JESUS CHRIST, OUR GREAT HIGH PRIEST

‘THE PURPOSE OF HIS COMING’

ADVENT SERIES 2011

HEBREWS 4:14-16

These passages continue a theme regarding Jesus Christ as our great high priest that began back in Heb 2.17, where he had identified Jesus Christ as a 'merciful and faithful high priest' who, by his real and perfect humanity, is qualified to 'make reconciliation (atonement) for the sins of the people'.  Beloved, Jesus Christ, our great High priest is merciful and faithful, not angry and unpredictable.  He is meek and lowly of heart and full of compassion towards you beloved.

I want to draw 5 points from these passages and then close tonight by making a comparison between earthly high priests and Jesus Christ, our Priest forever after the order of Melchizidek.

[1] Heb 4:14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens.

·      Passed into the heavens" refers to the resurrection of Jesus and His ascension into heaven. Our precious Lord ascending into heaven into the presence of God for us is one of the most comforting aspects of the purpose of His coming. He is The One Mediator between a holy God and sinful man.

·      As our high priest, Jesus The Daysman between God and man.  Here The Holy Spirit anticipates a great truth that He will expand shortly. Jesus has not gone into the symbolic presence of God in the tabernacle or temple, as the earthly high priests did, but he has gone into the real presence of God: not just through the curtain, but through the heavens into the presence of God for us. Not against us!

o   Rom 5.8 while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

o   Eph 5.2 Jesus Christ gave Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.

o   Heb 9.12 by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

[2] Jesus the Son of God

·      This great high priest, is, as we have seen, fully man - he is 'Jesus' - the human son of a human mother, The Last Adam (1 Cor 15.45)          who walked in our dust, cried our tears, and bled our blood. But he is also more than this: he is the Son of God, as the writer has shown in 1:1-14 and 3:1-6.

[3]  Let us hold fast our profession (hold firmly to the faith we profess).

·      In light of the fact that Jesus, The Son of God is a great high priest that has passed into the heavens, to represent His people in the presence of God for us, 'let us hold firmly to the faith we profess'. This is another way of saying, keep your eyes and hearts fixed on Jesus Christ…nothing else and nobody else.

·      There are 2 major reasons why we need to keep our eyes on Jesus Christ as our great high priest and mediator. (1) Because as sinners, there is no one else who is able to represent us in the presence of God. Only Jesus Christ is capable of obtaining eternal salvation for us. (2) Because as we live out our lives and encounter trials or challenges, we need to believe with all of our heart that no one other than Jesus could be more committed to doing what is ultimately for our good and His glory.

[4] Heb 4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched (sympathize) with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

·      Here we have some added insights into the character of Jesus Christ, our great high priest: he 'can sympathize with our weaknesses'. However exalted He is in glory, Jesus, our great high priest, loves us with a perfect love and with our weaknesses.

·      Jesus is not surprised by our weaknesses. Jesus doesn’t beat us over the head because of our weaknesses. Jesus can sympathize with us not only because He is our Creator and knows our frames, but because He did not live an unrealistic, monastic life that was far removed from the world and its temptations. No, The Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us (John 1:14).

·      Jesus Christ, our great high priest knows what it is like to experience rejection and treachery and hatred. He knows what it is like to hear the scorn and accusations of people. He felt in His human body the pain of the whips, thorns and our nails. And He faced all of this without sin.

·      But not only is Jesus able to sympathize with us because He faced the perils in life as we do. Jesus Christ as The Perfect Man was pushed to the very limit of temptation's power by the tempter himself, the devil. At the beginning and right on through the end of his ministry on earth, Jesus' commitment to his Father's will was tested to the fullest by the devil.

·      Beloved, and I speak especially to those who are in a season of pain, or bewilderment or intense spiritual warfare. Jesus Christ our great high priest knows and He is there with you and He is interceding for you. He knows what that kind of pressure, that kind of testing is like. He knows what it feels like to shrink from the shame and the suffering. He, who did not give in and give up, knows why and how we feel. He knows the strength and the power of temptation and testing because he endured them in their ultimate intensity.

·      Consider all that He has done and suffered for you as an inspiration to abide in Him and trust Him.

[5] Heb 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly (with confidence) unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

·      The Jewish high priest interceded before the mercy-seat. We may now, through Jesus Christ, come boldly and directly to the heavenly mercy-seat. According to Lev 21.17-23, if a priest had a blemish he could not offer up the showbread or enter beyond the veil into the holy place. WE have been made so clean by the blood of Jesus Christ that we can come boldly into His presence.

·      With such a high priest only one response is appropriate: absolute confidence. These Hebrew believers are encouraged to a bold confidence in their secure relationship with God based on the absolute integrity and supremacy of their great high priest, Jesus, the Son of God, and the absolute effectiveness of his mediatorial role on their behalf.

·      Because we are well aware of our easily besetting sins, weaknesses and shortcomings, we all have a tendency to doubt or focus in on our inadequacy when it comes to approaching the throne of God boldly or with confidence. Thus it is important that we understand that we come to God upon the basis of His grace. Beloved, as long as we believe that we approach God upon the basis of our own goodness or righteousness, we will never approach Him with the God given, Christ wrought confidence that He wants us to have as His children.

·      Jesus is our Advocate with The Father tonight beloved. God wants us to be Son conscious, not sin conscious. 

Let us note the significance of the writer's choice of words:

·      He describes God's throne as 'the throne of grace' - for those who believe in Jesus Christ and are now in Christ Jesus, it is no longer a throne of judgment, where a strict tit-for-tat justice will be meted out and sin receive the just and legal punishment it deserves. Because of the sin-bearing, substitutionary death of Christ God's throne is, for those who have acknowledged Christ, 'a throne of grace'. As Paul has pointed out in Romans 5:21 grace reigns. Grace is the operating principle in the kingdom of Jesus Christ, of which every believer is a member.

·      Not content with describing God's throne as 'the throne of grace' which in itself should be sufficient to instil confidence, The Holy Spirit goes on to assure us that, rather than receiving judgment and condemnation that we deserve, we will 'receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need'.

o   'Mercy' refers to God's recognition of our weakness, inability and need and His doing whatever is necessary for our good and His glory, despite anything in us that might disqualify us from his favour.

o   'Grace' is the act of God in which he chooses not to punish us according to what we deserve, but to grant us absolute freedom from that deserved penalty.

·      This is the unexpected and almost incredible confidence that all who trust in Jesus Christ can and should have. It is an absolute confidence. The 'hold firmly' (4:14) and 'approach ... with confidence' (4:16) are expressions of the faith and rest to which The Father is calling us. The challenge before us tonight is this: do we really trust Jesus Christ? Do we really believe God's word about him? Do we really believe in the total sufficiency of all that he did on the cross? The only alternative is unbelief and the failure to enter into all that God has in store for us.

For your meditation: Ask yourself a few questions beloved.  

·      Are you are experiencing the confidence and the rest that Jesus promised to give to those who come to him? Is the enemy ripping you off with guilt and condemnation because of sin and failure? Pr 24:16 For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again. To fall 7 times means that you have fallen and gotten us 6 previous times.

·       If you do not have that confidence, if your soul does not have peace in the presence of God, then you need to re-learn the message of the gospel - in respect to both who Jesus is and what Jesus did. Pray that God will open your mind and your heart to understand and embrace the massive, liberating truths contained in this letter to the Hebrews, and, indeed, throughout the entire Scriptures.