Hebrews 4:14-16
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Do we think we have this? Abi and Evan Grace- I can do this by myself.
Do we think we have this? Abi and Evan Grace- I can do this by myself.
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.
Therefore takes us again to the passage from the last two weeks.
In the past few weeks, we have dealt with these passages in light of the judgment of God.
The author of Hebrews here is taking us back tot he previous argument.
He is saying, in light of the fact that God will judge you.
He will judge you on the basis of his word.
And this judgment is certain. It is coming.
This is why I have ended the past 4 sermons with the same sentence. Today, if you hear His voice do not harden your hearts.
So now he brings this argument to a close at the end of chapter 4.
We know he is doing that by his use of the word “Therefore”
Essentially what he is saying is this.
In light of all of this, do this.
Now what does he tell us to do?
Look in verse 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.
We have a great high priest.
You should know that the author of Hebrews introduces this argument here and he will take several chapters to unpack and show us exactly what he means by this.
In fact really chapters 5 through 10 all present the reality of priesthood of Jesus being better than the priest of the Old Testament.
And we will get to those arguments.
Here he merely introduces this idea. He doesn’t expound upon it yet.
Here he simply says we have a great high priest.
This is something believers possess.
We have a great high priest. This is part of being apart of the new covenant people of God.
We possess THE High Priest. And we will get to all the ways in which Jesus is a better priest than the Old Testament priesthood, but the point of this passage is not necessarily to tell us how he is better.
The purpose of this psssage is that we trust in Him and hold fast to our confession.
He ends the warning with exhortation.
He is encouraging his Jewish audience, some of whom may have been encouraged by other Jews to go back to Judaism, to maintain their confession.
And he grounds this encouragement in the believer’s possession of Christ as high priest.
We have a great high priest that has passed through the heavens.
Remember what chapter 4 has been about.
The author has been encouraging the readers to enter the rest of God.
Here he tells us that we have a High priest who is already there. The only way for us to enter in to the rest of God is to enter it through and by him.
Jesus came to earth. Passed through his time on earth in perfect obedience, and because of that, he is able to enter heaven, the presence of the Father to be our High Priest. He is not like other high priest, in the Old Testament who were only able to stay in the Holy of Holies for a brief moment.
Jesus enters the Holy presence of God to stay.
This is where we find our confidence. He is the basis for why we we hold fast our confession.
OUR Savior, our high priest, is in the holy presence of THE Father to stay.
Not only that.
He is the Son of God.
Don’t miss that in verse 14.
Jesus, his earthly Name the name given to Him in his humanity, and then he describes him as the Son of God.
Jesus is the Son of God.
On the basis of who Jesus is and what he has done and even where he is, let us hold fast our confession.
We have a priest who is better than what the OT offered.
He is exalted above all and not sits in the highest place where he forever intercedes for us as our High Priest.
But just because Jesus is in heaven now, doesn’t mean that he is unable to sympathize with our struggles.
And as our High Priest, Jesus is not disconnected from us and our experience.
In Jesus, God became man and in doing so, he identifies with us in our struggles. He has experienced every form of suffering and temptation that we have.
Look at verse 15
For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
First thing here, he knows our weaknesses.
He knows the struggle of the human condition.
Jesus knows what it is like to be hungry.
He knows what it is like to be tired.
Jesus knows what it means to be thirsty, to be in pain.
He has identified with us in becoming man, so that nothing of the human experience escapes his notice.
Jesus knows our struggles. He knows our troubles.
He even knows our greatest struggle.
The greatest struggle for humanity is the temptation to sin.
Jesus was tempted by Satan himself in Matthew 4 And he remained undefiled and perfect.
It says here
For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
Tempted in all things. He has identified with us to the point that there is nothing that we will experience in this life of which Jesus cannot sympathize with us.
The difference is, Jesus remained sinless.
Jesus remained undefiled by the temptation.
Jesus was holy. Perfect.
He never faltered or waivered.
He never in a brief moment of peer pressure, said, “Well just this one time.” No he lived flawless.
He experienced the temptation in the same way that we did yet without sin.
And this informs what it means for him to sympathize with us.
Jesus sympathizing with us means something much more than we think.
What it doesn’t mean is that Jesus will excuse our sin.
He’s not ever going to look at us and approve any manner of unholiness.
His sympathy with us is not saying that he would excuse our sin.
It is doesn’t mean that Jesus is merely up in heaven weeping and whimpering because he knows what we have been through. This is what we often mean when we speak of sympathy.
Sone one else has been through the same thing we have and they come and tell us how bad it was for them, and how they know what we have been through.
But Jesus’s sympathy is better than that.
Jesus’s sympathy for us in the human condition comes from a place of exaltation and victory. He knows what we have been through and he has come out on the other side of it victorious.
This is Why the last three words in verse 15 are so important.
Yet without sin tells us, That though, yes he has experienced every manner of temptation that we have, he has not succumbed to its pressure.
He has always been obedient.
This obedience by Jesus does two things for us.
He serves as an example to us for how to live our lives.
The perfect example to living a Christian life is Christ himself.
I know that sounds simple, but Many people have struggled in the Christian life, because they have their eyes set on the wrong people.
The perfect example for the Christian life is not the pastor, though I believe the pastor shoul strive to live his life in an exemplary way.
Pastors fail. Pastors are prone to sin
Children, The perfect example for the Christian life is not your parents.
Parents fail. Parents are prone to sin.
The perfect example of what a Christian is, is Christ Himself. His obedience gives us an example to follow.
Not only that
Who he is and his obedience, give us a person and place to place our faith and rest in unshakable confidence.
Jesus is perfect. His place in heaven is secure. Putting your faith in him, you can know you have placed it in a good place.
Your high priest has been obedient and forever stands in th presence of God and you have been united to him in faith.
Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Here he tells us.
Let us draw near.
This language is interesting specifically in light of the context.
He invites us to come near to him. Contrast this with the Old Testameant.
In the OT, the presence of God was something the Israelites could only talk about, the only one allowed to “draw near” was the high priest once a year on the Day of Atonementt.
The author of Hebrews here invites all believer to draw near.
Jesus’s ministry as a priest has acomplished what no other priest before has.
We now in Christ have immediate access to God and freedom to draw near to Him continually.
We can draw near to the throne of grace. I love that description.
His throne is a throne of Grace.
And it says here that we can come boldly confidently to Him. I think this is an unmistakable reference to prayer.
Prayer is the way we draw near to the throne of grace.
And when we do, we receive something
Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
We receive mercy and grace to help in our time of need.
This is a wonderful thought here.
That when we pray, when we approach God, he gives us the help we need, and the proper time.
It's help in our time of need. Help for what?
Help for life. Help for weakness. Help in maintains our commitment and confession.
When we draw near to Him, we find what we need.
Application.
Do we believe this?
Do we believe that we can draw near to God through prayer? If so, why do we do it so little?
Do we believe that we truly find help in our time of need through drawing near to God through prayer?
How can we cultivate a life of drawing near to God?
My fear is that we do no draw near to God. That we do not use this blessing.
Why though? Why is that believers neglect prayer?
Its not because we don’t know God’s command.
Most of know that the Scripture teaches us
pray without ceasing;
With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,
We look at Jesus’s model.
We know our Lord prayed while on earth.
In other words, We have the knowledge. We know That part of being a believer is prayer.
So why don’t we?
Some say time.
Its not a lack of time. Its a lack of effort and taking the time. Its not a matter of enough time. Its a matter of prioritization.
Some say, we really don’t believe prayer is doing anything. I struggle with this excuse, because I honestly think that this flows from a faulty understanding of what prayer is.
Our prayers should be prayed in accordance with God’s will.
Oftentimes I feel like we have treated prayer like a divine drink machine. Where we expect to press this button and this result to happen.
But Thats not what prayer is.
Let me share with you the best definition I found this week. It will be up on the screen.
Prayer is an offering up of our desires to God, for things agreeable to His will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins and thankful acknowledgment of His mercies. London Baptist Confession Catechism
If we understand that prayer is that, then how could we not understand prayer to be be doing something.
The third reason I think we don’t pray is probably the most pointed and difficult to swallow.
I think we don’t pray like we ought because we haven’t been consistent enough in our own prayer life to understand the benefits of communing with God on a daily basis.
I think, if you are anything like me, that our prayer life is so shoddy and inconsistent or maybe even repetitive, that we fail to prayer today because we have failed to pray and failed in prayer yesterday.
Our prayer life is inconsistent.
This passage is telling us that prayer is beneficial in some really specific ways.
Its telling us, hold fast your confession. You have a Great High Priest.
And through prayer. verse 16 is clear.
We can draw near to God and His throne.
We receive mercy
We receive grace.
We receive help in our time of need.
But are we consistent enough in our prayer life to understand the benefits of it?
I want to challenge you this week to commune with God in prayer.
Three practical tings:
I want you to memorize Hebrews 4:16 this week.
Here’s how:
I want you to wake up. Read that verse, and then spend time in prayer.
Make this a habit.
Pick a verse of Scripture for a week.
Read it and pray over it by the end of the week you will be surprised by your ability to memorize it.
You must make a choice today:
Continue on your own, or Utilize the help that God has given us.
