Sermon Tone Analysis

Senior Sermon

Intro: What does it mean to have confidence?

Andrew Bogut running back with fist raised before Steph Curry 3 (he started celebrating before it happens because of how much confidence he had in his teammate) & “Swaggy P” missed 3 celebration (missplaced confidence)

Where do we put our confidence?

I want to tell you today that…

Title: “You have a High Priest”

What is a High Priest?

Why should I care?

If you want to know more about this, start reading at Exodus 25.

The function of a High Priest to enter into the presence of God on behalf of the people

Going to the Temple, seeing, smelling, hearing the shedding of blood was a graphic reminder of the result of sin.

Judgment.

Wrath.

Shedding of blood.

Death.

You see after Adam & Eve sinned, the people had a sin problem.

God is a Holy God and He cannot dwell with sinful people.

But God was merciful and He didn’t immediately go to judgment.

He desired to restore fellowship with the people and to bless them.

God had them build a Tabernacle (a tent or mobile Temple) so that He could dwell in their midst.

God cannot dwell with wickedness, but He provided a way.

He placed a large curtain in the Tabernacle separating the Holy of Holies from the sinful people (this was the mercy of God.

He wanted to dwell with us without killing us with His Holiness).

[apology to St. Ansgar’s for last week.

God cannot become dirty]

The High Priest would go before the LORD on behalf of the people to sprinkle blood on the mercy seat.

Only once a year - he was a sinner to so he had to be cleansed first.

The blood that was sprinkled came from animals, spotless, unblemished animals.

They were a substitute that God allowed to take their place.

The blood of the spotless lamb was shed instead of the blood of the sinner.

The people could not come to worship God without a sacrifice dying in their place.

Without the High Priest, having been cleansed according to God’s Word, the blood of atonement could not be brought into the Holy of Holies to be sprinkled on the mercy seat.

This blood of the sacrificial lamb satisfied God’s wrath.

Who is your High Priest?

Two points: He is Great and He can Relate

1.

He is great (our text tells us two titles)

a.

He is Jesus,

the Son of Man, your brother

Was made man in order to suffer and die for you

Made propitiation with His own innocent blood

Hebrews 9:11-12, “11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, ... 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.”

In His work as your High Priest He offered His Himself as the sacrifice for you.

All those sheep and goats were just pointing forward to the true sacrifice for sins, Jesus, your High Priest.

b.

He is the Son of God!

What does Hebrews tell us about how great God’s Son is?

Hebrews 1:1-3, “1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”

He has passed through the heavens

Rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, or as it says here “passed through the heavens”

Your High Priest is the Son of God who has passed through the heavens

What difference does that make for me?

“Therefore” - Look at the verses prior:

Hebrews 4:11-13, “11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.

12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

How confident does that make you feel?

That God knows all the thoughts and intentions of your heart

Law: the Word of God is living and active… powerful in exposing us… our straying hearts condemned

You will not find confidence in yourself when you’ve been exposed in your sinfulness

“holding fast” vs. straying/hardening of heart.

(Opposite of holding fast our confession is a straying heart).

They weren’t holding fast.

They were straying.

Ex. of the Israelites: When they were wandering through the wilderness God had already miraculously delivered them from Egypt, opening up the Red Sea for them to walk through, provided food for them from the sky.

When they arrived at the promised land, did they have confidence?

No! They panicked.

They feared the giants in the land.

God had promised to give them this land, but they didn’t have confidence in the LORD even though He had given them every reason to trust Him.

They looked themselves.

They felt like grasshoppers compared to the Giants in front of them.

They lost sight of God.

They did not hold fast.

They let go of God’s promise.

They hardened their hearts.

What are the ways we harden our hearts?

Are you facing giants problems in your life that you don’t believe God can overcome?

What fears cripple you and make us feel like a grasshopper) and tempt us not to believe that God is good enough to care for us and strong enough to overcome for us as He promises?

Addictions?

Pornography, drugs, alcohol, anxiety, depression, mental illness, money, your own shame, the corruption of the world, wars.

12 (Heb.

3:12-13) Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

“Since then we have a great High Priest...” or “Therefore, since we have a great High Priest” … “Let us hold fast our confession”

Our hope is not in ourselves.

If we look at ourselves we will see grasshoppers.

But if we look to our High Priest we can take confidence.

Romans 10:9-10, “ 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.””

Review: What is our confession?

Jesus is our confession.

Don’t look to yourself or any other man for confidence.

Hold fast to Christ Jesus, your High Priest!

“We come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold fast to our confession” (Heb.

3:14) Did you hear that promise???

You have a GREAT High Priest, Jesus, the Son of God who has passed through the heavens!

Your High Priest is Great... AND He can RELATE.

2. He can relate