Hebrews chapter 4, if you could turn it up again, page 1003, picking things up at verse 14.
And there's all this talk about priests.
And priests, and talking about priests seems a bit strange to our modern ears.
It was the case in past generations that the local priest was an important part of the community.
He was there from cradle to grave.
And he helped you navigate the things of life, particularly to ensure that when your time did come, your soul was ready to meet your maker.
But we don't need priests anymore.
Not just because of all the scandals that have come out in recent years.
It's not just that reason that people have discarded the idea.
Of the priest.
But modern society has found other solutions to the struggles of life.
We have constructed our own salvations from the perceived hells that we face.
Priests, along with the religion that they peddle, have been consigned to the past.
We don't really need priests anymore.
Or have they really been consigned to the past?
In his Religion for Atheists, Alan de Botton makes a case for adopting some of what we might describe as the trappings or the habits of religion if we want to live a fulfilling life.
He's saying that there are some benefits to the things that are part of religious practice that actually could help us navigate life pretty well if we were to adopt them.
In fact, we need someone, he says, who would fulfill the priestly role in life.
But he suggests the solution is the person that does that nowadays, well, it's the psychotherapist.
There, the new priests, de Botton argues.
He says this, quote,
End quote.
Fear of death is inescapable.
Death is inescapable.
And we know that that fear is there because deep down in all of us, we know that the existence of death in the world tells us something about ourselves that makes us uncomfortable.
Death speaks to us of a disconnect between us and the one who made us.
The one who stands at the center of reality.
In truth, if we're honest, death is a persistent and unavoidable reminder about the human condition before God.
The Bible tells us that, but we know it deep down in our experience that the existence of death is something that speaks to us of a brokenness in our world.
And particularly a brokenness as it relates to that relationship at the center of reality.
How are we to deal with it?
Anxiety about mortality.
How are we to deal with it?
Well, I have the answer.
And it is the only answer that there is.
We need a priest.
Not a mere man.
However wise or kindly or spiritual he might be,
we need someone who will go to God on our behalf and do whatever is needed to reconcile our relationship with Him.
And the book of Hebrews,
in particular a passage this evening,
tells us that this is what we have in Jesus Christ.
Look at 4 verse 14.
We have a great high priest.
In fact, this evening we come to an extended meditation on the high priesthood of Christ
and the significance of that high priesthood for His people.
And I want us to see this evening.
I hope I don't get in the way of it as we go through here because this is very good news.
One of the big points the author wants to clarify in this section is that Jesus is fully qualified to fulfill this priestly role
according to the Old Testament commands for a priest.
Because according to Torah,
and explained here in chapter 5 verses 1 to 5,
the three criteria for a priest,
the three that had to be met,
they were first of all that they made atonement for sins.
Secondly, that they sympathized with the people they represented
because they too were beset by weakness.
And thirdly, they didn't simply choose to be priests of their own accord.
You see, they didn't take this honor for themselves.
Because verse 4,
they were called to this office by God.
And verses 5 to 10,
then lay out how Jesus perfectly meets those qualifications.
Look at verse 5, chapter 5, verse 5.
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.
He was called by God.
Remember, I said a few weeks ago that this quote from Psalm 2
speaks of Him being begotten from the dead in His resurrection.
That's what He's speaking about.
Today I have begotten you.
I have called you out of death in His resurrection.
And He is raised to sit at the Father's right hand.
That is why He is an ever-living priest.
That is why He enters into the priesthood of Melchizedek, verse 6,
the one who is without beginning or end of days.
And then, verses 7 and 8,
He sympathizes with us through His grief and suffering.
Suffering that led to His death as an atoning sacrifice for the salvation.
Verse 9, do you see, of those He represents.
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.
Now again, remember, this is important for the first hearers of this book.
They were tempted to go back, go back to the old covenant forms,
go back to old covenant priests and sacrifices and so on.
But this is making clear,
the author here is telling these people that want to do that,
that are tempted in that direction,
that Christ is a fitting priest
because He is qualified according to the Old Testament criteria.
He is the one the Old Testament criteria look forward to.
And His priesthood is great.
He is a great high priest because of what He does in this process.
What does He do in this process?
Three things were told this evening about our priest.
First is this.
He takes our nature.
Sorry, He shares our nature.
He shares our nature.
Since then, verse 14,
we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,
Jesus, the Son of God.
Now, we've already heard, chapter 2, verse 17,
how Christ had to be made like His brothers,
like us, like you and like me,
in every respect in order to be the priest that we needed Him to be.
And we're told in the introduction
that once He had gone to the cross to make purification for sins,
He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Here, the focus is on the humanity of the One who is seated in heaven.
The author uses His human name, do you see?
Jesus.
The name given to the eternal Son made flesh.
The name that was given to Mary's boy.
The one who took on flesh in order to share our human nature.
He is the one who has passed through the heavens.
It's Jesus.
When the Bible speaks about heaven or the heavens,
it does so in three ways.
The heavens can simply be referring to the sky.
The psalmist talks about the birds of the heavens in this sense.
It can also refer to the cosmos.
Psalm 8 refers to the stars being in the heavens.
That's the second way that it speaks.
But beyond the heavens,
on the upper story of the building, if you like,
is heaven.
The heaven of heavens.
And this is where God is said to dwell.
And it is there,
in the presence of God,
that our author locates Jesus.
He shares our nature
in order to bring flesh and blood,
humanity,
your humanity and mine,
into the presence of God
and to represent us as one of us.
Jesus not only sits at the Father's right hand to rule,
but he physically stands in the Father's presence
to advocate for us,
to plead our innocence,
to intercede for us,
to take our prayers
and to perfect them to the Father.
And his priestly ministry has no deficiencies.
In sharing our nature,
he brings our humanity into heaven.
But also, secondly,
he knows our weakness.
He shares our nature.
Secondly, he knows our weakness.
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.
The Lord Jesus has gone ahead of us,
not just from earth to heaven,
but from a condition of temptation and trial,
just like us in every respect,
to a condition of glory,
free from every trace of sin.
The only point of difference
is that he has never sinned.
When you think about temptation
and sin,
when we are tempted,
there is an external aspect to that.
There is something out there,
as it were,
that Satan holds before us,
seeking to draw us away
from obedience to God.
Jesus experienced that
in every way that we do.
The full onslaught of the devil in his face.
You think about the temptations
in Luke chapter 4.
Temptations to go the way of the world,
the flesh,
and the devil.
Face to face with Satan,
he experienced all of that temptation.
Satan is pushing him to exalt himself
rather than to obey the will of God.
Jesus faced external temptation
in every respect.
But for us,
there is also a second element,
isn't there?
There is an internal aspect as well.
Our sinful nature agrees with
and enjoys that external temptation
that comes our way.
And it colludes,
as it were,
in the plot to destroy us.
There is an external temptation
and there is an internal draw
that comes from our sinful nature.
That is why John Newton could say,
In London,
I am in a crowd of temptations,
but in the country,
there is a crowd of temptations in me.
Take me away from the external temptations,
the internal desire for sin still remains.
That's not true of Jesus.
He has never experienced the temptations
that come to us
because we have a sinful nature.
He has never experienced temptation
to sexual sin
or to gluttony
or to shout at the children.
But the fact that that is true of Jesus
is not a hindrance
to his ability to be sympathetic
to us in our weakness
when we are tempted.
And by the way,
the idea intended by the word sympathize here
isn't the rather benign facial expression.
You know,
when somebody says they're being sympathetic,
you know,
that kind of thing,
it's not that.
It has the sense of knowing our experience.
He knows what it's like for us.
He knows what it's like to be you in this sense.
But I think we could hear this
and we could say,
well, yeah,
all right, fair enough.
It says that,
but he didn't have a sinful nature.
You've just said that,
so it can't have been as bad for him
as it is for me.
But the fact that Jesus never sinned
means that he actually understands sin
better than we do.
And he has experienced,
experienced,
if you like,
the full force of temptation.
Look at verse 7.
In the days of his flesh,
Jesus offered up prayers and supplication
with loud cries and tears
to him who was able to save him from death
and he was heard because of his reverence.
All the days of his flesh.
I once heard it put this way.
If a group of 10 men were walking along
in 70 mile an hour winds
and nine of them blew over straight away
and the 10th walked all the way home,
which one of those knows the most about wind?
Which one knows the most about enduring the struggle?
Which one knows the most about how it is
that they need to endure?
Which one is therefore best qualified
to help others in the same struggle?
The Lord Jesus knows far more
about temptation and sin than we do
because we blow over in temptation
after only a few steps.
And then we lie on the ground
and we talk about how hard it is
to walk against the wind.
We have a priest
who stands in the presence of God
in our humanity
fully aware of what it is like
to struggle against sin.
Your experience is known to God.
Your struggle is known to God.
He is not ignorant
of what it takes to persevere
against temptation
and what that feels like.
The pressure that you feel
to deny God
and to choose an easier path.
Jesus endured it himself
all the way to glory.
He knows our weakness.
And then thirdly,
He secures our salvation.
He shares our nature.
He knows our weakness.
Thirdly, He secures our salvation.
The Old Testament Aaronic priests
offered sacrifices.
5 verse 1.
First for themselves
and secondly for the people.
Christ did not need to offer sacrifice
for His own sin.
He had none.
But verse 8.
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.
He learned obedience.
He chose minute by minute
to obey His Father.
And through this suffering and death,
He was made perfect.
Christ entered into His perfection
not from a state of previous imperfection,
of course,
but from a state of untested perfection.
And through this being perfected,
He secures salvation
for all who obey Him.
Jesus,
our great high priest,
has done everything
required to save us
for all eternity.
eternity.
And as we saw before,
eternal here doesn't just mean everlasting,
doesn't just mean a very long time.
Eternal life is a participation
in the life that is God's.
Salvation is, therefore,
in a very real sense,
heavenly in the way that 4 verse 14 here
talks about it.
And Christ's suffering and death
secure this salvation
for all who cling to Him.
And His triumph over sin and death
in light of verse 14
is a triumph for each one of us as well.
So that is why
we gather here this evening
and we can say that
Christ is our great high priest.
And when we grasp what it means
for Him to be our great high priest,
that should lead us to respond
in a particular way.
Since then,
we have a great high priest
who has passed through the heavens.
Jesus,
the Son of God,
what does it say?
We do something.
What do we do?
Let us hold fast our confession.
Because of who Jesus is
and what Jesus has done,
we should hold fast our confession.
What does that mean?
Well, our author explains,
verse 16,
Let us then with confidence
draw near to the throne of grace
that we may receive mercy
and find grace to help
in a time of need.
Holding fast is not something
we do by looking at our fingers,
checking our grip,
as it were.
We hold fast by coming
to the throne of grace
in order to receive forgiveness
for our sins
and strength for our trials.
Holding fast always requires us
to look away from ourselves
and look to Christ.
Like last time,
I said we do examine ourselves
to root out unbelief.
We do,
we do,
as it were,
look at those things
in our peripheral vision,
but straight ahead,
our focus is on Christ,
our faithful and great high priest.
Maybe it is that we examine ourselves
for a time,
but we do that only to lift our eyes again
and fix them again on Christ.
Notice the attitude.
Do you see that as well?
The attitude we're to have,
we approach with confidence.
We do it with boldness.
This means actually,
we are obligated to do this.
We are obliged to go to Christ
with boldness.
We don't stand at a distance
from the throne of grace.
Come boldly,
come quickly
and do so
because we have a great high priest.
It's possible to get this wrong
in a couple of directions.
Some Christians, I think,
get it wrong
in the sense that they crawl
and grovel before God
because they think of themselves
as such miserable sinners.
I think some of us,
we believe God has saved us,
but he doesn't really like us.
He doesn't really want us
in his presence.
Now, we'd never say it like that,
but functionally,
that is how we operate.
It's like God holds his nose
at the thought of us.
That is a straight-up denial
of the finished work of Christ
and his ongoing priestly work
on our account.
The failure in the other direction
is when people stroll up
to the throne of grace
super casually.
Well, grace is grace.
There's always more grace for me.
Well, God, he forgives.
That's his job.
That kind of chat.
That is a straight-up denial
of how dark our hearts are
in the light of a holy God.
We've got to get
the biblical balance.
The biblical balance
is found by the Christian
who understands,
on one hand,
the gravity of their sin,
but at the same time,
through the grace of God,
they see the greatness
and the glory of their Savior.
And the challenge
is to hold those together
with equal concern.
We're to approach God boldly
because we have a great high priest
who delights in us.
Our sin is great.
Our high priest is greater.
We sing, don't we,
our sins, they are many,
and they are,
but his mercy is more.
In fact, that is precisely
what we receive.
Look at 4.16.
That's what we receive
when we come.
Mercy for our sins.
As you mature as a Christian,
your awareness of sin
doesn't get less.
It grows in actual fact.
It will only get less
if you harden your heart
and start to lie to yourself
about what you're really like.
Rather like the Apostle Paul.
Do you remember
the Apostle Paul early on
talks about himself
as the least of the apostles?
And then a bit later,
it's the least of all men.
And then at the end,
it's the chief of sinners.
That's the trajectory,
as it were,
of healthy self-understanding
when it comes to sin.
As we grow,
we should have a deeper appreciation
of the subtlety
and the deceitfulness
of our sin.
But as this awareness
of sin grows,
so does your appreciation
of the mercy of God.
And not only that,
but along with mercy,
we receive grace.
Grace to enable us
to persevere in our trials.
As you struggle through
the winds of temptation
in life,
grace to endure
comes to you
all the way
from the throne of heaven.
And it helps you
take the next step
and then the next step
and then the next
and so on.
It's our experience
of both mercy
and grace
that will keep us going
as we seek to obey Christ
as we're called to do.
5 verse 9.
Being made perfect,
He became a source
of eternal salvation
to all who obey Him.
So when you see
the depths of your sin,
you appreciate the magnitude
of what it takes
to love you.
And this in turn
leads to a deeper love
for and a more fervent
worship of Him.
When you know
the sustaining grace
of Christ,
when you experience
answered prayers
for strength
to stand for Him
in the workplace,
not to give in
to particular besetting sins
or to hold fast
in the face of temptation
to walk away,
you appreciate His work
in your life
more profoundly.
You love and delight
in Him more deeply.
Do you see how it works?
And then it is
as you delight in God
that you want
to obey Him.
You choose obedience
gladly
because you delight
to be in a relationship
with a God
who has been
just so merciful
and just so gracious
to you.
How do we hold fast
our confession
in the face of trials
and temptations
that beset our path?
Whatever the trial,
whatever the temptation
that is most
kind of insidious
in your life,
the thing that
has the hardest grip,
the strongest grip
on your heart,
how do you hold fast?
Remember that we have
a great high priest.
We have one
who shares our nature,
who knows our weaknesses
and who has secured
our salvation
and in light of all of that
we approach
His throne of grace.
Don't stand at a distance.
Run to Him
and receive from His hand
an abundance of mercy
and grace
upon grace
upon grace.
Don't stand at a distance.
If there is a
besetting sin
in your life
that has ensnared you
and you feel like
it has a grip
that can't be broken,
it can.
You have a great
high priest.
Go to Him.
Don't keep Him
at a distance.
When we sin,
when we struggle,
so often the last place
we want to go
is to God
because we feel
so terrible.
That is the very place
we need to go.
So go to the throne
of grace.
That's the only place
where you'll get mercy.
That is the only place
where forgiveness
for that sin,
where the power
of that sin
can be broken.
So go and don't hold back.
There is mercy
and there is grace
because He shares
our nature,
He knows our weaknesses
and He has secured
our salvation.
Let's pray.
Thank you.