Perfect
Notes
Transcript
Series Introduction
Text Introduction
Picks up on a conversation that began back in chapter 2
Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
So now we get to chapter 4:14-16, and we pick up the theme of Christ’s high priestly role, and what we know is that the fact that Christ is our Great High Priest, that He is a priest unlike another priest, superior to any other priest, means that His people can have, in fact, should have tremendous confidence in life now and in our thoughts about the future. Let’s look to see why we should have this kind of confidence.
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. 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. 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.
Introduction
On what or who do we depend for our confidence?
Big Idea: Christ’s perfection is our confidence.
AQ: In what areas of our lives should our confidence be bolstered because Jesus is perfect?
Our Confession (14)
Our Confession (14)
AQ: What about Jesus bolsters our confidence in our confession?
He is our perfect mediator
He is our perfect mediator
“Let us hold fast our confession” is at the end of v. 14. What comes before that phrase is the reasons why we should do that.
“Hold fast”
“ ‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.
holding fast is remaining devoted to something, to someone even when circumstances make that devotion difficult.
The author of Hebrews is encouraging his audience to hold fast, to remain devoted to their confession. IN other words remain devoted to what they believe.
What challenges our devotion to what we believe. What challenges our devotion to believing, trusting the promises of God we see in Scripture?
For the audience of the book of Hebrews, the trails they faced revolved around persecution. They we mostly Jews who had become Christians, and as a result of believing the Christian confession (that Jesus is the Messiah, the only Savior) they experienced trials.
being ostracized by the Jewish people
Loosing property
Being thrown in prison
For us it’s often disappointment. Something happens, doesn’t happen, someone does something hurtful etc. And sometimes in those moments we find ourselves doubting whether the promises of God are real, or that God is aware or even cares about our situation. Or believing that remaining devoted to honoring Christ is what is most satisfying.
But the author of Hebrews is urging the Hebrew Christians, and He is urging the people of God today hold fast, remain devoted, remain steadfast in what you believe when you’re not clear on how what you believe is going to play out.
But as I said before, the first part of v. 14 provides the reason we should hold fast our confession. We need to be clear on why we should remain steadfast on the promises of God.
And as noted before, Jesus is our perfect mediator. Notice what v. 14 says: we have a great high priest.
These people new who priests were and what they did. They did the work in the temple, offered sacrifices, were the spiritual leaders of the people.
But here, we see that Jesus is a high priest of an entirely different order. He is the Great High Priest.
Priests were mediators. Go-betweens between the people of God and God. Representatives. Jesus changed all of this.
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
The priests of the OT, the priests during the days of Hebrews were inferior to our Great High Priest. Jesus mediates, perfectly represents His people to God. We never have to be concerned whether we will be condemned by God, if our connection to God is our Great High Priest.
His perfection is what justifies us before God.
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
So the people of God have Jesus as their mediator. And He shows His people to God to be righteous, because we have become the righteousness of God through His redemptive work.
And this should bolster our confidence in our confession. No matter what happens. Disappointments, personal failures, persecution, we have a Great High Priest who fundamentally changed us so that we have become the righteousness of God. And Jesus is mediating that change to the Father. If we are in Christ, we are secure and that is a confession in which we can have tremendous confidence.
But in addition to being our Great High Priest.. our Perfect Mediator
He satisfied the Father’s demands of justice
He satisfied the Father’s demands of justice
Not sure how much to press the fact that this word, as common as it is in the NT, shows up in contexts that refer to the covenant God has established with His people. The following places in the OT use this word in a covenant context:
Gen 15:17
God, in the form of a smoking pot, passed through the sacrifices showing He alone would keep the covenant with Abraham and his descendants.
Ezekiel 16:6-8
In verse 6, God, through Ezekiel, declares his act of salvation of His people while they were struggling in their own blood. He ordained that His people would live despite their desperate state. This is declared as the prophet passed by the struggling people.Again in verse 8, the prophets passes by the people of God and uses the covenant of marriage to describe His enduring commitment and love for them. Taylor notes:
He uses the customary symbolic act of spreading his skirt, i.e. the lower part of his long-flowing tunic, over her (cf. Ruth 3:9), thus claiming her in marriage he then proceeds to clean and purify her, because her outward state had not improved with the passing of time: she was still naked and blood-stained. But with her benefactor’s attentions and his gifts of clothing and jewelry she became a queen among the nations and her beauty was renowned far and wide.1
1 John B. Taylor, Ezekiel: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 22, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1969), 135–136.
What these 2 references make clear is that God, regardless of His people’s disobedience and rebellion, remained committed to His covenant. And we know that His covenant made with His people in the OT came to fruition in and through the work of Christ. As Heb. 4:14 makes clear, Jesus is our Great High Priest. He was and is the mediator of this covenant, and accomplished its completion. The fact that He passed through the heavens, a reference to His ascension, demonstrates He completed His work, and that the Father was/is satisfied with Christ’s work of redemption.
This fact is made all-the-more clear in Heb. 10:11-14. The sacrifices offered by priests in the OT were not sufficient to finally sufficient to satisfy the justice of the Father. We know this because the sacrifices were offered repeatedly and the priests did their work standing. But Jesus, our Great High Priest, offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, and sat down at the right hand of the Father. When His redemptive work on earth was complete, He passed through the heavens and sat down at the right hand of the Father, and today, we can be sure His enemies, that is, the enemies of His people will be made His footstool and our present sanctification will result in our perfection in Christ.
Christ’s perfection is our confidence
Another part of our lives in which our confidence should be bolstered because Jesus is perfect is
Our Warfare (15)
Our Warfare (15)
It is important for us to not loose sight of the fact that the people of God are in a battle everyday.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
And we have been given a means to fight in this battle
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
But what about Jesus equips us for the daily battle?
His compassion
His compassion
Notice Jesus, our High Priest, is able to sympathize with our weaknesses. The word sympathize is a rare word. In fact it occurs in only 2 places in the NT, and both of those occurences are in Hebrews. Here in 4:15 and in
For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.
Now what 4:15 & 10:34 have in common, in addition to the expression of compassion for someone who is suffering is that the compassion is expressed within a family context.
In 10:34, Christians had compassion towards other Christians who were suffering in prison because of their commitment to Christ.
Here in 4:15, Jesus is described as having compassion towards His children who struggle .
Before we address the nature of this struggle, I want to point our how precious this compassion is. We are offended when we see examples of indifference towards human suffering. Whether it’s a parent not caring for his or her child the way they should, a leader abusing power and lording it over those under that authority, even a lack of empathy is something by which we can become offended.
Understand this Christian. We have a High Priest, our spiritual leader, our Savior, our King, our Lord, our God who cares deeply about us in our struggles. Who is not callous towards our difficulties. Who sympathizes with us when we experience hardship.
The word tempted here in v. 15 means tested. Jesus was tested in the wilderness. Indulgent in wordly pleasures and treasures by forsaking God and submitting to Satan. Jesus passed the test. You and I face these kinds of tests - these temptations regularly. Jesus understands.
So we’re talking about temptation here. When we give in to temptation, it is sin. And the proper response to this is confession to our High Priest and repentance. But understand church, Jesus will never get fed up with us and our failures. He will never withhold His forgiveness or compassion. He wants us to respond to our sin in a God-honoring way, but he understands the struggle. He understands the intensity of our warfare. And he cares.
Knowing this as we engage in the spiritual battle we face everyday and contend with our own weaknesses in this battle makes all the difference. The difference between victory and defeat, because He has already won, and this is something else about Jesus we need to be clear on when it comes to our warfare.
His victory
His victory
Notice the last phrase in verse 15: yet without sin.
An important clarification. Yes Jesus understands our battles with temptation. he understands the weight and intensity of our warfare. He is compassionate towards us as we struggle. BUT the key difference between us and Jesus when it come to this struggle is one for which we should praise God and celebrate here today. Jesus has won this battle.
But the idea here is that while Jesus, though tempted, remained untouched by sin. For us, if the scars from the spiritual battle we fight were visible, we might consider it a gruesome sight. I say this because, none of us are untouched by that which we sight against. Our flesh, a God-hating world and the evil forces at work in he world. We contend with all of this. Jesus however, is untouched. Yet without sin the difference between Jesus and us and this difference makes all the difference.
That Jesus is victorious is our confidence in our warfare. Paul captures the pain of our warfare and the joy of our victory well:
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The victory Christ is final, the victory of Christ belongs to His people, the victory of Christ is our hope as we fight.
Christ’s perfection is our confidence. It’s our confidence in our
confession
warfare
Our hope (16)
Our hope (16)
Hope isn’t a subject matter that has not been mentioned and discussed from this pulpit before. We have seen, time and time again, why the people of God should be hopeful people. But let’s consider what it is about Christ that bolsters our hope.
He has granted us access to the throne of God
He has granted us access to the throne of God
with confidence. Means boldness. Here, the object of our confidence is Christ. He is our High priest, He bolsters our confidence in our confession (what we believe), He is untouched by sin. And that basis, what do we do?
We approach the throne of God. The Holy of Holies. We do not need to approach with fear. Why? Because isn’t as awesome as we might think? Because God isn’t superior to anyone or anything we know. Because God isn’t sovereign over all people and events? NO! Because the people of God are favored by God on the merits of God… the merits of Christ. This is why we boldly approach the throne of God.
drawing near is a term that is used in the context of worship, so let’s be clear that we approach the throne of God for one purpose. To worship God. To glorify Him. Notice how this phrase is used in Scripture:
And they brought what Moses commanded in front of the tent of meeting, and all the congregation drew near and stood before the Lord.
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
When we draw near to the throne of God, we do so to worship Him. He’s worthy of our worship. Worship is what is most fundamental to our existence. It’s our purpose. Christ, as our High Priest, enabled us to be able to pursue this purpose.
But know this about approaching God’s throne to worship God. Worship is the most fulfilling act we can do. More satisfying than eating our favorite meal, making allot of money, purchasing something we’ve wanted for a long time, going on a cruise, getting married, having kids, having grand kids. Worshiping God with a Christ-exalting worship is what ultimately satisfies our souls.
You may be familiar with what John Piper said:
God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. (John Piper)
Now why are we talking about being satisfied through worship. Verse 16 again: that we may receive mercy and grace to help in time of need.
When we face the battles of our lives, what we need more than anything and what is more fulfilling than anything is God’s grace ad mercy. These two things are really 2 sides of the same coin. We need both.
Grace: favor from God that we cannot earn or merit. He gives it freely to His people.
Mercy: withholding of due judgement from God. We deserve judgement for our sin, but Jesus took that for us. That’s mercy.
As we contend with temptation, as we give in to temptation, as we strive to please God through obedient living, as we experience His blessing, as we experience His loving reproof, we need His grace and mercy. We need His favor and forgiveness all at the same time.
This is our help in our time of need (end of v. 16)
And notice this. The context here is approaching God in worship. Do you feel you need to connect intimately with God’s mercy and grace. Are you in a time of need and need God’s help? Then worship Him. Approach His throne with confidence. A confidence in the finished work of Christ. A confidence in the mediatorial work of Christ. A confidence in a perfect Christ.
Christ’s perfection is our confidence
Our confidence cannot be dependent on ourselves or situations but only on the priestly care of our loving , sympathetic perfect Savior.
Our confidence cannot be dependent on ourselves or situations but only on the priestly care of our loving , sympathetic perfect Savior.