Draw near to Jesus

Introduction

In our western culture we often view salvation as a one time event. We like to view things linearly like a math equation: 5 + 5 = 10. We view salvation as the same thing, you walk down the aisle and pray a prayer and you’re saved. Where do we get this idea from? Romans 10:13 tells us

Romans 10:13 NIV

13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

This is good news and we like this verse in the American church, but there is a sobering warning from Jesus Himself in the sermon on the mount

Matthew 7:21 NASB95

21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.

So everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved but not everyone who says Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven? This seems to be a contradiction! Which one is it? Again, context matters. The Bible is not so much a western book as it is an eastern book. Rather than things being linear, sometimes they are circular. Rather than salvation being equivalent to walking down the aisle one time, salvation is a lifelong relationship with the one, true, living God! The Bible shares with us that we are to draw near to Him. Does this mean that we draw near once and then leave and revert back to our old way of living? Of course not, to those individuals Matthew 7:21 is what is awaiting you! Rather, we see a command in Scripture to not simply walk down an aisle once but to pick up our cross daily and follow after Jesus Christ!

The preacher of Hebrews emphasizes the importance of persevering through difficult times and remaining faithful to Jesus Christ. Last week we studied about this mysterious priest-king from the Old Testament named Melchizedek and we were introduced to the fact that Jesus is a priest after his order rather than the order of Aaron like the priests in the Old Testament. This is a good thing because Melchizedek is superior to Abraham and Jesus is superior to the Old Testament priests. Today we are going to look at 8 specific points from this message as we see that we are called to draw near to our Superior Priest who makes intercession for all who are a part of the kingdom of God.

Hebrews 7:23–28 NASB95

23 The former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing, 24 but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. 25 Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. 26 For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; 27 who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. 28 For the Law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the Law, appoints a Son, made perfect forever.

8 points (23-28)

Rather than having a traditional outline, I want to look at 8 specific points from this text and exegete or expound these verses and give us some application from this awesome passage!

1. Jesus is the Superior Priest (23-24)

How many of you shop at Sam’s Club? I remember as a child going to Sam’s with my Dad in preparation for Upward Basketball at FBC Ozark and we would spend 45+ minutes going around the store in order to get everything that we needed for our concession stand the coming Saturday. Sam’s Club has everything that you can imagine and they have it in bulk - meaning that if you need a lot of something, that’s your place to go, unless you needed toilet paper several months ago and then even Sam’s ran out! One of the things that you need for lots of things nowadays are batteries. As a diabetic, I need them for my insulin pump so we always have a big pack of batteries in our utility drawer. We use batteries for all kinds of things and it can be a nuisance to be using a remote or appliance only to find out that the batteries are dead and you don’t have any at the house. Sam’s Club comes to the rescue in this regard because they offer jumbo packs of 48 batteries! Regardless of how many people live in your household, 48 batteries last a long time. The interesting thing about Sam’s Club, though, is that they usually have a “best value” brand - which is called Member’s Mark - and they have the name brand like Energizer or Duracell. When it comes to batteries, the Member’s Mark pack is going to be several dollars cheaper than the name brand option, but the Member’s Mark pack most likely will not last as long. Because of this, you’re left with a choice, do you pay up and get the longer lasting product or do you pay less and have to come back sooner for another set?

I can guess the answer that many of you would choose! In the back of our auditorium we have a rechargeable battery station, though. This device allows you to purchase a few batteries and simply recharge them so that you don’t have to go back to the store for more after they die. This is a stellar invention and I sincerely thank whoever came up with it! The rechargeable battery is superior to the Member’s Mark battery because it has a longer lifespan. You can go through hundreds and hundreds of Member’s Mark batteries before going through a rechargeable one. By this time you’re probably wandering what on earth are you getting at, pastor? The preacher of Hebrews spent the first 22 verses in Hebrews 7 showing us the shortcomings of the Old Testament priesthood and the superiority of Jesus’ priesthood! In our opening 2 verses this morning we see that there were many priests in the Old Testament - likely thousands - and what was their fate? They would pass away and then a new priest would come and continue the work. The battery would die and you’d have to get another one out of the battery pack! But, Jesus, according to verse 24, is superior because He continues working forever! Can you imagine a battery that never ran out? That would make a lot of companies awfully upset because it would run them out of a job and they’d lose all their money. Jesus Christ is superior and His priesthood remains forever because He is alive!

You could say that Jesus’ priesthood is superior because He is more valuable. He is not merely a priest but He is the Son of Almighty God. There is no need for another priest or any other work to be done because Jesus has accomplished our salvation. In our world we often look at numbers and we see thousands of priests compared to one priest and we would normally say well of course the larger number is more valuable and greater! This is not the case with Jesus Christ, though. This is an argument from the lesser to the greater in a chiastic structure. A-B-B1-A1. The former priests (A) were great in number because of death (B), but Jesus continues forever (B1) and holds His priesthood permanently (A1).

2. Christ is the only source of Salvation (25)

I mentioned last week that verse 25 is one of my favorite verses in all of Scripture and it serves as the key verse in this section of Scripture. We’re going to break this verse into 3 parts. The first part of this verse notes that Christ is able to save forever. Do you believe that today, friends? Our wold is looking for literally anything to offer us assurance and salvation today: a person, a president, a governor, a mask, a cure. We have a Savior who saves us from something far worse than a virus, He saves us from our sin and from the very wrath of God!

John 14:6 NASB95

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

John 14:6 tells us that there is one way and that way is Jesus Christ. Sadly, many people in our world do not understand this. They either think that they don’t need saving or that there are multiple ways of being saved. Let’s look quickly at what we are saved from. The Bible tells us that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Romans 3:10 continues this idea

Romans 3:10 ESV

10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;

If we are not righteous then we are unrighteous. Romans 1 talks about the severity of unrighteousness

Romans 1:18 NASB95

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

We are unrighteous and God’s wrath is towards those who are unrighteous! This is not good news and this is likely not something that is talked about very often outside of a Bible believing church. The fact of the Scripture is that we are saved from God’s wrath. The awesome news of Scripture is that Jesus Christ died for sinners! He paid it all and He can save forever. To answer the second part, though, regarding our world thinking that there are multiple ways to heaven or multiple avenues of salvation, listen to Peter’s sermon from Acts 4

Acts 4:12 NASB95

12 “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”

What is the only name under heaven by which we must be saved? Jesus! He is the only way. Do you believe in Him today? It doesn’t matter how much you know or how much good you do, if you don’t know Jesus Christ and follow Him daily then you’re not saved.

3. Christ saves those who draw near to God (25)

The second part of verse 25 tells us that Christ saves forever those who draw near to God through Him. Again, in the American church we emphasize a one time decision and we do so because you must believe and have faith in Christ alone. But what good does drawing near to God once do us? That’s certainly not what it means to be a Christian. To be a Christian means that we are in a relationship. We have pledged our allegiance to King Jesus and we follow after Him every single day of our life.

Many people talk about salvation being a past event. “I got saved” - how many of you have heard something like that in the past? The preacher of Hebrews and other New Testament writers do not view salvation as a past event for us, though. They view it as an already but not yet reality. We are saved today but the ultimate joy we have is that will be fully realized whenever Christ returns and we are glorified. Consider this quote, "We have been saved from the penalty of sin (called justification); we are being saved from the power of sin (called sanctification); we shall be saved from the presence of sin (called glorification)." This is our testimony and where we stand today. We have assurance that we are justified not because of anything we have done but because of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Because of this we are saved from the penalty of sin. We are being saved from the power of sin today because we are growing to be more like Christ, think of the hope of 1 John 4:4 in this regard

1 John 4:4 NASB95

4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.

This is our present reality but one day we will be saved from the very presence of sin whenever we are in our glorified and resurrected bodies and we are in the presence of our Lord for eternity!

This is our hope today if you draw near to God. So the natural question to ask ourselves is, “are we drawing near to God today?” Are you growing to be more like Jesus or are you stuck in neutral? Again, this emphasizes the sovereignty of God in salvation and the responsibility on each and every one of us as humans.

4. Christ makes intercession (25)

Robert Murray M’Cheyne put it well whenever he said, “If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me!” Scripture shares with us that Christ is making intercession for us right now as Christians. This is a glorious truth that we sadly forget far too often. Sometimes we think that Jesus’ work is done and He’s in heaven on vacation until His return. The Bible tells us that His work of atonement is completed but that He still is at work as our mediator in the throne room of heaven. How would you live differently if you could hear Christ’s prayer for you right now? Would you care as much whenever someone says something mean about you? Would you spend as much time worrying and being anxious? Would you reorient your priorities to focus more on sharing the Gospel with the lost? It is safe to say that for many of us we would change some things if we could hear the prayer of Christ on our behalf - and even though we don’t get to hear that conversation, the Bible assures us that this is going on right now! Romans 8 tells us this truth

Romans 8:34 NASB95

34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

He speaks on our behalf and we have access to Him whenever we want! Let us strive to utilize that access more often than we currently do as we draw near to God.

5. Christ is Perfect (26)

Verse 26 tells us 5 things about Jesus Christ: He is holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens. Let’s look at these 5 things as we examine our perfect Savior whom we did not deserve!

Holy - the word holy (aios or osios) is found throughout Scripture and nearly 200 times in the Greek New Testament! Holy means to be set apart and without sin. We see a great example of Biblical holiness in Isaiah 6 as God is holy and Isaiah was fearful for his life because he is a sinner. Jesus Christ is holy and without sin - this is great news because He is our perfect high priest.

Innocent and Undefiled - He is free from evil and impurity. He has done no wrong and he is pure.

Separated from sinners - obviously we know that Jesus during His earthly ministry was next to sinners on a daily basis and He ministered to them routinely. How can the preacher say that He is separated from sinners? 2 ways: First, Jesus is fully-God and fully-man, meaning that He is separate from sinners simply because of His nature. Second, He is presently not on earth but separated in a sense because He is in heaven.

He is our perfect high priest and mediator. These titles differentiate Him from other high priests and from every other human being who has lived. No other human being is exalted above the heavens, but Jesus Christ is. He can sympathize with us because He too was tempted, yet without sin.

6. Christ is seated at the right hand of God (26)

The 5th thing we see about Jesus in verse 26 is that He is exalted above the heavens - Jesus is presently in heaven and He is exalted at the right hand of the Father. Jesus is exalted to the absolute highest place possible! Look back to Hebrews 4:14

Hebrews 4:14 NASB95

14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

He can fulfill His priestly obligation because He is at the right hand of the Father. Even though He is exalted, though, it doesn’t mean that He no longer cares for His brothers and sisters, He knows what we are going through and He can still relate with us. With that in mind, though, our savior who intercedes on our behalf is at the right hand of the Father. How awesome is this?

7. Christ’s sacrifice is still relevant (27)

Sometimes people think back to the cross and to the message of Jesus Christ as an outdated message. Some Christians even fall into this camp today! They will say, “I’m a Christian but Christ’s message is outdated and in need of an update or two.” Christ’s sacrifice is cool and all but it’s outdated. Verse 27 of Hebrews 7 reminds us that Jesus’ sacrifice is still relevant today.

The priests of old had to offer sacrifices “every day” because their priesthood was temporary and their sacrifices had to be repeated all the time because of their personal sin in addition to the sin of the people. Jesus, on the other hand, offered a perfect sacrifice as a perfect priest and He doesn’t have to offer anything further - the debt is paid and our salvation is accomplished! This is great news and surely still relevant news today.

Again, we are far removed from the priesthood in the Old Testament, but we know how important blood was to these sacrifices. Without blood there could be no atonement. The priests of old used a bull or goat and they would take some of the blood into the holy of holies. The blood wasn’t their own, though, it was from an animal. Jesus’ sacrifice is different because He doesn’t sacrifice an animal or use someone else’s blood, He paid the price Himself and He sacrificed His own blood to pay the penalty of sin that we owed!

It was the perfect sacrifice that He did once and for all as He offered Himself. Some people question the crucifixion and how Jesus could die since He was the God-man. Again, back to Peter in the book of Acts, what does he say about this?

Acts 4:10 NASB95

10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by this name this man stands here before you in good health.

Matthew 20:28 NASB95

28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Jesus was not killed or lynched by a mob contrary to what some might claim, He gave His life up voluntarily. Yet, who is responsible for killing Him? God and man. This sacrifice paid the debt we owed in full.

8. This was a part of God’s original plan (28)

Some people are confused as to how Jesus’ death on the cross was a part of the plan of redemption. Many people view Adam and Eve in the garden as plan A and after they sinned, which totally caught God off guard, God had to scrap that plan, go back to the drawing board and come up with plan B. Verse 28 of Hebrews 7 tells us that Jesus is the superior priest who serves as the perfect sacrifice. The sacrificial system of old had a purpose and a plan. The people were supposed to keep the 10 commandments and follow God. What happened though? They fell short time and time again. Because of this, there had to be something new. Again, some people view this as God making a mistake, being caught off guard and having to come up with plan B, C, D, E and even Z. Church, God doesn’t make mistakes! This was a part of God’s original plan from the beginning!

Still not quite convinced? Check out what John writes under inspiration from the Holy Spirit in Revelation 13

Revelation 13:8 NASB95

8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.

He was slain before the foundation of the earth. This language is found in Ephesians 1 as Paul notes that we are chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. This was a part of God’s original plan. To save a people through His Son’s sacrifice on the cross. The great news is that this people is not a singular ethnicity but it is open to all who call upon the name of the Lord and draw near to God.

Conclusion

On the cross Jesus said, “It is finished.” Contrary to what some might say, this doesn’t mean that suffering will not happen for a Christian or that Christians will never experience persecution or health issues or poverty. The whole “By his stripes we are healed” from the suffering servant passage in Isaiah 53:6 doesn’t mean that we are permanently healed of every sickness and oppression and opposition! Rather, Jesus Christ paid the penalty of our sin in full on the cross of Calvary. Period. There is no longer a debt that we owe if we are in Christ Jesus. In the Old Covenant we see our desperate need for a savior because we cannot keep the law on our own, and as Hebrews 7 helps show us, we not only have a new covenant but we have a perfect savior who serves as our great and merciful high priest.

Jesus paid it all - all to Him we owe. There is nothing we could ever do to earn our salvation. There is absolutely nothing we could do in and of ourselves to deserve eternal life with our Lord and Savior. Yet, as the Bible shares, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us! This is great news. What must our response be?

We must draw near to God. This is more than a 1 time decision. This is a daily choice to die to self and follow Jesus.

We must repent of our sins and grow in our walk with the Lord. We share this good news with others along the way and share what Jesus has done and what He continues to do. That His offer of salvation still exists today. In all of this, church, we must remember that no one is too far gone for the grace of Jesus Christ. Let this be our message to share this week!

Maybe your battery is running on empty - draw near to God and be recharged and find rest in a world of uncertainty. Draw near to God today!