Why Jesus Is Better • Hebrews 4:14-16

Review & Overview

1. Who Wrote the Letter?

COMMENTARY: We don't know who wrote this letter, there is a lot of speculation on who wrote it.

Some say Barnabas, Luke, Apollos but the majority side with Paul, but we don't know who wrote it. But one thing we do know is that in...

2 Peter 1:20–21 NKJV

20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, 21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

COMMENTARY: So whoever wrote this letter was moved by the H.S. ultimately Inspired by God.

COMMENTARY: And I believe this is a good thing, that we do not know who wrote this letter because, this letter is all about magnifying and exalting Jesus.

COMMENTARY: Which brings us to the theme of this letter.

2. The Theme of the Letter

COMMENTARY: The theme of this letter, I would say, is the Exclusivity of Christ and the Dominance of Christ.

COMMENTARY: Jesus is better than everything & is over everything.

COMMENTARY: Jesus is better than the Angels, Moses & Aaron, Sacrifices, Sanctuary, Old Covenant, Rest.

COMMENTARY: This is a letter, a book, of comparison, comparing Jesus to everything and everyone else.

3. The Recipients of the Letter

COMMENTARY: Which is important because during this period of time Christians were experiencing great persecution under Rome.

And if you were a Jew you had even MORE problems.

Because not only did you have to live with Rome's persecution but because you are a Jew who has accepted to follow Jesus you are now ostracized by your friends and family.

COMMENTARY: So there was a tendency to fall back into legalism, to go back to the Old Testament law, the Old Covenant.

There was a temptation and a danger of adding works to the finished work of Jesus Christ - There was a temptation to renounce Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

So this book shows that Jesus is Sufficient.

COMMENTARY: Now here in chapter 4:14 through chapter 16 the writer is comparing Jesus with all the high priests.

And that is the Title of Today’s Message: Why Jesus is Better.

If you are taking notes, here in Vs. 14-16 we get 3 reasons why Jesus is Better:

Jesus Is Better Because Where He Is At Vs. 14

Jesus Is Better Because He Can Sympathize With Us Vs. 15

Jesus Is Better Because What He Has To Offer Vs. 16

1. Jesus Is Better Because Where He Is At Vs. 14

1.1 Jesus’ Location Vs. 14a

Turn to...

Hebrews 8:1–2 NKJV

1 Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.

COMMENTARY: Jesus passed through the 1st, 2nd 3rd heaven and is now seated on the right hand of the throne of Majesty in heaven.

Jesus our Great High Priest is ministering and serving in the Heavenly Tabernacle, not an earthly tabernacle.

Jesus is in heaven alive and reigning on His throne.

ILLUSTRATION: Maybe talk about how grandma thought Jesus is still recuperating from his sacrificial beating.

APPLICATION: Understand that God is alive and well and He is reigning on His throne administering His will in this life.

You can’t say that about any leader of another religious system.

Mohammad, Buda, you name it - When they died, they stayed dead.

When Jesus died He conquered death and rose again on the 3rd day.

In fact, Jesus died because He allowed Himself to die.

John 10:17–18 NKJV

17 “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18 No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”

Luke 24:50–51 NKJV

50 And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. 51 Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven.

And since then Jesus has been reigning on His throne.

COMMENTARY: And because of that we should hold fast our confession, holding fast to the fact that this Great High Priest, Jesus Christ can save us and atone for our sins.

Understand the work of the High Priest in the Old Testament.

This spiritual seniority of the high priest is seen most clearly in certain tasks he undertook within Israel’s life of worship. The clearest example may be seen in the annual observation of the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).

On that day alone, the high priest entered the Holy of Holies and, standing before the “mercy seat,” he sought God’s forgiveness and mercy for the whole nation of Israel (Lv 16:1–9).

It is in that ceremony that Israel’s covenant faith is seen most clearly. Israel’s religion was one of relationship with a holy God, and human evil disrupted that relationship.

While all worship and sacrifices throughout the year were concerned with the continuation of the relationship, the Day of Atonement was the most solemn day of the year in which the attention of all the people focused upon the meaning of their existence.

Life only held meaning if the relationship with God could be maintained; the high priest had the great honor and heavy burden of seeking God’s mercy for all Israel.

APPLICATION: Jesus does this for us better than anyone else because of where he is at...

1.2 Hold Fast Our Confession Vs. 14b

COMMENTARY: You know sometimes we just have to look past all our doubts and hold fast to that confession when we confessed that we were in need of a Savior, Jesus.

COMMENTARY: Remember the context here. The writer is speaking to a Jewish audience who is tempted to go back to the old covenant and deny Jesus as their savior

and he just finished giving this audience here in chapter 4 the example of the Israelites who were redeemed from the bondage of Pharoah, and when they were redeemed they hardened their hearts and rebelled.

come with me to the left...

Hebrews 3:8–9 NKJV

8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness, 9 Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years.

COMMENTARY: So the writer is telling this audience do not be like that generation who hardened their hearts and rebelled drop down to vs. 12.

Hebrews 3:12 NKJV

12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God;

COMMENTARY: So he is telling these Jews because we have a Great High Priest who is better because He is in Heaven in the presence of God & because He is the Son of God, Hold fast your confession.

ILLUSTRATION: In his book, Pastoral Grit: the Strength to Stand and to Stay (Bethany), Craig Brian Larson writes:

"In 1972, NASA launched the exploratory space probe Pioneer 10. According to Leon Jaroff in Time, the satellite's primary mission was to reach Jupiter, photograph the planet and its moons, and beam data to earth about Jupiter's magnetic field, radiation belts, and atmosphere. Scientists regarded this as a bold plan, for at that time no earth satellite had ever gone beyond Mars, and they feared the asteroid belt would destroy the satellite before it could reach its target. 

"But Pioneer 10 accomplished its mission and much, much more. Swinging past the giant planet in November 1973, Jupiter's immense gravity hurled Pioneer 10 at a higher rate of speed toward the edge of the solar system. At one billion miles from the sun, Pioneer 10 passed Saturn. At some two billion miles, it hurtled past Uranus; Neptune at nearly three billion miles; Pluto at almost four billion miles. By 1997, twenty-five years after its launch, Pioneer 10 was more than six billion miles from the sun. 

"And despite that immense distance, Pioneer 10 continued to beam back radio signals to scientists on Earth. 'Perhaps most remarkable,' writes Jaroff, 'those signals emanate from an 8-watt transmitter, which radiates about as much power as a bedroom night light, and takes more than nine hours to reach Earth.' 

"The Little Satellite That Could was not qualified to do what it did. Engineers designed Pioneer 10 with a useful life of just three years. But it kept going and going. By simple longevity, its tiny 8-watt transmitter radio accomplished more than anyone thought possible. 

APPLICATION: "So it is when we offer ourselves to serve the Lord. God can work even through someone with 8-watt abilities. God cannot work, however, through someone who quits." 

Hebrews 12:1 NKJV

1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

COMMENTARY: And then we see here in Vs. 15 this writer gives us another reason why these people should hold fast their confession.

2. Jesus Is Better Because He Can Sympathize With Us Vs. 15

2.1 Jesus’ Ability To Sympathize Vs. 15a

COMMENTARY: You can never tell God, "God, you don't know what I am going through, you can't relate with me, you are up in heaven living in perfection."

You can't say that if you have your faith in the God of the Bible.

COMMENTARY: Jesus is better because He can Sympathize with us.

The question for is: Why can He sympathize with us.

2.2 Why Jesus Can Sympathize w/ Us Vs. 15b

COMMENTARY: Because He was in all points tempted as we are!

Philippians 2:6–7 NKJV

6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.

APPLICATION: God Left His natural habitat, He left His Glory & Power and emptied Himself and took on the form of a slave and He was made in the likeness of men.

So that now He can understand what it feels like to hunger, He understands pain, He understands what it feels like to be forsaken He said God oh God why have you forsaken me,

He knows what it feels like when someone close to you dies John 11:35 says He wept because His friend died.

He knows heartbreak, He went through injustice, and most importantly He suffered just like we do.

COMMENTARY: You guys, Jesus Knows What You Are Going Through.

WHEN TEMPTATION COMES WITHSTAND, BECAUSE GOD UNDERSTANDS

ILLUSTRATION: I have a little girl and her name is hurricane Emma because everywhere she goes it's like a hurricane, she just does what she wants to do.

And I remember when she had turned 2 years old. And when she was 2 she was fussy like never before, she would say she was hungry but didn’t eat anything.

She wants to go there but then doesn't want to go there. She cry's when I leave but then she slapped me when I pick her up.

And one day I was watching her just studying her because I honestly did not know what to do at that point.

But it occured to me, that she is not giving me a hard time, she is having a hard time.

She is having a hard time to communicate with me. And it is my responsibility to humble myself to her level and try to understand what she is trying to communicate.

APPLICATION: This is what our God did for us, He came to our level so that He can Sympathize with us.

COMMENTARY: And you know what makes this even better? Look here at the end of Vs. 15...

2.3 Yet Without Sin Vs. 15c

APPLICATION: I'm assuming that all of us have experienced the fight & struggle to not give into temptation.

The person who fully resists temptation is the person who fully knows the extent of the force of temptation.

Because Jesus was sinless He was able to experience the full power of Temptation. But in...

2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV

21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Hebrews 4:15 NKJV

15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

1 John 3:5 NKJV

5 And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.

COMMENTARY: I don't know about you but We outa boast in How great our God is!

COMMENTARY: Our God is better because where He is at, Our God is better because He can Sympathize with us, and here in Vs. 16 our God is better because what He has to offer.

3. Jesus Is Better Because What He Has To Offer Vs. 16

COMMENTARY: In Our Time of Pain, suffering, grief, lust, any temptation. We can come boldly to His throne of Grace where we can receive Grace & Mercy, unlike the people in the O.T. who couldn't enter in.

1 John 5:13 NKJV

13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

1 John 2:25 NKJV

25 And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life.

Romans 6:23 NKJV

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

COMMENTARY: I like what Jesus tells Paul in...

2 Corinthians 12:9 NKJV

9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

COMMENTARY: I want to close with this, the temptation of these Jews was that they had an urge because of their family and persecution to go back to the old religious structure of the Law.

And I like what this writer did here, he showed them that through this High Priest, Our Lord Jesus Christ gave us the privilege to enter into His throne Room with all boldness to receive Grace and Mercy, where through the Law and the Old Covenant it was impossible.

COMMENTARY: I want us to remember what He did for us. He humbled Himself and came to our level and was crucified and allowed for His body to be broken for us.

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