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Jesus Is a Sympathetic High Priest (Part 1)
Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. 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 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.
In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. 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 King.
Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.
Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. I think I�m going to speak slowly so the 1 .5-speed listeners won�t know what to do when I start speeding this up again, and then I slow back down again. Always biblical, always provocative, always in that order.
Info at NoCompromiseRadio .com. Don�t get too many emails these days. You get less gifts, too. If you have a question, we�ll try to answer that question. Info at NoCompromiseRadio .com. There�s a YouTube channel, No Compromise Radio, Facebook, Twitter.
What else? Website, 2 ,000 old shows if you want to listen to. Right now I�m recording three new shows a week, maybe four. We�re playing three new shows and one new sermon, so that�s four new shows, Fred Butler, every week, every week, and then a rerun on Friday.
That�s not too bad. I continue to receive solicitations from radio stations across the country, and it�s so sweet of them. Would you please consider playing No Compromise Radio on our station? Very flattered for a low price of $90 to $300 per episode.
We used to be on locally here on WVNE 760 AM. I think there�s an FM equivalent now, 92 .1, but why pay for it when giving is at an all-time high? I�ve been studying the book of Hebrews, and Hebrews is about Jesus, the great high priest.
If you look at Hebrews chapter 8, it�s kind of, you know, nice, it�s homiletically nice in this epistolatory sermon, sermonic epistle. Hey, that kind of sounds nice. Is Hebrews, that�s a good title for the show, lots of viewers, sermonic epistle, epistolatory sermon.
Oh, a side note before I say anything more, well, I guess I should read the verse since it�s right here in front of me. Now the point in what we are saying is this, that�s Hebrews 8 .1, we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven.
That�s the point of the sermon so far. If you�d like to know what Hebrews 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 is about, it�s about we have such a high priest. Present tense, I�m not against priests, we�ve got a great high priest.
I will be at the Shepherds� Conference, Lord willing, that is March, I don�t know when. Fourth, I believe I�m preaching in Marietta, California at Faith, Faith to Munity, I don�t know what�s the name, Faith Bible, and for Chris Mueller, that�s March 4th, and then I will work my way up to the Shepherds� Conference.
I think I�ll have lunch with Scott Clark, and I�ve got some appointments and some meetings and other things. If you�d like to call my agent to arrange a coffee or a lunch, you can call. Seriously, if you want to get a hold of me and we have a coffee or something, it�s just a great time to catch up.
I go to a few sessions, the book sessions in the book tent, I go to those, lunches, I go to those sessions. They sometimes have churros there that you can get. I�m not a big Krispy Kreme donut eater, but I do eat one on the first day.
I try to get up in the morning and swim a couple miles and then go have a Krispy Kreme donut for my treat. After the radiation I had last year, I�m tired, just always tired. Tired because I�m 57 years old, and I�m tired because it�s winter, and I�m tired because of, you know, all the other things in life, and it�s just hard to try to get all that stuff done.
So in light of that, instead of eating half of a Krispy Kreme donut, I think I�ll eat two. Anyway, I�ll be at the Shepherd�s Conference. Some have asked. All right, there�s my answer there. But we�re in Hebrews, and I�ve been thinking about priests.
I have been accused of not liking priests in my life, but I like this priest. It�s the Roman Catholic priests, that doctrine I don�t like. When I meet priests, I don�t dislike them. I think they�re deceived and being deceived, to use the language of Paul, but it�s just not like I hate a person.
You know, there are a few people that I sit down and say hello to or stand up and shake their hands and have utter despising thoughts go through my mind. That�s not it. I�m reading a Herman Vitsios book, and he talks a lot about how do you critique people and what�s the best way to go about it.
But the system, we don�t need any sacerdotal system, any priests, any mediators, because we have a mediator, and his name is Jesus. And the great part about Hebrews chapter 4, verses 14, 15, and 16, and that�s the passage that I�m preaching this Sunday, and you�ll probably hear that sermon sometime soon.
It states this, �Since we have a great high priest, similar language to 8 -1, who passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, 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 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. That passage, it might be the greatest passage in the Bible and might be the greatest passage in the book of Hebrews, a sympathetic high priest who knows about our weaknesses and has been tempted and has withstood the temptation and has never sinned.
You probably have met people in your life, if you�re in leadership especially, and you have counseled them and they�ve told you something that they have done. I�m not talking about winning a National Honor Society award or getting a bonus at work, but I am talking about some awful sin that they committed.
And maybe as you hear that sin confessed and admitted to, you might think as you�re receiving that bit of information, and maybe you�ve even said it out loud, �I can�t believe you did that. I can�t believe that you did what you just said you did.
How could you get yourself in that situation? �I can�t believe you said something like that. Now, if you confess something to me in counseling, I hope I don�t have that attitude. I hope my attitude is, �I�m a sinner and so are you, and I am a very weak and frail man, and so are you, and we�re both recipients of the grace of God, and I love you and I want to try to help you.
I want to be responding like that, but sometimes I probably in my mind have thought, �I cannot believe that. Now, what�s the difference between me hearing someone�s awful sins, and I�ve heard some pretty awful ones, what�s the difference between if you go to the Lord Jesus and confess those sins, or you go to someone like me, or I go to Jesus instead of some other person or man, and you go confess a sin, you�ve got trouble, anxiety, fear, lust, you�ve fallen short, you�ve sinned and continue to fall short?
I think as you study Hebrews 4, you�re going to come to the conclusion that if Jesus were to say something out loud past these Scriptures, of course, He�s not talking directly to us now, would He respond with, �I can�t believe you�ve done that.
I can�t believe you said that. Wow, I�d never do that. Would He be like us, or just how sympathetic would He be? Would He respond with, �I know, I understand. That�s pretty amazing. I think when you see the tenor of Hebrews 4, it�s going to be something similar to that.
Again, I can�t know exactly, but I do know He�ll be sympathetic. I do know that He will not kick out His brothers, right? If you�ve been adopted in the family of God, you�re not going to get kicked out.
I don�t think it�s going to be any condescension. I almost said condensation. It won�t be that either. Would this passage lend itself to, �I know what that temptation�s like. I�ve been there. I�ve received that temptation and even more, and so I understand.
God, the Son, knows what it�s like to be tempted because He has been tempted, and He is able to understand what we�ve gone through. I don�t mean the sin part, although He�s been a sin bearer, but Jesus, the high priest, the mediator, understands.
What�s that old song, �Jesus knows about all our troubles �Jesus knows all about our troubles. Something about, �There�s not a friend like Jesus. No, not one. Is that what it�s called? Not one?
Jesus is the high priest. These people who receive this sermonic epistle, this epistletory sermon, I�m sure they were chided and they were pointed at and they were deriled. Deriled, is that a word? Deriled.
They were unriled. They were derided. That�s the word I want. They were derided. You don�t have a priest. You don�t have a priest. We�ve got a priest. See that temple over there? We�ve got a priest, and he goes in the Holy of Holies once a year and makes sacrifice, and he does all kinds of other things.
We�ve got a priest, and you don�t. And this apostle, Paul, Barnabas, Luke, I don�t know who it is, he said, �We�ve got a high priest. We have a great high priest. And he�s going to show how much better he is, just like with the rest of the book of Hebrews.
Better revelation, better expectation, better hope, better testament, better sacrifice, better country, better resurrection, and a better priesthood. Don�t go back to some religion where there�s a priest there who stands between you and God.
I don�t care if it�s Rome or if it�s Judaism. Jesus knows. And in this book of Hebrews, you�ve got thirteen chapters. Basically, you�ve got doctrine the first ten and a half chapters through chapter 10 verse 18.
You could call this a theology of the great high priest. And then the application, the outworking, the agenda, if the first half is credenda, the first ten. Chapter 10 verse 19 through chapter 13, �Since he is a great high priest, how must we live?
How then shall we live? And he will not let you up for error when it comes to how great Jesus is. He�s superior to prophets. He�s superior to angels, to Moses, to Aaron. And therefore, what? You must believe.
Therefore, you must endure chastening. You must live in a way comfortable. You must commensurate to the calling you have, to use Pauline language, in Christ. And if you endure persecution, others have as well, keeping their eye on this great high priest.
The background for this passage in chapter 4 verse 14 through 16 is you will be exposed on judgment day if you�re not a Christian. And you will stand before God in his omniscient gaze, and you will be undone.
There�s no hope where he can see everything you�ve said and done, and he knows it all, and he knows that you�ve broken the law, and how many times and how many ways, to what degree? For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
This book and the Word of God itself, the Word of God himself, it�s not dead. It�s alive. He, the Word of God incarnate, is alive, and his Word is alive. It does its work, and it will look into the crevices and the closets in your heart and in your mind, and God will see them as, something about it I was going to say, as the day sees the night.
All this moon stuff, this crazy blood-red moon, John Hagee moon, that�s what I�m going to start calling it, the John Hagee moon. Would that sell very well? First Corinthians 4, 5, �The Lord comes who will bring both to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men�s hearts.
Not only in pastoral ministry, not only in work of ministry, of course, but we�re talking about judgment day. You might be able to hide from people here on earth and use darkness even to cover your sins, but on that day, piercing to the division of soul and spirit of joints and marrow, can anything escape this Word of God, this sharp, two-edged, surgeon�s scalpel?
Side note, when you come to Ephesians R here in Hebrews 4, verse 12, that�s what I meant, soul and spirit, people are talking about, �Are you dichotomous or trichotomous Just a quick note here, trichotomous is body-soul-spirit, dichotomous is body-soul-spirit.
You either have a body and a soul or a body and a spirit, something material, something immaterial. Dichotomy is the way to go for lots of reasons. Number one, you�re not a Platonist. Number two, soul and spirit used often interchangeably.
You wouldn�t even think to yourself, there�s three components, you would think there�s an invisible-invisible component, something like that. And in language like this, and in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 23, it�s just a language of totality, really.
It�s the language of, you know, with your whole mind. This is not a, �How do you divide up a person This is, �How far does God�s Word penetrate And it goes into the innermost nature. If you are trichotomous, it�s probably because you�ve been influenced by not only Platonism, where the body is bad and other things, but probably because of psychology.
And here�s what a typical trichotomist would want to do. If you have a problem with your body, you go to your medical doctor. If you have a problem with your spirit, you go to the great high priest. Maybe you go to the pastor to learn about the great high priest.
And then you go to the psychologist, psychiatric person, to have soul work done. That�s the way they usually go about it. He�s not talking�he, the author of Hebrews�is not talking about that. He�s talking about the power of God�s Word, the efficacy of God�s Word, the living nature of God�s Word.
That�s what he�s after. All of man is going to be pierced by this Word of God. And there, verse 13, �is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
If you will not trust in the high priest, this is what�s going to happen to you one day. You�ll be uncovered. You will be naked as a kernel of grain is bare. That�s where we can use this word �open� or �naked�, gymna, or a body has no clothes, naked.
You will stand before God and His discerning gaze, as our Kent�not our Kent Hughes, but Kent�what�s Kent�s first name? Somebody Kent. Homer. How could I forget that? How could I forget Homer Kent? What�s the nickname for Homer?
Home? Holmes? Homie? Homely? Homer? Mer? I can never figure that out when people, you know, they�re looking for the second syllable of the name. But anyway, this is Homer Kent. This is not our Kent Hughes.
Homer Kent. What if a man named Homer married a woman named Gomer? That�s my new poem. It�s so stupid. I�m based on the authority vested in me by the gospel of Christ Jesus and the commonwealth of Massachusetts.
It is now my great privilege and pleasure to announce for the first time, Mr. and Mrs. Homer and Gomer. By the way, I love to make the feminist mad when it comes to all that. So first, the woman�s got to take the last name of the man.
And then what I do is I say, to use my name as the illustration, �Announce to you for the first time, Mr. and Mrs. Mike Ebendroth. I just do that kind of just to kind of rub it in a little bit more.
Oh, I guess that�s not the only reason I do it. That�s the traditional way to do it, Mr. and Mrs. And there is something in me, though, that takes the light in that. And you know, here�s the thing. We don�t have many feminists listening to the show.
So it doesn�t really matter if you get mad or not. Plus, hey, it�s a free show. You can just listen to some other podcast if you like. What do you need if you�re going to be exposed to this extent? Well, you�re going to need somebody to stick up for you.
You�re going to need somebody to stand up for you. You�re going to need somebody who will advocate for you and who will be a mediator and who has your best in mind. That�s what�s going to happen. Remember when Adam and Eve, it says in Genesis 3,.
�Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. They knew they were naked because they had sinned, and now they have that awareness.
�And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, �Where are you
And he said, �I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. And now we have God looking at Adam and Eve. Hey, when they were sinless before the fall, they could have God peer at them and look at them and look at them and see them, and there was no conscience that was marred or anything else and guilt.
They had no sin, there was no condemnation. They were glad that God was looking at them and could see them. That was wonderful. But after the fall, after the sin of Adam, the federal head, they had to hide, even from one another, right?
Sewing the fig leaves for garments. Running from God. High-tattling it from God. High-tattling it? High-tailing it. Tattling? High-tattling. This is why I'm a radio host, not an author. I mean, you just look at this language here, �laid bare.
That's where we get the word �trach� for your trach in your neck, right? Trachalos. And that literally means, I think it's like a firm artery or something that would be like cartilage. And it means to have your throat exposed.
There's a few different options for what it could mean. A wrestler who exposes the neck, or you're exposing the neck of an animal that you're going to slaughter. And it says in the King James, �with whom we have to reckon, to give an account.
Standing before God. With Him whom we have to do. I think that's the King James. Give an account as NIV. It says in Proverbs 15, 3, �The eyes of the Lord are in every place watching the evil and the good.
Now, next time we'll talk more about the specific high priest, but what makes the high priest so wonderful is he is going to stand in the gap between God and man. And by the way, he has been tempted, and he knows all about these things, and God's going to not see your sin.
He's going to see the righteousness of Christ because you're in Christ. But now, even then, as a Christian who sins, not just on Judgment Day, but just sinning after you're a Christian, God the Son is a great priest and a great mediator.
And as priests do two main things, offer sacrifice, and He did that, Jesus did, and intercede, He can do that as well. And He does do that. And left to ourselves, what's going to happen? Well, we're our own priests.
We make up fake priests. We become priests for other people. But God knows, as Psalm 44 says, the secrets of our heart. And Sheol and Abaddon lie open before the Lord. Well, my name is Mike Abendroth with No Compromise Radio.
I'm glad I have a high priest, and we will talk more about the comfort from God next time on No Compromise Radio.
No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church, firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.
Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.