Oh, To Have A High Priest (part 2) - [Hebrews 4:14-16]

Well, if you need a sympathy card, what's your strategy to go find one? Do you write your own or do you go to the store? I Went to hallmark .com this week and saw all kinds of strategies for writing Sympathy cards and they would give you examples on what to say.

For instance. We're so sorry for your loss. I'm going to miss her too. Sharing in your sadness as you remember your loved one with deepest sympathy. Remembering your wonderful mother and wishing you comfort.

We are missing an along with you with heartfelt sympathy. And then they give some examples on what not to say in a sympathy card what not to write. Things like I know how you feel. Because everyone's pains different so don't say that don't say she was so young.

The hallmark actually says there's no need for a potentially painful reminder. Don't say what a terrible loss. Don't say this happened for a reason and then in a surprisingly good fashion. Hallmark gives some advice.

Here's what you should do. Say something like this. I Anything else you need thinking of your family with love and wanting to help out in any way I can. I'll call to see when it would be good to bring over a meal.

You've got so much on your mind in your heart right now. We hope it will make one less worry For you to know that Kevin and I will be taking care of your yard for as long as you need. I Know this must be very difficult and demanding time for you.

We're keeping you in our thoughts and prayers if there's anything we can do from walking at max to picking up your dry cleaning, let us know. What makes those so good? And the answer is sympathy helps.

Empathy feels pain, but sympathy says, I have enough compassion that I want to tangibly help you. So, with that in mind, please turn your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 4, where today we're going to learn about a sympathetic high priest.

The Sympathetic High Priest Who Helps

Not just the high priest Jesus who understands pain, but he does something about it. The sympathetic high priest, Jesus Christ. 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.

The greatest part about Jesus, the high priest, is he knows our need, he knows we're weak, and he doesn't just feel for us, I feel your pain. Empathy, he has sympathy. And even those English words, both have the words P-A-T-H in the center, pathos or feeling.

And the one word, empathy, it's like in pathos, I have a feeling of passion for you on the inside. Sympathy, our English word is, we have pathos and energy and sympathy with you, so much so that we'll help.

Jesus, the sympathetic high priest. Now, Hebrews starts off with a bang. There's not a lot of introduction with grace to you and peace in a typical Pauline letter. He starts off with saying, Jesus created everything, and Jesus has spoken to us in these last days, and Jesus purges sins, and Jesus sits down at the right hand of the Father, and there's no angel greater than Jesus.

If you need help with your life and your sins and your persecution, do you find the strongest angel? You don't need to, because Jesus is the great King and Savior, prophet, priest, and King. The bad news, though, we've been looking at a little bit, if you look at chapter 4, verse 11, it says, let us therefore strive to enter that rest, trusting in Christ, believing in Christ, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.

He has been telling his listeners through this sermon, this, I call it a sermonic epistle or an epistlatory sermon, whichever one you like. I just kind of like saying both those words. Sermonic epistle or epistlatory sermon.

It's both a letter and a sermon, and he's trying to tell them, listen, I know you're tempted to go back to Judaism, you're tempted to go back to works righteousness, you're tempted to go back to that human priest that you can see, that you can shake his hand, but there's a better high priest, don't go back.

And as Israel was in the wilderness and they weren't resting in God, they weren't trusting in God, don't make the same mistake. Enter into that rest. But the problem is, if you want to enter into the presence of God by yourself, without a mediator, without a priest, will he find sin in you?

Will he find disobedience in you? Will he find every intention of your heart, God glorifying? The answer is, we know ourselves, and we know what the Bible says about ourselves. We would be undone. We need somebody to stand in between the holy God and ourselves.

Verse 12 of Hebrews 4, for the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, both joints and marrow, whether it's immaterial things or material things, the word of God is a discerner and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

And as we've learned the last couple weeks, standing before God, completely exposed, we would be undone. We need someone to help us. We need a different kind of righteousness. We, in fact, need righteousness.

I typed in the other day, how to beat a polygraph test. And I was told that if you type that in and then ever have to take a polygraph test, they can look on your past browser history and see that, in fact, you were trying to beat the system.

How do you beat a polygraph test? I know you all want to go do that now. And they give a variety of different ways to try to beat it. And if you're smart enough and wise enough and you practice enough, you can beat a polygraph test.

But the God who knows everything, the God who doesn't have to learn anything, the God that not just knows the text says in Psalms, not just our heart, but it says he knows the secrets of our heart, of our heart, we could never beat that polygraph.

So the writer is trying to say, why would you want to stand before God on your own when you have an advocate? 1 John would talk about, we have an advocate before the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one.

So he's trying to drive them away from Judaism and works righteousness. You could think even with your own life, are you tempted to go back to that system of works righteousness where you just did things to please God versus looking forward and seeing Jesus where he did it all and your only response is trust in him and rest in him.

It's all about trusting in Christ Jesus. One of the reformed theologians Casper Olivianus said this about faith. Faith is not only a sure knowledge by which I hold as true everything that God has revealed in his word.

It is also a heartfelt trust that out of sheer grace, not only others, but also I have been given forgiveness of sins, true righteousness and eternal life on account of Christ's merit alone. Thus I can say from my heart with the apostle, Christ loved me and gave himself for me.

That's the only hope we have to be saved. Otherwise we stand underneath the gaze of God and verse 13 says, and there's no creature hidden from his sight, but we all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

God's eyes are on the ways of a man and he will see. So therefore you need a priest. It's one thing to have a king and we need Jesus as king. It's another thing to have a prophet. Jesus is a prophet and we need that, but you also need to have him as a priest.

There's an accounting day. There's a day of judgment and we've been talking about that the last several weeks. So now we're moving to this segue in verse 14, 15 and 16. If we can't turn inwardly for our own righteousness and if we can't turn outwardly for someone who's a human priest who's sinful, then where do we turn?

And so the tough news of verses 11, 12 and 13 that we're going to have to give an account to God are made more wonderful because there's someone to stand in the gap between God and man. This is, this is the language of Job.

Remember Job chapter nine. If I only had someone to stand before God and an arbitrator between God and man and now we have Jesus, the God man who can do that very thing. So it's a big transition. If you look at your Bibles, there's probably even a new paragraph that starts here in 414 are probably what's best.

It's probably the new chapter, even though chapter five verse one is set in stone and he gives two exhortations. Does he not? We were looking at the first one last week, verse 14. Since then we have such a great high priest who has passed through the heavens.

Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our confession. That's the idea in light of Jesus being the priest in light of Jesus saying, if you don't want me as priest, I will examine you. Then then hold fast.

This is simply language of belief in tough times. What do you do? Hold fast. And what do you hold fast? Our confession, the confession about Jesus. If you wanted me to put it in terms of of a systematic theology class, the Christology that you've been taught, the doctrines about Jesus that you've been taught, hold fast to those.

The English hold fast term comes from the Dutch, which means holding a ship's rigging with a firm grip. Now, you know, I know there's some WPI students in here and some people who have graduated from other institutions like that.

I was trying to think about holding a grip and something tight. And and here we're not holding something physically. It's it's it's a it's a set of doctrines about a person, Jesus. I typed in what's the strongest glue in the world?

The answer is, depending on what you need to have it glued to. But one of them, I found that's very strong is super glue. This is for the WPI students. I can textualize once in a while. Sio is cyan. Oh, cry late.

OK, we need to impress you. C5H5NO2. Wow, I can read. Wow. I can Google and it's triggered when it touches hydroxyl ions, something that's wet and there's wet in the in the in the moisture all around the humidity.

And so almost anything that you put it on, it sticks to. And that's why if you put it in your hands and you've got all creases and crevices there and water on your fingers, it sticks right away. It does the opposite of what Elmer's glue does.

And what Elmer's glue does is you put it on there and then the water evaporates from there and then we have the polymerization. Is this a physics class? What is this? The idea is the dangers lurking. Chapter two, there was a warning.

Chapter six, there's a warning. Chapter 10, there's a warning. The judgment's coming. So hold on. This is the opposite of the warning. The positive side of the warning holds fast the confession. What you've learned.

Keep believing what you've trusted in. Keep trusting in. Why? And then he gives motivations we saw last week. Number one, we have a great high priest. Why should you hold on in tough times for them when they were getting persecuted?

And for you, it could be any kind of tough time. Why do you hold on? Because you have a high priest. We don't use priest language very much now. And what would help us is not our Roman Catholic background, although they see this mediator between God and man.

What would help us is if we went to the Old Testament to see what priest actually did, because that's the backdrop there. A priest is basically someone who stands in between, who's a mediator, who prays for and who offers sacrifices for.

And here, the scripture does not say that he's a good high priest. It certainly doesn't say he's a bad high priest like Eli, Caiaphas. He's a great high priest. And if there's a scrutinizing word in your life, you're going to need a real priest, a great high priest.

So you've got the thrice holy God and you've got us and you need someone in between to mediate, but also really what he's driving at is to have access to. I have access to God. And do you notice the text?

It's present tense. You have. Wait a second. What if I was back in those old days and I thought, you know what? I'm tempted now. I'm almost going to fall into this temptation or this sin and I need somebody to help me.

And you run back to the temple precincts and you try to find the priest to say, thank you. Help me, please. Correct me, rebuke me. But here he's saying, the writer's saying, is he not? We have present tense.

You've got one. He's present right now with you. We also saw last week that he has passed through the heavens, verse 14. Hold fast. Number one, because you have a high priest. Number two, because you have a great high priest who's passed through the heavens.

He didn't just pass through the holy of holies veil one time on Yom Kippur on the day of atonement, but he's passed through. I like the way S. Lewis Johnson writes it. Does that mean he's no longer ours if he's passed through the heavens?

No, no. Johnson writes, he has our names written upon his breast. And just as Aaron carried the names of the children of Israel into the holiest of all, so the Lord Jesus has passed through the heavens to the right hand of the majesty on high.

And he still has our names upon his breast and upon his shoulders. Johnson says, our high priest, think of it. And then he directs his attention to the congregation, this motley crowd of people. Some of you are surprised.

Well, that's what we really are. And the world looks at us that way, don't they? But our names are upon the breasts and shoulders typically of our great Lord and savior, Jesus Christ, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

At this very moment, Hebrews nine says it this way for Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself. Now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf, not an angel, not Moses, not Aaron.

Only Jesus passes into heaven and works on our behalf. Number three, why should we hold fast in difficult times? You have a high priest. He's passed through the heavens. And number three, we have Jesus, the son of God, the God man.

He's your mediator. And one of the things with Bible study is I think we go too fast. Sometimes we want to read through the Bible in a year and we just kind of speed read. What was that lady who had the speed reading classes in the 70s that you could go to Evelyn Wood?

Maybe it's the Saturday Night Live in me with is the Evelyn Woodhead. I have speed reading. I don't know how to read really fast. Well, maybe some things you can read quickly. But you want to slow down here a little bit and say, why does he say what he's saying?

I actually read an article this week, how to read the Bible slower or more slowly. Jesus, the son of God. I mean, we could just zip right past that as fast as Jesus has gone into the heavens. But here, what does he say?

Jesus, that's his human name. And the son of God, that's his sign of deity. This is both the humanity and deity of Jesus. If you want a high priest, do you want him all God? We're going to find out that he wouldn't be tempted like you are.

So we wouldn't really know. And you want him only man, if he's only man, does he have enough righteousness for you? Does he have enough holiness for you? Does he have enough omniscience for you? But he's Jesus, man, son of God, God.

Can you think of one Old Testament priest who was the God man? Fully God, fully man, barely God, barely man. Eli, Abathar, Aaron. He's the perfect mediator. There's one mediator between God and man, the man what?

Christ Messiah, Jesus, the human. Jesus is human. You can look at his human names, how he grew, how he got tired, how he was thirsty, how he died, how he called us brethren, all to make him a perfect high priest.

Paul likes to combine the humanity and deity of Jesus. Listen to Romans chapter one, whom he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son, who was descended from David according to the flesh, humanity, and was declared to be the son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ, our Lord deity.

I need a priest. I need to go between. How do you hire a good lawyer? Well, maybe the way you hire a lawyer is you say, I'll get the best one money can buy. I'll get one with a good track record. I'll get one who's a special.

He's specialized in that field. I got to get a new patent through and someone else is copying my patent. I'll get a patent lawyer. You need the right man for the job here. If you're going to go between God and man, you need somebody who's the God man and he's Jesus, the son of God.

Turn to Mark chapter 14, please keep your finger there in Hebrews. Sometimes when people hear the word son of God, um, maybe some friends or family might say to you, well, it says son of God, but he's not really God.

What does son of God mean? I hear people say, Jesus never said he was God. Really? Let's go to Marks 14 61. And this is a good illustration of how the son of God means God, same essence, same nature. He's not saying he's less than God.

When you say you're the son of God, you're saying you're God. And let's see if we can see that here in Mark chapter 14. Plus, I just like to watch the life of Christ before these people. And I especially like this passage because this is the great high priest Jesus before the wicked high priest Caiaphas.

And you see the differentiation. Mark 14 61. Caiaphas is after him and it says in verse 61, but he kept silent and made no answer. Again, the high priest, we're talking about Caiaphas was questioning him over and over and over Mark 14 61 saying to him, are you the Christ, the Messiah, the son of the blessed one?

Hey, most people when they're before me like this in this courtroom setting, they beg for mercy. I asked you a question and I didn't stutter. Answer me, Jesus. And Caiaphas here, he even knows what the Jewish people would do.

Are you the Christ, the son of the blessed one? Remember, sometimes they don't like to say the God. And so instead of saying kingdom of God, they might say kingdom of heaven here. They've even got this Jewish term, son of the blessed one, not even wanting to say son of God.

Are you this Christ? Now, Matthew 26, when we harmonize these two accounts, the priest said to Jesus, I adjure you by the living God. I'm putting you under oath. And so now Jesus is going to answer verse 62 of Mark 14.

Are you really the Christ, the son of God? Verse 62. And Jesus said, I am. And you shall see. You want to know who's the real judge around here? And you shall see the son of man sitting at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven.

You think you're the judge? I'm your judge. Now, what was the response? Are you the son of the blessed one or the Matthew account? Are you the son of God? And Jesus says, I am. Now, if son of God means lesser and not really God and and somehow made and not begotten and created, the priest wouldn't do what he's going to do right now.

The priest is going to do something that when you call yourself God, this is the response. And tearing his clothes, the high priest said, what further evidence do we need or what further need do we have of witnesses?

I, by the way, think this is the biggest fake ever. This is an Oscar worthy performance. He wants Jesus to say this so he can get rid of him. And so he's he's ripping his clothes. And this is all the stuff you do when you think, you know what?

Somebody calls themselves God. This is how a Jew responds. And he is he's faking it all, tearing his robe. Matthew says we don't need any more witnesses. Commentator Hendrickson said Caiaphas was filled with fiendish glee right now because I asked him if he's God.

He says, yes, I am. Does that recognize that? Does that kind of go back to anything? Moses by the burning bush. I am who I am. The great I am Yahweh. Are you God? I am. Verse sixty four. You have heard the blasphemy.

How does it seem to you? And they all condemned him to be deserving of death. Congregation, here's my question. Why would the word son of God be worthy of blasphemy and death sentence? He called himself the son of God.

Yes, I am claiming to be the son of God and you're put to death for it. The Jewish leaders knew exactly what son of God meant. And son of God means to be the same nature and essence as God, to be God himself.

And some began to spit at him and to blindfold him and to beat him with their fists and say to him, prophesy. And the officers received him with slaps in the face. Everything they could possibly do to give him the most amount of insult and disdain.

You're God. Well, we'll spit in your face. Our statement of faith, the London Baptist Confession. Says this underneath Jesus, the mediator section, the office of mediator between God and man is proper only to Christ, who is a prophet, priest and king of the Church of God.

It goes on to say this number and order of offices is necessary for in respect to our ignorance. We need a prophetical office in respect to our alienation from God and imperfection of the best of our services.

We need his priestly office to reconcile us and present us acceptable to God. We need a God man to be on our behalf. And those Jews knew it. Caiaphas knew it. And a son of God means God himself to nature's one person.

Now, if you're a thinking person, here's what you're thinking. But does he know about me? He's passed into the heavens. He's this great God man. I've got a lot of troubles, a lot of hurts, a lot of issues, a lot of temptations.

Does he care? And is he far off back to Hebrews chapter four? Hold fast because you have a high priest. He's passed through the heavens. He's the eternal God man, Jesus, the son of God. And number four, I'll say it in the negative way because that matches up with the text, but then I'll make it positive.

The fourth reason to hold fast, we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. Obviously, on the positive side, I could say it this way. We have a high priest who is able to sympathize.

He's in heaven. Is he too distant? Is he too far away? What if I need him? Heaven's pretty far. But that's what makes him so great. He's in heaven and he's God and he has a human body and he knows. Now, when you think of theology, here's what you should think about when it comes to the attributes of God and the nature of God.

There's two main categories that I'll talk about. The first one is transcendence. And the other one is imminence with an A. And transcendence means God's different. God's other. He's in a class by himself.

He's a cut above. He's infinite. He's just different than we are. He's not like us. His thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways aren't our ways. Psalm 113 says, Who's like the Lord who sits enthroned on high?

That's God. He's transcendent. But God is also eminent. And eminent means he's close. He's personal. He knows. And especially, we know he's eminent because of the incarnation. He's not aloof. The second person, the Trinity, took on human flesh.

And he grew and he lived and he worked and he suffered and he died. Far from being aloof. Even in the garden, after Adam and Eve sinned, the text says, then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

Close. By the way, that's that's the pre-incarnate Jesus walking in the garden, not just far away, not just distant, but close. My all time favorite verse that describes God as both transcendent and close are eminent is Isaiah 57, 15.

For this is what the high and lofty one says. He who lives forever, whose name is holy. I live on a high and holy place. Transcendence. But I also live with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite transcendence.

And eminence, our Father, who art in heaven. You need a God who's transcendent and eminent, and his name is Jesus, the high priest. He's both. And what does the text say? Is he too far away? Is he too remote?

He doesn't know about any of your troubles. We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness. Everything here is driving you to think not of your own strength, not of your own ability, but someone else's ability.

True or false? You can cast all your cares upon God because he cares for you. True or false? True. I'm glad you said that because it's first Peter chapter five. The glorified Jesus is still incarnate in heaven, but able to help because he's God as well.

And that word sympathy there, as I said earlier, the Greek means this, compassionate up to the point and over when it comes to help. I will feel your pain so much I'll help you. Not just, you know, I feel your pain.

I know how you feel. I'm trying to put myself in your shoes. No, I'm going to do something about it. That's why those sympathy cards were so good. I know you're hurting. I'm going to mow your lawn. I want to help you.

This is not just sharing of feelings. And what does he sympathize with? By the way, if you're a word faith teacher or you subscribe to some of this health wealth gospel and say good things so you never get sick and always have money and everything else, you're not going to like this verse.

He sympathizes with our what? Our weaknesses. Are you weak? These weaknesses could be physical weaknesses, emotional weaknesses, but the context here is moral weakness, sins. You see in chapter five, verse two, he can deal gently.

We're talking about a human priest here with the ignorant and wayward since he himself is beset with weakness. That human priest is weak because he's sinful. Hebrews chapter seven, verse twenty eight, for the law appoints men in their weakness as high priest.

But the word of the oath, which came later than the son, a point later than the law appoints a son who has been made perfect forever. The context of the weakness here is we created beings fallen because of Adam's imputed sin to our account and consequently our sinful nature.

And even now, as Christians, we're prone to sin. It's easy to sin. It's the Roman seven. Well, you know what? I want to do the right thing and I don't. And Jesus, what gives you the backhand? I can't believe you have those weaknesses.

Don't come to me with those weaknesses. You know, it's like the dad who tells the little boy, you know, men never cry, boys never cry weaknesses. And Jesus is sympathetic. That's amazing to me. So I struggle with sin.

Is Jesus far off? He never sinned, so he he can't be bothered. You know, some of us have to learn the hard way. And I know this is not a pulpit where I get to share all my thoughts and feelings and everything else.

And it turns into everything's about me. It's not that at all. But there's nothing like getting the phone call that says you've got cancer to say, you know what, I'm weak and I don't just mean physically, but the propensity to fear and to worry and have anxiety and what to do.

And just think, all right, let's just think about it for a second. Even a mom or a dad far from perfect, but wanted to take care of their kids and their kids have a weakness and they disobey and they come in repentance and they're sorry.

What does a mom or dad do? I think a good mom or dad loves them and accepts them and tells them to say, you know, a words of contrition and 10 pattern osters and 15 Hail Marys. And then you may approach me.

What does a parent do? Here's what a parent does is the prodigal son's father who's running to the kid saying what I've been watching, waiting for you. I love you. He is sympathetic with your weaknesses that I don't think if you say to yourself, that doesn't surprise me.

You've got the passage yet. You just have to let it settle down in a little bit. And you go, he's able to sympathize with my propensity to sin. He cares and he's compassionate enough to do something about it, which leads us to number five.

We have a high priest who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin, every temptation, every respect. And he's been tempted as we are yet without sin. Is it a sin to be tempted? Obviously not.

It's a sin to yield to that temptation. Before the incarnation, Jesus had no temptation to sin. After the incarnation, he's tempted. You read the Bible and it says in first Peter two, he did no sin. First John three in him is no sin.

Second Corinthians five. He knew no sin. Jesus to his critics, which one of you convicts me of sin? And again, I come to this passage and I have to slow down a little bit without sin, yet without sin, yet he's, he's without sin.

Here's my question. How easy is it to sin? How easy is it just to walk out of here today and sin just today? And yet Jesus is without sin. Sin lurks and hides and crouches around every corner and in every crevice of my heart.

Yet Jesus, he didn't sin. Turn to James for a second. We have time. I just was thinking to myself the other day, you know what? Jesus never sinned. That's what qualifies him for being such a great priest.

The temptation just kept building and building and building. And yet he never said no. And people are like, well, wait a second, Jesus, he'd be a better high priest. If he did sin, you ever think that?

Because I've sinned. Jesus never sinned. How does he know what it's like for me to sin? He'd be better off with sympathy. This is how it works in the world today. Pastor commits adultery and the church votes him back in.

Why? Because they disregard the scripture number one, above reproach, husband and one wife. Number two, he'll be able to identify with us better. Do you think I could identify with you better as a sinful man?

Our Jesus who is tempted in every respect yet never sinned. You want somebody to sympathize with you? Do you want the sinless one or the sinful one? What's the answer? Well, if you're not thinking correctly, you're like, well, yeah, but you sin, Mike, so then you know what it's like.

Except you know what sin does? It makes people not only stupid, but selfish. And what righteousness does, think Galatians 6, when you're enslaved in a sin, ensnared in a sin, what does Paul say in the book of Galatians?

Go to what kind of people? Go to people that have the same problems that you do, but worse, you'll feel better. Go to the people that, you know, all have the same struggle that you do, and then they'll help you because they know what it's like to be at the bottom.

What does Galatians 6 say? You go to spiritual people. They're the selfless ones. They're the ones who know. And is there someone more spiritual than Jesus himself? Never fall into the trap that says, you know what, he was tempted, but he never sinned.

And so how does he really know? You want the high priest that gets tempted, but doesn't sin. And if you go to James, I am shocked how easy it is to sin. And Jesus never did any of these that makes him the great high priest that makes him the sympathetic high priest.