GOD'S SON, THE BEST HIGH PRIEST

“GOD’S SON, THE BEST HIGH PRIEST”
Hebrews part 6 (4:14 – 5:10)
Rev. Grady Davidson 101611

Three days a week after dropping the kids off at school I go to the downtown YMCA for 45 minutes of exercise. As it works out I often find myself in the locker room with a couple of our Chattanooga, high profile criminal defense attorneys. Often enough, as these fellows are dressing in their power suits for the day’s work, they’re also talking to each other in a light-hearted and anonymous fashion about their current cases. As an outsider to the field of criminal defense, I really enjoy hearing these couple of sharks talk about their work. Last Monday morning, one of these men was talking about building his defense for his client, and it went something like this: “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, it took the police several hours to locate those 6 kilos of cocaine, so deeply was it buried in the building. If it took the professionals several hours to find it, how on earth were my clients to know it was there?”
Did he really use that angle of defense in criminal court? (I doubt it.) However, I carried my gym bag out of the locker room that morning thinking to myself, “That attorney is really good; and if I ever find myself slapped with a felony, HE’s the lawyer I’m calling.”
We move this morning into the great central portion of the Epistle to the Hebrews. From 4:14 through end of chapter 10, the writer to the Hebrews develops the primary theological theme of the epistle: that God’s Son is our Great High Priest. It is here in Hebrews 4 – 10 that the Priestly office of our Lord Jesus Christ is most clearly developed in all of Scripture.
Now listen to me; this is very important. When it comes to our sins and offenses, our burden of guilt, our transgressions against the Eternal God who is described in this epistle as a Consuming Fire (12.29), as far as I can tell we have 2 options. Either we face that Great Judge on our own, and try to plead our case on our own… or else we search for One who has favor with God, One who has access to God, One who will represent us in matters related to God (5:1). For the last 4 chapters the author to the Hebrews has been showing us that God’s Son, Jesus Christ is the only One who can do that for us. The prophets can’t; the angels can’t; Moses can’t – But Jesus Christ, God’s Son, can! He is uniquely qualified to be our High Priest and to represent us in matters related to God.
I don’t know about you, but I’m a really big sinner. And the more I read the scriptures, and the longer I walk with Christ, the more I realize just how profoundly guilty I am before God. In my day in God’s court, I want Jesus to represent me. I need a priest like Jesus to go to God on my behalf. Don’t you?
Our text breaks down naturally into three sections.
With your Bibles open notice vv. 1-4, in which the author lays out the background to the Priesthood. The whole framework for understanding the priesthood is laid out in a detailed, lengthy fashion in the OT books of Exodus (28-29) and Leviticus (8-9); but all that teaching is summarized wonderfully right here in four verses.
1. The priest represents men in matters related to God (v. 1a).
2. The priest makes offerings and sacrifices for sins. The priest, in a representative and legal fashion brings offerings on behalf of the sinful people he represents (v. 1b).
3. Notice the demeanor and spirit of the high priest (v. 2). He is gentle and compassionate in dealing with his people, because he understands sin. That OT priest is himself a sinner. When his people come to him with guilty consciences, he neither ignores the seriousness of their sin, nor does he beat them down. He understands in a profoundly sympathetic way. In fact (v. 3) he’s obligated to offer sacrifices for his own sins as well as the sins of the people (Lev. 9.7, 16.6, for example). He needed forgiveness and cleansing for his sins too, and the OT priest was never to forget that.
4. Notice that the OT High Priest was called to his office (v.4). It was passed by heredity from generation to generation beginning with Aaron, the brother of Moses and Miriam. It was not an office which any ordinary person could aspire to enter.
So there you have the background to the priesthood, summarized in just 4 verses. That backdrop helps us to understand how Christ is our Priest, in some ways similar and in some ways different.
Some of you will recognize the name of the American painter Andrew Wyeth. His brother Nat told this story about Andrew. On one occasion Andrew was painting a landscape that included a house with a sycamore tree behind it. The lower 20 feet of the tree was hidden by the house which was the focus of the painting.
As Nat Wyeth visited his brother Andrew, the painter showed Nat drawings of the sycamore’s trunk and gnarled roots. Nat said, “Why are you sketching the trunk and roots? They’re behind the house; they won’t show in the final painting.”
Andrew replied, “"For me to get what I want in the part of the tree that's showing, I've got to know thoroughly how it is anchored in back of the house." Likewise when we say that Jesus is our Great High Priest, we’re saying that his ministry is anchored firmly in the roots of the OT priesthood—servants of God who for generations and generations represented men in matters related to God; and in their ministry over the years pointing ahead to the One who was to come: Jesus Christ, our Great High Priest.
So that’s the background. What about Jesus’ own preparation for the office of Priest? Did God simply appoint His Son one day and tell him to get to work serving as Great High Priest to His People? Not at all! Jesus underwent the most severe training and preparation that He might be qualified for Office. That’s the subject of vv. 7 – 10, Christ’s preparation for office of High Priest.
1. Look at v. 7 (review). In a broad sense this verse teaches us something about the entire life of Jesus of Nazareth. His life was a life of passionate prayer and petitions. His life was a life of seeking God in prayer with a deep, hungry, heartfelt passion. However in a special sense 10:7 refers to Jesus and his prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane. Weeping before the Father, crying out in a loud voice to the Father, spread out on the ground crying out to God with sweat pouring out of his body like great drops of blood. (The window behind me does not do the scene as described in the gospels justice.)
2. We see in verse 8 that although He is God’s Son, nonetheless He learned obedience through what he suffered. When the writer to the Hebrews speaks of the sufferings of Christ, he’s generally speaking of the cross. Jesus, having lived a life of perfect obedience to the Father had one final test of obedience which He had to pass – going to the horrors of Calvary, there to carry the sins of the world.
3. In verse 9, Jesus was “made perfect,” that is, having gone through the hell of the cross, He was perfected in his qualifications to represent you and me as our High Priest. Friend, you will never go through anything in this life for which Jesus Christ, your Great High Priest cannot fully understand and sympathize and care and love you through. He is uniquely qualified to counsel you and encourage you and to walk with you through all the trials of this life… even more, He is the source of your eternal salvation, if you are among those who obey him (v. 9).
The 14th century Czech theologian and reformer of the church, Jan Hus was arrested and told that he would be burned to death for his evangelical faith. In the days leading up to his martyrdom he would practice for that day by holding his hand over an open flame.
5:7-10 tells us that Jesus went through the flames too. In obedience to God He suffered beyond the scope of any other human being who has ever walked the earth so that he would be qualified to serve his people as our Great High Priest.
We’ve seen the background for the priesthood, verses 1-4; we’ve talked about Christ’s preparation for the priesthood, verses 7-10. Now we come back to the center of the passage, verses 5 & 6. The way the author organized his thoughts in these ten verses, he intends for 5-6 to be the most important thought. The way the verses are structured, the whole argument hinges on these two verses which declare God’s appointment of Jesus Christ to the office of High Priest. (review vv. 5-6, quotations from Ps 2.7 and 110.4). God has spoken! Out of His great love for us God has appointed His Son to serve as Priest & Mediator, representing us to Him! He did not have to do that! God was under no moral obligation to do anything other than leave us dead in our sins. The text fairly screams at us: Wake up! Take notice! God has spoken, appointing His Son to the High Priesthood. If we are to have a priest representing us in matters relating to God (v.1), then it must be Jesus: there is no other. What does it mean that Jesus’ priesthood is in the order of Melchizedek? We’ll come to that in chapter 7.
As we come to the Lord’s Table this morning, we’re ushered into the very presence of God. Moses, called “the man of God” and “God’s friend” could not see his face. Isaiah the greatest OT prophet came physically and spiritually unhinged in the presence of God. The OT prophets unanimously speak of God in the most terrifying of terms. And the OT priests, ministering in God’s presence, trembled in holy fear to be in his presence.
What a difference our Great High Priest makes! We have one who is “one of us,” (selected from among men, 5.1), who represents us to God. He sympathizes with our weaknesses, he understands our frailty; but through Him we are invited to approach God’s throne of grace with great confidence (4.16). Let us come to the Table and worship our Great God. Amen.
(Song of Invitation: Michael Card’s “Come to the Table”)