Hebrews: You Need a Priest
Pastor Fletcher preaches from Hebrews 4:14-5:10 about Jesus being the better high priest. Discussion points: Jesus is our high priest who intercedes with God for us, Jesus is able to sympathize with us because he is fully human and experienced every temptation that we have, Jesus wants us to hold fast to our faith and draw near to him.
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Scripture reader: [Hebrews 4:14-5:10] Since then, 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 is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. 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.
He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this, he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins, just as he does for those of the people, and no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. 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." As he says also in another place, "You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek."
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 hurt because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
This is the word of the Lord.
Preacher: When you hear the word priest, what comes into your mind? I know that given the fact that we're in the the greater Boston metro area that many of us might think of a priest as a man who's wearing all black with a collar, who sits in a, in a small cubicle waiting on people to, to speak to him. That is many of our ideas of what a priest is. Some of us, we might think of someone more like a monk who focuses on prayer and meditation. Some of us might think of a pagan priest, and when I Googled pagan priests, the images that came on were of the Q-Anon, the Q-Anon shaman that popped up. It looked like that. When, some of us think of the word priest, you might think of me. That might be your idea. I've been called a priest from time to time. A priest is a mediator between God and humans. A priest is a mediator between God and humans.
And at risk of losing my Protestant card, I'm here to tell you today that you actually need a priest. You need a priest. We all need a priest. Because it's like this, does God ever feel out of reach? Like it doesn't matter what you do, you know, I was sitting on my back porch this week, I, I call it my, the dear refuge for my weary soul. It's like the quietest part of the house. It's separated from the house, so I don't hear the children screaming and my wife is dealing with them, plus, you know, praise God. And I, I'm sitting back there and I'm just like looking outside at, at the trees and praying and just saying, God, why do you feel so distant? I, what would I give to have the ability to schedule an appointment with a priest to show up and this priest leads me to God. It helps me to hear from him. How wonderful would that be? I would clear my calendar, I'd be hitting the calendar invite and and figuring out how I can get on his schedule.
Left to ourselves, friends, God is out of reach. If you were trying to get to God by yourself, you will never get there. That is religion. That's the idea of climbing the moral the moral ladder so that you can get to God. You need a priest, and his name is Jesus. I have two points about Jesus. First, who is Jesus? What does it mean that he's a priest for us? Second, what is Jesus like? Why would you actually want to go to him? Why would you want to be near him? And then after that, I have two points of application. So let's dive in.
First, who is Jesus? Why why is Jesus a high priest? Why does that matter? What does that matter for us? Jesus is our great high priest. Verse 14, let's read this together. Since then we have a great high priest who passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. So what comes into your mind when you think of the word priest? You know, when we come to the Bible, I'm gonna give a little prequel to, to what Alexis is gonna teach us. When we come to the Bible, we never should ask first, what does this mean for me? Our first question when we came, when we come to the Bible is what does this mean for those who were originally hearing it? What would this mean for those that this was originally written for?
And for those who originally received this, they were the Hebrew people. It was the Israelite nation, it was the Jewish people. That's why it's called Hebrews because it was written to the Hebrew people. And when the Hebrew people heard the word priest, they didn't think of a man with a collar in a cubicle or in a confession booth, should I say, not a cubicle. It's very sacrilegious of me, I apologize,. They thought Of the priests of Israel. You know, this was a huge thing for Israel. Israel had priests, an entire twelfth of their population was dedicated to the priesthood. The entire Levitical tribe, the third book of the Bible, as you're reading the Bible, you get to just a long list of commandments about how priests are to behave, and that's when most of us give up on our yearly Bible reading plan, as we're reading through Leviticus, as instructions to the priests.
You know, people from the Jewish background knew exactly what a priest was. And someone call Mike Rowe cause the job was messy. It was all the sacrificing of animals. The reality is God is holy, and because we're sinful, God said that there needs to be atonement made for those sins. So it was the job of the priest to constantly be slaughtering animals. The priest was one part butcher and one part mediator between God and man. And constantly the priest would bring in animals, and the sin of the people would be placed on the animals. They and the animals would become a substitutionary sacrifice for the people. And then the priest would kill the animals to atone for the people's sins so that they could have cleanliness and righteousness before God.
But you know, Hebrews, it doesn't just describe a priest when it says this, it says since then we have a great high priest, and the high priest of Israel had a very special job. The high priest of Israel got to go into the holy of the holies once a year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. And to make a special sacrifice. Now, the Holy of the Holies is a really sacred place. It was a place marked off by the curtain within the temple. So there's a curtain hanging there, and no one went into the Holy of the Holies. That was where the presence of God was most specifically felt. And in the Holy of the Holies was kept the Ark of the Covenant. And a few other things, and it was the, the footstool of God's throne room, so to speak. It's where God most dwelt on earth, and everyone was terrified to go in there.
So even the high priest who inherited the position of high priest, he would first have to go and make sacrifices for his own family. He would go sacrifice, slaughter a bull. To pay for his own sin, and as he felt clean, he would be able to go through the curtain into the holy of holies. And in fact, tradition tells us that the high priest would tie a rope around his waist, so that if he happened to not, if he happened to sin between the the point where he slaughtered the bull and entered the holy of the holies, they'd be able to get him out, because otherwise no one is going into the holy place. So they just wanted to have a rope to pull him in. And to pull him out of there.
He would go into the holy of the holies on this one day of the year with two goats, and with one goat, he would slaughter the goat. This is almost feels like the the presidential pardon here with the 2 turkeys, but with one goat, he would slaughter it and sprinkle the blood on the altar for the people of Israel. And with the other goat, he would bring it out of the holy of the holies, lay his hands upon it, and speak the word and move the sin of Israel onto this goat, and this goat was to go out of the city, out of the camp. It was the scapegoat. If you've ever wondered where we got that term scapegoat from, that is where the term comes from.
Now we have all of this background with the great high priest, but what the people of Israel didn't understand, and what many to this day still don't understand, many Christians, when they read their Bible, what they still don't understand is that all of this was meant to be an illustration. That the sin of the people never actually went on the animals. The sin of the people would be held back to be placed on the Son of God on a wooden cross on a Friday afternoon. It was all pointing forward to what Jesus did. Jesus didn't just die for all the sins of those who came after him. He died for the sins of those who were before him. That the that the animal sacrifices were just an illustration moving us forward to what Jesus came to do for us. You see, Jesus is not only the great high priest, he is the one that that goes into the holy of the holy places, and when he died on that cross on that Friday afternoon, what happened to the holy of the holies? The curtain tore into two. God will be with his people.
Jesus is the mediator of God's presence to God's people. Not only that, but he is the Lamb of God, who was laid before him, who was slaughtered on our behalf, who abs absorbed our sin. He is the scapegoat. All of this meant to be illustrations of who Jesus was and what he accomplished for you, and what he accomplished for me. It's a beautiful depths of the Old Testament we find here in Hebrews.
Verse 9B. He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. Being designated by God, a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. He became a source of eternal salvation. That's what I just described, who Jesus is, what he came to accomplish, and then it starts talking about Melchizedek. Now when I think about Melchizedek, I'm not gonna go into a full description, OK? Because chapter 7 of Hebrews really dives deep into Melchizedek, and I might be taking that Sunday off, but. Melchizedek, every time I think of Melchizedek, I think of Boba Fett from Star Wars, and, and just hang with me, OK? This is a real nerd application, I suppose, illustration. Boba Fett was barely in Star Wars. But he became a cult favorite that gets callback after callback, and that's kind of about like how Melchizedek is. Melchizedek appears in like a total of 7 verses in the Old Testament. He's barely there at all, but the author of Hebrews is a big Melchizedek fan, OK? He probably has a Melchizedek sticker on the back of his car, just loves Melchizedek.
And what you need to know about Melchizedek is that he's a different kind of priest than the normal priests. We'll go more into him. His name actually means King of righteousness. He, he's the, the, priest of Salem, which is the prince of peace. He's a type of Christ in many ways. But what you need to know for now is that he's a different kind of priest, just as Jesus is a different kind of priest for us. Now that's who Jesus was, what he accomplished. He's the great high priest, he's the sacrificial lamb. But the author, author of Hebrews doesn't seem to think that that's enough. It doesn't seem to think that that's enough for us to come to Jesus. He doesn't just want you to know what Jesus accomplished, but the gospel goes beyond that cause he wants you to know what Jesus is like.
I want you to all imagine that you've got a big interview, a new job, a new potential job, a big interview coming up, next week, and you've been talking with the recruiter, the recruiter's getting you prepared. Your interview next week is the final round, and it's with the CEO of the company for a very high position at this company. And this CEO, there's a Wikipedia page about the CEO, OK? So the CEO is pretty renowned, pretty well known, and he's brilliant. Everything you read about the CEO makes you feel intimidated. And so you're really pretty nervous to go into this interview with the CEO, just you and him.
And so the recruiter gives you a call and says, hey, I wanna talk to you one more time about the CEO. You've probably been able to see all the things that the CEO has accomplished, but I wanna tell you something else. I wanna tell you what he's like. And let me tell you what he's done for me. You see this CEO, he stuck his neck out there for me and got me this position where I'm talking to you. The CEO, he's actually the most kind man I've ever met in my entire life. And he really just wants to get to know you. He really just wants to understand who you are before he hires you. Now, how does that change your disposition going into the interview? It's one thing to know what a person has accomplished. It's a totally separate thing to understand what that person is like. And so we might know that Jesus has accomplished eternal salvation for our souls, but what is he like? And why can we go to him?
That's what the author of Hebrews wants us to know next. What is Jesus like? So verse number 2, what is he like? In the 1600s, a Puritan pastor named Thomas Goodwin said this about Hebrews 4, I love this. I have chosen this text that I, hey, look, there's some thees and thous in here, OK? Stick with it. You speak English, let's go. I've spoken this text, unless you don't, in which case I'm sorry. I have chosen this text as that which above any other speaks his heart most. And sets out the frame and workings of it towards sinners. And that's so sensibly that it does, as it were, take our hand and lay them upon Christ's breast. That's what Hebrews 4 and 5 does. It takes our hand and lays them upon Christ's chest and lets us feel how his heart beats and his affections yearn toward us. Even now he is in glory. The very scope of these words being manifestly to encourage believers against all that may discourage them from the consideration of Christ's heart toward them now in heaven.
What if I could take your hand this morning and place it on the chest of Christ so that you could understand his heart for you. That is what this passage is meant to do. It's meant to encourage us, no matter what we're going through, no matter what discouragement we're in. This is meant to be encouragement for us.
And so what is Jesus like? Two things. One, he is able to sympathize. Jesus is able to sympathize, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one in who every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. During this time of year, we spend a lot of time talking about the incarnation. The idea that God took on human flesh and dwelt among us, that he was born of the Virgin Mary and laid in the manger in swaddling cloths, that he was surrounded. by the donkeys and all the animals, and the shepherds came to praise him. But one aspect of what it means to be the the incarnate God on in human flesh is that Jesus took on weakness. That the God of eternity became weak as we are. And that he has been tempted in every respect as we have been tempted.
Now this does not mean that Jesus has been tempted to scroll through Netflix to find the stuff that he shouldn't be watching at that time. Netflix wasn't invented back then, but it means that Jesus was tempted in every kind of way. That Jesus, like you, struggled with temptation to sin, that Jesus was tempted toward lust, that Jesus was tempted toward gluttony, that Jesus was tempted toward sloth, that he was tempted toward pride, that he was tempted in every kind of way, maybe even greed. In fact, I would say that Jesus understood these temptations better than any of us do. That Jesus understands your temptation better than you do because he felt the full weight of the temptation because he did not give in.
Get this, OK? If, let's say I have a 300 pound dumbbell right here. Now, a 300 pound dumbbell, very few people in this room will be able to lift. Maybe Jared, but for us mere mortals would not be able to lift a 300 pound dumbbell right here. You know, maybe if I could get two hands on it, I'm just kidding, not really. So we could each line up and take turns with the 300 pound dumbbell, and you would come to it and you would, you would pull. But you, unless you're able to get the whole thing off the ground, you wouldn't understand the full weight of the 300 pound dumbbell. You wouldn't be able to. Only those who can truly lift the whole weight will understand the true weight, and that is Jesus understanding our temptations. Jesus didn't give in. So therefore he understood the full weight of temptation, far beyond what we could possibly understand, that Jesus is able to empathize and sympathize with us because he understands the full weight of temptation.
Now what does that mean for us that he's able to sympathize? Why would you come to him? Because he's able to sympathize. Well, let me just tell you this. Has anybody ever looked for a counselor online? I have. And when I'm looking for a counselor online, what am I looking for? It's certainly not a young dude without kids, who's never experienced any loss. I'm looking for someone who's hurt. Someone who's been through a few things, someone who's worked with people, someone who maybe has worked with people or has himself lost his father, or maybe someone who's had children and knows the difficulties that come with that. When you look for a counselor, you wanna find someone that can sympathize with you.
You know, a few months ago, I, my wife and I, we took a, a trip down to Florida for a pastor's retreat. And man, we were tired. I was ready for a break and a retreat, and this was a wonderful pastor's retreat. And so the first thing we do when we get to Florida is we go put on our swimsuits and go sit on the beach as one does, right? So we, we go and we sit on the beach and I'm sitting there, I'm just enjoying myself reading a book and this acquaintance walks up and I'll, it's a kind of a Melchizedekian character. Like I barely know this guy. He just shows up out of nowhere and that's a reference you'll get better in a couple of weeks. I'm sorry. And he shows up out of nowhere and he starts talking with me and I'm like I don't really wanna talk to this guy. I just wanna read my book. Can you go. I like to talk to people for a living. I don't know, but he's another pastor.
I know him and, and so we're chatting and and he shares something about his background and about what he's been through. And immediately my ears perk up. My heart opens up. And I start spilling my guts at this guy. Like it just telling him everything that I've been through in the past year. Why am I able to do that with him when I wouldn't be with most of you? It's because I felt a presence that was able to sympathize. Someone who has walked through many of the things that I've walked through.
And that is what we have in Christ. That every person in this room has someone who's able to sympathize, who's longing to hear from us. Who wants to walk through life's challenges with us. The word sympathize is a compound word that combines the words with and suffer. The word sympathize is a compound word that combines the words with and suffer, and that's what Jesus does. He is with our suffering.
Second, he deals gently with us. He's able to sympathize and he deals gently with us. Verse 2. He can deal gently with the wayward and ignorant, since he himself is beset with weakness. I've used this illustration before, but it's a good one. Do you know what it means to be gentle? It means to use the exact amount of force necessary and not one ounce more. Let's say you break your arm, you go to the hospital, and you say, Doctor, I need help. But please be gentle. You're not asking the doctor to just gently touch your arm, just pat it. Now you know that what's going to be required is that the doctor yanks your arm harder than you've ever had it yanked. But here's the thing, you don't want the doctor to use one ounce more pressure than what is necessary. That's what you're asking. When you say be gentle, you mean put it in place, but don't hurt me more than you have to. And that's gentleness.
That's what God does for us. That's who Jesus is for us. Jesus deals gently with the ignorant and the wayward. This means that he deals gently with those who sin intentionally and unintentionally, and that we don't have to hide from him. Are you afraid that if you go to Christ, that he'll blow you up like an abusive parent? That he'll tell you that he's ashamed of you. That he'll tell you that you should know better. Friends, if that scares you, that is not how he's going to speak to you. He is able to deal gently. He is able to use the exact amount of force, and I'll tell you that for me, by the time I come to Christ confessing my sins, he doesn't use any force at all. At that point, he's able to comfort. And to love. I have to get there first, and many times, and he woos me to him. But he is able to deal gently.
So what did Jesus accomplish? He paid for our sins. He's the great high priest. He's the sacrificial lamb. What is he like? He's able to sympathize and he deals with this gently. And so how do we respond? Is the third point here, the third thing we're going to look at two different applications for how we respond from this text.
First, let us hold fast to our confession, verse 14B. Let us hold fast to our confession. When we say confession, I'm again not talking about the confession booth. I'm not talking about confessing things to God, but a confession in this way is an old fashioned way of talking about your faith. Let us hold fast to our statement of faith, to who Jesus is, what we believe about him. Because of who Jesus is and what he's like, let's hold fast to our faith. It's easy to feel the temptation to give up. But we have to look to who Christ is and hold fast to what he's done. The word for hold fast used 47 times throughout the New Testament. Every time it's used, it's used as almost like a grabbing or a grasping. So what did the lame man do as he approaches John, John and and Peter? He held fast, he grabbed. What did What did the the, what, what did the the person, what did Jesus do to the person who was sick? He held fast to their hand. And so we have, and what did the women do when they found Jesus on the resurrection morning? They held fast to Jesus, they grasped him. This is what it means for us to grasp our faith, to hold fast to it.
The second point of application is let us draw near to the throne of grace with confidence. Verse 16, let us with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace and to help in time of need. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace. I just want you to take a moment. We, we sang this song, beautiful song about the throne room of God, taken from Revelation chapter 4, just before I got up here. And I just want you to take a moment, put yourself back there. Put yourself in the throne room of God. Imagine yourself in the throne room of God. With the cherubim and the seraphim and and the the heavenly creatures and all the things that are happening in the throne of God. And you see the throne, the throne, his actual throne, and he's sitting there. How does it make you feel to approach his throne? Do you feel apprehensive, intimidated? Scared, potentially, like you're going into the holy of the holies without having sacrificed the bull without anybody going before you. Do you feel like you're unworthy, like you deserve judgment, like it's just gonna be a throne of judgment. Do you think of all the things you've done wrong and all the ways that you're unworthy of him.
If that is what you think of, that is a very appropriate and right way to think about it, if you are not in Christ. That is the reality of where we are without Jesus. But for those of us here who trust in Christ, who are hid who have hidden themselves in him, it is not a throne of judgment, it is a throne of grace. It is a throne of grace. We're called to approach him with confidence, to draw near to him, like a child would draw near to a loving parent on a warm Christmas Eve in a cold December. We're called to draw near. And in fact that actually is the image in Revelation chapter 4, which that song we sang, perfect description of Revelation chapter 5. Revelation chapter 4, Jesus appears and he says, the one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne.
Did you catch that? That the throne of God is not just for God, but he invites us to come and sit basically in his lap. That we get to draw near, that's a throne of grace. If we're in Christ, we're invited to draw near to God. To find grace, to help. In time of need. Are you in a time of need? I know I am. Are you in a time of need? Jesus invites you to draw near to the throne of grace, that he wants to be near to you. And that's what God wants us to do today, to hold firm to our faith and to draw near to him. Would you do that with me today? Would you do that with me? Let's pray.
Father, we give up all of our apprehensions. We give up our fear. We give up our intimidation. We place our sin on Christ. We're reminded that he's our scapegoat, that he is our sacrificial lamb. And we thank you so much for Jesus and God, we just want to come into your presence. God, your presence is all that we need. We want to draw near to you. Would you speak in your heart this morning, church? God, I, I want to be near to you. Would you draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Here the declaration. Your sin has been paid for. It is finished. Now approach the throne of grace in your time of need. We come to him today. In Christ's name. Amen.
Over the next song, we're gonna have an invitation to receive a communion meal. We do a communion meal each week as a church to be reminded that Christ bore the penalty for our sins, that his body was broken for us and his blood was shed for us. And so if you would stand as we prepare our hearts, if you are able, as we prepare our hearts to receive this meal.
God, we pray that as we come to your tables, we come to your altar, as we give of ourselves again, as we are reminded of what you've done for us. Would you help us to receive from you? Grace upon grace upon grace. We ask this in Christ's name, Amen.