The Merciful & Faithful High Priest

Hebrews 4:14-16

Since our study in a couple of weeks ago in 1 Cor. 10 and verse 13......1 Corinthians 10:13 “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” ...........I have been thinking a lot about temptations.......

We learn from James that God does not tempt or test us with evil.....

James 1:13 “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:”

We also learned the difference between testing and tempting....James 1:14 “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.”

And then when those lusts and desires come James 1:15 “Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”

So, we can draw from the Truth of the Holy Spirit and James is that there is a testing that God allows but it is never for evil.......Evil only comes when our lusts starts to think about it in that way and then action is brought forth and sin comes, and the wages of sin is death!

Also, in the passage of 1 Cor. 10, we learn that God is faithful.........I want to look at that from a view of the offender....which I am!

Hebrews 2:9-18.......Powerful verses of God’s Word.......The writer is writing to the Hebrews/Christian Jews. The writer is not known, some believe it is Apollos and some believe it is Paul........No matter about that because every word written is inspired by God through His Holy Spirit. This letter is an exposition of some of the books of Psalms, with the Gospel of Jesus Christ revealed in those OT Scriptures.

There is a main point in these writings...........The writer is explaining things, weed-eating, if you will, the unproductive teachings that has been going on from some the Jewish leaders and teachers.

Starts off with angels and their role......In our text, we will read of the work of Jesus Christ....there is so much here and we can discuss this for days......but my goal is to get us to verse 18, to give us confidence, but also help us understand what we are living for!

You see in these verses that the writer, is declaring Jesus Christ as the Messiah.........

To encourage the Jews using OT passages from Psalm and Isaiah…the goal being to reveal to them their Messiah......what does Messiah mean to them and what should it mean to us?

Messiah means deliverer/savior.......We learn in just a few, what the problem is with humanity and what their deliverance is from........

We are truly made up of flesh and blood........a little lower than the angels and so the Deliverer came in flesh and blood to deliver us from death that is brought on by falling away from God the Father!

Jesus came as flesh and blood, to be partakers of this human flesh and to face death, only to conquer it!

Every human on the planet has been subject to this bondage!

In the Person and Work of Jesus Christ, death has been conquered!

Some people that are ignorant to God’s truth, would say that people are still dying, how can the believer be delivered from death?

The answer is simple but unknowable by those living after the flesh.....death is defeated!

The only true death is eternal separation from God!

Sins paid for by Jesus, penalty was paid, that He could only atone for.......separation from God and live........God’s wrath was poured out on Jesus......separation from God which is eternal to the human and Jesus in those moments on the cross experienced every moment of an eternal 2nd death torment!

Matthew 27:46 “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

Then dying and being raised from the dead by the Glory of the Father!!!

For those that believe in Jesus as the Deliverer and the Son of God/God the Son, for those they are truly brought into a newness of life through the Holy Spirit......the ways of the old man are put to death and all things have become new.....

However, as Paul tells us we still live in this “body of death”....but, my life now is lived in the faith of the Son of God Who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

In our walk we go through various testings, some we do good and some not so good!

There is a point in this passage that reveals the reality of what the believer is living for, “the things pertaining to God”!

Yes, the law is completely fulfilled in Christ but that doesn’t make God’s way and essence null and void, it does, however, bring new life to the human, a life unto God rather unto the flesh!

Jesus when He came in the flesh, He put Himself in the flesh to atone for the sins of the people, but also that He can help/aid us in our testing....making Him our Merciful and Faithful High Priest!

A High Priest that allowed His Holiness to be tempted!

“The genuineness of Christ’s humanity is demonstrated by the fact that He was subject to temptation.......Matthew 4 and Luke 4 .........”

“By experiencing temptation, Jesus became fully capable of understanding and sympathizing with His human brethren.”

He felt the full force of testing, though we often yield to testing before we feel its full force, Jesus resisted temptation even when temptation was at its strongest!

He knows every part of temptation and He is able to help us, aid us, come to our rescue!

Those that are His brethren are those that are living unto God and that living is totally opposite from the fallen flesh, so think of what the full force of temptation/testing could be.....

In Matthew 4.....Jesus had fasted 40 days and nights, to the point of great hunger.....and then went into the wilderness to be tried/tested/tempted.......

The very first temptation is dealing with Jesus’ great hunger in the body......weakness, all sorts of things come along with starvation.....

So, the devil tells Jesus to make the stones there bread and end His hunger.

No matter, how innocent things look, we do not do what the devil commands, at least that is what living unto God looks like!

Jesus answers this temptation, by His living unto God.....Matthew 4:4 “But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

I preached last Sunday that Jesus is our source and our only source to God, Jesus knew that God’s way is the only way to true and glorious eternal life!

You can go to Matthew 4 and read where satan incorporated Scripture into his tempting of Jesus, in which, Jesus rightly divided and followed after God’s way rather than the devil’s or our own way!

Jesus is that merciful and faithful High Priest, in that He knows everything about what we are going through.....EVERYTHING!!!!!

Look with me now, over just a page or 2, to Hebrews 4:14-16......

The writer uses the imagery and knowledge that the Hebrews would have of the high priest and them passing through 3 areas of the temple to make atonement for the sins of themselves and the people.......

The outer court, the Holy Place, and then the Holiest of Holies.

Jesus passed through the atmosphere, space, and to God’s abode.

They would have understood this well, having had to bring the right sacrifice to the priest and have them make atonement for their sin, Jesus did that very thing!

Sins are atoned for once for all, as Jesus is with the Father..........Jesus the Son of God!

Humanity and Deity, that is something the high priests could not do..........could not be!!

Let us hold fast what we have confessed....do not waver and lose our confidence in Christ, because it is finished!

We could hold fast, because we have a Merciful and Faithful High Priest.......that can sympathize with us, in the temptations that are set before us!

This is key to the passage, Jesus was in ALL POINTS tempted like we face!

There is no possibility of Jesus not knowing what living unto God in this world is like!

There is no possibility of Him being so Heavenly that He cannot understand our temptations.

He knows and He completed that without sin, not only does He know the feeling but He overcame those temptations!

If you want to overcome temptations what is the answer?????? Who is the answer and Who is the Way?

If you living according to the flesh and not God, you will say that Jesus just don’t know, because you cannot relate to Him, because His life was supremely and successfully lived unto God!

With confidence that our sins are paid for in full, we come boldly to the throne of Grace and find mercy and grace that helps in times of need!

I go back to Hebrews 2:17-18.....

We come boldly to throne and find a Merciful and Faithful High Priest, that John tells us is full of Grace and Truth!

Now, I want to close in the thought of Peter........followed Jesus on earth, physically and spiritually!

Not without falls along the way.......even after Jesus left....there was missteps.

I want to talk about the denial of Christ......Peter had made the perfect, true confession in Matthew 16 that Jesus was the Christ the Son of the Living God........

Peter was true in his faith, but struggling in living it out!

Jesus told him that the devil looks to sift Peter like wheat..........At the last supper, Jesus told Peter that he would deny Him 3 times before the cock crowed.

That very thing he did! Imagine how horrifying that was to Peter?

How do you ever come back? That is what we say. sometimes!!!!

No mention of how Peter resolved that......when Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him more than these 3 times, most believe that was restoration of Peter.............

Peter was where Jesus told them to be, however while they were waiting he went fishing......

But, Peter was where Jesus told him to be.........It wasn’t easy I am sure for Peter to be in the presence of the Son of God, as well, as His Savior. It wouldn’t be easy to stand in front of family after denying them.........

One thing about our Christ, our Savior, The Son of God.........He is that Merciful & Faithful High Priest that we can boldly approach, not in arrogance, but searching for Grace and Mercy and running to our Source, without fear of being turned away!

In things we are looking to overcome, in the breakthroughs we are looking for, I pray we can come to a reality that if it does not pertain to God, there is nothing that can be done, but if our life is lived unto God and that is our desire.......whenever we fall, whenever it gets rough, whenever things seem out of hand, we can run, boldly run to our Merciful & Faithful High Priest for Mercy and Grace that is what our help is!

When Christ is our help, then we are as John tells us in 1 John 5:5 “Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?”