Our Great High Priest
To communicate and fellowship with God,
we are to approach Him
through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Here's Gene:
Now I believe that the author
of Hebrews here, his primary audience
is his fellow Jews. Who were believers
but they're very, very immature.
And we'll see that later as he
makes reference to that.
But he also could keep in mind
people like Nicodemus.
And you remember the story of Nicodemus.
How he came to Jesus by night.
And he said: We know that you're a
teacher come from God
because nobody could do these miracles,
unless God is with him.
And Jesus turned to Nicodemus,
reading the thoughts and intentions
of his heart and said:
Nicodemus, you need to be born again.
You need to really know Jesus Christ personally.
You need to be circumcised in your heart.
And so the author of Hebrews
is probably thinking in terms of
people like that because
he was a Jew who knew Christ.
And he knew many of his fellow Jews
throughout the New Testament world.
So basically what he's going to do now
is really introduce them
in a very specific way to Jesus Christ
who is our great high priest.
And so beginning in verse 14 of chapter 4, he says:
Therefore...
Therefore, in view of the fact
that we have the Word of God.
We have the Old Testament.
We have the revelation of Jesus Christ:
...Therefore, since we have a great high priest
who has passed through the heavens--
Jesus the Son of God--let us hold fast
to our confession. ...
You see, I think he's talking to his fellow Jews.
They had put their faith in Christ.
Even though they were very immature
and they don't understand all this.
He wants them to really evaluate their confession,
hold fast to that confession.
And then he explains. He said:
...For we do not have a high priest
who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,
but one who has been tempted
in every way as we are, yet without sin. ...
Now think about that:
Tempted in every way as we are,
and yet without sin.
I reflected back on what happened to Jesus
when he began his ministry.
Remember how he went into
the wilderness, and he fasted and he prayed.
And Satan came to him.
And the essence, the essence
of that temptation was power.
To turn stones into bread.
To be the ruler of all the kingdoms of the world.
Of course Satan was deceiving him.
He had no power to do that
because Jesus Christ was the
ruler of all kingdoms.
Pride--you know, throw yourself off the temple
and let the angels take care of you.
So he was tempted in the area of pride.
But it said he was tempted in every way
as we're tempted.
Think of all the ways in which we are tempted.
Just take the whole area of sexual temptation
and the variety of sexual temptation.
He was tempted in every way as we are,
and yet without sin.
And that's what makes him
the great high priest:
...Therefore, [he says,] let us approach
the throne of grace with boldness,
so that we may receive mercy
and find grace to help us in time of need.
In other words, he's saying:
Look. You're new believers
or at least you're immature believers.
And you need to understand that
you can't live the Christian life by yourself.
And that's why Jesus Christ has become
the great high priest.
Who was tempted in every way like we are,
and yet without sin.
And we can go directly to him.
And Paul elaborates on this.
When he wrote to Timothy--
the 1st letter--he said:
This is good, and it pleases God our Savior,
who wants everyone to be saved
and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
For there is one God and one mediator
between God and humanity,
the man Christ Jesus,
who gave himself as a ransom for all,
a testimony at the proper time.
And there Paul is dealing with the fact
that He is there for unbelievers,
as the great high priest, to represent them
before God once they confess their sins
and receive Jesus Christ.
But he's also there for all of us, as believers,
to be able to enter into His presence
because He identifies with us
in absolutely every way.
And that's why it says we should
enter the presence of God through our
great high priest with boldness.
Not with arrogance or pride but with boldness.
We don't have to be afraid.
Because we're welcome there.
Because there we can find mercy.
And we can find grace to help us
in a time of need.
And of course for believers--
and I think he's thinking about
believing Jews here who are immature.
But he says: Not only does this mediator
intercede for you when you come to Christ in faith
but He gives you empowerment.
Empowering grace--
that mercy and grace that you need.
And Paul, of course, illustrates that
in his own life.
Remember when he had
that thorn in the flesh?
And we don't know what it was.
Whether it was mental;
whether it was emotional.
It could have been.
Or whether it was physical.
We're not really sure what that thorn was.
But he asked the Lord three times
to remove it.
And God said:
Paul, my grace is sufficient for you:
[But] he said to me,
"My grace is sufficient for you,
for my power is perfected in weakness."
So the great high priest is there for all of us.
And as we continue to study Hebrews,
we're going to see that the author
expands considerably on our great high priest.
Why He's there and what He will do for us.
Now, let's just think for a moment about
application however, before we move on:
In what effective ways can we
communicate with people who believe
they can pray to God through mediators
other than Jesus Christ?
And there are people that believe that.
Well first of all, let's understand
the concept of confession and prayer
as it involves us.
And we read about it in James. James wrote:
Therefore, confess your sins to one another
and pray for one another,
so that you may be healed.
The prayer of a righteous person
is very powerful in its effect.
Now what James is really saying here is:
Yes, confession is important.
It's therapeutic. But it is not the
means for forgiveness.
Sadly, there are people who believe
they have to confess to another person--
a priest, or someone with unique power
or position that can exonerate them.
There's only one person that can forgive us.
And it's Jesus Christ
and it's because of his shed blood.
So we need to understand
there is the element of confession
to one another so we can pray for one another.
I mean, if we don't know
what the other person's real challenge is,
then we don't know how to pray specifically.
And God wants us to do that.
But when it comes to forgiveness of sins,
only Jesus Christ, the great high priest,
is the one that can forgive us our sins.
Now, in terms of this question:
In what effective ways
can we communicate with people
who believe they can pray to God
through mediators other than Jesus Christ?
They need clear teaching
from the Word of God.
And this is exactly what the author of Hebrews
is trying to teach these people.
Clear teaching from the Word of God.
Now we're fortunate that we have
so much more of the Word of God
to help us to understand that concept.
And they also need models of prayer.
And you see, this happened
right at the very beginning of the church.
Where the apostles, who were
the primary leaders at that moment,
devoted themselves to what?
The Word of God and prayer.
And people saw that.
And by the way, that was a whole new
experience for Jewish believers.
They did not understand prayer.
That's why the apostles said:
Teach us to pray, Lord.
Having an intimate relationship with God
was something they just didn't understand
because they had to go through the priests.
But Jesus came and the apostles
understood that they could
enter the very presence of God.
And they modeled that.
But we also see it modeled
by Christians because it says:
After they believed, they continued
in the apostles' teaching
and devoted themselves to
breaking of bread and prayer.
And that was a whole new experience
throughout Jerusalem.
For Jewish unbelievers to look in on
these groups of believers throughout Jerusalem
who were devoting themselves to prayer.
Entering into the very presence of God
through their high priest, Jesus Christ.
So let's review that Principle:
To communicate and fellowship with God,
we are to approach Him
through His Son, Jesus Christ.