Hebrews 5:1-11, PRBC Sunday Morning Service

The Background of Hebrews and the Need for the Old Testament

Let us turn once again to the book of Hebrews, Epistle to the Hebrews, Chapter 5. Epistle to the Hebrews, Chapter 5. As we prepare once again to look to the word of God, let's pray and ask God's blessing upon our time.

Indeed, our Heavenly Father, we ask that you would, during this time, help us to concentrate upon your word and to hear its testimony to Jesus Christ, its testimony to the gospel. May your spirit come and uplift our hearts, we pray in Christ's name, amen.

For those of you who are regular here, you know that we have been working through the book of Hebrews, at least when I have opportunity to speak, and so it's been a rather slow-moving study, but we are actually making progress.

We will finish this someday. Some of you have wondered if we'll ever finish the Synoptic Gospel study in Sunday school, at least before the Lord returns, but it does look like there are only a certain number of chapters in Hebrews, and so we will finish it at some point.

Today, we come to the fifth chapter, which is not a lengthy chapter, and in fact, I would suggest that the chapter division is a little bit arbitrary between five and six. As we will see, once we get down to verse 11 of this chapter, there is a consistent theme that will continue on into chapter six.

I know many of you have just been truly excited about getting to the sixth chapter of Hebrews, even though we had actually addressed that a number of years ago in more of a survey fashion. We will preach through that chapter in the next number of months.

The Old Covenant High Priest and His Weakness

This morning, we will be looking at the first 10 verses of Hebrews chapter five. Hebrews chapter five, 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 weakness, and because of it, he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins as for the people, so also for himself, and no one takes this 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, 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.

So once again, as we listen to these words, we are struck with the necessity of knowing the background upon which we are studying and dealing, and the background in the Old Testament that is being offered to us.

As we have already seen in the book of Hebrews, if we are unfamiliar with the Old Testament, if we are unfamiliar with the argumentation, the citation, the context, that the book of Hebrews can be an extremely difficult book to study.

And that is why it is fairly rare to hear a whole lot of preaching going all the way through the book of Hebrews. But once again, for those who have not been with us, we are looking at a book that is seeking to encourage those early Christian believers, those early Jewish Christian believers, that is, they're coming from a Jewish background, to continue in the faith over against the tremendous pressure that was being placed upon them to go back to the old ways.

We've already seen the first four chapters, a number of different ways in which the author has sought to demonstrate that there is nothing to go back to. But we see in this section, the author picking up some of those threads again, some of the quotations that he's already used back in chapters one and two.

For example, you are my son, today I have begotten you, and you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. We will see that phrase repeated over and over again in the next couple of chapters.

It becomes very central to the argument of the epistle. But we're also getting into that section where we are going to begin introducing and expanding upon Jesus's role as high priest. We saw back in verse 14 of chapter four that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens.

Jesus, the son of God, therefore let us hold fast our confession. And so now we are going to start looking a little bit more closely in the book at this role of Jesus as high priest. And then that then becomes part of the foundation upon which the peril of falling away from this great high priest to something lesser is contrasted.

Christ's High Priesthood and the Order of Melchizedek

So in the first four verses today, we have a fairly straightforward description of the high priest in the Old Covenant. The high priest in the Old Covenant. Every high priest is taken from among men and is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.

And so there is a recognition. The high priest is a man. He is chosen from among men. He is appointed to a very special job. That is he ministers in behalf of things pertaining to God, God word things, the things that are necessary for sinful men to deal with the Holy God, that which he himself, God set up to allow for this to take place.

The legal system, the offering of sacrifices for sins, the giving of the gifts, the maintenance of the tabernacle and the altar. We will note that here in the book of Hebrews, even though it seems the temple is still standing, the author focuses upon the tabernacle first and foremost, because it is the first thing that God gives to illustrate to people the way in which this worship is to take place, those first shadows that will foreshadow the coming Messiah.

And so he is appointed from among men to deal with divine things. But since he comes from among men, notice it says he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided since he himself also is beset with weakness.

And because of it, he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins as for the people, so also for himself. So he comes from among the people and even though he's set apart from them, he shares their weaknesses.

He shares the fact that he is not a possessor of all knowledge, therefore he is ignorant. There are times that he is misguided. And some commentators have seen some echo here possibly of the fact that during the period of time after the ending of the Old Testament and the time of Christ, that the position of high priest had become politicized.

It seems that when there is a difficulty, religious leaders in the history of man have often been elevated to positions of temporal authority and history generally tells us that doesn't work well at all.

It certainly did not work well in regards to the high priests. Once it became a position of temporal authority, governmental authority, then money becomes involved and corruption comes along and one cannot help but think of what happens when the Western Roman Empire falls.

And there is a power vacuum because of that lack of political coherence. And who do they turn to? To the Bishop of Rome. And we all see how that turned out, especially when you think of Luther's visit to Rome in 1510 and how he is scandalized to see the current Bishop of Rome riding into Rome in full armor with his armed guards.

He was much more interested in being a general and a politician than he was a shepherd of sheep. And that was of course used to help Luther to see through the fraudulent claims of the papacy. But this had happened as well in regards to the high priests.

But I don't necessarily think that that's the proper application here. Certainly it may be in the background somewhere. But the author really focuses himself primarily upon the period of the tabernacle and those early high priests that he is focusing upon here.

Even as he says, no one takes the honor to himself but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was. Now there might be a commentary there that many of the high priests that the people had suffered under over the past number of generations weren't really called by God.

They had been called by, well, political forces rather than by God. Possibly that's there. But the focus seems to be simply to point out that the old high priest was one who had to offer sacrifice for himself.

He came from amongst the people. He himself experienced ignorance. He himself had to learn because he could be misguided. And that it was an honor to be called as the high priest, even as Aaron was called, to be the high priest.

It is with that rather straightforward background, then, that we then encounter some of the more challenging verses in the book of Hebrews, even though really in chapter 9's we're going to run into some real difficulties.

But we have once again the citation in verses 5 and 6 of the Old Testament and these passages, especially from Psalm 110. You are my son, today I have begotten you, and you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

Now before I look at them again, note something. Verses 5 through 10 in the Greek text are one long sentence. I'm noticing that the New American Standard Bible breaks that up into four different sentences.

Others may even create more sentences than that. But it's just one long sentence in the Greek text. All of these sections depending upon what had come before. So the assertion is made that, and we read this, so also Christ.

And it is Ha Christos, the Christ. But you need to hear it, I think, as the Hebrews would have heard, so also the Messiah. The Messiah did not glorify himself so as to become a high priest. So the first assertion that is made is that though we are saying that the Messiah is a high priest, he did not simply come along and decide to overthrow the current situation, the current setup that existed in his day.

He wasn't a revolutionary in that sense. He didn't come along and say, well, certainly the priesthood has descended in one particular way through Aaron. But I am coming, and I am the new high priest. He does not do this.

Instead, the author tells us that this high priesthood that is Jesus's is based on a different kind of priesthood. He says, 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. So in other words, the assertion is being made that the Messiah's high priesthood is one that is specifically given to him, bestowed upon him by divine authority, and that of a prophetic voice.

Obviously, these words were written long before the time of Jesus's physical manifestation. And so there is an assertion being made, in essence, that if you're going to believe the Old Testament, then you have to answer, who is it that God is speaking to in these Old Testament texts, both of which we've already looked at in our study of the book of Hebrews, but they're being brought up yet again.

Who is this priest who is a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek? The high priest was chosen from amongst men from a particular tribe, and he only lived a certain period of time, and then he passes away.

The old priesthood is going to be constantly contrasted with this eternal priesthood that Jesus holds, and that without a successor. And yet the foundation for this has to be laid, because for us, we can just look at this and go, well, OK, whatever the New Testament says, that's fine with me.

But this had to be compelling to a people who were in an apologetic situation. They had friends and relatives that would be arguing against this. And so the case has to be made from the Old Testament text itself.

And that's why for us, sometimes it seems like the author is maybe belaboring the point just a little bit. You've already said that once. You already cited that text once. Why this repetitiveness? Well, it's not so much repetitiveness as it is a recognition that those to whom he is seeking to minister would need to have a very full explanation and full argument presented to them for these things to actually help them in the way that they needed to be helped.

And so we have this high priest. He does not glorify himself so as to become a high priest. He doesn't try to get into the high priesthood from outside. Instead, he is a high priest because of what God has said concerning him prophetically.

But then we have, in verses 7 through 9, some texts that have prompted the writing of many, many, many pages of commentary. I don't know that they necessarily needed to prompt that many pages, but they have.

And it is understandable why some might find some of the things that are said here to be somewhat difficult. But I think it will give us an opportunity to really consider what this text is saying about Jesus and about his suffering in the flesh and what is accomplished therein.

Listen to the words again. 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.

And so here we have somewhat of the parallel that is offered for the high priest in the earlier part of the chapter. The high priest has to offer sacrifices for himself because he likewise is beset with weakness.

Well, what about this new high priest? This high priest that God has appointed forever according to the order of Melchizedek? What about him? Well, we are told that in the days of his flesh. Literally who?

In the days of his flesh. Now, what is that a reference to? Well, there's really two ways, I think, of looking at this particular verse, and really verses seven and eight together. You could sort of step back and say, well, we're looking here at the entirety of Christ's life, the days of his flesh, his incarnation, when he lived as a man here upon earth.

During that time, he offered up both prayers and supplications. And we know from the Gospels that Jesus was a man of regular prayer. And it is just here that we really need to focus in and try to resist a common temptation that many modern day Christians experience.

And that is we know about the deity of Christ. We think of such texts as John 1, 1. And we think of the fact that the word eternally existed as God, that the word became flesh. And we think of his great authority and his great power and it's very easy for us.

And this is something we see in church history as well, having taken place many times, where people will allow that focus upon the divine nature of Christ to, in essence, swallow up his humanity. So that while we say, yes, Jesus was a man.

Yes, Jesus walked upon the earth. And he grew tired. And he ate food. In many of our thinking and in our thoughts of Jesus, that sort of becomes just sort of a show. It didn't really have any real meaning to it.

We don't focus upon that or think much about that at all to where Jesus becomes merely a divine creature who just sort of pretends to be human. You're not going to be able to hold that kind of a view very well through these verses.

Because if anything is true about this section, what it tells us is that we really do need to consider what the scriptures themselves say about Jesus's human existence. The fact that he did pray. It wasn't just some kind of exercise where he was just trying to show the disciples what to do.

That the incarnate Son of God entered into regular communion with his Father. Yes, we can draw all sorts of lessons from that. But it does not change the fact that there was reality to that prayer life.

That there were supplications. That there was a dependence demonstrated by the Son. That the Son chose to live his life in this way. That he was dependent upon the Spirit of God. That it was not just a sham human existence.

And so some would say, well, what we have here is the entirety of his life. The entirety of his life shows these prayers and supplications without crying and tears and so on and so forth. And that as a son, he learned obedience from the things which he suffered.

And that this was throughout his entire life. From being the perfect son in the home of Joseph and Mary. Being in the temple at age 12. All the way up to his ministry and the temptations he suffered therein.

The other perspective would be to say that there is a specific point in time that is in view here. That is, the supplications, loud crying, and tears to the one able to save him from death points us to a specific aspect of Jesus's suffering.

And that is found in the Garden of Gethsemane. And so we turn back to, for example, Matthew chapter 26. And we remind ourselves of Jesus's experience in the Garden of Gethsemane. And beginning in verse 36 we read, then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane and said to his disciples, sit here while I go over there and pray.

And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be grieved and distressed. And notice verse 38. Then he said to them, my soul is deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and keep watch with me.

And he went a little beyond them and fell on his face and prayed, saying, my father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, yet not as I will, but as you will. And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping and said to Peter, so you men could not keep watch with me for one hour?

Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, my father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, your will be done.

Again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. He left them again and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same things once more. And then he came to the disciples and said to them, are you still sleeping and resting?

Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed in the hands of sinners.

Get up.

Let us be going. Behold, the one who betrays me is at hand. In the parallel passage in Luke, of course, we have the discussion that he sweats, as it were, great drops of blood. They were not probably blood itself, but that's the sweating, the intensity of his suffering is such that he is truly in agony.

And so most would see that verse 7 of chapter 5 in the book of Hebrews is talking about a specific time. That is the time in the Garden of Gethsemane where the Son wrestles with this tremendous burden that is going to be coming upon him, not simply the physical death, the beating and the pain that would be his, but especially his becoming sin, being made sin for us.

He who knew no sin being made sin, so we might become the righteousness of God in him. And so most would look at the text in that, that he offered supplications and loud crying and tears to the one able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his piety.

Now, two things. One might immediately say, well, it couldn't be Gethsemane because he died, not in Gethsemane. Some would actually say that that's the fulfillment, is that, well, he was heard. He was nigh unto death, his suffering so great there in the Garden of Gethsemane, but he was heard because of his piety and God sustained him.

Remember, angels were sent to minister to him. There was certainly a supernatural sustaining of Christ in the Garden at that time. So some would say that he was heard because of his piety and he was saved from death at that point so as to give his life upon the cross of Calvary.

That's one understanding that has been given. But most others would say that the fulfillment of saying he was heard because of his piety has to do with the resurrection itself. His body was not left in the grave.

He, in fact, was resurrected from the power of death, and that this, then, would be the fulfillment of his being heard because of his piety. Notice that this term, piety, is not exactly one that we use a whole lot.

It was a word that had a positive meaning in previous generations. In our own generation, it has become somewhat of a negative term. If you refer to someone as being pious, there's almost always a little bit of a tinge of an assertion of hypocrisy on that person's part.

And that, obviously, is not what the term itself means. In fact, it's a rather unusual term in the original language. He was heard because of his fear of God. And it's a fear of God in the sense of a great concern that God's glory be protected, that God's truth be applied.

There was a great concern on the part of the person who had this kind of fear. Others would even translate it that he was delivered from his fear, his fear of death. But that's probably, I don't think, the best way to understand it either.

Now, personally, I think the best way to see this is to see this as focusing upon Gethsemane, upon that time where in the Gospel of John, for example, we see that Jesus has just offered his what? His high priestly prayer, John chapter 17.

And so now he is truly entering into that role in a way that is very special, very sacrificial, as he is about to give his life upon Calvary's cross. And he is heard because of his godly fear, the fact that he says, as we saw in Matthew twice, not my will, but yours be done.

There is this giving over to the will of God that is the perfect picture of this kind of godly fear that is being referred to in verse 7. And then continuing the very same sentence, and though he was a son, he learned obedience from the things which he suffered.

Now again, that could be taken in the general sense of being the son of God. He has entered into human flesh. And we know that Luke tells us he grew in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But at the same time, the thought might be crossing someone's mind, although he was a son. How could the son, for example, give prayers and supplications without crying and tears? The idea again is, well, if you're the son of God, you just sort of walk through these things.

You know what's going to happen. Everything's just fine. You don't have to be, if you know what the result's going to be, who really needs to worry about these things. But the reality is, the text says, and even though being a son, he learned from those things which he suffered the obedience.

The obedience. And it is here we truly begin to walk upon ground that is both holy as well as difficult. For when we think of Jesus as the son of God, we think of the eternal relationship that he had with the Father.

But then we think of the incarnation. And we are talking about one who is absolutely unique. We have absolutely nothing in the history of this world that we can compare to the incarnate Jesus Christ. There are parallels to our experience because he truly became flesh.

And the Bible talks about these things. But we always have in the back of our mind those differences. And the difficulty for us is to remain balanced. The history of the church, the history of heresy in regards to Jesus, is a history of losing balance on these very issues.

You may recall many years ago when we studied early church history, and we went through the various early heresies. We had modalism, where the person of the son is denied to have been eternal. That the son is just simply the incarnation of the father.

And the son's just a human creature who came into existence in Bethlehem. And so Jesus is both the father and the son. And there's not a divine trinity. And then we had Arianism, where Jesus is a creature.

He may be an exalted creature, but he's still a creature. And then even after that, people began to have problems where they could not distinguish between the divine, the human, and Christ. And they would mix them together.

So Jesus isn't 100 God and 100 man. He's 50 -50. He's sort of an in-between type thing. All these involve losing balance at some point because he's absolutely unique. And we learn by comparison. And comparisons can be very dangerous when we're talking about one who is absolutely unique.

But we have here in the divine text the assertion that although he was a son, and so the assertion is right there, although we have the son of God here, yet it was the will of the divine trinity in time past that the son would experience things that the father has never experienced.

Nor has the spirit. When people point out that there's a difference between the father and the son, and they say, see, the son humbled himself and the son did all these things. That means he's lesser than the father.

I like to come back at them and say, but since the son has experienced things the father has not, does that make the son superior to the father? Does that make the father inferior to the son? Of course not.

The divine trinity has chosen to take different roles in the redemption of God's people. And in that divine mystery, the son learned obedience. And of course, that makes sense when we realize we're talking about a true man.

True men learn obedience. Not just in the sense that, well, because we're the fallen sons of Adam, we have a natural bent toward disobedience. I don't think that's the obedience being spoken of here. There is a positive aspect of obedience that can only be learned by experience.

And that positive aspect of obedience, I think, is what we see when we think about one other great text that talks about the son's obedience. Maybe when you read that, the same text came through your mind as through mine.

But remember what Paul said in that beautiful text in Philippians. Philippians chapter 2. Remember what is said in that great hymn of praise in regards to what God has done in Christ, talking about how he eternally exists in the form of God.

He made himself of no reputation. And notice what verse 8 of chapter 2 says. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming what? Obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

And that becomes the reason then that God highly exalts him and gives to him the name which is above every name, that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess. Notice where this obedience is seen.

It's not specifically here the obedience of every day, the obedience of the perfect life. All that is true. But there is an example given where the Messiah is obedient to the point of death on the cross.

Not my will, but yours be done. If I must drink this cup, if it be your will, I do so. There is obedience. And there is a kind of obedience that truly had never been seen in sinless perfection. Adam had never had the opportunity of rendering that kind of obedience.

Here is one who learns obedience from the things which he suffered. And if we're talking here especially about the Garden of Gethsemane, that suffering that was his, that sweating, that being nigh unto death in the struggle that is his, and yet what does he do?

Not my will, but yours be done. And I think that follows through consistently because notice the very next verse. And again, it's just the next phrase in the sentence. For us, it's a different verse. Originally, it's just the next phrase in the sentence.

And having been made perfect or complete. And again, we struggle with that. What do you mean Jesus has been made perfect? That means he was imperfect. Well, not in a moral sense. But it is clearly God's intention that the Messiah suffer in such a way that he learn perfect obedience in submitting himself to the Father and as such, he is perfected.

He is able to be the one who goes to the cross and in giving his life, it is not just simply a sham gift of a non-real human being. And it is not like some guy was walking through Galilee and God just sort of jumped in on him and got rid of one person and sort of took over for a while.

No, we have the incarnate Son of God who has lived a perfect life, but then when his hour comes, there is something special about that communion he has with the Father. He keeps going and praying. And the disciples, they miss it.

They can't even keep watch with him for one hour. He keeps coming to them, but he keeps going back to the Father. There is this breaking through in essence because when Jesus then comes back to the disciples, what does he say?

It's time for us to go. I have something to do. The one who is betraying me is at hand. His hour has come. He has in essence drunk the cup and now he is ready to become that offering and the one offering.

He is the offering itself, but he is also the high priest. He is the perfect high priest. He can remain the perfect high priest because he has been obedient. He has been made perfect. And since he has been made perfect, it was God's intention to enter into human flesh and to experience these things so as to provide what?

Eternal salvation. Eternal salvation. And having been made perfect, he became to all those who obey him the source of eternal salvation. Not a temporary passing over. Not the situation that the high priest, when he offered the sacrifice in the old covenant, he'd have to keep coming back year after year.

No.

Here we see the foundation laid for the emphasis later in the book. One sacrifice. One sacrifice. One time. It didn't have to be over and over again because there was something unique about this one. 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. Now it sounds to me that this is not, well, the source of the possibility of salvation. It's not the source of a hope for salvation or a salvation that he gives the start to but it's up to you to add this and add that.

No. He is the source and it is an eternal salvation. It is one that cannot fail. It is one that cannot be added to. He, because of his unique person, becomes the very source of eternal salvation. A salvation that cannot fail.

When he stands in the presence of the Father in our place, interceding for us, there is no question left in the heavenly realms as to whether he is going to succeed in his task. He has become the source of eternal salvation.

But if you're sitting there going, you skipped something, no, I just waited until the end to get to it. Because we dare not pass over the important words of verse 10. And having been made perfect, then it says literally, this is the literal rendering I would give, and having been made perfect, he became to all the ones obeying him the source of eternal salvation.

I don't know how anyone could consider this to be a divine text of revelation who could then embrace any form of pluralism or universalism. Oh, everyone's going to be saved. Don't need to worry about that missions thing.

God's just going to have mercy on everybody and everyone's going to be saved. And in this life it's good to know Jesus, but you're going to get to meet him after you die anyways and you'll find out he's been your savior the whole time and everyone's going to be saved.

That's the universalism that is so rampant in many quarters today.

But that's not what it says.

We rejoice in the phrase source of eternal salvation.

We need that.

But he is the source of eternal salvation only to a specific people. He is the source of eternal salvation to those who obey him and to no one else. And it's pretty tough to obey someone.

When you don't know who they are.

It's pretty tough to come up with some idea, well, you know, the... Well, we use a very common example here in Arizona. There are people who would say that the American Indian out on the Navajo reservation or the Hopi or the Apache or whatever else it might be, when they're donning their feathers and beating their drums and lighting their fires and doing their dances, they are worshiping the great spirit.

And that's a move toward God. They don't need to know about Jesus. That's enough. Because they're doing something toward God. The text says, to those who obey him. And Jesus left specific commands. He said to do certain things.

You want to work the works of God? Believe in him. Keep his commandments. Love one another. Now I know what the danger of a text like this is for someone who approaches the Bible with the idea that basically the Bible's about us.