WWUTT 1826 A High Priest Taken from Among Men (Hebrews 5:1-4)

The high priest was appointed to offer sacrifices on behalf of the sins of the people.

And this was a type and a shadow of a greater high priest who was to come, Jesus Christ, who sacrifices for us when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible study in the word of Christ. For he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Tell your friends about our ministry at www .wutt .com. And once again, it's Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. We're back to our study in the book of Hebrews. This week we'll be in chapter five.

And I'm going to start off here by reading all 14 verses from the Legacy Standard Bible.

This is the word of the Lord. 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, being able to deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness.

And because of it, he is obligated, just as for the people, to also offer sacrifices for sins in the same way for himself.

And no one takes this honor to himself, but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was.

In this same way also, Christ did not glorify himself 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. He in the days of his flesh 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 reverence.

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.

Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant, but solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern both good and evil.

So this particular chapter, as we've done with previous chapters, we're breaking up into three parts.

Today, we're going to be looking at verses one through four, and that's the characteristics of Aaron's priestly ministry, or the high priest in the order of Aaron.

That's also referred to as the ironic priesthood. So again, that's verses one through four, and we had

Aaron mentioned there in verse four. The second part, which we'll look at tomorrow, this is talking about the

Melchizedek priesthood, or the characteristics of Christ's priesthood in the order of Melchizedek.

So that starts in verse five and goes through verse 10. And then on Wednesday, we'll look at the third part of this chapter.

That's verses 11 through 14, and there is a rebuke to those who are immature and dull of hearing.

They should have matured by now to understand some of the deeper truths that the preacher here wants to talk about with his audience, but he cannot go into those things since they're so dull of hearing, it would be too deep for them.

They wouldn't know how to apply it or how to live according to those things. So we need to go back to the basics.

You need milk and not solid food, and he encourages them to mature just as the encouragement has been up to this point in the letter and continues on in the letter that you hold fast the confession of faith that you've been given from the beginning.

If you go after the temptations of your flesh, if you turn towards sin and disobedience, you will fall away from the faith in as much as we can recognize a person has fallen away from the faith.

Of course, in the ultimate sense of things, we know to the person who is genuinely saved and in Christ will never fall away from the faith.

He will hold us fast. But as far as our human perceptions go, we do need to be aware that we are weak.

Weakness is talked about here, even in verse two, and we need to rely on Christ for our salvation and to be the one to hold us fast.

Remember the warning that was given in chapter four, verse one. Therefore, let us fear, lest while a promise remains of entering into his rest, any one of you may seem to have fallen short of it.

Don't fall short of the promise. Desire holiness. So on that day that we stand before the

Lord, we will hear him say of us, well done, good and faithful slave. Now great is your reward.

Lest we continue in sin and licentiousness and the passions of our flesh and giving into the temptations of the world and the schemes of Satan.

We stand before Christ and hear him say, depart from me, you worker of iniquity. I never knew you, as Jesus said, will be the case of many in Matthew chapter seven.

So we're reviewing these things here in Hebrews that we would continue to hold fast our confession of faith and to Christ, who is the author and the perfecter of our faith.

So looking here at verses one through four of Hebrews chapter five, we see the characteristics of the

Aaronic priesthood and how these things pertain to Christ, how these things are pointing to Christ, which

Christ priesthood is even greater. So we understand that. And that is highlighted in that next section about how

Christ is the continuation of the Melchizedek priesthood verses five through 10. So coming back to verse one, 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.

Now perhaps you've heard it said before, the difference between a priest and a prophet.

Have you ever heard a pastor do this? What's the difference between a priest and a prophet? Well, a prophet speaks on behalf of God to the people.

So the prophet speaks to the people what God has told the prophet to say to his people. So the prophet is a mouthpiece between God and the people.

The priest, it's a little bit different. He is appealing to God on behalf of the people.

Now this is by God's designation. In some cases, you have prophets that served as both prophet and priest.

As we have begun our study of the book of Isaiah, I mentioned in the introduction on Thursday that Isaiah was likely a priest in the temple.

So he had both jobs. He was a prophet and he was a priest. Then you have king priests even who have the dual duty of being a king and also a priest.

That was David. And David's even referred to in the New Testament as a prophet. So he was a prophet and a priest and a king.

And that's a type, that's a shadow of the greater prophet, priest, and king who was to come. And that is

Jesus Christ. Melchizedek was both a priest and a king and in a certain sense prophetic in that his office and what he did during the time of Abraham was pointing to someone greater who was to come.

And we're going to read about the characteristics of Melchizedek and how they point to Christ. That's coming up later on in Hebrews.

So right now we're talking about the basic priesthood, that which began with Aaron and his sons and then continued through that lineage, through that line among the

Levites. So every high priest, specifically the high priest here, the one who was appointed to offer sacrifices on behalf of the people, specifically on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement.

Only the high priest could go into the Holy of Holies and only on one day a year to offer sin or offer sacrifices on behalf of the sins of the people, slaughtering a lamb and then offering the blood, sprinkling the blood on the top of the

Ark of the Covenant. And this would satisfy the wrath of God that would be burning against the unrighteousness of men.

This was a propitiation for the sins of the people. So every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in the things pertaining to God.

So the priest is communicating to God on behalf of the people in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.

That was the main function of a priest, that he would offer sacrifices on behalf of the people to atone for their sins.

So verse two, being able to deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness.

Now ignorant and misguided is not necessarily to call the people stupid in the sense that they're all idiots.

It's ignorant and misguided in the sense that we all have our limitations. We're all weak compared to God.

We are fools. And it is in our humility before the Lord that we recognize our foolishness and his wisdom that we might say before God, I have nothing to give.

As said in the old hymn, nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross

I cling. So we have nothing, no wisdom of man that we can bring before God. We come to God empty, needing to be filled up by him.

And the priest on behalf of the people appeals to God. The people can't go into the

Holy of Holies and say, Lord, I am a fool. Please fill me up with your spirit.

But the priest can do that on behalf of the people and the priest.

He himself is weak. He himself is beset with weakness. So he is able to sympathize with the people in that sense.

He's able to deal gently with them since he is also like they. He also is a fool in need of the wisdom of God.

He is a sinner in need of God's righteousness. And so the priest, therefore, must sacrifice for his own sins before he sacrifices for the sins of the people.

On Yom Kippur, the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies three times. He would wash himself and he would have fasted before that and has a very strict diet leading up to the

Day of Atonement. He is set apart from the people. He fasts. He meditates on the

Lord. He has somebody prepare and bring his food to him. And then on that Day of Atonement, he's bathed.

He is dressed in brand new linens that have never been worn. White linens, white garments.

And Jesus even talks about in Revelation, come to me and I will clothe you in white garments.

Those that are brand new, they are clean. They have never been worn. They are without stain or wrinkle or any such thing.

This is a picture of the righteousness that Christ clothes us in when we come to him.

We come with filthy rags. He takes those garments off of us and clothes us in his righteousness.

So the priest goes in, the first time he goes into the Holy of Holies to sacrifice a lamb and pour the blood on the top of the

Ark of the Covenant. He does that for his own sins. Well, sacrifice was a pretty bloody ordeal, obviously.

It was messy. So now he's a mess. And the evidence of this sacrifice is right there all over his garments.

He comes out and he has these garments taken off of him and he is bathed and clothed in new white garments.

And by the way, all of this is done in view of the people. They see all of this happen. Because all the people need to see that their sins are being atoned for.

The day Yom Kippur, this was a community event. It was not just the priest doing something and the people were just like, okay, well, it's that day.

The priest is going in and sacrificing for us. Now the people are there and they see the priest doing this. So he goes in a second time with new garments now, brand new linens, once again, never been worn.

And he sacrifices a second time, pouring the blood on the top of the Ark of the Covenant. And this time it's for the sins of the other priests.

So the priest comes out and once again, he's a mess because sacrifice is a bloody ordeal.

It's a reminder of just how serious sin is. And praise God, we don't have to do this, right?

You don't have to be going to the temple once a week to offer a lamb or a bull or a goat or something for the sins of your family.

The head of the household would do this for his whole family. So the patriarch, whoever the father or the husband was in the family, he would go and take the sacrifice to the temple and do this on behalf of his family.

He would lay his head or sorry, he would lay his hand on the animal's head while the animal is being slaughtered.

And this happened over and over and over again, all day long, all week as these sacrifices are being offered on behalf of the people.

Praise the Lord. We don't have to do this, that Jesus has offered himself once for all. And that's coming up.

That's a statement that comes up a little bit later on in Hebrews. So this reminds us that sin is serious and we deserve death because of our sin.

But there's someone or something that dies on our behalf. And as Hebrews will say, the blood of bulls and goats was never enough to cleanse you of your sins anyway.

You needed a sacrifice even greater than this. And of course, all of this becomes a type and a shadow of the greater sacrifice who was to come.

And that is Christ. So here we go. The high priest has to enter into the Holy of Holies a third time.

And this time he is sacrificing on behalf of the sins of all of the people.

Three entrances, three sacrifices, once for himself, once for the rest of the priests, and then once for the sins of the people.

This is what happened on the Day of Atonement on Yom Kippur. And so the priest himself is weak.

He is beset with weaknesses. So he is able to deal gently with the ignorant and the misguided, knowing that he's one of them, since he himself is also beset with weaknesses.

He also needs to have his sins atoned for. So verse three, and because of it, he is obligated just as for the people to also offer sacrifices for sins in the same way for himself.

And so he does. You know, even when it came to the tithe, even when it came to the the tenth that that a person gave to the service and work of God, though there was a tenth that was given to the priesthood, the

Levites themselves had to give a tenth. So what they received from the people, they had to give a tenth of before God.

Everybody did everything the same. There was no one person that was greater than another. And so for our sake,

Jesus did this for us. Now, of course, Jesus was without sin. He did not have to atone for his own sins.

But hence we have the statement that comes up here that he learned obedience from the things which he suffered.

He becomes that perfect sacrifice for us on our behalf, as talked about. We've read it before in Hebrews, and it comes up again here in verse eight.

But the the high priest, the priest that was taken from among men, he is obligated just as for the people to offer sacrifices for sins in the same way for himself.

Verse four, and no one takes this honor to himself, but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was.

So Aaron was the first high priest. And then through his sons and through the line of Aaron, we have a succession of high priests and only came from the

Levites, or at least it was supposed to supposed to come only from the Levites. So this is the

Aaronic priesthood is what we refer to. And when a person is called to be a priest, very specific group of people, and only these can be the high priest, when it is appointed to one to become a high priest, no one takes this honor to himself.

He doesn't seize it and say, hey, I'm high priest today. He receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was.

So it's an appointment and it is divinely appointed by God.

It is not something that any man decides. It is something that God has appointed.

So Jesus is referred to as the anointed one. He is

God's chosen. Of course, he is God. He is the son of God. But he was appointed by the father to be the one who would sacrifice himself on behalf of the sins of the people.

Now, Jesus does not have to sacrifice for himself. He sacrifices himself, but he doesn't have to sacrifice for himself.

Nonetheless, we have it stated as right here in Hebrews chapter five that he learned obedience from the things which he suffered and having been made perfect, just as the high priest had to sacrifice for himself.

He's been made perfect. He became to all those who obey him the source of eternal salvation.

So it's not a direct link. And Jesus was not at ever at any point sin.

He was never, ever sin, not even for a second, nor a microsecond, nor a microsecond. Was he ever sinful?

But we do have this in second Corinthians 521. For our sake, he became sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

It's not that he was sinful, but he took our sins upon himself by his death on the cross.

And so he becomes our high priest, not just in a sense that he offers sacrifice on our behalf.

He became that sacrifice on our behalf. In Zechariah chapter three, the prophet

Zechariah has a vision of a high priest named Joshua. This was a man who was a high priest at that time.

But this is also something prophetic that is looking toward a future fulfillment for the name.

Jesus is the same name as Joshua. Yeshua is the name

Joshua. Now we know him as Jesus. That's the, I believe it's the Aramaic pronunciation of that, but he is, he is

Joshua. Jesus and Joshua is the same name. So in, in his time during his earthly ministry, his disciples knew him as Joshua.

So Zechariah is seeing a high priest named Joshua, and it is pointing to something that even Christ is going to fulfill.

So Zechariah sees Joshua, the high priest standing before the angel of Yahweh and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.

And Yahweh said to Satan, Yahweh rebuke you, Satan. Indeed, Yahweh who has chosen

Jerusalem rebuke you. Is this not a brand delivered from the fire? Now, Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and standing before the angel.

And he answered and spoke to those who were standing before him saying, remove the filthy garments from him.

Again, he said to him, see, I have made your iniquity pass away from you and will clothe you with festal robes.

And then I said, let them put a clean turban on his head. So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments while the angel of Yahweh was standing by.

And the angel of Yahweh testified to Joshua saying, thus says Yahweh of hosts. If you will walk in my ways and if you will keep the responsibility given by me, then you will also render justice in my house and also keep my courts.

And I will grant you access to walk among these who are standing here. Now, listen,

Joshua, the high priest, you and your friends who are sitting in front of you. Indeed, they are men who are a wondrous sign for behold,

I am going to bring in my servant, the branch. That's a reference to Christ for behold, the stone that I have put before Joshua on one stone are seven eyes.

Behold, I will engrave an inscription on it, declares Yahweh of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day in that day declares

Yahweh of hosts. Every one of you will call for his neighbor to sit under his vine and under his fig tree.

And all of this is pointing to Jesus when he died on the cross for our sins, it was just like the high priest,

Joshua, who came to stand before Yahweh and he's clothed in soiled garments.

On that day when Jesus died for us, for our sake, he became sin who knew no sin.

So that we might become the righteousness of God in him, when we put our faith in Jesus Christ, our soiled garments are put on him.

But his righteous robes are put on us and we are clothed in his righteousness.

And you know what first Peter two, nine says of us now in Christ Jesus, we are a royal priesthood, a kingdom of priests unto our

God and king so that we might be ministers even in this world of the things that Jesus Christ has done for us.

And so we must testify to the world prophetically, prophetically testifying that which we have here in scripture, the good news of Jesus Christ, the gospel that has been given to us, he who died for our sins and rose again from the grave so that all who believe in him will not perish under the judgment of God that is coming against all those who do unrighteousness.

We who are in Christ Jesus will be saved if you have been clothed in his righteousness, wear his righteousness, walk in righteousness today.

Heavenly father, thank you for what we can glean even from these few short verses, what we have been called to not to live in the filthiness that we were previously in, but we've been called to live in righteousness.

And how do we know the way that we should go? What the righteousness of God looks like. We read it according to your word, help us to desire

Christ and to live as he lived. Thank you for forgiving us our sins and giving us a righteousness that is not our own, but the righteousness of Jesus, your son, so that we may live wholly before you today.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the

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