Hebrews 5 |

Intro

Hey y’all, everyone all right? Cool Cool.

Anyone watch the Queen’s funeral on Monday? That was something, probably wont see anything like that for a long time. Kind of a window to the old world, pre world war world. Very interesting set of events. It was something.

Anyways, question for you.

Have any of you ever tried to call a company for something? This might be for more the adults in the rooms, like customer support? Do y’all even do that? probably wouldn’t even have the need to do that just yet, but just wait, your day is coming.

but let me give you a glimpse of adulthood, and give you some inside information about being adults.

first thing is, pretty much all of us adults, do not have everything figured, we have figured out a lot, but not everything. Your parents do know a lot, but one of the hallmarks of being an adult is faking it, til you make it. For me, I’m 32, i will still call my mom and ask her questions, because I don’t have it figured out. Mom has more than I have figured out, but not everything.

Honestly, we probably google things just as much as you do, if not more.

but if you have googled something, you know that sometimes you still can’t find exactly what you’re looking for. nothing answers your question.

And so, as an adult, you are going to have to call, at some point, customer service. and it will be frustrating.

It frustrating enough if you have to call a company’s customer help line, but if you ever have to call the federal governments help lines, good luck.

I was in the process of renewing my passport. and they have a way to check on line, if it’s been 2 weeks since you mailed, it’ll show you that they’re working on it, great, good thing.

So, I mailed them my application, my old passport, 2 weeks go by, i look to see what my status is, nothing, they don’t have record of it. It also says, check bak in a week. cool, week goes by, check on it, still nothing. at the bottom of the screen it gives you a number to call, great, i’ll call them.

so i call them, you get the machine, a computer voice is like press 1 for passport issues, press 2 if you’re having issues with your passport, press three if you are having problems getting your passport issued, press 4 to scream in to the void. shoulda pressed 4.

anyways, i pressed the one that was passport issues, and I get on the phone with this lady, and explain to her what’s going on, the page said to call this number, here I am,

and she says, would you like for me to look up the status of your passport? Yes! would love that! She then says, unfortunately, we don’t have the ability to look up passports application status. What?? she said you have to do that online.

Makes no senes, didn’t understand it. I had to resubmit my passport application, fortunately, second go round, they figured it out, my passport came last week, but goodness that was frustrating.

Anyways, i’m telling you this story, because, access is a big deal in our lives, we feel we have access to a lot of things, and we do, but, we don’t have access to as many things as we think.

So, I want to talk about this Idea of access tonight, we hear it said all the time, we have access to God, but what does that mean? Thought I had access to find out about my passport, but nope.

Is God that same way? Is God something we have to call a million people to get to, is God someone we have to go to a priest for? Do I have to perform a ritual before I can even approach God?

So we are going to talk about this idea of access and what Christ accomplished. What sort of access do we have?

Context

So tonight we are going to be in Hebrews 4:14-5:10

does anyone need a bible?

While you’re flipping to it, let me give you some context.

So in order to understand some of the stuff in this passage, we need to know what a High Priest is, what a high priest does.

So the High Priest in Old Testament times was the highest ranking priest in Israel, he was the keeper of the law, he was the example, if you wanted to be a good little jewish boy, you modeled your life like the High Priest.

The High Priest was over the other priests, the High Priest really only answered to God in his duties.

We are baptist, and one of the things that makes baptist baptist is autonomy of the local church, we don’t answer to the state convention, or even the national convention. There is no outside entity telling us what we have to do. Like the Methodist church, there is a group over that church, that can tell them what they have to do, their pastor answers to the Methodist board or what ever.

Like in Catholicism, the chain of command goes up to the Pope.

Us, baptist, the buck stops with Randy and the Deacons. The Deacons and Elders eventually are who say we are doing this. We don’t answer to anyone outside of FBC Gray.

Judaism doesn’t work like that, everybody eventually answers to the High Priest.

And the reason for that is, the High Priest is the one who had that authority to make sacrifices and offering for the forgiveness of sins.

He was the guy who had to do that.

They would kill the lamb or goat of bull and only the High Priest could take the blood in to the holy of holies, and actually put the blood on the mercy seat and that alter.

There was no forgiveness with out the shedding of blood.

And he was the only one allowed to access the Holy of Holies, And even the high priest had to be ritually cleansed before he entered or he would die. because that was the actual dwelling place of God. That is where heaven and earth mixed. There was this giant veil, like a big ol curtain that separated the holy of holies from the rest of the temple. Like 8 inches thick.

So the High Priest was the only one who could actually make the sacrifice. He was the only one who could actually stand in the presence of God.

So the high Priest was the head guy in the Judaism. The Highest ranking priest in Judaism.

So with that in mind, lets read this passage together. Hebrews 4:14-5:10

but before we do that, let’s pray for our time int he word tonight.

Hebrews 4:14–5:10 ESV

14 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. 15 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. 16 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. 1 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. 2 He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. 3 Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. 4 And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. 5 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 have begotten you”; 6 as he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” 7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, 10 being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

Okay so, what is going on? First thing we see is that Jesus is a great High Priest. and not only that he is a great High Priest, but that the text says, we have a great High Priest.

Jesus is our great High Priest.

The text says, hold to that, let that be our confession. That Jesus Christ is risen and is our High Priest.

He has made the sacrifice for us, in our place he died and three days later rose again.

And we have a High Priest who knows what is like to be one of us, yet without sin.

Which means Christ came in to the flesh, lived a life just like us, but didn’t sin.

We are weak

So what do we take from this? First thing we need to see is, we are weak. Me, you, your mom, dad, friends, US are weak. We wear out and fail. We are weak.

Where are my gym people at? What does it mean to do something to failure? it implies failure. Even if its something you can do a ton of, you’re going to fail doing it.

So i need some help, don’t do this often but we’re gonna show you what we mean,

Blake, come up here, he knows what is about to happen so I’m not putting him on the spot, i called him and asked him if he would do this.

Blake is probably the most fit one of us, man is always in the gym. So Blake, i want you to do push ups to failure. How far do you get?

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Okay, So i know I set Blake up to fail at this, but instead of pushups, think about your salvation.

Can you save yourself? if you work hard enough, can you actually make atonement for your sins? No?

Just like push ups, you might even work hard enough to do 1000 push ups in a sitting, thats a ton of pushups, but eventually you are going to not be able to push yourself up again. You are going to fail.

It’s like walking a tight rope, you might can balance for a while. you’re going to fall if the tight rope is forever.

We are weak, we cannot save ourselves, we need saving. We cannot work hard enough, do enough good things, be a good enough person. We have a sin problem. We need saving.

That is why we have a great high priest.

We have for ourselves, The Son of God seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us.

Draw Near to the Throne

So what does that mean for us? It means we have access to God. Access that was not there before Christ died and was raised again.

Remember the veil we talked about a second ago, this giant 8 inch think curtain, was torn in two on the day Jesus was crucified.

There was no more need to have a priest go in to the holy of Holies to make sacrifice, Jesus completed the work once and for all. He made a way for us to have this access to God that was not there before.

So what do we do with this?

Look at verse 16 Heb. 4:16

Hebrews 4:16 ESV

16 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.

Come to the throne, draw near to the Throne of God. That is the sort of access we have to God. We have his wisdom, mercy and grace available to us

So who like being woken up in the middle of the night? none of us right

Like let’s say we are at Fuge next year, and in the middle of the night i come in your room and turn all the lights on, and wake you up. Or I just start screaming, waking everyone up.

You’re gonna be kinda mad right? Or if you come in to my room and start screaming, i’m gonna be mad.

But you know who can wake me up in the middle of the night screaming? Price.

Why is that? Cause i’m her dad. She has that sort of access to me. She doesn’t ask for permission, she does it because she has that level of access. And she didn’t earn it, she just has it because she’s my daughter.

That’s the sort of access we have to the throne of God.

Tim Keller, one of my favorite preachers says it this way, who wakes up a king for a glass a water? his child.

As children of the King we have access to the father.

Christ bought that access for us on the cross.

Look at verse 5-6, Heb. 5:5-6

Hebrews 5:5–6 ESV

5 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 have begotten you”; 6 as he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.”

Christ was God before this, but this is when it was made apparent to his followers that Christ was different.

This is saying Christ is the ultimate High Priest, the Great High Priest. The Order of Melchizedek is an order higher than Abraham.

Melchizedek was mentioned one time in Genesis, he was a High Priest greater that Abraham. but that is about all we know of this.

All of that to say, remember Jesus is better. Jesus is greater. Thats the theme of the letter. Christ is greater.

We have this high priest who is greater, who has purchased our salvation through His blood.

Draw near to the throne. When suffering comes, know that christ has been there. Christ knows what it is like to be one of us, He knows what it is like to face temptation, to face grief, to face suffering.

Drawn near to the Throne.

Prayers and actions

So how do we draw close to the throne? A lot of you have asked me, how do I get closer to the Lord? Look at verses 7-8, Heb. 5:7-8

Hebrews 5:7–8 ESV

7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.

Jesus drew close to the throne through prayer and obedience.

This is talking about Christ in the garden, before he is crucified, he knew what was going to be done to him, he knew that he would feel ever single bit of pain, plus would find out what it was like to take on all sin upon himself. Christ still obeyed and willingly went to the cross in your place.

That is what it means for Christ to be the great High Priest.

P2Christ

So what is he point of all of this? Why are we talking about this?

Look at verses 9-10, Heb. 5:9-10

Hebrews 5:9–10 ESV

9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, 10 being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

Christ is he source of our salvation. He is the one who saves us, not ourselves, but us, He is the author and perfecter of our faith.

So what do we take from this? Christ is our high priest, he is the one who makes the sacrifice for us, He is the one who took our place. He is he one who gives us access.

The thing we struggle with is getting this backwards. We get to thinking that we have to work ourselves in to heaven, and that God is really far away and doesn’t really care.

We think being moral is all it means to be a follower of Christ, we think God doesn’t really hear our prayers, when honestly we probably don’t understand what prayer is.

We put ourselves in charge of saving us and answering our own prayers.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Christ invites us to rest in Him. That is what we talked about last week , that we find rest in Christ. This is how you do it, through prayer and obedience, through drawing close to the throne. Through understanding that we aren’t the ones in charge, and we couldn’t do it if we were in charge.

Christ died in your place. no longer do we have to go to a high priest for pardon of sin, but we have the Great High Priest, who is there for us, advocating. We have direct access to the God because of the cross.

Rest in this. Draw close to the throne.

If you are a follower of Christ, rest in the fact that Christ is with you and for you. That you have access to God. That you can come to the throne because you are His child. That he has done the hard work or you. Rest in the finished work of Christ.

if you are not a follower of Christ, know that you can’t do this on your own. That Christ is inviting you in o the kingdom. That Christ offers pardon of sin, and a hope that cannot be killed. Realize that Christ is on your side, wanting you to have relationship with him. That you can have access to the father. There is no need for a middle man, but that Christ offers true salvation. not a moral life, but a christ like life.

IF you have an questions coe talk to me,

come see christ as lord, com see christ as king.