A Better Priest Forever (Hebrews 7:11-28) with Pastor Andrew Courtis

Well, do turn with me in your Bibles this morning to the Epistle to the Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 7.

Hebrews 7 · chapter mention

Our reading today will be from verse 11 to the end of the chapter, Hebrews 7, verses 11 through to 28.

Hebrews 7:11

And this is our next instalment of Hebrews 7.

We've been working through the whole epistle to Hebrews over a series of months, and we are in the heart of this sermon.

We're in the heart of the message of our Savior being our great high priest and why that is most meaningful for us in the Christian life?

Let us hear the word of the Lord.

Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received the law, what further need was there that any priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek and not be called according to the order of Aaron?

For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law.

For he of whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no man has officiated at the altar.

For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood.

And it is yet far more evident if in the likeness of Melchizedek there arises another priest who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life.

For he testifies, you are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness.

For the law made nothing perfect.

On the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God, and inasmuch as he was not made priest without an oath, for they have become priests without an oath, but he with an oath by him who said to him, The Lord has sworn, and will not relent.

You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

By so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.

Also, there were many priests because they were prevented by death from continuing.

But he, because he continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood, therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

For such a high priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens, who does not need daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins, and then for the peoples.

For this he did once for all when he offered up himself.

For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness.

But the word of the oath which came after the law appoints the Son, who has been perfected forever.

That is God's holy word.

One of the hard realities of the Christian life is weariness and weakness.

That's true of every Christian.

Weariness and weakness will be experienced differently.

It's felt most tenderly because of the reality of trials and temptations.

Trials break into the life of all of God's people.

For some of God's people, those trials will be enduring and will really remind the individual and expose so much in them their own weakness.

And enduring in the midst of trials does bring about weariness.

But it's not just trials, it's temptations.

Temptations are bombarded at the people of God every single day.

They're relentless.

And whether it be seen in the ongoing real conflict and struggle against sin, doing the things you don't want to do, not doing the things that you ought to do, whether it be seen in the battle of resisting, or whether it be seen in the sin of opening yourself up to temptation, biting the hook, and transgressing against God.

These trials, these temptations all have a way of showing us that we are indeed a weak people.

And in our weakness we feel the weariness.

Can you resonate with that?

Does that show you things that you know that you yourself are experiencing?

I know when I say something like that, it's relatively broad-brushed.

But the reality is you can apply that individually to your own situation.

Weariness and weakness is one of the hardest realities in the Christian life.

The Christian life is indeed a pilgrimage.

We're pilgrims to that glorious celestial city.

But along the way, there is going to be the battle, the raging battle of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

There is going to be moments of immense difficulty due to the fallenness of the world in which we live.

There will be attacks from the outside.

The evil one will shoot his fiery darts, as Ephesians 6 says.

The battle will rage on.

And in the midst of all of this, more and more, no matter how much head knowledge an individual may have, we learn very quickly, we are indeed weak and weary.

Well, weak and weary soul today.

What do you need to know and what do you need to hear?

Well, I want you to be reminded that we have one who is not marked by weakness, one who is not marked by weariness.

He is one who could do what no earthly priest in the Old Testament or New Testament could do.

The priesthood in the Old Testament can be summarized as weak.

It can be summarized as imperfect.

And the priests of the Old Testament could only go so far in their responsibility to represent God's people before God in reconciling them to Him.

For the priests themselves were weak and weary, they were sinful and they were imperfect.

And the whole priesthood system was inadequate to be able to provide for the needs of the people.

But the writer to the Hebrews has been laboring the point that we have a great high priest who is superior to the Levitical priesthood.

He is better than the priesthood of old.

And there is a comfort for us to embrace and experience from the beautiful description of our great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And what I want you to note by way of introduction, I want to just briefly survey for you verses 11 to 19 as our introduction, but the heart of our message is going to be found in verses 20 to 28.

I want you to see that verses 11 to 19 can be simply summarized like this.

The Levitical priesthood that was instituted and established by God in the Old Testament was imperfect.

It was imperfect because the priests themselves were sinners.

And not only were they sinners, these priests could only minister for a certain amount of time before they were replaced.

The priests who represented the people were themselves imperfect.

And verse 11 really is the summary of that whole section.

If perfection were through the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received the law, what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek and not be called according to the order of Aaron?

In other words, if the Levitical priesthood was perfect, then why did God say that there is going to be a priest who will be a priest forever and will never end his priestly ministry?

Yet this priest will not come from the Levitical priesthood.

He will come from the order of Melchizedek.

I'm not going to go over the whole theme of who Melchizedek is.

We looked at that very clearly last Lord's Day.

If you weren't here, have a listen to the message and you'll be reminded of how essential it is to understand that in order to appreciate what we're going on here.

But what we learned was the Lord Jesus Christ, his priestly ministry doesn't come from the order of the Levites.

His priestly ministry comes from the order of Melchizedek.

And the writer's point here is if the Levitical priesthood is superior, if it's what we are to embrace, if it's enduring, then why would God promise another priest who would be priest forever from a completely different priesthood?

And his point is simply this, and he will labor it in verses 12 to 19 that the Levitical priesthood is imperfect.

It was unable to deliver.

The priesthood has now been changed, and it's been changed out of necessity, verse 12.

The one that we are learning about, the one who is the great high priest, Jesus Christ.

He came from another tribe.

He came from the tribe of Judah, which means he's a king.

But not only is he a king, he makes the point that he's a priest, and this is unprecedented in Judah.

No king, no person in Judah would be a priest.

But Jesus is because he is of the order of Melchizedek.

We see that in verse 15.

And then it goes on to say that he is come, that is Jesus Christ, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life.

He is the eternal Son of God, and the ministry that he has been given, a kingly ministry, a priestly ministry, and a prophetic ministry.

It is enduring, it is permanent, it is perfect, and it will not end.

He reminds us in the words of Psalm 110, verse 4, quoted in verse 17, for he testifies, you are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

Psalms 110:4

And then he establishes the point that there is an annulling of the former commandment.

God's arrangement with Israel of having that priesthood and that temple structure.

It's been annulled.

The reason why God has annulled it is because in and of itself it was weak and unprofitable.

Please don't misunderstand that as a fault in God, because it was always to be pointing to the greater reality.

It is foolish for the Christians that the writer to the Hebrews is writing to for them to think that they could go back to Judaism, that they could go back to their old life, that they could go back and experience blessing in the shadows, and that is the temple and the priesthood.

By doing that, they're missing out on the substance.

Remember, we learnt last week typology?

A type is the shadow, and the shadow presents us and points us to the substance, there is a resemblance, and there is a reality.

Well, here he's makes the point that this formal way of doing things, the temple, the Levitical priests, and all the peculiarities in relation to the economy of the nation of Israel, this was all temporary.

And those practices have now been annulled.

Why?

Because something definitive has happened.

They've been annulled because they've found their fulfillment in the promised seed.

They've found their fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

The king has come, the priest has come, the prophet is here.

And the writer is saying, stop playing in the shadows and go to the substance.

Stop looking at the resemblance and focus on the reality.

Cling to Christ.

Look to Christ.

Now I want you to note that when he says that this has been annulled, don't view this as God just changing his plan or God now having a plan B.

It was always God's plan that it would be this way.

How do we know that?

Well, just the context alone tells us that, because Jesus comes according to the order of Melchizedek.

Melchizedek was around before the Levitical priests.

So before the Levitical priests were instituted, before Israel had the whole temple system, there was already a priest and it was Melchizedek.

And before we learn about Melchizedek, we learn about Abraham in chapter 12.

And what does God promise Abraham?

What is God's great promise?

Abraham, I'm going to give you a family, I'm going to give you a people.

You are going to have many descendants.

I'm going to give you the land.

But the nations are going to be blessed.

The families of the earth are going to be blessed with you.

You can see the intention of the Lord the whole time was that there would be this glorious global blessing for the nations.

It would come through the instrument of Israel and ultimately through the seed, namely Christ.

Christ has come, says the writer.

And with the arrival of the Lord Jesus Christ, is the triumphant of his mediatorial role as prophet, priest, and king.

But I want you to note that God's plan didn't begin there in Genesis 12.

This glorious plan to bless the nations, this glorious plan to send a priest without genealogy, a priest without father and mother, a priest who is in the order of Melchizedek, a priest who will be a priest forever.

This plan resulted from before the foundation of the world.

I don't think I can improve on the words of chapter 8 of the London Baptist Confession that declares in paragraph one, quote, it pleased God in his eternal purpose to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, his only begotten Son, according to the covenant made between them both, to be the mediator between God and man, the prophet, priest, and king, head and savior of his church, the heir of all things, the judge of the world, unto whom he did from all eternity give a people to be his seed, and to be by him in time, redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified.

A beautiful promise was made before the foundation of the world, and God who cannot lie, has kept that promise.

The promise was that there would be a people given to the Son.

And we learn in the Gospel of John that he didn't lose one of them.

This glorious work of Christ, seen through different administrations in redemptive history, through the economy of a physical nation in the Old Testament, and then in the new covenant through a holy spiritual nation.

This one glorious outworking of redemption resulting from a covenant promise before the foundation of the world was then expressed in time to Abraham in part, was seen in type through the appearance of Melchizedek, and receives its fulfillment through the arrival of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So if I could just quickly summarize these opening verses, I think it could be summarized by the beauty of verse 19.

But on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope through which we draw near to God.

What is this better hope?

It's the new covenant, my friends.

And this new covenant was instituted and ratified by Jesus Christ.

He broke this covenant, he cut this covenant at the cross.

It was sealed by the glorious institution of the Lord's table.

And here we see that this is a better hope.

It's a better covenant.

It's mentioned again in verse 22, but we're not going to talk much about the new covenant until we get to chapter 8.

And I want you to see the beauties of what it means to be in the new covenant, which we'll look at in our weeks to come.

But verses 11 to 19 are simply telling us that the old way of doing things is simply a shadow.

It's not the substance.

To put your hope in a Levitical priest, to put your hope in the earthly temple, is to miss the grandeur of the glorious plan of God in Christ Jesus.

And remember, in Christ Jesus, all the promises of God are yes and amen.

The writer is calling for us to fix our eyes on the Lord Jesus.

So what is it about our Lord Jesus that makes him superior to that old priesthood?

And why is that most meaningful for you?

Well, in our remaining time, I want to share that with you.

And I want you to see in verses 20 to 28 three reasons why our Lord Jesus Christ is superior to the Levitical priesthood.

The three reasons are this His priesthood is based on a promise.

Secondly, his priesthood is permanent.

And thirdly, his priesthood is perfect.

And those three things cannot be said of the old way of doing things in the economy of Israel.

That cannot be said of any of the priests of Aaron.

But it can all be said of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So let's begin with the Very first one, and that is Christ's priesthood is superior because it is promised.

That's what we read in verses 20 to 22.

And inasmuch as he was not made priest without an oath.

The oath here is referring to a pledge and a promise.

None of the Levitical priests were put in that position as a result of the oath and promise of God.

They were in that position because of the rule and regulation and the stipulations that God had given to the nation of Israel.

But unlike any of the priests of Levi, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, he is a priest because of an eternal oath, a promise.

And where was that promise expressed?

Well, the promise was formed in eternity past, in what theologians call the Pactham Salutus, the covenant of peace, that glorious eternal pact between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

But we see it expressly expressed clearly in Psalm 110 and verse 4.

And that's what the writer quotes in verse 21.

He says, For they have become priests without an oath, but he with an oath by him who said to him, This is what the father said to the son.

Listen to verse 21.

The Lord has sworn, he will not relent.

You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

That promise was made before the foundation of the world, but it's recorded for us in the prophecy of Psalm 110 and verse 4.

The priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ is the result of an eternal promise.

This tells us that his ministry is not an afterthought, it is a part of the eternal plan.

But it was promised, it was given by means of an oath.

The Lord has sworn you will be a priest forever.

And your priesthood will be according to the order of Melchizedek, which means God then brought Melchizedek on the scene in the circumstances in which he did bring Melchizedek, simply so that Melchizedek would be a great earthly illustration of the one that he was pointing to.

But the plan of Jesus Christ being a superior high priest who reigns forever, note, was the result of God's oath.

It was the result of his promise.

And what the writer is trying to show his congregation here is don't chase after the shadows in life.

Don't chase after the things that feel comfortable.

Don't chase after the things that are more tangible or more experiential for you.

Instead, go for the substance, go for the reality, go for Christ.

Consider him.

Look to the Lord Jesus Christ.

I want us to remember when any wave of difficulty breaks into our lives, when any moment of hardship happens, you need to remember that you have one who represents you before the Heavenly Father, and the one who represents you is priest as a result of a divine oath.

That shows that his priestly ministry is unchanging.

No one can take it away from him.

It was always in the divine council, it had been pictured and previewed through various types in the Old Testament.

It had been prophesied through prophets, and it had come into reality when he came into this world.

And the inauguration of his mediatorial role began when he rose from the dead.

The Lord Jesus Christ is our priest, our eternal priest, as a result of an eternally binding divine promise.

The Lord has sworn he will not relent.

The Lord didn't relent with regards to the temple and the priests, because he never swore that that would be permanent.

They were always a preview, a shadow of the substance.

But the substance is Christ, and that eternally continues.

That's the point that he's making here.

Jesus Christ, because he is priest as a result of the divine oath, he concludes by way of application in verse 22 by so much more, Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.

Jesus is the one who guarantees, sees to it, that all the benefits of the covenant will be brought to those that he represents.

And who does Jesus represent?

All those that the Father has given to him.

Jews and Gentiles, male and female, old and young, rich and poor, those from every tribe, tongue, and nation, all to fulfill the glorious plan that he had determined before the foundation of the world.

Jesus is the one who will ensure that those that are his will receive the benefits, the blessings, and the eternal reality of this better covenant.

What a glorious thing that is.

Well, we must move on because the mention of the better covenant opens up something huge.

I mentioned it's the new covenant, but we must wait to chapter 8.

Let's look at the second reason why Jesus is a superior high priest.

He's not only superior because his priestly ministry is the result of a promise, but secondly, he is a superior priest because his priestly ministry is permanent.

The earthly priests had an expiration date on their priestly ministry.

They had an expiration date for two reasons.

Reason number one, they had to retire at the age of 50 from their priestly role.

They could serve and assist at 25, they would formally begin at 30, but at 50, they were done.

But there was another reason why they had an expiration date, and that is not all of them necessarily live to 50.

Because they're humans.

Some died.

And isn't it interesting that when you look at the high priest in the nation of Israel, we don't know for sure how many there are.

Men like Josephus give us a number, I think he says 83.

There are others give other numbers.

But from the time of Aaron up to this point, there were many high priests.

And that fact alone should help the people get the point.

And that is, well, this one who's representing us before God, well, we now got a new one.

And then he will go, and then we get a new one.

And they just keep coming.

And this was to show that the system was inferior.

But he goes on to say in verses 23 to 25 that Jesus Christ, his priesthood, it's a permanent one.

This language of permanence is not just seen in these verses, it's been seen throughout the passage.

Go back to verse 16.

He's described as one who has an endless life.

In verse 17 and verse 21, the quotation from Psalm 110 and verse 4 says, You are a priest forever.

And then verse 25, it goes on to say that he always lives.

The point of all of those references is to show that the priest, the great high priest, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, he has a permanent priesthood.

Let's look at the language described here.

Verse 23, also there were many priests, because they were prevented by death from continuing.

That's a very simple way of saying it, isn't it?

There were many of them because there was one great prevention.

They died.

And because they died, they needed to be replaced.

But he, can you see that in verse 24?

But he, because he continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood.

There is a priest that has come as a result of a promise of a different order.

The order of Melchizedek, his priesthood, it endures, it continues, it will not stop, it is unchanging.

And on the basis of his enduring priesthood, a priesthood that will not cease, a priesthood that is marked by permanence.

Verse 25 applies it to us by saying, Therefore.

In other words, on the basis of knowing that our high priest is a permanent high priest, that he has assumed the role, and he is carrying out the role now, and he will not cease to carry out that role.

He is a priest forever.

On the basis of that, he is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through faith in him.

What that text is telling us is that those who come to the realization that they are sinners, those who come to the place where they see that they have rebelled against God and broken his holy law, when they believe and trust in Jesus Christ, because Jesus is the promised and permanent high priest, he is able to save them completely.

That's the idea there.

Completely and totally.

The work of salvation that he brings is not a partial one, it's a complete one.

He gets the job done completely.

And in him is the work of justification, where we are declared right before God.

In him is the work of sanctification, in which we are surely and progressively being conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus, and in him will be glorification, in which we will be released from the presence of sin.

All that possible because the great high priest that we serve, he has a permanent office.

And he, by virtue of him never stopping his work, is able to save us completely.

And he always lives to make intercession.

There is not a moment in which your great high priest isn't praying for you.

How are your prayers?

They cease, don't they?

We start, we stop.

We go for a while, we stop.

We start, we stop, we keep on stopping.

They're not ongoing.

We grow weary in our prayers.

Remember, the disciples grew weary in their prayers.

They they fell asleep.

In the darkest hour in the Garden of Gethsemane.

They were weary and they were weak.

But Jesus, he is such a representative for us that he has a permanent role.

He does not grow weary, he doesn't get tired, he doesn't get annoyed at your weakness, he doesn't get annoyed at your sufferings, he doesn't get annoyed at you, he constantly prays for you.

But his prayer isn't some soothing prayer, it is a prayer for sanctification and for holiness, that you be drawn closer to him and he's jealous for you, he prays for you, and he ever lives to intercede for you so that you make it to glory.

We are completely weak, but our great high priest is strong.

He continues to pray, he ever lives.

But we end finally in verses 26 to 28, and here we have the final reason why our Lord Jesus is a superior great high priest.

Your great high priest is not only promised, not only permanent, but your great high priest is perfect.

Perfect.

This has been a key word throughout the passage because this is actually how the passage begins.

It's how it ends, and it's also what's in the middle.

Again, look at verse 11.

Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood, what need would there be for another priest?

And his implication there is, well, the Levitical priesthood is not perfect.

He says in verse 19, For the law made nothing perfect, but on the other hand, we have something better.

And then in verse 28, he tells us concerning the Son of God, he has been perfected forever.

So here we see the perfect priestly ministry of Jesus Christ.

And let me explain to you his perfection.

We see in verse 26, for such a high priest was fitting for us.

In other words, he was fitted just for us.

He can meet our needs just perfectly.

It's just right.

What he can do is what no other earthly priest could do, what no other philosophy of this world could do, what no other religion of this world could do, what no other experience could do.

What Jesus could do was most fitting for us.

Why?

Well, verse 26 says that he is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and become higher than the heavens.

Now that is a lofty description.

But this is what proves his perfection.

And what I find really interesting about this description in verse 26 is that these things could be said of the priest's sacrifice in the Old Testament.

When he was to make a sacrifice, it was to be a holy sacrifice separated unto God.

It was to be a sacrifice that was innocent or harmless, and it was to be without spot or blemish, it was to be undefiled, it was to be separated from the things of the world, and he would then make that sacrifice.

But even then, it was just a shadow, wasn't it?

And even the man making the sacrifice, he wasn't described by these words perfectly.

But we're told that our great high priest, he both qualifies in and of himself to make the sacrifice perfectly, and he is the perfect sacrifice.

Jesus is holy, separated from sin, pure, without stain.

He is innocent, harmless, undefiled, no impurity in him at all, no stain of sin.

And he has become higher than the heavens.

And what that's telling us is the sacrifice that he made, which was himself, was accepted to God, and he was then elevated on that glorious coronation journey in the ascension to the glory of heaven, was seated at the right hand of the Father, and here we see that he's highly exalted.

Jesus Christ is perfect.

And because this is who he is, because he is our perfect priest, he does not need daily, as those high priests, verse 27, to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people, for he did once for all when he offered himself up.

He didn't need to repeat the sacrifice, it doesn't have to be carried out in another generation.

He did it once, he did it once and for all, and it satisfied the Father.

He accomplished what was planned to be accomplished.

It was effective, it was powerful, it was real.

Verse 28 concludes by saying the law appoints as high priests, men who have weakness.

But the word of the oath which came after the law appoints the Son who has been perfected forever.

Knowing that you and I are weary and weak, why would we look to others that are also weary and weak?

Some of us might be sitting here thinking, I agree with all of that, but my genuine temptation isn't to go back to Judaism and make sacrifices in a temple.

I get that.

I'm pretty confident that's not the overarching temptation in our church.

But let's get the principle.

When it comes to your Christian life, when it comes to what you should do and what you shouldn't do, when it comes to how you order your marriage, when it comes to how you parent, when it comes to how you live privately, when it comes to how you work, when it comes to any part of your life, you fill in that gap.

The question is, what's driving that?

Are you looking to those who are weak like you to give you the shape of how that's done?

Or are you submitting to the lordship of our great high priest who was promised, is permanent, and is perfect?

You see, it's very easy for us to go, how could those Jewish people in that congregation go back to Judaism?

How could they even consider that?

But look, every time you and I are worldly and are not conforming to the lordship of Christ in all of life, you're doing the exact same thing.

You're drawing from the weakness of man to govern your life.

And that is worldliness.

That is a defiance of the sufficiency of Christ.

That is a refusal to submit to your king.

It is a rejection of your great high priest.

It is to ignore the voice of our prophet.

We need to submit to Christ in all things.

But I want to finish by giving you a word of comfort.

I started off by saying that we are weak and weary.

That is one of the hardest realities of the Christian life.

And what are we to do in our moments of weakness and weariness?

We mustn't go to others who are weak and weary to show us what we do.

Instead, we are to go to our great high priest who is behind the curtain.

And there our anchor is held by him.

And as our anchor is held by him behind that curtain, as we find ourselves in that boat that will face storms.

Storms of difficulty, storms of disappointment, storms of despair, storms of departures, storms of all sorts of deceptions, storms that involve hurricanes of disaster in our life.

As we find ourselves in that little boat with the waves crashing against us, remember where your anchor is.

It's behind the curtain, it's held by the Son of God, and He is pulling you to glory even in the midst of the storm.

Look to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And with all my heart, I want us to remember and to embrace the beauty of this passage, and that is what is promised here, is the result of an eternal pact between Father, Son, and Spirit, in which a people were given to the Son, and the Son is securing those people.

Don't live in the shadows.

Hold on to the substance.

Look to Christ because he and he alone is strong.

Let us pray.

Almighty God, I thank you and praise you for what you have most beautifully and stunningly revealed for us as seen in this text.

Help us to submit to the lordship of your dear Son, and help us to see how practical and how beautiful it is to know that He is our perfect high priest.

We need one to represent us, and only He can do it well.

We thank you.

We bring before you our weaknesses, we bring before you our weariness, and help us to see the strong Christ in Jesus' name.

Amen.