Our Priest Is Forever

Grace, Mercy, and Peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

My Brothers and sisters in Christ tonight we continue our lenten series, looking at Jesus our Priest, and that He is our priest forever.

Now our text for tonight is a bit long as you could probably tell, and it deals with some finer points of Holy Scripture and the Old Testament about who Christ is and his connection with Melchizedek. Without going through all the finer points of levitical Law I want to draw your attention to a few things found in this passage to understand and that you might take home and share with others why it is such a wonderful blessing that Jesus is our High Priest forever.

I. Perfect in His priesthood like Melchizedek’s

Jesus is first compared with Melchizedek, a priest of salem, a town that would later become Jerusalem, and his relation to Abraham. You will notice that Abraham gave a tithe to Him, and that is part of the reason why we have the tithe in the church, to give a tenth of what we have received from God whatever the income maybe, it might be our regular wages from work, it could be a surprise government check, but whatever it is we return a tenth of it out of thanks. For it is God that supplies us with all that we need, be work, life, health, strength, wisdom, knowledge, it is God who gives it to us.

So Melchizedek is the one who receives it, and the Psalms compare Jesus to Melchizedek, now Melchizedek did not live forever, but because the Bible doesn’t mention his birth or his death, neither his beginning or end, that is why it said that Jesus is after the order of Melchizedek. A priest forever.

II. Perfect in His sacrifice for sin

Now in order for a priest to enter into the Holy Place he had to offer up a sacrifice, to atone for his sins, and then for the sins of the people. This had to be done daily, because not only were the priests sinners, they would also die and so more sacrifices would be needed so the new priests would continual to be acceptable. They could not continue in their office forever, nor remain in the presence of God perpetually, for they served in weakness, and the offerings they offered up were needed over and over again, for as mortal men, they were being weighed down to the point of death. They could not stand before God’s holiness forever.

That is not the case for Jesus, we learned last week that even though He shares in our human flesh, that He became like us in every way, but he is without sin. This means that he did not have to continually offer sacrifices. He was able to offer up a perfect sacrifice one that would last forever. For Christ offered up not the blood of a goat, a lamb, or a bull, He offered up Himself the sinless Son of God for the benefit of mankind.

He was the only one who could offer up the atoning sacrifice that was needed for mankind to be restored. For the blood of men since Adam’s fall had become corrupted, and no man in the line of Adam, could make the full atonement for sin. It took the Son of God, who was born of the virgin mary to make satisfaction for our sins. By doing this, he made it so that we no longer need the sacrificial system that had been put in place waiting for Him to come, and no more priests are needed to offer sacrifices for Christ is able to stand in the presence of God forever.

III. Perfect in His intercession for you, His people.

Why does that matter? The High Priest would stand between God and the people, and ask for forgiveness on their behalf. He would plead that God would show them mercy, that the life of the creature, the blood, would cover their sins. The priests could not remain in the presence of God, for the blood of beasts was not enough, but Jesus is able to remain in the presence of God pleading for you.

In fact we hear Jesus pleading for you when He offers up Himself to satisfy the wrath of God. On Good Friday, Jesus says, Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. Jesus is there not only as sacrifice but also as a priest.

This is why His Ascension is so important, for Jesus true God and true man, enters into the holiest of places, He stands in the presence of God so that He may ask God to forgive you. That is why it says in v25 that He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

But what does it mean that He is able to save to the uttermost? That is a tough word in the original language to catch all of its meaning in a single word. You can also read it as He is able to save completely those who draw near to God through him, and He is able to save at all times those who draw near to God through Him, because He always lives to make intercession for them.

This is why there is hope for us poor miserable sinners despite all of our sins, despite all of our flaws. So no matter how lost a person might appear or how deeply you may have fallen away from grace, that there is still hope for you. There is no sin that is too great that it cannot be forgiven, no sin that has not been covered by the blood of Christ, that is what it means that He saves completely. No person is too far gone that Christ cannot intercede for them.

There is also no single hour, or certain time that a person has to appear before God. For Jesus is standing there for you. Whether a person is in the cradle, or lying in a hospice bed, Jesus is standing before the presence of God at all times until the very end of the World to plead for them. So share that with your loved ones, that they might have hope. For Jesus is standing there for their sake, so that whenever the Word of God takes root, that call to repentance takes hold for them to forsake their sins and trust in Him alone for salvation that Jesus is ready to plead with God His Father on their behalf that God may forgive them, for they know not what they do.

This my Brothers and sisters is why it is so precious that we have Jesus as our High Priest, for this is not something the priests of the Old Testament could accomplish nor something that we ourselves could ever do, but Jesus our Priest forever, after offering up a perfect sacrifice is standing there before God until the end of this age, so that all who draw near might saved through Him. In Jesus name. Amen.