The scripture reading comes from Hebrews chapter 4.
Please follow along on the screen the bulletin of your own Bible.
Starting in 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.
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.
This is the word of God.
Amen.
Thanks Joyce for reading the passage for us today.
Morning everybody.
Morning.
That was fantastic.
Wow.
We're all awake.
We had our coffee.
If you don't know me, my name is Oscar.
I did come to Watermark for over 10 years now.
My wife and I actually met at Watermark.
So it does happen.
We have three children.
I don't want to plant any seeds or hopes.
But I'm just saying it happens.
And together with our three children, Axel, Keeve, and Elliot, we serve here at Watermark.
This is our church.
This is our family.
Let me pray for us as we dive into God's word today.
Father God, thank you that your word changes us.
Thank you that your word is powerful.
That it's not me, Oscar, just giving an interesting talk because of some great research I did, Lord.
But your word is powerful.
It penetrates deep into our hearts.
It transforms us.
It convicts us of sin.
It shows us the beauty of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It transforms us.
So, God, today I pray that as we consider your word, this passage from Hebrews, Lord, that you would work in all of our hearts, God.
I pray for our soft hearts today, for myself, for all of us today here that are listening.
I pray, God, that we would not just consider the word and then think it's interesting and then leave, Lord, but we would be forever changed, transformed.
And we would respond to your word today by the power of your Holy Spirit.
And we pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
So, this week we are continuing our sermon series on Advent.
And Advent is a time for us to celebrate, to prepare our hearts to celebrate the birth of Jesus at Christmas.
Some of us have been doing the Advent devotionals, which I have been just really blessed by.
You know, as a church, we don't want Christmas to just be a time for us to consume a lot of food and wine and open a lot of presents.
Although I probably will gain a few pounds in the next few weeks.
But our desire as a church is to be absolutely filled with the wonder and awe of the birth of Jesus.
We want to be blown away and excited about this.
And so I encourage all of us to continue doing the Advent devotionals if we haven't been already.
Now, last week, Chris kicked off this sermon series by teaching on how the Word became flesh.
Jesus, the Son of God, the creator of all the universe, He became flesh and moved into our neighborhood.
And today, we're going to take one step further and look at how Jesus identifies with our broken world.
He identifies with our broken world.
But first, let me ask us some questions.
Why do we like people that are similar to us?
Why is it that our friends are of the same educational, cultural, or ethnic backgrounds to us?
Why is it that when we go through trauma, we seek out support groups where we can share our experiences with those who've had the same experience as us?
I think it's because all of us, at some level, desire to be known and to be understood.
We desire to be in relationships with people that get us, that understand us.
We want to be in relationships with those who understand our quirks, our faults, our pain, but through it all, still love and accept us.
But then again, can anyone really get us or understand us?
Even the most empathetic person in the world has never really stepped in our individual shoes, right?
But God has.
God has stepped into our shoes in the person of Jesus when he came into the world and became one of us.
Jesus perfectly knows us.
He perfectly understands us.
And yet, he perfectly loves us.
Let's dive into this passage from Hebrews.
Now, the book of Hebrews was written to a Jewish audience in the first century, to those Jewish Christians who had previously put their faith and hope in Jesus,
but had subsequently rejected Jesus, possibly because of suffering and persecution, and went back to their old Jewish religious beliefs.
And so the author of Hebrews attempts to show why Jesus, above all the other beings in the Old Testament, over all the other beings, is the supreme God.
And the author slowly walks through a number of comparisons to do this.
In chapter 1, we read that Jesus is greater than the angels.
Angels are these incredible heavenly beings, but Jesus is greater.
Because he's the son of God.
The radiance of God's glory, who upholds the universe by the word of his power.
Chapter 3 of Hebrews, we read that he's superior to Moses.
Moses, the great patriarch of the Old Testament, who led God's people out of slavery in Egypt,
who met God on Mount Sinai and brought down the Torah.
But Jesus, greater than Moses.
Because Jesus came before Moses.
He was there at the beginning, from eternity.
Creating the world.
Then we get to chapter 4 of Hebrews, where the author spends the next 6 chapters on this thesis,
that Jesus is greater than the Old Testament high priest.
Now the author spends such a long time on this comparison,
because the Old Testament high priest was a central leadership figure,
who the people of Israel look to, to understand God.
But the author of Hebrews is saying,
don't look to the Old Testament high priest to understand God.
Look to Jesus, the great high priest, who is God.
And this is where we're going to focus on today.
Let's look at Hebrews 4.14.
The first verse of our very short passage today.
And we read,
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.
We don't hear this phrase high priest that much in the New Testament.
So, again, let's go back to the Old Testament to see what we can glean about this high priest.
After the Exodus, God told Moses to build this tabernacle or tent,
this sort of portable temple in the desert where God could meet with his people.
God also instructed Moses to establish priests to work and serve in the temple.
And at the center of the priesthood was the office of the high priest,
where only one man could serve at any time.
The high priest was distinguished from the rest of the priesthood.
There were a number of special duties that the high priest had,
the most important of which was that the high priest was the only person in all of Israel
who one day a year, on the Day of Atonement,
could go into this inner sanctuary, what's called the Most Holy Place,
where God's presence literally dwelled.
And the high priest would come in with a sacrifice,
to sacrifice for his own sin and for the sins of all of Israel that they committed over the past year.
This is the point.
God created this intricate system of the priesthood
and within it the office of the high priest for one reason,
to point us to the true high priest,
the great high priest, and that is Jesus.
In the Old Testament, every story, every character, every prophecy,
everything in the Old Testament is just a picture or a shadow of the Savior Messiah to come,
our Lord Jesus.
And over a thousand years later, Jesus came.
He was born into the world at Christmas.
And the author of Hebrews is saying,
okay, so you know about this Old Testament high priest.
He was one man who was supposed to be this mediator between man and God.
Now pay attention.
There is one who has come,
who is far greater,
far more worthy of glory, honor, and praise,
and this is Jesus, our great high priest.
Why?
Because Jesus' priesthood is perfect, permanent, and personal.
His priesthood is perfect, permanent, and personal.
It's a bit of a tongue twister, that one, doesn't it?
Number one, his priesthood is perfect.
Although the Old Testament high priest was the chief representative of Israel,
standing before God in the tabernacle,
he was still a mortal sinner like you and I.
Every year he had to offer an offering, a sacrifice for his own sin.
But then at Christmas,
God became flesh and moved into our neighborhood in Jesus,
and he lived a perfect life on earth.
And Jesus doesn't stand in that earthly tabernacle.
As our passage says,
he is in the heavens.
He has passed through the heavens,
and right now,
he is standing before the majestic Father,
right now,
advocating on behalf of you and I.
His priesthood is perfect.
Second, his priesthood is permanent.
The Old Testament high priest had to sacrifice bulls and goats every single year
on the day of atonement for his own sin and for the sins of his people.
And when he died,
his sons had to take over to do the same thing over and over and over again.
But now,
once and for all,
at the end of the age,
at God's appointed time,
Jesus came into the world,
lived a perfect life,
and sacrificed himself on the cross.
Just once.
That's enough for all time.
His priesthood is permanent.
And third,
his priesthood is personal.
Jesus didn't enter that most holy place
with the blood of bulls or goats.
He entered heaven,
the heavenly tabernacle,
with his own blood.
In effect,
Jesus is both the high priest
and the sacrifice.
His priesthood is perfect,
permanent,
and personal.
So therefore,
because Jesus is the great high priest,
let us hold fast our confession.
What is our confession?
Well,
it is the declaration that some of us have made here,
in front of God,
confessing that we desperately need him,
that we can do nothing without him,
and putting our faith and hope and lives in him.
But let's be honest.
For some of us,
it's been a tough slog ever since.
We've had questions and doubts
about our faith.
For some of us,
we struggle with temptation and sin constantly.
For most of us, probably.
And for some of us,
life has just been messy.
But today,
God is calling us all to him.
And wherever we are on our journey of faith,
whether or not we are still asking questions
about God, Jesus, and the Bible,
or whether we have been a Christian all our lives,
God is calling us,
every single one of us,
to him.
Let us hold fast our confession.
Let's persevere together.
And as we celebrate Advent,
and prepare our hearts
for the coming of Jesus,
let's be reminded that Jesus,
the radiance of God's glory,
who upholds the world
by the word of his power,
he could have been born in a gold palace,
but he wasn't.
He was born in the unspectacular town of Bethlehem.
He lived a humble,
down-to-earth existence,
teaching the gospel,
roaming around,
serving others.
So although Jesus is the great high priest,
although he sits at the right hand
of the majestic Father in heaven,
ruling the heavens and the earth,
because he was fully human,
he has this incredible empathy
and understanding for what we,
his people,
go through on a day-to-day basis.
Look at verse 15.
For we do not have a great 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.
Have you ever seen the TV show,
Undercover Bosses?
Nobody.
Okay.
Well,
let me,
okay,
Ed Choi has.
Okay.
You have too much time to watch TV,
Ed.
No one else does here in Hong Kong.
Well,
the premise of the show,
basically,
is that a CEO in each episode
would go undercover
and disguise himself
and take a normal operational job.
And during that time
in his normal operational working,
he would realize
how bad the working conditions are.
He would realize
how not good
the compensation and benefits were.
And he also realized
that his employees
have a difficult life.
Basically,
the CEO
doesn't really know
what's going on
at the ground level
because he's so high up there
in his office
with so many layers
in between him
and the employees,
the operational employees.
But it isn't like that
with Jesus at all.
Although he is the great king
and the great high priest,
he humbled himself,
became a man.
Philippians 2 says
that although Jesus was God,
he did not count equality with God
a thing to be grasped,
but emptied himself
by taking the form
of a servant,
being born in the likeness
of men
and being found
in human form.
He humbled himself
by becoming obedient
to the point of death,
even death
on a cross.
Jesus was fully God.
He was also
fully man.
But because he was also
fully man,
he experienced
the same emotional
highs and lows
that we all face.
Have you ever felt homesick
with COVID?
No one can travel.
Clearly,
no one's going home.
But with COVID,
travel basically is impossible.
Some of us here
in this room
have not seen our family
for years.
Well,
Jesus knew what it's like
to be homesick.
He left heaven
in the presence
of his Father
to come down to earth.
Have you ever been abandoned?
Jesus has.
He was left all alone
on that cross,
apart from his Father,
separated from his friends
and his family.
Have you ever been rejected?
Jesus has.
The priests
and leaders of that day,
his own people,
despised him.
Have you ever been betrayed,
stabbed in the back
by a friend?
Jesus has.
Judas,
one of his closest friends,
one of his disciples,
betrayed him
for a bag of money.
His own disciple,
Peter,
denied that he knew him.
Have you ever felt pain?
Jesus has.
He was left hanging
on that cross
to die.
Have you ever lost
someone you loved?
Jesus has.
His cousin,
John the Baptist,
was murdered.
His friend,
Lazarus,
died.
We can go on
and on.
What are you going through
right now?
I'm sure this year,
2021,
has been a good year
for some of us.
But for others,
I can imagine,
2021 has been
a very tough year.
In fact,
it's probably been a tough year,
a tough couple years
for a lot of us.
some of us have experienced
loneliness.
We can't see our family
because of COVID.
Some of us are experiencing
stress,
emotional stress,
or financial challenges,
family tension,
health issues.
Some of us have lost
a loved one this year.
But Jesus Christ
is not the far-removed CEO
who is up in the clouds,
in his ivory tower,
unaware of what's happening
at the ground level.
He knows what it's like
to be in the trenches
because he was born
in the trenches
and he lived all his life
in the trenches.
He was rejected
and despised
all his life.
Even before he was born,
as Chris reminded us
last Sunday,
his parents,
Mary and Joseph,
couldn't even find a place
to birth him in the inn.
And during his life,
he never,
he never had a place
that he called home.
He roamed from town to town
teaching and preaching,
but he also experienced
the same emotional highs
and lows that we face.
But because he's fully God
and fully man,
two and both,
both fully God
and fully man,
he can look at all of us,
he can look into our hearts
and say,
I understand
what you're going through
right now
because I've experienced
the exact same thing.
He knows what it's like
to feel pain and suffering,
stress and anxiety.
He was also tempted
like we are.
The most widely quoted passage
where our Lord was tempted
is from Matthew 4
where the devil tempted Jesus
in the desert
for 40 days and 40 nights.
But if Jesus truly was fully man
as the Bible says he is
and as we believe he is,
I can imagine he was tempted
in many different ways.
Think about Jesus
as a primary school student.
When I was in elementary school
back in Canada,
I remember in grade 7
we were asked to hand around
our yearbooks
for our classmates to sign
and write comments
and when I got my yearbook back
I was horrified
because a lot of the comments said,
Oscar,
you're really arrogant.
You show off too much.
You brag about how good you are
at blah, blah, blah, whatever.
I'm a sinner.
But think about Jesus.
In Torah school,
he could have recited
the entire Torah
word for word
but he didn't.
He held back
his great knowledge.
He kept his mouth shut.
He obeyed his father.
Think about Jesus
as a 20-something
young adult.
Longing to pursue
a career
and to hopefully
have some sort of stability
and to enjoy
the pleasures of life
for the next 50, 60 years.
But instead,
he obeyed his father.
He pursued the life
that he was called to pursue
of ministry,
of teaching and healing
and that led him
to his death
on the cross.
And think about
what Jesus went through
the night
he went to the cross.
Actually,
for this,
we don't have to imagine.
Scripture tells us.
Luke 22
says that the night
he was arrested,
he went up to the
Mount of Olives
and he prayed
this prayer.
Father,
if you are willing,
remove this cup
from me.
Nevertheless,
not my will
but yours be done.
And then the passage
says that Jesus,
being in agony,
he prayed more earnestly
and his sweat
became like
great drops
of blood
falling to the ground.
Jesus experienced
significant stress,
pressure,
and anxiety
knowing
he was about to go
to the cross.
He could have
wiped out
the entire Roman army
with a wave
of his hand
but he said,
not my will,
Father,
but yours
be done.
Now you may argue,
well,
Jesus never had to deal
with screaming children
or internet pornography,
right?
Well,
so does he really know
what it's like
to feel temptation?
He never sinned.
Well,
here's a helpful quote
from C.S. Lewis
to help us think
through this.
And C.S. Lewis writes,
no man knows
how bad he is
until he has tried hard,
very hard,
to be good.
Only those
who try to resist temptation
know how strong it is.
After all,
you find out
the strength
of the German army
by fighting against it,
not by giving in.
You find out
the strength
of the wind
by trying to walk
against it,
not by lying down.
A man who gives
in to temptation
after five minutes
simply does not know
what it would have been like
an hour later.
That is why bad people,
in one sense,
know very little
about badness.
They live a sheltered life
by always giving in.
We never find out
the 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 means.
The only complete realist.
So no,
Jesus didn't face
screaming kids,
nor was he tempted
by internet porn.
But at the root,
he faced the same
struggle for control,
the same desire
for pleasure
that we face
in a far greater way
than we have ever had.
The only difference
is that our Lord
never gave in.
He was given
the same decision
to sin
or not to sin
as we are given,
but time and again,
he never gave in.
He fought the temptation,
which means
he is the only person
who perfectly understands
what it's like
to be tempted.
Okay.
Are you with me?
Someone over there
is with me.
Great.
Okay.
So,
we've established
that Jesus understands
what it's like
to face emotional highs
and lows.
He knows what it's like
to face temptation,
but he doesn't just
understand
and then leave us
to our own devices
to go figure it out.
He understands us,
but he also comes
towards us
to comfort
and heal us.
He understands us
after only a few months
in ministry,
Jesus was quickly
becoming famous.
He could have set up
shop anywhere in Israel
and kicked his feet up
and many would have
come to him daily,
but he didn't do that.
He went out
actively and intentionally.
He went out
into the wilderness
to teach,
preach, heal.
He went into the city
of Jerusalem
to do the same.
He met the woman
at the well.
He met with sinners.
He met with tax collectors.
Jesus,
and today,
Jesus is still at work
calling you and I
to follow him.
to trust him,
be with him.
He's calling your name
and my name right now.
He always moves
towards us.
Now the question is,
how are we responding?
Are we moving back
towards him?
So therefore,
a lot of therefores,
so therefore,
since Jesus is the
great high priest
who perfectly understands us,
verse 16,
let us then with confidence
draw near to the throne
of grace
that we may receive
mercy and grace
in our time of need.
And this is where
we're landing.
Now draw near
suggests that we have
to be active
and intentional
with our walk
with God.
We've been saying
that Jesus always moves
towards us.
He's active and intentional
towards us.
He moves towards
people when he preached,
taught,
and healed.
And today,
he is coming to us
and asking us
to lay our burdens
on him,
to ask for forgiveness
in his name.
So how are we responding?
It's nice to hear
a sermon that
he is a great high priest
and that he understands us,
but what are we doing
about it?
We have to be active
and intentional
in our relationship
with him.
And we can draw near
to his throne
because it's a throne
of grace,
as our passage says.
It's not a throne
of judgment.
He doesn't summon us
to his throne room
to be punished
for the sake of punishment
or to satisfy his wrath.
It isn't a throne of fear.
He doesn't demand
that we come before him
so he can yell
and scream at us
to strike fear
in our hearts
to satisfy his ego.
It's a throne of grace
because one
of the fundamentally
deepest desires
of Jesus
is for us to come
to him
with all that we have,
all our messiness,
all our ugliness,
just as we are,
all our imperfections,
so that he can lavish
his wonderful love
and grace upon us.
Now,
mercy and grace
are a little bit different.
So this is a bit technical.
So mercy is not receiving
what we deserve
while grace is receiving
what we don't deserve.
Let me repeat that.
Mercy is not receiving
what we deserve
and grace is receiving
what we don't deserve.
Mercy is when we deserve
punishment for our actions.
We are all sinners.
We all fall
very short
of the mark.
But because Jesus
paid the price
as our great high priest
on the cross
and if our faith
and hope
and lives
are in him,
that punishment
is already on him
and not on us.
We deserve death
but Christ died
in our place.
Mercy is not receiving
what we deserve.
Now,
grace is slightly different.
Grace is receiving
something we don't deserve.
For example,
hypothetically,
say I yell
or I snap at my wife Celeste.
Hypothetically,
of course,
I never would do that.
Just kidding.
Obviously,
that's a joke.
And after snapping at her,
I ask for her forgiveness.
Now,
I probably deserve her
snapping back at me
or worse,
the silent treatment.
We all know
how bad that is.
But instead,
she says,
it's okay.
I forgive you.
She gives me
a big hug.
Grace is receiving
what we don't deserve.
So what does it look like
to draw near
to his throne
of grace?
Well,
it's simple,
actually.
We have to come
to him in prayer,
humbly,
honestly,
and often.
Humbly because we realize
that we desperately need him.
We can do nothing
without him.
He is our sustenance.
He is our daily bread.
Honestly,
because we lay everything
at his feet.
All of our worries
and anxiety,
all our fears,
all our goals,
all our sin
and temptations.
We leave nothing.
He knows everything already,
but he wants us
to come to him
and to confess everything,
to give everything to him.
And often,
because we need him
every day,
every single day,
we need him.
Let me close
by reading this
excerpt from a sermon
by Pastor James Allen Francis
from the 1920s
as he describes Jesus.
Here is a man
who was born
in an obscure village,
the child
of a peasant woman.
He grew up
in another village.
He worked in a carpenter shop
until he was 30.
And for three years,
he was an itinerant preacher.
He never owned a home.
He never wrote a book.
He never held an office.
He never had a family.
He never went to college.
He never put his foot
inside a big city.
Never traveled 200 miles
from the place
he was born.
He never did
one of the things
that usually
accompanies greatness.
He had no credentials
but himself.
While still a young man,
the tide of popular opinion
turned against him.
His friends ran away.
One of them denied him.
He was turned over
to his enemies.
He went through
the mockery of a trial.
He was nailed upon a cross
between two thieves.
While he was dying,
his executioner's gambled
for the only piece of property
he had on earth,
his coat.
When he was dead,
he was laid in a borrowed grave
through the pity
of a friend.
Nineteen long centuries
have come and gone,
and today,
he is the centerpiece
of the human race
and leader of the column
of progress.
I am far within the mark
when I say that
all the armies
that ever marched,
all the navies
that were ever built,
all the parliaments
that ever sat,
and all the kings
that ever reigned
put together
have not affected
the life of man
upon this earth
as powerfully
as has that one
solitary life,
the life of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
Christ.
Say amen to that.
Amen.
So brothers and sisters,
I'm closing here.
As we look to Christmas,
as we look to the day
that God became flesh
and moved into
our neighborhood,
as we prepare our hearts
to celebrate the day
that our Lord Jesus
was born,
let's meditate
on this incredible reality
that the sovereign God
of all creation,
of the universe,
took on our humanity.
He became one of us.
Because of that,
He understands us.
He knows us.
He understands.
He experienced
all our pain,
all our suffering,
all our stress and anxiety,
all our temptation.
He's the great high priest
who understands
what it's like
to live
in our broken world.
And He is the God
who constantly
moves towards us.
Let's respond today
and move
towards Him.
Let's lay at Jesus' feet
everything.
All our stress,
all our hopes and fears,
all our anxieties,
all our sin,
and all our temptation.
We're going to
shortly enter
into a time
of communion.
A communion
is a celebration.
We're going to celebrate
this incredible reality
that although Jesus
was very comfortable
in heaven
with His Father,
He didn't have to come
to earth,
but He did.
He took on flesh.
The Word became flesh
and He came into this world
and He died for our sins.
We want to celebrate that today
because that is glory for us.
But first,
the Bible also says
that communion
is a time
for us to search
our hearts.
You know,
none of us are perfect.
All of us are sinners.
Church is not a place
for perfect people.
Jesus
asks us
to come to Him
not because we're perfect,
because we're imperfect.
Jesus is for those
who are imperfect,
but in need
of His grace
and His mercy.
So spend some time
in prayer
in the next few minutes,
asking God
to reveal
the hardest
in your heart,
whatever it is
that you're going through,
and at the same time,
let's also spend some time
laying our burdens
on Him.
All the stuff
that we've been worrying about,
whether it's school,
our education,
money,
all our frustration
with travel
and other things,
whatever it is,
let's lay it upon Him
right now.