Growing in My Trials

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

Engagement

I want you to think for a few moments about words that you would use to describe your response to difficult times in your life. Maybe even take a moment to jot them down on your sermon outline. My guess is that your list probably includes words like:

panic

dread

fear

endure

avoid

flee

Tension

But what if I were to tell you that we ought to see our trials as a great opportunity rather than something to be avoided at all costs? I’m not saying that we ought to wish for trials or seek them out or even enjoy them. But what I am saying that the entire basis for our relationship with God is the suffering that Jesus experienced and that by following His example we can develop a healthy attitude toward our trials so that God can use them to help us grow in our relationship with Him.

Truth

Last week we saw that because of Jesus, God’s throne is a throne of grace. And the passage we’re going to study this morning is going to help us understand that idea even more. But before we look at that passage, I want to remind all of us why that is such a big deal.

God is, by His nature, holy. That means that He is distinct and different from all of us. And our sin separates us even further from Him. That means that on our own, we are incapable of knowing Him or having a relationship with Him. And yet, last week, we saw that we are exhorted to draw near to Him with confidence. So that means that there must be something or someone that bridges that divide to make it possible for us to be able to do that.

Under the old covenant, God chose certain men to be mediators between God and man. These high priests, had to meet certain requirements and had to be specially prepared and trained to carry out that task.

For the Jews that were reconsidering their faith in Jesus, the natural question they were asking is “If this new covenant is better, then where is the high priest? Where is the mediator that makes it possible to connect with God?”

So the writer of Hebrews introduced the idea of Jesus being that high priest back in chapter 2:

Hebrews 2:17 ESV

17 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.

He also mentions that idea at the beginning of chapter 3, and then last week we saw the theme of Jesus as the great high priest at the end of chapter 4. So it’s not surprising that the entire middle section of the book of Hebrews - beginning with the passage we’ll read this morning and continuing all the way through chapter 10 - is going to develop that idea in much more detail.

Hebrews 5:1–10 ESV

1 For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. 3 Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. 4 And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. 5 So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”; 6 as he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” 7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, 10 being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

The underlying structure of this passage is really important, so I’ve summarized it in this chart.

[Chart]

The technical term for this structure is a chiasm. In this passage, beginning in verse 1, the author describes three qualifications to become the Jewish high priest, which takes us through verse 4. Then, beginning in verse 5 and continuing through verse 10, he shows that Jesus not only meets, but He surpasses each of those requirements. But you’ll note that the author does that in the reverse order, starting with the third qualification and ending with the first one.

We’re going to explore those qualifications briefly because that will help us develop the application that we’re going to develop from this passage.

I’ve given you the entire chart in your sermon outline so that you can just follow along as I go through this rather quickly.

Qualification #1:

Mediator

The high priest was appointed in order to act on behalf of men before God. The primary way he did that was to offer gifts and sacrifices for the sins of the people. While that was an ongoing process throughout the year, it reached its pinnacle on the Day of Atonement. Once a year the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies and make sacrifices on behalf of the entire nation of Israel.

Those sacrifices had to continue to be made day after day, year after year. So the system was never intended to be permanent, but rather point ahead to the high priest who could provide a once for all sacrifice that would make it possible for man to be able to approach God with confidence.

That is what Jesus did. But He far exceeded anything the high priest could do. He was not only the one who made the sacrifice, but He was the sacrifice. And rather than having to do that over and over again, He made it possible, as we see in verse 9, for us to have “eternal salvation”. That is something that no earthly priest could offer. In fact, it is something that no other religion can offer, either.

Qualification #2

Sympathetic

The high priest could identify with the people of Israel, because just like all of them, he, too, was a sinner. So before he could make sacrifices on behalf of the entire nation, he first had to make sacrifices to atone for his own sins.

Last week we saw that Jesus can sympathize with us because as a human, He experienced every temptation that we face. But He is far superior to any earthly priest because He never sinned. Here in this passage, we get even further insight into Jesus identification with us. He suffered to the point that He cried out to His Father for deliverance. While there this certainly includes His prayers in the Garden right before He was arrested and crucified, the phrase “In the days [plural] of his flesh...” indicates that His suffering was not limited to that one occasion.

Qualification #3

Appointed by God

Although by the first century, the position of the high priest had degenerated into a political appointment, the author of Hebrews returns to God’s original intent. The first high priest, Aaron, was appointed to that post directly by God. And every high priest after that was also to come from the tribe of Levi and from Aaron’s descendents.

We see here that Jesus was also appointed to His role as the great high priest by His Father. It was not a role He sought out for Himself in order to exalt Himself. The author of Hebrews quotes two Messianic Psalms to show why Jesus is far superior to the earthly priests:

First he quotes Psalm 2:7 once again - he had quoted it earlier in chapter 1. That verse reveals that Jesus is God’s Son. But even though He had that privileged relationship, He didn’t take advantage of that to glorify Himself.

Then he also quotes Psalm 110 to show that Jesus is not just temporarily a high priest, like all the earthly priests, but that He is a different kind of priest, one who will be like Melchizedek, and who will remain the great high priest forever.

If you’re not familiar with Melchizedek, you’re probably not alone, He’s only mentioned twice in the Old Testament - first in a brief encounter with Abraham in Genesis 14 and then again in Psalm 110, as we just saw. We will get into a lot more detail about Melchizedek when we get to Hebrews 7, but for now, what is important to know is that Melchizedek came well before Aaron and the rest of the priesthood. He was a different kind of priest who was also a king. He did not come from the tribe of Levi or the line of Aaron. Jesus is also a priest and king who came from the tribe of Judah.

So we see here that with one act, His death on the cross, Jesus accomplished for all time what thousands upon thousands of sacrifices could never do. He opened the way permanently so that any person at any time can enter into God’s presence through faith in Jesus.

With that overview in mind, let’s go back and dig a little deeper into the main idea I want to pursue this morning. In order to do that, let’s read verse 7-9 again:

Hebrews 5:7–9 ESV

7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,

Here is the main idea we’re going to develop from those verses:

My trials are an opportunity to grow by obeying God and submitting to His will

Let’s face it, one of the hardest things to do in our lives is to trust God and submit our lives to His will, especially when we don’t understand what He is doing or when the answers to our prayers are not the ones we were expecting or the ones we want. These verses remind us that we have a Savior who understands that, because in His most difficult trials He was able to carry out His mission by obeying God and submitting to His will.

THREE TRUTHS ABOUT MY TRIALS

God often saves me through my trials rather than from them.

In verse 7, we see that throughout His earthly ministry Jesus offered up prayers to His Fathers, prayers that were often accompanied by loud cries and tears. He even prayed for God to save Him from death, But probably not in the way we understand that. The word translated “from” in verse 7, is better translated “out of” or “out from”. He wasn’t saying, “God please don’t let me die”, even though in His humanity He surely wasn’t looking forward to death. But as John’s gospel account makes very clear, Jesus never tried to escape death because that would have kept Him from accomplishing the purpose He had come for:

John 12:27 ESV

27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.

What was He praying for then? I am convinced He was praying for God to resurrect Him from the grave after His crucifixion. Jesus wasn’t asking God to spare Him from the trial, but rather to deliver Him through the trial.

And the more I read and study the Bible, the more ite seems to me that is actually the most common way God works in our trials. There are certainly examples of God removing His people from trials, and God is certainly capable of doing that. But there are a lot more examples of God being present with His people as He takes them through trials. A few examples that come to mind:

Noah. He and his family had to endure the flood itself as well as the horrible stench of death they faced afterward.

Joseph, who is often cited as a type of Jesus, was enslaved and imprisoned on multiple occasions before he rose to a place of prominence in Egypt.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were not spared from being thrown into the fiery furnace. But Jesus was with them there.

With the possible exception of John, who ended his life in exile, every one of the apostles were murdered for their faith, often in horrible ways.

If God did not save His own Son from experiencing trials, there is no reason to expect He will spare us either. He will ultimately save us, just like He raised Jesus from the grave, but that salvation might not come in this lifetime.

God uses suffering to produce growth

We see here that Jesus learned obedience through what He suffered. Does that mean that He was disobedient at one time and then became obedient? Of course not.

I really like how pastor John Piper describes what it means for Jesus to have learned obedience through what He suffered:

This does not mean he moved from being disobedient to being obedient. It means he moved from being untested to being tested and proven. He moved from obeying without any suffering to obeying through unspeakable suffering. It means that the gold of his natural purity was put in the crucible and melted down with white-hot pain, so that he could learn from experience what suffering is and prove that his purity would persevere.

So when it says in verse 9 that Jesus was “being made perfect”, it does not mean that Jesus became more perfect in His nature. As God, He was already perfect. The Greek verb that is used there means “to bring something to its intended goal”. For Jesus, that goal was to fulfill everything that was necessary for Him to become our great high priest, including His death on the cross. And in order to carry out that purpose, Jesus was obedient in the midst of His suffering and in the process He both kept the Law Himself and bore the penalty for us not keeping it.

God desires to make us “perfect” in that same sense. But our intended goal is that we would become more and more like Jesus. And often God uses trials in our life for that purpose. Paul expresses this idea in his letter to the churches in Rome like this:

Romans 8:28–29 ESV

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Most of us probably know verse 28, which confirms that God will use even our trials for our good. But we often use that verse apart from verse 29, which explains what that good is - to conform us to the image of His Son, Jesus. So we could paraphrase these verses like this:

God uses our trials to “perfect” us and make us more like Jesus.

That is why it is unfortunate that our first reaction to trials is often to ask God to remove us from the trial. But what if Jesus would have done that? What if He had chosen not to persevere through His suffering? We would all still be in our sins and be separated from God. Instead we should follow Jesus’ example and ask God to deliver us through our trials, understanding that our ultimate deliverance may never come in this life. We need to approach or trials with the mindset that becoming more like Jesus is far more important eternally than my temporary comfort.

Obedience in the midst of trials proves my faith

In verse 9 we read that Jesus is the source of eternal salvation “to all who obey him”. At first glance, this might appear to teach that our salvation is dependent on our obedience or on our works. But if we return to a passage that we looked at earlier in Hebrews, we’ll see that isn’t the case at all:

Hebrews 3:18–19 ESV

18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

Hopefully you’ll remember that our main idea when we looked at that passage was that our unbelief is what keeps us from entering into God’s rest. And we also saw that all disobedience is rooted in unbelief.

For those of you who are participating in our quarterly reading plan, this week we read about belief and we saw that Jesus constantly spoke to His followers about the need to believe in Him. That is the obedience that the writer of Hebrews seems to be referring to here - the obedience to Jesus’ call to believe in Him. John put it this way:

1 John 3:23 ESV

23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.

As we’ll see throughout the last part of Hebrews, and as we see elsewhere in the New Testament, all other obedience is the fruit of that initial obedience to the call of Jesus to believe in Him. Or to put it another way, those who have genuinely placed their faith in Jesus will demonstrate that their faith is genuine by their obedience to His commands. And when we’re able to do that even in the midst of trials, it not only gives us confidence that our faith is real, but it also serves as a fantastic testimony to those who have not yet put their faith in Jesus.

Obviously none of us do that perfectly, which is why we need Jesus to be our great high priest. But if our faith is genuine, that should be our desire and we should live a lifestyle that tends toward obedience.

We have seen this morning that...

My trials are an opportunity to grow by obeying God and submitting to His will

Just as Jesus learned obedience through earthly suffering, reverently submitting Himself to the will of God, He calls all of us to do the same thing. As we do that, God is able to perfect us and bring us to spiritual maturity and to make us more and more like Jesus. So we need to see our trials as an opportunity rather than something to be avoided. And as we do that, we have all the help we need because we have a great high priest who has already gone there before us.

Application/Action

As we close, let me make this really practical for all of us.

If you have not yet put your faith in Jesus, you need to do that today. In verse 9 we read that Jesus is “the source of eternal salvation”. He is not just a source. He is the only high priest who not only understands your trials because He has been through far worse Himself, but He is the only one who has done what is necessary to meet your greatest need. He is the only one who can solve the fundamental problem of your separation from God because of your sin.

Because He obeyed and submitted to God’s will in the midst of His trials, Jesus paid the penalty for your sins and made it possible for you to come boldly to the throne of grace. But you need to receive that gift by believing in Him and trusting that He is the only way to have a relationship with God. You need to quit trusting in what you can do to earn favor with God and rely 100% on what Jesus has already done for you.

For the rest of you who have already made that decision, and especially those of you who are experiencing trials and difficulties in your life, this passage is a call for you to see those trials in a new light. As we look to the example of Jesus, we begin to understand that God can use our trials to help us to grow and mature. But, in order to do that, we have to remain obedient to Jesus and submit to the will of the Father even when we don’t understand everything - or maybe I should say especially when we don’t understand - everything.

Inspiration

And the good news is we don’t have to do that on our own. We have a great high priest who has suffered far worse than we will ever experience. And He is now seated at the right hand of the Father interceding for us, cheering us on and encouraging us to remain faithful, just as He did.