Jesus: The Sympathetic And Saving High Priest - [Hebrews 5:7-10]

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Jesus: The Sympathetic And Saving High Priest - [Hebrews 5:7-10]

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the
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Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.�
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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you.
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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her
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King. Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Have you read your Bible? How did your
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Bible reading go? Did you read it enough? How about your evangelism this week?
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Did you evangelize enough this week? Did you evangelize at all? How about encouragement?
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Have you encouraged enough people this week? How did your life of encouragement go? Encourage one another. Did you encourage people enough?
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How about discipleship? Did you disciple anyone this week? Did you disciple anyone?
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Did you disciple enough people? How about service? Did you serve enough this week?
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Have you ministered enough this week? Have you denied yourself enough this week?
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Here�s where we can really convict people, myself included. Did you pray enough this week?
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How did you pray your life? Did you pray enough? Evangelicalism runs on the treadmill of the word �enough.�
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Did you do enough? Did you study enough? Did you pray enough?
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And, of course, Bible study and reading and praying and evangelizing and service, it�s all good, but did you do enough this week?
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I have great news for those who are on a treadmill. Jesus prayed enough.
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Jesus�s death was enough. Jesus�s work was enough.
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I think there should be enough of the �did I do enough� talk only, and let�s start talking more about �Jesus did enough.�
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Sound good? That is the book of Hebrews. Please turn there. It�s in the New Testament. Jesus did enough.
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He said on the cross, �It is finished.� Paid in full, mission accomplished.
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And when you realize that Jesus prayed enough, it will spur you on to pray.
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You don�t have to pray to become a child of God if you�re a Christian. You already are. And you are in the mediator.
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You are in the advocate. You have him as your personal Savior. And today, we�re not going to look at some of the many exhortations of prayer, although we could.
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We�re going to look at Jesus�s prayer life. I love to study the great prayer warriors.
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Maybe there�s someone in your life, humanly, and you think, �That�s the person I want to pray for me. That�s the person who
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I know is the prayer warrior.� Who�s the prayer warrior in your life?
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And the wonderful thing is, Jesus prayed enough. He is the ultimate prayer warrior.
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Hebrews chapter 5 says this in verses 7 through 10.
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That�s the section we�re at now in this sermon. I�m talking about this letter sermon, chapter 5 verses 7 through 10.
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This letter, this sermon letter written to extol who Jesus is and what he did and what he does.
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In the days of his flesh, Hebrews 5, 7, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death.
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And he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.
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And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.
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Being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
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This section here breaks down simply two verses per section. And it really answers the question, is
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Jesus enough? Did he do enough? The answer is yes, he did. And if you wanted a general outline, not the outline for today, but the broad outline of these four verses, it would be this.
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Jesus is a sympathetic high priest who prays for his people, verses 7 and 8.
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Jesus is enough because he's a sympathetic high priest who prays for his people. He's also enough because in verses 9 and 10, here's what the author's doing.
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Jesus is a saving high priest and he eternally rescues his people.
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So he's a sympathetic high priest, he's a saving high priest. Two verses, two verses. That's kind of the broad outline.
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These verses follow, do they not? Verses 5 and 6, let me read those. So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, from Psalm 2, you are my son, today
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I have begotten you. And then Psalm 110, as we saw last week, as he says also in another place, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
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Jesus is a sympathetic high priest. He's a saving high priest and that's what the author is focused on.
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If you look back in chapter 2, verse 17, you'll see some of the early flickers of this sympathy that Jesus has because he's not only
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God, he's man, he can have sympathy. Hebrews 2, verse 17, we saw this before.
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Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation or assuaging
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God's wrath for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
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He has an ability to not just empathize, but to sympathize. We saw it again in chapter 4, verses 14 through 16.
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Jesus is perfectly God and he's perfectly man. And as God, he can have enough righteousness to give us so we can stand before God the
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Father. He also knows what we're thinking because he's been and is now a human.
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Since then, we have a great high priest, Hebrews 4, verse 14, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. Let us hold fast to our confession.
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For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet different than us and different than the
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Levitical priest. He is without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
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So the big picture of this book is everything you know about Judaism, and therefore
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I could say everything you know about any religion, Jesus is better than that religion.
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Jesus is better because he is a sympathetic and saving high priest.
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Therefore, he should be enough. So let me give you the outline for today. I think we'll get through verse 7.
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I told Josh this morning, he's back from college as well as some of the other students here, and I said,
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I think by the time you graduate, I'll be done with Hebrews. He said, sure.
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But remember what we're doing as we're going through the book of Hebrews. Hebrews depends on the
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Old Testament, and unlike some modern teachers these days who say just forget the Old Testament, we're kind of ashamed of that and it's old and ancient, the writer of Hebrews bases his beliefs on who
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God is from the Old Testament as well. Why? Because God is an unchanging God, and the
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God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament. And all these prophecies and all these building blocks from the Old Testament are there.
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And so what we've been doing in the book of Hebrews is we might go through a verse in Hebrews. We go over 25 verses, 50 verses in the
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Old Testament or other places to build that foundation. Let me give you this morning some key words to help you see that Jesus is a sympathetic high priest.
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So when you say to yourself, I haven't done enough, you can then rest and say, but Jesus did.
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I haven't prayed enough, but Jesus has. This is not to make you say, well, I never have to pray now and I'll just leave it up to Jesus.
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Jesus has commanded you to what? Pray and pray without ceasing, be devoted to prayer.
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Key words to help you see that Jesus is a sympathetic high priest so that you can do what the entire book of Hebrews wants you to do, and that is what?
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Rest. I'm just going to rest in him and trust in his work. Just rest.
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There's nothing like just resting in a frenetic, busy, crazy world.
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I mean, I walked into the Orlando airport yesterday to get the flight that was delayed and delayed and delayed and then canceled and rerouted and all that.
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And I just watched it all. And there's the sign, 25 minutes to go through security and all the people.
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And, you know, you fly into Orlando, everybody's happy, right? Because all the kids can't wait for Disneyland.
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Disney World. And then when you fly out of Orlando, well, just don't.
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Don't ever fly out of Orlando because you will not have any kind of rest because the kids are tired, the parents are tired.
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They're all crabby. They're all just going crazy. And you just think, Orlando, I'd like to get home to get some rest.
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And if you had to try to work your way to heaven, there's no way for rest because you can't do enough.
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You can't be good enough because God is holy. He's not only holy,
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He's holy, holy, holy. How do you stand before God? And one day you will. You will stand before God.
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And then what will you hear? Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness? Or will you hear, well done, good and faithful servant.
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You're trusting in the great servant, Jesus Christ. Enter into heaven based on the work of another.
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We don't have to wait to get to heaven to know we're going there. We can know today and we rest in him.
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Why is it good for us to know Jesus is a sympathetic, saving high priest? Answer, so you can rest.
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Key word number one, flesh. Words that highlight and reinforce that Jesus is a sympathetic high priest.
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Word number one, flesh. Verse 7, it's right there. In the days of his flesh.
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This talks about Jesus was human. This is the humanity of Christ Jesus. We call this the incarnation.
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Jesus, the eternal son of God, adds humanity, virgin conception, virgin birth.
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And why would he do that? Well, the fulfilled prophecies, yes. But so that he can participate in all of our experiences of trials, temptations and suffering.
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So that he can know what it's like to be hungry, thirsty, tired, sorrowful.
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Does not the writer of Isaiah said that he is a man of sorrows? How could a spirit being
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God be a man of sorrows acquainted with grief? Only if he's a human. And that's why Jesus adds humanity.
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And these words, the days of his flesh in Hebrews chapter 5, talk about the whole time when he's on the earth.
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Theologians call this his humiliation. Not that he was humiliated as a baby, but to be the eternal son of God, fellowship with God in glory.
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And then cloaking himself, becoming fully human, perfectly human.
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That's humiliation. And when
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Jesus was in his flesh, he prayed. He wears prayer, or he wears our nature even in heaven, one writer says.
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He prays on earth, he still has our nature in heaven.
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But this phrase here, in the days of his flesh, is talking about when he was on the earth.
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During the days of his flesh. As our representative. And as Scott was praying, remember we remind ourselves that we believe in one
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God. If you say manifest in three persons, you would be wrong.
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Manifest means he used to be the father, and then Jesus came, he then became the son, and now he's the spirit.
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We don't say manifestations. We say persons. Just remember the song, God in three persons, blessed
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Trinity. Jesus has two natures, one person.
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Divine, human. Now I always used to say he's 100 %
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God and 100 % man. But theologians in the past, they don't use that language.
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They don't even say things like fully
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God, fully man. Because 100 % and 100 % and fully and fully are kind of quantitative things.
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Instead, the writers in the past would use qualitative language. Like he is perfectly
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God and perfectly man. He is truly God and truly man. He is perfect in deity and perfect in humanity.
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That's language of quality versus language of quantity. 100%, 100%. By the way, if I hear you say 100%, 100%,
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I'm not going to say anything or correct you. If you have a Joyce Meyer book, I'll correct you, but I won't correct you for that.
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He is, when it comes to being God, he's perfectly God. When it comes to being man, he's perfectly man.
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He is truly God, truly man. So now, as a sympathetic high priest, he is completely, perfectly, truly human.
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The Nicene Creed says Jesus Christ, quote, only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds,
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God of God, light of light, very God of very God, was incarnate by the
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Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man. See that language, truly
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God, truly man, perfectly God, perfectly man. The Athanasius Creed talks this way too.
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Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man. God of the substance of the
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Father before the world and man of the substance of his mother born in the world. Perfect God, perfect man.
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Equal with the Father according to deity, inferior to the Father according to his humanity.
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Who through he begot is also man, nevertheless not two but one Christ. You start thinking about the
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Trinity, by the way, and you think that is so hard to understand. But that's who God is. One God, three persons.
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Would you pay to go to a conference where the topic was understanding the fine points of the Trinity? This is a challenge for me.
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If we have a marriage conference here at the church, we pack it out. It's true.
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How to communicate conference, we pack it out. I don't think we've had those, but we've had the marriage ones. How to get by in your work week, we pack it out.
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But if we said fine points of Trinitarian theology through the ages, how many people would come?
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I don't even know if the speaker would come. But see, the nuances are about the object of our faith.
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What's he like? This is going to be the God you worship for the rest of your life, not only on earth but in heaven.
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I want to know all the details, all the idiosyncratic, as it were, things in minor, major.
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I just want to know. I want to get to know you. That's the blessing that we have in Scripture, to know
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God. I know it is a minuscule illustration. But I remember when
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I first met Kim. I just wanted to get to know all about her. Everything about her
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I wanted to know and to figure out. Some things I'm still figuring out. It's not her fault.
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That's my fault. But she's the object of my affection, and I think I love her. I adore her. I want to get to know her.
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It's the same thing with God. And so here Jesus, the eternal God, to rescue sinners like us and to have sympathy with us, he adds humanity.
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He's perfectly God, but now he's perfectly man. How could a God sympathize if he's far off?
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How could a God sympathize if he doesn't understand? Oh, he might intellectually know as an omniscient
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God, but now Jesus experientially knows. He knows what it's like to be humble.
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So when the writer says, in the days of his flesh, that's pretty shocking. That's one of the most shocking things you could ever think of.
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The incarnation, word number two that helps you see
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Jesus as sympathetic, is offered, flesh offered.
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And what we do here at the church, if you're new, we just teach verse by verse by verse. What does the text say? What does it mean?
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How does it fit in the context of the Bible redemptively? What does it teach us about Christ or our need for him?
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So we're just working our way through. And here in verse 7, in the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications.
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Let's focus on that word, offered. It means, if you break down the word lexically, it means to bring toward or to bring forward.
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It means I've got something and I want to give it to you by kind of transfer. It's a key verb in Hebrews.
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Out of the 16 times used in the New Testament, one -third of the times is used in Hebrews because it's got sacrificial language.
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Here's the sacrificial part of it. If it means I take something and bring it over to kind of transfer, you can see how easily that would be used of sacrifice language of the
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Old Testament. I have a sacrifice. The people have sinned. They brought me a sacrifice. God has ordained that either you die for your sins or a sacrifice dies for your sins.
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So I take this goat, I take this lamb, I take these pigeons, I take the grain offering, whatever it is, and I bring it over to the altar.
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I offer this. It's a technical word. This particular priest,
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Jesus, yes, he offers himself as sacrifice, but he is offering, bringing over, transferring prayers.
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Priests offer. They offer sacrifice and they offer prayers and petitions. Now, one of the best things you could do when you would like to know more about Jesus and have a better prayer life even is study the prayers of Jesus.
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You get Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and you just think, how did Jesus pray? Here's the perfect man.
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Here's the representative man. I wonder, did he pray? How did he pray? If it was important for him to pray, is it important for me to pray?
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I'm not going to make you look up the verses. I just want you to hear it and have these verses just kind of roll over you as it were as you listen to them.
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Jesus prayed when he was baptized. It came about when all the people were baptized that Jesus also was baptized, and while he was praying, heaven was opened.
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Before Jesus chose the 12, the Bible says, and it was at this time he went off to the mountain to pray, and he spent the whole night in prayer to God.
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Before a big decision, Jesus prayed. When he was feeding the 5 ,000, listen to what the text says, and he took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, he blessed the food and broke the loaves, and he kept giving them to the disciples to set before them, and he divided up the two fish among them all, looking to heaven, praying, blessing
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God for what he would do. When Jesus was going to ask his disciples the question, he was praying, and it came about that while he was praying alone, the disciples were with him, and he questioned them saying, who do the multitudes say that I am?
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Who do you think I am? When Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration, after spending eight days, excuse me, after some eight days after these sayings, it came about that he took along Peter and James and John and went up to the mountain to what?
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Pray. Jesus is offering prayers. He's bringing these petitions to God. He knows what that's like.
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Before he evangelized, he prayed. At that time, Jesus answered and said,
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I praise you, God the Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you did hide these things from the wise and intelligent and did reveal them to babes.
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Yes, Father, it is thus well -pleasing in your sight. All things have been handed over to me by my
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Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the
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Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal him. Jesus' prayer before the call to salvation, and then
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Jesus says, Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
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And I hope as time goes on, you think, you know what? I know I don't pray enough, but Jesus prayed enough.
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I know I don't pray like I should. Jesus prays like he should. If you ever want to get convicted, you think,
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I'll read that Luther quote, and Luther would say, I'm so busy today in ministry, I have to pray for four hours.
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When I read that in his book, I just go, I'm done. I'm over. But Jesus is a man of prayer.
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In the days of his flesh, he's offering. That's just what he does. At Lazarus' tomb, he prays.
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He raised his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you hear me, and you hear me always.
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Lazarus, come forth. Jesus is always praying for his people, for Peter before the denial.
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I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith may not fail, and you, when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.
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Jesus on the cross, was he praying? Did he pray enough on the cross? Father, into your hands
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I commit my spirit. Now, here's the question. We're reading
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Hebrews 5, 7 to 10. Is there a particular time, a particular event, that Jesus is referred to here?
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What's he talking about? What's the writer of Hebrews saying? Is there a particular time that someone was watching him?
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Well, I think we can find out the answer to that. Let's go to the third word, tears. The third key word to help you see
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Jesus is a sympathetic high priest. Not just a transcendent God over everything, but eminent as well, the incarnate
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Jesus. Tears. Tears. What's the text say in Hebrews 5? With loud cries and tears.
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Strong crying and tears. Intense crying and tears. When did Jesus do that?
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That's the question. This is a crying. By the way, I hope you're thinking, he's perfectly God, but he's perfectly man.
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And what do men do? When they struggle, when they're tempted, and when they go through trials, they cry out.
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This is an onomatopoetic word that means to croak or to cry.
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Kind of a... I was going to try to make it onomatopoetic, but I better not.
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It's like a raven's cry, some say. Scream, shriek, uproar, shout.
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When would Jesus pray that way? When would there be this crying and tears?
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Well, if I think about when did Jesus weep, what's the most famous verse maybe in all the
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Bible? We say it's the shortest English verse. There's a shorter Greek verse that says rejoice always.
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It's just one word. But the shortest English verse is what? Jesus wept. He wept at the grave of Lazarus as he realized what sin did and how it would kill his friend.
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Lord, if you had been there, your brother would not have died. When Jesus saw her weeping and the
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Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and troubled.
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Where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. And the
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Jews said, see how he loved him. There was another time Jesus wept. So we're trying to figure out when was this in Hebrews 5?
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Well, it wasn't with Lazarus, although Jesus wept there. He wept another time, remember? When he looked at the city of Israel, rather the city of Jerusalem, and he said of the leadership,
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O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it, how often would
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I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you are not willing.
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And the text talks about his sadness. But I know what you're thinking, and you're thinking, this isn't where Jesus was praying over Jerusalem.
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This isn't Lazarus. This is talking about what? Gethsemane. Let's turn there,
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Luke 22. This is in the garden of Gethsemane. If you knew how wrathful
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God was, if you knew unabatedly how holy God was, and you knew you would have to drink the cup of the wrath of God in the place of sinners, if you knew that Jesus himself, he knew he was sent by the
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Father to die on the cross, not just to experience crucifixion, but to experience the wrath of God, what would you do?
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And the answer is, I think you would cry out. You would not be stoic.
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The point is Jesus isn't stoic. He's sympathetic. So when you go through any trial, up to and including the day you're on your deathbed, you think,
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I know Jesus knows. I know he prays enough. I know he's done enough. When you realize you're going to have judgment poured out against you, against sin, even though you didn't commit it, you know
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Jesus is thinking, I didn't commit it, but the horror and the darkness, having the guilt and defilement of all those who'd ever placed on him, there's going to be crying, weeping, tears.
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Luke 22, verse 39. Remember, whenever you read the book of Luke, you should be thinking, this gospel of Jesus Christ talks about his humanity in a wonderful way, written through the lens of a doctor.
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So there's lots of kind of doctor talk in Luke. That's why I like Luke, because it reminds me of operating room stuff.
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When Jesus opened the scrolls, the attendant has the scrolls open, so Jesus reads them in Luke 4 and says he's the
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Messiah. That word opening is like opening up the sternum for surgery. And here it says in verse 39, the physician
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Luke, by the direction of the Holy Spirit, talks about this time that I think Hebrews is discussing.
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At least this, maybe there are more times that Jesus cried that we don't know about, but here out of all the places where Jesus is crying loudly, and there's tears, and there's agony, knowing what's going to happen, this is most likely it.
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Luke 22, 39. And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him.
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And when he came to the place, he said to them, pray that you may not enter into temptation. And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed.
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I mean, Jesus in his days of his flesh, he just offered up prayers, saying, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup, this judgment cup, this wrath of God cup, right from language of the
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Old Testament. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. Wow, verse 43.
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And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood, falling down to the ground.
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He's in agony. That word is, exactly what it sounds like.
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Agony. Agony. Like great drops of blood falling to the ground.
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Verse 45. And he rose from prayer. He came to his disciples, and found them sleeping for sorrow.
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And he said to them, why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter temptation. Now, some people think he was really crying out blood drops.
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The text says, like there. Whether he was or not, that's not the point. The point is, the intensity, the emotional trauma, and physical exhaustion.
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Here's Jesus, and when you look at him in the Gospel of Luke, you should say, he has sympathy with his people.
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He knows what it's like. He's acquainted with griefs. Now, let's go back to Hebrews, and why do
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I think this is the Garden of Gethsemane account? Because Hebrews gives us a little more insight. It says, to him who was able to save him from death.
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The writer's referring to the agony of Gethsemane, and Jesus is saying, deliver me from death.
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I'll do what you want, deliver me from death. Ask yourself the question, was
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Jesus sympathetic? Is Jesus sympathetic? Yes, because he's willing to go to the cross, in our place, in our behalf, for our sins, draining the cup of God's wrath, down to the bitter dregs, as one writer says.
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And so, to whom does Jesus pray? To a dead saint in heaven?
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To him who was able to save him from death. He knew about God. Now, we've talked about this before, but it's good to think through again now.
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There's two options to what this means, and you have to keep your mind engaged, but it's fascinating. What is
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Jesus saying? Is Jesus option number one saying, in my humanity, I don't want to do this.
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I will if you want me to, but it's so excruciatingly awful, the wrath of God, and the horror of God's wrath, poured on me.
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If there's another way, make it so, but I'll do it anyway. That's option one. Does that have any problems to it?
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I think it does. What's the other option? Well, the other option is,
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Father, I'm going to drink this cup. You sent me to do this. I was sent to do your will, and I will do it.
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And it will be excruciating, it will be awful, it will be like nothing on earth, it's going to be like a nuclear winter before me, and I will drink down all of your wrath.
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We've had fellowship, we've had communion, I've always called you Father, but on that cross, it'll be my God, my
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God, why have you forsaken me? And I will do it, but here's what I'm asking, and I know you can save me from death.
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What's the text say? From death, so after I drank this to the dregs, raise me from the dead.
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That's got to be the right option. Saved out of death. You could render those
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Greek words either, from or out of. I don't think Jesus is praying to the
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Father, get me around the cross. He knew in eternity past, He was going to the cross.
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He is saying to the Father, just like by the way, do you think you could ever pray something like this on your deathbed?
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Would this be something for Christians to say? God, I know I'm going to die one day, but like Jesus, I'm going to trust that you'll give me eternal life, and you'll raise this body up, and I'm trusting that this grave is not going to be the end, and I'm going to rest in Christ's finished work, and I'm going to pray to you who's able to save me out of death.
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I hope you pray that way, because it's true. I do not think Jesus is saying, give me another way.
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If He was in His humanity, fine. It's the mysterious nature of the Trinity, but He's saying,
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I'm going to drink this down, and it's going to be awful. Raise me from the dead. I can believe you are able to save me out of death.
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This is Psalm 16. You will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your
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Holy One see corruption. You make known to me the path of life. In your right hand is presence forevermore.
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Pleasures forevermore, rather. God, I know you can preserve me in death, and raise me from the dead.
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And was it not Esauus Johnson who said, when Jesus said, it is finished on the cross, as He was our sin bearer,
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God's amen to that was raising Him from the dead. Now, if Jesus prayed, you know what, if there's another way for Calvary, make it so.
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Was that prayer answered? Well, of course not. But if this was prayed, God, I'm going to do this.
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You sent me to do this. Would you raise me from the dead when I'm done? That was done. That happened. Hebrews 13 even ends with,
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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.
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It was Jesus' food to do the will of Him who sent Him, and to accomplish His work. So when you look at the text again, to Him who is able to save Him out of death.
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And by the way, was His prayer heard? Answer, He was heard because of His reverence. He knew
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God was capable and strong enough to save Him and rescue Him from death. This is resurrection language.
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This is exaltation language. This is language that I hope, when you're on your deathbed, you're thinking,
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I can rest in God the Father and His promises because of what the Son has done and how the
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Holy Spirit has applied them, and I know I will be saved out of death. This is that time where you see the bodies laying there in the morgue, when you see the bodies at the funeral home, and you think, is this it?
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Is this the end? Is Ecclesiastes right? Futility.
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Vanity. Or there's a God who answers prayers from Jesus who prayed enough and says,
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Will you raise me from the dead after I've done my work? And I will be the first fruits of all those who believe.
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In John chapter 12, Jesus prayed the exact same thing. My soul has become troubled, and what shall
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I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify
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Your name. There came a voice out of heaven, I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.
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God, I hate sin so much. I don't want to do this, but I will because this is
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Your will, and I will do this because I was sent to do it, but after I drink this death cup, would
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You raise me from the dead? And He was heard because of His reverence. God the
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Father answered that. And I think we have to end, so let's just do one more word.
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The fourth keyword that should help you see Jesus is sympathetic, flesh, offered, tears, and I just alluded to it, reverence.
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Reverence. He was heard because of His reverence. Well, it wasn't just like heard decibels.
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Heard means answers. God heard my cry. Did He hear it? Yes, of course He's omniscient. But He heard, and then
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He heard. He heard and answered. If the
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Father said to Jesus, you know what, I don't want to have to do this to you, son, and so there's just going to be a different way, and instead of like suffering first, then glory, let's just kind of go straight to glory.
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Could Jesus really be qualified to sympathize with you? If Jesus has had the greatest test ever put on Him, and He obeys, and He knows what it's like to suffer, any lesser test that you go through, including the book of Hebrews where the people are losing their homes, probably lose their life soon enough,
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I wonder if Jesus knows what I'm going through. Answer, greater to the lesser.
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If the greater is known by Jesus, will He know the lesser? Frankly, there are so many things in my life that I suffer,
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I think, compared to all that. I mean, my car's got an oil leak.
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I can't, you know, one of the biggest stresses in my life just recently was, I hate to admit it, I couldn't get the truck stickered for the inspection sticker.
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I thought, maybe I could counterfeit that little two. Maybe I could pay some guy off.
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I thought, I'm 58 years old, and I can't get a truck stickered. Who am I? There's too much rust on the car.
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Hey, it's snowing today. They won't see the rust. I'll drive it in today. I mean, it is panic stricken.
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I can't get my car stickered. I can't get along with that person at work.
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I have some kind of physical ailment. Those are all minus stupid. Yours can be very true and right and some kind of suffering.
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I just wish somebody would say, I know what it's like when
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I meet people now who have cancer. I just give them a hug and I say, I love you. That's all
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I say. I love you and I know. Because I've had cancer and I know.
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We don't have to talk. We don't have to say anything. The greater to the lesser. If only
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God understood. If only God knew. If only God could be close to me. If only there was a
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God who was closer than a brother. If only God knew my pain. This is so we don't have
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God far off and distant and only transcendent and only other and only alien.
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This is a God who sticks closer than a brother because he is our brother.
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And so he does know. And so you say, well, I have a rebellious child.
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I have a husband that does this. I have a wife that does that. I have a worker that does this. Listen, God knows what it's like.
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The son knows what it's like to suffer. And he empathizes. And that makes that great promise in Matthew 28 all the better.
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It is essentially, I love you and I know. It is when
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Jesus said, and lo, I am with you always even to what? The end of the age,
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I'm with you. Could there be a better promise than the incarnation of Jesus? And he says, I've been through it all and I'm with you.
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Perfectly able to sympathize with his people. Perfectly tested in the same way we were. Jesus did not say, by the way, you know what?
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I'm on the cross and I'm going to call all these angels to kill all these centurions. He suffered just like we did so he can sympathize with us.
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And he was heard because of his piety. And we're not hurt because of our sin.
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Jesus is heard because of his piety. Jesus is enough.
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Jesus prayed enough. Jesus evangelized enough. Jesus encouraged enough. And Jesus took all the wrath of the father.
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And knows what it's like to sympathize with people who struggle. And if you want to pick a priest, what kind of priest do you pick?
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One that knows what you need. Because he is the high priest.
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Let's pray. Father, I thank you for today. I know so often when we hear the word taught, especially in our circles, we're not antinomian.
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And so we do want to pray. We do want to do these commands that you have given us.
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But, Father, I pray that they would follow, be the caboose, not the engine.
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The engine might be our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who did enough, who prayed enough, who was heard. I'm thankful that you did answer his prayer because of his reverence and you raised him from the dead.
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What would we be without our resurrected, exalted Savior? I pray for each person today, myself included, that when we start getting on that works righteousness bandwagon again, even as Christians, that you would help us just remember who
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Jesus is, our Lord and Savior. And how he, in the days of his flesh, offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him, who was able to save him from the death, and he was heard because of his reverence.
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Thank you for Jesus Christ. I pray for those that are here today trusting in their own goodness or righteousness, our works, our baptism, or whatever it might be.
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Why would they need Jesus if they could do it on their own? So I pray that you would grant them right thinking so they could abandon all those things to turn to Christ Jesus through repentance and faith.
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In his name we pray. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.
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You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.