A New Priestly Order

Review

We have been going through our study in the book of Hebrews. Previously we learned that the Hebrews were tempted to go back to the ritualistic sacrifices of the Old Testament because they were beginning to waiver in their belief. Last week we see the writer of Hebrews come in and very forcefully give a warning against committing the same sin as their forefathers had done centuries earlier, and that is, disbelieving the promises of God.

You and I have the choice to take God at his word, and believe him for the promises he has made us, or to forsake his word and fret over our condition in life. God’s intent was never that we live a miserable existence, and though things may happen in life that are miserable, we must never lose sight of His promises, lest we surrender the very thing that will deliver us from our current situation.

Introduction

This week we pick up in chapter 5 (well really at the end of Chapter 4 into chapter 5 and we will be reading a lot of scripture here, as the epistle reveals some insight into the new priesthood. It seems that the Hebrew believers were not only wanting to go back to the blood sacrifices they were making before, they wanted to go back to the imagined security they felt in deferring to a High Priest. Since they were no longer under the obligation to offer sacrifices they were feeling unconformable without the leadership of a priest.

More Awesome than Aaron

The Levitical Priesthood represents the next big pillar of Judaism. Up util this time, the writer of Hebrews mentions Jesus as high priest only in passing. Now because of the desire the people seem to be demonstrating (to be under the high priest), The writer of Hebrews begins to deconstruct that institution and compare it to what the believers already have in Jesus.

A Better Position

Hebrews 4:14–16 NKJV

Seeing then that 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 cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Jesus has a better position than the high priest, and the writer of Hebrews is challenging his readers to realize that and take advantage of it! In the Greek text the term “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest” is in the emphatic voice and there fore emphasizes not just that we have, but a continual state of having. It might be better translated as “having then a great High Priest...” in other words, one who is always available. Contrast that with the priest that they knew and understood who would come out and once a year go into the Holy of Holies to sacrifice and then after that he was not seen again until the next year. He was not only not available, he only met with God on a yearly basis. He “passed through the heavens” the Greek tense used here is that not only did Jesus pass through, He has remained there ever since. In other words, He is continuously in the presence of God. Since the priesthood of Aaron was on Earth, whereas Jesus’ priesthood is in heaven, it’s positioned better.

A Better Demonstration

The fact that Jesus is God incarnate, who came to earth and suffered the frailties that we face as humans is a better demonstration that God understand us. The high priest demonstrates a wrathful and fearful side of God. In fact a rope was tied around his ankle because if God did not accept his sacrifice, they needed a way to get him out because the themselves couldn’t go into the presence of God. Jesus on the other hand was “tempted in all points” What does that mean?

Like these believers, He was tempted. He was tempted in virtue of His likeness to humanity and, because He was once tempted, He can now be touched. He was tempted like all are with the exception that He was without sin. He had no connection with sin; he had no relationship to sin, but He was tempted in all points. The expression “tempted in all points” has sometimes been misunderstood. It does not mean that Jesus suffered every type of temptation men do, and it does not mean that men suffer every type of temptation He did. Other people are not tempted to change stones into bread because Satan will not tempt people to do something they are totally powerless to do. For others that would not be a real temptation, but for Jesus it was a real temptation because He had the power to do just that. On the other hand, Jesus was never tempted to waste His entire day watching soap operas or football on television. The expression tempted in all points means “in all areas.”

1 John 2:16 NKJV

For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.

So there are three areas of temptation: the lust of the flesh; the lust of the eyes; and the pride of life. Every specific type of temptation will fit into one of these categories. Jesus had completed a forty-day fast when He was tempted to change stones into bread. We can assume He was starving by then. His flesh was crying out to be satisfied. So in swoops satan, “hey, if you’re the Messiah then you should have no trouble turning stone into bread.” But Jesus would not, because that’s not why He came - no easy shortcuts for His own benefit -the lust of the flesh.

Next the adversary shows Him all the kingdoms of the world. “I’ll give these all to you. All you have to do is worship me just his one time.” With His eyes, He could see the power and the glory that could be His, and the bonus here - He could skip all that dying on the cross business - the lust of the eyes.

Finally, they took a trip to the top of the pinnacle of the Temple and that old serpent quotes Psalm 91 to Him. “Prove it! Prove you’re really the Messiah, throw yourself down. if you really are then psalm promises that the angels will catch you so you cannot be hurt before your time.” Satan calls Him out - The pride of Life. Jesus never took the bait, but because He was tempted in all the points we are, He understands us.

Therefore, Jesus is a sympathetic High Priest .

Draw Near to Him

The writer says that we can come boldly before the throne of grace. The Greek here is not a one time thing. The Greek words here indicate that we are to keep coming boldly before the throne of grace!

The very reason we come before Him is then, to obtain grace

The solution to the great struggles and persecutions these Jewish believers were experiencing was not to return to Judaism. The solution was to boldly and confidently make use of Jesus, their High Priest, and to appropriate grace to get them through this period. Whenever a believer stumbles in his spiritual life, it is not because there is insufficient grace but because he failed to appropriate the grace available to him. When we face difficulties in line we have that grace available to us, and sadly too many of us fail to appropriate it.

A New Kind of Priest

Hebrews 5:1–4 NKJV

For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness. Because of this he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sins. And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was.

The 4 Requirements for Priesthood.

Hebrews points out that there are four basic requirement to being a priest.

Human

First, the priest must be human. Never do you see any angel being a priest, and the fact that the priest is a mediator between God and man, then the priest can’t be God. He must be human.

Offers Gifts and Sacrifices

Second, the priest must offer gifts and sacrifices for sin. The word sacrifices refers to the blood offerings, while the word gifts refers to the other types of offerings (i.e. grain offerings and those made with oil such as the showbread that was before the ark). Jesus offered His own blood as a sacrifice and his body as a gift, as He described during the last supper.

He is Compassionate

Third, the priest must be compassionate. We already spoke about this. This is a major advantage of Jesus’ humanity, and that is the ability to sympathize with us and have compassion upon us. The whole point to being a High priest was to bring a balanced approach to his mediation. Neither to apathetic toward the people nor over emotional about them. The problem for the Aaronic priest is that he had sins of his own to atone for first. Whereas Jesus having no sin, and being God - hating sin, but at the same time having suffered the temptation of sin and knowing the frailty of man, could balance that perfectly.

Appointed by God

Finally, the High Priest had to be appointed by God, because he had to represent man to God. You could not just wake up one day a decide, “when I grow up, I want to be a priest”. God had to appoint them. God chose Aaron and his sons after them. In fact, anyone who tried to step in and do the job of a priest did not fare too well.

Korah’s rebellion against Aaron resulted in him getting swallowed up by the earth. King Saul’s impatience with Samuel led him to take the role upon himself and perform sacrifices to Yehovah resulted in him being rejected from being king and led to the anointing of David as the new King.

Jesus Fulfilled Them All

Hebrews 5:5–10 NKJV

So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him: “You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.” As He also says in another place: “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek”; who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, called by God as High Priest “according to the order of Melchizedek,”

Jesus was divinely appointed according to verse 5 (a quote of Psalm 2:7)

Psalm 2:7 NKJV

“I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.

An appointment that could only fall to the Son of God.

And verse in verse 6 (a quote of Psalm 110:4)

Psalm 110:4 NKJV

The Lord has sworn And will not relent, “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.”

He was not appointed to the Levitical Priesthood, but one in the Order of Melchizedek

Jesus fulfilled the requirement to be human.

1 Timothy 3:16 NKJV

And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.

Jesus demonstrated His humanity by His intense prayers in Gethsemane as He was getting ready to face the cross, and the author of Hebrews reminds them of that in verse 7.

By verse 8 we see Jesus fulfilled the requirement to be compassionate. He learned compassion by being obedient. The term “learned obedience” doesn’t mean that Jesus was ever disobedient, rather that Jesus learned what His obedience would cost Him.

For this priesthood, the price was death.

Hebrews 5:9–10 NKJV

And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, called by God as High Priest “according to the order of Melchizedek,”

Having been perfected? I though Jesus was perfect. Of course He was. But here is one of those places where knowing the original language helps. The work here doesn’t mean that Jesus needed to become better, rather that the process for Jesus becoming a priest had been fulfilled. The Greek word Perfect in Hebrew means complete. The cross marked his transition, his inauguration into the new priestly order. Jesus knew this, when He breathed His last words, “It is finished” What was it that He completed? Well look at what it says - He became the author of eternal salvation. The Jewish name of Jesus is Yeshua, the Hebrew word for salvation is yeshua. Yeshua became our yeshua - our salvation. That is why I’ve come to love His Jewish name so much.

Putting it All Together

The High Priest we have stands has a far better position than any High Priest on the Earth.

He is fully qualified to be High Priest, and not according to the Levitical Priesthood, but according to the Order of Melchizedek! Fully qualified. As we will learn next week, the writer of Hebrews realizes the spiritual maturity level of the people he’s addressing and laments their inability to understand what that means. We will unpack that all later, bur for now we need to grasp what we’ve seen today.

Jesus passed through the heavens and stands before the Father and intercedes on our behalf.

He is better able to demonstrate compassion toward us, and so it is incumbent upon us to draw near to Him continually, and to approach that throne of grace continually.

When we are going through our trials - that’s not the time that we should be shrinking back from God. When we’ve stumbled and fallen into sin, that’s not that time time hide from God. In all of our frailty we need to go BOLDLY before the throne of grace, because it is in His presence that we are restored.

Let us Pray