Going through the book of Hebrews for quite some time now, I think most of you would probably know the main context of Hebrews.
! Obviously written to a Hebrew audience and talking about how Jesus is better than the Old Covenant.
He's the fulfillment of the Old Covenant so that all the priests, sacrifices, everything that came before was a foreshadowing pointing to Christ.
And this writer, whether it be Paul or Apollos or someone else, is writing to these Hebrew believers to help them see that they don't need to go back to the Old Covenant.
Some people are telling them, you need to come back. You need to come back to the law of Moses.
And others may be on defense, and they're trying to figure out which way to kind of jump.
Do we believe Jesus is the Messiah and that He's the fulfillment of these things?
Or do we stay with the idea that the Pharisees and others carry?
And so, it's addressing all these things.
So, we pick up today in verse 14 of chapter 4.
It says,
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.
Just join me in prayer.
Lord, we are very grateful that we have an eternal, perfect High Priest that stands between us and Your holiness.
That we can draw near with assurance and confidence to You because of Him.
And during this time, I pray that Your Spirit would be our teacher,
that You would help us to hear the Word, believe the Word, and apply Your Word to our lives.
That You would just meet us wherever we are in a state of doing very well and confident,
or someone who is very downtrodden and discouraged.
That You would just apply Your Word where needed.
That You would just be honored.
That Jesus would just be clearly seen.
We just ask that in His name. Amen.
So, our passage today has a lot of really awesome things to look at, as always.
But today, I want to focus in on this idea of confidence.
Confidence to face God one day and to stand before God one day.
And even now, while we're in this life, to have confidence before God.
Would some of you say that, in general, you lack confidence?
Just in general, in an earthly manner.
You lack self-confidence just to face the world around you.
Maybe it's like social situations where you go to a party, or a wedding, or a family gathering, or a job interview,
and you just shut down.
Like, you have no confidence just to face people around you.
You're terrified of being for someone looking at you and then evaluating you and finding you lacking in some way.
And so, you struggle with anxiety and self-doubt and uncertainty.
You lack just confidence to face the normal, everyday things.
And all of that is just a part of the human story, to some degree, of just originating in sin.
So, don't worry.
This isn't a self-help, get-some-confidence kind of message at all.
You're the wrong place to hear that.
On the other hand, a lot of pop psychology therapists, psychiatrists, they all understand why there are such things as guilt and shame and anxiety.
They understand those things.
And they'll say, like, well, you know, it came from your childhood.
You were treated really harshly, and therefore you carry a very low self-esteem, and that's why you have anxiety.
But the problem is, they can't answer the question of, like, why did those things exist?
Why do things like anxiety even exist?
And self-doubt and fear, like, where do they come from?
They can't really understand the source of those things.
And we have the answer.
It's sin.
And others of us here may be on the other side of it, where we're very confident, very assertive.
We think that there's nothing that we can't face that we can't overcome, and we have a track record of accomplishments to kind of show us that.
You're not very timid.
You feel like you're sort of invincible.
And our culture kind of breeds this kind of confidence in a lot of ways.
We make people want to think that way.
There are people who climb Mount Everest or won some championship fight or competition, engineering the world's greatest structures and machines and generals that have conquered empires, etc.
Just a very strong confidence that you think that you think that you can do anything.
But whether you're lacking confidence or you have a kind of a false self-confidence, all of us need to ask this question.
Like, in this very hour, would you lack confidence to stand and approach a holy, majestic, sovereign God?
And the truth is, even the most confident of you would shriek.
Like, you would be decimated.
You would fall apart in terror.
No argument you would bring to the throne and no sacrifice would be enough at all to make you stand before God that you would bring on your own account.
We read in Scripture a lot of stories of very, like, moral, upright, good men, better than any of us, who were all of a sudden taken into God's presence.
Isaiah, Isaiah, John, these men who knew God and worshipped God, but when they were faced with, like, the burning presence of God's holiness, they were, they couldn't even lift their head.
And they were decimated by fear.
And that's how it is.
A lot of the people in this world who don't know God, I've met some before, maybe you have, they think they're just going to, like, walk up to God one day and just say,
Hey, I'm not afraid of you.
Like, here's kind of the deal.
And Psalm 68 has something very scary to say.
It talks about God's enemies.
And it says,
They will flee before Him.
As smoke is driven away, they shall be driven away.
Listen to this.
As wax melts before a fire, so the wicked shall perish before God.
They won't stand.
Like, even the most confident of us will be decimated.
So, what kills our confidence to face God?
Well, in general, there's a deeper spiritual answer.
It's sin.
But what decimates our confidence in a lot of ways is guilt and shame.
Real things that are born out of sin.
There's one writer I like that said this.
He said,
Guilt and shame are twins.
Born in the Garden of Eden.
Only moments apart.
And even though they're twins, they are not identical.
Guilt is usually tied to an event.
And it says,
You did something bad.
Shame is tied to a person.
And it says,
I am bad.
Guilt is the wound.
And shame is the scar.
When you violate God's laws and rebel against Him, you feel guilt.
And that emotion is simultaneously joined by shame.
Guilt says you did something wrong.
Shame says that's why you need to hide.
You're no good.
You deserve to live in darkness.
That's like how those two are kind of tied together.
So, they will steal your confidence before God.
And even as believers who have already given our lives to Christ and had our sins forgiven and paid for,
we still struggle with guilt and shame a lot.
And that's a gospel issue that we have to keep coming back to.
But our writer today, he gives us a few things to hold on to.
If you look at verse 14, it says,
Hold fast.
So, grasp on to this for dear life.
Hold on to these things tightly.
And a right understanding about what I'm about to say will give you confidence to approach God's throne.
All right?
So, I'm going to break this down in three different ways.
But hold fast to these things.
The first one is, hold fast.
Jesus is our great high priest.
Verse 14.
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.
This isn't the first time this idea of Jesus being the high priest has been introduced in this book.
Usually, someone would have just read this straight through.
They would have just, you know, broken it up into chapters and verses.
But the point being, Aaron and his descendants in Levitical priesthood were only serving an earthly copy or shadow of what's in heaven.
They fell short in many ways.
They only could carry out their duties in a physical thing like the tabernacle or the temple.
But they were a picture of what is like in heaven.
And God temporarily appointed these sacrifices and these priests to be a substitute that he just put up with by his mercy, right?
That we're going to point to a greater fulfillment in Christ.
But no earthly priest ever has ascended into heaven.
No earthly priest has gone before God's actual throne in heaven and made intercession for sinners.
They all tasted death.
And they can't continue in their office.
And they were sinful, so they couldn't become a sacrifice for other sinners.
They fell short in so many ways.
And I wanted to share with you probably my favorite word in the book of Hebrews.
And oddly enough, it's not a word that's even in our text.
But it's used in chapter 2 of Hebrews.
Chapter 2, verse 10.
And then the very well-known Hebrews 12, verse 2.
And the word is archegos.
Archegos.
One of those words I think I know how to say okay.
It's such an amazing word.
Just dive into this word.
It's got a really rich history.
William Tyndale, who first, well, one of the first to translate the Bible into English,
was a master of language and words.
And when he was studying this, it was a word that he really took a lot out of.
So that phrase in Hebrews 12 that we know,
Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith,
he was the first one to actually write that in English.
And it was from the archegos that he got that from.
But what it means is a leader, a prince,
someone who goes before others and affords an example,
a pioneer, someone who kind of goes and clears the way for others to follow.
And kind of a picture, if you would, like an elite military group kind of going through the jungle.
And all of a sudden, they reach this huge canyon they can't really get across.
There's no way around it.
There's no time.
And so this one guy is kind of the leader of the group, says,
I got this.
And he figures out a way to get a line over across that little ravine.
And he ties it to a tree on the other side.
And he crosses over himself first.
And it secures everything and makes it safe.
And then he says, come on, you guys follow me.
Like after that.
That's sort of a picture of the archegos.
And even though it's not mentioned in this text, the principle of it is applied all throughout Hebrews.
This idea that Jesus did a work and that he prepared the way for a lot of other people to follow him.
Right?
That's kind of where we get this.
And example in Hebrews chapter 2, it says,
But just keep that word in your head throughout our study of Hebrews.
And I'm sure we'll dive into it more in Hebrews chapter 12.
But in our text, it gives us this idea that even though all the other priests of the Old Testament have died,
never to live again in this life, it's over because Jesus put them out of business.
He is the final high priest between God and man.
And as Hebrews 7.16 says,
He has his priesthood by an indestructible life.
Such awesome.
Our lives are so destructible.
We fall apart so easy.
Can you imagine having a life that is indestructible?
And Christ is our indestructible high priest.
It says in our text that he passed through the heavens,
which calls to mind his ascension that his followers witnessed in Acts chapter 1.
It says,
When he had said these things, as they were looking on,
he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight.
He ascended into heaven through the clouds into the very presence of God.
And so before Christ, the holiest place was in the temple,
in the Holy of Holies, where a priest would only enter once a year, right,
to make atonement and make intercession for the people.
But Jesus didn't ascend into an earthly copy like the temple.
I think if any of you ever get a chance,
we have a lot of people here who have been to Jerusalem.
My favorite thing to go and see would probably be like the,
what's left over of the temple mount.
And just see, that's all that's left of that temple.
It's like, what clearer way could God say,
this is over.
No more.
There's a,
we are now the temple of the Holy Spirit.
And Jesus didn't ascend into an earthly copy,
but he ascended into heaven itself.
He passed through the heavens.
In chapter 9, verse 24, it says,
For Christ has entered,
not into holy places made with hands,
which are copies of the true things,
but into heaven itself,
and now appears in the presence of God on our behalf.
Where our high priest lives right now,
this very minute,
he has immediate access to God day and night.
In chapter 7, verse 25, it says,
He always lives to make intercession for us.
Because of the sin, we need someone to be our advocate.
We need someone to make intercession on our behalf to a holy God.
And also, in verse 14,
we see that Jesus is the Son of God.
So, point being,
he's not just some creature that's been exalted to a heavenly place.
He's the divine Son of God that created all things.
I read about that in chapter 1,
if you want to go back and look.
He's the divine Son of God that created all things.
He's perfect in every way.
And that's why his sacrifice matters so much.
That's why God can look at that and accept it.
So, when Jesus goes into that place,
he doesn't take the blood of lambs or bulls or goats.
He takes his own body, his own blood.
And when God looks at that,
he says,
That's enough.
The debt's been paid,
and my righteousness is vindicated.
Because of the weight of that sacrifice.
Nothing that we could ever produce.
So, God overlooks our sins
so that we can come into God's presence
because of our great high priest
who gave us his own blood
so that we can stand in that place with him.
And he always lives forever,
making intercession for us.
So,
that's number one.
Number two,
hold fast.
Jesus is our sympathetic high priest.
Verse 15,
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.
So,
this would be huge in the Greco-Roman world
because they had this idea
that God
was
apothea.
He did not have
any kind of emotion
or feeling
like we do
as
human beings.
They thought that
if God did have emotions,
he could be kind of manipulated
to do a certain thing.
You ever
notice that?
You can manipulate people
by getting them to feel
a certain way.
Well,
they thought,
that can't be God.
So,
stoic philosophers
like Seneca,
Emperor Marcus Aurelius,
you know,
gladiator,
they believed that
that was a central attribute
of God,
apothea,
without passion
or suffering,
making him
a very indifferent God,
very stoic God.
And
we also know
that the scripture,
from the scripture,
that the Jews
had a much clearer picture
of who God
actually was.
They knew that he did,
he wasn't void of emotion,
but he was sovereign
and that he was almighty.
So,
yes,
God is God,
but some of you
may think
he still has no idea
like what I'm actually
going through,
how terrible
life is down here
and all the
weaknesses
that come in this life.
Some of you
are in great weakness
right now.
He has no idea,
God has no idea
what pain
or abandonment
or suffering
or hardship,
he doesn't know
what that's like.
So,
you know,
people kind of push
God aside
because of that.
But we read
in our text
that Jesus
is very,
very sympathetic
towards our position.
and why is that?
How is that?
Because Christ
is the divine
Son of God,
but he was made
a man.
We read in
John chapter 1,
in the beginning
was the Word,
the Word was with God
and the Word,
the Lagos,
was God.
further down,
and the Word
became flesh
and dwelt
among us.
And we have
seen his glory,
the glory
as the only
Son of the Father
full of grace
and truth.
So we know
that he was divine
and we know
that he was fully
man at the same time.
But we know
that he didn't
account his equality
with God
as something
to be held on to.
But he came down
and emptied himself
taking on the form
of a servant
in the likeness
of man.
He became a living,
breathing man
just like
us.
He took on
human flesh,
emotions,
and all its
inherent weaknesses.
He didn't just
imagine how we feel,
he actually experienced
how we feel.
Huge difference.
He sympathizes
with us,
he's tasted
our struggles.
When you read
the Gospels,
you'll just
watch the interactions
that he has
with people.
Jesus suffered
emotionally,
greatly.
Weeping,
persecution,
rejected,
grief,
anguish.
Isaiah calls him
the man of sorrows.
Like he defined
what sorrow was.
So,
if that's how you feel,
he can relate.
Physically,
he grew hungry,
he grew fatigued,
he got tired,
he had to eat,
he felt physical pain,
he was whipped,
and killed,
and beaten,
and then we know
that he was tempted
by all the forces
of evil,
even by Satan
himself.
He was tempted
to turn down
power,
prestige,
indulgence of
natural desires
on his way
to the cross.
You realize
he could have had
a hundred different
ways out
if he really
had desired,
he could have
just backed out,
but he didn't.
He chose to honor
his father
and chose to
save us.
He lived as a child,
lived as a boy,
and then also
as a man.
He covered
that whole sphere.
So,
some people
catch this.
Yes,
he endured
all that we endured
for his,
you know,
30-ish years,
but he was tempted
just like we're tempted,
but yet,
it says,
without sin.
So,
he never caved in,
he never broke
to sinful temptation.
It's helpful
to be reminded
of that.
Just to be tempted
does not mean
you've sinned.
You don't cross
into it.
You're being
allured by it,
but by God's grace,
you can turn
away from it.
So,
Jesus was tempted
in every way
we are,
yet without sin.
Peter wrote,
Jesus committed
no sin,
neither was any
deceit found
in his mouth.
When he was reviled,
that's the worst,
when he was reviled,
he did not revile
in return,
and when he suffered,
he did not threaten,
but continued
entrusting himself
to him
who judges justly.
So,
Jesus endured
all these things,
but did not sin.
A lot of wise people
throughout the history
of the church
have pointed out
that
this makes
like Jesus'
temptations
not weaker
than ours,
but stronger
than ours.
So,
one of those men,
C.S. Lewis,
in his book
Mere Christianity,
written not too long
after the Second World War
in 1952,
talks about this
idea of temptation
in regard to Christ.
He says,
no man knows
how bad he is
until he has
tried very hard
to be good.
A silly idea
is current
that good people
do not know
what temptation means.
This is
an obvious lie.
Only those
who try to resist
temptation
know how strong
it is.
After all,
you find the strength
of the German army,
because they just
fought the German army,
by fighting against it,
not by giving in
to it.
You find out
the strength
of the wind
by trying to walk
against it,
not by laying down.
A man who gives
into temptation
after five minutes
simply does not know
what it would have
been like
an hour later.
This is why
bad people,
in one sense,
know very little
about badness.
They have lived
a sheltered life
by always giving in.
We never find
our strength
of the evil
impulse inside us
until we try
to fight it.
And Christ,
because he was
the only man
who never yielded
to temptation,
is also the only man
who knows
to the full
what temptation
really means.
The only
complete realist.
So,
my analogy
is I like to go
to the gym
and work out,
can't you tell?
But one of my
favorite things
to do to meet
new guys
and have gospel
conversations
at the gym
is just to walk
in the middle
of these guys
that are just
enormous,
lifting these huge
dumbbells
and barbells.
And I met
one guy,
he's with the
Hall County SWAT team,
so he's pretty jacked.
But I actually
met him because
he was just lifting
some serious weights.
I think he had
almost every weight
on the little thing
on his bar.
he just did a set
and he was doing
like the catching.
I just kind of
walked up beside him
and I reached down
and I didn't even
know him
and I was like,
and he was like
going,
and I was like,
man,
I don't want to
show you up
and I just walked
away.
but that's like
how I met him.
But,
example
with weights,
you know,
I can bench press
my weight,
which isn't that bad.
But,
there's no way
I could like
take the full weight
of like what is
actually on
that little weight
holder thing.
I don't even know
what it's called.
I look at that
and I'm like,
yeah,
I couldn't bear
all that.
So,
I don't really know
like how much
weight that really is
because I've never
done it.
If I did,
it would just
pin me and kill me.
And,
but,
like a guy
like my buddy
can pick up
that whole thing
though.
So,
it is sort of
a little
silly picture
of what it's like
with us.
We can only
do so much
and then we break.
We capitulate
before we feel
the final
full assault
of what sin is.
We cave in
very easily.
But,
Jesus
endured
the full
pressure
of temptation.
A lifetime
of it.
A whole lifetime
of it.
And then it
climaxed.
It even got
worse
at the
spectacular
abuse
and abandonment
that he faced
at the cross
and the passion
that he had
in that last
week.
So,
he is capable
of like
unparalleled
sympathy
towards us.
He went
through far
more than
any of you
have
and far
more than
all of us
combined.
And because
of that,
I know
deep down
a lot of
is to say,
I just want
somebody to
understand me.
Like,
I get they
can tell me
truth and I
get they can
tell me the
right thing to
do,
but I
just don't
care.
I want
someone who
knows what
it's like,
who's been
there.
You might
have the
privilege of
doing that,
but you
might not.
You just
need to
listen to
truth sometimes.
But,
you do in
Christ.
He knows.
He knows
what it's
like.
No one
suffered more
or endured
more abuse.
No one
deserved it
less or had
some reason
to fight back
than him.
We read
earlier,
just hold
your place.
Look at
chapter 2.
Rewind
Hebrews 2
verse 17.
Hebrews
chapter 2
verse 17.
Nathan
kind of,
I think,
preached on
this and
nailed the
same idea
pretty well.
Hebrews 2
verse 17
says,
See that?
There's the
grounds of
his sympathy.
He's been
there.
And if
you're getting
wiped out,
getting your
clock cleaned
by sin
and temptation,
he can
help you.
He knows
what it's
like.
He's
sympathetic
towards where
you are.
And so
right now,
if you look
back in
Hebrews 4,
we can go
to him
in prayer
right now
and just
say,
get me
through this.
Pray for
deliverance
from temptation
and he
will do
it.
I remember
one time
I was being
tempted to
do something
I shouldn't
do and I
just cried
out loud,
like,
Lord,
everything in
me right
now wants
to do
this.
But I
know that
you created
me and
you have
power over
everything
that's in
me.
So help
me in
this moment
deny what
this wants
and to
endure.
And I'm
telling you,
he delivers.
He can
sustain you.
He understands.
He can help
those who are
being
tempted.
He's
tasted our
struggle,
like it
says,
in every
respect.
So this
has meaning
for us
right now,
like in
the present
as believers
that can
go to
God in
prayer and
get help
and deliverance
from our
sin and
temptation.
But it
also has a
great future
meaning that
when we stand
before God
one day,
we're standing
with a high
priest who
knows,
again,
like where
we're coming
from.
He knows.
Have you
experienced that
deliverance
before?
Have you
watched and
prayed that
you didn't
fall into
temptation?
Most of
us don't
even want to
put up a
fight where
it's like,
okay,
and we
break and
give in.
But Jesus
can sustain
you,
and He
has.
Thirdly,
and lastly,
back in
chapter 4,
verse 16,
number 3,
hold fast.
Jesus,
our high
priest,
gives us
confidence.
Jesus,
our high
priest,
gives us
confidence.
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
time of need.
Something I
learned in my
studies was this
word confidence
has a great
usage in
classical Greek
literature that
denotes free
and open
speech between
citizens with
one another.
Free and
open speech of
citizens with
one another.
But the
Greeks never
used it to
apply to having
free and open
speech with a
deity like
Zeus or
Athena.
It was never
applied in that
context.
But what's
really cool is
the writer of
Hebrews took
that word and
he applied it to
a relationship
with God.
We can have
free and open
speech before
God.
Don't run too
far with that.
Like freedom of
the press kind
of stuff.
That's not what
it means.
It just means
that we can
speak honestly
to God with
reverence and
we can pour
out our hearts
before him.
And the
real blunt
term is frank
boldness,
an outpouring of
our heart to
God.
We can
confidently
approach him
and speak
with him.
Because of
Christ,
our high
priest,
we can
receive mercy
and find
grace to
help in
time of
need.
So,
question,
where does
your confidence
to face
God one
day come
from?
Church
attendance,
doing good
works,
giving generously,
being a good
moral person,
not going to
cut it.
The last
place I want
you to look
is just in
our Hebrews
as well,
everything in
Hebrews
today.
Hebrews
chapter 10,
we'll get
there eventually.
Hebrews
chapter 10,
just flip over
to verse 19.
Here's another
picture of what
we're talking
about.
10,
19,
says,
therefore,
brothers,
since we have
confidence to
enter the
holy places
by the blood
of Jesus,
by the new
and living way
that He opened
for us,
through the
curtain,
that is,
through His
flesh,
and since we
have a great
priest over the
house of God,
here's the same
kind of language,
let us draw
near with a
true heart
and full
assurance of
faith,
with our
hearts sprinkled
clean from an
evil conscience
and our bodies
washed with
pure water.
So,
Christ's
blood,
the torn
curtain
of the
temple at
that time,
and Christ's
great sympathetic
high priestly
work is our
confidence and
our assurance
to stand before
God one
day.
So,
get this in
your head.
Our
confidence and
our assurance
to approach
God is
created by
realizing we
have access
to Him,
not because of
anything in us
or anything we've
done.
Throw that
away.
The confidence
that we need
is created by
realizing that
Christ has done
the work for
us and that we
are found in
Him, not by
something that
you have
done.
So, it's not
self-confidence,
it's Christ's
confidence.
So, we can
stand in God's
presence again
with full
assurance,
not because we
paid our dues
and we approved
our mettle to
God, but because
Christ has
done all that
is required
to help us
stand there.
So, if you
want to face
God's judgment
one day, you
want to approach
the throne,
like now,
freely, but
also in the
future, to
have fear, a
reverent fear
of God, but
to approach
with confidence,
you have to
realize that
that's based on
your acceptance
in Christ and
not anything you
bring at all.
God's love.
It's all about
Jesus being our
eternal high
priest.
High priest
language may
sound really
foreign to you,
right?
But, point
being, you
need someone to
go and stand
between you and
a holy God,
because you're not
going to be able to
do it on your
own, and Jesus
is that person.
So, imagine
yourself in a
context like
Isaiah, where
he was facing
the throne of
God, or John
in Revelation
4, where he
looks upon this
throne that has
lightning around
it and peals of
thunder, tying to
what Paul said,
he lives in
unapproachable
light, God
does.
And, you're
lying on your
face in terror,
afraid to
approach and
ascend those
stairs to stand
before God.
You see the
cherubim and
other creatures
singing the
praises of God,
and you're
terrified.
You think, if I
approach that
throne, I am
done.
I'm finished.
I'm too sinful.
I'm not
confident.
And then you
feel like a
real strong
but gentle
hand come on
you, and you
look up and you
see the radiant
face of the
Son of God, and
he says, you're
right, if you
approach that
throne by
yourself, you're
finished.
But I know, like
the dark world
that you came
from, I've been
there, I've
tasted it, I
know, I
understand your
weakness, but
if you've given
your life to
me, you won't
be consumed
before this
throne, and my
father won't be
dishonored.
If you come
through me, he
will not turn
me away, so he
will accept you.
He won't only
accept you, but
he'll bring you
into his family
and love you and
make you one of
his own.
So come with me
and approach this
throne of grace
with confidence,
only through
Jesus.
that's our hope,
and that's where
our confidence is
founded in his
work.
But he
understands our
weakness, he
gets it.
So no matter
what you're going
through, he's
been there, he
understands.
So go to him
now and ask for
the grace to
endure whatever it
is, and he will
help you.
Let's go to the
Lord in prayer.