You’ll Never Walk Alone

Back in 1966, a man by the name of Jerry Lewis started a telethon fundraiser for kids.

Specifically for kids that suffer from Muscular Dystrophy.

Muscular Dystrophy is a type of genetic disorder - you are born with it.

Over time it weakens the muscles in your body until you can’t move.

You can end up having trouble breathing and eventually it could kill you.

And it appears you see it mostly in children.

Jerry’s fundraiser would always have a Muscular Dystrophy “Poster Child.”

And they would roll out all kinds of parents and kids that would really tug at your heart.

The fundraiser was held on Labor Day weekend.

It lasted 21 1/2 hours.

It had all kinds of celebrities performing, it was really as 21 1/2 hour variety show

And over the course of the 45 years it was on, it raised over 2.5 billion dollars for MDA research.

At the end of every one of Jerry’s telethons, Jerry would sing a song.

He wasn’t that good of a singer, but really that’s what made it work.

He sang a Rodger’s and Hammerstein show tune, “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”

You might remember how it starts:

“When you walk, through a storm, hold your head up high, and don’t be afraid of the dark…”

Remember that - and Jerry would sing it and at least the poster child would be on stage.

And the message was pretty clear - we stand with you.

I stand with you.

You’ll never walk alone.

Physically, Jerry Lewis ran out of gas after 2010.

No more Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethons.

And on August 20, 2017, Jerry Lewis passed away.

For 45 years, Jerry walked with those kids.

But, as with anyone or anything that promises they will stand with you forever.

They don’t.

Because they can’t.

Only Jesus stands with us forever.

Our text today is Hebrews 5:1-10.

While you look that up, kids listen to me for just one second.

Your job right now is to grow up in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

If you are going to do that, you’ve got to pay attention to what’s happening around you

And then think about those things.

As much as your mom and dad love you, you have to remind yourself that Jesus loves you even more.

As much as those around you that love you will help you, you have to remind yourself that Jesus helps you even more.

And when you feel the loneliest you have ever felt ever, you have to remind yourself that Jesus is still with you.

Truly, honest to goodnessly, you’ll never walk alone if you follow Jesus.

You’ll always end up at the right place and you’ll always be amazed.

The three words you are listening for are: Jesus, God and Priest.

Now, if everyone has their Bibles open, please follow along as I read

Hear now the Word of the Lord: Hebrews 5:1-10

Hebrews 5:1–10 ESV

For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”; as he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Pray with me.

In Jesus’ name, amen.

We are studying the doctrine of Jesus

That sounds awful, doesn’t it?

Doctrine.

When we think of that I think that as a class where someone drones on with fact after fact.

We take notes, we’re expected to be able to regurgitate what we hear at test time.

And then we’ll be smart.

But I’m hoping with all of my heart that this doctrine study hasn’t been like that for you

Because the purpose of this study - this book of Hebrews - is to give rest to anyone who ever had

Or who ever will have doubts about God, themselves, their own salvation.

Doubts about our own worth.

Because Jesus answers that for us.

The writer ends chapter four by telling us Hebrews 4:16

Hebrews 4:16 ESV

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.

What an antidote for doubt!

We can draw close to God with confidence to find the mercy and grace we crave.

But then he goes on to say this, Hebrews 5:1 “For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.”

Jesus is our perfect High Priest.

Do ya’ll remember us talking about what a High Priest does?

He’s the one who represents us before God.

Not simply as a defense lawyer defending against Satan’s accusations of us before the Father,

But as our brother.

He’s not a stranger.

He knows us and He stands up for us.

So what makes Jesus the perfect High Priest?

He is chosen

I suspect that is where the series name comes from.

“For every high priest chosen from among men…”

All of this looks back to what we studied in Exodus and in other parts of the law.

Not just anyone could be a High Priest.

God had rules - Aaron - Moses brother was the first high priest.

From then on, every high priest had to be a descendant of Aaron.

But being a descendant wasn’t enough.

Somehow, God had to indicate that this person was ‘chosen’ to be the high priest.

It made him special, he was picked out by God Himself.

Jesus was chosen by God.

He is appointed

Hebrews 5:1 “For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed…”

When you appoint someone, you give them your authority to do a specific task.

The president choses certain people and then he appoints them to do a specific task for him.

Jesus was chosen by the Father and then He was appointed - he was given a specific task

He acts on behalf of men in relation to God

I believe every one of us should be able to recognize our sinfulness without much thinking.

In fact, if it takes someone time to admit their sinfulness, I’m a bit afraid for them.

As much as we’ve learned about the Lord and what He requires.

It shouldn’t take much.

Those of you who are reading through the New Testament with us in 2025

You’ve read the sermon on the mount from Matthew and part of it from Luke now.

If you listened closely as you read, Jesus hurt your feelings.

It’s hard for us to listen - so sometimes we don’t want to listen

There’s an old hymn - Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed - you might remember it.

Alas, and did my Savior bleed and did my Sovereign die

Would he devote that sacred head for sinners such as I…

But that wasn’t the original last phrase.

Isaac Watts actually wrote, “for such a worm as I.”

We sanitized it - because it hurts to admit just how far we are from what God created us to be.

But we are a long way off

And that’s why the Father chose Jesus and appointed Jesus to act on our behalf in relation to God.

Priests offer gifts of gratitude

That’s what your tithes and offerings are really - gifts of gratitude to God.

Yeah, they pay me and the staff and we are incredibly grateful.

They pay the almost $100,000 per year electric bill

And they keep the grass cut

But I hope we aren’t giving just for those reasons.

I pray we are giving because we are grateful

And we know that the Lord is pleased when His people are grateful.

Priests offered gifts of gratitude to show the Lord the people were grateful.

Priest offer sacrifices for sin.

Again, back to the Old Testament, there can be no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood

For the life is in the blood

That’s why we say Jesus poured out His life

He poured out His blood

He made the perfect, last time, once and for all sacrifice that made peace between us and the Father

And put us on the path to having the glory He planned for us from the beginning of the world.

He gets us

I’ve seen those commercials and I’m not sold on them - they are kind of squishy

But listen to verse 2 Hebrews 5:2 “He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness.”

I know no one in here wants to be called ignorant so I won’t say that

I’ll simply say, why don’t you look at your life and see if you’ve ever done anything sinful that you didn’t know was sinful until you got into it.

We have brothers and sisters here who once were managers, waiters and performers in honky tonk bars.

They did everything you’d expect of someone who made their lives at those places.

We have brothers and sisters who have been users

And did all of the things users do to keep their habit going.

We have brothers and sisters who have been promiscuous

Low class style and high class style

But guilty all the same.

Some have been caught for crimes - remember the word transgression means we sinned in a way that hurts other people.

We’ve disrespected our parents

We’ve ignored the Lord

And we did all of that ignorantly - we did it before we were saved or maybe even after we were saved but we didn’t know better.

Or maybe we knew better but let ourselves be tempted into sin

We were wayward

We wanted to do the right thing, but just couldn’t keep our eye on the ball.

We’ve all done that too.

Jesus deals gently with all of us.

There are two ways you can tell me I’m wrong and I’ll react differently to each.

Just flat out call me out like you are a genius and I am an idiot.

I don’t take that well - neither do you.

Our you can tell me gently.

Chances are much better I’ll repent if you approach me that way.

I suspect this is universal or the writer to the Hebrews would not have been inspired to put it on paper.

Jesus deals with us gently.

But did you hear the second part of verse 2? Hebrews 5:2 “He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness.”

Was Jesus beset with weakness?

In a sense - He was a flesh and blood human.

Suffered heat and cold like us.

Hunger and full

Tempted in every way.

I cannot make the point strongly enough or often enough.

Jesus knew for Himself exactly how powerful temptation is to us.

Well, didn’t He know everything because He was God?

Certainly, but now He’s experienced it.

Our temptation was no longer theoretical

Now they were experiential.

He knew hunger and thirst and desire and need

And He understood how badly we can want the wrong things when we are hungry or angry or lonely or tired.

So the next time you are beating yourself up for some ignorant or wayward thing you have done

Ask yourself this question?

Who is doing the beating?

A friend of mine used to say when I was mully-grubbing about something I’d done, “Sounds like condemnation - can’t be Jesus.”

Because the scripture says in Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Because you know why?

Jesus deals with us gently.

He is humble

Hebrews 5:5 “So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”;”

You may remember that we talked about Psalm 2:7 that the writer quotes here.

We said that it doesn’t mean that “This day I’m making you my son.”

Rather, it says, “Today I’ve made you High Priest and King.”

And that day was the day Jesus bodily ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.

He rested.

He finished His work of making the way for us to be rescued and He sat down until the day He returns.

How does this work out in real life?

When I worked at Bellsouth and AT&T, my job required me to work with a lot of high level folks.

Many of them were narcissists, they would tell you how great they were and if you didn’t agree

Well, you’d better agree.

But there was one - He was the original president of BellSouth.

I had the good fortune of spending about a 1/2 hour walking down a street in New Orleans with him.

He was a humble man.

He had prestige because the prestige was bestowed on him.

He did not exalt himself

And, by the way, he was a Christ follower.

And he was a great man to work for because he had the attitude of Jesus.

He was humble and gentle, yet powerful all at the same time.

If I’m hurting, I want someone who is humble and gentle, don’t you?

Remember Jesus saying this?

Matthew 11:29 NLT

Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Do you think He’s trying to tell us something?

Do you think that all of these years of struggling to do everything right,

Of feeling guilty because you didn’t read your Bible every day

Or pray enough

Or sometimes think about praying after everything is over.

How many times have you felt guilty about something

Or realized years later that you should have felt guilty.

All of this time, trying to DO the right things for God

When all of the time God is saying, nothing you can do will fix this.

It is broken beyond your ability.

So I’ve sent Jesus and He is perfect for what you need.

He can fix it - follow Him!

Hebrews 5:9 “And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,”

I haven’t done this yet today, so now’s the time.

The root word for obey is hear - the word means to hear something and then do it.

What have you heard?

Matthew 16:24 ESV

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Deny yourself the sin - of course.

Deny yourself your selfish ambitions - of course.

But also deny yourself the guilt, the heartache, the pain, the loneliness.

Because, how can you be those things if you are following someone who will wipe every tear from your eyes?

He doesn’t want those things for you - He wants you to enjoy Him.

Follow Jesus.

That’s the only thing you can do that makes sense.

Let us pray.

Communion

So Daniel Moody approached me a few weeks back.

He told me he had been saved and was baptized

But with his life like it was then, he didn’t want a lot of people to know what he was doing.

So he had a pastor friend baptise him privately with just a couple of friends.

Lately though it started to trouble him.

Scripture like Matthew 10:32–33 rang in his ears.

“So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.”

He told me he thought he needed to be baptized again so the world would know.

I didn’t agree because he was baptized on the right side of his salvation - after he professed his faith in Jesus

But I knew God was troubling him to do something.

So I talked with the Elders and we all agreed that Daniel should give his testimony.

He’s not the only one who feels this way and he’s not the only one who has had his problems.

So Daniel is here to acknowledge his faith before us.

Daniel

Daniel gives brief testimony

Daniel shared with me and asked I share with you.

He endured an abusive relationship and pretty much kept it to himself.

Everyone thinks the guy has to be the abuser but that’s not true.

If any of you guys can relate to Daniel’s experience, you might want to grab him.

He’s open to starting a group to help men with the same kind of experiences.

Now, what does this have to do with the Lord’s Supper.

What’s on the table?

The bread and the juice.

Representing the sacrifice that our High Priest made for us.

All of us, come to this table,

In whatever situation, even situation’s like Daniel’s.

We all come to this table to be reminded.

The apostle Paul said:

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 ESV

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

3. Daniel just proclaimed Jesus’ death and resurrection to us.

Jesus made Daniel brand new

And one day, He’ll come and take Daniel and all of us who obey Jesus home

Our perfect High Priest Forever.

We are remembering that as we eat the Lord’s Supper today.

Let us pray:

Thank you Jesus for the blood applied

Thank you Jesus, it has washed me white

Thank you Jesus, you have saved our lives

Brought us from the darkness into glorious light.

Glory to Your Name

Glory to Your Name

There to my heart was the blood applied

Glory to Your Name.

Thank you Jesus that through your death and resurrection you made Daniel, and me and all who obey you brothers and sisters.

Help us to make Your Name known until the day you return.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

If you have been baptized after your salvation, you are invited to participate in the Lord’s Supper with us.

We’d ask you exit your pews to the left and come to the station closest to you.

The gluten free wafers are on the middle table.

We know this may be awkward for a few of you who aren’t eligible to participate.

We pray first that you may know Jesus as your rescuer like we do

And we’d ask that you enjoy watching a family having a very important moment together.

If you would all stand and come to the Lord’s table.