This evening we're in Hebrews chapter 4 verses 14 through 16. And we are, of course, returning to our study that we left off before Christmas. And so it may be helpful to remind ourselves where we are in the book as we come to these verses, and we'll do that just after we hear them. But this passage, particularly verses 14 to 16, is one of the most rich and comforting passages in all of the book of Hebrews, and some would say in all of Scripture.
So let me invite you to listen and hear what God has done for us in Jesus. Hebrews chapter 4 verses 14 to 16 cents. 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 front of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in front of me. Let us pray together. Father, lift Jesus before our eyes and grant us the assurance and comfort and the boldness and confidence that you say we have in Jesus. In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen. Well, you may remember as we have been studying the book of Hebrews, it is about the superiority of Jesus over everyone and everything. And the reason for that is that the Christians being addressed initially, of course, and throughout history ever since, are sometimes tempted for sake, the Lord. They were tempted to leave their trust in Jesus as the Messiah and many of them to go back to being merely Jewish, waiting for a Messiah instead of seeing Jesus as the true Messiah.
And that temptation we said can flow. Well, on the one hand from a low view of Jesus, and so the author has been exalted in Christ for four chapters now. You may remember in chapter 1 verses 1 to 4, he held Jesus out as superior to all the prophets of old. And then in chapter 1 verses 5 through the end of that chapter, he held Jesus out as better than the angels.
After all, the angels were created by him and the angels worshiped him and obey him. And then in chapter 2, the author turned us to the humanity of Jesus, God in the flesh and reminds us there that, well, he's the last Adam, so to speak. That is, he's superior to the first Adam and he comes to rescue us from the sin and misery that's due to us as the children of that rebellious first Adam. And then in chapter 3, we saw that Jesus is superior to Moses.
Moses was a servant in God's house. Jesus is a son over the house and the builder of it. And he has more glory than Moses. And in chapter 4, we saw that Jesus is better than the Joshua of old, the Joshua that followed Moses.
You may remember, he led God's people into the earthly promised land, but he couldn't give them the true rest for their souls that's found only in the true Messiah. Jesus, however, as the new and better Joshua has to bring us into God's eternal promised rest and that spiritual and everlasting rest that we can have in him. Now here in chapter 4, verse 14, he turns to the priesthood of Christ and actually he'll go on through chapter 7 to say that Jesus is the new and better priest. He's better than all the well, the priests of the old, Levitical priesthood.
And he can really give us what that pictured and promised, but never ultimately in itself could give. He can give us true and everlasting access to God in his presence. And so the author is on the one hand holding up a high view of Jesus so that you would see him and not think anybody else could do for you what only Jesus could do. But there was another reason why they might be tempted to leave Jesus and the truth of God's word and that was we saw in verses 12 and 13 right before this passage.
That is in those verses the author says, well, the word of God is living an active sharper than any two-edged sword piercing to the division of the soul and the spirit of Deuterium and Mary, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. On the one hand, the word of God cuts to the heart and then verse 13, and no creature is hidden from its from his sight. That is the God of the word. We're all under his gaze and all it says are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.
In other words, not only a low view of Jesus might lead you to just walk away, but the fear of God, the fear of being exposed by the word and the sense that you might have of, well, you don't measure up, might lead you to want to run away from God. Well, like Adam and Eve in the garden, once they had sinned, hiding themselves behind the trees, not wanting to be in the presence of their great God and creator. We feel the word sometimes you come to worship, you read it in the privacy of your own home, whatever it is, wherever sometimes that word just pierces, that word exposes. And there's a temptation to run, to run away.
And the author here, then having exposed our hearts and reminding us that God and his word can sometimes make us rather uncomfortable, Martin Luther says, having terrified us, he now comforts us. And so he holds out Jesus to us as the great high priest in whom we may come boldly, even to the very throne of God, the throne of grace and not need to run in fear. And so that's where we want to think then about this great high priest and what we're called to. There are two commands in the passage, even as he tells us who Jesus is, the commands are in verse 14, let us hold fast our confession.
And then in verse 16, let us then with confidence drawn near to the throne of grace. So I want to think about the passage with you in those two parts. And the rest of the passage is designed to encourage us, strengthen us with reasons why we should hold fast our confession of faith in Jesus and come boldly to the throne of God in Jesus. And so let's think about these in the first place, not as in verses 14 and 15, he says, let us hold fast our confession.
Here's the language of verse 14, 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. I was, you know, worship service and the musician saying, I won't go back. And the large choir responded to him, I won't go back. And he said, I won't.
And they said, I won't. And he said, go back. And they repeated, go back. And back and forth, they sang and echoing the promise, of course, not to depart from Christ, not to return to their former unbelief and gradually the musician, inquire, climb the scale, raising the pitch higher and higher as they raise the volume until they exhausted.
You can see it visibly exhausted their ability to go any higher or louder. Well, as you can guess, it wasn't a Presbyterian worship service. But two things struck me about it. First, the realism.
I mean, I struck a chord with me as I heard it after all what Christian hasn't been tempted to go back, to go back to the old way, the old life outside of Christ. And so there was an honest realism. But it also struck me that not once in the song did they ever mention the Lord Jesus. Now, of course, it was assumed that they were referring to not departing from faith in Jesus, but there was no compelling reason given why they wouldn't depart or how they would be sustained in their faith in Jesus.
And so the song ended with a kind of rather naked human promise of fidelity to Christ, but left me feeling hopeless to know why I or they wouldn't or shouldn't turn back nor where I could find help when I'm tempted to do so. Thankfully, of course, the writer of Hebrews doesn't leave us stranded as it were in our own resources. But he wants us to hold our confession in the Lord Jesus, the Savior, the Son of God, God and human flesh raised from the dead are only hope of eternal life. And he piles up for us resources and incentives by pointing us where, not ourselves, not at our own ability or our own, pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and just hang on, but he points us away from ourselves to Jesus.
And he says, well, these five things about Jesus. And let me point you to them. Notice first, his unique mediation. Notice verse 14, it says, since then we have a great eye priest.
Now, a priest is a mediator, a mediator between God and man, the Old Testament priest served in the temple where no non-priest could go. Jesus, he says, is a priest, but then it says he's a high priest. And what was a high priest? Well, it was the chief priest.
He was the only one who could go, not just into the temple area, but into the most holy place in the temple or tabernacle to meet with God at the mercy seat. And he can only do that one day a year on the day of atonement. And the writer says, Jesus is our high priest. And notice he is our great high priest.
That is, he's asserting Jesus is greater than any old high priest there'd ever been. There's no greater priest than we need this priest. Because we too often, I think as Christians, even as Christians, we fail to see that we need a priest in our demons with God. Now, we might think, and the oppressorians can sort of fall into thinking this way, that the priest knows something that only the Roman Catholic Church or the Eastern Orthodox Church or the Anglican Church or what have you has, they have priests, but we have pastors, and we have preachers.
The Baptist, the Presbyterians, the congregationalists, sometimes get a little noobah priesthood, right? Or we might think, well, basically, now I'm kind of my own priest. And I don't really need a priest, somebody to mediate between me and God. I just, well, well, I'll put it crassly.
You know, I just showed up, didn't I? I thought it'd be good enough for God. I ought to be welcome into the throne room of heaven because here I am, you know? And instead, the Bible says, no, no, no, no, listen, no fallen human simply waltzes their way into the favorable presence of a holy and just God in their own, on their own.
Why? Because what we carry with us, who we are and what we've done, we carry our sins, our unholyness into the presence of God. And then we would face God's holy judgment, what we what we need was someone who can take us safely there. And so, in the days of the Old Testament Temple, there were these barriers to fellowship with God, reminding them you can come close, but not too close because our God is a consuming fire.
And so, you can come this far, but then your priest can go this far on your behalf and the great or the high priest can go even further into the most holy place, closest of all. And the writer here is saying, now we have a great high priest. He is a unique mediator. First Timothy 2, 5, we'll say of him, there is one mediator, in fact, between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
That is, his mediation is unique and it is sufficient for anyone and everyone who come to God through him. So the writer is saying to them, so don't go look for anybody else. I mean, who else will you go? Who is qualified, as it were, to be your true high priest, putting his hand as it were on God and his hand as it were on you and bringing you together at peace?
Well, no one is qualified, but Jesus and Jesus is qualified. He's our unique mediator. But notice he also points us to his completed and accepted work. Notice that language, verse 14, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens.
That is, he alone has entered the true sanctuary of God, of which that old tabernacle, that old temple was but a picture. Once a year, the high priest of Israel passed through the veil, the curtain, as we said, into the most holy place where he sprinkled the blood of the atonement on the mercy seat. But Jesus, the writer is reminding us, didn't pass through merely an earthly veil into an earthly holy of holies. His sacrifice was the real sacrifice.
And as our great high priest, he passed into the real sanctuary, the true highest of heavens, where God dwells in all his glory, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf, where he, as it were offered the true blood, his own blood of a perfect sacrifice. And he wasn't turned away. He wasn't rejected. He was welcome.
I mean, do you recall hearing in the history books, we learned that so often it was the case that the Old Testament high priest going into the holy of holies once a year, well, they would tie a rope around his foot. Just in case when he went before the mercy seat, he got struck down by God in all his holiness. And they didn't want to have to go get him. They wanted to drag him out.
But Jesus was not rejected. Jesus was most welcome because his sacrifice was acceptable. And that means he has fully accomplished all that is necessary for our reconciliation to God. And it means he is already in the language of chapter 4, 1, 11.
He's already entered, as it were, the true rest that is then promised to us, the true heavenly rest, we might say, the rest there is in the very presence of God with the blessing of God. And therefore, all who trust in Jesus are carried with him, as it were, as the names were printed on the breastplate of the old priest. So Jesus carries us printed as it were, well, on the palms of his hand. And he carries us with him into God's heavenly and eternal rest.
And so we can have rest from our works, resting in his finished, completed, and acceptable work. And this is wonderfully free. Years ago, I mean, you've heard the story too many times, but when Joshua was just a little my oldest son, we then got pregnant and with twins. And I was going to some conference and Melena went home to be with family while I was to be with her parents.
And how many playing tickets did we buy to send her home? Well, just one. Joshua flew free because the airline accepted him as an under two year old with her. And the twins flew free because while they were still in her.
And so four went together for the price of the one. And well, that's the truth of the gospel. We are in Jesus and we are with Jesus spiritually in covenantal union with him by the work of the spirit united to him through faith in him. And he takes us where he is.
And he's passed into heaven. And we know with him. Ephesians 2 even says, even when we were dead in our trespasses, God made us alive together with Christ by grace you could save and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. It is as true of you, every genuine believer sitting here today, you're seated in a pew here on earth, but you are also seated with Christ in heavenly places because you're in union with him.
And so we see his successful work on our behalf and then we see and saw his unique mediation on our behalf and then we see, of course, as well his personal divinity here. I mean, after all, who was it the author says, who wasn't that finished the work? Well, middle verse 14, Jesus, the son of God. No mere man has rescued you and is God who has done it.
And so he can mediate between God and man as the true God man and God. So where else would we go? Right? And but we might still wonder, you know, we might wonder, I know Jesus is my great high priest.
I know he offered himself for me. I know he's God, the son, the son of God and the Savior of sinners. But I don't see how Jesus, he could be that much help to me. How can you possibly understand, you know, my life, how can we possibly understand what I'm going through?
A mere frail creature in a world of sin and misery. I mean, I know he can see me from up there, of course, God sees everything, but does he really get me? And the author is right there waiting for you with that question by pointing us to his understanding sympathy. Notice that language of verse 15.
But 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. What's the author saying here? Well, he understands our problems and temptations. He gets what it is to be human.
Notice he doesn't say merely here that Jesus pitties us, but of course he does, but he does more than that. He sympathizes with us, not only sympathizes with us, but double negative, which in English we're told not to do, but he is not able not to sympathize with us, which is the very strong way of saying he is able and he can't do otherwise. He is able to sympathize with us. John Brown, not the local, but commentator says the assertion is not it is possible that he may sympathize, but it is impossible that he should not.
He can't do anything other than relate to you. He's been tempted on all things as we are. How can the Holy One know? Because he's got in the flesh, he's experienced well, not every particular temptation of every particular human being.
He didn't live on earth in the flesh in the 21st century, but because of what he did, he understands us, he can sympathize with us, and he experienced far worse than us. I mean, he suffered like us on the one hand, right? A hunger and thirst and weariness. He was a teenager and a child of sinners.
He was betrayed by a friend, abandoned by friends in his hour of need. He was misunderstood by his family, somebody was not. He was opposed by religious leaders of his day, rejected by those he loves. He was lied to and lied about.
He was persecuted for righteousness sake. He was insulted by wicked men. He was unjustly condemned in a criminal court. He knows what it's like to suffer.
He knows what it's like to be tempted by wealth and riches and honor and power to be offered glory and honor and power in exchange for idolatry. He knows what it's like to be tempted to put God to the test, but that just scratches the surface. He has not only suffered and been tempted like us, but much worse than we ever had. I mean, he was beaten, mocks, fat upon, and nailed to a cross, and he bore the manifold sins of his people upon that cross, and he was cut off on the cross from the smiling benevolent face of his father and cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
And that was because he bore the righteous wrath of God, the punishment that brings us peace was upon him. He was pierced for our transgression, crushed for our iniquities. And so his suffering abundantly surpasses our suffering. In fact, my old pastor, Lincoln Duncan, put it this way, his suffering abundantly surpasses ours in every way and in this way, in every suffering we experience, Christ is standing between us and what we truly deserve, death and help.
But nothing stood between Christ on the cross and the greatest suffering of all. And so that's why he can sympathize with us in trials, in troubles and temptations. He faced the worst of it, and he thankfully didn't shrink back. He sympathized with us, and yet he was sinless in it.
And that's the fifth thing the writer points us to, notice his sinless obedience. At the end of verse 15, he did all this as a sympathetic hyper east, yet without sin. He was sinless, obedient to the Father in all things. And even when he suffered, he didn't curse God in his sufferings.
He didn't suffer and quit trusting God. But upon that cross, he continued in faith and in trust when had it been us. Well, let's be honest, we would have turned away in anger, in bitterness, in distrust. But as he endured the hell which we deserve, he remained faithful.
And so he justly deserves his place in heaven. He's done nothing to not have the very right to be in heaven in the presence of God and on our behalf. And unlike that Old Testament high priest who had to offer sacrifices for himself before he offered them for the sins of the people, Jesus needed to offer no sacrifice for himself so that he could offer himself as the sacrifice we need. And so the writer says, because of his unique mediation, as our great high priest, because of his finished and accepted work, he went into heaven itself, passing into heaven on our behalf because of his personal divinity and his understanding, sympathy and his sinless obedience.
Therefore what? Well, hold fast your confession of faith in him. Where else would you go to one who can do so much for you all that you need to be accepted and acceptable and welcomed in and before God? So because of him, hold fast your confession and the second thing, because of him, let us draw near to the throne of grace.
That's verse 16. Let us then verse 16 with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and help, or mercy and find grace to help in time of need. The writer's reminding us that we need help in our trials to troubles and temptations and when we're tempted to go back. We need help and where can we find that help?
We can find that help in Jesus himself. Notice we have in the first place free access to the throne of grace that throne, he says, is not a throne of condemnation. It is a throne of grace. It's a throne of unmerited favor to us, even in the face of our demerits, right?
Calvin said, the throne of God is not arrayed in naked majesty to confound us, but is adorned with a new name, even that of grace, which ought ever to be remembered whenever we shun the presence of God. For the glory of God, when we contemplate it alone, can produce no other effect than to fill us with despair so awful is his throne. Calvin is saying, is God is a consuming fire? God is the holy just of all the earth?
But don't let that keep you from coming, because he has because of Jesus and his finished work. He has made his throne a throne of grace. Remember, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, even as you appear in his presence, looking for help. And then notice that this is for all Christians.
All Christians have this freedom of access to the throne of grace. I mean, the youngest and the weakest and the most ignorant do, the least faithful, the most sinful. He doesn't qualify this and say, you need to shape up before you come. You need to be a die-hard in faithfulness before you are welcome.
Now come as you are, because you have a righteous priest, you have access without fear, and you can find that the one who sits on the throne, well, his ear is back to hear you and come then with confident access to the throne. We're invited to come boldly or some translations confidently. Of course, not because of who we are, but because we come in Christ, because of who he is. The language here for boldly or confidently is the language of freedom or the language of frankness by which we may come.
So permission to speak freely, beg the private of the general and permission granted was the surprising reply because privates don't speak frankly to generals. But this general so to speak says, lay it all out there, kid, tell me your concerns. And so here, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, says, come and speak frankly to me. Pour out your heart like water to me.
Cast all your anxieties on me, because I care for me. Don't hesitate. Don't think there's a need to hide, no need to shape up. I mean, do you have sins to confess?
Well, freely confess them, frankly confess them knowing that as we're promised elsewhere, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Do you have weaknesses? Well, he sympathizes with you and he knows how to help you. So come boldly to the throne of grace and notice finally that promise then of timely help.
Let us come with confidence and draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Help in a timely fashion is promised. Help for the situation at hand. When you have a critical need in an urgent situation, God says, call out to me for rescue.
That word need there is the word used elsewhere for support. It's sometimes used as the word for rope. The picture of that would be well on the one hand when you come to the end of your rope. God ties a knot so that you don't slip off.
Or when you come to the end of your rope and you need some more, God gives you more rope for your aid, for your help. You never run out because he's willing, he's unquestionably willing. After all, he himself invites you to ask for that help and he himself at the great cost of his only son upon a cross, established a just basis for the promise of a favorable reply. Let's use that access even now.
Let's pray. Father, we praise you. We give you thanks in your presence. We bless you for Jesus, our great High Priest, who always lives to intercede for us even now.
We thank you that your ears are attentive to the cares of your people. Grant, Lord, in all the ways that we need, you would teach our hearts to trust in you and then show yourself strong on our behalf in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.
Let's stand together and sing a ride with me.