Christ Our High Priest | Hebrews 4:14-5:10

Okay, so Hebrews chapter 4 starting at verse 14

Hebrews 4 · chapter mention

Therefore since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven Jesus the Son of God

Let us hold firmly to the faith we profess

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses

But we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are yet. He did not sin

Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need

Every high priest is selected from among the people and is appointed to represent the people in matters related to God

To offer gifts and sacrifices for sins

He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray since he himself is subject to weakness

This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins as well as for the sins of the people and

No one takes this honor on himself, but he receives it when called by God just as Aaron was

In the same way Christ did not take on himself the glory of becoming a high priest

But God said to him you are my son today. I have become your father and

He says in another place you are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek

During the days of Jesus life on earth

He offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death

And he was heard because of his reverent submission

Some though he was he learned the obedience from what he suffered and once made perfect

He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek

Morning everyone

It is wonderful to be together this morning and to be going through this

Incredible part of scripture, which I hope will be a great encouragement for you as we go into

our new year

Just a couple of things for you to take note of I am going to be away this coming week

So if you need to get hold of anyone at the church, then please

Get hold of either Gary or Eric and their contact details

Are in the newsletter and you'll notice that they're under the title our elders

Which means that Eric after a well

deserved and very long break

Will be serving on our session in that capacity with the gifts that God has given him I

Think that's all I need to say so with that said before we come to the words of God

Let's come to our God and ask for his help this morning. Would you pray with me?

Father we are thankful that you have bought us through

another year that you have gathered us together

That you have grown us that you have conformed us

Father as we've already heard in our confession this morning that there are parts and times when we know that we have not walked in the way

That is pleasing to you but we can testify that you are a God of grace

that you have shown mercy and grace to us continually your children for the sake of Christ

This morning father as we come to your word. We ask that by your spirit

You would give us ears to hear

Hearts to receive and that you would transform us by the work of your Holy Spirit in our midst

We ask for this in Jesus name. Amen

One thing if you do have your Bible with you this morning

Could you please have it open to the passage that we're going through because I'll be referring to it

Quite a bit so it will be helpful for you to have the passage in front of you

Judge if you've ever taken an exam you know how incredibly intense the time has been

How incredibly intense the time leading up to it can feel

Why are exams so stressful?

Because exams determine if you have understood and digested the material correctly

That you have been learning over the semester

It's intense because all the hours of study and planning

Dedication and sacrifice can in a way be fruitless

Because there is a very real risk that you can fail

Well church let me tell you the difference between good advice and good news in this situation

Good advice is okay you have exams coming up they're going to be hard

But if you study as diligently as you can and study as much as humanly possible

You have a real chance of doing well

That's great that's good advice

But what if you study as hard as you can put all the hours in

But then you get to the exam and all the pressure gets to you

What if you forget everything

Well good advice would be don't panic take a deep breath just write everything that you can remember

There's bound to be something in there that will hopefully be worth some kind of mark

And it's so much better than just freaking out and doing nothing

That's good advice

But there is a world of difference between good advice and good news

Let me explain

Good news would be you're in the exam the teacher can see that you don't have anything in you to pass

So they come over to you and they announce to you that they're going to take the exam on your behalf

This my brothers and sisters is indeed this is great news

Now I'm telling you all of this because this is the type of message that our author is saying over and over again in the book written to the Hebrews

And as we'll see this morning this passage that we have before us is no exception

You see the author isn't giving us good advice about how we are to approach God with a set of rules so that maybe just maybe if you're good enough

Well God will let you into heaven one day

No he's telling us the good news that God has come to us in Jesus and that he has taken all that it is to be human and to take his taken our exam on our behalf

And he passed it perfectly freeing us from death and slavery to sin

But not only that the author wants us to see that because of Jesus and what he has done for his people we are welcomed by God to come boldly to him

So why church why would you ever want to reject all of that and go back to the entanglement of sin and its wages

That said would you look with me at verse 14

Our author says therefore since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven Jesus the Son of God let us hold firmly to the faith we profess

Now you might ask yourself here straight off the bat why do we in 21st century Australia still need a great high priest

Well simply put because God is still holy and we are still sinful that's why we need a high priest because of our sin

We read in Genesis that humanity was created to be in the presence of God and in perfect relationship with him

We see this in the first couple of chapters of our Bibles where our first parents were in the presence of God enjoying him in uninterrupted fellowship

But things didn't stay that way for long no we go on to read that through the temptation to be their own gods to make their own rules our first parents rejected God

That's right at that moment in that action to rebel against our creator sin was bought into this world and because sin and holiness can't exist together

Can't cohabit the same space they were cast from God's presence

In other words their sin killed our relationship our friendship with God and you don't have to read Genesis for very long to see the devastating effects that sin had on all people

It brought destruction, pain, carnage and ultimately death and we see this through the whole Bible but this is a thing it wasn't just their problem

No sin has become inherent to the human experience to our human experience however church thank God that's not all we read about in our Bibles

No we also see that God is gracious and merciful and we see that he chose a family and promised from that family to make a nation and bless the world from them

And it was to the nation of Israel that God gave a law so that his holiness might be revealed and our sin our lawlessness shone for what it is

In other words God resurrected friendship with us in his grace in his undeserved favour he came to us

Now we see in the law how we might draw close to God's holiness through the shedding of blood in another in our place

For example we read in Leviticus 1711 for the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life

Essentially what this passage is saying is that atonement for sin comes through the blood of a sacrifice

And this has to be done in order to maintain friendship relationship with God

Yet this wasn't something anyone could just do

In fact our author this morning he points that out in our passage in chapter 5 verse 4 he says no one takes this honour on himself but receives it when called by God just as Aaron was

In other words shedding the blood of a sacrifice before God was a ministry given specifically to the priestly family of Aaron who was appointed by God to intercede for sinners intercede means to stand in the place of

Kind of like a lawyer

Now there was a special day of the year called the day of atonement where the high priest was allowed to enter the most holy place in either the tabernacle or the temple to stand before God in his presence

And his role was to take the blood of the sacrifice into the most holiest place in the building and make an offering for all the people so that their sins would be symbolically covered

That's what's on view in chapter 5 verses 1 through 2

We read every high priest is selected from among the people and is appointed to represent the people in matters related to God to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins

He's able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and going astray since he himself is subject to weakness

But I want to point something out for you this morning this system wasn't perfect in a couple of ways

We see the first issue in verse 3

The high priest who represented the people to God who entered the holy of holies with the sacrificed blood symbolically atoning for the sins of the people

Now we notice it here he himself was a sinner and had to offer sacrifices for his own sins before he could offer sacrifices for the sins of other people

That's what our text is getting at there in verse 3

The high priest was himself a sinner and needed forgiveness

And so as a sinner this meant that not only would his sympathy be imperfect but his presence in the holy place with God will notice it

It was limited to just once a year

It also meant that he would die because death is the wages of sin

He would have to be replaced

This means that he could never guarantee an ongoing presence with God to intercede for the people

There's a second problem and it's to do with the blood that was sacrificed

You see Hebrews 10 will go on to tell us that it's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins

Why? Because the law is just a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of those realities

It can never by the same sacrifices that are continually offered year after year make perfect those who draw near

Otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered?

I don't want anyone to misunderstand me with what's going on this morning

This priesthood was graciously given by God

It's a needed ministry, it was a needed ministry

First Samuel 2.25 a question is asked

If someone sins against the Lord who can intercede for him?

The answer is the priest that God appoints

As it's an intercessory role that has to happen between God and his people

So that relationship, friendship might be maintained

But when saying that, what have we seen this morning?

Under the Old Testament through the Levitical priesthood

It was imperfect, it was incomplete

Why? Why? Because God never meant for that to be the final solution

That was never the plan to be the final solution in regards to our relationship with him

No, it was set up to point forward to something greater, to someone perfect and complete

It was all pointing forward to God's mercy and grace coming in the person of Jesus Christ

And church, that's what our author wants us to focus on here this morning

He wants us to focus on Jesus Christ, our great high priest

It's all about Jesus and his eager to tell us what kind of high priest that we have

Look with me at verse 15, we read, for we don't have a high priest who's unable to empathize with our weaknesses

But we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are

Yet he didn't sin

Now, temptation is an interesting word that is used there because we actually get a glimpse into just how incredibly grim our Lord's temptation was

When he faced the cross, if you have your Bibles, look with me at 7 through to 10

We read, during the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death

And he was heard because of his reverence and submission

Son, though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be a high priest in the order of Mokazatec

It's here that we clearly see that Jesus put his complete trust in his Father while he was being led to the cross to shed his blood for the sins of his people

And it's because of his perfect obedience through every temptation to disobey even when faced with the wrath of God that we have a perfect sacrifice who never gave in to sin

And I want to pause there for a moment because you might be here this morning and thinking to yourself

If Jesus is God and he's able to be tested and tempted, why did he need to learn obedience?

Well, dear one, Chapter 8 of the Westminster Confession is actually incredibly helpful here

It sums up the whole Council of Scripture and it says that God, the eternal Son, really took on human nature and came to dwell with us in the flesh

He really became like us in every way yet his human nature wasn't fallen like ours

This means he had a real human body that had to grow, a real human mind that had to learn and real human emotions that could be tempted and tested

Therefore, his perfect obedience through temptation on our behalf, it wasn't an act

It was real in every way

And the eternal Son of God came to us in that way for a reason

The author has told us in Chapter 2, verse 14 of his book which we actually looked at briefly on Christmas Day

He says, since the children have flesh and blood, he, being Jesus, too, shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death

That is the devil

And free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death

For surely it's not angels he helps but Abraham's descendants

For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way

In order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service to God

That he might make atonement for the sins of the people because he himself suffered when he was tempted

So he is able to help those who are being tempted

Simply put brothers and sisters, our author wants us to know that Jesus, he had to take on flesh so that he could be both the perfect sacrifice and the perfect human high priest that we needed

I want to think about that for a moment more

Jesus, the divine Son of God who created the heavens and the earth

Think about this for a moment

He shed his blood for the sin of his people, his innocent blood

This is what gives the sacrifice on the cross its infinite worth

But we all know here this morning that death couldn't hold him down

We've already seen that in chapter 4 verses 14

We read that he passed through the heavens

Which makes us think of the ascension in Christ's resurrected body when he rose through the clouds into the heavenly realms into the presence of God the Father

This means that right now at this very moment he is with God in the heavens, in the holiest place in the universe

And he is pleading our case with his perfect life

Church, I hope that doesn't fly over your heads this morning

I mean think about that for a moment

Jesus didn't take the blood of bulls or goats into the heavenly realms

He didn't even take the blood of a mere man

He took his own precious blood, the blood of the sinless Son of God

Which means when God the Father sees his Son who gave himself for our sin he says that's enough that death's been paid

My righteousness vindicated

Which means he overlooks all our transgression and counts us as his beloved children in Christ

The apostle Paul, he says it like this in Romans 3

God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of blood to be received by faith

He did this to demonstrate his righteousness because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished

He did this to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus

There is one who has taken the exam for you in your place

Incredibly church, this was never planned B

This is always being God's plan for his people to have a perfect sacrifice and eternal high priest

And we see that in verse 10 how our author says that Jesus was designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek

Let me explain why that's really important and we'll fly over this part

You see in chapter 7 and 8 our author will go on to tell us that this order of Melchizedek is the perfect and eternal priesthood that Jesus was appointed to by God

And that he is the fulfillment of what the entire priestly system was just a shadow of

As before Christ came the holiest place in the temple was only entered into once a year and that by a sinful high priest

But as we know that was just a type of the true holy place in heaven where God dwells

It's in this heavenly temple now where our sinless high priest lives today

And unlike all the other high priests that ever lived and died, Jesus lived and died and rose again from the dead, never to die again

And because Jesus has this indestructible life and internal priesthood, he has immediate access to God in heaven with our interruption

That's why Christians proclaim that it's through Jesus alone that our relationship with God has been permanently restored

It's one of the definitions of the Reformation cry, Christ alone

This is why the whole Old Testament system of priesthood is over

It was only a shadow pointing to the reality that we have in Jesus Christ now

In church we have to be warned

That's what verse 14 is talking about, it's a warning to hold fast to our confession

That confession that's on view here is our faith that God has done everything that is needed to be done in His Son to bring us into that final rest and joy

Church God has made our adoption, our friendship, our relationship with Him possible only because He first came to us

He in His mercy, in His grace has sent us a perfect and final sacrifice in His own Son who is an eternal high priest who really loves and cares for us

And He is alive at this very moment, there is nothing more to do

And this is incredibly, incredibly important to live in light of

Because this good news doesn't just tell us that our great high priest has dealt with our sins

But that he's personally, lovingly involved in our lives today

Personally involved in our struggles as we resist going back to our old way of life

Where we were in bondage to sin, dead in trespasses

It's there in verse 15, I want to read it again

We don't have a high priest who's unable to empathize with our weaknesses

We have one who's been tempted in every way just as we are, yet he didn't sin

You see, because Jesus is alive, because Jesus is in heaven right now

Because Jesus intercedes on behalf of His blood-purchased people

This means that He can offer compassion and help to us because He is shared in what it is to be human

Having been tempted like us in every way

I think it's here that we see the difference between being tempted and giving into temptation, right?

You might be here this morning and thinking, Jesus hasn't gone through what I've gone through

He's never been tempted with the things that I'm tempted with

With drugs, the addiction to pornography

And yes, though the instruments of sin that we deal with in our culture haven't always existed

Sin's essential destructive nature has always been the same

Things like cheating, stealing, murder, lust have always been out to destroy humanity

And the author wants us to know sin was really out to destroy Jesus

Yet as we're told here, He never once sinned

I love how C.S. Lewis helps us here

He once heard someone say, if Jesus never sinned, then he doesn't know what temptation is really like

He lived a sheltered life and is out of touch with how strong temptation can really be

This is what C.S. Lewis had to say

A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means

Well, this is an obvious lie

Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it actually is

A man who gives into temptation after five minutes simply doesn't know what it would be like an hour later

This is why bad people in one sense know very little about badness

They've always lived a sheltered life by always giving into it

Christ on the other hand, because he was the only man who never yielded to temptation

Is also the only man who knows to the fullness what temptation really means

The only complete realist

Brothers and sisters, this should bring us incredible comfort when tempted

When tempted with the very real destructive sin that we face

Because our Lord has felt the same urges and temptations like we here have

And He personally knows the battle that sin wages against our soul

Yet He always resisted, He never failed

This means He really can help us when we're tempted to turn to those sinful behaviors

That so easily entangle and destroy us

Or when temptation seems too strong to handle

What do we do with all of this?

What do we practically do with all this wonderful knowledge that we have learned of our God this morning?

Well that's the last point I want to land on as we wrap up

It's there in verse 16

Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence

So that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need

Listen carefully to this because this is incredibly important

Every one of us in this room needs help

We are not God

We have needs, we have weaknesses, we have confusion

And we have limitations of all sorts and we need help from God

But every single one of us in this room has something else and that's sin

Therefore we really know at the bottom of our hearts that we don't deserve from God what we really need

So you can feel trapped

You might say I need help to live my life

I need help with my family, my spouse, my children, my loneliness, my job, my health, my finances

I need help but I know I don't deserve the help that I need

So what do we do?

There's two ways to live dear ones

You can try to deny it all and pretend that you don't need help

Or you can try to drown it all and throw your life into a pool of carnal pleasures

Or you can simply give way to the paralysis of despair

Church, God declares something this morning

He declares something in his living and active word over these hopeless conclusions that our flesh draws us into

Jesus Christ became a high priest to shatter that despair

With the hope to rescue a wretch like me

It's true, we all need help

Yes, none of us deserves the help we need but look at what God has told us this morning

Because we have a perfect sacrifice

Because we have a perfect high priest

The throne of God isn't a throne of judgment

It's a throne of grace

And the help that we get at that throne is mercy and grace to help us in our time of need

Grace, undeserved favour to help, not deserved help, gracious help

This is the whole point of Christ's intercessory role on behalf of these people

I'm not here today to give you good advice on this New Year's Eve

I'm here to tell you good news

God planned from eternity past for a saviour, a redeemer, a rescuer, a gracious helper to live perfectly on our behalf

To die in our place and to live forevermore as the high priest of his people

You are not trapped in a hopeless situation that's life from the pit of hell

We all need help, we all don't deserve it, but we can all have it

You and I have it right now

If you will receive and trust in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and draw near to our heavenly Father through him

So as we end, I just want to ask a few questions

Maybe you're here today and you're stuck in a sin that is causing you to run from your high priest

You're like Adam, you hide behind the proverbial bush trying to cover yourself, ashamed to come out

Maybe pointing fingers at other people

Listen to these words this morning

Run to him

He is for you and not against you because of Jesus, because of the beloved, because you're in Christ

You will find his mercy

Maybe you're here and you're tempted with something every single day

You're fighting, you're hurting, ashamed, feeling tired

Run to him

Brother, sister, run to him, he knows what you're going through

It is his word that tells us you will find mercy and grace

Maybe you're here today and you would say you have no sacrifice for your sin

No high priest, no hope

Well friend, you're not headed towards the throne of grace

You are heading to one of judgment

And it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God

But this is the good news

There is hope for you and Christ is really being held out to you today

All you have to do is call upon the name of the Lord and you will be saved

If you're not sure how to do that, then please don't leave this place wondering

Come and speak to me after the service

I would love to meet with you and pray with you

Church, let's pray

Father, we are so thankful for the cross

We are so thankful for the life and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ

That right now as we pray, as right now you are convicting, as you are stirring your people

With the sin that so easily entangles in our own lives

Father, that you have given us grace upon grace, mercy upon mercy

That we are invited to come to you

And so I pray today as we go into our new year, Lord, that your children

Don't look to the things of this world, to the despair, to the hopelessness

But to you

I pray, Father, that this year coming would be a year that we know personally

If we haven't already where we experience and know you

Father, I ask that you would draw your people in closer and closer and in more intimacy in Christ

That we would know who you are so that out of the overflow of our changed hearts

We might proclaim good news to others

This is a work of your spirit and we plead for it and we ask for it in Jesus' name

Amen