Sermon Tone Analysis

I hope that you have been enjoying our verse-by-verse look at the book of Hebrews.

So far in the book of Hebrews, we saw how Jesus is worthy of our worship in chapter one.

In chapter two we saw the dangers of neglecting salvation, and we saw how Jesus is a Savior who understands our struggles.

In chapter three, we studied the grim possibility of turning our backs on our salvation.

And then last week, in chapter four, we studied three reasons why we should always hold fast to our faith.

We talked about how we have a promised home in Heaven.

We looked at how the Bible is the most amazing book ever written.

And we saw how Jesus is a High Priest that is able to sympathize with us.

I concluded last week by saying that knowing Jesus far outweighs any social price we might have to pay for being a Christian in the twenty-first century.

To see where we are headed next in this great book, I ask you to turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter five, and we will be reading all fourteen verses of the chapter.

Again, Hebrews chapter five.

“For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins: who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.

And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins.

And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.

So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made an high priest; but He that said unto Him, ‘Thou art My Son, today have I begotten Thee.’

As He saith also in another place, ‘Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.’

Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared; though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered; and being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him; called of God an high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.

For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.

For every one that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.

But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”

Let’s pray together.

The title of this morning’s sermon is, “Following the Example of Our Great High Priest.”

You might remember a few weeks ago I said that there would probably be a time in the book of Hebrews that we would spend a good bit of time talking about how Jesus is our high priest.

Well, that is what chapter five is all about!

But the focus of Hebrews chapter five is two-fold.

Not only is the author praising Christ for the character traits that He exhibited, but the author also asserts that we need to exhibit those same traits in our lives.

So that is what we are going to do this morning.

By my count, there are five character traits mentioned about Christ, and we are going to praise Christ that He has perfected all of those traits, and we are going to try to apply these traits to our own lives, and see if we can become more like our Savior.

Sound good?

All right then, let’s get started with our study of God’s word.

Trait #1: Compassion

The first trait of Jesus as our high priest is that He constantly exhibits compassion.

To see what the writer of Hebrews says about compassion, look at verses one through three.

“For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins: who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.

And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins.“

The writer of Hebrews kicks off chapter five by talking about the office of the high priest in the Old Testament.

In verse one, he reminds the readers of what the high priest did.

The high priest was the man that offered up gifts and sacrifices to God on behalf of the people.

And it’s verse two that offers the first trait of the high priest.

Notice what this verse says, “Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way.”

The writer says that the high priest is supposed to have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way.

Now, in this usage, what does it mean for someone to be ignorant?

The word in this context literally means, “One without knowledge.”

Ok, so who are the people that are “out of the way?”

Is this saying that the high priest has compassion on those people who live out in the middle of nowhere?

Have compassion on those people that live out of your way?

Nope.

The phrase in the Greek means, “people who have been deceived.”

The idea here is of people who are struggling in their faith because they have fallen into the devil’s trap.

So, the high priest is supposed to have compassion on these two groups of people.

Group number one is people without knowledge, and group number two are Christians who are trapped in sin.

Does anyone want to guess who the people without knowledge are?

Yes, they are lost people.

You know, we use the word “lost” to describe non-Christians all the time, but we don’t often think about what we’re saying.

We’re not saying that they’re stupid.

We’re not saying that they are infidels.

We’re not saying that they’re the scum of the earth.

We are simply saying that they are lost, just like a hiker in the middle of the woods can get lost, and they need help finding the way.

Aren’t you so glad that Jesus exhibits perfect compassion on these two groups of people?

Jesus doesn’t look at a lost person and say, “You dummy!

What’s the matter with you!” No, He gently and compassionately shows them the way of salvation.

And the same compassion is exhibited to Christians who are trapped in sin.

Whenever we sin against God, which we all do; Jesus does not throw His hands up in the air and say, “We’re through!”

No, He acts just like a good shepherd and He goes and plucks us up from the pit we’ve found ourselves, and He brings us back to the fold.

Our Savior is a Savior that perfectly exhibits the character trait of compassion.

And you know, He has called us to exhibit compassion, as well.

Sometimes, as Christians, it is all too easy to fall into a pattern of judging those people that we know are wrong.

I’m going to use a specific example, because there is one particular sin that many Christians have grabbed their torches and pitchforks against.

And that is the sin of homosexuality.

You know, we’re pretty good about being compassionate to someone that is a liar.

We’re pretty compassionate against someone that has talked bad about us behind our backs.

And we’re even pretty compassionate towards a male and a female that are living together outside of marriage.

And yet, when it comes to homosexuality, we’d rather throw a rock at them as to show them the compassion of Christ.

And frankly, that’s just not right on our parts.

We have become so disgusted with the sin, that we have forgotton that Jesus died for the sinner.

As Christians, it is our duty to tell the truth in love.

Does that mean that we wink at the sin?

No! But what it does mean is that we are willing to help in the fight against the devil, and not in the fight against the devil’s slaves.

Our Savior exhibited perfect compassion, and He has called us to exhibit perfect compassion.

Let’s move on.

Trait #2: Humility

It seems like compassion and humility often go hand in hand, doesn’t it?

Helping with the needs of another person often means sacrificing the needs of yourself.

And you know what, Jesus exhibits humility, too.

Look at what verses four through six say about humility.

“And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.

So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made an high priest; but He that said unto Him, ‘Thou art My Son, today have I begotten Thee.’

As He saith also in another place, ‘Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.’”

Now remember, at this point, the writer is still specifically talking about earthly high priests, while at the same time pointing to Jesus as our heavenly High Priest.

He says that high priests don’t get to just take this honor upon themselves, but they humbly accept the honor given from God.

In the same way, Jesus did not ask for the praise and the glory of the office of high priest.

Instead, He humbly accepted the praise and the glory that comes along with being the Son of God.

Remember the series we did answering the question, “Who is Jesus Christ?”

Every week, we were able to say another statement about Christ, taken straight from the Gospel of Matthew.

We saw how Jesus was the Promised Messiah, the Disciplemaker, the Minister of all Ministers, the Crucified Lord, and the Risen King.

Jesus was and is all of those things, and yet He is still humble.

And yet, this raises the question, “What does it mean to be a humble Christian?”

Well, essentially, humility is not seeking the praise of others, and yet constantly praising those who deserve it.

And there’s two ways that Christians often mess up with this concept of humility.