Good morning. So we're going to be reading from Hebrews chapter 4, starting at verse 14 and going through to chapter 5, verse 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 honour for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was.
So also, Christ did not exhort 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 heard 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 all eternal salvation to all who obey him,
being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
Thank you, everyone.
There we go, I'm on.
We couldn't have actually, I don't think we could have actually matched a better song with this passage today,
so thanks, Musos.
Well, two years ago, a remarkable survival story took place in the depths of the Amazon jungle.
A light aircraft travelling with three adults and four kids just nosedived into the dense jungle in Colombia.
All three adults died, sadly died pretty quickly,
leaving four kids behind, all under 13 years of age, alone and fighting the odds to survive.
The Colombian government mobilised a rescue force of elite commandos,
indigenous trackers and sniffer dogs as well.
And the search team looked everywhere for them, but they couldn't find them initially.
In fact, it took them two weeks just to find the plane,
only to realise the kids might still be alive.
Then they used helicopters to fly over a vast area,
and they had these mega speakers on the helicopters to broadcast a message
from the children's grandmother,
trying to encourage the kids to stay close to water, to stay safe.
Forty days, 40 days after the plane crash,
an indigenous tracker found all four kids barely alive,
only five kilometres from the plane.
After they received medical treatment, following the rescue,
they uncovered why it had taken so long for the rescuers to find the kids.
Even though they found clues along the way, like clothing items and footprints,
it took them so long to find them.
What they found out was they discovered before the accident,
events had happened in their home life that meant the children were scared to go back home.
So instead of running to the comfort and the safety of rescuers,
they chose to hide the fear of their own life,
because they thought things would get worse, not better, being found.
Well, we've been digging into the book of Hebrews in recent weeks,
and we've heard about the temptation present for Jewish believers at the time
to turn and run from their faith as they experienced hardship and trial.
Just like the four kids hiding from the rescue team,
the Jewish believers were tempted to give up on the safety that they could find in Jesus.
And, you know, I think we find ourselves very much in common
with the Jewish believers here in Hebrews, and the kids as well in the story.
In fact, we don't actually get a lot of detail in Hebrews
on what this difficult situation was about.
It looks like God's actually deliberately left it that way for us.
But those Jews in Hebrews, these kids, they're not so different to us, are they?
They're not so different to us.
They got anxious and scared about their future,
and they could get down about their present trials and temptations.
Don't we do just the same thing?
Perhaps you might think, and some people might argue,
look, life's pretty good here in Australia.
Like, you know, we can just whinge and complain about life.
It's an Australian thing to do.
Well, in many ways, we've got a great country.
Like, you know, we can worship with freedom.
We have some incredible tools and devices.
Who doesn't have an Android or an iPhone or something like that?
And we've got this super easy access nearly to whatever we want.
Like, you can go online and watch a movie.
You can online shop.
You can go into the shops and get just about any food that you'd like these days.
Yet, for all that, this generation is now being called the anxious generation.
And family relationships and separations are in free fall.
It's the worst it's ever been in our country.
And we're living in a very individualistic and modern...
..a very individualistic society in our modern era.
We have more ways to be connected than ever before,
yet so many people are feeling so disconnected and lonely.
So today, what we're doing is we're looking at why Jesus is better,
why he's always worth running to,
and why we can run to Jesus even when we think life is a total mess.
Because even when we think life is a total mess, Jesus still gets it.
He understands and he can deal with us gently because of who he is.
And we're going to go through four reasons today that that's the case.
Those four points are,
Jesus was sinless and resisted all temptation.
He's gentle and he can sympathise with our weakness.
He was raised to life and appointed to rescue us.
And he has modelled to us how to run to the Father
even when it comes to life or death.
Well, if you've got your Bibles there,
let's start by turning to verse 14.
Let's jump straight in.
It says this,
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.
You'll notice, firstly, we have this powerful term.
Jesus references himself as the great high priest.
Now, I'm not sure for you,
but I actually struggled in preparing for this to engage with this concept of priest.
Yet, the further into this passage I went,
it just became more and more clear.
It's critical.
For our understanding of Jesus,
we need to know what that means.
It's another dimension to who he is.
And he's not just a high priest.
He is the great high priest.
So, what's so hard about getting the idea of a high priest?
Firstly, it's a bit like a foreign language to us.
You know, when we think of priest,
we tend to think orthodoxy, institution,
like the Catholic Church or the High Anglican Church.
And, look, let's just call it,
if we said priest bot or priest Calderwood,
you'd probably have a laugh, right?
You'd probably think, that's a bit weird.
Dave Calderwood wouldn't be too impressed by that either.
I think people have tried that on him.
But, look, when we think of these institutions,
like the Catholic Church or that High Anglican Church,
it's hard not to consider recent history, isn't it?
It's really hard.
The spotlight has been put on priests
for their abuse of their power and positions,
most recently the sex abuse scandal
that the Royal Commission brought into light.
And it's done real damage to the view of clergy.
And might I even say,
the use of the name priest
might even feel a little bit repulsive to us.
So to try and get a clear picture
and try and understand what we talk about
with Old Testament priests
and Jesus being the great high priest,
we are talking about an extremely unique role,
a holy calling at a time and place
that God chose in history.
And it was this time in history,
the Israelite people in the Old Testament,
he showed his grace in a unique way towards his people
by having a selected person to represent the people to him.
It was all about God's grace and mercy.
And that's why the priests were installed as mediators.
Yet for all the priests that came and went in Israel,
the good and the bad,
there was a common problem that plagued them all.
And you see it as we touch down in 4 verse 15
and 5 verse 3.
They understood the weakness of the people stuck in sin,
but they couldn't escape that same weakness themselves.
Even they had to sacrifice for their own sins
every single year.
And Jesus, he was like these priests,
but he was different.
He is the ultimate,
the great high priest
because he is totally sinless.
So we can run to Jesus
because he is sinless
and he resisted all temptation.
Follow me with this in Hebrews 4.15
where it says he is genuinely able
to sympathise with our weakness.
Now there is a real emphasis here
and it picks up along these lines.
It's basically saying that
because Jesus resisted all temptation,
he can sympathise with us
like no other priest could
have ever done before him.
In fact, like no other person ever has.
Because in every respect,
Jesus has been tempted.
Meaning in every single way,
he has known temptation,
but he's never given in.
So he's in the perfect position
to understand exactly
what you and I are going through today.
Well, someone might argue,
well, look, Jesus never gave in to sin.
So how does he really
actually know what it felt like?
Well, in the story I told you earlier
about the kids surviving in the Amazon,
the oldest child,
a 13-year-old girl,
is credited with keeping alive
her younger siblings.
They were nine, four,
and 11 months.
Look at that,
an 11-month-year-old
survived 40 days.
So when she was interviewed
after the event,
she said at one point
she was tempted to walk out
and leave the three of them.
And she did.
She left briefly for 20 minutes,
but then she came back.
Now, for the sake of her own survival,
she would have known
it would have been easier
to make it alive without them.
She was having to share the food.
They had to split it between them.
But she never would have known.
If she walked away,
she never would have known
what it would have been like
10 minutes later,
an hour later,
or a day later.
So to this day,
probably better than anyone
here in this room,
she would understand
how great the temptation can be
to sacrifice your own family
for yourself.
She would know that better
than all of us.
It's just like this with Jesus, right?
He never laid down or walked away.
He endured without giving up.
So therefore,
he knows the strength of temptation
better than any of us.
And it's only because
he can better understand temptation
that he can sympathise with us
like no one else ever could.
Now, the word sympathise here is key.
We need to understand it.
It's the basic idea.
It's the joining of two words,
and that is with and to suffer.
So it's not just a feeling.
Sympathise is not just a feeling.
It often gets thought of that way.
It's actually a depth
of togetherness in pain.
It's saying in our pain,
Jesus is pained.
Not that he is threatened by it.
He's not threatened by it.
He's God.
But in the sense that
he can't help but be drawn to it.
In fact,
because he's been on the journey
before himself
with temptation and pain,
in his love,
he cannot be held back
when he sees us there.
I think this just absolutely
blows out of the water,
the idea that only
when life is going well,
God is there with me
or his favour is on me.
Ever heard anyone say that before?
No.
In fact,
when you are in a mess,
Jesus is drawn to help you.
He knows what it's like
to be thirsty,
to be hungry,
to be homeless,
rejected,
misunderstood,
embarrassed,
shamed,
tortured
and ultimately killed.
So,
we can run to Jesus
because he is gentle
and he can sympathise
with our weakness.
Jesus knows
we get tunnel vision.
We get tunnel vision
big time
when life's a mess.
He gets it.
We can start to question
and doubt
that what he says is true
and who he is
is good.
Jesus was just like us
except instead of being
sinfully weak,
he was sinlessly weak.
Hebrews 5 verse 2
says these words,
he can deal gently
with the ignorant
and wayward
since he himself
is beset
with weakness.
Now,
I really like
Dan Ortland's take on this.
A few of you might have read
the book Gentle and Lowly
but this is what he says.
The point is
that Jesus deals gently
and only gently
with all sinners
who come to him
irrespective of their
particular offence
and just how heinous it is.
What elicits tenderness
from Jesus
is not the severity
of the sin
but whether the sinner
comes to him.
The key
is coming
and drawing near
to him
and the language
of drawing near
is reminiscent
of the worship
of Old Testament Israel
where people
would draw near
to God.
at the tabernacle
or the temple
and the priests
that had even more
intimate access.
They drew near
to the altar.
The high priest
having the greatest
access of all
drawing near
to the ark,
the holy place,
the holy of holies,
symbolically God's throne.
So the wonder
of 4 verse 16
is that we
can all approach.
That we can all
approach
all the way
and we can do so
with confidence
and that the throne
we approach
is not a throne
of judgment
and condemnation
but one of grace
and mercy
with Jesus
as the high priest.
On the other hand,
if we don't
come to Jesus
because we don't
know Jesus,
just like if the priest
didn't bring the sacrifice
for the people,
we have a very
different result.
Jesus'
lamb-like tenderness
cannot be extended
to us.
Instead,
we would only know
the fierceness
of a lion-like judgment.
A few years ago,
I spent some time
working at the
Mater Hospital
in the drug
and alcohol team
and a rare opportunity
came up for me
to sit in on
a two-week program
to help people
recover from
drug and alcohol
addiction.
And in this
two-week program,
people recovering
from addiction,
they watched videos,
they listened to speakers
and generally shared ideas
how they could be
motivated towards
long-lasting change.
They'd seen
the wreck and ruin
that drugs and alcohol
had brought to their lives,
an addiction to drugs
and alcohol.
One of those days,
there was an unforgettable
speaker who introduced
himself and he told
the group this.
He said,
I'm a recovering
alcoholic.
I haven't touched
a drop of alcohol
in over two decades.
When he said that,
it was like you could
hear a pin drop
in the room.
Everyone was listening.
He went on to say,
I'm still a recovering
alcoholic because I know
if I go back to it,
it will own me.
And he made
this observation.
He made this observation.
He realised,
and he said,
he told us
about this constant
anchor
for a few people
like him
that had been
addicted
but had now stopped.
he told us
it was the relationship
with Jesus
that made
all the difference.
That's what Jesus
is like in his tenderness.
Even those battling
the worst addictions
and hidden scars
can look to him
for all they need.
Isn't that the kind
of gentleness
we all look for
in a relationship?
Someone who can
see all our flaws
yet love us anyway?
It's one of the
deepest longings
we all have
to be fully known
with all our failures
and mistakes
and yet fully loved.
How could we not
feel drawn
to that kind of love?
What's so extraordinary
about this passage
is it's not just
in Jesus' humanity
he reaches us
in this way.
In Hebrews 5 verse 5
we hear these words.
So also Christ
did not
sorry I'll start again.
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
forgotten you.
So he says also
in another place
you are a priest
forever after the
order of Melchizedek.
So again we hear
what totally set
Jesus apart
as unique
to any other
priest before him.
This kind of love
and gentleness
began in the
halls of heaven.
In 5 verse 5
we hear Jesus
is appointed
by God the Father.
Jesus was
hand selected
by the Father
to become
human like us
and in total
humility
Jesus went
before the cross
knowing the
will of the
Father
that special
selection
would mean
he would be
begotten for us.
What does
begotten actually
mean?
Well the word
begotten
is actually
first mentioned
as a promise
in Psalm 2
verse 7
so you can look
there if you like
but the answer
for what it means
actually comes
from Acts 13
verse 32
to 34
and it's
where Paul
is speaking
to fellow
believers
and he speaks
to the promise
being fulfilled
that Jesus
would be
raised to life
or resurrected
for us
so forgiveness
of sins
could be preached
to us.
So we can run
to Jesus
because he was
raised to life
and appointed
by God
for that very
purpose
for us
and his
ultimate
tenderness
and mercy
came to us
only because
he was appointed
to be
forgotten for us.
At the
ultimate cost
to Jesus
with his
life
he set
in motion
a change
that forever
put sin
to the sword
that forever
made Jesus
the great
high priest.
Hebrews 1
verse 3
says
after the
purification
of sins
he sat down
at the right
hand of majesty
on high.
This is the
throne of grace
in verse 16
the very one
we can now
approach boldly
because of
God's appointment
for Jesus
to give us
a grace
and tenderness
we never
deserved.
Now there's
more to be said
about the role
of Melchizedek
and I'm glad
Lockheed touched
on it in the
kids talk today
Jesus is compared
to his lineage
and it's an
important area
but we're not
going there today
because David
will be talking
to that in more
depth in a
couple of
weeks.
It pops up
again in
Hebrews a
couple of
times and
much more
in a couple
of weeks.
Well we
started talking
today about
how it's easy
for our
intuition to
tell us that
when things get
difficult in
life we're
more alone
than ever.
The good
news we hear
in God's
word is there
is a different
story when
you come to
Jesus.
And look I
think modern
psychology
modern psychology
points out
helpfully that
we can have a
tendency to
fight, flight
or freeze when
we get
overwhelmed.
You'd notice
that you know
like if you
were shocked
and stood
next to a
snake you're
either going to
want to kill
it, run away
or you'll be
frozen in the
moment.
That's what
happens when
you get
overwhelmed.
It's an
entirely typical
human instinct
when trouble
comes for
our brain
to like
kick into
survival mode.
The alarm
switches, we
go into
survival mode.
But what I
love about
Hebrews, what
I love about
this section
of scripture
is Jesus
shows us an
entirely different
picture, an
entirely different
way of reacting
to trouble.
He shows us
through his own
life how he
ran to the
father even
when it's
life or death.
Verse 7 to
9 says this,
please follow
with me in
your Bibles,
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 heard
because of
his reverence.
Although he
was a son,
he learned
obedience
through what
he suffered.
Hear the
pain in
these words
with loud
cries and
tears,
with loud
cries and
tears.
As Jesus
prepared in
the garden
of
Gethsemane
for death,
he prayed.
Can you
imagine the
temptation for
Jesus to
demand a
different result?
He could
have called
a legion of
angels to
his rescue,
but he
didn't.
With
meekness and
gentleness,
Jesus stood
before the
father.
In total
humility, he
went before
us.
And he
did that so
we no longer
need to fix
our eyes on
our sin
anymore, but
on him.
We've
talked about
temptation in
Hebrews today.
Isn't it
interesting in
the garden of
Gethsemane that
Jesus told his
disciples not
just once but
twice to
pray.
Watch and
pray that you
may not enter
into temptation.
Even when the
disciples did not
listen to Jesus
and kept
sleeping on the
very cusp of
Jesus being
betrayed, he
offered mercy to
the disciples.
He said he
understood the
spirit was
willing, but
the flesh was
weak.
How much
more will he
do for us
now that he's
passed into the
heavens on the
throne of grace
and calls us to
draw near to
him?
There is
something else to
notice at
Gethsemane.
Jesus had
help from the
father and he
had companionship
from the
disciples, even
though they did
a pretty dodgy
job, right?
Just when he
needed them the
most, but he
still had their
companionship.
So Jesus drew
near vertically
and horizontally.
I think this is a
good application
point.
I think we
should stop and
ask, are we
doing the same or
are we battling
things alone,
trying to solve
things ourselves?
Sometimes during
difficulties we're
tempted to throw
in the lot and
look somewhere else
than Jesus.
So a word of
encouragement, if
you find yourself
in the storm, don't
let your situation,
your location,
your relationships,
tunnel vision you
into thinking you're
alone and God
hasn't showed up.
The devil wants
us to question
the presence, the
goodness, the
faithfulness and
the grace of
God.
Howard Hendricks, he
was a professor
and a preacher
yesteryear, last
century.
He makes the
observation, I
think it's a really
good observation.
Every believer, he
says, needs three
types of
relationships.
We need a
pool who can
mentor and
encourage, a
pool who can
mentor and
challenge us.
We need a
Barnabas who
can come
alongside and
encourage us.
And we need a
Timothy, someone we
can pour our life
into.
So say that again,
we need a
pool who can
mentor and
challenge us.
We need a
Barnabas who can
come alongside and
encourage us.
And we need a
Timothy, someone we
can pour our life
into.
I like this
illustration because
when we run to
Jesus and grasp
his gentleness, it
can't help but
change in how we
think and
behave and
flow through
what we do.
And I think it's
only natural for
that to flow
through to others
when we experience
and know Jesus
gentleness to us.
Drawing near and
understanding Jesus
mercy and
gentleness, it's a
community project.
So by extension as
believers, we need
mentoring and
challenging by
others.
We need those next
to us who can come
alongside and
encourage us.
And we need
others we can
mentor and grow,
who we can share
Jesus'
gentleness with.
So if these are
not marks you find
in your life as a
believer today, I
want you to
encourage not just
to consider finding
these relationships,
but make it your
goal.
Make it your goal
to work on that
today.
And above all,
keep your eyes on
his tenderness and
run to him.
Let's pray
together.
Father God, we
thank you for the
confidence we can
have to draw near
to you, knowing
that you love
helping us no
matter what mess or
trouble we find
ourselves in.
We stand in awe
that you are the
great high priest,
totally sinless,
that resisted all
temptation so we
might have direct
access to knowing
your gentleness and
mercy today.
We ask you might
help us find
believers that can
mentor, encourage,
and we can grow
in understanding
these wonderful
truths together.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.