Are You A Mature Christian? - [Hebrews 5:11-14]

Hallmark has a lot of holidays, don't they? Well, the Lord's calendar, the church calendar, has 52 special days.

Every Sunday we're called to worship and sing praises and hear about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And it's important that we do that. I was just singing that song about on that day when our strength is failing.

Just how important is it to have a right relationship, a right legal standing with Jesus on that day?

You've probably been in some of those loved ones' bedsides in the hospital and they're dying.

And to think about even our own Mark Westcott still praising the name of Jesus Christ on his deathbed.

Doctrine matters. What you believe about God is important. I think our society basically says this, we want to feel, we want to experience, we want to emote, and then we'll do something about that, maybe, and then we'll think about it afterwards.

It's the paradigm that says feel, do, and think. But the

Christian paradigm is exactly opposite. It should not strike us as oddly because what the world does, if we do the opposite, we're probably in good standing.

For the Christian, what you think about God is the most important thing. Then that leads you to do things about that.

Then you feel afterwards. It's thinking, then doing, then feeling.

But it's hard to think. It's hard to think about doctrine. If I told you this morning, here would be my introduction. Thank you,

Will, for that song. Today's a sermon about doctrine. Would you be motivated?

Would you be sitting on the edge of your seat? But what you believe determines how you live and how you die.

Jesus is called, in Scripture, prophet, priest, and king.

Three offices. It goes way back to the fourth century. Eusebius talked about Jesus as prophet, priest, and king.

In the Reformation, it really came to be popular with John Calvin and others, prophet, priest, and king, the

Lord Jesus. Even our own confession of faith, the London Baptist Confession says, Christ and Christ alone is fitted to be the mediator between God and man.

He is the prophet, priest, and king of the church of God. Now, of course, when you move away from those circles of conservative theology into liberal theology, he's anything but a prophet, priest, or king.

He ends up being, as Niebuhr said, a God without wrath who brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment.

Through the ministrations of a Christ without the cross. Jesus, as you know, is prophet, priest, and king.

Prophets do what? They instruct. They teach. They reveal. How do we know anything about God?

Well, you look at the sun and you look at the stars and the moon and you can think God is wise and he's powerful, but you can't know his saving plan.

You can't know that he has a sin -bearing son. You don't know the details. But Jesus, as prophet, even

Moses said there was going to be a prophet who's greater than Moses. God the Father on the Mount of Transfiguration of Jesus said listen to him.

Why? Because he is the prophet. He's the light of the world. Jesus is also a king.

He rules. He reigns. He's the Lord. The Heidelberg Catechism says

Jesus is our eternal king who governs us by his word and spirit, who defends and preserves us in the enjoyment of that salvation that he has purchased for us.

The Magi knew that he was a king. He's the king of the Jews. Before the governor,

Jesus stood and the governor said, Are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus said, It is as you say.

If you'll take your Bibles and turn to the book of Hebrews, we're focusing not Jesus as prophet, not

Jesus as king, although he's both of those, but Jesus as high priest. And my question for you this morning is, does it even matter?

Is it relevant? It's relevant in your thinking, but does it translate into doing?

And I'd like to make a connection today, the relevancy of Jesus Christ, prophet, priest, and king.

Now, as you're looking for the book of Hebrews, what do priests do? Well, priests do a lot of things. Namely, they pray, they offer sacrifices.

Jesus, we know, is the high priest who sat down at the right hand. Everything he needed to do was finished.

Now, for sake of review, let's just look at some of the verses in the book of Hebrews that talks about Jesus as high priest.

This is the book that teaches Jesus is the high priest more than any other book. You can go to John 17 for his high priestly prayer, but beside that, this is the book.

He's a priest. So let's just scan this in Hebrews 2 -9.

Is Jesus a high priest? Does he sacrifice? Does he intercede? Does he bless?

Well, prophets teach kings rule, and priests sacrifice and intercede. Hebrews 2 -17.

Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful. There it is.

High priest in the faithful service of God to make propitiation or assuaging God's anger for the sins of the people.

Chapter 3, verse 1. Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider

Jesus, think about him, the apostle and high priest of our confession. It's in chapter 4 as well, 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.

Verse 15. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, of course, because of the incarnation and his temptation and his obedience, but one who is in every respect, has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Chapter 5, verse 5. So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but he was appointed by him who said to him,

You are my son, today I have begotten you. Chapter 5, verse 10. Being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

Chapter 6, verse 20. Where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

In chapter 7. For it was fitting, verse 26, indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest.

He is not like regular priests who are sinful. He is holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens.

And then two more. Chapter 8, verse 1. Now the point in what we are saying is this. We have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven.

And then chapter 9, verse 11. This high priest book, talking about Jesus not just prophet and king, but high priest.

But when Christ appeared, 9 -11, as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, and it goes on to talk about not made with hands.

You have to say, with that summary, Jesus is a high priest. You have to say that the theme of Hebrews is

Jesus is a high priest. But my question again comes back to this. How relevant is it? Is it relevant?

Is it a doctrine that makes any sense to me today? Does it apply to my life? I would say to you that if you don't know that Jesus is a high priest, your personal high priest, that you've rested in and trusted in and believed in, you can't understand any of the

Bible. Let me give you case in point. Let's turn to Psalm 139, please. I submit to you that when you realize that Jesus is your personal high priest, it makes the

Bible clear. It makes you understand the Bible. Psalm 139.

Now, if you're new here today, we're just going through the Bible verse by verse. We're in Hebrews. We're almost finished with Hebrews 5.

In Hebrews 5 at the end, it's kind of like a paddle. It's kind of like a rod, a device that spanks.

I don't know if some of you call that Mr. Spoon or something. I don't know what you call it. But he really gets after them.

He tells them to grow up. He says, you know, you want all kinds of practical application and how -to things, but you need to understand that Jesus is a great high priest.

And your desire to say, I want to move on from that point, shows how immature you are, if that in fact is you.

That's the end of chapter 5. So before we get there, I want to make sure we don't fall into that.

We have some mature people here, some immature people there, but all of us can mature more. What does it matter that Jesus is a high priest?

That's the hard one to kind of understand in the sense prophet, he tells us about God. King, he's sovereign, he's the king of kings.

But priest? Psalm 139, I don't think you can really understand unless he's your high priest.

What do I mean by that? This is that great psalm about God's omniscience. He knows everything in his omnipresence, that he is everywhere.

That he knows you like an open book. That he knows everything about you. Omniscience is omni, all in science, all knowledge.

What does it say in chapter 139, verse 1? Oh, Yahweh, that's God's personal name, all caps,

Lord, you have searched me and known me. Now, before we keep reading, just stop for a second and think about that.

Now, when I go visit people in the hospital, I think, okay, if somebody's really discouraged, I have Psalm 46

I like to read. Be still and know that I am God. I train the men that go to places like to a hospital or a funeral.

What would be a good psalm to read when there's a new baby that's born? Psalm 139.

But before we rush into this too quickly, let this just settle in. God, David said, you've searched me and you know me.

Is that good or terrifying? God knows every little thing about you.

Every detail, every thought, he knows it all. How can that be good news?

I mean, why is David singing about this? Do you want to sing that kind of song? Psalms are songs and they would put them to music and sing praises about God, you know me and you search me.

Doesn't seem like you should pray about that, praise about that, that he discerns you. As a matter of fact, this is something you sing in front of other people.

What's the inscription say at the very top there before verse one? To the choir master. Let's use this for worship in the temple and sing it together.

God, you know everything about us. Really? What you thought yesterday?

Now kings back in the old days, they were cut above as it were.

Proverbs 25 says, as the heavens for height and the earth for depth, so the heart of kings is unsearchable.

Kings you don't know, they'll only tell you what they want. And here God knows everything about David the king.

He knows everything about you. He's searched. This is the language of he's dug deeply.

Hebrew really means to dig, to examine. God has examined your life. He knows your life. He's investigated your life.

He knows every little thought. One commentator that was written in the 70s, who wrote in the 70s said, this word search there, this word dig means that God really digs you.

Groovy. No, he dug in and he knows everything about you.

Does that make you frightened or does it make you happy? David's happy. How can that be?

Gone to airports before and here comes that little beagle and that beagle comes through. And I remember when I came back from South Africa, I thought

I'm gonna bring some biltong, this kind of beef jerky back. I'll just declare it. I know I'm not supposed to, but we'll give it a try.

I declared on customs. Do you have any meat products, egg products, this, that and the other? Yes, biltong, beef jerky

I have. And so if they ask me, I'm gonna tell them and I declared it up front and I didn't have to declare it any further because there's the dog right over at my bag, pointing.

He didn't need to dig into my bag with his paws. He dug into my bag with his nose. You've searched me and you've known me.

It's like God has this MRI onto your soul. He knows everything about you. I get an

MRI on Tuesday night and they're gonna get put in that little tube and they ask you, are you claustrophobic? Don't ask me that.

I wasn't until you asked me. Now I'm very claustrophobic and these metal magnets going around and around trying to figure out what's inside of you.

God knows everything about you, everything you've thought, everything you've done.

Does that make you happy? If you're a thinking person, it shouldn't.

That God would know your innermost secrets. This language here is language of scrutiny.

This is language of Job and mines where you search out the rock in deep shadows.

This is language of spying on a country, Judges 18. God scoured through every detail in your life.

He knows it all. Perfect knowledge. That makes you happy.

Tozer said, God knows instantly and effortlessly all matter and all matters, all mind and every mind, all spirit and all spirits, all being and every being, all creaturehood and all creatures, every plurality and all pluralities, all law and every law, all relations, all causes, all thoughts, all mysteries, all enigmas, all feeling, all desires, every unuttered secret, all thrones and dominions, all personalities, all things visible and invisible in heaven and in earth, motion, space, time, life, death, good, evil, heaven, hell, end quote.

And He knows you. How can that be good news? This is not like God trying to recall to His memory.

He just knows. He's never even learned. He knows perfectly. I'm going to write a song about it?

No, I'd rather run. Because I know with you, we're sinful people and we don't measure up to God's standards.

And when the light is shined on us, we want to find darkness. The psalm goes on.

Verse 2. What's the extent of God knowing you? He knows what you do. Verse 2.

You know when I sit down and when I rise up. And the language in the Hebrew is very emphatic. You.

You personally know God. When I'm resting or I kind of have a passive countenance on the couch,

He knows that. I'm reclining, sleeping actively. When you rise up, standing, running.

Casual things, He knows. Routine things, He knows. Mundane things, He knows. And everything in between. Nothing is overlooked.

I mean, if God didn't know everything, that'd make my life better. Because maybe He would not know about those things that I've done against His nature and His character and disobeyed

Him. Not loving Him with my heart, soul, mind, and strength. Not loving my neighbor as myself. The unbeliever,

Plutarch even said, Man may not see thee do an impious deed, but God thy very inmost thought can read.

No wonder the Egyptians called God the eye of the world. And not just what you do, but what you think.

Verse 2 goes on to say what? You discern my thoughts from afar. This is not like surface knowledge.

He just skims over deep down. He knows. He perceives. He gives heed to the idea, is paying attention.

Jeremiah 23, Am I a God who is near and not a God far off? Deuteronomy 31,

This shall come about when many evils and troubles have come upon them, that this song will testify before them as a witness.

For I know their intent, which they are developing today. This is supposed to give me comfort.

I'm supposed to write a praise song about this? He knows where you go, verse 3. You search out my path and my lying down are acquainted with all my ways.

This is language of scrutinized to winnow. And you take the chaff, and you take the grain, and you're in the winnowing field.

Throw the grain high in the air. The wind blows away the chaff. You see what's true? It's like God is just throwing you up and discerning you.

And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. And what you'll say, not what you said, that's true, but here's what you will say.

Verse 4, Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. On average, it says that people speak about 20 ,000 words a day.

And it wouldn't matter what language you spoke. God knows it. This is not making me happy.

God scrutinizing me. Verse 5, You hem me in behind and before you lay your hand upon me.

I can't get away. There's no escape. I can't run. Every direction I go, you're still there scrutinizing me, winnowing me, knowing me.

Impressive, yes. Nice, no. And so what does

David do? Verse 6, Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I can't attain it.

He praises. He's comforted. What's my point? My point is, unless you know that God the

Son is your high priest, this isn't a psalm of praise. This is a psalm of scrutiny and discernment.

And God knows every little thing you've done and will judge you for your sin on that day. But since God is my high priest and He has paid for all those sins, now the attributes that most haunt the unbeliever or should haunt any thinking unbeliever, that God knows everything,

He sees everything, He will never forget those things. He will bring those things up on judgment.

Any thinking believer should run from that. Now the Christian who has the high priest, who's paid for every one of those sins, has now seen

God's omnipresence and omniscience not as things to fear, but as things to praise

Him for. You know all about me, but you still had your son pay for those sins and therefore if you loved me when you were seeing me as sinner,

Romans 5, won't you love me now? I propose to you that if you do not see

Jesus as high priest, as your sin bearer, who now intercedes for you, you go to these

Psalms and you think, you know what, I've got to run from God. I want to be surrounded by lead from God.

I don't want any x -ray from God. And David knew. How about David? David, Bathsheba, David, Israel, David, the general,

David, the wicked bloodshedding king. And he said, God, you can search me, you can win on me, you can discern me, you can scrutinize me, you can see me without having any kind of ruse and I'm happy about it.

What used to be awful, omnipresence, omniscience, is now wonderful. And he says that.

It's a praise. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. Without that mediator, without that advocate, without Jesus Christ, there's no way he does this.

He needs a high priest. Verse 6, Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.

That word wonderful is in the front of the Hebrew. It means emphatic. Here's what we should say if we don't have a high priest.

Such knowledge crushes me. Such knowledge makes me pulverized.

You want to know the despair of people and as they try to commit suicide? It would be that. I'm a judged sinner before God and then there's payday.

Just get it over. But what does David say? Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.

This is praise. It's a sweet song. It's high. I can't attain to it.

Who could ever figure out how to take sinful men and women and then make them reconciled and make them friends and make them friends of God Himself?

And he knows me inside and out. Kim's gone, so I don't have to pay her a dollar today when

I talk about her, my wife. I told you, I got engaged May 5th, 1989.

We got married June 6th, 1989. Young couples, do as I say, not as I do.

Why did I get married so fast? Lots of reasons, including I don't want her to know me very well because who would know all about me and still say

I do? You laugh. There are some things

I'll never tell her. I'll never tell you. God knew every one of those things.

He knew every single one and every single one of those sinful things that He saw in me.

He said, I love to forgive sinners. I love, it's part of my nature to be gracious and compassionate and instead of punishing

Mike and he deserved it, I'm going to punish Jesus in his place and he's going to be the sin bearer.

Other priests, they offer sacrifices. Jesus is the sacrifice and now since Jesus is the sacrifice and God does not have double jeopardy,

I don't have to pay and Jesus paid. If Jesus paid, it's enough to tell us that it's finished and if Jesus has paid, now what used to haunt me,

God's omnipresence, I love because I need His help and I know when He's close and He sees me,

I don't have to be shamed because I have an advocate. How can

God know everything? Because He's everywhere. Verse 7, Where shall I go from your spirit? Where shall I flee from your presence?

Answer, you can't go anywhere David and you can't go anywhere if you're listening to me. By the way,

David I don't think is trying to flee from God now. He would have tried to flee from God as the unbeliever without a high priest, without Jesus the

Son, without the Messiah who would pay for his sins. Back in chapter 2, Jesus the

King kissed the Son lest you perish in the way. Psalm chapter 32, How blessed is the man to whom the

Lord will not count iniquity. Chapter 51, God create in me a clean heart O God and renew my spirit against you and you only have

I sinned. Psalm 110, There's a priest after the order of Melchizedek. See the whole

Psalter starts off with the Son and it ends in chapter 150 with praise. Starts with the

Son, ends with praise. How can there be praise knowing God knows everything about you? David is not running from God.

Why? Because he has a mediator. If David didn't, he would be running. David asked the questions, verse 8, rhetorically hypothetical as if I ascend to heaven, you're there.

If I make my bed in Sheol, you're there. From the highest to the lowest, you are not limited by space

God. Don't you like it when you know that you have a father who knows everything about you?

It says in verse 9, If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea.

We're talking about speed here. No escape from God even though he's holy and majestic in power.

Now we're children because of the high priest work. That's amazing.

Verse 14, what's he say? How can you praise

God for His omniscience and omnipresence knowing you're sinful? Answer when your sins are forgiven by a mediator and you're resting in Him and trusting in Him.

I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works. My soul knows it very well.

And I would submit to you that everything about Jesus as prophet and king and priest turns God's attributes that are daunting and horrifying and crushing and pulverizing into attributes where we say

God praise you from whom all blessings flow. The priest takes care of the guilty sinner by atoning sacrifice.

Hebrews chapter 13, it says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Jesus said to this church, so we can confidently say the

Lord is my helper, I will not fear. What can man do to me? How relevant is it that Jesus is the high priest?

Well, you're standing before God. That's relevant. How about another one? Turn to Philippians chapter 4.

Is it relevant that Jesus is a high priest? The answer is yes for anyone here that struggles with anxiety or worry.

The point of this high priest, he doesn't stop being a high priest of the sacrifice. He was raised from the dead, sits at the right hand of the

Father, makes intercession for us, and will never leave us nor forsake us. Just like in Matthew chapter 28, at low,

I am with you always. So now you're in a tough situation, very difficult situation, whatever it could be, and you think, okay, what does it matter that God's a high priest?

Why is the author saying this? If you don't stop saying, let's get past the high priest thing,

I'm going to tell you to get the bottle out and grow up. Don't do that. Go back and remember that he's a high priest.

Why? Because it's you're standing before God, and then also, what about day -to -day living?

Why would a Christian worry if they're standing before God is set, and they have Jesus, the one who prays for them, seated at the right hand of the

Father now, praying for you? Philippians 4 verse 4,

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.

The Lord is at hand. Well, we don't have to be afraid of that, because we're children, we're adopted.

Instead of being afraid, if the Lord is at hand, you should be afraid, unbeliever.

Judgment Day, you should be afraid, unbeliever. God is a consuming fire, unbeliever.

But for children, Christians, believers who are resting in Christ Jesus, what does He say?

Do not be anxious for anything. The unbeliever should be anxious for everything.

Will this kill me? Will I live to see another day? Will I be alive and be able to repent before that Judgment Day?

I've had unbelievers in my office and they've come in and said, I'm struggling with anxiety, and I'm not trying to be mean,

I'm not trying to be rude, I care for their soul, but I give them more things to worry about. And their little tiny worries in life about health and wealth and everything else,

I want to make sure they see those in light of, you will stand before God one day, judged, naked, seen by God, all your deeds.

He doesn't have to remember anything, He just knows it. You better be worried about that day. But for a

Christian, you don't have to worry. What's the text say? Do not be anxious about anything, because you're standing before God is good.

And by the way, Jesus is praying for you, and so instead of being anxious, what do you do? Put in everything by prayer, supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and God will get you out of your troubles.

Sorry. Verse 7, And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Yes, but I'm troubled, and I need to get an escape hatch to get out of this trial. No, you don't. Maybe you think you do, but what you need more importantly is to be reminded that God the

Son is with you, and that you have peace before God, and now you have the peace of God.

I think that's the way we work sometimes when we forget God as our high priest, and that He's a sympathetic high priest, and He was a human high priest.

Yes, more than human. Truly God, truly man. But He knows about our troubles, yet He was without sin, and He comes alongside.

He's called a brother in Hebrews. So why would you worry?

What are you worrying about? I bet you if we went around the room today, we could figure out all our worries. Grandma used to have a slogan, and she would say, go to the throne before you go to the phone.

Before you call your friend, you pray. What are we worried about?

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. You have a high priest.

Sounds like Jesus' words to me. Why don't we go there, Matthew chapter 6. Does it matter that we have a high priest?

The solution to the high priestly work of Christ Jesus at the end of Hebrews 13 is, I'm never going to leave you.

Therefore, confidently say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? Is that relevant?

And you see what happens. We want to be told, give me those five things to do, and I'll be set for the week.

And by the way, we could do those five things, probably with no help from God, and we could do them without perfect motive, but we checked our list, and we did those things.

The writer doesn't want you to do that. The writer wants you to know, I need you to have your mind fixed on this, that God is with you, and he'll never forsake you.

And by the way, if you get persecuted, if you get martyred, if your wife is an unbeliever, your husband's an unbeliever, whatever happens in your family, whatever's going on in your situation, what about that MRI?

What about that cancer result? What about all these things? I am with you. I'm your high priest. Is that relevant?

What does Jesus say? Verse 25,

Matthew 6, 25, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.

Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Stop worrying.

Anxiety basically means this, I don't have a high priest. And Israel was singing, Great is thy faithfulness.

And if I do have a high priest, he's not that faithful. Like I just can't stop worrying.

Yes, you can. Repent. Stop. This word worry means to divide, or to rip, or to tear, or to strangle.

Feel like everything's in knots. I know it's getting intense, so just to make things light.

You know, J. Adams, the counselor, he never wore a tie. And they asked him, J., you know, you go to these places to preach and everything, you never wear a tie, and you're a

Presbyterian, and you don't wear ties. He said, well, you know, women live to be 80 on average, and men live to be 70 on average.

And why is that? Slow strangulation. The idea for worry is,

I'm feeling strangled, I'm feeling conflicted, I'm feeling divided. And Jesus said, don't worry.

If Jesus said, don't do something, and you do it, you have no excuse except to say, you know what, I should put something else there instead.

That's why Philippians says, pray then instead. Or if you don't want to pray, how about this, what does it say in verse 26?

Look at the birds of the air. That's amazing. Look at the birds of the air.

When I ride my bicycle around the reservoir, I see these people with these big scopes, and they're all bird watching.

And I always think that's strange, because they could be Christians, but I'm thinking, I, the Christian, am supposed to be watching the birds, but I'm bicycling.

They are the pagans. They're supposed to be doing something else, and they're looking at the birds. And so how does this whole thing work?

Look at the birds. What good will that do? Well, it gets you to stop looking at yourself, but that's not the idea.

You begin to look at the birds, and you go, huh, barns. You have bird barns where you live?

Do they make their own? They can make a nest. You live from Maine or what? Probably make them up in Maine.

Lloyd Jones says, the essence of worry is the absence of thought, a failure to think. You look at the bird, and it's the present tense.

It's not just like you glance at the bird. You look at the bird and you go, God takes care of the birds, and it's a bird.

I'm not looking at the bird going, whatever the bird does, I'll do. No, I look at the bird, and then I say,

God providentially cares for a bird. They don't have a high priest. One writer said, nobody ever saw an earthly father feed his birds and abandon his children.

God feeds the birds, but he won't take care of me. God is the promise keeper.

He's faithful. Luther said, you see, God is making the birds our schoolmasters and teachers.

It is a great and abiding disgrace to us that in the gospel a helpless sparrow should become a theologian and a preacher to the wisest of men.

Whenever you listen to a nightingale, therefore you're listening to an excellent preacher. What does verse 32 say?

Your heavenly Father knows you need all these things. I think

Peter learned a lesson when he said later in his writings, casting all your anxiety upon Him because He cares for you.

Why are we worried? Why are you worried? Back to Hebrews chapter 13 and we close.

Hebrews chapter 13. What does it say at the end? Is it relevant that Jesus is a high priest?

Does it matter? Remember, the focus of our prayers is not even get me out of here and then

I'll be happy. These are temporary things. They are fleeting things and God is with you.

The idolater says, I will be happy if such and such happens. The one trusting in their high priest says,

I know God is with me, Emmanuel. In the midst of all their suffering and their persecution and their desire to go back to Judaism, is it practical?

Chapter 13 verse 1, that Jesus is a high priest. Let brotherly love continue.

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Remember those who are in prison as though in prison with them and those who are mistreated since you are also in the body.

Let marriage be held in honor among all and let the marriage bed be undefiled for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have for he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

So we can confidently say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me?

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

Well, they might stumble, they might struggle, but there's a faithful leader who never does. Verse eight,

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings for it is good that the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not been benefited, who has not benefited those who were devoted to them.

We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. Verse 14, for here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.

Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. Yes, there's still a sacrifice, but now it's of praise.

That is the fruit of lips that acknowledges name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have for.

Such sacrifices are pleasing to God. Obey your leaders, submit to them for they're keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.

Let them do this with joy and not groaning for that would be of no advantage to you. Pray for us that we are sure that we have a clear conscience desiring to act honorably in all things.

I urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that I may be restored to you the sooner. Verse 20,

Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with every good thing that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever.

Amen. Christian, what you think matters.

In a society that says if it feels good, do it. How do you feel about that?

What do you think about that? That's like when people ask me the question, Pastor Mike, what do you feel about Sarah Young's Jesus Calling book?

And I said, well, I feel like it makes me want to throw up because it's blasphemous.

But what I think about it is, it's God now talking through this woman and you ought to run for it for your soul's good.

How do I feel about it? I have an emotional response. That's later. What do

I think about it? What do I think about Jesus as the high priest? What do you think? Jesus is my high priest.

What do I think about it? Well, some of you tomorrow are going to wake up at work. What do you think about Jesus the high priest?

Some of you have to go to work. What do you think about Jesus the high priest? You got to lay in the MRI tube. What about Jesus the high priest?

Say, well, my marriage is a disaster. Well, what do you think about Jesus as the high priest? You're probably going to get laid off at work.

I want to know what you're thinking about Jesus the high priest. Because you know what? You might not get out of that trial ever.

You might not ever get out of that trial until we close your eyes in death. And then what?

But I want to know what you're thinking about Jesus the high priest. You say, well, I kind of want to graduate and move on.

I need some how -to's. No, you don't. You don't need how -to's. You need to think about who

Jesus is the high priest. And the writer of Hebrews will not stop talking about Jesus the high priest.

I know we would never say it out loud, but there's that temptation in all of us. Okay, that's enough about Jesus.

I have a life to live. That's the attitude that next week we'll see that this writer says, if that's the way you think, you ought to grow up.

I'm in trouble. I wonder about Jesus the high priest. Is it related, friends?

When I talked to Sinclair Ferguson in the car, and he asked me, he said, well, what do you do in the ministry and what's going on?

And he thought I was Pat. My brother. And I said, well,

I just finished my second book. This was some years ago. And he said, well, what are the books on?

I said, well, they're about Jesus. Jesus first, the preacher, and Jesus, the sovereign king.

The prophet and the king. Now, he could have said you should write one about Jesus, the high priest.

I just might. He looked at me, and he said, they'll never sell. He said, because Christians don't want books about Jesus.

You go to Morningstar this week. Nothing against Morningstar. Well, I guess there is.

You go there, and it will be the how -to section. I know.

That's what I said. I said, grow up. You think you need milk, but you need meat. That's why.

Come on. Want the

Red Bull is what I want. Nobody's giving them to me anymore. It's built in.

I just want to do something. Like, okay, our marriage really needs work. What do I need to do?

Okay, well, yes, be nice to your wife or be kind to your husband. I want you to get a book.

It doesn't have to be my book, although that might help me. Get a book about Jesus.

And your mind is taken off of you and your problems, and you see everything in light of eternity. Here's the telescope.

And when you look at the telescope through the right lens, you see how big Jesus is. And when you look at it through the wrong way, all you see is your eye and your eyelash and your pupil and your iris.

You see you. And the writer of Hebrews is saying, you know what? You're getting persecuted.

I know that. But what you need is not an escape hatch. You need to think about who Jesus is. And by the way, there's only one place you can find that, and that is in the local church.

And that is why churches that abandon talking about Jesus for the latest TED Talks need to close down.

I can find drama. I can find singing. I can find dancing. I can find thrills. I can find drama.

I can find Broadway, everywhere else. But will somebody tell me about who Jesus is so I know

I can stand before him on that day, blameless, with great joy, and that he'll be with me when

I'm going through these trials? Because some of my trials are never going to end. But I need Jesus close to me.

What do you do if you have a trial that will never end on this earth? That's the wrong question.

What do you do with a sympathetic high priest who said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you?

That's the right question. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for our time and your word. I just pray for this dear congregation.

I pray that she would be like Ephesus, I think, of the book of Revelation. Lost the first love.

When we first got saved, we were excited. We wanted to just hear about Jesus all the time, our

Lord and Savior. I think for most of us, we'd be willing to do anything to serve him.

We would be willing to go across the world and be martyred for him. The years pass, and now it's difficult for us to love our wives for him, to submit to our husbands for him.

We can't even do those things. What does that mean? Father, grant us repentance, and grant us a new look at Jesus, fresh look from the

Scriptures, from the Gospels, from the writers, so we might understand him, how he does things, how he's our helper, and how we don't have to worry.