Hebrews 4:14-5:14

Introduction

The first four chapters of the book of Hebrews have seen the author make two primary arguments: Jesus is God, and Jesus is human. Wrapped around these two arguments have been warnings not to abandon the faith.

The last section we looked at was a warning against being like the people of the Old Testament, who despite their rescue from Egypt and they refused to continue their faith in the LORD and ultimately he kept them out of his promised ‘rest’.

While they died in the desert and didn’t enter that ‘rest’ (the Promised Land), the author of Hebrews makes it clear that the opportunity to God’s ‘rest’ (God’s heavenly kingdom) still stands for those who are willing to persevere in the faith.

In the process, the author has shown has the Jesus is greater than both angels and Moses. These four chapters have formed the ‘bedrock’ of bigger picture of this sermon: Jesus is our great High Priest.

Because the preacher loves to interject in the middle of his own sermon (go down rabbit holes as some might say!), this section starting with 4:14 actually picks up after 2:18. Guess what? He’s going to do it again after this section too. We will briefly cover vs 5:11-14, but that section is yet another ‘Hold on, I need to tell you something else first’ moment in Hebrews.

What is a (high) priest?

To better understand this section, I think it’s important that we take a brief look at what a priest, and specifically a high priest, is/was.

To put it plainly, priests are intermediaries between God and men. They weren’t unique to OT Judaism. Most religions throughout the world, and throughout history have had some sort of priesthood. Why?

Because for the most part, humans have understood that we can’t really go directly to God (or the gods) for things. We seem to have this innate understanding that gods are greater than us, and at the very least don’t care about it, and at the most maybe can be appeased.

This is also why almost every religion has some kind of sacrificial system, whether physical or not.

This is all ultimately connected to sin, whether people realize it or not. We know that at some level we have distanced ourselves from God, even if we don’t understand what that means, and so we wish to either appease God(s) or if we’re lucky maybe communicate with them.

Job is considered one of the oldest, if not the oldest, book in the Bible. It’s believed that Job lived sometime during Genesis, and maybe even before Abraham. It’s telling that in his frustration for justice, Job says 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.”

So we see from the earliest days that humanity desperately wanted an intermediary between itself and God.

This is where priests came in. Now in OT Judaism the priesthood was established by God, and they came from the tribe of Levi. All the Levites served as priests, but among them was also the High Priest. The first High Priest was Aaron, Moses’ brother, and all the High Priests were descended from Aaron.

(This is how it was originally meant to be. By the time of ‘Second Temple Judaism’ or 515 BC - 70 AD, the lineage of the priesthood had largely been lost. High Priests were actually appointed by the Roman Empire, and they didn’t always do their jobs properly.)

The author of Hebrews is going to rehash this history throughout the book but it’s going to be important to remember. While the priests (and High Priest) ministered year around in the tabernacle and the Temple, the High Priest would enter into the Holy of Holies once a year (on the Day of Atonement) to make atonement for the sins of the people.

This very physical process would have been alluring to the Jewish Christians reading Hebrews. They were use to physically seeing priests, and the High Priest, make sacrifices on their behalf. But the author of Hebrews is going to remind them that they do in fact have a High Priest, a ‘greater’ High Priest, in Jesus.

Hebrews 4:14-16

‘Therefore’, what is the therefore there for? Having just reminded his readers that God’s rest awaits believers that hang on to the faith, he returns to this discussion of priests that he started back in Chapter 2. This is a culmination of everything he’s been building up to.

‘We have a great high priest’ - the word for ‘great’ is ‘mega’. The people craved to return to the system with a physical high priest. The author of Hebrews tells us that we have a mega high priest, a high priest who is by nature greater!

How is He greater? Well because at his ascension, Jesus ‘passed through the heavens’ and is in the very presence of God. No other high priest could enter into the presence of God - except perhaps that one time of year on the Day of Atonement. But he couldn’t stay there. Jesus ministers before the Father on our behalf.

Notice that the author calls our great high priest, ‘Jesus, the Son of God’. The first couple of chapters of Hebrews were about establishing Christ’s deity and his humanity, and here the author of Hebrews reminds us of both. He uses Jesus’ human name, and the refers to him as the Son of God. Being the God-Man makes Jesus a unique (and greater) high priest.

‘Let us hold fast our confession’ - we’ve discussed this at length, because the author of Hebrews has repeated it over and over. That’s what a good preacher does! These people were tempted to return to the old system that they were familiar and comfortable (and safe) with. The same is often true with us - in times of peril or distress we tend to want to return to the things we are familiar with.

The author reminds the readers that they don’t need to go back to the old system, because they have someone greater, and why would you ever go back to something lesser? The same is true for us. Whatever old life we have that may be calling us back, we must hold fast to our confession in Christ.

Confession is a big deal to the author of Hebrews. He’s already mentioned it once, and he’s going to mention a few other times too. Our confession is when we proclaimed our allegiance to Jesus at our baptism. If you pledge allegiance to something, like a country, and then turn away you are considered a traitor. How much more so with Jesus?

Another important aspect of Jesus’ high priesthood is that he became just like us in every respect. The author has already addressed this previously but here is the application: because Jesus became like us in every way, he’s able to sympathize with our weaknesses.

By weaknesses he’s referring to the human condition. The hardships of life. The frustrations. The pain. Everything that it means to be human, Jesus experienced. He even experienced temptation.

Before Christ, it was easy for humanity to point at God and say, ‘You just don’t get it. You sit on your throne and judge us, but you don’t know what it’s like to be us.’ I think this is even what Job was getting at in the passage I quoted earlier! Remember, Job had seemingly been punished, yet he didn’t think he had done anything wrong. And yet, he felt like God didn’t care which is why he wished there was an intermediary.

In Jesus, God took on flesh and he faced temptation, he faced pain, he faced suffering. But crucially, he didn’t ever give into temptation. This also makes Jesus a greater high priest, because as we will see this was a real problem that the old priesthood had.

Verse 16 is what truly sets Christianity apart among religions, I think. When the author says, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace’ he’s being almost as revolutionary as Jesus telling us that we can call God ‘abba, father’.

Most religions, and most people, know that their god(s) cannot be approached directly. And how could they be? God is holy, we are sinful. They may not all use that terminology, but the concepts hold the same.

This is even acknowledged in the Old Covenant, where only one person (the high priest) was able to enter into the presence of God, and even then only once a year! (and if he was lucky, he might survive.)

But because Jesus is a greater high priest, he has opened the way for all of us to approach the ‘throne of grace’ - with confidence! This was the symbolism behind the curtain in the temple being torn in two at his death - Jesus opened the way for us to be able to enter and dwell in the very presence of God!

It also tell us something else revolutionary: God likes us. How we think God feels about us, impacts how we approach him. Not only does Jesus like us, but he loves us. And he sympathizes with us. And the whole Trinity invites us into His presence because He loves us and wants to have a relationship with us.

When we know someone loves us, and even likes us (there is a difference!) it changes our whole posture, and it determines how we approach that person. Because of Christ, we can approach God’s throne with confidence (boldly!)

And what do we get when we approach the ‘throne of grace’? We receive mercy and grace to help in the time of need.

Mercy is not getting what we deserve. In this case, we don’t get the punishment we deserve for our sin.

Grace is getting what we don’t deserve. We don’t deserve God’s love and blessings, and yet he gives them to us.

Both are important because we receive them in time of need. What does that mean? This all goes back to the sin problem. Jesus is a sympathetic high priest - he knows our temptations because he experienced them. Yet he didn’t give in. And now he offers us mercy and grace when we are trying to overcome temptation ourselves.

Before continuing on, I want to briefly highlight the temptation/sin aspect that Christ experienced. It is true that Jesus never sinned. But he was tempted. And this is an important distinction. Sometimes people wrongly assume that facing temptation is a part of sin - but it’s not. It only becomes sin when we give into that temptation. So to be tempted (as Jesus was) is to be human. To sin is not. And that is an important distinction.

5:1-10: How can Jesus be a high priest?

To any (Jewish) reader of this sermon, the obvious question might come up: ‘This is all fine and dandy, but how is Jesus a high priest? He wasn’t a descendent of Aaron, and he wasn’t even from the tribe of Levi!’

This is true, Jesus was from the tribe of Judah, where kings were descended from. And so the author of Hebrews is going to show us how Jesus qualifies as a high priest.

First the author is going to rehash what it means to be a high priest:

Chosen from among men, and is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, offering sacrifices and gifts for sins.

The high priest can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, because he himself understands their weakness.

He’s obligated to offer sacrifices for his own sin because of that weakness.

High priests are called by God, as Aaron was. You don’t just wake up one day and say, “I’m going to be a high priest.” (We actually see this happen a few times in the OT and it doesn’t end well!)

Now the author is going to explicitly and implicitly show us how Jesus meets (most) of those qualifications. There is only one that he doesn’t meet, because he doesn’t need to, and that’s what makes him greater!

First, Jesus was chosen from among men and appointed to act on behalf of men.

This is important, because an intermediary ought to be familiar with both parties, but especially the weaker party. And so, an angel could not be our intermediary because they don’t truly understand humanity. But Jesus does. And because He is God, he understands both parties.

The author will tell us that Jesus was explicitly appointed by God to be a high priest by quoting two Psalms. Starting in verse 5, he quotes Psalm 2:7, which he already did back in Chapter 1. We know this Psalm is important because it was used by God the Father himself at Jesus’ baptism and transfiguration to show that Jesus is the Son.

And then he quotes Psalm 110:4, which lays out a different priesthood. One that stems from Melchizedek. We’ll get to him later.

And so, just like the earthly high priests, Jesus was chosen and appointed by God to become one.

As a high priest, Jesus deals gently with the ignorant and wayward because he understands our weaknesses. When dealing with sin, as we saw, Christ offers us mercy and grace and he is gentle and understanding when it comes to our own struggles.

Just like Aaron, Christ didn’t take the honor of becoming a high priest upon himself, or ‘exalt himself’ to be made one. He was called, appointed, and chosen.

The one major difference though between Jesus and the old covenant high priests is that He didn’t have to make atonement for his own sin, because He had no sin! This may have been the author take a slight jab at his readers who were being tempted to return: the high priests you want to go back to are just as flawed as you! The same can be said for those things which we are tempted to return to - they are just as flawed as we are. But Jesus isn’t.

The final 3 verses once again highlight Christ’s unique position as a high priest and how he came into such an office. He may not have had his own sin to atone for, and yet he still suffered more than any other high priest suffered.

This passage seems to be alluding to not only Christ’s life in general (where we know He offered many prayers and supplications) but in particular to the night before his death when Jesus prayed on Gethsemane.

A major qualification for priesthood is obedience. And Jesus, despite being God’s own Son, still learned obedience through his sufferings. And in this way he was ‘made perfect’ or complete, or made ready for the role.

We see that Jesus had his own will - he makes clear in his prayer at Gethsemane that he didn’t want to die. He did not want to endure the suffering he was about to take on. He asked for the cup to be taken from him. And yet, he said, “Let your will be done.”

Because Jesus didn’t follow his own will, but followed the will of the Father, by doing something he didn’t want to do, he learned obedience. And God listened to him. The Father didn’t save the Son from death, but he comforted him, and exalted him, and in turn made him the ‘source of eternal salvation to all who obey him’.

Just as Jesus obeyed the Father and was therefore exalted and designated as a high priest, so too are we called to follow in Christ’s footsteps and obey him. Obedience is an outpouring of faith.

True obedience usually isn’t known until we’re faced with having to do something we don’t want to do. Just like Jesus did. When Christ calls us to obedience, we often find ourselves being forced to do something we don’t want to do (this most often looks like not giving into the temptation of sin!).

Conclusion

Now believe it or not, this is only the beginning of what the author has to say about Jesus being our great high priest, in the ‘order of Melchizedek’. And he makes it clear in the very next verse that, ‘We have much to say about this…’ But being the good preacher that he is, he’s going to once again take a slight detour to exhort them that we’ll look at next week.

For now, I want us to remember that Jesus Christ is our great high priest. He is the intermediary between God and Man that we have so desperately wanted and hoped for. And because of this, we are allowed to go ‘confidently’ to the throne of grace, to God himself, with our prayers and petitions for grace and mercy and help in a time of need. But with this great gift, also comes the responsibility of obedience. So do not be afraid of God, because He loves you. But continue to obey Christ, as you hold onto your confession in Him.