Obedient In Suffering, Part 1 (Hebrews 5:7-8)

Hebrews 5 and the Superior Priesthood of Christ

Turn now, please, to Hebrews chapter 5. When you're there, let's bow before the Lord in prayer before we begin. Our Father, we do thank you for a high priest who has borne the wrath that we deserve, one who intercedes for us even now, and one who is able to save to the uttermost all those who come to him in faith.

And we thank you for this salvation which you have wrought by your grace and all for your glory. And it has been for our infinite and eternal good and our infinite and eternal joy. And we are grateful for that.

We pray that today as we read through your word and give consideration to these aspects of the high priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ, that our hearts may be filled with love and affection for him and that you would focus our mind and attention upon him and what he has done for us.

And may he be pleased with all that is done and all that is said here today as we study your word. Be glorified we pray through it and we ask this in Christ's name, amen. Hebrews chapter 5, we're going to read together verses 1 through verse 10.

For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided since he himself also is beset with weaknesses and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins as for the people so also for himself.

And no one takes the honor to himself but receives it when he is called by God even as Aaron was. So also Christ did not glorify himself so as to become a high priest but he who said to him you are my son today I have begotten you just as he says also in another passage you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

In the days of his flesh he offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the one able to save him from death and he was heard because of his piety. Although he was a son he learned obedience from the things which he suffered and having been made perfect he became to all those who obey him the source of eternal salvation being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

Christ’s High Priesthood Is Greater Than Aaron’s

So we are here in Hebrews chapter 5 examining the question as to whether or not the Lord Jesus is qualified to serve as our high priest and we're not examining whether he is qualified to serve in our high priest as a priest in the order of Aaron because if that is where he served he wasn't qualified to serve there he wasn't qualified to be a priest in Aaron's priesthood because in order to be in Aaron's priesthood you had to be a descendant of Aaron you had to be of the tribe of Levi and Jesus did not come from the tribe of Levi nor was he a descendant of Aaron and instead he serves as a high priest in an entirely different order an eternal order of a different high priesthood that belonging to Melchizedek or that typified typified by Melchizedek back in Genesis chapter 14 and in contrasting these two priesthoods the priesthood of Aaron and the priesthood of Melchizedek the priesthood that was of the old covenant and then the priesthood over in which Jesus serves.

In contrasting those two we've noticed that there are a number of differences between these and the point of the author of Hebrews is to show that Jesus in functioning as a high priest is greater than Aaron.

He has done a greater work. The priesthood that he occupies is a greater priesthood than Aaron's. He didn't just fulfill Aaron's priesthood and didn't complete it. He didn't serve in that priesthood. He is an entirely different priest a better priest of a better priesthood an eternal priesthood and everything about it is better.

And there are a number of aspects of the Aaronic priesthood. Aaron's priesthood which were good just because it was temporary and just because it was passing away doesn't mean that it wasn't in many ways good.

It was a good priesthood and there are a number of elements of it that are good and in all of the in contrasting the two priesthoods what we see is in in all of the ways in which Aaron's priesthood was good.

Jesus in his Melchizedekian priesthood does the same thing. His priesthood has all the good elements but all the bad elements are. We shouldn't say bad because they're not bad in a moral sense. But all of the inadequacies of the Aaronic priesthood are not do not carry over into Jesus's priesthood so he is better.

All of the good things are there in Jesus's priesthood and all of the inadequacies are taken care of in Jesus's priesthood. Let me give you some examples. Here are the good things about the about the priesthood of Aaron and they're in chapter 5 verses 1 to 4 we looked at a few of them.

A divine appointment. A priest in Aaron's priesthood had to be divinely appointed. And we saw last week that this is exactly what uh what the father did for Jesus in psalm 2 and in psalm 110. Those promises in the old testament that the king the messiah of Israel that would come from David's line would be both a priest and a king predicted in the old testament anticipated and is the father who appointed Christ the son as a high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

We also saw another good aspect of the Aaronic priesthood was that they offered sacrifices for people that was a good and and holy and noble thing. Also that he was able to sympathize those priests and that priesthood were able to sympathize and be compassionate and deal gently with men because they shared the same nature and they were taken from among men and they represented men before God.

All of those were good elements of what Aaron did and everything about his priesthood in all of those terms it was all good. It was pointed by God designed by God in order to point forward to prophetically the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But Aaron's priesthood had a number of inadequacies. For instance there were multiple priests in Aaron's priesthood. Multiple priests. Aaron was not the first and the last and the only priest to serve in his priesthood.

A priest would serve for a number of years and then he would be replaced just like that and he would serve and hand that off to somebody else who would serve and do the same thing that that the previous priest had done.

And every priest knew that he was only one in a long line of men who would do that work. And that having served to the fullest of his abilities to the end of his life for his tenure as a high priest that he would pass on that work to somebody else who would pick it up and continue to do it.

Multiple priests. Not one high priest but multiple priests in Aaron's priesthood. Also multiple sacrifices day after day month after month year after year for 1600 years animals were sacrificed under the Aaronic priesthood.

That is a lot of sacrifice. That is a lot of bloodletting. Is it not every day for 1600 years. And all of those sacrifices as the multitudes of them all pointed forward to some other sacrifice. And every priest knew that every time he offered a sacrifice wasn't the last one.

No priest ever went to work that day thinking to himself. I wonder if today's sacrifice will finally atone for sin. I wonder if today's sacrifice would be enough. No priest ever thought that way. He knew.

I'm going to do this today and I'm going to do this tomorrow. And we're doing this next week. And I'm going to do this next year. I'm going to do this until I pass away. Somebody else is going to take over and they're going to do it until they pass away.

And this is going to go on for a long long time. Multiple priests multiple sacrifices. And sinful priests in Aaron's priesthood they were sinners taken from among men. They were just like you and I sinners sons of Adam in need of atonement.

In fact before they could even be appointed to the office of a high priest a sacrifice had to be made in order to ordain them to that office. And then having been ordained to that office before they could offer sacrifices for others they had to offer a sacrifice for their own sins because they were sinners.

And then having offered a sacrifice for their own sins just like all of the rest of the children of Israel then they could offer a sacrifice on behalf of others. That is inadequacy. And the fact that Aaron's priesthood was intended to be temporary it was never intended to be eternal.

It went on for 1600 years that may feel like an eternity but it wasn't. It wasn't intended to be a permanent priesthood. It was intended to be a temporary priesthood only to point forward to something that would fill in for all of these inadequacies.

And then in the New Testament we get to the book of Hebrews and we see that Jesus's priesthood that he occupies has all of the good aspects of Aaron's priesthood divinely appointed sympathetic toward men taken from among men able to to deal gently with men.

But has none of the inadequacies of Aaron's priesthood. Not multiple sacrifices but one sacrifice for all time. One sacrifice and not multiple priests. We only have one high priest who has ever served on our behalf one for two thousand years he has done this and he has interceded for us.

And we don't have sinful and wicked high priest in the Melchizedekian priesthood instead we have a high priest who is the pure sinless spotless perfect lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

And the priesthood of Jesus is not a temporary priesthood it is an eternal priest. He has appointed a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Now all of that just to sort of refresh where we're at and remind you of where we have been.

Christ Can Sympathize Because He Suffered

And now we come to chapter five verse seven and we see that this is one of the good features of the Lord Jesus Christ is his ability is in his priesthood to sympathize and to deal gently with us. In under Aaron's priesthood in the old covenant the priests were able to sympathize with the people because they had the same sinful proclivities the same sinful nature the same sinful tendencies.

They they had the same weaknesses of humanity which weaknesses often end up tending toward our own opportunities for sinfulness in our lives. The old testament priests had that Jesus shares the the frailties of humanity without sharing any of the sinfulness of humanity.

And though he does not know sin in the way that we would know sin he is able to sympathize with us. And and we see this back in chapter two the author of hebrews says he was a merciful and faithful high priest.

And then in chapter four able to sympathize with us. And then we get into chapter five verse two and we find out that a high priest needed to be one who could deal gently and compassionately with those whom he represented.

And now the author is making the case that if it is required of a priest that they be appointed by God. Jesus had that psalm 2 and psalm 110 that we looked at last week. And now we come to verse 7. Is he able to deal gently and sympathetically with us.

Is he able to to know our trials our tribulations and our suffering. And the answer to that is an unequivocal yes because he suffered or seven he learned obedience in verse eight. So is our savior able to sympathize with us and feel our pain and to know our pain.

And the answer to that is yes because he suffered this affliction. So the author of hebrews now focuses in on the suffering of our lord described in verses seven and eight and i want you to read them with me in the days of his flesh he offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the one able to save him from death.

And he was heard because of his piety. So he is able to deal gently with us because of his suffering in verse seven. And then look at this very curious and odd statement in verse eight. Although although he was a son he learned obedience from the things which he suffered.

He learned obedience. When i think of the lord jesus christ in all of his majesty and his glory of the divine son i do not think of one who learned obedience. That's kind of odd isn't it. Do you think of jesus as one who had to learn obedience.

And if you think that is curious look at verse nine having been made perfect a second. Wasn't he born perfect. In what sense was the lord made perfect. He learned obedience and was made perfect. He became to all those who trust in him the hope of eternal salvation.

That's in verse nine he became to all those who obey him the source of eternal salvation. So today we're not going to look at what it means that jesus was made perfect or that he learned obedience. Those are two very significant and important aspects of his high priesthood.

Today we're just looking at the fact that he can sympathize with us because he suffered. And that is what verse 7 is all about. Verse 7 in the days of his flesh he offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the one able to save him from death.

And he was heard because of his piety. Verse 7 describes the suffering of our lord. And when the author says it was in the days of his flesh he's not using flesh in a moral or ethical sense. And we've seen this before.

He's not using flesh as in contrasted with the spirit we sometimes use the word flesh that way. And it can mean that in a moral or ethical sense this remnant of the sinful fallen nature that we have from adam.

That's not how he's using the word flesh here. He's speaking of in the days of the flesh of the lord jesus in the days of his humanity while he walked here and he is though he is still man he has glorified humanity.

But in the days of his earthly sojourn we may say while he walked among us and dwelt among us he's he's using flesh in the same way that john does in john chapter 1 verse 14 that the word became flesh and dwelt among us and he took upon himself humanity.

Deity was united with humanity in that one person of christ. And he dwelt and walked among us in the days of that sojourn with us in this fallen world he experienced both prayers. Or he offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying into the tears to the one able to save him.

Now when you were that when you read that phrase prayer supplication loud crying and tears. What incident pops into your mind. What incident in the life of lord jesus pops into your mind. Gethsemane. That's probably what you would think wouldn't it.

And i'm not setting you up here with some sort of a trick question. He's going to get us to all agree to gethsemane and then drop the hammer on us. No it's not gethsemane. It's not what i'm doing. That is probably the most likely thing that pops into your head when you read that is certainly what i thought of as gethsemane prayer and supplication loud crying and tears um describing the anguish of the lord jesus.

And i do think that gethsemane is probably in view of the author here after jesus left the upper room with his disciples he we read in the gospels that he he left the city of jerusalem and headed eastward toward the mount of olives across the kidron valley and went to the base of the mount of olives where there was a garden.

And he stayed there with his disciples on occasion. And you remember on the the night that he was betrayed judas had already left and was gone to to gather his forces to come and arrest jesus in the garden.

And he was there with his disciples and he left some of them uh at the perimeter of the garden. And he went further into the garden with peter james and john and said to them watch and pray. And then he went even further in and he prayed.

And the gospels revealed that he had this moment this this crisis of of of anguish of soul when he prayed out to the father my father if it's possible that this cup pass from me. Yet not as i will but as you will.

And you read this in matthew chapter 26 mark 14 and luke 22. And all three of those gospels describe the agony of the lord on that night while judas and the mob were on their way out to arrest him. And that description certainly fits gethsemane.

And the description here in hebrews chapter five certainly fits gethsemane. But i would suggest to you that we ought not to limit it to gethsemane though it would fit gethsemane. I don't think that it is only gethsemane that the author has in mind.

And why would i say that. Because he says in the days plural of his flesh he offered this up meaning that i don't think that if the author had in mind one incident one location one hour or hour and a half on the night before he was crucified that he would use that phrase in the days describing the days of his sojourning the days of his life and his flesh.

I don't think the author has in mind just one incident. I don't believe that gethsemane was an anomaly in the life of the lord jesus christ but probably more like something of a of the zenith the climax the the pinnacle of a life that was lived of prayer and supplication and loud crying and tears.

I think this is something that characterized the entire life of the lord jesus though this description would not be limited to gethsemane. I think that is what he has in view primarily. But i think we need to consider this in terms of the entire life of the lord jesus christ being characterized as prayer by prayer and supplication and loud crying and tears.

I think it is gethsemane that he has in view because he uses the term offered. He offered up both prayers and supplications. That's the word used in back to back in chapter five. I think it's verse two to describe that sacrificial offering of gifts so he's describing it using sacrificial language.

I think that gethsemane is in view that that night that he did this before he offered his sacrifice. He also uses the the phrase eight one able to save him from death. The prayers and tears that are mentioned here are in connection with praying to one able to save him from death.

So it sounds like it is describing a prayer offered to one under the imminent cloud of a of a of a coming and and soon to be death. So i think that is describing gethsemane. But i think it is fair to say that this was characteristic of the entire life of the lord jesus christ.

We know of one other time in scripture that i could think of and maybe you can think of another but other than gethsemane i know of one other time in the life of the lord jesus where we read of him crying.

And that was in connection with lazarus and the death of lazarus in john chapter 11. But how difficult do you think it would be for the holy one to live in this world and to witness all of the death and destruction and havoc that sin has caused in his creation.

How difficult do you think that would be. We ought not to think of the lord jesus christ as an unemotional stoic character who went through his life unaffected by the reality of sin around him and and and completely unemotional in the face of it only to have these two anomalies john chapter 11 where he cried at the tomb of lazarus he wept.

And the other anomaly in gethsemane where he cried. I don't think that. I think it is. I think that the the description in hebrews the description of the general tenor of the life of our lord. Prayer supplication crying tears loud crying.

Remember the prophecy back in isaiah chapter 55 or 53 verse 3. He was despised and forsaken of men. A man of sorrows acquainted with grief. Now see that's not a phrase that you would use to describe somebody who cried twice in their life a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

That's no this. That's a phrase that you would use to describe somebody who is a man of sorrows. Not a man of entertainment. Not a man of flippancy and light-heartedness. Not a man of superficial and shallow emotions.

Not a man who went skipping through life and just happened to run into the roman powers at the end of it and and die a victim of of somebody's cruel designs. The man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

Not a stranger to grief acquainted with grief. If you are somebody who has only cried twice in your life nobody would ever describe you as a man of sorrows. But they would describe you as a man of sorrows if your life was characterized by a grieving and a sorrow over the reality and the gravity of sin and what it has done in this life during the days of his flesh in the days of his sojourn he offered up prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears.

Now that is not to suggest. I think we have to be careful at this point that we don't think of the lord jesus christ in either of these two extremes. Either as an unemotional stoic individual who was unaffected by everything around him or as the type of man who wore his emotions on his sleeve.

And anytime anybody ever gave him a compliment or said anything to him he would just burst forth in emotion and crying and and taking his robe and wiping his tears and needing something to blow his nose.

That was not the lord jesus either. I think that lord jesus was a man of perfect emotion and yet he was. He is called a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. But he is a man of perfect emotion. I don't think ever a wasted tear.

I don't think ever a wasted sorrow. But a man who was acquainted with sorrow. So somewhere in between there is this balance. Jesus is not an effeminate individual who is always crying and wore his emotions on his sleeve is is a perfect man in the sense that he is not that.

Nor is he a stoic individual that is unaffected by emotion around him. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief who offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears. There's a growing intensity in those four words.

Prayer is just the word that's used of a request that you would make to god. Then the word supplication adds a degree of urgency and intensity to it. Prayers is just the request. A supplication is a request that is offered with a sense of urgency and desire.

It is it is a prayer that is offered with a sense of passion. This is something that i need an interesting the word that is used here for supplication. Um it was used in ancient times of one who was a supplicant one who would come.

And this is and this is actually how it is used in ancient literature of one who would come and seek the protection of somebody greater than them. So a supplicant was one. It's actually used in ancient literature of a man who would bring a an olive branch in his hand.

One who was in a position of danger and he would come with an olive branch in his hand and supplicate or ask for the protection of one greater than him placing himself under the authority of that individual and saying protect me.

That that describes perfectly the emotions of the lord jesus christ and and his uh stress and his prayers in gethsemane on the night before he was crucified. Prayer and supplication with loud crying and tears.

Loud crying of course you're familiar with that. I'm not going to demonstrate it for you but it is the idea of just this loud cry of anguish. I can sense that. That's exactly right. I can imagine that that's exactly what the lord would experience in gethsemane facing what he was ahead of him.

The loud crying and the tears being the expression of that. This perfectly describes a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. Does it not. And again gethsemane not being the anomaly gethsemane being indicative of probably what much of the life of the lord jesus christ was like loud crying and tears.

A man of sorrows well acquainted with grief. And he prayed. It says to the one able to save him. Um was the lord. In verse seven was the lord praying that he would be saved from death from dying. It says that he prayed to the one able to save him and he was heard because of his piety.

Was the lord jesus on the night of gethsemane praying to the father that the father would keep him from death. And if he was praying to the father for the father to keep him from death and yet he died in what sense was he heard because of his piety.

Some have suggested that the father heard the prayer that he would be kept from death and the father said no. And therefore the prayer was in a technical sense heard but it was not answered. But that doesn't seem to satisfy the language that the author is using here.

The language seems to suggest that he prayed to the one able to save him. And yet he was heard and he was heard because of his piety and yet the lord jesus christ died. So if he was heard why did he die.

And if he died was he really and truly heard because of his piety when he prayed to the one able to save him from death. I think that the answer to that dilemma is rest in us thinking carefully about what it is that the lord jesus christ prayed on the night before he was crucified.

What was it that he prayed. Did he pray that the father would keep him from dying. If he did then he was praying then this was a prayer that the lord jesus offered that was outside of the will of the father.

And a prayer that was remained unanswered because he did certainly die he he tasted death for us through death he defeated him who had the power of death. So if he was praying to be kept from death and the lord said no then the father was saying no to a perfect prayer offered outside of the will of god by the son.

Is it even possible for the son to offer a prayer that is outside of the father's will. But is that what he prayed on the night that he was crucified before he's crucified. No. He prayed in anguish of soul sweating drops of blood.

He prayed that if there were any other way for the redemption of god's chosen people to be accomplished and effected that that way would be the way that he would take and not the cross not bearing the wrath of the father for them.

And he prayed this in accordance with the will of the father not my will but yours be done. So that is actually what he prayed. If jesus was trying to avoid the cross he was the most miserable of failures.

But every indication of scripture is that he was not trying to avoid the cross. He was never trying to avoid death. He knew when he came. This is what he came to do to give his life as a ransom for many.

He predicted his own death burial and resurrection. On numerous occasions in the gospels he set his face to jerusalem and the gospel of john chapter 10. Jesus said um nobody takes my life from me. I lay it down.

I have the power to lay it down and i have the power to take it up again. This command i have received from my father. And then he said let's go up to jerusalem. And jesus and all the disciples knew that jesus was a hated and hunted man and that going to jerusalem would most certainly result in his death.

And yet he went anyway. And on the night that he was betrayed he sat there at the table and knew who his betrayer was and didn't do anything to stop him or to identify him to the other disciples to cause the disciples to stop him.

And in fact he told him go and do what you do and do it quickly. And judas left. And jesus knew exactly where judas was going. And jesus knew exactly where judas would meet. Jesus knew exactly where judas would meet him.

And jesus went to the place where he knew judas would come because that was the place that was arranged and the disciples met there. And jesus knew before judas even left the city that a crowd was on its way out to get him.

He did nothing to avoid death. So i have a hard time imagining that on the night before he was crucified when he lived his entire life heading toward jerusalem for that purpose to die on a cross that suddenly he got weak in the knees and decided that he would.

He was scared and trying to do everything he could to avoid death. He wasn't at all. What he was praying for was that there's any other way for this salvation to be accomplished that that would happen.

And he submitted himself to the will of the father. And and gladly not as a victim but as a volunteer gave up his life for his bride the church. That is the glory of that evening. Now in what sense was he heard.

What was he praying for. He wasn't praying to avoid death. That's not what he was praying. He was praying that the will of the father was done and that prayer was heard. But was he praying. And did he ask to avoid death.

And in what sense was he heard if jesus let me say it this way. Jesus was not praying that he would not taste death. And jesus was not praying that he would be saved from dying. He was praying that he would be saved from death.

And i think that is appropriate to see the lord as asking the father and praying at some point that the father who was able to save him from death would save him from death. But what do we mean from death.

Was jesus saved from death. Was he saved from death. I'm not asking if he was saved from dying. Was he saved from death. He was saved from death. Yeah. Now once i once i say it like that you kind of like.

Okay. Oh yeah. There's the resurrection right now. That phrase that that preposition from is the greek preposition ek. It's used 890 times in the new testament is translated various ways. The number one most common way that it is translated is as um from as it is here.

The second most common way of translating it is as of the third most common way of translating it is translated this way a hundred times in the new testament out of the 890 times that it's used is out of out of.

So a hundred times that it is translated new testament is translated out of death or out of. And it's used of. It's used of the bread that came out of heaven. It's used of pulling the speck out of your eye.

It's used of the demon-possessed man coming out of the caves. It is used of people coming out of a city. It's the same preposition. And scholars suggested that it's better probably to translate it here out of instead of from.

In which case we would read in the days of his flesh. He offered up prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the one able to save him out of death. Did the father save him out of death.

Yes. He was heard because of his piety. So the night that our lord was betrayed he was praying and did pray with great prayer and supplication and loud crying and tears to the one that he knew was able to rescue him out of the state of death.

And that prayer was heard. And i think this is a reference to the resurrection. The lord jesus knew that he could face death because he knew. It was the design of the father from psalm 16 and psalm 22 and isaiah 53.

Those were the predictions and the prophecies. It was the design intention of the father to raise the son to newness of life. And he knew that the father would save him and deliver him out of death not keep him from dying but having died to deliver him out of the state of death.

And i think that is probably the best way of understanding it here. And he was hurt because of his piety. The word piety is only used twice in the new testament both times in the book of hebrews once it's used here and once it's used back in hebrews chapter 12 verse 28 where we read this.

Therefore since we have received a kingdom which cannot be shaken let us show gratitude by which we may offer to god an acceptable service with reverence and awe. Reverence is the word so here he is. He is heard because of his translated piety and other translations is translated reverence.

He is heard because of his reverence. And that word only used twice in all the new testament that word describes a submissive humility a a bowing down beneath the will of another. It describes one who humbly submits his interests to the interest of another.

That reverence and awe that submissive gentleness of spirit and a reverential submission. That's what it describes. And in the two times that it is used it is used once of the lord jesus christ here and interestingly it describes his sacrifice and his service.

And the second time it is used it is used of us that we are to have that kind of reverential awe only used twice in the new testament wants to describe jesus wants to describe us. And we are called in chapter 12 to evidence and to duplicate the same spirit of gentleness reverence and submission that the lord jesus christ has.

It is to describe since it is described jesus's sacrifice it is also described our sacrifice which i think is what paul has in mind in philippians chapter 2 when he says have this mind in you which was also in christ jesus who had that exalted position and laid that aside so that he could come and be born as a man and to suffer and die and humble himself to the point of death on a cross.

And god then has highly exalted him. And paul calls us at the beginning of that passage which we're at the beginning of our service to have the same attitude the same mind in us that was in christ jesus.

So we are to have this type of reverential submissive attitude. And so nobody took jesus's life from him. He laid it down in his own accord. And what described him is this reverential submission to the will of the father.

And because of that the lord heard him and delivered him out of death out of the state of death. So what does this mean for us. Let me offer you three things as we wrap this up. These are three truths that i think would be an encouragement to us and obviously to the original authors or to the original uh hearers of the letter number one our lord jesus christ knows our plight.