Hebrews Chapter 5 — Chip Brogden

I will rejoice and be glad in it. Hello again everyone, this is Chip Brogden coming to you with another edition of our weekly webcast. We are streaming online at www .watchman .net and we are continuing our series of messages this week in the book of Hebrews.

Christ as High Priest and Mediator of the New Covenant

So if you would grab your Bible and turn to the book of Hebrews, chapter 5, we will pick up where we left off last week concerning Christ as our high priest. We are learning three things in the book of Hebrews.

Jesus is our high priest, he offered himself as the final sacrifice and he is the mediator of a new covenant. And all through the book of Hebrews we are seeing a comparison between the new covenant and the old covenant.

Between Jesus Christ the high priest and the priesthood of the Old Testament. Between the final sacrifice of Jesus on the cross versus the many sacrifices that were made in the old covenant. And so I hope that you are beginning to see, because we just are getting into the meat of Hebrews right now and I hope that you are beginning to see something of the direction that we are going in that Christ has saved us by grace, he has delivered us from the curse of the law and in that Old Testament law we find types and shadows and prophetic illustrations of what Jesus has done for us and is doing for us in the new covenant.

Hebrews’ Original Audience and the Supremacy of Christ

And so as we look through the book of Hebrews we need to remember again going back to the earlier messages who is this letter being written to? And it is being written to people who used to be Jewish or still consider themselves to be Jewish but they had believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and now because of persecution, because of the things going on there in Jerusalem, in Judea, in the time that they were living in, they were being tempted to deny the faith, to deny Christ and simply go back to becoming Jewish again.

Just obeying the law of Moses and not accepting Christ as Messiah. And so the writer of Hebrews whom we believe to be Paul is writing to them and trying to demonstrate the supremacy, the preeminence of Christ and his kingdom and his covenant as opposed to the old covenant of Moses.

Religion Cannot Substitute for Spirituality

And so it is a good illustration to me and to us as to why religion will never substitute for spirituality. Religion, whether it's a Jewish religion, whether it's a Christian religion, organized religion, any kind of religious spirit, any kind of religious relating to God on the basis of trying to save ourselves by works or trying to please God by works.

Whatever that system is, it will always fall short because of the sacrifice of Christ and his position as high priest of a new covenant. It's established upon better promises, Hebrews says, and it is worthy, he is worthy of more glory than Moses.

Freedom from Religious Bondage

So specifically, we are trying to apply this in our lives and I'm trying to get people to see that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. And whether you consider that to be Judaism or whether it's any kind of a religious system or religious bondage that most of us have been a part of.

Whether it's Catholicism, whether it is some kind of mainline denomination or some kind of a prophetic or charismatic movement that we've been a part of. All of these things are simply different ways to describe different religious systems that tend to do more to bring people into bondage than they do bring them and show them the liberty and the freedom that they have in Christ Jesus.

So Hebrews is a good lesson for us to learn these things and specifically to those Christians who have gotten involved in Hebrew roots or in Messianic Christianity and believe that somehow we're supposed to go back and obey and keep the commandments of the Old Testament on the basis of not necessarily trying to save ourselves by them but trying to please God by doing these things.

And I'm telling you folks, if you really want to please God, you please God by giving Jesus Christ the preeminence in all things and living as a New Testament believer, a New Covenant believer, in this season, this time of grace.

Walking by the Spirit and not according to the outward appearance of things. So as we continue on through Hebrews, we're beginning to talk about the high priesthood and how Jesus is our high priest. He is the high priest of this New Covenant.

The Old Testament as a Pattern for Understanding Hebrews

And like I said before, it requires a bit of understanding of the Old Testament to understand and appreciate and interpret the New Testament. So as we begin reading in Hebrews 5, we're going to see this more clearly.

And why don't we go to the Lord in prayer right now and ask Him to soften our hearts, to soften our minds, and receive the things that He wants to teach us today. Thank you, Lord, for another opportunity to study Your Word and most of all to see Jesus revealed in the pages of this Word.

I pray, Holy Spirit, that You would be our teacher, open our eyes, open our ears to see and to hear the things that You want to show and reveal to us. Lord, take this Word and let it be Spirit and life, Spirit and truth to us, and not just another lesson, but an instruction and a guidance into the very principles and foundational aspects of what it means to live in the New Covenant of Jesus Christ as our high priest.

Bless this time that we have. I thank You for everyone that's listening. And I pray that this will be a profitable time that we share in the Word. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. So Hebrews chapter 5, beginning in verse 1, He's continuing to talk about the high priest.

Christ Fulfills the Law and the Old Priesthood

And remember, He has already said that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is our high priest now in this New Covenant. So, in a way you could say, yeah, the priesthood was not done away with. It was simply consolidated into Jesus Christ.

The law wasn't done away with. It was simply fulfilled and summed up into Jesus Christ. And if you will understand that, I think it will help you to understand what Jesus means when He says He's not come to do away with the law, but to fulfill it.

How is it fulfilled in Christ? Because all of those hundreds of laws and ceremonies in the Old Testament, they are summed up and fulfilled and gathered together into Jesus Christ. So now, we're not saying the high priesthood was done away with.

The system of high priests have simply been gathered up and gathered together into Jesus Christ. And now, it says in Peter that we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. Well, who is Peter talking about?

He's not talking about the nation of Israel. He is talking about those of us who have believed on the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and have made Him Lord of our life. That is, we have become disciples of Jesus, regardless of whether we are Jew or Gentile, male or female, slave or free.

We have made Christ our Lord, our Savior. And as such, we are kings and priests in this kingdom of God. And so, we still have a priesthood, but it doesn't resemble that of the Old Testament. We still have a high priest, but it's nothing like the high priest of the Old Testament.

We still have sacrifices, but they are not the blood sacrifices and the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament. There's the sacrifice of Christ, once and for all for our sins. And then Paul says in Romans 12 that our bodies are living sacrifices as we offer up ourselves in worship to God and in living out the testimony of Jesus in the earth today.

That's our sacrifice. And then our holy days and our celebrations and our feasts, they are all done as we worship Christ, as we live and walk by the Spirit. And it's an exciting thing to contemplate, and why in the world anyone would want to go back and try to put themselves and other people beneath the yoke of bondage in the Old Covenant, which was only a shadow of the glorious things that would come under the New Covenant.

Religious Rules and the Pharisaical Spirit

Really, I don't understand it, except that man, the flesh, the natural mind, it tends to gravitate towards things that are religious, that are orderly, because there is a sense of security in things that we can touch and feel and understand, and there's a certain amount of security that people feel when they have rules and regulations to live by, even though they can't keep them half the time.

But really where they get satisfaction from is in telling everyone else what they're supposed to be doing, and they use the rules and the regulations as a way to measure themselves against one another, and what happens is a religious order, like the Pharisees, who are very zealous for the law of God, very zealous for the rules and the commandments, but they totally miss the heart of God, and they totally miss the Spirit of God.

Jesus said to them, you draw nigh to me, or Isaiah said, and then Jesus quoted Isaiah, saying, These people draw near to me with their mouth, and they honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

And what the New Covenant is trying to do is it's not so much interested in the outward appearance and how you obey the rules and the regulations so much as the heart within the person, what motivates the person is the emphasis of the New Covenant.

It is not trying to shape and correct and control and legislate the outward appearance of people. It is simply going beyond all of that and changing someone from the inside. That's what this high priest is all about here in the New Covenant, Jesus Christ.

Leaving Religious Systems for Life in Christ

So the differences are very profound, and we need to get on board with the season that God has us in now. So if you're coming out of religion, if you're coming out of any kind of a system of bondage that is based on rules and regulations, and look, it doesn't matter.

There are people just as bound in the Baptist church as they are bound in the Roman Catholic church, as they are bound in the Assemblies of God denomination, as they are bound in Old Testament Judaism and Hebrew roots and Messianic Christianity.

All of these are simply different systems that, if you're not careful, tend to distract you, hinder you from the relationship that you could have and you should be having with Jesus Christ on the basis of grace, on the basis of walking after the Spirit, not according to the flesh.

Galatians and Freedom from Religion

You know, my daughter had to memorize a passage of Scripture for school. She goes to a Christian school. Well, it's a religious school, and they do well with the educating of the person, but where I have a problem with is trying to indoctrinate people.

And they had her memorize a Scripture, and the Scripture was in Galatians, and it's the portion of Scripture that says, Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

Praise the Lord. Now, I wonder if they really understand the significance of what that portion of Scripture is saying, because I would pretty much guarantee that what they're thinking it means is that we've been delivered from the bondage of sin, and now we're supposed to live a holy life.

But if you read the entire book of Galatians, or better yet, if you read Galatians, and then you go back and listen to my teaching on the book of Galatians, it's available on CD, or you can listen to it online.

It's still available online. You can listen to it for free. What you'll find, whether you listen to my teaching or not, if you just read the entire book of Galatians, you'll see what Paul is talking about is not deliverance from sin, but deliverance from the law.

And by extension and application to us, deliverance from religion. Freedom from religion. I said last week that freedom of religion may be a civil right, but freedom from religion is a kingdom inheritance that few people appreciate.

We are free from religion, free from religious works, free from the bondage that religion tends to bring upon others, and it brings upon ourselves when we submit ourselves to the doctrines and the teachings and the commandments of men that do not have anything to do with Jesus Christ himself.

Inward Transformation Rather Than Outward Religion

These people draw near to me with their mouth, they honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, and they teach the doctrines and commandments of men as the commandments of God. And that's part of the problem.

Where you emphasize clothing, the length of dresses, or you emphasize whether or not someone wears makeup, or whether or not someone wears jewelry, or what kind of clothes they wear, or where they go, or what they do, and you're so concerned with the outward appearance of things, that is simply religion.

Jesus is concerned with the thoughts and the intents of our heart. And so we've got to wake up, and we've got to realize that it's already been tried, and it's already been proven a failure, that man, in a system of religion, one of two things will happen.

Either they will fail miserably, and they will leave altogether and miss out and backslide on God, totally out of discouragement because they can't live up to the expectations, or they will become entrenched in that system of religion, they'll become Pharisees, they'll become lifted up in pride, in arrogance, and with a judgmental attitude towards everyone else who doesn't measure up.

Those are the only two outcomes religion produces. On the other hand, Jesus Christ says, Come to me and learn of me, I will give you rest unto your souls. He will deliver us and free us from that bondage, because it is not a religion he offers us, but a relationship.

Not a religion, but a relationship. And if all you have is religion, you don't have much of anything, except headache and trouble and bondage and distraction. Organized religion is the greatest single distraction from the simplicity of Christ that I know of.

Religion as an Obstacle to Spiritual Maturity

And why is it such a distraction? Religion is the primary cause of spiritual immaturity that I know of. It is the number one reason why people are spiritually immature. And it is that way, because religion does not encourage people towards spiritual growth.

Because what happens, when people begin to grow spiritually, they begin to outgrow that system of religion, and they begin to relate to Jesus Christ through a personal relationship with him, and not by going through man's system, man's rules, man's organization, man's way of doing things.

So, Jesus is offering a relationship with him, Come unto me and learn of me. And there is a huge difference between coming to Jesus and learning of Jesus, versus going to church and learning about Jesus.

And if you don't know the difference, then maybe you're not ready to hear this message. But many of you do know the difference, and I want to encourage you to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and don't be entangled again by the yoke of bondage.

That's the message to the Galatians. It's the message here to the Hebrews, to these Jewish Christians, who had accepted Christ, but now they were being tempted to go back into Judaism, back into bondage, back into religiosity.

Hebrews 5: Christ’s Qualifications as High Priest

So, I've filled most of my time with commentary. Let's go ahead and get back into the Scripture now, with that understanding. Hebrews chapter 5, verse 1,. For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may do what?

That he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. And if you study the Old Testament, you understand that's exactly what they did. They offered up sacrifices on behalf of the people for their sins, and the sins of the people.

Verse 2,. He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness. So, the Old Testament priesthood was not someone who was necessarily morally or spiritually superior to the rest of the people.

The high priesthood was simply someone who represented all of the people, and could go to the Lord and offer sacrifice, and make prayers to the Lord on behalf of the nation. Okay? Verse 3, Because of this, he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sins.

Verse 4,. And no man takes his honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was. Once again, when the high priest was selected, it was not someone who just raised their hand and volunteered.

Or like today, so many people who say, I'm an apostle, I'm a prophet. Well, who called them to be that? God didn't call them to be that. They just volunteered, or they just got it into their head that they would take that title to themselves.

Well, according to Scripture here, it says, No man takes this honor of high priesthood to himself, but had to be called by God, just as Aaron was. And if you, again, study the Old Testament, you understand that Aaron was the first high priest.

Jesus’ Eternal Priesthood After the Order of Melchizedek

So now, we're going to compare Aaron with Jesus. Verse 5, So also Christ did not glorify himself to become high priest. Okay? But it was he who said to him, God who said to him, You are my son, today I have begotten you.

And he also says in another place, You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. So, now, he's quoting here from the book of Psalms. Psalms 2 -7, You are my son, today I have begotten you.

And Psalm 1 -10, verse 4, You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. So he's saying two things. God is saying to Jesus Christ, You are my son, and he's saying, You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

And the point to be made here, and the point that Hebrews is going to make, is that this order of Melchizedek is different from the order of Aaron. Well, what is the most striking difference? What is the most apparent way in which it's different?

Well, because it says, You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. Aaron certainly was not a priest forever. Aaron died. Aaron's priesthood was not forever. Nevertheless, it says of Jesus, You are a priest forever.

So that right there tells you the nature of this new covenant priesthood, this new covenant high priest, is completely different from Aaron's, in that Aaron's was temporary. That's obvious, right? Aaron didn't live forever.

But Christ is a son, lives forever, and therefore his priesthood endures forever. Praise the Lord. That's the easiest way to explain the difference between our high priest, Jesus Christ, and the high priest of the old covenant.

Jesus Learns Obedience Through Suffering

Verse 7, Who, going back and referring to Jesus, Jesus, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, see, just like a high priest, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death and was heard because of His godly fear, verse 8, Though He was a son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.

Now that's enough to blow your mind to think that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as a man, as the Son of Man, had to learn obedience through the things that He suffered. And you know, I've talked to so many Christians who think that they can learn obedience by great revelation, by religious activity, by doing a lot of super spiritual things, when Jesus Christ had to learn obedience through His suffering.

And you and I want to learn obedience in every other way other than suffering, but according to Scripture, it's in our suffering that we learn obedience. When we go through the circumstances and trials of life, it is not the devil coming against us all the time.

Most of the time, it is the Holy Spirit allowing us and permitting us to go through things so that we can learn obedience, so that we can learn something of who God is, the sufficiency of God, and the insufficiency of ourselves.

So, maturity is embracing these things and not trying to fight them. Verse 9, Having been perfected, He, Jesus, became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him. Verse 10, Called by God as High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

Spiritual Dullness and the Call to Maturity

So again, remember the order of Melchizedek is a priesthood that endures forever. Now, we're not going to talk about Melchizedek this week, because the writer of Hebrews is not going to talk about Melchizedek right this moment, but in later chapters, we'll return to discuss this Melchizedek and make some more comparisons.

But verse 11 gives us kind of a parenthetical teaching here, and it's going to depart briefly from Melchizedek. Why? Well, it explains why in verse 11. Of whom we have much to say and hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing.

So, he's saying, there's more I want to say about Melchizedek, but you're not going to understand much of it because you've become dull of hearing. And so now, he's going to, for the moment, set aside this teaching on Melchizedek and begin to speak to them about spiritual maturity.

Verse 12, For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. Folks, that describes every single person who is caught up in the bondage of religion.

Religion is the cause of spiritual immaturity. It keeps people in a spiritually dependent state upon the system instead of teaching them and growing them up into who they are in Christ. Verse 14, Solid food, or verse 13, For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.

But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Now, the Bible does say desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby.

That you may grow thereby. And the intention is that you receive milk as a baby Christian so that you can grow up spiritually and then you become mature so that you can handle the meat of the word. And folks, I am appalled and amazed and sometimes discouraged at the numbers of people I hear from who simply cannot handle strong meat because all they know is the milk and in a lot of cases they don't even have the milk of the word.

After all of their years going to church, listening to preachers, reading all the books that are on the top ten best-selling best-selling Christian list, they still are not able to handle the meat of the word.

They can hardly handle the milk of the word. And it is a very real problem that I feel like we are trying to fight against. What someone has said is a dumbing down. Christians have become so dumbed down they are ignorant of what the word says and I don't blame them as much as I blame the people they've been listening to.

It is time to take responsibility for your own Christian growth and development. We have got to move beyond the babyhood stage and we have got to get into the spiritual adult stage. And one of the ways that you know someone has not grown up spiritually is they are continuing to embrace religion.

Growing Up Spiritually in Christ

Now we've got lots of resources to help you grow. We've got more than 80 essays on the website. We've got more than 20 audio programs and we've got hours of streaming audio on the website. All of these are designed, number one, first and foremost, to point you to Jesus and secondly, to help you to grow up spiritually so that you won't be in the same position that these Hebrews were as being unskilled babies in the word of righteousness.

Well, I encourage you to grow but that's all the time we have to share this week. So we'll have to leave off right here and come back next week and discuss this with Hebrews chapter 6. So this is Chip Brogdon streaming online at www .watchman .net Thank you so much for listening and we'll pick up again here next week.