Hebrews: A Journey of Faith: Christ is our Chief Priest!

5Good morning friends, it is good to be in God’s house this morning! Today we are going to be continuing our look at the book of Hebrews. I pray you have found these messages to be worthwhile and have learned some new things or gained some new insights into the book of Hebrews.

Today, we are going to cover chapter 5, then move over to chapter 7, as it deals with the same subject matter.

One thing I am going to change today is the particular version of scripture that I normally use. Typically I will use the NASB…pretty much without exception. This is important to me as translations like the NASB, NIV, ESV are all literal translation…meaning, they stick as close to the original language as possible. The book of Hebrews is often difficult because of this, as the author speaks in a way and makes references to certain things that can be difficult to understand. So, after doing some research on different translations of scripture, I’ve decided to preach this week from the God’s Word translation. Well, that’s not totally accurate…the passages in Hebrews are from God’s Word translation, but the other ones are from the NASB. I wouldn’t recommend God’s word for serious study of God’s word, but it can help us gain a better understanding in certain circumstances. When I wrote this sermon I had a parallel bible open with the NASB on one side and God’s Word on the other, as I wanted to ensure that the ideas were the same....even though the language is different.

PRAY

Before we start in with chapter 5, let’s do a quick recap, so we know what direction the preacher is headed.

In week 1 we looked at Hebrews 1: 1-4: talking about the eternal nature of Christ and His role in creation. Week 2 we turned to Hebrews 3 and 4 and studied the topic of entering into God’s rest. While those seem to be 2 unrelated topics, the preacher weaves Christ into everything he is teaching his audience. In fact, as I said in week 1, the main focus of the book of Hebrews is Christ. His audience were struggling in their belief that Christ was the promised Messiah. Because of this, the preacher really focuses on the fact that Christ was God in human form. Today, as we turn to chapters 5 and 7, we will be looking for the main idea.

Let’s go ahead and set the stage by reading the first ten passages of Hebrews chapter 5, then we will talk a bit about what the Preacher is saying, then we will turn over to Hebrews 7 and read verses 1-10, as these two sets of passages are very much connected in thought.

Hebrews 5:1-10

Every chief priest is chosen from humans to represent them in front of God, that is, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sin. 2 The chief priest can be gentle with people who are ignorant and easily deceived, because he also has weaknesses. 3 Because he has weaknesses, he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins in the same way that he does for the sins of his people. 4 No one takes this honor for himself. Instead, God calls him as he called Aaron.5 So Christ did not take the glory of being a chief priest for himself. Instead, the glory was given to him by God, who said, “You are my Son. Today I have become your Father.” 6 In another place in Scripture, God said, “You are a priest forever, in the way Melchizedek was a priest.” 7 During his life on earth, Jesus prayed to God, who could save him from death. He prayed and pleaded with loud crying and tears, and he was heard because of his devotion to God. 8 Although Jesus was the Son ⌞of God⌟, he learned to be obedient through his sufferings. 9 After he had finished his work, he became the source of eternal salvation for everyone who obeys him. 10 God appointed him chief priest in the way Melchizedek was a priest.

If we had to describe the passages we just read in one sentence , it could be:

God appointed Jesus as our perfect, permanent Chief Priest

Perfect in that Christ is sinless…unlike the previous priests and permanent, because Christ defeated death.

In these passages, the author of Hebrews pulls Psalm 110 and Psalm 2 together, in order to point to Christ. The preacher is arguing that Christ is our new Chief Priest. He starts out in verses 1-3 in describing how God chose or appointed the old Testament high priest. Then, starting in verse 4, the preacher begins describing what it looks like, now that Jesus has assumed the role of Chief Priest. Unlike the old Chief Priests, Christ is perfect. In his description of Christ as our Chief Priest, the preacher points out 3 characteristics:

1. Appointed

2. Obedient

3. Humble

Let’s quickly go over these characteristics of Christ, in the role of Chief Priest.

Appointed

In Ancient Israel there was only 2 offices or roles where God appointed the person in charge…and it was not the king. Not that God did not have instances where He chose a person to be king, because He did…but that was not the norm. The role or position of Chief Priest was chosen by God, as was the role of prophet.

4 No one takes this honor for himself. Instead, God calls him as he called Aaron.5 So Christ did not take the glory of being a chief priest for himself. Instead, the glory was given to him by God, who said, “You are my Son. Today I have become your Father.” 6 In another place in Scripture, God said, “You are a priest forever, in the way Melchizedek was a priest.”

Priesthood: individuals or groups of individuals who were selected to serve as intermediaries between God and His people.

Exodus 29:7–9 (NASB)

“Then you shall take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him. You shall bring his sons and put tunics on them. You shall gird them with sashes, Aaron and his sons, and bind caps on them, and they shall have the priesthood by a perpetual statute. So you shall ordain Aaron and his sons.”

God instituted the role of priest when the Israel left Egypt, and traveled to the promised land.

The chief priest was the main guy in charge of all of the other priests…and was appointed by God. The chief priest was to stand in the gap and offer up sacrifices on behalf of the people of Israel. There was, however, an important caveat, the Chief Priest…all priests had to be from the Levite line…or the line of Aaron. By the time Jesus arrived, the office of Chief Priest had been corrupted beyond repair. In fact, in the New Testament, Judas Iscariot went to the Chief Priest to betray Jesus. The corruption of the Chief Priest was well known; God appointing Jesus to the office of Chief Priest would have been significant....as it was the Chief Priest that represented the people to Yahweh. No longer did Israel have to put up with human weakness corrupting the role of Chief Priest…Jesus was now and forever in that role. There was one major problem though…Jesus was not a Levite. Jesus was from the Royal line of David…not Aaron.

2. Obedient

8 Although Jesus was the Son ⌞of God⌟, he learned to be obedient through his sufferings.

The first couple verses of chapter 5 describe the way in which human chief priest had to constantly offer up sacrifices for their own sins. When a chief priest would die, another would be appointed to take over the role…then he would dies and so on and so forth. As a result, over the past 1000 years, there have been a lot of High Priests. Because of their sin, they, like us, eventually experience death.

Despite not being worthy of death, Jesus was willing to be obedient to the plan of the father, to the point of taking on our sin.

Romans 5:19 (NASB)

“For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.”

I want to draw your attention to verse 8 for a moment:

8 Although Jesus was the Son ⌞of God⌟, he learned to be obedient through his sufferings.

I want to share with you a story from N.T. Wright, regarding this passage.

A man I know inherited a business from his father. It sounds rather a grand sort of thing: the son comes in, fresh from his excellent schooling, to sit in a splendid office next to that of his father, and to take over in due course, ruling the company from above, enjoying the lifestyle of business lunches, golf outings, foreign trips, and all the rest.

It actually wasn’t a bit like that. For a start, it happened at a time of great austerity, when there wasn’t any spare cash for even the occasional lavish lunch, let alone trips and outings. What was more, the father made sure the son learned the business from the ground up. He had to work in the workshops along with hardened mechanics. He had to visit the suppliers to see where the raw materials came from, and find out for himself how hard it was to get them at the right price. He had to go out as a salesman into the suspicious world that wasn’t convinced it wanted the product in the first place. And he had to share the work of the financial department as they spent day after day crunching the complicated numbers that told the story of success or failure. Only when he had thoroughly understood every aspect of how the business worked was he even given an office of his own. And that was only the beginning. Now he would have to learn both how to lead and how to manage a workforce at a time of growing industrial unrest, as well as to represent the business in the wider world of local and national life and politics. He had to learn what it meant to be the son of his father. Nature put him in the frame for this, but a good deal of nurture was needed as well.

Although Jesus was God’s son, he ‘learned the nature of obedience through what he suffered’. One might have thought (the writer seems to be saying) that being God’s son would simply be a matter of sharing God’s rule of the world, living in glory and bliss. Not so. The God who is the father of Jesus is the God who made the world in the first place, and he remains deeply committed to his creation, even though it has become wayward and corrupt. If Jesus is to be his son, he must learn what this creation business is about, what it will take to rescue it from the mess it has got itself into. He must get to know its depths as well as its heights. He must learn what it means to be his father’s obedient son; and that will mean suffering, not because God is a sadist who simply wants to see his dear son having a rough time of it, but because the world which God made and loves is a dark and wicked place and the son must suffer its sorrow and pain in order to rescue it.

Jesus submitted himself to the Father, in order that we might have that permnant Chief Priest.

3. Humble

Philippians 2:8 (NASB)

Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Christ was willing to humble Himself…being obedient…even to the point of a death on a cross. For Christ to fulfill the permanent role of chief priest, he had to experience human weakness and suffering. Unlike humans, who run from such things, Christ humbly handed over His life…no one took it from Him.

7 During his life on earth, Jesus prayed to God, who could save him from death. He prayed and pleaded with loud crying and tears, and he was heard because of his devotion to God.

Verse 7 is a good example of why I’m using a different translation today. Let’s take a look at it in the New American Standard…what I normally use.

Hebrews 5:7 (NASB)

“In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.”

While I think most of us can appreciate the more poetic flow of the the NASB, it can be confusing to many people.

Verse 7 is also often misunderstood, as it seems to paint a picture of a Jesus who was barely holding on…but again, that is not what the author of Hebrews is saying. The preacher is simply pointing to the fact that God himself, chose humility and submission over his divine nature. Jesus is the very picture of the humble, obedient and suffering servant…The preacher is attempting to compare of nature of Christ to that of a human chief priest…most of whom had been corrupted, becoming prideful, unwilling to learn and disobedient. Jesus, who is now our permanent, appointed, obedient and humble chief priest is much greater than any who came before.

The preacher ends chapter 5 by comparing Christ role of Chief Priest to that of a guy named Melchizedek.

10 God appointed him chief priest in the way Melchizedek was a priest.

Have you ever been reading a book, perhaps the Bible and came across something that puzzles you? That happens to me just about every week as I am either working on school or working on church stuff. I read something that puzzles me, or that I can’t explain well. Or, I recognise that the only think I know about the subject is stuff I’ve been told, rather than insights I’ve gained myself. So, when we come across something like that it would behoove us to research the topic or person further. For myself, the first place I go is a bible dictionary or bible atlas or bible encyclopedia, depending on the topic. Then, through reading those I am normally pointed in other directions to find out even more. Next thing you know, I’ve traveled down a mile long rabbit hole of learning and I walk away with a greater understanding or a new perspective on the topic.

That is exactly what the author of Hebrews is doing in Hebrews chapter 7. Back in chapter 5 the author said that Christ is a Chief Priest in the way that Melchizedek was a priest. More than likely his audience would have been confused by this comparison, as Melchizedek is only mentioned 2 times, outside of the book of Hebrews. Another clue that the writer thought his audience would not understand is because he takes the time to explain, in detail what he means when he says that Christ is a priest, just like Melchizedek. So, let’s take a look at the preacher’s explanation of his own idea: Also, it’s important to note that the writer of Hebrews is building to a main idea that he wants us to understand.

Hebrews 7:1–10

Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of the Most High God. He met Abraham and blessed him when Abraham was returning from defeating the kings. 2 Abraham gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything he had captured. In the first place, Melchizedek’s name means king of God’s approval. He is also called king of Salem (which means king of peace). 3 No one knows anything about Melchizedek’s father, mother, or ancestors. No one knows when he was born or when he died. Like the Son of God, Melchizedek continues to be a priest forever. 4 You can see how important Melchizedek was. Abraham gave him a tenth of what he had captured, even though Abraham was the father of the chosen people. 5 Moses’ Teachings say that members of the tribe of Levi who become priests must receive a tenth of everything from the people. The priests collect it from their own people, Abraham’s descendants. 6 Although Melchizedek was not from the tribe of Levi, he received a tenth of everything from Abraham. Then Melchizedek blessed Abraham, who had God’s promises. 7 No one can deny that the more important person blesses the less important person. 8 Priests receive a tenth of everything, but they die. Melchizedek received a tenth of everything, but we are told that he lives. 9 We could even say that when Abraham gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything, Levi was giving a tenth of everything. Levi gave, although later his descendants would receive a tenth of everything. 10 Even though Levi had not yet been born, he was in the body of Abraham when Melchizedek met him.

In a moment we will talk about chapter 7, but first I want to draw your attention to something interesting that is easy to miss.

When the writer take a rather obscure passage from the Old Testament and gives it new meaning is a specific type of reasoning called verbal parallel. This was a well known style of arguing a point for ancient rabbi’s. For example, the Apostle Paul uses this style in

Galatians 3:13–14

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”— in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”

Here in Gal. Paul takes a very obscure passage from the book of Deut.

Deuteronomy 21:22–23

““If a man has committed a sin worthy of death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day (for he who is hanged is accursed of God), so that you do not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance.”

The passage in Deut. is far from a recognised Messianic passage, but Paul uses it, in order to draw a parallel between the Old Testament and Christ. This breaks every known rule of how we’ve been taught to interpret scripture. Today, we have access to the entire cannon of scripture…but back then, all the N.T. writers had to work with was the O.T. We saw this last week in relation to finding “rest” in the Lord and the same is happening this week, in regard to Melchizedek.

Anyway, as I said before, the preacher is taking 2 references from the O.T. in order to teach his audience about the priestly role of Christ. The O.T. references to this mysterious O.T. character are found the Genesis 14 and in Psalm 110. The preacher is tossing a lot of information at the audience, but in fact, he is building an argument, in order to teach 2 main ideas.

God established a greater priestly line before Aaron

For the Israelites, there was only one line from which priests could come…I mentioned this before, the line of Aaron. If someone was not of the tribe of Levi, they could not be a priest. Yet, in the book of Genesis, we see this mysterious character that God says is both a priest and a king…except he is not from the line of Aaron. In fact the preacher points out the story from Genesis, where the great patriarch Abraham actually paid tithes to Melchizedek, thus saying that Abraham was willing to submit to the authority of the king of Salem.

You can see how important Melchizedek was. Abraham gave him a tenth of what he had captured, even though Abraham was the father of the chosen people.

Long before God appointed the Levite tribe to manage the temple and to represent the people of Israel before God…He had established a separate line....a greater line, as Melchizedek was both King and Priest…something that never happened in Israel.

The preacher was arguing that priestly line of Mel. was greater, for a number of reasons:

1. His leadership was universal, not national.

He wasn’t limited to a priesthood in a single country.

2. His leadership was superior, not mediocre.

He is pictured as a superior and respected leader to whom even Abraham gave a tithe.

3. His leadership was based on righteousness, not selfishness.

This king’s name meant “righteousness over Salem (peace).”

4. His leadership was personal, not hereditary.

He didn’t lead because he was born into the right family or had the right genes.

5. His leadership is eternal, not temporary.

He abides as a priest perpetually, just like Christ.

Which brings us to the preachers 2nd main argument, that started in Hebrews chapter 1 and continues up until the end of chapter 7:

2. Christ is the fulfillment of this greater priestly line.

Remember, in Heb. 5 vs 10, the preacher stated:

10 God appointed him chief priest in the way Melchizedek was a priest.

The priestly line of Aaron had been corrupted and was far from perfect. God would need something greater than that if there was to be restoration between the creator and His creation. The preacher says: that something greater is Christ. Christ is from a line of King-Priests…those who held authority on earth and in heaven. Christ…unable to be corrupted, yet was willing to submit Himself to a higher authority while on Earth, able to live a perfect, sinless life, even though He was tempted in every way that is common to man... this is why Christ is our perfect, permanent, chief priest. Unlike the human priests, who were susceptible to death…Christ defeated death, The old covenant priest sacrificed for both himself and his people, but the new covenant priest, being sinless, offered himself on behalf of the people…this is why Christ is the greater priest, from a greater line of priests.

For the Jewish audience reading this letter, we can’t overstate just how new these ideas would have been to them. The goal of the preacher was to strengthen their faith in Christ…their messiah, so they would not waiver; In order to achieve that Goal, the writer focused heavily on things they already knew…the O.T. and the traditions of the Jewish people.

Let’s go ahead and wrap up by taking the ideas presented by the Hebrew author and apply them in a meaningful way. In his book of Hebrews…when talking specifically about chapter 7, verses 1-10 (the ones we read) N.T. Write makes this comment:

Hebrews for Everyone

Discovering more about Melchizedek, and so discovering what the Psalm meant when talking of the Messiah as a priest as well as a king, is a way to increase and deepen our sense of trust and assurance as we lean the full weight of our future hope on Jesus and on him alone. N.T. Wright

Think for a moment about what the author is saying…if the great patriarch Abraham was willing to pay tithes and submit to someone…how much more should we be willing to submit our lives to the one who is greater than we are? How much more should our minds, our words and our actions be submitted to Him.

When Jesus was about to be taken away in order to be tried before Pontius Pilate and ultimately crucified on Golgotha, He cried strong tears and sweat drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane.

It is in this that I submit our takeaway:

In His most intensive moment of prayer, Jesus shows us the purpose of prayer is not to get God to do what we want. It’s to get us in harmony with what He wants. Not our will, but His be done.

Now, here’s the amazing thing. When I get in harmony with what God wants, guess what I find. I find ultimately it’s what I truly wanted all along. Oh, there might be a Cross to endure. There might be blood and pain and suffering for a season. But on the other side of the Cross, there is joy (Hebrews 12:2). Prayer is to get me in harmony with the Father. If you don’t get this lesson down, prayer will always be a mystery to you and a problem for you. And you will ultimately stop praying as a result.

Hebrews 12:2–3

“fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

Abraham willingly submitted to Melchezekek, Christ submitted to the father, and we must submit to Christ. Until we follow the example of Christ and submit, not just our prayers, but our innermost desires and motives we will always be wondering “why.” If you don’t get this lesson down, prayer will always be a mystery to you and a problem for you. And you will ultimately stop praying as a result.“I prayed for that and nothing happened.” “I prayed for the other, but it didn’t work out.” Wait a minute. If you gave the matter to God, God will do what’s best. Prayer is not to get God to do my bidding. Prayer is for me to get in line with Him. Although it’s a struggle, it’s in prayer when I finally find myself getting to the place where I say, “Okay, Father, Your will be done.”Submitting our will to the Father’s is the path to living in freedom that Christ offers.

Let’s Pray!