Christ the True and Better - Hebrews 5:5-8 - The True and Better High Priest pt.2

Good morning family.

All right, please turn to Romans Hebrews five.

Anyway, let's pray and let's get into Hebrews five.

Father, I want to thank you so much for your goodness and faithfulness.

Thank you for just your kindness as you have provided for us, a high priest who can once for all

intercede and advocate for your people, who can once for all bring in the sacrifice.

And that very high priest is the sacrifice also.

What an amazing, perfect plan, all the intimate details of salvation accomplished in and through Christ.

Lord, we praise you and thank you that he has fulfilled all the obligation as high priest for your glory.

In Jesus name, amen.

So that's one of the things I'm going to that we really need to start paying attention to when we're dealing with the issue of high priest.

There's a lot here.

I'll be honest with you.

I was going through this, I'm like, how do we explain the whole Melchizedek?

Because it seems really confusing.

I think it's one of the reasons why Hebrews is probably one of the least preached on.

That's bad English.

I know.

I'm not an English major.

I'm a preacher.

So books that I think I've watched.

I look for several and the one that pops up the most when I'm listening to others preach on and talk about Hebrews is John Piper.

But what I found is there's these two ideas when it comes to Christ, the high priest.

And to be honest with you, both of them are right.

They're not wrong.

But I think there's something missing.

We're missing something between these two thoughts.

And I think when we take the context of all of the letter to the Hebrews and we really start to dig down and get into the root and the crux of what the writer is saying,

we end up finding something so remarkable that if we don't really pay attention, we could miss it.

And as we go through this message, I think you're going to hear it and see it.

So we're going to start reading through Hebrews chapter five, verse one through four.

I'm going to go right into five and six.

And then we'll start expounding on the rest of the scripture to verse eight, which is I was really hoping, but it's not going to happen.

I wanted to get to ten, but it's not going to.

Anyway, so verse one, 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.

He 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 to him, You are my son.

Today I've begotten you, as he also as he says, also in another place, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Now, that's verse five and six.

I'm going to get into seven and eight in a minute, but I want us to kind of think through this process of what does this high priest thing look like?

Why is it necessary?

So when you're looking at the plan of salvation, in order for salvation to be accomplished, every detail that is required for salvation must be met.

That's the first thing I want us to understand when we're looking at Hebrews, right?

There has to be a message.

If there's a message, there must be a messenger.

If there's a messenger, there must be a prophet, a prophet who brings a message and leads a people.

If there is a prophet who brings a message and leads a people, then there must be someone who can go in on behalf of the people to deal with the sin of the people, which is the high priest.

That is the structure.

So far, what we're seeing is salvation requires these four things so far.

OK, the message, the messenger, the prophet and the priest.

Christ is all of those things.

Now, that being said, all of this is accomplished through the gospel.

Now, principle number one, God appoints the high priest, not men.

God appoints the high priest, not men.

Christ was appointed by the Father once for all, just as men who were chosen and appointed to be high priest for a time.

What I mean by this is every high priest that has been appointed, called by God, have been there for a period of time.

But Christ is forever.

He is a high priest forever.

That's verse six.

You are a priest forever.

No more high priests, not necessary.

And trust me, people will be trying to create priests.

Why?

Because they don't want the priest that was given.

And it's necessary for this particular type of priest to be present.

And I'll show you this in a minute.

So verse five says, so also Christ did not exalt.

This word exalt means dox azo.

The word dox azo means to cause the dignity or worth of a person or a thing to become acknowledged.

In other words, that the exaltation of Christ is not something that he demanded.

It's not something that he had caused.

The Father has to do that.

And so he, Christ, did not cause the dignity or worth of himself to become acknowledged.

God the Father says that.

And if you have any questions about that, do you remember when Jesus got baptized?

He says, this is my son in who I'm well pleased.

Okay?

This adds, this is in addition to understanding, verse five.

And you'll see that in a minute.

Now, if Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, then obviously God the Father had appointed him.

Right?

Now, here's the interesting part.

This word, this term, this phrase, but was appointed by him is not in the original language.

It's implied.

That doesn't mean it's wrong.

Okay?

That's important.

Now, this idea of appointment is seen in verse one.

For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God.

So it is a proper statement and rightly so to be implied, but was appointed by him.

The original kind of sounds like this.

So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made high priest, but who said to him, you are my son, today I've begotten you.

Now, why would God the Father inspire this man to write this statement?

Why would he go from priesthood to sonship?

Here's the idea.

Because only God can be the final forever high priest.

There can only be one.

He had to be the high priest.

And the only way he was going to be the high priest is he, the son, must be the high priest.

There has to be a final high priest.

And I think that's one of the reasons why he's mentioned here.

You are my son, today I've begotten you.

I have made you high priest.

My son is high priest.

Now, what's interesting, because when you understand verse six concerning Melchizedek,

then you understand why the son is high priest.

Okay?

Now, the son, today I've begotten.

So now we know who the high priest is, Christ, we know that.

And we know who appointed or who has chosen and sent the high priest, the Father.

That's why this is here.

The Father has appointed a high priest, not men.

He has set Christ as the final forever high priest for all mankind.

Now, verse six says this.

Who said to him, you are my son, today I've begotten you,

as he says also in another place, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

What's interesting is that's Psalm 104, if I believe correctly.

Psalm 104 is a psalm by David.

And David states this, that this priest will be a forever priest.

And this priest comes from the order of Melchizedek.

And I'm not going to expound on this right now because chapter seven does.

And if I do that, then I might as well not preach chapter seven.

So we're not going to go there.

I'm going to make you sit in and look back and go, okay,

I'm really excited about the next part of this.

So your own way, it's okay.

These two Old Testament verses are used so you will know who has doxadzo,

who caused the dignity or worth of Christ to become acknowledged.

That's why these are here.

In other words, God has appointed the son.

He has begotten the son who has been given all authority.

You are my son today, I've begotten you.

That idea is there, all authority has been given to him.

We will clarify that in John 17.

Okay, so and second that he comes after the order of Melchizedek,

the priest of the most high God.

Okay, that's all I'm giving you on that.

Now this clarifies because this is crucial to understand

because the obligation of a priest is to offer sacrifice for the people.

The salvation is not possible without the high priest offering the sacrifice.

Now what's amazing is Christ is the sacrifice, the offering, and he's the priest.

It's a complete salvation.

I want you to think about that.

Now how in the world can we have any part of that?

It's an amazing thought.

So the high priest, second principle,

the high priest serves the will of the Father, not his own.

The high priest serves the will of the Father, not his own.

Father, this is what it says, saying, Father, if you are willing,

remove this cup from me, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.

That's Luke 22, 42.

The clarification of this is in verse 7.

In the days of flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications

to loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death.

And he was heard because of his reverence.

Now why is this an important thing?

Because here's where the two ideas come from.

One of the ideas concerning Christ is the days of his flesh.

The days meaning all the days of his life.

Jesus went before the Father on behalf of the people and behalf of himself,

and he offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears.

I can see that.

That's not an unreasonable thought that throughout all of Jesus' ministry,

when he would go after he would serve and care for the people

and see the suffering of their sin, after he resurrects Lazarus from the dead,

and he's heartbroken and he's angry at the reality of the condition of sin

upon the human life where Jesus would go and pray.

But I don't think that's what this means.

And the reason why I don't think that's what this means is because it says,

in the days of his flesh, I believe, means before his resurrection.

So in the days before his resurrection, Jesus offered up prayers and supplication

with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death

and was heard because of his reverence.

Now, there's a particular time when all of this stuff happens,

but before we get there, I need to clarify a couple words here.

The first word is the word save, sozo.

So for us, it's to save from punishment, from God's wrath.

It's to save from torment, right?

But this word sozo for Christ is that God the Father doesn't have to save the Son from his wrath.

Jesus is the object of God's wrath for us.

It's really the issue of to save a suffering one, that Christ suffered for you.

And we know that because it states that he became like us in all things

so that he can offer the sacrifice.

He understands our pain and our struggles in chapter four.

He knows what we go through.

And as a result of our sin, we suffer in death.

And so Christ suffering in death.

Death is a suffering.

It's a suffering.

Death is not something that God had intended from the beginning.

It's the consequence of sin.

So it is a suffering.

And so Christ suffered in death.

And God saves him from the suffering of death.

God the Father saves him.

He brings him out of suffering.

How do we know that?

Because it says here, he who is able to save him from death,

how do we know that Jesus was saved from death?

Is he still in the grave?

He's resurrected.

So he's not in death anymore.

He's the life giver.

And so if he is able to save him from death, then here is why he saves him from death.

He was heard because of his reverence.

For who?

For the Father.

And so here we go.

You ready?

This word death means thanatos.

Thanatos means death comprising all the miseries arising from sin.

Second Corinthians 521, turn there.

How do we know that Jesus understands the miseries, all the miseries that comprise from sin?

Second Corinthians 5.

If you will turn there.

Second Corinthians 521 says, for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

So does Christ understand the reality of suffering because of sin?

Absolutely.

He became sin for us.

And yet he did not sin.

That's crazy.

In other words, he became the object of God's wrath.

He became the reason and the focus of God's punishing or judgment upon mankind.

For his people.

And so here's the amazing part.

Turn to John 17.

Turn to John 17.

In John 17, we see something very important.

And we start to understand verse 7.

That in the days before his resurrection, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears.

There's no doubt that Jesus offered up prayers for his people.

And continually.

Chapter 17 is what a high priest would do before he would go in to offer a sacrifice.

He would go before the father, go before God, before Yahweh, and offer prayers and supplications and loud cries and tears.

Do you know who else did that?

Daily?

Job.

Job is a picture of Christ going before the God of all creation.

Offering prayers for his, prayers and supplications for his children.

And so did Jesus.

And chapter 17 is proof of this.

Chapter 17 is the high priestly prayer.

This is the Lord's prayer.

And what most people don't understand is this is the night he's going to be arrested.

This is right before he's going to be arrested as a matter of fact.

Jesus, as he goes out and he walks with his disciples, he looks up and he says in chapter 17, verse 1,

when Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said,

Father, the hour has come.

Glorify your son that the son may glorify you since you have given him authority over all flesh

to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

The father has given Christ all flesh whom he will redeem.

Not man's decision.

God's work.

And this tells you there's a limit to that flesh.

And that's a hard thing.

But the reality is Jesus goes before the father, offers up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears.

And because he says glorify your son that the son may glorify you, God honors and hears that prayer.

And so the high priest has entered the holy place.

Now, if we keep reading verse 3, he says this, and this is eternal life.

I want you to hear this.

Eternal life is not your prayer.

Eternal life is this.

This is eternal life.

This is how you know who is born again and who is not.

Eternal life that they may know you, Father, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

That is eternal life.

Eternal life is Christ.

Eternal life is to know the Father through Christ, to know Yahweh Elohim.

That is eternal life.

It's not heaven.

He is.

It's not your house on a hill.

He is.

It's not the room of your mansion.

He is.

It's not the reward you get.

He is eternal life.

Him.

He is the reward.

He is all you will need and want.

Now, understanding that, go to verse 25.

This clarifies a little bit more.

I encourage you read this prayer because this prayer is for you.

Not only does he pray for his disciples, he also prays for his people for future.

He prays for you here.

Okay?

Verse 25 says this.

Oh, righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.

Who are these?

The world?

No.

His people.

His disciples.

I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known.

Do you know why you know the name of Yahweh?

Why you know the name of the living God?

Why you know the name of the Savior?

Because Christ has brought that name to you.

The Holy Spirit has come into your life and so revealed to you the glory of the name of God.

And your response is to, Lord, you are my God and Savior.

That's it.

He's done that.

Now, let's keep reading, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them.

So when it says that he was heard because of his reverence for the Father, that's for the Father is an italics.

That's my stating that based upon the context here.

That's why the high priest was heard.

A high priest goes before God and offers prayers and supplications for you.

Why?

Because when you read Hebrews 5, Hebrews 5 verse 1, for every high priest is chosen from among men and is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins, then you know.

Hebrews 5:1

And you also know because in verse 2 it says he can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward since he himself is beset with weakness.

He can and is obligated to come before the Father on your behalf and pray for you.

But in order for a priest to be able to pray for you, he has to understand his condition before the Father.

And Jesus understood that.

Yet without sin.

What an amazing thing.

He can fulfill every obligation of the high priest.

Now, here's the interesting part.

You got this beautiful prayer in John 17 and it doesn't end there because every every high priest, this is what it says.

Because of this, verse 3 in Hebrews chapter 5 verse 3, because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifices for his own sins just as he did for those of the people.

Hebrews 5:3

How did Jesus fulfill that?

Turn to Luke 22.

I'm glad you asked.

Glad you asked.

Luke 22.

So understand, chapter 17.

Oh, I can get there.

Chapter 17 is Christ praying on behalf and bringing supplication on behalf of his people.

In Luke 22, Christ prays for himself.

Now watch.

So not only does the priest go on behalf of the people, but he goes on behalf of himself.

And if he who knew no sin became sin for us, he had to go to the Father and beseech him.

And he did.

Isn't that amazing?

There's a reason why it's written here.

There's a reason why that verse is written here.

For us to understand why the high priest must do it.

The complete requirement of the high priest's work is here.

The whole thing.

Now, chapter 17, Jesus is praying.

He's done praying.

And the scripture says in chapter 18 that he goes to the Garden of Gethsemane.

And when he gets to the Garden of Gethsemane, some short time after that, Judas shows up and arrests him.

But what happened, there's a part in John 17 to 18 that's missing.

You know what's missing?

The high priest offering sin for himself.

Offering a sacrifice for himself.

And he offers himself for himself.

That's the amazing part.

And this is here.

Chapter 22, verse 39.

So he just got done praying.

He walked into the Garden of Gethsemane.

He says to his disciples, verse 39, and he came out and went as was his custom to the Mount of Olives.

And the disciples followed him.

And when he came to that place, he said to them, pray that you may not enter into temptation.

Isn't that interesting?

So Judas knew that he was going to be there because this was the custom of what Jesus would do on a regular basis.

And so they go and he's like, please pray that you don't enter into temptation.

I mean, I just got done praying for you.

I prayed that the enemy would not come and kill you and take you.

I prayed that you would be glorified and grow.

And he's used beautiful prayer.

Verse 40.

And when he came to the place, he said to them, pray that you would not enter into temptation.

And he withdrew from them about a stone throw away and knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.

Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.

There he is.

Praying for himself, offering prayers and supplication for himself.

Exactly what a high priest should do.

He understands you.

That's the point.

The point is the high priest is the representative of you.

And if Christ could not represent you and understand you, how would he be able to go in and offer a sacrifice from a person he does not understand?

Remember, he was God.

He is God without sin.

He didn't know.

He's never experienced the reality of death.

But Christ died.

He is hypostatic union, truly man, truly God.

He had to die.

In order to die, you have to understand sin.

You have to understand what sin does to the human to the human life.

Suffering.

Death.

And so he is a perfect high priest.

Now, last principle, because I can't go into verse nine.

Christ is our high priest, our advocate and our sacrifice.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Hebrews 415, there it is.

Exactly what I just said to you.

Isn't the context of God's word so beautiful?

Isn't it wonderful to be able to take scripture and interpret scripture?

God doesn't need us to figure things out a lot of times.

The word does it on its own.

You just got to do the work.

And so for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Hebrews 5 says this, although he was the son, they have a son in ESV.

It's supposed to be the.

The it's this, that or the.

Even though he was a son, he learned.

Manfano Manfano that sounds so Italian.

But it's not.

But it sounds like a fun word.

You guys can Manfano.

Manfano means to be informed or to become accustomed to.

How can the perfect God learn obedience?

How can he be informed or become accustomed to obedience?

Because if he doesn't, then he doesn't understand us.

Because we have to learn to be obedient.

We have to.

He became accustomed to obedience because of the reality of his goodness.

But we.

We have to really learn obedience.

Now, what's interesting about this word, obedience, the scripture says that it's necessary to fulfill the plan of salvation.

Obedience is the necessary thing.

The requirement to fulfill the plan of salvation.

If Jesus did not become accustomed to obedience, salvation is not possible.

He had to leave us an example.

And if he's been tempted in every way as we are, then he knows he knows the battle that we go through to be obedient.

What's amazing is he was always obedient.

But that doesn't mean he didn't understand the struggles that we went through.

He was tempted in every way as we were.

So that's why he said, not my will, but yours be done.

Do you see the difference?

You know, we would say not your will, but my will.

I don't want to die.

And I'm going to do my best not to.

That's how we feel.

Not Christ.

He says, I'll die.

Now, how did he learn obedience through what he suffered?

Through what he suffered.

How many of you guys like to suffer?

Anybody?

You know you don't learn obedience unless you suffer.

When life is good and it's on cruise control, it's easy not to obey.

But when you suffer, you learn obedience real fast.

Because if you don't obey, it's a heck of a lot worse.

You're like, yeah, I'm not all about that.

Christ learned obedience through what he suffered.

Pasco.

Pasco means to be affected or have a sensible experience to undergo.

You see, he was without sin.

But that doesn't mean that he did not have a sensible experience of what sin was like.

That doesn't mean that he wasn't affected by our sin.

That doesn't mean that he didn't undergo the struggle of sin because of us.

Do you remember?

If it would be, take this cup from me.

But at the end, because he's God and he's perfect and he's without sin and he has a sensible experience of sin because of us,

he says, not my will, but yours be done.

I hope you're starting to see why Christ as high priest is necessary.

Why, if you look at the reality of the high priest is the one who offers the sacrifice on behalf of the people,

the high priest is the one who comes in prayers and supplication for his people and for himself

in order that the requirement, the obligations necessary for the offering are accomplished.

And that is not possible without a messenger, a prophet who will come on behalf of God,

speaking to the people concerning God and his will.

And in order for the prophet to speak, he must be a messenger sent by God.

And if he's a messenger, he must have a message.

Do you see the connection here?

That's the point of Hebrews.

The point of Hebrews is not just that Christ is the true and better.

The point of Hebrews is the plan revealed.

The plan of salvation revealed right before your eyes.

So what we're going to learn next week is who is this Melchizedek guy?

Or what is Melchizedek?

And Melchizedek kind of sounds cool.

If I was to have another kid, I think I would call him Melchizedek.

Yeah, I know, I'm talking about if I was younger.

I'm old now.

But that's the sound.

You know, so when you read about Melchizedek, I want you guys to take some time, read verse 9 and 10.

And then I want you to go and read chapter 7.

And I want you to think about who is Melchizedek?

I think the answer I'm going to give you probably going to shock you.

I'm excited about that.

So we'll get to chapter 7 eventually, a couple weeks.

But we're going to finish up on chapter 5, verse 9 and 10, and the rest of the chapter in two weeks

because of the senior Sunday graduation celebration next week.

So all right.

Father, I want to thank you so much for your word.

Thank you for your faithfulness to you.

And I want to thank you for your love and your support and glory forever in Jesus name. Amen.