People, Places, & Priest | Weekend Sunday Service | Josiah Smith

Finish this statement if you know it.

It's not what you know, it's it's who you know.

Now, for good or for bad, there is some truth to that statement that who you know can often get you farther, get you into more rooms, make more connections.

Of course, even from a job perspective, oftentimes uh the hiring happens in the in networking.

That's why networking is such a big deal.

It's not what you know, it's it's who you know.

It's the different kinds of connections and relationships that you have that can oftentimes, again, get you into places that maybe you wouldn't be able to get in otherwise.

Now, the same is true when it comes to our relationship with God.

There's a person that we need to know in order to have access that we otherwise would not have.

And of course, the scriptures are very clear that that person is the person of Jesus Christ, knowing Christ.

And in our text today, knowing him as our great high priest is the very means by which you and I can have access to the throne of grace, as it says in Hebrews 4:16.

Hebrews 4:16

That Jesus is your high priest today, that you have unfettered access to receive mercy and grace in times of need.

And that's the good news of knowing Jesus Christ is that he can get you in places, he can get you into heaven, into the throne room that you could never get in by yourself and on your own.

And that's what we're going to start studying today in Hebrews chapter 4, verses 14 through 16.

Hebrews 4:14–16

I want you to see this with me.

Open your Bibles to Hebrews 4, 14 through 16.

I want you to see that it's Jesus as our great high priest that gets us access, as it says again in verse 16, to draw near to the throne of grace.

I'll start reading in verse 14.

It says, Since 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 or with boldness draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Now we're starting a series, a kind of a long series in the book of Hebrews.

It's going to cover the next six chapters of Hebrews.

Hebrews 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, because that's really the heart of Hebrews.

And the author of Hebrews is talking all about Jesus being our priest.

We're summarizing that if you look on your note sheet or on your bulletin cover with the word mediator.

Now, a mediator is someone who stands between two parties, often that are opposing one another or that at odds that are at odds, and a mediator's responsibility is to bring them together.

Now, of course, Jesus, uh Paul tells us in 1 Timothy chapter 2, verse 5, that there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.

1 Timothy 2:5

Jesus is the mediator that brings heaven and earth together, so to speak.

That's why in the graphic you've got the stars and the constellations that are kind of folding into the earth.

That's what Jesus is doing.

He's bringing heaven and earth together in this role of being a priest.

Now, Jesus' role as a priest is uniquely connected to his role as our mediator, the one that reconciles us through his body, it talks about in the scriptures, to God.

That we can have access to the throne, we can have access to God because of Jesus being our mediator, because of him being our high priest.

And so that's what we're going to study for however long it takes us to get through Hebrews 5 through 10.

We're going to study all things, Jesus being our priest.

But before that, I want to orient us to where we've been so far in Hebrews to kind of give us a running start to where we are today.

Because if you notice in the text, beginning in verse 14, it says, since then.

So it's drawing on something that has already gone before.

And if you were with us, we did a whole study called True Rest, really in chapters three and four of Hebrews that talked all things rest.

We talked about Sabbath rest.

We talked about creation rest.

We talked about the mosaic rest that's built into the Mosaic covenant.

And ultimately, we talked about the spiritual rest that Jesus gives us, salvation in Christ.

There's a future, even eternal rest that we await for, that we'll talk about more this weekend at heavenward.

But chapter three and chapter four of Hebrews was all about rest.

So the question is why this long sort of excursis?

Because pointing back to in verse 14, it's not really pointing back to the immediate verses that came right before it.

It's actually pointing back to something that happened earlier in chapter three.

Uh it's pointing back to Jesus being our high priest.

It's picking up that thought of Jesus is our high priest.

And there's only a few times so far that it's talked about that.

So there's this long excursus of true rest of the Israelites not making it into Canaan.

If you remember that story, and uh the Canaan land of the promised land, Canaan, representing this rest that they did not enter because they lacked faith.

They disobeyed, they grumbled, they complained, their bodies fell in the wilderness, as it says in Numbers 14.

So why all of that before we get into the details, the nitty-gritty of Jesus being our high priest?

Well, the author of Hebrews very masterfully told us the destination that Christ provides, rest with him, rest with him and the Father eternally, uh, which we refer to as heaven, the eternal state, whatever you want to call it, having eternal life with Jesus.

He tells us that's the destination.

That's where we're going.

That's what we have today if we've believed in Christ.

That's where we're headed tomorrow.

That's our hope that we have, the hope of eternal life.

So he says in chapters three and four, this this rest, this encouragement to continue to strive to enter that rest.

That's where we're going.

Now he's gonna kind of go back and say, you know what was required to secure that rest?

Let's talk about it and all of the nitty-gritty details.

That's what he's doing.

So he he goes back to Jesus being our high priest, and now he's gonna spend the bulk of the book talking about how Jesus secured that rest, how Jesus secured our future inheritance, how he secured the promises of heaven, the hope of heaven that we long for and wait for.

And it's all bound up in Jesus being our mediator and Jesus being our great high priest.

Now, up until this point, there's only been three occasions that the author of Hebrews has talked about Jesus being our priest.

If I was going to give you a pop quiz, I'd ask you where those are, and then might might feel sorry if you don't know them.

But Hebrews 1, verse 3 is the first instance.

Hebrews 1:3

So this is uh just an illusion.

Hebrews 1 verse 3 talks about how he is Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God, he's the exact imprint of his nature, he upholds the universe by the word of his power, and after making purification for sin.

Hebrews 1:3

So that's an allusion to Jesus being our high priest.

That's all bound up in what a priest did.

We'll talk more about that in a second.

So that's the first instance.

The most direct first instance is chapter two, verse 17.

This is after Jesus is said to have suffered and he had to suffer, and it was fitting that he suffered.

All of that that we studied in verse 17 of chapter two, it says, Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

So we have an illusion in chapter one, verse three.

We have a direct reference here in chapter two, verse 17, that as a priest he makes propitiation, he satisfies the wrath of God.

And then the last example is chapter three, verse one.

The author of Hebrews says, Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession.

Now remember, an apostle speaks the words of God.

So an apostle is someone that we hear from God.

So Jesus is our apostle.

We hear from God through Jesus, that he is the exact imprint of his nature.

Even in chapter 1, verse 1, long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to us, God spoke to our fathers through the prophets, but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son.

So he's our apostle.

So we are we hear from God through Jesus, but we are also brought to God through Jesus because he's our priest.

And that's what Hebrews chapter 2, verse 17 says.

Hebrews 2:17

He is a merciful and faithful high priest.

And of course, that's what Hebrews chapter 3, verse 1 says.

Hebrews 3:1

Now, those were just breadcrumbs.

The author of Hebrews, again, very masterfully, is kind of leading us along in this very beautiful way, very complex way.

He starts by alluding to it in chapter 1, then he says it more directly in chapter 2.

He reiterates it again in chapter 3, and then he spends two chapters talking about rest.

Remember, he jumps forward.

This is what Jesus secured.

This is what you're hoping for, this is what you're longing for.

You don't want to be like the Israelites that don't enter into Canaan, that miss out on the promised land.

No, you you want to have faith and you want to cling to Jesus.

You want to have the kind of rest that he offers, the salvation that he has secured.

And now he's going back and he's picking up on those loose strands and he's going to tie them all together, beginning here in our text in verse 14, Jesus being a priest.

Let's read it again.

Hebrews 4 14 says, Since then we have a great high priest.

Again, he didn't talk about that for almost two chapters.

He mentions it in verse one of chapter three, and then the rest of chapter three and all of chapter four until now, he hasn't mentioned it.

So he's going back to that theme, that thread of Jesus being a priest.

Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens.

Now I want you to notice a couple things.

It says what Jesus is, he's a priest, and it says where Jesus has gone or where he is, where he is doing his work.

Since then, we have a great high priest, that's his office of priest, that's his responsibility, his role as a priest, who has passed through the heavens.

That's where he is.

Jesus, the Son of God, just in case there was any confusion, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

Now, do you notice the encouragement here?

He says, Because Jesus is our great high priest, because Jesus has passed through the heavens, for those reasons, hold fast.

Now, I don't know about you, but I don't know how often you feel encouraged and motivated to cling to the gospel of Jesus Christ because you're actively thinking about him being your priest.

But that's what the author of Hebrews tells us to do.

Because he's a great high priest and because he has passed through the heavens, we ought to hold fast to our confession of who Jesus is and what he did.

That's a motivator.

So here's the logic.

Because he is these things, because he is our priest, because he has passed through the heavens, we hold fast.

Now, this implies a couple of things.

This implies most obviously that you need Jesus.

Right?

If we're gonna hold fast to our confession about Jesus, then it would imply that you need him, that you need Jesus.

But even more specifically, the author of Hebrews here is telling us that you don't just need Jesus, you need Jesus as your great high priest in a very specific kind of way.

You need Jesus, your great high priest.

This is what's being implied.

In that sense, the author of Hebrews is telling you that you need a priest, you need a mediator, you need someone that can bring you to God because you can't get to him on your own, in your own strength, by your own effort.

It's impossible.

It's an unscalable gap.

You can't bridge the chasm between you and God.

So the author of Hebrews says, you need to, because he's your priest, because he's a pastor of the heavens, cling to him, hold fast to him.

And this is the reality for all of us.

We need Jesus as our priest.

Point number one: recognize your need for a priest.

And not just any priest, but Jesus, the Son of God, the true great high priest.

This is what the author of Hebrews is telling us.

You need him, you need a priest, you need a mediator, you need someone to bring you to God because you can't get to him on your own.

Now, we need to do some groundwork here because we don't live under the Old Testament law.

Of course, there's no operational temple today, there's no sacrifices being made, there's no Levitical priesthood or Iranic priesthood, none of that is happening today.

And so I just say that to mean that these categories sometimes can be foreign to us.

We don't exactly know all that they mean, we don't exactly know all of their significance.

So if we're gonna really understand Hebrews, which the bulk of Hebrews is about Jesus being our priest, we need to know what priests are, we need to know what they did, we need to know why it is significant.

So I want to give you three really briefly key aspects of a priest.

And I'll just tell you this if you can understand these and remember these, this is going to help you incredibly as we continue to study through Hebrews.

If you can understand three key aspects of a priest, the rest of Hebrews will make so much more sense to you because we're gonna start talking about the blood of bulls and goats, we're gonna start talking about old covenants and new covenants, and we're gonna start talking about all kinds of things that won't make any sense unless you understand what a priest is and what they do.

So here's the three key aspects of a priest.

They're very simple.

One, who a priest is, two, what a priest does, and three, where a priest works.

If you can remember those, and we'll unpack them in a second.

But who a priest is, what a priest does, and where a priest works, works, those three things are all going to be unpacked in Hebrews.

They've already been unpacked, actually, in Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy, especially, Leviticus and Deuteronomy, especially, uh, even Exodus, where it talks about the construction of the tabernacle where the priest would work, and then ultimately the temple, the more permanent uh version of the tabernacle.

But nevertheless, three key aspects of a priest.

Remember these who a priest is, what a priest does, where a priest works.

And if you can recall those and rehearse those to yourself, again, you're gonna understand something deeper about Jesus, and you're gonna understand the book of Hebrews as a whole.

That's my promise to you.

If you can remember those things, who a priest is, what a priest does, and where a priest works.

Now let's unpack these.

What do these mean?

Okay, who is a priest?

Well, very simply, a priest is someone who is chosen by God to occupy their role as a priest.

Now we'll talk about what they do in a second.

But a priest is chosen by God.

So when you think of, okay, who a priest is, what a priest does, where a priest works, who a priest is, you should think chosen by God.

A priest is chosen by God.

They do not elect themselves, they do not hold a congregational vote, there is no electoral college.

They are chosen by God to do their office and to complete their role.

This was uh started all the way back in Exodus, Exodus 28, verse 1.

Exodus 28:1

God says, Bring near to you Aaron, your brother, and his sons with him from among the people of Israel to serve me as priests, Aaron and Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, Eliezer and Ithamar.

So from the very beginning, the first priest that we ever see in the Bible, the first priest that ever existed, is chosen by God.

Aaron is chosen by God for this Levitical priesthood.

And even in Hebrews chapter 5, if you've got your Bibles a little bit, you can see it there in verse 1.

Hebrews 5 · chapter mention

It says, 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.

So who a priest is, who are they?

They're chosen by God.

Let's rehearse this.

Who is a priest?

Chosen by God.

They do not elect themselves, they are chosen by God.

Now that'll be significant in a second, but let's talk about what a priest does.

Now, priests do a lot of different things in the Old Testament.

And so we don't have on time that we don't have time to unpack all of that, but I want to give you the high, the high points.

First, and the most obvious is priests offer sacrifices, the the the burnt offerings.

They you can think of it this way, they preside at the altar.

And there's two primary altars in the tabernacle/slash temple.

There's the altar in the outer court, there's the altar in the tent of meeting, right?

We have the golden altar with the horns, we have the bronze altar out in the in the court, right?

And those two altars are where the priests are offering sacrifices, uh predominantly the bronze altar, uh, but then the the golden altar inside the the tent is uh the incense is burning night and day that represents the prayers of the nation of Israel.

Nevertheless, priests offer sacrifices, they preside at the altar.

That's most often what we think of when we think of priests, but they they do more than that, they teach the law of Moses or the scriptures, and they function as a judge to settle disputes.

If you read the book of Leviticus with us, you saw this that there were examples of disputes or there were questions of someone's innocence or their guilt.

And what would happen?

They would take them to the priest, and the priest would make the determination.

They would act as a kind of judge to help settle disputes.

And Moses, of course, does that, Aaron does that, and so on and so forth, with the priest continuing on after Aaron and his sons.

So they function as a judge.

But let's just summarize this, right?

So they offer sacrifices, they teach the law of Moses, they function as a judge.

Priest, just very simply, they represent God to the community and the community to God.

That's what a priest does.

So a priest chosen by God to represent God to the community, in the Old Testament, that's Israel.

They represent God to the community and the community, Israel to God.

They stand, in other words, as mediators between two parties: the community and God.

That's what the job of a priest was.

So a priest they offer sacrifices, they teach the law, they function as a judge, they kind of uphold God's law, they make pronouncements of clean versus unclean, they do all kinds of stuff, but they're seeking to represent God and his holiness to the community, to the people, and the people to God.

They stand as a mediator.

So who is a priest chosen by God?

What does a priest do?

They represent God to the community and the community to God.

Now, where does a priest work?

I've already kind of said it, but they work in the context of the tabernacle in the temple.

Now, they do that in a variety of different ways.

They guard the entrance to the tent of meeting, they they work inside and outside of the tent of meeting.

Uh, when I say the outer court, if you if you can think of it, there was this large courtyard, and then there was a smaller tent.

And the tent is called the the tent of meeting, or it's called the holy place.

And there were two compartments.

The front part was called the holy place, the back part was called the holiest place, or as you perhaps know it, the holy of holies, right?

So that's where they work, that's where they do their work.

And so they work in the the the tabernacle, they work in the temple, which is the permanent version of the tabernacle, and specifically and importantly, the great high priest works inside the holy of holies, the the place that is shut with a curtain, the veil, as it's called in Exodus.

And they can only go there one time a year on the Day of Atonement to sprinkle blood on the mercy seat on behalf of the nation of Israel.

They're seeking forgiveness and atonement for the sins of Israel.

That's what a priest does.

So who a priest is, they're chosen by God.

What a priest does, they represent God to the community, community to God.

And where a priest works, in the holy place, which was representative of God's presence.

God dwells there.

The the cloud, the pillar of cloud that would uh stand over the holy of holies that would represent that that God was there.

And then when the cloud would move, do you know what they would do?

Israel, they would pack up and they would move until it stopped, and then they would set it back up again, and so on and so forth.

So that's where a priest works.

Now, how does all of this connect to Jesus?

Well, let's ask who is Jesus?

Jesus, in our text, is a great high priest who has passed through the heavens.

The scriptures tell us that Jesus is chosen by God to operate in his capacity as our priest.

Even at his baptism, there's a it's said differently in each synoptic gospel, and but in Luke chapter 9, verse 35, it says, And a voice came out of a cloud saying, This is my son, my chosen one.

Luke 9:35

Listen to him.

So Jesus is chosen by God.

Remember, priests don't elect themselves, they're chosen by God.

Who a priest is chosen by God.

Jesus is chosen by God to be our Great high priest.

What does Jesus do?

He offers a sacrifice, a once-for all sacrifice for sin.

This is what's alluded to in Hebrews 1:3, after making purification for sins.

Hebrews 1:3

He makes a once-for-all sacrifice.

Where does he do it?

Where does he work?

Where does this priest, Jesus, who's been chosen by God, who offers a sacrifice, who represents people, community to God and God to the people, where does he offer his sacrifice?

Well, it says in the text, verse 14, he has passed through the heavens.

He enters, if you will, into the holy of holies.

He enters directly into the presence of God to sprinkle his blood, his own blood, on the mercy seat to give us access to God.

And so all of this is how the author of Hebrews kind of connects us back to Jesus being our priest.

He is our great high priest who passed through the heavens.

He has ascended the highest height.

He has gone where no other man could possibly go.

And he goes as a mediator, he goes as our priest.

And therefore it says, hold fast your confession, because you recognize your need for a priest, your need for someone to go on your behalf to God to atone for your sins.

And the book of Hebrews is going to go through pain-stinking links, lengths to tell you that Jesus Himself, His body, His blood, is that once for all sacrifice that Jesus gives so that you can have life in His name.

Therefore, hold fast your confession.

And that's the encouragement.

Now the question is, what's the confession?

Is it some written document?

Is it a creed?

What's the confession that we are holding to in the context of Hebrews chapter four?

Well, Hebrews so far has told us a lot about who Jesus is.

Jesus, even beginning in chapter one, is said to be the son of God.

Remember that in chapter one, where it says, To which of the angels did God ever say, You are my son?

Today I have begotten you.

The implication, of course, is that he did not say that to another to an angel.

He said that of one person, and that was Jesus.

Jesus is the Son of God.

We see in chapter one that Jesus is the King.

He is the King of righteousness.

He does the right thing in the right way at the right time, every single time.

That's who Jesus is.

He is the king.

In fact, he is now sitting at the right hand of the Father until the day where all of his enemies will be made his footstool.

Do you remember that?

Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

That's who Jesus is.

He's the king that rules, he's the king that conquers.

Jesus, even in Hebrews, it tells us his death defeated the one who has the power of death, and he freed us from the fear of death.

That's Hebrews chapter 2, verses 14 and 15.

Hebrews 2:14

Earlier in Hebrews chapter 2, it said, Jesus is the founder of our salvation.

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

He is made perfect through suffering.

And then again in Hebrews chapter 3, verse 1, Jesus is our apostle and high priest.

Hebrews 3:1

This is our confession.

This is what the author of Hebrews is saying.

Hold fast.

Jesus, the Son of God, passed through the heavens as your priest.

He stands in the Holy of Holies on the day of atonement, and he offers himself as a sacrifice, a once-for-all sacrifice that you and I need so that we can have access.

That's why, by the way, upon Jesus' death on the cross, do you know what happens to the veil in the temple?

Do you remember what happens?

It rips in two.

Why is that?

Because Jesus' body is broken and his blood is shed so that you can have access to the throne.

You need a priest, and Jesus is your priest.

Now, as we continue here in verse 15, we start to see the kind of priest that Jesus is.

It might be tempting to think if you look at verse 14 and it says that Jesus has passed through the heavens.

That's intentional language to kind of tell us that Jesus, essentially, to make it basic, is with God.

He's where it's the highest of heights.

It's the greatest of greats.

That's where he is.

He has ascended the holy hill.

Who can ascend the hill of the Lord?

It talks about in the Psalms.

Well, Jesus.

Jesus did.

He ascended that that highest height that no other man could possibly ascend.

So you might think to yourself, if Jesus is there, if he's so far away, in our mind, in our thinking, if he's at the highest height, if he's ascended the greatest height, how could he care or provide help for us?

And the answer here to that objection is verse 15.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness.

Yes, of course, he ascends to the highest height.

Yes, he sits at the right hand of the Father.

Yes, he is currently reigning in heaven.

But he says, Well, you 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.

One of the qualifications for Jesus being the kind of priest that you and I need.

I don't know if you caught it, but in Hebrews chapter 2, it talks about his suffering, it talks about his humanity, and it says in verse 17, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect to share in our humanity, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make repitiation for the sins of the people.

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

Jesus' humanity, his exaltation, his victory over sin and death, and his ascension into the heavens, as it talks about here in Hebrews chapter 4, is what qualifies him to not only be your sacrifice, to not only be your great high priest, but to be the kind of priest that can give you exactly what you need anytime you need it.

Hebrews 4 · chapter mention

And he does it with great care and he does it with great tenderness.

Point number two, appreciate the priestly tenderness of Jesus.

He's not far off, he's not aloof, he's not too blocked away or locked away in his heavenly throne room.

He is available and he knows our weakness.

He has been tempted as we have, yet without sin.

Now, this is the second occurrence in the book of Hebrews, where we are told that because Jesus was a human that endured suffering and endured temptation, he can help us.

If you remember the first instance, and it's Hebrews 2, verse 18.

Hebrews 2:18

It says, For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

So twice now in the book of Hebrews, because Jesus is fully God and fully man, truly God and truly man, because he suffered when he was tempted, because he was weak like we are, he sympathizes with our weakness, but in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin.

I want you to notice, because a lot of times people can really struggle with if Jesus was God, if Jesus was perfect, and if Jesus could not sin, if he could not commit evil, then how is it meaningful for Jesus to experience temptation?

How is it meaningful for him to understand the kind of temptation that we face?

And sometimes we can feel like that's the kind of it's like a cop-out.

Oh, that's Jesus.

Of course, Jesus didn't sin, he's God, right?

It feels a little bit like we have a hard time wrapping our head around that.

But I want you to notice what Jesus sympathizes with.

He doesn't sympathize with our sin.

What does it say there in verse 15?

He sympathizes with our weaknesses, of which he shared.

Jesus knew fully what it was to be a weak human.

Weakness is not inherently sinful.

You understand, weakness could even be just hunger, thirst, emotional distress, pain, suffering.

Jesus understands what it means to be a weak, frail human.

And he sympathizes with us because he understands that sin is not weakness necessarily.

Sin is what happens when we give into our weaknesses, when we give into our frailty, when we give into our appetites, even as we talked about in Proverbs chapter 23, when we're governed by those things.

Proverbs 23 · chapter mention

So his sympathy is grounded in shared human frailty, of what it means to be weak, and the experience of being tempted as a frail human, but of course, not having personally sinned.

By the way, Jesus doesn't need to sin to be someone that can sympathize with our weakness.

Jesus knows what it is to be tempted.

Jesus knows what it is to have weakness, to be frail.

As a human being, I of course, I mean Jesus, it says in Hebrews chapter 2, because he suffered, he is able to help.

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

It says in Hebrews chapter 4, because he shared in our weakness and he sympathizes with that, he was tempted as we are in every way, yet without sin.

Hebrews 4 · chapter mention

And I would just say for the objection of, well, he never could have sinned.

So that what's the temptation?

Was it was it really real?

Was it really meaningful?

Was it all of those different kinds of things?

I want you to think of it this way: only someone who has fully said no to temptation understands the full weight of it.

You get that?

That if I give in to temptation, the only amount of pressure the temptation had to exert against me, so to speak, is enough to get me to fold.

Right?

They didn't have to keep pushing hard if we're gonna personify it.

The temptation didn't have to keep pushing harder because I already gave in.

Only Jesus has uh has truly withstood the full weight of temptation.

We can't even comprehend the weight, the gravity, the depth of temptation that Jesus faced.

We can't comprehend it because you and I, in our flesh, in our frailty, in our weakness, we give in to temptation.

But Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin.

And that's cause for celebration for the author of Hebrews.

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

Now think about this with me.

Jesus, as our great high priest, what kind of priest is he?

He's not just someone that stands from afar.

He's a priest, he's a God that stepped into human frailty, that submitted himself to human suffering so that he could help you, so that he could provide the kind of help, the kind of relation that you need.

That's the kind of priest that we have, one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

And because Jesus never lost the fight to sin, not even for a second, because he never lost the fight to sin, he is able to help those who are currently in it.

Because he had victory over sin, he's able to help those who are currently fighting with sin.

And Christian, what is more comforting than knowing that the one who upholds the universe by the word of his power has set his sights on helping you, has set his sights on providing the kind of help and the mercy and the grace that you need in time of trouble.

And that's what we see there in verse 16.

It says, Let us then, because he's our high priest, because he has passed through the heavens, because he is someone who is able to understand, he tenderly comes near to us when we need.

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.

Now, this verse makes it clear that the throne of grace is always open.

God does not sleep, he does not slumber, God is not asleep at the wheel.

Any time, any need that you have, Hebrews 4.16 says, Go.

Go to the throne of grace, that you will receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

And this is a 24-7 access throne that you've been given not once a year by one person, 24-7 access, because of your great high priest, Jesus, the Son of God.

This made me think of, it's very silly, but this made me think of uh 7-Eleven.

Um 7-Elevens are not as big as they used to be.

It was sort of a cultural moment there for a while.

Um, but the legend is was 7-Eleven.

They were kind of the trailblazers in stores being opened 24 hours a day.

And it if this if the legend is true, I don't know if it is, but the the the story goes that in Austin, Texas, after the University of Texas, there was a football game one Saturday night, and I don't know if they won or they lost, but for whatever reason, everyone at the football game was like, you know what we need now?

7-Eleven.

And so they all apparently went to 7-Eleven, and there were so many people there.

There were so many customers that they literally had no choice but to stay open for 24 hours.

They just made the the decision on the fly because customers just kept coming and they didn't stop.

It was about 3 a.m.

and there was still a line out the door, so they just said, I guess we'll stay open 24 hours.

And then the people, the powers that be were like, Well, I guess we can make some more money here.

Let's stay open for 24 hours.

Thank heaven for 7-Eleven, right?

They they did that on accident.

I mean, it wasn't something they set out to do, and of course, now there's all these other stores, and now we're kind of swinging back, and people were like, Wait, staying open 24 hours isn't maybe the greatest thing.

And so now we're seeing stores go the other way.

But 7-Eleven was the first.

They 24 hours they were like, we want people if they have a need.

Of course, we need all kinds of stuff from 7-Eleven, don't you?

Right?

We have a need, 7-Eleven's your place, go there.

If you want a slushy, go to 7-Eleven, you can get one 24 hours a day.

Unless they close them down, of course.

Uh they they were like, Hey, if we want if we want people to have the opportunity, like anytime, anytime you want, you can come.

And again, they they were kind of backed into, they fell into that reality.

Uh, here's what the Bible says about the throne of grace.

This wasn't something that they just were like, oh, there's a lot of prayers, there's a lot of people coming with a lot of needs.

Maybe we should keep the open sign on for 24 hours.

This is baked into the very design of Jesus being your high priest.

This was the intention all along for you to have access.

Your time of need, my time of need, by the way, as a weak human.

Do you know when it is?

It is always.

Our time of need is always, every day, and the throne of grace is open to provide you the help that you need, exactly when you need it.

And we should have a kind of confidence.

Do you see that in the text?

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace.

Point number three, confidently expect priestly help from Jesus in your time of need.

Go with boldness, go with confidence.

Go knowing that it's going to be open no matter what.

There's no closures, there's no shutdown for cleaning or restocking.

There's none of that.

You have full access to the throne, and you can have a confident expectation that God will provide the help that you need through his son Jesus Christ, because of his role as a priest.

Now, what does he provide?

Verse 16, there's two things specifically.

It says, Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, of course, where Jesus is, that we may receive two things mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

And those two things, mercy and grace, cover every single need, every single hurt, every single time you need something, mercy and grace is enough to cover it.

Now, what is this?

Mercy is most associated with forgiveness, a sense of confessing your sin to God and having a confidence that you will receive the mercy, receiving forgiveness for that sin.

And grace is most often associated, at least in this context, with strength.

I think of what Paul talks about in 2 Timothy chapter 2, he says to Timothy, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

2 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

So we have mercy, forgiveness, and grace, strength.

Now think of it this way: mercy is a debt paid, and it's a burden lifted.

Mercy is 1 John 1 9.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And so we go to the throne with confidence, not with shame, not with a fear of being cast out, with confidence that we will receive the mercy that a sincere, a broken, and contrite heart needs.

That's what the Bible tells us.

Mercy, forgiveness.

It's a it's a debt paid, it's the record of wrongs nailed to the cross, as Paul says in Colossians 2, and it's a burden lifted.

You don't have to carry the weight of that sin, the weight of that guilt.

You can freely receive the mercy that forgives you.

It's a debt paid and a burden lifted.

And grace is the strength supplied, it's endurance gifted.

And so for every season, for every circumstance, for every need, wherever you find yourself in, the author of Hebrews says, go to the throne and be confident that you will receive mercy, forgiveness for our sins, the sin that can so easily entangle us, and find grace to help in time of need.

I don't know about you, but mercy and grace are things that I need every single day.

And the throne of grace, the author of Hebrews says, is open to dispense it because of Jesus being our great high priest, the mediator that stands between heaven and earth.

There's one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus.

And he gives us mercy, he gives us grace.

This reminds me of some of the lyrics from one of my favorite hymns, Great Is Thy Faithfulness.

It says, Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth.

That's mercy.

It's a debt paid, it's a burden lifted.

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth.

Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide.

Strength for today.

That's grace.

And bright hope for tomorrow.

Blessings all mine with 10,000 beside.

Do you hear that lyric?

Blessings all mine with 10,000 beside.

That's that's a that's a confident declaration of a theological reality that if I go to the throne of grace, strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow is what I will find.

And blessings are all mine with 10,000 beside.

Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places is yours in Christ Jesus.

It even says that I think of Psalm 34, verses 8 and 9, O taste and see that the Lord is good.

Psalms 34:8

Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

Blessed is the man who goes to the throne of grace to receive mercy and grace.

It goes on and says, O fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack.

We have everything that we need, the mercy that we need, the grace that we need, because Jesus is our mediator.

He is our high priest.

And here's the promise again of Hebrews 4:16.

Hebrews 4:16

When you need help, and friends, you will.

You do.

You need help.

Go to the throne, ask, and Jesus will give it.

Because he's a great high priest who is passed through the heavens.

And the only response that we should have is to go boldly to the throne, to know that his grace never dries up, his mercy never ends, it's new every morning.

And he invites you to come, go to the throne of grace and find the help, the mercy that you need in time of need.

That's the promise of our great high priest.

That's the confession that we hold on to.

Let me pray for us.

God, thank you for your word.

Thank you for the truth that Jesus is our great high priest.

As we'll continue to study and really the bulk of the book of Hebrews, God, I pray that we would rightly understand who Jesus is as our priest, what Jesus did, the work that he accomplished, and where he did it.

God, I pray that we would have just a right theological framework to find comfort in the reality that through his sacrifice, through his atonement, we can have access.

We do, if we stand in Christ, we do have access to the throne.

So, God, I pray that we would come and that we would find mercy and grace in time of need.

There is many needs represented in this room.

I pray that they would have a great boldness to come to you and ask for the help that they need.

And know that the kind of high priest that Jesus is is that he knows exactly what they need and he's excited to give it.

So, God, I pray that we would have great just confidence in you and a great deep abiding love for you.

I pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, thank you so much for joining us today.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and our great high priest be with you.

You are dismissed.