Lord speaks and acts through His Word. He's promised to bless the going forth of it. This is Hebrews 4, 14 through 5, 10.

4:35Since then 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 is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.

5:19He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward since He Himself is beset with weakness. Because of this, He is obligated to offer sacrifice for His own sins just as He does for those of the people. And no one takes this honor for himself but only when called by God just as Aaron was. So also Christ did not exalt Himself to be made a high priest but was appointed by Him who said, You are My Son. Today I have begotten You. As He says also in another place, You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

6:02In the days of His flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death. And He was heard because of His reverence. Although He was a son, He learned obedience through what He suffered. And being made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Pray with me.

6:45Jesus, we come before You and Lord, if we all are being honest as a mixture in us of wanting to hear what You have to say and also a little bit holding back, can we trust You further than where we are today? Can we love You more than where we are today? Can we be more grateful? Can You be more exalted in our lives? There's parts of us that aren't so sure, Lord. I pray that You would speak to those parts of us that hesitate. And speak to them with the tender compassion that You have because You have walked in our place.

7:30You have suffered. You have been tempted. You came out on the other side to be a Savior and a deliverer and a source of eternal salvation to all who follow You in faith. So, Lord, help us to hear that. Speak to those places in us that hold back and help us to hold back no longer because of Your great love, Your great compassion, Your tender care for us. Jesus, we pray this in Your name.

8:12Jesus is our great High Priest. Because He suffered for us, Jesus gives us compassionate help and real access to God. Now, to understand this passage, you need to understand something about the Old Testament, the High Priest. we're going to talk today about something that a lot of us don't really think about needing, and that is someone to intercede for you before God. A mediator.

8:49Once you see that, you see what God set up in the Old Testament, and you see how Jesus fulfilled it perfectly, and you come out on the other side amazed and grateful for Jesus and for His work. That's what I'm hoping for all of us today. That's what I'm hoping to walk us through, a rather complicated passage. We're going to start with the middle, chapter 5, verses 1-4, because that talks about the former High Priest, the High Priest that came before.

9:20So in the Old Testament, there were 12 tribes, and God chose the men of the tribe of Levi to serve as priests. And out of all of the priests, one of them was designated the High Priest. This was not decided by election. They didn't run for office. It was not earned through promotion. It was not a brass ring that they would aspire to. The High Priest was called by God. Called by God. He was a representative for the people. Okay? He was chosen from among men and appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God.

10:01Now, I was trying to think about examples like this, but there are so few examples for something like this. My mind kept going when I thought about representative, mediator. I kept thinking about a lawyer. And that's no good. That's not a good analogy. The High Priest didn't go to God like a lawyer and try to negotiate with Him. He didn't sit down with God and say, you know, my client feels that your terms are unfair. That is not the stance of a High Priest towards God.

10:34A High Priest is not a negotiator but an intercessor. His central role was dealing with the sin of the people in the way that the Holy God had prescribed. That was his role. Okay? To offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. That's what he was there to do. This included a lot, but most significant was the Day of Atonement. This was one year. Once per year, the High Priest made a sacrifice for the collective guilt of all the people.

11:09Now let's pause right here because we have a tendency to gloss over sin but God does not. You know, ancient people long ago, I'm talking hundreds and hundreds and thousands of years ago, ancient people, even secular people, if something happened to them in their life that was bad, they would immediately start thinking, well, I am an imperfect person. I make mistakes all the time to offend the gods. What have I done? Even a secular person would start thinking that way.

11:44We are in a much different place now. Secular or Christian or religious or whoever we are, something bad happens in our life and we start thinking, how dare God do this to me? Do you see the difference between the two? I must have done something wrong versus how dare God do this to me? It's because in modern times we minimize our sinfulness all the time. It's not that big of a deal.

12:13So the thought of an intercessor is weird for us. Why can't God just love me just like I am? And this passage points that out to us. There was a high priest, there was this whole office set up. One person would come before God and offer a collective offering once a year for the guilt of the people. He would lay His hand on a goat and He would chase that goat off into the wilderness. It would carry off the guilt of the people symbolically. All of this should remind us that God is a holy God and He takes our sin seriously.

12:46We don't think it's that big of a deal but friends, it is. It is. But listen, the passage here is not really concerned with all the details it is concerned rather on the character and the quality of the high priest, the man who's serving the role. What makes someone a good high priest? That's what this passage is concerned about. Verses 1-4. First is humility. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward since he himself is beset with weakness.

13:24He has humility because he's weak. Now this describes an ideal. I'm sure that there were high priests that ignored or denied that they were weak. Those men weren't very humble. They were not good high priests. But this is an ideal. Deal gently. The more a high priest recognizes his own weakness, the more tenderly he can draw near to the people and deal with them and handle their problems, their sins and their sacrifice. He can deal gently. This word here is like a middle ground.

14:04It's not harshness. It's not how could you do that? You screw up. But neither is it oh, it's not that big of a deal. It's not harshness and it's not dismissiveness. It's something in between. He's dealing with it seriously. He's treating sin seriously. But it's someone who also faces temptation. The sympathy that's there. The second thing about a high priest that makes him a good high priest is solidarity. A good high priest identifies with the people.

14:40He had these special garments, special headwear, precious stones, all of these things that God prescribed for him to wear. They all had symbolic meaning. But he was still at the end of the day one of the people. He was one of them. He was chosen from among men. And so he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. Humility because he's weak and solidarity because he sins.

15:19On the day of atonement, he brought a bull for himself and he made sacrifices and an offering for himself and for his household before he went in to go offer the sacrifice for all the people. He had to take care of his own problem first. This was a reminder to him, look, you might be a high priest, but don't forget, but you need forgiveness too.

15:46So God created this role because he wanted the people to see the seriousness of sin and the way that they could be reconciled to him. But sometimes the people might have wondered this. Could there be someone better?

16:03Could there be someone better? They might be thinking, you know, it's great that our high priest is humble, but having weakness means that there's some ways that he can't help me. Right? If he's weak in any place in his life, there's some place that he can't help me. Take a look at this picture. In case you can't see, this is a tow truck towing a tow truck towing a UPS truck.

16:38Now, tow trucks rescue vehicles that are broken down. But this picture reminds you that tow trucks can also break down, right? What if this tow truck in the front broke down? I guess they'd get another tow truck and now it'd be an even longer chain. Tow trucks are supposed to intercede, right? To help vehicles that break down, but even tow trucks break down. A high priest who is aware of his weakness is good, but do you know what's better than that?

17:10A high priest with no weakness. None at all. Someone who is completely strong in every way. What if we had someone like that? What if we had someone that could never fail? If he had no weakness, there would be no limit to what he could do to help us. This is what the Israelites might be thinking.

17:40They also might be thinking this. We like that our high priest is one of us. That's good. He comes from among us. But because he's sinful like us, he also has to do that thing where he goes and he makes a sacrifice for his own sins. Part of his time, his energy, his focus, it's on his own needs. And not just our needs. He's got to take care of himself first. You know, on every flight, if you've ever taken a flight, they say, in certain events, oxygen masks may deploy from above you.

18:19Be sure to attach your own oxygen mask before assisting children. They say that every time, and it makes sense, right? An adult needs to remain conscious if they're going to help the child, right? Flailing around or whatnot. Panicking. The adult has to get it on first, but I've often wondered when I've heard this instruction. It makes sense, but in that small time that the adult is putting on his or her mask, that child is not being helped. There's a delay in helping the child because the adult is putting on the mask first.

19:04Seems like that's not the best that it could be. If an adult didn't have to put on their mask, they could devote all their attention to helping that child from the moment the emergency happens, right?

19:20A high priest addressing their own sacrifices is good, it's necessary, but wouldn't it be better if there was a high priest who didn't have to do that? Who didn't have to attend to their own needs first, but could go directly to helping the needs of the people? It would be more help, right? It would be total other focused intercession.

19:50Well, here's the good news. God sent a high priest like that. All these other high priests were temporary, were insufficient. It was not the final thing. God sent a new and final and eternal high priest. So let me tell you about him. Let me tell you about the new high priest. Now we're transitioning to 5 through 10 of the passage. The old high priests were called by God and so is the new one. Jesus did not exalt himself to be made a high priest but was appointed by God.

20:29We learned in chapter 1 that when Jesus ascended to heaven and sat down at the right hand of the Father, he was installed as the royal reigning son. That's what it means here when it says today I have begotten you. That's the second time that the preacher here has quoted that verse but right now the focus is on another title, another role that God bestows upon him at the ascension. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

21:02This is Psalm 110.4 This is the verse that the author of Hebrews quotes more than any other verse in his whole book and he quotes a lot of scripture. We won't get to the Melchizedek thing today. That's coming later in chapter 7. I've got some work to do. For now we're going to focus on how Jesus became this high priest.

21:30The son did not get this title, this role like a father giving their kid a cushy role in the family business just because he shares the last name. With big titles and big salaries and a corner office that they didn't earn. Jesus was appointed high priest because he earned it. When it comes to identifying with the people, with solidarity with the people, Jesus did it better and more deeply than any other high priest ever did. Throughout his ministry he looked out at crowds of people and he felt compassion.

22:09He saw their needs, their hunger, their suffering, their loneliness. He called them sheep without a shepherd and he felt compassion in his heart. He was drawn to them. He was drawn to their neediness. I've got to do something. I've got to help them. He felt compassion towards so many people. He felt compassion towards the woman whose son had died, but also the rich young man who was trusting in his own works to inherit the kingdom of heaven. Both of those types of people he felt compassion for.

22:57The ones who were suffering because of some catastrophe in their life and those who were suffering because they were weighed down by the law. He saw the crowd weeping over Lazarus, his friend. He saw the destruction, the pain that was being caused in the community because this beloved man had died. He sees them weeping and he weeps too with them.

23:28He even looks out over Jerusalem when he arrives there for the last time. He looks out and he calls it the city that kills the prophets knowing that it was soon going to kill him too and he cried out in anguish and lament over the hard heartedness there and at the last supper we have what is called his high priestly prayer. When he asked the father to bless and to gather all believers together to make them one to fill them with the spirit not only the people in that room but all who were to believe in his name.

24:12Friends he was praying for us. Micah's clapping for that. He's praying for us. His high priestly prayer. This heart of solidarity with his people is described in verse 7. In the days of his flesh Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears. This describes his whole ministry. It's evocative. It describes his fervency, his emotion but it also tells us why he was doing it. His prayers were offered just like the high priest offered up gifts and sacrifices.

24:58But it said in verse 1, these prayers were prayers of intercession as a high priest. He was praying to him who was able to save him from death. And he was heard.

25:14Now I know you know the story that in the garden he prayed for the cup to pass him. He said Father if there was any other way than the way that we planned. I want that way. I don't want to do this. This is too hard. Lord, but he says thy will be done. And he was heard. And this is what this tells us. He was saved from death. His prayers were answered. He was praying not only is there a way around this, but he was also praying, Lord, if I have to do this, then save me from death by resurrection.

25:53And that's what happened. He was brought back. He was praying for resurrection because that's what brought eternal life to his people. He was praying for the completion of redemption, the plan that he and the Father and the Spirit made before time began. Remember, Father, why you sent me. Remember our plan. Remember your people. They need deliverance from sin. Save me from death for their sake. And he was heard. No matter what he faced in every situation, Jesus was strong for his people.

26:38Unlike the prior high priests, there was no weakness, only faithfulness to the task at hand. He humbled himself all the way to the cross, all the way to death. And unlike the others that came before, he didn't have to stop first and offer sacrifices for himself. He could go right to our need, right to the cross. He didn't have to put on his own oxygen mask before he helped us. He went right to our needs. He could help more than anyone else ever could.

27:14He was not just the high priest, but he was the sacrifice. And that's why Jesus became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. Listen, no other high priest will ever be needed. There is no other intercessor that you need. No one that you have to come through to get to God. Only Jesus. He was made perfect. His perfect strength, his perfect mediation, it supplied every need.

27:51Now listen, I really want this to be not just some academic exercise where you see on paper how Jesus fulfilled the high priest. That's interesting. That's helpful. That's true. But I want it to be something that lands in your life. So we're going to go back to verses 14-16 because I want to tell you about what he gives us now. This is what he gives you and me because he is the perfect high priest because he's fulfilled this. When he becomes your high priest through faith, of course he gives you forgiveness and eternal life.

28:33And listen, if you don't have that, that's where you need to start. Come to your high priest today. Recognize your need for intercession and call out to him your mediator. But that's only the start of what he gives you. He also gives you compassionate help.

29:01In him we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. Sympathize doesn't mean imagining what you're going through or what you've been through. It's not just a mental thing. The word sympathize means suffer with or endure with. The word means through shared experience.

29:28He can offer that because he is one who is in every respect has been tempted as we are. Friends, do you know that Jesus heard the call of sin over and over in his life just like you do? He knows what you're going through. He was tempted to provide for himself. Anybody here ever feel tempted to provide for yourself? To not wait on God? He was tempted to avoid hardship and seek an easier path than the one that God had laid out for him. Does that relate to anybody here?

30:03He was tempted to serve himself over others, to seize the power and control. He was tempted to deny his father to give up on the mission. Some people have good intentions but they don't understand your problems. Other people have endured hardship but they don't want to help. They've been through enough. They're just trying to make it. Jesus is different. Jesus is different than all the others. He knows what you are going through more than anyone else on earth.

30:46And no one can help like him because he faced it all yet without sin. He knows your failure and is able to forgive. He knows the ongoing temptation that you're in and how to help you endure.

31:08A few years ago I was in a small group Bible study at a previous church and someone an adult guy a single guy joined our small group and he had and I've met other of course I've met other stutterers before but he had a very bad stutter worse than me at my at my worst and here he was in our small group and he was talking and you know talking about the scripture and about his life just like you do it at a small group and he was struggling real bad to talk and it was it was a very unusual experience for me because I felt there was part of me that I I knew exactly what he was going through I knew how we probably felt I knew the tricks that he was playing with his body to try to get those words out I knew the thoughts that were going through his mind about what other people might be thinking about him and I knew how he was trying to to help him to help him to help him to help him to help him to help him because I was just back in my childhood again thinking about that all over again nobody else in the room could relate to him like I did but I was one of the least able people in the room to help him to give him real sympathy I had to kind of deal with my own the rush of things that were brought back before I could help him friends Jesus is better he has experienced what you have experienced even more thoroughly than you was was towards this man he is fully able and willing and tender hearted to forgive you to strengthen you to encourage you to help you keep going there is no friend

34:21like Jesus there is no companion like Jesus there is no helper like Jesus there is no high priest like Jesus he has done away with the need for anyone else to fill that role come to him receive his compassionate help he longs to help you oh how we resist his help no Jesus I got this but this leads me to I know you need to hold on to because this is good this verse is really great he's passed through the heavens on our behalf and so we have access to the throne of grace look at that phrase it's not only the place of God's rule and his might and his authority but it's also the place of his mercy his kindness his compassion the throne of grace to that throne we should draw near in the Old Testament the high priest only went there once a year but now the curtain is torn in two the way is opened you can come into God's presence this is astounding you know Adam and Eve they hid with their sin they hid from the presence of God God went looking for them and he is still doing that today come out of hiding draw near to the throne of grace draw near often the verb tense of draw near indicates repeated ongoing action this is new for us when listen if you ever call someone and talk on the phone then you hang up and then you realize oh I forgot to say something to them and what's the first thing you say to them when they pick up the phone I'm sorry to be calling you back but I have something else I wanted to tell you we are trained not to be a bother even to our friends you will never be a

36:52bother to your heavenly father you will never be a bother to him you can come to him as often as you need he is not irritated you will never wear out your welcome talk to him over and over as often as you need and you need it more than you know he is always delighted to hear from you draw near confidently the word translated confidence it refers to this unhindered speech between Romans where they would speak what's on their mind if you've ever been to Italy Italians and Romans still talk this way unhindered bold frankness is another way that you could translate confidently now listen this is not a license to be disrespectful to God but it is an invitation to be honest with him when most people ask how are you doing we know that it's just a polite way to say hey it's nice to see you when God asks you how are you doing he really wants to know every time don't be impersonal with him use ordinary language be personal speak your mind and your heart you might be surprised what comes out of your mouth but he won't and in fact that's one of the gifts of prayer finally draw near expectantly God is not a genie he doesn't grant wishes but we can and we should expect something when we draw near that we might receive mercy and find grace to help we don't always get all the answers and sometimes we don't get any but we do receive forgiveness we might not get a way out of the situation that we're in but we do find strength to keep going he gives us these things right on time in time of need

39:02there's no other intercessor than Jesus Christ all others are obsolete we have a great high priest who's passed through the heavens Jesus the son of God so let us hold fast our confession and rely on him