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Hebrews 5 and Jesus the 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, ministry. Take two. I don�t try to do too many take twos these days. We just let it roll, as you can tell. 2 ,000 shows in, almost finished eight years of No Compromise Radio.
Spencer was gone the last couple weeks, so that�s why we had the reruns. But today�s live, at least live for me. It�s Saturday, May 12th, I turn 58 today, and when I look at the demographics for No Compromise Radio, it�s usually 55 to 59-year-old men.
But I�ll take that. That�s fine by me. I�ll just I�m glad we have any listeners. If you want to write, info at nocompromiseradio .com. We have a new ministry coming out, should roll out pretty soon, and that is I�m critiquing sermons and helping pastors get better as I watch their videos and interact with them.
At the Master�s Seminary, I do that very thing. I do that at the European Bible Training Center as well. So, watch the video and give some constructive critique. If the art and science, if proclamation is the art and science of what�s my call it?
I feel like I�ve got a smoker�s cough today. Hermeneutics is the art and science of biblical interpretation, and homiletics is the art and science of biblical proclamation. That is what I wanted to say.
Anyway, I�ve been watching sermons for a long time and know how difficult it is. I wish I had someone to help me as I progressed in my preaching skills, not just I went to seminary and then I went out there.
You know, these tune-ups help. Problem is, the Doctrine and Covenants program, which does that exact thing, is out of reach for many students because of cost, especially for smaller churches, and they can�t afford to spend $25 ,000 sending their men to the seminary.
I don�t know exactly what a demon cost, a doctorate of ministry, when I first talked about demons. People didn�t know I was going to go get a demon. Let�s see. Cancer update for me. Thank you for praying.
Every three months I get a blood test. Later this year I�ll get an MRI, and next year biopsy. Could be done with it. Could be over. Could not be. If you would like to pray, maybe you could start praying for Tuesday Guy�s wife, Janet.
She has been diagnosed with cancer and has had surgery, and chemotherapy, by the time you hear this, will have already started, and radiation will have already started. I want to say six or seven weeks.
I don�t know if the chemotherapy is through an IV. I would imagine so. Sometimes chemo can be through tablets, pills, and then the radiation is external radiation. I just know what it�s like to get those words, �You have cancer.
I don�t know what it�s like to get the words, �Your spouse has cancer which is in some ways probably much more difficult. Pray for Janet, that Lord would eradicate the cancer for her. Janet and I first met, I want to say, I don�t know, about 25 years ago at the home Bible city there at North Hollywood with her new husband, Steve Cooley, back in those days.
What else? What we�re doing today, while I could talk about race issues, that�s in parentheses, in quotes because there�s only one race, while I could talk about Andy Stanley�s desire to talk to people, I think Andy�s desire is he doesn�t want to offend people with any crazy Old Testament stories about Canaanites or infanticide or homosexuality.
I don�t know exactly, but that�s the feel I get. It�s my opinion as I look at it, but you cannot unhinge the Old Testament from the New. And maybe I�ll talk about that a little more today as we discuss salvation and eternal life.
So, here�s the scoop. Eternal life. One ancient creed says, �I believe the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. This is one of the tenets of Christianity, eternal life, everlasting life, life that goes on throughout the eons.
Jesus said, John 5, �He who hears My word and believes Him that sent Him has eternal life, and comes not into judgment, but is passed out of death into life. In what we call the high priestly prayer, Jesus said in John 17, �Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.
The knowledge of the true God, eternal life. Romans 6 .23, �Wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. John 3 .16, �For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have what?
Eternal life. 1 John 5, �These things I have written to you that who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may have, that you may know that you have eternal life. Earlier in that chapter, God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
Whoever has the Son has life. Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. If I go back to the Gospel of John, Jesus said, �He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
John 10, �My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. And John 3, �Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. And that is the promise of God.
Faith in Christ Jesus and His work, His accomplishment, grants, God grants through faith, eternal life. That is the promise of God. Believe and you will have eternal life. This is a gift of God. This is something that is irrevocable, is it not?
Can anything separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus? Can anything remove you from God�s hand? Can God keep you from falling, and can He present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy, Jude 24 and 25?
And we would say reflexively, no one can snatch us from God�s hand. We cannot lose eternal life. We cannot undo what God has done. In other words, we can�t lose our salvation, right? Okay, I�m with you.
I�m with you so far. But let�s think about this a little bit more. What about when you get to heaven? Can you lose your salvation once you get to heaven? Now that seems kind of dumb to ask. That seems kind of stupid.
But the more you think about it, the more interesting it becomes. Let�s think about a time when there was no fall. I don�t mean autumn. And angels, God made a limited number of angels. They were created beings, spirit beings, messengers, angels, angelos, angelos.
And did they have access to God? Were they perfect? Were they around God, what we might call heaven? They were perfect. They were sinless. They were in the presence of God. And they lost their estate.
Now they didn�t lose their salvation, I�ll grant you that, because they weren�t saved from anything. They were created perfectly. But they didn�t keep their first estate. Can you get to heaven and then lose your salvation?
Can you ever fall once you�re there? Well, it wouldn�t be eternal life if you could, but it would also tell you that your mediator only lasted for a short time. The work of your mediator, Jesus Christ, was a temporary mediatorial representation.
And here�s why I�m thinking about all this. There�s a refrain in the book of Hebrews about Jesus the high priest, and that refrain is forever. The refrain for Jesus the high priest, the sympathetic high priest, Jesus as the eternal God who added humanity and who has both of those natures now, of course, one essence.
Jesus is the eternal high priest, the high priest forever and ever throughout the ages, and therefore you could never lose your salvation. Even in heaven, unlike the angels who lost their estate because of the work of Jesus.
Hebrews 5, 6, listen to the refrain. As he says also in another place, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. And of course, the backdrop, you had all these priests that would come and go, they would die, right?
It�s Hebrews 6, 20, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 7, 3, he is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God, he continues a priest forever.
There�s that correlation there with Melchizedek. For it is witnessed of him, Hebrews 7, 17, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. 721 of Hebrews, but this one was made a priest with an oath, but the one who said to him, the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, you are a priest forever.
And then finally in the same chapter, verse 24, and he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever. Unlike humans, unlike Aaronic priests, unlike Levitical priests, you have a forever high priest.
One day, you�ll stand before God, and you will stand before God based on the work of your substitute, your representative, your priest, right? And what do priests do? They offer up prayers, they offer up sacrifices.
And Jesus, we know, did the exact same thing, except he was the sacrifice. He offered himself. You need a priest forever. That's why if you have a priest system here on earth, and you're trusting in a priest to go between you and God, what are you going to do when the priest dies?
A while ago, someone called me and said there's an opportunity to be a pastor in the Midwest, thousands of people, this church, would I have any interest? One day, I'll leave this church. The answer is I don't have interest, but one day I'll leave this church, I'll either get kicked out, maybe, I hope not, I will decide just to retire, or where would I go?
If I didn't retire, what would I do? Go to a different church, go to seminary someplace, go do radio tours? I'm going to die, and then what? But here we have a priest forever. Jesus, the forever high priest, that's maybe a good way to talk about this.
Will you always have access to God through Jesus Christ the righteous? Yes, because He's the eternal high priest, therefore eternal access. Will you always be loved by God, the God-man, the triune God?
Yes, because Jesus is a high priest forever, and God loves you like He loves His...the Father loves you like He loves His Son. Jesus has seated at the right hand of the Father and has all power, and He's the forever powerful, loving, high priest.
This is important because every one of us, moi included, needs to understand God better, needs to understand our triune God better, to study, to reflect, to ponder. Life is very difficult, and life has all kinds of issues from cancer to death to everything else.
A good view of this Jesus is what the people needed when the book of Hebrews was written. And you need it too, because you go through trials as well. When Jesus said in Loah, I'll be with you always, even to the end of the age.
What kind of Jesus is He going to be who's with us? He's going to be the high priest. When you study the Lord Jesus and you focus on Him, so many good things happen, including getting your mind off yourself.
At the top of the list maybe when you study God, it's very helpful and very practical because humility is engendered. Can I say that word now? I went to the dentist yesterday. I chipped my front tooth.
And when you have the front tooth chipped and they need to do a little...when they need to do a little drilling, they give you some Novocaine. I knew what he was doing when he put the Q-tip with Lidocaine up under my gum, front tooth.
When the needle went in, man, that will make your eyes water. That's an eye-watering needle. They said, oh yeah, the front ones are hard. But anyway, now it looks all good. I said I was very mad though that they picked a certain color yellow with their epoxy, whatever it is, filling for the front to match my teeth.
Now, I self-identify as a person who has nice white teeth. This kind of yellow three or whatever number they use, that's not good. When you study God, it will help you with your humble attitude. They that know God will be humble, John Flabel said, and they that know themselves cannot be proud.
You really understand who God is and who you are. People say, well, it's not practical to study Christology. Really? Did you just hear yourself? In a day of self-esteem, self-righteousness, self, self, self?
I think it's John the Baptist. Increase, decrease. Right? I want him, God, to increase, and I want to decrease. Spurgeon said, the proper study of the Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy which can engage the attention of a child of God is the name, the nature, the person, the doings, and the existence of the great God which he calls his Father.
There's something exceedingly improving to the mind and contemplation of the divinity. It's contemplation of the divinity. It's a subject so vast that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity, so deep that our pride is drowned in its infinity.
Other subjects we can comprehend and grapple with. In them we feel a kind of self-content and go on our way with the thought, behold, I'm wise. But when we come to this master science, finding that our plumb line cannot sound its depth and that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the thought, I am but of yesterday and know nothing.
That's humbling, isn't it? When you study God, the high priest, it's humbling. I mean, let alone why we'd even need to be a high priest if there's no sin and how sinful we are and how we can't rescue ourselves.
The other thing that'll happen is it'll make you praise God, to know the ins and outs. You know, you get a microscope, I'm writing that down right now, microscope, and you see a blade of grass, it's fine, and then you pick it.
Is that killing grass if you pick it, is it a living organism? You put it underneath the microscope and you look at it and you think, wow, it's really a whole new visual world, is it not? And when you begin to look at something like Hebrews chapter 5 and the book of Hebrews in general, and of course all of Scripture, including the Old Testament, handy, you begin to boast in God and praise God and to thank Him.
And you realize what Jeremiah said is true, let not a wise man boast of his wisdom and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast of this, the understands and knows me that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness on earth, for I delight in these things.
And this all just leads to an upward focus, oh our God, 2 Chronicles 20, will you not judge them? For we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us, nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on you.
That's exactly what should happen in any trial and in any temptation. I don't know, Lord, about all this and the tests and the blood tests and the chemo and all that, but my eyes are on you. Those things, actually, the trials help us be very focused.
In other words, this is good for all of us to study. Hebrews is a little difficult, but the dividends of this study are certainly worth it. And it will be like salt on popcorn, and that is it makes you thirsty, and you will say, I need to study who God is more.
And you'll never get to the point where you go, okay, I learned enough about God, I've got Him down, I understood Him. No, it will be as the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for thee, oh God.
Thirsting for God and a desire for God, and that's exactly what Hebrews should help you to do. With all the moralistic, pietistic, do-these-things type of attitude, even like for Mother's Day, it's really the Lord's Day, right?
I know you just celebrated Mother's Day, which is fine, but we celebrate when you get home from church. Anthony Miller said on Twitter, I just had lunch with him, a fine young fellow. He's at a church in Shrewsbury, Grace something, sorry Anthony, I can't remember, you're the associate pastor there, I do remember that, and we went and had kind of a Lebanese lunch.
And Anthony said that he was going to preach on how to celebrate Mother's Day, how to love your mom more. So we got both the, it's not the Lord's Day, it's about moms, and it's how to, so you have the practical steps.
The study of the God-man, the high priest, remember Hebrews 8 .1? This is what, the point of what we've been saying is this, we have such a high priest. And what happens when you have a high priest who God chooses, right, Hebrews 5 .1, who comes from men, right, so you have to have God-man, you are going to have such a high priest that he is going to be eternally effective, eternally powerful, and eternally loving.
It says in 5 .5, so also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, and then we have those two Old Testament passages, one from Psalm 2, you are my son, today I have begotten you, and then this one from Psalm 110, and if you understand Psalm 110, you understand the book of Hebrews.
As he says also in another place, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. God the Son is divinely installed by the Father to be the high priest. And of course, what's happening in the book of Hebrews?
If you're Jewish, you're saying, how can Jesus be a priest? Because his last name's not Cohen, if I could modernize things. He's not from the tribe of Levi. He's not Aaronic. He's from Judah. So you mean to tell me that Jesus is prophet, priest, and king, and I don't need to go back to the temple because I've got a high priest, and his name's Jesus, but he's from Judah.
And what the writer is trying to do is say, he's a great high priest, much better than other high priests, because he has, as God the Son, he's been picked by God the Father, and he has the same essence and nature, and therefore he's great, and he's greater than any human, although he's human.
He's the greatest human, and he's God, and he can be a mediator. And God said, you have to have a priest from the Levitical line, and God has also said, you need to have, I choose and designate a priest from Judah because he goes through the Melchizedekian priesthood.
That's what's happening. Hey, he's not from Judah. He's from Judah. Yes, but he's from God, and he is a man. So all this is telling us, with great authority, he is such a great high priest. Trust, trust in him and rest.
I just was reading through Hebrews again today, the first seven, eight chapters, rest, believe, have confidence in this great high priest. How can I trust this priest? I was a Roman Catholic. There'd be a lot of priests I wouldn't trust.
My father would say, don't trust him as far as you could throw him. Well, this particular priest is so weighty and heavy and full of glory and kavod, you know, you can't throw him because he's so great.
But he's trustworthy and he's loving, and he is our high priest. These two passages, Psalm 2 and Psalm 110, both what we call messianic psalms, Jesus is the Son of God and Jesus is the high priest. That's what's going on here in this great book.
And we will come back next time to learn a little bit more about who this great Jesus is as you get your focus on him, not on yourself.
Mike Abendroth, 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 bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.