The Perfect Hight Priest: Trusting Jesus in Our Trials
By Faith: The Book of Hebrews • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 9 viewsBig Idea of the Message: Jesus is the perfect high priest. Application Point: When things have gone wrong, look to Jesus to help make it right
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Last week we saw Jesus exalted above every angel, God’s final Word, the radiance of His glory, seated at the right hand of the Majesty on High.
We saw how His divine nature is creator and sustainer of all things and that all thing were created by Him and for Him. He added human nature to His divinity and in so doing Jesus is the God-man, 100% divine, and 100% human. The only being in the entire universe to be 200% of a person. He is the eternal Son of God and now also the Son of Man.
In his humanity he became lower than the angels which is what we will see today. The writer of Hebrews brings the exalted Christ down to our level. Why? because the One who reigns also suffered. The One who upholds all things by His power also tasted death.
Yes He is glorified, but he is also approachable. Yes He is powerful, but He is also personal.
In a world that is full of suffering, injustice, and failure, you need more than a distant glorified Savior. You need a High Priest who knows what it feels like to be you and Jesus is all of that too. Like last week we will zero in on 5 key themes contained in this chapter. (pray)
I. Don’t Drift–Pay Attention to Jesus (vv. 1-4)
I. Don’t Drift–Pay Attention to Jesus (vv. 1-4)
After lifting our eyes to see the exalted Christ in chapter 1 who is greater than angels , radiating God’s glory, the exact representation of the nature of God, and seated at the Father’s right hand, the author shifts from proclaiming to exhorting. He moves from declaration to warning: After describing and coming to understand who Jesus actually is, we must respond with urgency and faithfulness. Look at how he connects the warning to the previous declaration.
1 For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away.
The danger here isn’t the loud blasphemer or the proud unbeliever who shakes his fist at God. It’s the quiet, unnoticed drift that begins not with hatred—but with neglect.”
It is not sudden, loud or obvious. It is slow, quiet, unnoticed.
When I go to the beach I love to lay on a water hammock. It is basically a floaty. I love to recline in it and just allow the gentle waves to rock me. But if I am not careful, if I am not sober, vigilant, consistently paying attention, those gentle waves can carry me away into the middle of the ocean away from the possibility of returning to shore.
Just like this, this drift, you do not feel it happening until you realize Christ no longer holds the center of your life.
The word drift pararreō in the Greek paints the picture of a boat slipping away from moorings. It implies neglect, not violent rejection. It is spiritual carelessness. You might ask, if drift is so subtle, how can I tell if it happens to me? You drift when
The Word becomes background noise.
Church becomes routine.
Sin becomes more comfortable than confession.
You stop clinging to Jesus because you think you’ve heard it all before, you know enough.
Drift always begins with neglect and it ends with Christ being quietly replaced.
Do not hear what I am not saying. This is not teaching that a true, born-again believer can lose their salvation. The NT is clear on this.
5 who are protected (or kept) by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
39 “Now this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.
The warnings are not empty threats they are spiritually diagnostic tools. They are not written to make secure believers paranoid, but to make presumed believers examine themselves. The doctrine that God elects and preserves his saints is clear in Scripture. For example
Doctrine of Election:
Romans 9:10-16 (depends not on human will by on God who has mercy)
John 6:37,44 (no one can come unless the father draws him)
2 Thessalonians 2:13 (Paul combines election, sanctification and faith as God’s saving work)
Acts 13:48 (those who were appointed to eternal life believe)
2 Tim 1:9 (God called us not because of our doing but because of His own purpose and grace)
Hebrews is not saying that you might lose your salvation. It is saying that if you truly have it, then hold fast to it. The warnings are one of the means God uses to preserve His elect. They don’t undermine security—they expose whether someone is truly anchored in Christ. The elect will heed the warning and persevere. The non-elect will not. If someone continues to drift and never returns, their drifting shows they were never anchored to Christ (cf. 1 John 2:19).
In the next verse he says,
“For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable…” (v. 2)
Which refers to the Old Covenant which was delivered through angels or messengers. If breaking the Old Law brought real Judgement, how much more serious is neglecting Christ, the fulfilment of all things, the actual message.
People who are saved actually care about this stuff in light of warnings.
18 “So beware how you listen, for whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from him.”
23 Guard your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.
No one drifts into holiness. You drift towards compromise unless you eyes are fixed on Jesus. That is why the song writer back in 1758 wrote the words,
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love.
Here’s my heart Lord, take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
Jesus Himself said
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Those who are hungry do not pick at food or are satisfied with gum they devour food in abundance and they tend to eat at a rate that their bodies struggle to keep up. Same when you are thirsty. Thirsty people don’t sip.
Application:
Have you been drifting
Has your attention to Christ grown dull, distracted, or passive?
Are you neglecting the Word, prayer, worship, or obedience… not in hatred but in apathy?
The same Christ who is seated in glory calls you to listen closely. Not just once. Not just during crisis. But daily, joyfully, attentively.
The good news is that you do not have to secure your own salvation, and you do not have to hold yourself up by sheer effort. But if you belong to Christ, you will be marked by a growing desire to pay close attention to Him. So don’t drift, drop the anchor. The author now shifts to our second theme…
II. Jesus Was Made Lower to Lift Us Up (vv.5-9)
II. Jesus Was Made Lower to Lift Us Up (vv.5-9)
After issuing a sobering warning, the author now lifts our eyes again—not to Christ’s exaltation, but to His breathtaking humility. After stating that Jesus is greater than angels in chapter 1 and warning us not to neglect he explains something astonishing: That exalted Christ willingly became lower than the angels–for us. The writer then quotes from the OT (Ps. 8) to prove his point
6 But one has testified somewhere, saying, “What is man, that You remember him? Or the son of man, that You are concerned about him?
7 “You have made him for a little while lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, And have appointed him over the works of Your hands;
In Psalm 8 the composer originally spoke of dignity and the glory of being made in God’s image. But Hebrews sees this psalm ultimately fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. The true and perfect human. Here is the connection in verse 9.
9 But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels—Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.
We explored this deeply last week but it bears repeating, Jesus, the Eternal Son, Became truly human not just for identification but for substitution.
Not merely to relate to us, but to redeem us.
Why did He come lower, even lower than the angels he created?
“…so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.”
Jesus did not just come to teach, model, inspire. He came to die, to experience death in its fulness: its shame, curse and separation.
21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
He came to go beneath us, to lift us up and not just to where we were before sin entered, not just as Adam was before the fall, but infinitely higher than that.
If you hear nothing else: You are not forgotten, you are not a mistake. The Son of God stepped into your condition, your limitation, your mortality and He did it so you can be seated with him in heavenly places with Him.
Application:
Have you wondered whether God understands what it feels like to be human? Have you felt crushed under grief, weakness, shame, or pain? you are not alone.
Jesus didn’t just come to fix sin—He came to feel what you feel, to walk your road, and to taste death so you never have to face it alone.
He was made lower so He could bring you higher. He stepped into death so He could pull you into life.
To do so he had to become like you which brings me to our 3rd theme.
III. Jesus Identifies With Us to Bring Us Into God’s Family (vv. 10-13)
III. Jesus Identifies With Us to Bring Us Into God’s Family (vv. 10-13)
The author has shown us that Jesus became lower than the angels to taste death for us. Now he shows us why that mattered so much: so we could be forgiven yes , but also so that we could be brought into God’s family.
Jesus didn’t just suffer for sinners—He now stands with sinners as our Brother, bringing us to the Father. God and I are brothers, I know it is so strange sounding, yet this is true. Lets start here.
10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.
“it was fitting” this phrase means that God’s plan of redemption with its shame, suffering, death was not only necessary but it was right, morally ethical.
It was fitting that the One who would lead many sons to glory—the Captain of our salvation—be made perfect through suffering, so that He could walk the same path we must walk and give us the help we truly need.
Christ was always perfect in His divine nature. But in His humanity, He was made complete—fully qualified—as our Savior through obedience and suffering. He didn’t need moral improvement. He needed experiential preparation to represent us fully.
The whole idea of bringing many sons to glory is not just the rescue from hell, but it is the adoption into glory. Jesus did not die to improve you. He died to adopt you.
1 See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we would be called children of God; and we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
Jesus died and resurrected as a man so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters (Rom 8:29). Watch this..
11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of One; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brothers,
Who is the one who sanctifies? to sanctify is to make holy. According to Hebrews it is Jesus. Only the Holy One can make something or someone holy.
13 “But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You shall surely keep My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am Yahweh who makes you holy.
8 ‘And you shall keep My statutes and do them; I am Yahweh who makes you holy.
This is where we get the compound name of God Yahweh Mekaddishkem The the One who makes holy has become one with those who he has made holy and called them His brothers.
17 Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brothers and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’”
15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry out, “Abba! Father!”
16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,
17 and if children, also heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.
Application:
Do you carry shame as if God is embarrassed by you?
Have you ever thought , “If God really saw who I am, He’d walk away? That is what Peter thought. When Peter encountered the power of Jesus when he miraculously filled his nets with fish after a fruitless night of fishing , Peter fell at Jesus’s feet and told him “depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.
Oh but Peter, you are exactly who I came to redeem…
Jesus sees everything about you, and He is not ashamed to call you family. You are not merely saved—you are welcomed, embraced, and named.
IV. Jesus defeated Death to Deliver Us from Fear (vv. 14-16)
IV. Jesus defeated Death to Deliver Us from Fear (vv. 14-16)
In these verses the author makes it abundantly clear why Jesus had to become human: to destroy the one who holds the power of death and to liberated those enslaved by the fear of it.
“Therefore since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself also partook of the same…” (v. 14)
Jesus did not just appear human, he fully entered our human experience: weakness, hunger, pain, grief, temptation, and death.
The eternal Son entered death in order to destroy it from within. It reminds me of a scene from The Matrix, where Agent Smith, believing himself superior to Neo, engages him in combat. Neo doesn’t just fight him—he enters into him and destroys him from the inside out, taking the machines greatest weapon from them. That’s what Jesus did to death. He entered it, broke its grip, and disarmed the enemy from within.
Jesus destroyed Satan’s greatest weapon—death—by paying the penalty for sin, breaking its power, and rising from the grave in triumph.
Now Satan can accuse but he has no grounds, he can threaten but has no bite. This bee has no sting, this lion can roar but he’s been declawed and defanged.
14 Having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us which was hostile to us, He also has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
15 Having disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them in Him.
Death is humanities greatest fear because it is unavoidable, uncontrollable, and unknowable by those outside Christ.
The fear of death holds people in emotional, spiritual, and even moral slavery. They compromise to avoid suffering. But Jesus says to us today that we do not need to fear death because he conquered it and has authority over it.
17 And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not fear; I am the first and the last,
18 and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
He did not come to do any of this for the sake of angels, which is what is stated on vs 16. He did not come to redeem angels, else he would have become one of them. He came to redeem the seed of Abram. And who may that be?
29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise.
7 so know that those who are of faith, those are sons of Abraham.
Application:
Are you still held by the fear of death?
Do you live under the shadow of shame, accusation, or insecurity?
Are you trying to manage your fears instead of bringing them to the One who crushed them?
Jesus does not just forgive you, HE FREES YOU.
Jesus entered death’s domain so that He could walk you out of it.You don’t have to fear the grave. It has become a doorway—not an end.You don’t have to carry shame. The accuser has no claim. Thats why Paul says, to live is Christ and to die is gain (Phil 1:21)
V. Jesus is the Merciful Faithful High Priest We Need (vv. 17-18)
V. Jesus is the Merciful Faithful High Priest We Need (vv. 17-18)
After showing us that Jesus took on flesh to defeat death and liberate us from fear, the writer explains the priestly purpose of the incarnation.
The purpose or duties of the OT priest was to stand before God on behalf of the nation of Israel a concept that the writer will elaborate later in the letter.
For now he was content to affirm that this identification with “His brothers” had made possible a priesthood characterized both by mercy and fidelity in service to God. This involved, as its basis, atonement for the sins of the people. Let’s look at it
17 Therefore, He had to be made like His brothers in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
Why did He have to be made like us?
• Not just to die—but to represent us.
• Not just to forgive—but to intercede.
• Not just to save—but to stand in the gap, continually.
Jesus did not just come down, he took us up and now he represents us before the Father as one who knows exactly what it feels like to be us.
Now lets talk about that strange word propitiation hilaskomai which means to turn away wrath by means of a sacrifice.
Jesus did not just remove sin, He satisfied the justice of God. He canceled the debt by paying it in full, absorbing the wrath we deserve.
1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;
2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins...
Jesus can be merciful because he knows our plight first hand and he is faithful because he never fails in his mission to advocate for us. We do not have a high priest who rolls his eyes when we fail the way I usually do when my children do dumb stuff, we have on who sympathizes, helps and stays with us to the end.
18 For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to help those who are tempted.
He knows the pressure of temptation yet without sin. He was not kept from temptation, He was kept through it, and He is able to help us in it
If you are tired of failing or feeling stuck in a temptation, or even wondering if Jesus is disappointed in your struggle, hear this:
Application:
He is not ashamed of you
He is not distant from you
He is not disinterested in your pain
He is the High Priest who gets it. Who walked through it.And who stands ready to help you now.
Jesus didn’t just die for you—He lives for you. And He’s ministering to you even now.
