Jesus as Priest

Intro: someone going on behalf of you that gives you more confidence. We do it quite often when it comes to work related things, or even the prospect of a job. We often have someone else put in a good word for us, advocate for us. Or maybe you have someone intercede into a situation that brings greater confidence that something will get done.

CTS: Draw near to God through Christ

What is a priest?

Simply put, a priest is an intermediary, an intercessor between God and man. Throughout the Bible, particularly the OT, we see the work of the priest in a number of ways, but solidified for the nation of Israel in Exodus. These priests would have qualifications, particularly their lineage. They would come from the line of Aaron, the first High Priest and from the tribe of Levi.

What was the work of the priest? To intercede.

They would offer sacrifices on behalf of God’s people (worship offerings and sin offerings)

They would maintain the holy places of the tabernacle and eventually, the temple.

They would also be tasked to teach and educate God’s people.

So in essence, in order for people to commune with God, it had to be through the agent of the priest. People could and were commanded to pray, but for offering and sacrifices, it had to be done by the priests.

The High Priest, who acted as head of the priesthood, had the special task of interceding on behalf of Israel once at year on the Day of Atonement. It was this day that he brought the sacrifice to the holy of holies which only he could enter.

But one vital thing to remember was that this OT priestly work was never finished. Why? Because first, these priests were men, hence they had sin themselves that they constantly had to offer sacrifices for. Also, these sacrifices did not permanently remove sin.

But all of this changes as we look at Jesus’ priestly work.

Jesus is a better high priest...

I. Because He Became Flesh (Heb 4:14-5:9)

Jesus can sympathize with us, but he can do more than just sympathize, but also deal with what besets us because of His identity as the Son of God made flesh. He can sympathize as a better high priest because of His...

A. Sinless humanity

He was tempted as we are, yet without sin (4:15)

Jesus is the better priest because he knows our struggles and our temptations. He as our great high priest is not someone who is distant and can not sympathize with what we go through. Did you know that Jesus understands what it is to be tempted? There are debates on whether or not Jesus could sin or not. That debate can be useful to an extent, but the overall truth is that Jesus did not sin regardless. But Scripture does say that Jesus was tempted, so we should know that Jesus knows what we go through when the desires of our heart call us to sin.

Jesus faced the prospect of Satan’s temptations in the wilderness. He was tempted to use his power to feed himself, to bow down to Satan, and to call upon angels to deliver him from the top of the temple.

Yet, I often point this out, in the Luke account of this temptation, it is placed after the genealogy of Jesus, rooted all the back to Adam. Where every person on that list failed in their temptation to sin, rooted in the sin of Adam, Jesus does not. He is the greater Adam, the way that humanity was supposed to live.

This sinless priest went on our behalf so that we could boldly approach the throne of grace.

He learned obedience through what he suffered (5:8)

He experienced suffering as to obey God completely through it. Jesus in his humanity learned, but that learning was perfect. The author of Hebrews is pointing out more than just how Jesus was human, but how we perfectly lived as human, culminating in perfect obedience to the cross. Jesus learned, never sinned, and completely obeyed, therefore making him the perfect sacrifice for our sins, for he was sinless.

He prayed with loud cries and tears (5:7)

In every way like us, Jesus prayed through his troubles, his pains. Remember that Jesus went through exactly what we all go through. He was rejected, scorned, and outright killed. Do you think that Jesus doesn’t know how it feels to be rejected by his own family, his friends, and to be abandoned? Do you think that Jesus doesn’t know it feels to lose a friend to death, and most likely, his own father to death?

Jesus cried out to the Father, and he sympathizes with us because he was fully human.

B. Divine character

Without sin because he is God (Heb 7:23-28)

Hebrews 7:23–28 ESV

23 The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, 24 but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. 25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. 26 For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27 He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. 28 For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.

Notice that verse 26. Holy, innocent, unstained, separate from sinners, exalted above the heavens. He was sinless because he is God himself. He is the appointed Son (the 2nd person of the Trinity) that is able to intercede on our behalf. Yes, he was tempted, but he obeyed perfectly because He is also God, unlike us. The priests of old could not come sinless before presence of God, and needed sin sacrifices for their own selves. Not Jesus. Because He is fully God.

b. Passed through the heavens, at the true heavenly sanctuary (Heb 4:14)

Going back to chapter 4, we see that Jesus didn’t go to the physical temple to offer himself, but went to the heavens, the true holy of Holies and offered himself as the perfect sacrifice. Only God could enter into this place. He passed through the heavens because that was his place from whence he came, and came to be with us. He now has ascended to that very place.

Hebrews 4:14 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.

c. He is a priest after the a heavenly order, a priest-king from the order of Melchizedek (5:10)

We could spend a whole sermon at least talking about Melchizedek, but here is the gist of it. MK was a priest in the time of Abraham, but he was also a king. This is before the office of priest was established, a long time before as a matter of fact from Exodus. Abraham approached MK as an intercessor between him and God, and gave him a tenth of what he had as an offering. MK is a mysterious figure according to Hebrews, who has no genealogy, having no father or mother. He resembles the Son of God in this manner.

Jesus’ priestly office derives from this order, not from an order of priest who are sinful and flawed, but rather, of an eternal different kind. He, like MK doesn’t, doesn’t have a line that he comes from, but comes from a king-priest line. This is a divine line that is different, and from which we have our confidence as his people, that Jesus comes as a better and greater high priest.

Hebrews 7:15–17 ESV

15 This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, 16 who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life. 17 For it is witnessed of him, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.”

This makes him able to enact a better covenant, for his priestly work is not derived from the old covenant, but from an eternal God. The power of having an indestructible life guarantees that he will be able to defeat the effects of sin, which is death, for the sinless priest Jesus will overcome it with his sinless human life and overcome it with divine power through His resurrection! Then

He is then the guarantor of a better covenant (7:22) What is that better covenant?

II. Because He Offered His Life (Heb 10:1-18)

The author of Hebrews extensively shows how Jesus is greater in every single thing, particularly in regards to his work as priest. Hebrews 8 is the author’s argument of why the old covenant is obsolete, and why the new covenant takes its place.

Jesus sits at the right hand of God (declaring finality…we’ll get to why in a moment)

Jesus ministers in a better place, the true tent of the Lord in heaven.

Jesus doesn’t have to offer gifts and sacrifices like merely human priests because he is sinless.

Jesus shows how the old covenant given to Moses, the tent and temple, are just shadows and a pattern to a better covenant inaugurated by Christ’s blood, fulfilling what was prophesied in Jeremiah 31:31-34.

The new covenant will transform hearts and remove sin in finality.

But how is this made possible?

A. Old covenant law fails (10:1-7)

The law isn’t evil, it is God’s moral standard, but obeying cannot save. The law merely points to the great need of salvation through God himself, and God has revealed that salvation in full in Jesus Christ, who is the perfect High Priest who intercedes on our behalf by giving of His own self to die.

Bulls and goats blood cannot save. The tabernacle and the temple were not the means of salvation. God is the only means of salvation. These things pointed to the greater truth of the need of transformed stoney hearts into hearts of flesh. That is made possible by Jesus Christ.

B. New covenant grace succeeds (10:8-18)

So then the new covenant is this:

Jesus obeyed the Father’s will when we did not and could not

Jesus offered his own body once for all to cleanse and sanctify us.

This is stated clearly earlier in chapter 9. Hebrews 9:11-14

Hebrews 9:11–14 ESV

11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Jesus offered himself once and with finality.

Jesus finished the work of salvation where Aaron and the Levite priests throughout Israel’s history could not. His was a single sacrifice, unlike the constant sacrifices that had to be made by the priests, because those OT sacrifices did not cleanse in totality.

When Jesus cried on the cross, It is finished, it was then and there that there would never need to be a sacrifice for sins every made again. Jesus’ death is sufficient for our salvation, the forgiveness of our sins, and to make us right with God. We are righteous, made just before God, and adopted as sons and daughters, co-heirs with Christ. All because of the cross of Christ.

No theology is genuinely Christian which does not arise from and focus on the cross. - John Stott

Draw Near to God through Jesus (Heb 10:19-25)

Confidence to enter into the presence of God through Jesus

Confidence to draw near because our hearts, conscience, and bodies are washed clean because of Jesus

Confidence because Jesus is able sympathize with us

Confidence because Jesus intercedes and advocates for us (1 John 1:9, 2:1-6)

Confidence because Jesus is faithful when we are not

Confidence because I am part of Jesus’ body, the church, who stirs me up to love and encourages me until the Day draws near

Application:

With that confidence then, we then act upon it as God’s church:

1. Pray boldly

2. Confess regularly

3. Rest in the finished work of Jesus

4. Carry your burdens of sin and struggle to Christ.

Matthew 11:28–30 ESV

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

5. Be faithful because He is faithful, and trust in His faithfulness when your faith is little

6. Your accuser stands in the face of the Advocate who has died to take away your sin.

7. Gather regularly to worship, stir one another up, encourage one another through this glorious Gospel. (Pray the gospel, sing the gospel, preach the gospel, teach the gospel, serve like Jesus, lift one another up, rebuke, exhort, encourage, discipline, make disciples)