Hebrews 4 :Jesus Is the High Priest
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Jesus Is....
Jesus Is....
1 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights above.
2 Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his heavenly hosts.
3 Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars.
4 Praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the skies.
5 Let them praise the name of the Lord, for at his command they were created,
6 and he established them for ever and ever— he issued a decree that will never pass away.
7 Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,
8 lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding,
9 you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars,
10 wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds,
11 kings of the earth and all nations, you princes and all rulers on earth,
12 young men and women, old men and children.
13 Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.
14 And he has raised up for his people a horn, the praise of all his faithful servants, of Israel, the people close to his heart. Praise the Lord.
1 Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of his faithful people.
2 Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; let the people of Zion be glad in their King.
3 Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with timbrel and harp.
4 For the Lord takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with victory.
5 Let his faithful people rejoice in this honor and sing for joy on their beds.
Revive the hunger make us desperate
restore the fragrance of our worship.
We need to see you face to face.
Lord you are Holy oh so Holy.
ill pledge my life to you, im your temple. fill me with fire. a living sacrifice on your altar, you keep me burning.
introduction:
Ushers Come Down.
News Bulletin....
Ladies/Prayer Night next Tuesday! 13th…i think @7pm
Intro into why men need to go on the Wild at Heart Retreat.....
Mens retreat Wild at Heart. Show Hype Video
Recap: The Book of Falling Away Christians.
This is what the book of hebrews is. iTs written to a church that is falling away
Well Why are we going over this book?
Were not a church thats falling away,
Why are we? Good question.
Knowledge.
Binny Hinn Guy with bodily defects.
Eating the Word
Knowing the Word.
Let me ask you all a question? When in america did we as a county begin to walk away from Christian beliefs as a nation?
we use to be God and Country.
Madalyn Murry O’Hair (1963- 1949)
Prayer out of School.
1-10 supreme court Christian cases were loss between 1963-2019
2019 6/10 Christian Case are seeing wins.
Why does this matter?
Because we have to start with the little things.
We as God’s people for too long have been saying okay. World confrom me. World Control me. World Love me Please.
We as God’s people have been this way. We havent stood in the crack for the World on behave of this nation.
THE REAL COST OF SAYING YES TO TEMPTATION
We just moved into a neighborhood, with no HOA. Meaning there is no force for our neighborhood that controls the amount of trash in your yard, how high your grass is or how many people walk up to your door attemtping to sell you some stuff or even give it away free.
Vivint came to our door offering the newest gadgets on the market. For FREE. i kept asking the guy…how much do i have to pay a month, when do i start paying it back....See Solicitors never give away anything unless they are about to get twice the return.
I have discovered the devil is the same way. Satan knows how to market to people. He’s been doing it a long time. From the beginning, in fact. He can stretch a thin skin of attractiveness over a heap of dung and convince you to climb it. The devil uses the lies of temptation as a down payment. He knows he gets back double for his investment.
He loses nothing. You lose it all.
Only after you enter sin’s doorway will you see that the facade that looked so enticing is actually propped up by a few two-by-fours. One strong wind will collapse the whole thing down on top of you.
The little things we as christians have to do is to live in Spirit and Rest on the Truth.
The Truth.
1 Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters,
2 not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come.
3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.
KJV says the apostacy, Which is a falling away from truth. The rebellion is falling away from truth.
This comes at more than just the cost of straight disobedience like we’ve read about before.
This is as the book of hebrews has put it the church whom have heard the Word of God yet did not hold dear to it.
So we must church not just hear the Word of God on Sunday morning, we must eat it up. Recieve it and hold dear to it.
What im tasked to do and what you are tasked to do as an extension of me and with this fellowship.
God has asked us to build up a people that are on fire For Jesus Christ.
We are on Fire with the Spirit and Truth.
We show we are on Fire when we Radically proclaim His name in every corner of OUR life’s that we extend off too.
We stand firm in His Word.
But first we must be affirmed in the truth
8 This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.
Stress or affirm know for certain these things.
So we must know and learn truths....
Thank God, We are able to study these theological truths that build up the faith we need, to not waver.
Truths we have learned about in Hebrews
Truths we have learned about in Hebrews
1. Jesus is God
1. Jesus is God
3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
2.Jesus came to earth for us
2.Jesus came to earth for us
17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.
3. Jesus came to build up his church.
3. Jesus came to build up his church.
6 But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.
We are his house!!!! We are his temple.
Let me ask you this morning who dwells in the temple?
When we touched on the tabernacle a few weeks back we spoke of one man inside the tabneracle more specifically one who can enter into the holy of holies?
Who’s that man? High Priest.
okay okay. Bonus points for who can say the tribe this man can come from? Levite Tribe.
4. Jesus gives us Spiritual Rest.
4. Jesus gives us Spiritual Rest.
10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his.
11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.
We Covered Three Different Rest last Week.
Rest From Work
Rest in His Promises
Rest in our Spirit’s
Which gives us both of these rest plus more. An abundance of life.
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.
25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
Now were looking at this pinnacle moment in Hebrews that begins to show us How Important He being Jesus is to us.
How Jesus is sovereign we know, Because of who he comes from, what he endured, how he endured it and where he is now. We understand his soverignty.
But let us for just the next few minutes understand in a brief since how important he is to us.
12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.
16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
this isn't our first nor our last time talking about the significance of Jesus being our High Priest. First time this is mentioned is in heb 2 17 where we see he came to live among us so that he could one day ascend and become our high priest.
We know the High Priest is an occupation in the temple or rather then it was the Tabernacle.
Which we took a quick peak at in Exodus 25.
High Priest is the Highest honor for the levitical Family. Which comes out of the brother of moses. Aaron and the blood line continues.
The biggest duty for the High priest was Yom Kippur which is The Day of Atonement.. When the High Priest would prepare a sacrifice for God’s Holy People as well as for Himself so that he may walk into the holy of holies and ask for repentant forgiveness upon the nations sins.
Because in the OT things were so much different. The sins that the people performed weren't met with its okay ill catch you at the next atonement sacrifice. If you sinned you would immediately meet Gods Wrath.
To share how importance this was. If the high priest were to commit a sin, say adultery He was to be killed on the spot without any question. NO OH ILL sacrifice a bull and be okay. Wrath was met with sins.
However to stay in the context of this passage. We aren't comparing the roles of a high priest were meeting what vs 14 says is the Great High Priest.
The Great High priest has more than the one role. He would act as the inbetween for the People To God.
However Jesus Changed that amen!
where the High Priest would offer the sacrifice, was separated from the Holy Place and the rest of the temple by a veil. And so when the High Priest would go in and minister to God for the sins of the people, this veil would separate him. There was no contact.
But when Jesus died on the cross that veil was torn from the top to the bottom (Matthew 27:51), which would indicate it was the Lord who opened the way for us to have direct access to His throne through Jesus Christ.
The writer of Hebrews says, “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:19-22a NKJV).
Because of Jesus’s sacrifice, we can now enter by faith into the Holy of Holies fully assured that God will hear our prayers.
This walks us into our first point for today. Our Great High Priest Jesus is our Mediator
Jesus is our Mediator
Jesus is our Mediator
you ever have something going on and you find someone to drop all this weight over too and they just look at you and say yeah i know how you feel.
Idk about you but thats the last thing i want to hear someone say. For me personally. Id rahter that person just say thanks for listening and go about our buisness. Most the time were not looking for advice if we didnt ask, were just looking for someone to confined in.
Plus most the time when the person says i know how you feel. You think seriously you think you know hwo i feel.
Well you and i have such an amazing God. To send his osn to this earth and to live this life that you and i have lived. To havec been tempted far greater than you and i have. To have gone through suffering and betrayal like you and i have never know. And pray you continue to not know.
One of the titles for Jesus is that He is a mediator between God and us. The Apostle Paul in his first letter to Timothy brought this out.
“For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5 NKJV)
A mediator is someone who inserts themselves between two parties in order to reconcile any and all differences in order to come up with a resolution to a problem.
Ever since the fall of Adam and Eve back in the Garden of Eden, humanity and God have been at odds, and that’s because God cannot abide sin in his presence.
“For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, nor shall evil dwell with You.” (Psalm 5:4 NKJV)
The Bible says that we’re all sinners, and no one is righteousness enough to stand before God (Romans 3:10, 23). And we are also told that it is this sinful condition that keeps us away from God where He no longer hears our cries (Isaiah 59:2; Psalm 66:18).
See this was set up in the beginning. God set it up for Jesus to be the ultimate representation between man and God. In the OT God did this trhought the High Priest. Untill the day would come that Jesus would lay it down and become the Great High Priest. Being the very Sacrifice that could wash away the World of Sin. Could Cleanse you and me and allow us this new life. This new Hope, This Spiritual Rest in Jesus’ Holy Spirit that can in a moment empower us, Cultivate us, and Send us!
Jesus is our Great High Priest who is seated upon the Right hand of God.
The High Priest was to offered sacrifices to God to atone for the people’s sins, but it was only temporary because the blood of these sacrificial animals could not permanently do away with a person’s sins, hence it had to be repeated.
“In those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins” (Hebrews 10:3-4 NKJV)
And so the priests and their sacrifices were a foreshadowing and a precursor to a priesthood and sacrifice that would be permanent.
“For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14 NKJV)
And so Jesus is our mediator and through His sacrifice He reconciled us to God bringing lasting and eternal peace.
Jesus being our perfect mediator is seen in that He too has walked in our shoes. The writer of Hebrews said that He is a merciful and faithful High Priest (Hebrews 2:17), and therefore can identify with what we go through.
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.
16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Jesus the Great High Priest is approachable.
Jesus Gives out Blessings
Jesus Gives out Blessings
Another one of the duties God gave to Aaron and his sons was to bless the people in what is known as the priestly blessing.
“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26 NKJV)
look up some stuff on Mercy
Mercy…Oh Lord have Mercy on me.
Well He does because of the Total Surrender of Jesus Blood that covers you. He can have mercy on you.
Mercy is the forgiviness you recieve that forgiveness that comes with no punishment.
As a parent. just for us to see this a little better. as a parent if your child has been throwing a fit all day. You try to calm the kid down, you attempt to love on them. untill the point YOU are frustrated
the difference is God has mercy on us. HE dont get frustrated. HE continues to look down upon us and love us the same as the first time. Trying to Calm us in our fits.
Mercy is understanding the sins yoiu have commited that have pushed you “away” from God in your own mind. Its been forgiven and forgotten. ANd yes without this punishment. We should rejoice that our God will have such mercy on us.
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
You wanna have a simple definition of mercy..
Mercy is God’s acting Patience on us learning to get things right.
In the New Testament Greek, the words are Eleemon, meaning “to have pity on,” to “show compassion,” or to “be merciful;” (Matthew 5:7).
Biblically Mercy isnt something new we see it even in Gen 3 21
21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
In the shame of sin adam and eve were clothed by God.
And then there is grace.
Look up some stuff on Grace....
Grace is the undeserved unmerited favor that God pours out over you.
The fact that we live in this battle of wanting to do good yet we just dont get it right much at all. Yet God still pours out his Favor upon us.
He Favors you for that job interview you have next week. He favors you into safety, he Favors you
11 The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
22 He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord.
12 Surely, Lord, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield.
Look up how God Gives us those things through jesus and how we can lean on them in help.
Close with this.
I know today has been alot of information and i pray that most of it was able to meet your ears. We do have a great calling ahead of us church. And its my heart to be a leader that can take us there.
if you havent noticed then let me show you. The past few messages ive digressed all over the place thinking i have been helping to solidify the response i see God looking for. Over explaining simple ideas.
God loves you. no listen let me look you all right now God Loves you.
So much so he created a space for you. See the tabernacle, temple, the church and this very santuary we have created as a meeting place for us and him. A special place.
But he said what if they dont come to this place, so he has created a place for you.
A place that you can come rest in. a place that you can come Be comforted, that you can come and be understood ,a place where Jesus has been battling demons away from your life. A place where the power of God is waiting to inhabit your heart and transform your mind to be conformed according to His will for your life.
I have to ask you. Church are you ready for whats coming? Are you prepared for the hard questions about the sovereignty of Jesus?
Are you ready to defend why Jesus is so important to you?
Maybe in my explaining i lost you. Well thats okay. Because we have a God who is with you always. In order for anything we have talked about to be affective in our life’s we must have real faith in him. Faith that surpasses our own understanding of this reality. And we must lean in on Jesus’ no matter the cataclism of ideas before us thwarting us from seeing Jesus Clearly.
We just speak the name of Jesus and it shall be heard.
16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Let us then Approach his throne…as he is our mediator, So that we may recieve Mercy for our sins and Grace
6 May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands,
Just so that there can be no misunderstanding, the writer clearly tells us who Jesus is - - - He is the Son of God. And the Son of God is the Great High Priest. Remember, Hebrews is written to the Jewish Christians. They would have fully understood these Old Testament references, they would have quickly grasped the similarities between Jesus and the High Priest, and this would have helped them in their struggles.
I get the sense that the writer feels with all of this in mind . . .
Jesus is the great high priest
who has passed through the heavens,
who is the Son of God,
we should then hold fast our confession of faith in Him. He is calling you and I to hold onto, to cling, to grab a hold and not let go. It’s the image of someone holding on for dear life. We hold onto that confession of faith we have in Jesus as the Great high Priest, as the One who would take away the sins of the world, as the One who is our Lord and Savior. Hold onto Him! Don’t let go!
Why shouldn’t we let go? The writer tells us in verse 15 ~
He is able to sympathize with our weaknesses
Since Jesus had become human, had fully entered in and participated with us and lived life in this world, He understands, He sympathizes. He knows what it feels like to stub your toe, to be hungry and thirsty and dirty and cold. He knows what it feels like to be joyful and to be angry, to be sad, to be betrayed by a friend, to be frustrated in your purpose.
I also believe Jesus knows what it’s like to be tempted as He was tempted in the desert by satan. He had an opportunity to let go of the cross, but He chose God’s way. Jesus also knows what it’s like to sympathize with us because when He was on the cross, every possible sin and hurt was being thrust upon Him. He knows what it’s like to suffer in every aspect. He knows, He sympathizes, He understands.