Hebrews 4:14-5:10 - Our Great High Priest
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction:
Many people struggle with relating to God at times. They see Him as holy and set apart. They see Him as perfect and spotless. And these views of God are all completely true. God is perfect. God is without sin.
Listen to a couple of the many verses in the Bible describing the perfection of God.
“The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.
You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Wow, that second verse is Jesus telling us that we must be perfect as God is perfect. That seems a bit impossible doesn’t it?
And not only is God perfect, but His Word is as well…
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;
His ways are higher than our ways.
But there is an important understanding that we need to know about God. He is also loving. He is fully just but also fully loving. So in order to maintain His holiness and justice and still show His love - He sent His One and Only Son, Jesus Christ - as God-made-flesh - to become the bridge between Himself and man.
In doing this, Jesus was appointed as our Great High Priest.
Today’s message is going to tell us how the amazing incarnation of Jesus Christ has changed our relationship with God forever. For those who place their faith and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation and repent of their sins, they have a Great High Priest Who intercedes for them on their behalf.
We who are in Christ need no longer fear approaching God. Because of our wonderful Savior, we can approach Him even with confidence as we will see in shortly.
Today, we are going to see how amazing our Great High Priest is and what that means for us as followers of Him.
Prayer
Today we are going to see four ways Jesus is our Great High Priest… The first is…
I. Jesus is Our Sympathetic Great High Priest (14-16)
I. Jesus is Our Sympathetic Great High Priest (14-16)
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
The author is now starting a new line of thought in his letter. He is turning toward the great high priesthood of Jesus. He is going to speak on the priesthood of Christ in some detail here. This will actually be even more thoroughly addressed in Hebrews 7 as well.
But he tells us that our great high priest has passed through the heavens. What does the author mean here?
This likely refers to the ascension of Jesus as found in Acts 1:9:
And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
Jesus passed through the heavens - plural here to refer to the earth’s atmosphere (the first heaven), space (the second heaven), and to the right hand of God on His throne (the third heaven).
The ascension reminds us of Christ’s power as our intercessor. He is our Great High Priest. He is at the right hand of the Father in heaven ready to intercede on our behalf. Because of this wonderful truth, we are told that we should hold fast our confession.
The author was writing to first century Christians who were undergoing persecution. This letter was meant to encourage them to persevere. They were to hold fast - in other words they were to not waiver or let go.
What is this confession that this first century church was to hold fast to? This confession refers to one’s faith and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord. It is the confession of the Gospel.
It is a confession that understands Who Jesus is. It is a confession of faith believing that Christ is the perfect Son of God Who came to earth by taking on human flesh, lived the perfect life that we could not, died on the cross for the sins of the world, and rose from the dead three days later.
This confession understands that Jesus is the only way to God and only by faith and repentance can one have eternal life with Him.
Despite the trials of this life, we must hold fast this confession!
The author has reminded us to hold fast to our confession, to not drift away (Hebrews 2:1), and to hold fast our confidence in Hebrews 3:6 and again in Hebrews 3:14.
You see, as we go through the trials of this life, we need to remember what to hold fast to. We aren’t to hold fast to the things of this world. We are to hold fast to Christ by holding fast to our confession - namely the Gospel.
How can we not hold fast to our confession of Christ when He has proven His great power over sin and death on the cross and through His resurrection?
Moving forward we see another reason we can rely on Christ…
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Not only should we hold fast our confession because of what He has done for us on the cross, but we should also hold fast because we have a wonderful Savior Who understands what it is like to live this life.
While walking on this earth He experienced fatigue, hunger, thirst, emotions, struggles, persecution, pain, and slander. He experienced the human experience - all of its good, bad, and ugly. And because of this, He is not unable to sympathize with our weakness. The author actually uses a double negative here in order to drive home the point that He is able to sympathize with us.
How amazing is it that the God who spoke the universe into existence understands what it is like to be tried as a man?
We see here that he was tried in every respect. There is not a trial that He did not experience. The peak of the temptation of Jesus’s trials can be found at the weakest point of His life. After fasting 40 days and 40 nights, we are told that the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan (Matthew 4, Luke 4).
Jesus experienced testing further than any of us could imagine. He was tested to the utmost and never gave in. Sadly, we often give in early in the battle, but He battled and won every trial and test.
The incredible thing is – He never sinned.
And because of His sinless death on the cross and His resurrection, He has proven His power over death and sin. We can be set free from the bondage of sin through Christ’s power.
Our Savior is a sympathetic high priest who not only understands our trials and temptations - He has had victory over them. We can have victory over them as well through His power.
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
We don’t have to be victims of these temptations. There is victory in Christ. It feels like sometimes we are destined for failure. We all have sins that seem to entangle us easier than other sins. However, we have a promise from God that He will provide us a way to defeat these temptations. Let us hold fast to Christ in the midst of temptation and pray for deliverance that only He can provide.
I see a great deal of Christians turn to worldly sources to help them fight temptations. These sources can be helpful and move us in the right direction, but they will never fully deliver us from the pit of destruction caused by sin. We need to go to our Great High Priest and ask for the power only He can give to deliver us from these temptations. We need to have the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God (Eph 6:17). We need to be praying to the Lord and staying in the Word. We cannot fight the battle of temptation without the correct armor of God (Eph 6:10-20).
Moving forward we see a beautiful truth in verse 16…
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.
Now, knowing Who Christ is and His intercessory position for us, we can confidently approach the throne of grace.
How amazing is that statement! We can confidently approach the throne of grace. We can approach God because of the imputed righteousness of Christ. Our worth is not found intrinsically in ourselves. We are not good as Romans 3 tells us. However, because Christ is good, we can confidently approach the Lord in prayer.
For those of us who are born again and saved believers - when God sees us - He sees the work of His son. He doesn’t see our filthy rags. Our sin was nailed upon the cross. His righteousness was given to us when we repented of our sins and placed our faith in Him.
If you haven’t done that yet, then you have no confidence to approach the Lord. You are naked and exposed before a just and holy God. There should be fear. Repent and place your faith and trust in Jesus and experience the amazing grace He offers.
But be drawn to Him not just out of fear - but because you see His gracious kindness as He took your penalty on the cross and died in your place. There is no more kind thing that has ever been done for you.
In Christ we can receive mercy and grace. Grace is getting what you do not deserve. Mercy is not getting what you do deserve.
In other words, we receive what we do not deserve - forgiveness and eternal life. And we don’t receive what we do deserve - judgment and hell.
Praise be to God for His glorious grace and kind mercy.
Next we learn that…
Scripture References: Deuteronomy 32:4, Matthew 5:48, Psalm 19:7, Hebrews 7, Acts 1:9, Hebrews 2:1, Hebrews 3:6, Hebrews 3:14, Matthew 4, Luke 4, 1 Corinthians 10:13, Ephesians 6:17, Ephesians 6:10-20, Romans 3
II. Jesus is Our Superior Great High Priest (1-3)
II. Jesus is Our Superior Great High Priest (1-3)
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.
Now the author is going to compare Jesus to the high priests of Israel. Here is another Jesus is greater statements. We have seen that Jesus is greater than the prophets, greater than the angels, greater than Moses - and now we see that Jesus is greater than the high priests.
The high priests of Israel were chosen from among men and were to offer sacrifices and gifts to God.
These high priests of Israel identified with the people because they were beset, or covered, with weakness. They could sympathize with the ignorant and wayward because they were sinners as well. The ignorant were those who didn’t know the way while the wayward were those who knew the way but rebelled against it. I think we can all unfortunately identify with both of these groups at times!
However, these high priests had to offer sacrifices for themselves before they could ever offer a sacrifice for the people. Listen to the first high priest, Aaron, making his personal sacrifice before sacrificing for the people.
“Aaron shall present the bull as a sin offering for himself, and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. He shall kill the bull as a sin offering for himself.
The author is speaking of the Day of Atonement here - called Yom Kippur.
The high priest would have to offer this bull for himself and his own household before moving forward to offer the sacrifices for the people.
As we compare this imperfect high priest of Israel with Jesus our Great High Priest, it becomes apparent that Christ is far superior.
Yes, Christ is a sympathetic high priest like those of Israel as we saw in verses 14-16. However, Christ is not beset with weakness like they were. He is without sin. He needs to offer no sacrifice for Himself. He is perfect. His sacrifice on the cross was solely on our behalf. He needed no atonement for Himself.
He is our superior Great High Priest.
Because of what Christ did on the cross, we now need no other mediator. There is now no need for a priest in which you need to confess your sins. Although we learn in James 5:16 that we should confess our sins to one another - it is helpful to have accountability - we also know that no one else is needed for us to be forgiven. We do not need a priest to bless us. We do not need a man to tell us we are forgiven. We have a Great High Priest who is far superior to any man on earth. He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And He offers us forgiveness through His finished work on the cross alone.
We aren’t forgiven because of our work. We aren’t forgiven by any sacrifice we make for God. We are forgiven because of the finished work on the cross.
Brothers and sisters - hear the freeing words of the Gospel today. Are you living your life for the approval of man? Are you trying to please someone on this earth instead of looking to Christ?
Or maybe you are working to try to seek the approval of God?
Friend, your approval has already been granted by our Superior Savior. His finished work on the cross is all the work you need in order to be approved by God.
Some people spend their whole lives looking for the approval of those around them. Maybe it is a father or mother. Maybe a boss or teacher. The temptation to seek the approval of others can be great.
However, rest in Christ my friends. His approval isn’t based on your merit - it is based on Christ’s. Rest in the finished work of Christ.
We see another understanding of the superior priesthood of Christ as we look at the book of Job.
Job saw that there was no way for him to be reconciled to God at the time in Job 9:32-35:
For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together. There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both. Let him take his rod away from me, and let not dread of him terrify me. Then I would speak without fear of him, for I am not so in myself.
Here we see that Job felt the weight of his sinful humanity up against the backdrop of God’s amazing holiness. Job longed for a mediator to go between God and man.
And Jesus is that mediator. See 1 Timothy 2:5:
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
Church, there is only one mediator between God and man. There aren’t two or three or four or more mediators. We don’t have other men we need to seek approval from. There is only one. Christ Jesus is our only mediator. And because of what He did on the cross, we are seen as approved - as righteous - as holy. Not because of what we have done - but because of His finished work on the cross.
Praise be to God for our superior Savior.
Next we see that…
Scripture References: Leviticus 16:11, James 5:16, Job 9:32-35, 1 Timothy 2:5
III. Jesus is Our Divinely Selected Great High Priest (4-6)
III. Jesus is Our Divinely Selected Great High Priest (4-6)
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.”
The high priests of the Old Testament were selected by God. God called Aaron to be high priest and God continued calling high priests each year after Aaron died as they would cast lots to choose. We see this illustrated in Luke 1:5-9 as Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist was chosen. The lot in Israel was not a chance thing. Proverbs 16:33 tells us:
The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.
God would divinely select each high priest that would minister unto the Lord on the Day of Atonement (See Leviticus 16, Leviticus 23:26-32, and Numbers 29:7-11).
Once a year this high priest, after making a sacrifice for himself as we already mentioned, would go and offer sacrifices for the people of God. They would burn incense and sprinkle the blood of an animal sacrifice on the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant. This was the only time each year that the high priest, or anyone for that matter, was able to go into the Holy of Holies.
Do you see the beautiful foreshadowing that the high priest was of Christ?
Christ was divinely selected by God. He was ordained, or appointed, by God.
We see here the eternal Sonship of Christ as well as the author quotes Psalm 2:7 again (see Hebrews 1:5 for the first quote of Psalm 2:7). Although Jesus was always the Son of God - He was begotten when He came to earth and took on human flesh.
And finally we see that Jesus is far greater and superior to the high priests of Israel as He is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. We will get into Melchizedek in more detail in Hebrews 7. This man is only mentioned in Psalm 110:4 as well as Genesis 14:17-24. However, by being a priest after the order of Melchizedek we are told that Christ’s reign has no end.
The reign of the high priests of Israel ceased to exist once the Temple was destroyed in AD 70. Obviously we know that their sacrifices were not accepted at all after the death of Christ on the cross anyway.
However, Christ is our Great High Priest forever! His priesthood has no end.
We can trust in our divinely appointed Great High Priest.
And lastly…
Scripture References: Luke 1:5-9, Proverbs 16:33, Leviticus 16, Leviticus 23:26-32, Numbers 29:7-11, Hebrews 1:5, Hebrews 7, Psalm 110:4, Genesis 14:17-24
IV. Jesus is Our Suffering Great High Priest (7-10)
IV. Jesus is Our Suffering Great High Priest (7-10)
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.
The author bookends this section of Jesus as our Great High Priest by bringing us back to the personhood of Christ. He reminds us about the days of His flesh - referring to His time ministering on earth. We know that Christ is sympathetic because He has gone through the trials that we experience. And now we are reminded that Jesus also understands suffering.
We are given an intimate view into the prayers of Jesus. His prayers were emotive and from the heart. Loud cries and tears.
This reminds us of Jesus’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane where He prayed with such intensity and anguish that He sweat drops of blood. Listen to Christ pray...
And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
Jesus understands suffering far more than any of us could imagine.
The author of Hebrews wants us to remember Christ’s suffering on earth. We are told that Jesus prayed these intense prayers to His Heavenly Father who was able to save Him from death. Some translators actually assert that this should read - save Him out of death.
Some may read this and see that Christ ended up crucified. Yet, we know that Christ was ultimately delivered from, or perhaps more properly, out of death. His prayer was answered. He said not my will but yours be done. And God’s will was accomplished. Jesus was delivered from death by being raised from the dead. And God’s will was completed through Christ!
We are told that Christ was heard because of His reverence. This speaks of His respect and awe for His Heavenly Father. He provided an example of how we are to pray to God.
Church, you may be going through a struggle right now. You may be suffering a physical ailment, an emotional turmoil, or a spiritual battle. Christ understands more than anyone. Lean on your Great High Priest in times of suffering and struggle. He understands and is there to offer mercy and grace.
Getting to our final 3 verses for today…
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.
Some read a section of Scripture like this and think that Jesus was not omniscient. If Jesus learned, then does that mean He didn’t know everything? Being truly God He was fully omniscient. Being truly man there were things He ‘learned’ humanly speaking as He grew in wisdom and statue and with favor with God and with men.
However this Greek word is a bit different than they way we use it in English. It is manthano (mon-thon-o) which means not simply “to acquire book smarts,” but “to come to the realization…less through instruction than through experience or practice.
So, the word ‘learned’ here actually refers to the experience Jesus had. He learned or experienced obedience through His suffering.
Being God - He had never physically suffered. But being God-made-flesh, He hungered, experienced thirst, and experienced all of the trials of this life.
Yet He remained obedient - all the way to death - even death on a cross.
And in verse 9 we see that Christ was made perfect. Does this mean Christ was ever imperfect? Absolutely not. The Scriptures clearly teach the sinlessness and perfection of Christ. Listen to Hebrews 7:26 articulate this well…
For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
Listen to those glorious attributes of Christ. It is clear that Jesus is perfect. So what does the author speak of here?
Instead, being made perfect refers to Him fulfilling the perfect plan of God since the beginning. Jesus was already perfect, but He showed His glorious perfection through His suffering and through His obedience.
As the eternal Priest of God after the order of Melchizedek (again we will explain more in Hebrews 7) - He showed His glorious perfection through suffering and obedience.
Our perfect Savior showed His obedience through His suffering on the cross. Countless times in Scripture Jesus states that He has come to do His Father’s will. He prays regularly to His Father. He honors His Father with every action. As we stated before, Christ did not learn obedience as we learn obedience, but He experienced obedience in human form and grew in wisdom and stature in human form. He never gave up His deity throughout this. He remained 100% God and 100% man.
If the incarnate Christ showed His obedience to the Father, how much more should we! God desires our faithful obedience more than anything else. He even teaches us in John 14:15 that if we do not obey Him that we do not love him! Perfect love was shown by Christ to His father through perfect obedience. May we use Christ’s example of obedience to spur us to obedience. He is the perfect example.
God was honored through His Son’s obedience. And God is honored through our obedience as well, Church.
Scripture References: Luke 22:41-44, Hebrews 7:26, Hebrews 7, John 14:15
Conclusion:
As we come to a close, we have seen our Great High Priest in many different ways.
He is One who can sympathize with us. He understands what it is like to walk this earth and experience trials. He understands.
He is superior. There is nothing higher than Him. There is nowhere else you can turn that will provide what He can provide. He is above all.
He is divinely selected. He isn’t chosen by man. He is divinely selected and is divine Himself as well.
And finally, He understands suffering more than anyone. He loved you so much that He gave His life on the cross for you.
May each of us be sure that we have trusted in our superior and suffering Savior.
As we finish today, remember that there is only one place to turn to in times of trouble and for help. There is only One Who offers mediation between God and man - and that is Jesus Christ. Trust in the Glorious Great High Priest.
