Hebrews 5 — Don McClure

Who can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way, for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. And by reason thereof he ought, as for the people, also for himself to offer for sins.

No man taketh this honor for himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not himself to be made a high priest, but he that said unto him, Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee.

And he also said in another place, Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek, who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications and strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from the death, was heard in that he feared, though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.

And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him, called of God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek, of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered, seeing that ye are dull of hearing.

For when in times ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again the first principles of the oracle of God, are become such as have need of milk, and not strong meat. For everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a slave.

But strong meat belongeth to them who are of full age, even of those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Lord, we thank you for your word. It's so wonderful.

Christ Is Better Than Every Old Testament Ministry

And Lord, I pray that today as we look at this tremendous chapter, Lord, that the insights, the things that you want us to know and understand about you and your work, your ministry, Lord, so basic, so pivotal in the Christian life, Lord, things that take us literally from being unskilled and skilled, from a babe to mature, to those who ought to be teachers of the great oracles of God, Lord, that you would teach us these things.

Help us, Lord, to put them in our life so that we can grow and mature. Thank you for your word now. We ask your blessing upon it. In Jesus' name, amen. But here, though, this morning, looking at Hebrews chapter 5, the wonderful, wonderful book of Hebrews, as you'll recall, as we've been going through it here, the author of Hebrews is wanting to prove to us again and again and again how the Jesus Christ is, as I have said innumerable times, better than anything and anybody that ever came along because very simply put, he is the fulfillment of them all.

He is better than Moses. He is better than Aaron we'll see today. He is better than the priesthood. He is better than the law. He is better than the sacrifices. He is better than Joshua. He's better than all of these things because Christ is the fulfillment of all of these ministry roles that happen on the outside, you know, for people in the Old Testament now when Christ is living within my life personally.

I have all of these ministries under my own skin. I don't have to go looking for a Moses, looking for a Joshua, looking for the law, looking for the priesthood, looking for the temple, looking through, you know, for the sacrifices.

They're all met within my daily life and my fellowship and my relationship with Christ. And this is what Hebrews is so much a part. The author of Hebrews wants to tell us about Jesus Christ as our high priest and about his work that he has.

He correlates him, of course, with Aaron as he tells us there that as Aaron was chosen to be high priest. But here he tells us here essentially in this chapter the work of a high priest and I pray that I'll be able to convey this as it's written because it's so important.

It is so critical for us to understand some of the aspects of Jesus Christ as our high priest. But here the Bible tells us here, first of all, for somebody who is going to be qualified for a high priest, here are the basic qualifications.

The High Priest Represents Sinners Before God

Chapter 5, verse 1. He says, Every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. Here simply put, the very first qualification, the first responsibility that when God calls, God ordains, God sets aside a man and he says, you're a high priest.

The very first thing that God wants is he says, I want you to understand that you are there to represent men to me. You are there to represent men who have failed, men in their sin, men who need to get right, how to get right, the offerings and the sacrifices for their sins.

It is going to be your task to take fallen, struggling, weak human beings that have struggled with their own life. I want you to come and represent them to me, bring them to me, plead their cause, put them right before me.

How wonderful it is here that God in the Old Testament, this is the way that he felt. He knew, like we all know, we're all sinners. We've all fallen short of the glory of God, but here the very first role that God wanted in a high priest.

He said, yes, okay, they've sinned, they've failed. Yes, they've got all sorts of problems. Your job is to bring them to me and present them in a way that they're forgiven, in a way that there's a sacrifice that is made for them, that they can be right with me, that they can know that they are right with me.

What a wonderful thing to think here. God is looking there at a high priest. You come and you represent men to me. And of course, the ultimate role of a high priest, the most thrilling of all of them, the greatest experience was once a year on the great day of atonement.

The Day of Atonement and the Forgiveness of Sin

When a high priest, when all of the people gathered together outside of the tabernacle, there is the high priest went in with the sacrificial blood of the lamb who had been slain to represent them and their sins, now went in and he sprinkled the blood within the Holy of Holies, there for atonement, for forgiveness, for acceptance before God.

And they're seeking this wonderful sense of forgiveness. That was not only, of course, a once in a year opportunity, but it was also something that daily, the high priest, as individuals came in, there was once a year, the great day of atonement, that in a sort of an all-encompassing day where all of the people, they were told by God, you are loved, you are forgiven.

You're put right with me, not because you're right in and of yourself, but because I have forgiven you because the lamb, his blood has been shed for you and you are therefore loved and forgiven. By me.

God wanted them to know this, but then also, any and all the time that any individual ever wanted to come daily, the high priest were there within the temple, that anybody could come and say, I need to know I'm forgiven.

I need to be right with God. I have failed. That then they had the daily sacrifices, the daily offerings that they could come and get right with God. This was the work of a high priest. God ordained it to be such.

God didn't have to have his arm twisted for this. He didn't have to be manipulated. Come on, God, help us find a way. God initiated the way. He wants us to be right with him far more than we do ourself.

Compassion for the Weak and Sinful

But also, though, another work of the high priest is not just to sort of mechanically do that, but also emotionally to deeply care. It tells us in verse two, who can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way, for that he himself is also compassed with infirmity.

He says, I want a high priest that even he himself, he has something within himself that he understands weakness. He understands infirmity himself in such a way is that he himself, when people come in and they have failed, when people come in and they've gone out of the way, they're ignorant.

They've blown it. They're in trouble. That here that I want somebody there that he knows man, he is a man. He's wrapped up in humanity. He understands the weaknesses and the failures and the struggles and the burdens and the pressures and the temptations of a man that when he can look at somebody, he has compassion upon them.

When somebody comes in and says, I've blown it. I've done wrong. He has, he's got an empathy. He's looking at them and he says, yes, I know. I understand. And he's able to bear it rather than being, you did what?

Then he's, then he's irritated with them and or he's frustrated with them or he's annoyed with them. That I, the priest there when somebody comes in a week later after we just went through an atonement, he walks in and says, oh, please.

I need to be right with God. So wait a minute. Weren't you here last week? What are you doing here again this week? What is your problem? You ignorant, stupid, sinner. Get your life together. That he wouldn't be somebody that's like this.

He wouldn't be impatient. He wouldn't be frustrated. He wouldn't be uptight. He wouldn't look somebody there is just a lost fool that complete, it's continuously repeating his failures and saying, get to get, can't you get your act together?

But rather than that, he would be somebody that he looks at each one as a child of God who something has happened and he needs help to get right with God. This is what God says. That's what I want. This is his role.

He can't be, he's got to be somebody that he understands that it's not an easy job. It should be for anybody, but it isn't. I have a wonderful father-in-law. He's in heaven now, but he would love the Lord.

He was a wonderful man. One of the things that I observed about him is he was kind of born and grew up through the depression and grew up through a lot of struggling times and there was some poverty and there was some tough times, but it was something there that he was kind of taught, you go do something.

If you want to do it, you can do it. And he did. He got himself through college, got an education, worked hard, became a physician, decided then he wanted a specialty. So he went back and specialized, worked hard, was diligent, accomplished things.

Came from Mayo Clinic, had some very impressive credentials. But one of the interesting things about him is he was, he had a tremendous, God changed this as he got older, but he used to be very impatient with people.

He would look at people and just say, why in the world, if somebody wants something bad enough, why can't they just apply themselves? Anybody could do anything if they really, truly want to do it. They're lazy.

They're bums. They're just, they're cowards. They don't want to go do what they got to do and it's time to do the whole thing. And now they're just irresponsible or they're slothful. And he could be that way sometimes.

He could be so impatient when you look at somebody and say, why don't you just decide you want to do it and then go do it. But here was something that God said, I want a high priest that when somebody comes in, you're not going to get that rap.

He's going to be somebody that looks and he says, I understand. I care. I want to help you. And interestingly enough, the very high priest that he chose, as it says in verse four, he of God, as was Aaron.

Aaron and the Golden Calf

And now here, the Bible tells us that this isn't an honor that somebody just says, I want it. God calls them just as God called Aaron, the first high priest. And Aaron, what an interesting person for, in a sense, for God to pick.

Because when you look at somebody there and the one that God made the first high priest, let me just read a little to you about Aaron out of Exodus 32. You can turn to it if you'd like. Exodus 32, Moses at this time, he's up on the mountain of God waiting, you know, and standing before God there and listening to God and getting many, many directions from God during this period of time.

But Exodus 32 says, and when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together under Aaron and they said unto him up, make us gods, which we shall go before us.

And as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what has become of him. And Aaron said unto them, break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives and your sons and your daughters.

Bring them unto me. And all of the people, they break off the golden earrings that were in their ears. They brought them to Aaron and he received them in their hand and he fashioned it with an engraving tool.

And after it, he made a golden calf and they said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.

And they rose up on tomorrow and burnt offerings and they brought peace offerings. The people sat down to eat and to drink and they rose up to play. Here are the children of Israel looking around, where's Moses?

We don't know what happened to him. Aaron, you're his brother, make us gods. We need to worship. We know somebody delivered us. Help us with this thing. And what do we do? And Aaron says, well, I'll tell you what, go get all your gold, all your earrings and stuff, all these people.

And he says, give it to me. So they bring it all. And then Aaron takes it. He molds it in and he fashions it with a tool and he makes this golden calf out of it. Then all the people, he tells them now that they build an altar before it.

And he says, now, tomorrow is going to be a feast day. Let's get ready to party and we're going to eat. We're going to drink and we're going to play. Now, I'm not going to read all of it. But then next thing you know, up in the mountain, when God watches and sees all of this.

Verse 10, it says, now, therefore, the Lord says, let me alone. Then my path, my wrath may wax hot against them and that I may consume them, that I may make of thee a great nation. Here he looks at Moses.

God looks at Moses. He says, this is so unacceptable. This is so wicked. This is so terrible. I'm ready to destroy them all. I'll start all over again with you, Moses. I'll make of you a great nation.

Then Moses intercedes. Wait a minute, Lord. God has this wonderful way of pulling Moses, his heart right into it, to where he cares and wants to intercede for people. And there is he does this. Then God, Moses said, well, I'm going to go down.

Now, hold on, Lord. I'm going to go down and deal with this thing. And so in verse 21, it says that Moses comes down. Moses said, and Aaron, what did this people unto thee that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them?

He says, what in the world happened, Aaron, that you, you have led these people into such a terrible, terrible sin? What's come over you? And Aaron said, let not thine anger of my Lord wax hot. Thou knowest the people that they're set on mischief.

He says, come on, Moses, give me a break. You know, they're all a bunch of miserable sinners, you know, sort of a thing. And for they said unto me, make us gods which shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what has become of him.

And so I said, well, whosoever has any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it to me and I cast. Listen to this. This is what he says. I cast it into the fire and there came out this calf. He said, they just gave it.

I just threw it in and poof, out came this golden calf. Is that weird or what? You know, as he's kind of looking at Moses, I have no idea how a thing like this could happen. But isn't that not also the way that we so often are?

Excuses and Rationalizations for Sin

How many times? That when we've blown it, we've done some stupid, ignorant, sinful, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb thing. And yet our own analysis of it is, you know, I don't know what happened. I have no idea.

I just came home after a hard day work. I opened up the door. And then, you know, that woman I married, you know, that, you know, and you know, those children. And next thing you know, they're just yelling and screaming.

You find out cop pop this golden calf. It just happened. I don't know how it happened. It just came from nowhere. I was just doing nothing. You know, I don't know what happened. I don't know how I got in this kind of trouble.

I just went to a party. I just went to a party. That's all I did or something. We've got some sort of a thing. Well, you know, what do you mean? What do you mean a girl is pregnant? I don't know. I don't know how a thing.

I just went to a party and just had enjoyed the people. The next thing I know, some girl calls me up and says, I'm pregnant. You know, or when and how human beings, we fall and we fail. And corruption happens in our life.

And we and we just go from one thing to another radical thing that has happened and where we've lost it. You fail. And verse 25 says, and when Moses saw that the people were naked for Aaron had made them naked to their shame among the enemies here, Aaron out there, literally look at this man.

He led them into it. He did it. Then he doesn't even want to take the blame. He finds an excuse for it. And here the nation is running around naked to the shame of their enemies. What a party they had.

And here is this party has gone on that just kind of came out of nowhere and all of this trouble and this sin and this ungodly, wretched human behavior. It just seemed to pop out of the fire. Does not that happen so easily to us?

We hear what a way to be. And yet here is Hebrews, as we just read, you know, for no man takes this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. God then is now choosing a high priest as he's establishing the nation.

Here he's got Moses. And who does he choose now to be the high priest for the people? He looks to Aaron. Aaron, you'll be a great high priest. Boy, do you ever can you ever sew a great story? You know, sort of a thing.

Boy, can you ever, you know, come up with somebody? But there it was something. Interestingly enough, when you meditate on that for a moment. Here was something as God is now leading is setting up the nation.

Moses is going to is coming down. He's got the Ten Commandments from the mount. He's got the plan of the temple. He's got the sacrifices. He's got the priesthood. And now he's going to establish the priesthood and choose a high priest.

And who does he choose? Aaron, this man, the one who actually led them right into corruption, the one who is even personally responsible for their sin. And it was something that was so terrible that God literally up on the mountain when he saw this, the people were to be condemned terribly for it.

And then God turns around and he says, Aaron, you're the high priest. What a way. What a way to learn compassion for people. What a way there to have something there that for God to look and say, if there's somebody that can understand the weaknesses of sin and problems and the things that will happen.

When you think about this for the rest of his life, Aaron would always be known to the people, always be known to all of the congregation as somebody that they would be remembered by him, that there he was as a man who is now representing them before God.

He was a man that he himself had been guilty of the worst of sins. That now anybody that would ever come to Aaron and say, Aaron, I've sinned. Aaron, I failed. Aaron, I've made a mistake. Aaron could say, I know.

Yeah, I'm sorry. Rather than being angry or judgmental, how could he ever look at somebody from ever from this point on and say, you what? Don't give me that stupid story. Make up a better one than that.

He'd already made up the greatest, hadn't he? But here the amazing thing when you look at this is that God wanted there somebody that all the people could always look at this man, Aaron, and know he'll have compassion.

That they would always know that he was somebody that when they would fail, when they were sorry, when they had blown it, there was somebody that could come to and God would appoint him. And God appointed him for this role.

Jesus Christ, the Sinless High Priest

And here the ultimately this in a sense was exactly the thing that when God appointed Jesus Christ to be our high priest, he wanted somebody there as the ultimate high priest that all the world would have confidence in.

Know he cares for him and he understands him. Somebody who wouldn't judge them or hate them or accuse them, but rather somebody that would present their cause. And as Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, he says, thus Jesus became sin who knew no sin.

The Bible tells us literally about Jesus Christ and make no mistake about this. He himself never sinned. Never. Never for one moment did he himself ever, ever fail. Did he ever fall short? Did he ever turn away?

Did he ever reject? Ever for a moment, but so that he may be a faithful high priest. He was somebody there that the Bible says he who knew no sin became sin for us. He literally there when Jesus Christ went to the cross, he took upon himself all the sins of all the world of all time.

And there it guilty for nothing himself. He took the place of all of it. Every bit of it. Think of it. Jesus Christ, the only pure and perfect one who has ever walked this planet, took the sins of the world upon himself so that he would forever be able to identify within.

He just didn't simply stay lily white, stay flawless, and then just simply say, we are put all the sins over there and here I'll, I'll pay for them. But rather than that, he let them now guilty for nothing.

He became guilty for everything. He took all the guilt of it upon himself. He allowed it to come to him in such a way that all the sins, he understood them. He experienced them never doing them himself, but even greater than that, taking the guilt of them, the sin of them.

Christ Identifies With Human Shame and Suffering

You may say how much, you know, it's interesting in the old Testament in the book of Hosea tells us in the beginning of the word of the Lord unto Hosea, the son of Barry, and he makes it, here's this prophet Hosea.

God instructs him in Hosea chapter one. He says, go and take the wife of harlotry and children of harlotry for the land that committed great harlotry departing from the Lord. God looked at Hosea and he says, Hosea, I know you're pure, but for you to be an understanding leader of the people, I want you to go and marry this harlot.

And all the way through their marriage, she went out and she was unfaithful and she had children out of her unfaithfulness. And then God told Hosea, now you take them as your own children. You love them.

You care for them. And here you identify with them. And here there was something there that when Jesus Christ came for you and he came for me, he took all of this upon himself that when Jesus one day would stand at the well and talk to the woman there at the well in John four, and here sees this lonely woman with all the guilt and the shame and the sorrow of sin upon her life.

And he would be able to look at her and say, you've had five husbands. And the one that you now have isn't your husband either. But to be able to look at her, not in anger, not in hostility, are you ignorant woman?

What does it take? How many husbands do you have to have before you realize how stupid you are? But rather than that, he looks at her and he says, I know exactly what you're going to do. I know the suffering.

I know the loneliness. I know the grief, not because I've done it, but because I've taken it. I know the separation, the loneliness, the rejection, the sorrow. I know the failing that there is. And here there is something to where Jesus knows the suffering.

He knows the shame. He knows the sorrow. He knows the guilt and the loneliness. He knows the struggle of every murder, of every lie, of every adulterous behavior, of every deception, of every backslider, of every single human being, everything that you and I have ever done because he has taken upon himself all of it for the whole world, let alone mine and yours.

And it is something there that the ultimate high priest that you today, I today can now come to him. That's why Hebrews were the last verses of the previous chapter. It says, see, then we have a great high priest.

That is passed into the heavens. Jesus, the son of God, let us hold to our profession for we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin.

Therefore, let us come boldly before his throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. God says, listen, I don't care where you've been. I don't care what you said, what you've done.

I don't care your story that you want to make up explaining it and how you did this. And this popped out, heard them all. God's heard them all. But what he longs for is that somebody would realize that when they can look at Jesus Christ, they're looking at somebody.

He says, I, my role is to represent you before God. Please let me do my role. Please come in honesty with me, come with the failings, the ignorance, the struggles you've got. I understand all of them, not just you.

I understand them, all the billions of the people that have ever lived. And the wonderful thing when I realized that is when I look at Jesus Christ, who I ought to know is there. But a high priest, as this chapter tells us, is not only to be able to represent my failure to God, but he also has a high priest.

It's got to be somebody that represents God's keeping power to me. High priest represents man to God, but he also is somebody that now is an intercessor and an intermediator. He now represents who God is back to the man.

And this is what Jesus Christ did so, as did as well. For in verse seven, it says, who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications, was strong, cried and tears unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that he cried, though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things that he suffered in being made perfect.

He became the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him, called of God a after the order of Melchizedek. Here now, a high priest, not only is now coming before God and saying, here he is, and he's loved and he's forgiven and he's human and he's failed, but I've blotted it out.

I've forgiven it. My blood has been shed for him. That here Jesus Christ, the high priest, he says, Father, forgive them. I'm bringing them home. I've got him. And but now he also turns back to us and he says, now I'm here also not only represent your failure to God and get that piece of business done, but I also want to represent God's power and his ability to keep and to strengthen you as well.

Learning Obedience Through Suffering

For here there is something there that now the high priest also, as it tells us there about Jesus, who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications, strong, crying with tears, here there was something.

He has got to show me not only how to get right with God, but he's got to show me how to daily live before God, how to be acceptable before God. He has got to reveal God to me in a way that I don't lose hope when I instead of continuing to fail and fail and fail and come in week after week.

Forgive me. I did it again. Forgive me. I get it. Yes. And which we will always be doing until we go to heaven. But hopefully in the process, there is something that I'm also turning to high priest and saying, will you help me?

Since you have great access to God, does God have any help for me? In the process, well, I'm trying to grow. And here the interesting thing is it says who in the days of his flesh, Jesus Christ took upon himself human flesh so that he would understand he'd be encompassed with the Bible says the feelings of our infirmities.

He would know suffering, exhaustion. He would know the human frailties. He knew hunger and he knew thirst. He knew what it was to be tired. He knew what it was to cry. He knew rejection. He knew what it was to have all sorts of human struggles within his life.

He knew what it was to pray in silence. He knew what it was to cry out to God. As it says with a raised voice, he knew what it was to weep, asking God to help him. And if there be any other way, I would that you remove this cup from me.

He put him through some great and terrible trials, didn't he? The greatest of all. But as it says in verse eight, that though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. Here the high priest comes back and he says, not only can I tell you how to get right with God, I love doing that.

I also love wanting to show you how to stay right with him. I want to show you that in the processes and the struggles, that even though I am a son, I had to learn obedience. What an interesting thing, by the way, when it says there about who Jesus was a son, he learned obedience by the things that he suffered.

Now you may think, now that's an interesting thing. Jesus learned obedience. That's almost with an assumption. He must have been disobedient. How can somebody learn obedience if they're probably not disobedient?

Well, no, that is what it means. It's just that when now Jesus was in a human body, he had to do something as man that he'd never done before as God. Obey. One of the nice little side benefits of being God is you obey nobody.

You're God. You make up the rules and you don't obey anybody. But now when he became a man, he had to do something he'd never done. He had to learn obedience through the things that he suffered. You don't learn obedience except for through suffering.

It's the only way you learn it. Obedience without suffering isn't obedience. Isn't that at all? If I come to you and said, listen, folks, before you leave here today, I don't care how you think and what you feel about it, but at the end of the door when you leave here, I don't want any arguments about it.

I want you to accept it. But when you all walk out of here, we have a million dollars cash for every one of you and you will take it. Do you understand me? And then you'll also all get, we have a, you know, an airplane that's going to take everybody to Europe for one month.

First class, five star hotels. Everything's taken care of at work. Everything's there. You're just going to go have a good time. Now, no argument. Well, when you say, OK, I'll obey. That isn't obedience.

It's obedience if I tell you, by the way, you've got a million dollars. Give it to me. I won't do that. But the, now you suffer, you know, something. Now the obedience may, you know, have something there, you know, but the point of it is, is that you learn obedience only when you suffer.

And here there was something about Jesus that he might represent the sufficiency and the power and the adequacy of God to every human being in every trial that we would ever be in our whole life. Every difficult time, every form of suffering, every time where I would pray, every time that there would be something, I may be going in and through that I want to, that I'm crying.

I'm crying out with loud, as it says here, in the days of his flesh, he offered a prayers and supplications, strong crying and with tears to him that was able to save him from death. He went to him and said, you can save me, God.

Father, you can, you can come up with another plan. I don't have to go through this. And here there was something there that as he cried and as he wept and as he prayed, there was something there that he, knowing that God was able, as it says, to do something different.

But God said, no, you will go all the way through the trial. The answer is no. By the way, sometimes, you know, we ask God, we say, God didn't answer me. No, he does answer a lot. The answer is just no, we just don't like it.

So we say, God isn't listening to me. Oh, he listens. He listens real good, but he, but his answer to us is you will stay in the trial. You will stay in the trial. I will give you the strength. I'll give you the power.