THE HEART OF CHRIST IS SYMPATHETIC

HEBREWS 4:14-16

We are in this study about the heart of God.

The goal of this study:

1. To experience His presence more richly

2. To see who we are in Christ more truly.

3. To be more obedient to His calls and commands.

4. To restore the proper fear of the Lord in our lives.

I believe that these things are possible if we break down those natural assumptions of who we think He is and see Him for who His Word says He is.

We talked about how the heart in scripture rarely meant physical heart but talking the spiritual heart.

The New Bible Dictionary, Third Edition (Heart)

It was essentially the whole man, with all his attributes, physical, intellectual and psychological, Character, personality, will, mind are modern terms which all reflect something of the meaning of ‘heart’ in its biblical usage.

“Its the motivation center from which decisions are made.”

So, as we are leading up towards Easter, we are specifically looking deeper into the heart of Christ. What motivated Him while He was on this Earth. Why He did the things that He did. Why He said what He said. We can see the heart of Christ through His actions and the way He treated people.

We have talked about these topics

The heart of Christ is Gentle and Lowly. How He is not quick to anger and is one of the most approachable people ever!

We talked about the compassionate heart of Jesus. How we see over and over again how Jesus moves towards sinner and sufferer throughout His ministry. And that hasn’t changed! The compassionate heart of Christ draws near to those we would avoid.

But last week, we talked about how the heart of Christ passionately opposes sin. His heart drives out sin removing any barriers that keep God’s children from coming to Him. How His mission was to remove sin from our lives and allow us into the presence of God. To clear a path to the Father for us.

Last week, at the end of the service, we had a time of confession and repentance of willing sin that we knowingly allow in our lives that hinder us from coming into the presence of God. The challenge was to repent of those things that we do, that we know that we shouldn’t. We talk about letting Jesus bulldoze those barriers.

So, my follow up question is this, how did that go this week?

How did it go repenting of those sins that so easily ensnare you?

Did you see victory? Praise Jesus! Some of you may have been set free from pursuing that sin and have seen the fruit of that repentance in your life. Praise the Lord!

I have had times in my life that this has happened! I have been set free and see that sin wash out of my life. The temptation may still be there but I have found that there is victory in pursuing Christ and letting Him fight those battles for me.

However, I feel like more times than that, I have come to confess and repent, and then I have surprised myself with how quickly I have fallen back into that same sin. Anyone else with me on that one?

Anyone else that happened to you this week? In the moment your were so sure you were turning away. And then bam! Monday hits and you jump right back in where you left off.

This is been a common occurence in my faith walk. Its a very disheartening place to be in. Its a vicious cycle to be in and its a place that makes you feel like quitting and makes you feel all alone. It makes you feel ashamed and makes you feel like there is no one that can understand how you are feeling.

The enemy and that sin want you to feel alone and powerless. It makes me feel very weak. If you know how that feels, I’m sorry. But I hope that today encourages you and give you hope for the future in our battle against sin.

Today, message is entitled,

The heart of Christ is sympathetic.

Hebrews 4:14–16 ESV

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 draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

There is so much in these powerful and mind blowing verses but today we want to lean into and understand verse 15.

We have a high priest in Jesus Christ who is making intercession on our behalf at the right hand of the Father. His sacrifice on the cross and His intercession are what allow verse 16 to be true.

However, in verse 15, we get a glimpse in the heart of Christ. We get a peak into why He does that for you and for me. Why He stands there making intercession with the Father on our behalf.

Because Jesus sympathizes with our weakness.

We have to remember one of the things that make Jesus so incredible and makes Him stand head and shoulders higher that any other little g gods. Nowhere else in any other religion does God come down and dwell with us in the flesh. No other faith makes that claim.

We, who have read God’s Word and studied Christ’s life and the words that He said, know that He claimed to be God in the flesh. And in this aspect, the historically proven Jesus was either a liar, a lunatic, or He really is Lord.

We choose to put our faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And because He is God that dwelled in flesh, He understands what its like to be human.

He understands pain.

He understands suffering.

He understands stress. Exhaustion.

Frustration.

He understands being abandoned.

He understands being betrayed by friends and family.

He knows that is feels like!

He knows what it feels like to be human.

And even now, as He is at the right hand of the Father, He sympathizes with our weakness.

We need to better understand these words to better understand the depth that His sympathy goes for us.

Weakness ἀσθένεια (astheneia). n. fem. sickness, weakness. Refers to a weakness or disability, often due to natural limitations or illness. It means inability to carry or carry on.

That covers a wide range of feelings. It points to the brokenness and weakness that naturally runs in our flesh. We are absolutely limited in our flesh.

We are weak. I know that that makes some of your flinch but this message is about admitting that we are weak and incapable to doing this ourselves. You know what the opposite of that is called, pride.

We are incapable of defeating sin in our lives. We are incapable of having the strength to make it through this life. We have to stop and recognize that without Christ, we have nothing! We are weak humans.

But our great High Priest has sympathy on us.

But this is not some distant, cold pity. This is not some unrelatable sympathy that doesn’t understand what you are feeling.

This is word sympathize means to suffer with. to be affected with the same feeling as another, to sympathize with. to be touched with the feeling of. Its a compound word in Greek literally meaning to “co-suffer”.

Its not a cool and detached pity. It is a depth of felt solidarity such as is echoed in our lives like that as a parent towards a child.

When my kids gets hurt, its not just pity. I feel pain for their pain. When my kid gets bullied, I feel that pain because I was bullied. When my kid get their heart broken, I feel that pain because my heart has been broken. When my kid feels like they can’t do it, I feel that because I’ve been there before.

Jesus looks at our weaknesses the same way! Its not distant pity but co-suffering, co-feeling compassion for exactly how you are feeling because He was once flesh!

He knows that it feels like to be tempted. This passage says that He was tempted in every way yet without sin. I believe He was tempted greater that I have ever been tempted. Because I have never had satan, himself, offer me the entire world after 40 days of fasting in the wilderness.

C.S. Lewis talks about temptation being like a man walking into a strong wind. Once the wind of temptation gets strong enough, the man lays down giving in. Jesus never laid down; He endured all of our temptations and testings without ever giving in. Therefore He knows the strength of temptation better that any of us.

So, when you are being tempted, He understands and feels that with you! You are not alone!

1 Corinthians 6:17 ESV

But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

And Ephesians chapter 2, talks about us being made one with Christ.

We often think about that oneness with Christ in the aspect of what we get from that oneness. The things that Jesus gives us. But we never really think about it from the perspective of the things about us that Jesus shares with us or helps us with. I believe this is how Jesus is able to “co-suffer” with us because we have been made one with Him.

In fact, it is from this sympathetic heart, from this oneness and co-suffering that He is interceding our your behalf to the Father. He is praying for you!

Come one, isn’t Jesus awesome! Isn’t He better than any human! Isn’t He closer than a brother?!

Think about how close that makes Him in your weakness. Think about how no other human can fully understand what it feels like to be in your specific shoes in your specific situation. You try to explain it to a friend but they just don’t get it.

Well, Jesus gets it! He understands fully and He feels it with you!

Do you see just how incredible it is to know this Jesus?!

Have you ever had one of those mornings that you wake up and have a good quiet time but for some reason, you walk away already frustrated by your day? Or a situation you are going to have to face starts coming to mind and you get anxious? Or insecurities arise and you feel weak and unable to be all that you need to be? Or the enemy is already whispering temptations in your ear for the rest of the day?

That was my Friday morning. I walked out and I felt worse than when I started. I was talking to Candace about it and it felt like the Lord was allowing me to put into practice this message in my life. I could have turned and felt sorry for myself or been more frustrated.

But it filled me with hope that my Jesus knew how I was feeling. It was amazing to know that my Jesus was feeling what I was feeling and praying on my behalf to the Father. Its a beautiful place of solidarity with Him. Its a place of hope that this isn’t a surprise to Him that I was feeling that way. He was just hoping that I would turn to Him because of it.

As great as that felt and how encouraging that was for me. I still felt like I missed something. I still felt weak and incapable of facing my day or this situations.

I felt like I was ashamed of my weakness even then like I shouldn’t be feeling this way. It was still a hard day because for the most part, I focused on my plan for the day and what I needed to do to distract me. But I felt so weak and it made me feel ashamed that I was still feeling that way.

Until I was sitting at baseball practice Friday night and the Spirit brought to mind these verses.

2 Corinthians 12:7–10 ESV

So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

See, if I would have shouldered that weight and those feelings my way or business and distraction, I could have boasted that I found a way to defeat them!

I feel like Paul is describing the consistent battle with the enemy that we try to fight with our own strength and willpower. If I would have succeeded in defeating those feelings and temptations on Friday, I would have taken credit in my own strength. Because I hate feeling weak.

Richard Foster says that when we have that mindset, when we have the thought that I have been through things before on my own and survived. I can beat it is a mindset of “will-worship”. Its a worship of your strength, your power, you will-power.

I hate feeling like I can’t handle something or a situation. But the Word is saying to embrace it and even boast about how weak you are! Why? So that others will feel sorry for you?

No! So that HIS POWER can be made perfect IN YOU!

Your weakness is an opportunity for Jesus’ strength and power to be perfected in you and through you!

The problem is thinking that we can take care of it. We have got it covered. I can beat it!

But Jesus is saying, embrace your weakness and love the fact that you can’t do it! But Jesus can! Be content with your weakness and let Jesus make you strong.

Embracing your weakness is very similar to a word called humility.

John 15:5 ESV

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Apart from Him, you can do nothing.

See, the whole point of this study on the heart of Christ is for us to see Him more clearly. He is not pushing you away because of your weakness. Because of your proclivity towards sin. His compassionate heart moves towards you! He does not get angry and close the door to you. He is gentle, slow to anger and the most approachable person in the world. He desires to bulldozer the sin your life that keeps you away from Him.

His heart is for you. He is for you. He is for you.

So, this week, the challenge is to not give up confessing and repenting. Don’t stop fighting because you are weak. Do not turn away from Him because of your weakness.

I challenge you, in those moments of weakness and temptation, remember this verse. He is sympathizing, co-suffering, feeling your pain and feeling. He understands better than anyone what you are feeling. Turn to Him and discuss it with Him. Because He is not judgmental or condemning. But He is compassionate, gentle, approachable.

Do not be ashamed but boast in your weakness to the Lord and see your weakness as an opportunity to see His strength perfected in you.

I believe if you can practice this in your life, you will feel closer to Jesus. I believe you will feel strengthened by His support.

I believe that you will walk in greater strength for the day because its Jesus’ strength being perfected in your weakness.