Sermon Tone Analysis

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

It continues to be a privilege to share the Word of God with this church.

It is a joyous day to be in the house of the Lord.

We have an exciting evening planned today and I hope all of you are able to join us for it.

Throughout the passed few years, we all have gone through a lot.

Our night of praise this evening isn’t serving as a declaration of no more difficulties, but rather as an emphatic statement to praise the Lord regardless of the circumstances.

It will also serve a bit as a summer kick-off.

There are a lot of things to do in the summer, places to travel, people are more out and about.

But as we enter this busy season, let us remember to praise the God from whom all blessings flow.

As we go out and about our lives, let us declare the goodness of God.

One of the great ways to do that is through song.

I am reminded of a few weeks ago when Brother Larry had us do the last chorus of It is Well a cappella.

It was a pleasing noise to hear the church united in song and voice.

Let our hearts be united in the Word of God.

May be like the Psalmist in Psalm 104: .

As we go joyfully about our summers or even through times of difficulties let is sing to the Lord as Long as we live, Sing praise to God as long as we have being, as it says there in verse 33.

This brings us back to one of the points we looked at last week.

God is God and I am not.

God is worthy of our praise in both our ups and our downs, because He is still God.

He is the one who looks on the earth and it trembles.

He touches the mountains and they smoke.

Trying to contemplate the greatest of God is a heavy endeavor that is ultimately unachievable by the finite mind.

We can’t even begin to realize the great providence and control that God has on every happening in this world.

In our great hubris, many of us humans believe that we are the masters of our destiny and we reject the reality that God is the one holding all of it together.

The reality is that many of us don’t want to have to rely on anyone else.

Which is really silly because while I have met plenty of know-it-alls, I have never actually met someone who did in fact know it all.

Humans were made to be dependent creatures.

All the way back in creation narrative, we see that it was not good for Adam to be alone so God made Eve.

Community and interdependency has always been a part of the design of humans even before the fall.

We were not created to be self-sufficient and sustaining.

I, for one, am very glad that God has created each us differently and gifted us in particular ways so that we can work together.

Just this week, I was having some car troubles and I didn’t really know what to do, so I called on one of the brothers here at church and they helped me out.

I needed to get a part tested in my truck so I drove it over to Advanced Auto and I was dependent upon the workers there to administer the test and make the proper recommendations.

We’re all dependent upon others.

Most of us depend on farmers to yield crops.

The farmers depend on distributors to get their goods to the store.

The stores provide a service but they depend on customers walking through the doors.

Within the church, we are dependent upon each other for encouragement and support.

I bring all of this up because once you strip back the blinders of pride you can see just how dependent on others we are in just about all of our daily activities, and this morning, we are going to see how dependent we are, not just in our daily activities, but for the greatest need of all, being reconciled to the Holy God.

If you would, open your Bibles to Hebrews 4.

Throughout our look at the first few chapters of Hebrews, we have seen in a variety of ways, the “better-ness” of Jesus.

Today, we are going to be looking at how Jesus is the better priest.

In fact, in the Scripture we read today He is called the GREAT High Priest.

It is my aim that by the end our time today you will understand the absolute need of the Great High Priest, the Greatness of Jesus as the Great High Priest, and the right response by those who know the Great High Priest.

Look at Hebrews 4:13-16 with me.

The other night my wife and I were having a discussion about our court system.

We were specifically talking about defense attorneys.

Now, defense attorneys are important.

We know that we live in a world in which justice is not always perfectly administered.

Innocent people are charged with crimes they did not commit and we should want the innocent to be acquitted.

But what would you do as a defense attorney when your client is undoubtedly guilty?

Justice would be properly served by giving a fitting punishment to the crime.

In preparing for this message, I went down the rabbit hole of factual guilt vs legal guilt and I realize there is a difference.

But it would be very hard to develop a defense for someone who is guilty.

In verse 13 of Hebrews 4, we see a trial of sorts.

When you read this with the context of all of chapter four, you see that what is at stake is entering God’s rest.

Everyone will be tried.

Everyone will stand before God naked and exposed and give account for their lives.

Those who stand in disobedient, unbelieving rebellion of God will not enter His rest, while the obedient, believing faithful will enter God’s rest.

And the big problem we all face is that none of us on our own accord are the obedient, believing faithful!

You might say, I’m not a fool!

I don’t say there is no God!

Maybe not in word, but verse two there says that Lord looked down, and in verse 3 saw no one who does good, not even one.

Even the most magnanimous among us naturally do their charity with a twinge of evil.

By our own power, humans can’t do anything better than virtue signalling, which is appear as good for our own selfish promotion and benefit.

And, as we see when we keep in mind Hebrews 4:13 in mind while reading Psalm 14, this is a big problem!

There is none who do good, not even one and even still everyone must stand before the all-righteous God, naked and exposed, and give account.

Not even the most creative of defense attorneys would be able to get an acquittal before the all knowing, all seeing, God of the universe.

When it comes to standing before God, we don’t need a defense attorney, we:

We Need The Great High Priest.

As you’re reading through Hebrews 4, if you were to stop at verse 13, you would rightfully be left vulnerable and helpless.

The thought of standing before God, trying to justify yourself should send shivers down your spine.

The thought is dire, because the reality is dire.

A lawyer may be able to find a legal loophole for the acquittal of their client, but a priest, and in this case, the great high priest, does something better.

The role of the priest is defined for us in Hebrews 5:1

All throughout the Old Testament, we see God using a system of priests, men called by Him, to act on behalf of the rest of His people and to offer sacrifices to God.

If you want to look more in detail of the structure of the Sacrificial System, read the first ten chapters of Leviticus.

For our purposes this morning, you can boil it all down to see that the priest acts as a mediator between man and God.

Even though the Israelites were God’s chosen people, they were still a sinful people.

The priest would act on behalf of the people.

The priest didn’t try to prove to the Judge that the people were innocent despite all evidence, the priest made sacrifices for the very fact that the people WERE guilty.

“The purpose of the [Old Testament] priesthood was to teach the people that atonement for sins requires the provision of [something] innocent in the sinner’s place and the shedding of blood as that [innocent thing] dies the death due to the sinner.”

Even in the Old Testament the sacrifices given should have caused people to see the immense weight of their sin.

But the problem with the Old Testament priesthood was two-fold.

First, the sacrifices didn’t stick.

People were in need of atonement time and time again.

And secondly, the priests themselves failed miserably and brought dishonor to God.

Think back to our look at 1 Samuel and the horrendous actions of Hophni and Phinehas.

So we see from the serious warning in Hebrews 4:13 that we are all in need of priest.

But the priests from the Old Testament were inadequate.

They were nothing more than glimpses toward the forthcoming Great High Priest we read about today.

We don’t just need a priest, we need the great High Priest.

Look back at verse 14-16

When we conclude, I want to show us four responses we should have knowing that Jesus is the Great High priest, but first, we need to understand why it is so great that

Jesus is The Great High Priest.

Looking at verse 14, it doesn’t take long to see who the the great priest is.

He is identified by name.

It is is none other than Jesus.

But what is it that makes Jesus this great High Priest.

Just moments ago I explained that the priests of old served a role, but were utterly inadequate in being the complete mediators for God’s people.