Jesus is a Sympathetic High Priest (Part 2)

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. My name is Mike Abendroth, and I don�t know,

I think we�re coming up on a couple thousand episodes. That�s pretty amazing. I have four children, and I don�t know how often they listen to the show.

I don�t think very often. Maybe never. Luke�s been on a few times, so I guess he had to listen to that show.

I think he�s been on six times. When I was younger, of course, if somebody called me and I answered the phone,

I could recognize my father�s voice, right? That�s a duh moment. Well, when he got cancer in 1988, and then it affected his voice box, and he could only kind of talk at a very low volume and could barely hear him.

And I don�t know if I have any recorded either audio or video audio, video with audio of my dad�s voice.

I can�t remember what my dad�s voice sounds like. It did make me cry. It has made me cry.

I�m not crying right now, but I might. When I die, at least my kids have 2 ,000 shows.

That�s the point. And I don�t know, a couple thousand sermons maybe, bbcchurch .org.

That�s a lot of sermons. When I first became a pastor, and the church was smaller than it is now in terms of even understanding websites and all that stuff,

I did not like it when they would lose a sermon and not put it online. Man, that took me a lot of time to put together.

I preached my heart out, tried to honor the Lord in His Word, and then they lost a sermon.

Well, I can assure you that many of those sermons that were lost, that was a good thing because they might come back to haunt me.

Wow. You want to follow us? Twitter is at NoCoRadio.

Matter of fact, if you don�t have Twitter and you want to just see what�s going on with Twitter, with the NoCo Twitter, inquiring minds want to know, you just go to your website.

You go to Safari or to, what�s the old

Microsoft one? What�s that web browser? It�s got a big

E, Internet Explorer, and just type in Twitter, NoCoRadio, and you can just see what�s going on, even if you don�t have

Twitter. You should have Twitter, come on, but that�s that.

All right. We are talking about Hebrews chapter 4. Oh, don�t forget, if you want to order a book, if you order two sexual fidelities, we�ll throw in things that go bump in the church for free.

You don�t have to do anything except order two. You order two sexual fidelities, and we�ll throw that in for free.

Okay? Sexual fidelity. And if you want to order more than 10 sexual fidelities, you let me know and we�ll work out a price.

We�ve done that with quite a few folks. They order 10, 20, 30, 40. I�ve had an order for 100 for a conference that people want to give out a book, and I think we can get the price down.

Shipping not included, maybe around $8 or something if you order enough. And I don�t know what

I�m going to do when I run out of those books. Probably do the

Amazon Create space. Okay. Hebrews, chapter 4, verses 14, 15, and 16.

13 and 12, those verses in chapter 4, are pretty scary. I mean, we think they�re bibliology, at least chapter 4, verse 12.

�The word of God is living.� I almost said �living� at the beginning because that�s the Greek. �Living� is the first word in the

Greek. �For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two -edged surgeon�s scalpel.�

That�s essentially the way you should think about that verse, and it is unnerving. It would be unthinkable for me to know that I�m going to stand before God exposed, naked, uncovered, unveiled.

That would be nightmarish. That�s why you need a priest. That�s why you need the righteousness of another who never broke the law.

Luther said, �After terrifying us, the apostle now comforts us. After pouring wine in our wound, he now pours in oil.�

And so we make the transition from chapter 4, verses 12 and 13, to chapter 4, verses 14, 15, 16.

If you take a look at your Bibles, there�s a space there, a new paragraph. And most commentators would tell you this is really the beginning of chapter 5.

Because if you look at chapter 5, it starts off with 4. �For every high priest chosen among men.� This is essentially the new thought that starts the new chapter.

And it�s going to be the hinge. Yes, it is tied to the old section, and it is tied to the new.

So, this is kind of like a hinge. You know, is it a new topic? Well, yes and no.

This passage in the German translation for Luther, he starts chapter 5 here.

What we�re going to do is we�re going to read 14, 15, 16 and talk about it a little bit today on No Compromise Radio.

�Since then we have a great high priest who has 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.�

I don�t know what�s going on here. Let�s see.

�Let us then with confidence.� I�m looking at the ESV. But, you know, there�s an earlier

ESV and a later ESV, so that�s where I just had kind of a mental breakdown.

�This is, as one man called it, an important crossroad.� Yes, it concludes and it opens.

I could think it does both. It�s almost like an overlap or an overlay with two main exhortations.

If you want to just look at this, what are the exhortations? �Let us hold fast our confession ,� verse 14, �and let us with confidence draw near.�

Those are the two exhortations found in this passage. And so if you wanted to really have an outline that was faithful to the text, that would be the outline.

What we�re looking at is, during tough times, what do you do? Well, those are the two exhortations.

In light of who Jesus is, and remember, these people were experiencing all kinds of persecution and certainly chastening from God to the apostle, if it was an apostle.

He writes, somebody at least under apostolic leadership, covering what you do with radio when you can�t think.

It�s easy to say, �Well, I can�t talk ,� but really it�s your thinker is messed up, not your talker.

Your thinker�s messed up because pretty much whatever your thinker says, you can talk. So if you have to say, �I have a hard time speaking in public ,� it�s basically, �I have a hard time thinking in public because I�m thinking about how everybody�s thinking about me instead of thinking about my subject.�

Who would have thought? �Let us hold fast our confession.�

That�s it. That�s the way the SV says it. It�s really, �Let us hold fast the confession.� �Which confession is that ?� you say. Well, of course, it�s the

Westminster Confession of Faith. All right, sorry. London Baptist Confession of 1689, 1644.

Savoy Confession. Belcher Confession. Canons of Dort. Heidelberg Catechism. Anything else?

New Hampshire Baptist Confession. Philadelphia Baptist Confession. Southern Baptist Confession.

Abstract of Principles. Hardly. �Let us hold fast the confession.�

The idea is to keep believing what has been proclaimed to you about Jesus, not only in this book,

Hebrews, but everywhere else, including the Old Testament. And you are to grip. You are to white -knuckle grip.

That would be a good way to think about that, holding fast this confession. And the word confession means the same word.

Homo, same. And then logia, word. Homo logo, it would be same word.

Let us hold the same word. Adhere to it strongly. And since it�s a confession, that�s how they got the translation of our, our we.

Hold fast our confession. It didn�t say our in the original, but, you know, he�s writing to a bunch of people, �Let us.�

And you want to have a commitment to this, and you want to continue to believe that Jesus is what he says to be in what the writer says he is in Hebrews chapter 1 about he�s this great son who purges sins, who sits down at the right hand of the

Father, who creates the world, etc. Hold fast. Because there�s a danger to not holding fast.

There would be defection or departure from the faith. And don�t we see in the book of Hebrews regularly these warnings?

�So you don�t defect, so you don�t come short of it, for it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the

Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away to renew them again under repentance, seeing they crucified of themselves the

Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame.� That�s Hebrews chapter 6. �This is the positive exhortation to the negative warnings.

For if we go on sinning ,� Hebrews 10, �deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the

Son of God and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has outraged the

Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, �Vengeance is mine, I will repay.�

And again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall in the hands of a living God.� So, do the opposite.

Hold fast. Keep believing. Keep trusting. Keep resting. Hold the line. Hold the confession.

Do not defect. We need to keep considering this apostle and high priest of our confession, of our profession,

Hebrews chapter 3, verse 1, the confession of Jesus Christ.

Don�t defect. Don�t disown allegiance to Jesus.

That�s the idea. Don�t desert. Yes, it�s difficult, but remember the all -seeing eye, the laser -like eyes of Jesus.

The Word of God is going to judge you, and you need to hold fast.

So, I think what we�ll do is, you can see several reasons to hold fast in difficult times, motivations to hold fast.

And there�s a lot of them here in these verses. And just remember, there�s a lot of trials that a lot of trials these people were going through and temptations.

They were suffering. They had obstacles and hardship up to oppression, persecution, and jail.

What do you do? It could all be remedied if they would just turn their back on Jesus and go to the temple.

Go back. There�s another priest there, by the way, and just go to that high priest instead of Jesus the high priest.

So, he says the first motivation to hold fast is you�ve got a high priest. We have a great high priest.

Do you see that in verse 14? �Since then we have a great high priest.�

You can say all you want that we don�t have a priest. Jewish people were saying that probably to these folks, the recipients of this sermon letter, sermonic epistle, epistolatory sermon.

But you do have a high priest. There�s a great priest, there�s a priest, and this is the great high priest.

How do you stand before God without a mediator? God is a king.

God is sovereign. God is a Lord, a Lord of Lords, and how do you stand before God sinfully without such a high priest?

Now, remember earlier in Hebrews 2, verse 17, the text says, �Wherefore, in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation�should be translated propitiation�for the sins of the people.�

Since Jesus has, in fact, assuaged the wrath of God at Calvary for all the believer�s sins, now you can stand before God and you have this priest.

How do you stand before God without a priest? You can�t. But you have this high priest. Even though there�s the scrutinizing gaze of God in His Word, you, although unable by yourself to stand before God, you can because you have a great high priest to stand and you can stand in your place.

And I don�t recall any priest in the Old Testament called a great high priest. And yet Jesus here is called the great high priest.

He�s called the high priest of our confession, chapter 3. He�s called the merciful and faithful high priest, as I talked about in chapter 2.

And He is the mediator. He is the one who, although we are estranged from God, the

Son isn�t estranged from God. And He ministers on our behalf.

And so it says, the text says, �We have.� It�s present tense, �having.� It�s a present participle.

We have such a great high priest. Now some of the high priests for Israel, they were pretty good, and some were really awful.

But how about this one? He is a great high priest. And when we think about this high priest, we don�t have to think about all his blue robe and his ephod and his breastplate and all that.

We could think about his righteous robes, that he has perfectly obeyed the law.

And he is a go -between. And he represents, as a priest, access to God.

And in spite of our sins, our worries, our fears, our doubts, we have access to God because of the work of Jesus Christ, having such a great high priest.

And that�s what the first seven chapters are all about, right? Chapter 8, we have such a high priest.

Chapter 10, and since we have a great priest over the house of God. Chapter 12, fix your eyes or your thoughts on Jesus, right?

You fix your hope on the Lord Jesus. Now the idea that he�s great could be found in the rest of the book.

You could go elsewhere if you wanted to, but he�s been appointed by an oath from God in chapter 5.

He has an eternal priesthood, chapter 7, a heavenly tabernacle.

Everything about Jesus is great. And he is the priest, and he is the one who intercedes.

That�s really the idea when it comes to priests. So why should you have comfort?

Why should you keep believing? Because you�ve got a priest, don�t go back. Secondly, he�s a great high priest who�s passed through the heavens.

This is the motivation for continuing to believe in Jesus even in difficult times.

It says, �Who passed through the heavens.� All right, what�s going on here?

We don�t have to go back to the temple where that priest, that high priest, that man, sinful man, can only go into the

Holy of Holies one time. He passes into the Holy of Holies. Here Jesus passes through the heavens.

Well, that�s amazing, �through the heavens.� What�s he talking about? Well, the

Levitical priest could pass behind a veil, but here Jesus ascends from earth and goes into the heavenly sanctuary for our sake.

He�s great. He just doesn�t go through some temporary veil or door, but he actually goes to the throne room of God.

That�s what he�s talking about here. And of course, if you�re thinking about heavens and he�s passing through the heavens, plural, just think like a

Jew and you�ve got the atmosphere as heaven one, you�ve got, you know, where the birds are, and then you�ve got the second heavens, which the sun and the moon and the stars up there, where the heavenly stars are, and then you�ve got heaven itself, heaven proper, the third heaven, presence of God and paradise, if you will.

And he passes through all these, not just once in the Day of Atonement, but he is so great he enters into heaven itself to now appear in the presence of God on our behalf,

Hebrews 9 .4. Jesus is exalted. You�ve got a high priest who�s exalted, not just a sinful man like some of these other high priests, but this exalted

God -man. To which of the angels has he ever said, �Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.�

Jesus crowned, chapter 2, with glory and honor because of the suffering of death.

Jesus is exalted. You have an exalted high priest. That�s why you should obey, that�s why you should believe, that�s why you should not turn your back, because Jesus has gone through this great heaven one, heaven two, into the final heaven.

Why hold fast? That�s what he�s really after. Why should you hold fast the confession?

Why should you persevere in the faith? Why should you keep believing?

Because Jesus is exalted. He actually did it. The Father raised him from the dead, and now

Jesus has ascended into heaven. That�s what�s in view here. Now lots of times you think, you know, the king is exalted, the king is exalted on high, far above other principalities and powers and mites and dominion and every other name.

But here even with his priestly status, he is exalted, not just as the king, but also the priest.

Has universal rule and dominion, yes, but now even as a priest, making intercession for us.

We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. Don�t turn your back, don�t defect, don�t leave.

Why? Because that would be the exact opposite of what Jesus deserves, and Jesus should be given this great praise.

Now you could study Leviticus chapter 16 if you want to see the Day of Atonement and what happens with the priest.

And I think if you read chapter 10 with Nadab and Abihu, chronologically after 10 just go to 16 and you�ll kind of see the flow of how you cannot approach

God flippantly, carelessly, or any other adverbially.

Right? You�re going to need someone to help you. Well, my name is Mike Abenroth, this is No Compromise Radio.

I�m trying to, I don�t know, do I stall for two more minutes? Because I�m not going to get through Leviticus 16 now, am

I? So what else could I talk about? I think if you want to evangelize, that�s the sound of this iPad mini closing up,

I think you could evangelize Roman Catholics by talking about Jesus, the priest, and then having them question what�s the need of a priest?

So what does a priest actually do? What does a Roman Catholic priest actually do besides get shipped to the

Vatican to not be here to explain why he rearranged other priests?

But I guess that�s too late now with Cardinal Bernard Law in the Boston Diocese. What does a priest actually do?

And if a priest makes intercession and stands between you and God and acts like a mediator,

Pope, Pontifex, a bridge builder, well, why can�t you easily talk about the priest?

I mean, this is the great way to go about it. Roman Catholics need a priest, and they need,

I think they know why they need a priest. And we all need a priest to stand before God, but it�s not a sinful priest.

What�s the difference between a pastor and a priest? Well, I�m not the priest. As a pastor, I�m just pointing you to the priest.

I�m not the mediator. We�re not sacerdotal. We don�t have this priestly lair that is trying to go back to Judaism.

You will see the tie -in between the layers of the external vestments and tangible, tactile, sensory garb and accoutrement, and that is for the

Roman Catholic Church. And it is a weak imitation, a poor imitation of Judaism with the temple worship in Leviticus and Exodus.

But that�s what they�re trying to do. But if you have Jesus, you�ve got everything. You might not have all the smells and bells and everything else, but if you�ve got

Jesus, that�s enough. And that�s what the authors try to say. And if you�re going through hard times now, even as a Christian, Jesus is enough.

He�s exalted. Jesus is exalted, and He is worthy of you holding fast to the confession.

My name is Mike Abendroth. This is 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.