The thing that the passage before us is Hebrews chapter 5, the first six verses. So it would be a great help to me if you could turn to Hebrews chapter 5. You'll find it on page 1003 in the Black Pugh Bibles in front of you. Before I read the passage, I need to tell you a story.
Well, several years ago I was reading the Gospel of Mark with a man raised in Communist China. And doing so reminded me of just how Jewish the Christian religion is. I don't think that the Gospel of Mark is being particularly Jewish. I think of the Gospel of Matthew or maybe John.
But right there, Mark chapter 1, I think it's the second verse, it says, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet. And this Chinese man looked at me and said, who's Isaiah? Well, I try to specify I could to explain who Isaiah was. And then right at the end of Mark chapter 1, Jesus heals a leper.
And Jesus tells the leper, if you remember, to go and show himself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded for a proof to them. And the Chinese man looked at me and said, who's Moses? And that's a great question, isn't it? But where do you begin?
Do you start with the law or maybe the wilderness or do you go back to the Exodus or the Passover, the plagues of Egypt or the burning book? Or do you just start with Adam and move forward? And in our passage tonight in Hebrews chapter 5 verses 1 to 6, the author of Hebrews references Aaron in verse 4 in Melchizedek in verse 6. And in order to understand some of what he's saying, we're going to have to do a little history.
So now let's look at Hebrews chapter 5, the first six verses. For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorance and wayward since he himself has beset with weakness. Because of this, he's obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people.
And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God just as Aaron was. So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, you are my son. Today I have forgotten you. As he says also in another place, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
Well, let's pray. And that's God to help us as we look at this passage together. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you love us with an everlasting, always and forever love.
And we pray that you would speak through my feeble lips and speak to our ignorance and wayward hearts and draw us gently and lovingly to our great high priest, our Lord Jesus Christ. And it's in his name that we pray. Amen. Amen.
Well, notice how the author of Hebrews takes the requirements for priesthood very seriously. Last week in Hebrews chapter four verses 14 to 16, we began a journey about the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ that will last except for a little segue or at the end of chapter five and some chapter six or all chapter six. We'll stretch from Hebrews chapter four all the way to Hebrews chapter 10 verse 18. So we may not in our own lives reflect carefully on the high priesthood of Jesus, but in a book of only 13 chapters, the author of Hebrews takes the priesthood of Jesus very seriously.
And if he does, then so should we. Well in this passage before us, we see how a priest is chosen or selected. And also we begin to understand what kind of service he performs. We've got, I was teasing said earlier that my sermon has two main themes, each with a couple different sub points.
So I'm deceiving you a little bit here by saying the two main points, but just to get them in the front of your mind, there's selection of the high priest and the service of the high priest. The selection of the high priest. He's chosen from among men, Hebrews chapter five verse one, just as Aaron was verse four, and so to the Christ, God's Messiah, the anointed one verse five. The high priest is appointed to act on behalf of men before God, verse one, just as Jesus was verse six.
Second, we're going to look at the service of the high priest. What does the high priest do? Well he deals gently with the ignorance and wayward. That's verse two.
And he offers gifts and sacrifices for sins. Verse three. And as we look at the selection of the high priest and the service of the high priest, we think we need to think about the Old Testament background, the New Testament fulfillment and how that applies to us today. So first, let's consider the selection of high priest.
The priest is chosen, Hebrews chapter five verse one, for every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God. And verse four, no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. Now make a mistake, the author of Hebrews gets the history right. In Exodus 28, the Lord says to Moses, bring near to you Aaron your brother and his sons with him from among the people Israel, the service of priests.
A high priest was chosen from among men. In fact, when Leviticus chapter 21 wants to refer to the high priest that speaks of the priest who is chief among his brothers. And no one we read in Hebrews chapter five takes this honor to himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. You may remember that when Aaron was acting as a priest, Cora the son of Ishar led a large group of well-known men.
They were leaders in the congregation of Israel against Moses and against Aaron. And in the name of equality, they questioned the privileged place of Moses and Aaron asking a number 16 verse three, why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord? And when Moses heard it, he fell on his face and he told them, it's against the Lord that you and all your company have gathered together. What is Aaron that you grumble against him?
And the earth literally swallows up these opponents of God's chosen priest. And fire comes out from the Lord and kills 250 men offering incense. And Aaron is there too. He's offering incense too, but the Lord's chosen one is untouched by God's wrath.
Aaron's not trying to take any honor to himself. They are. Hebrews chapter five or sport. No one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was.
And if you try to take the honor for yourself, bad things happen to you. Know them, the Lord Jesus, if he is our high priest, must be taken from a man. He must be a man. And he is.
That's when we celebrate this Christmas, the Jesus percip of our human nature in every way, except for sin. Similarly just as Aaron did not volunteer himself to be a priest, Jesus truly was a priest chosen by God. Chapter five verse five, you are my son. Today I have forgotten you.
Jesus, the son of God, did not glorify himself. When in John chapter eight, when he's asked, basically, who do you think you are? They say, who do you make himself out to be? Jesus responds by saying, if I glorify myself, my glory is nothing.
It is my father who glorifies me of whom you say he is our God. Jesus did not take honor for himself. He sought in joy and freedom to glorify his father and his father in turn sought to glorify and honor his only begotten son. So every high priest is chosen among men.
No one takes the honor to himself. And Jesus was called by his father to this holy priesthood. Now a quick point of application. Rarely do we have as a congregation, so obvious an application of a passage than this one.
Here's what I mean. We're reminded in this passage that doing work in God's house is not an honor that one takes for oneself. And we have before our congregation one teaching elder and four ruling elders for our consideration. And their internal call, their inward prompting to do this work must be matched by the external call of this congregation saying, yes, we want these men to lead us.
It's an opportunity for us to affirm publicly or not our acceptance of these men who have put themselves forward for the Lord's and for our consideration. So if you're qualified to do so, vote and do with a grateful, thoughtful, prayerful, open heart. These men cannot be chosen by God to be over the congregation unless the congregation chooses them. So she's wisely.
And in many years and months and years to come, in the midst of conflict, the sect with discouragement or overwhelmed with obligations, we want each man approved by this congregation to know that we participated in the voting and selection process with full knowledge that the Lord and His good providence was using the congregation to call them to their appointed work. If the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has to be called to be the great high priest, how much more so do feeble schmucks have to be called to do the mere work comparatively of a teaching or ruling elder? The selection of a high priest requires that he's chosen and that he's appointed. He's appointed by God, verse one, to act on behalf of men in relation to God.
So priests weren't simply chosen. They were also dutifully installed into their office. Leviticus 8 and 9 explain the careful ordination of Aaron to the priestly office. At the end of chapter 9, the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people.
Fire consumed the sacrifice and the people, understandably, if you think about it, gave a great shout and fell on their faces. And you can only do what you're appointed to do. In the very next chapter, two of Aaron's sons thought it'd be a good idea to offer a little incense to the Lord. You'd think by now they would know not to do it.
The fire simply consumed them. Aaron's own sons. So do what you're appointed to do. Don't mess around here.
Don't invent your own way of worshipping God. That gets people killed. So Aaron was called by God and stalled by a priest. But we have to deal with another bit of Old Testament data.
And that is, apart from the Levitical priest of the Aaron, there's another priesthood that's mentioned. We see it referred to in Hebrews chapter 5, verse 6. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Here the author is picking up on Psalm 100 verse 4.
And apart from this one verse in the Psalms, in the innumerable references to Melchizedek and the book of Hebrews, there's only one other chapter in the Bible that mentions Melchizedek. And it's Genesis chapter 14. Now Ted preached an excellent sermon on Genesis 14. So your homework for this sermon is to go home and listen to that.
But for a moment, just remember that Abraham has rescued Lot by defeating a consortium of kings, one king whom Ted called in his sermon King Cheddar, and then the rest of the kings. And Abraham meets Melchizedek and Melchizedek is a priest who is also a king. And Melchizedek serves Abraham, bread and wine, and blesses him. And Abraham gives Melchizedek a tenth of everything.
So someone in the Old Testament is a priest who is also a king. Could this perhaps be a reference to one of the kings of Israel, the United Kingdom or Israel or Judah? No. The Old Testament teaches us no way.
We have evidence that it's a very bad idea for a king to start meddling in priestly affairs. In Second Chronicles chapter 26, King Uzziah decides that he just entered the temple of the Lord and offered up a little bit of incense. By now, you know what's coming, right? It doesn't end well.
It's not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests of the Son of Aaron who are consecrated to burn incense. That's what the priests cry out against him, but Uzziah doesn't listen, and God strikes him with leprosy. And for his whole life, he is excluded from the house of the Lord, and he dies a leper. Well friends, what about Jesus?
Has he been appointed to an office? Or is Jesus doing something that he shouldn't be doing? Hebrews chapter 7 verse 14 makes clear what's at stake. For it's evidence our author says that our Lord was descended from Judah.
And in connection with that tribe, Moses said nothing about priests. In Hebrews chapter 5 verse 6 offers an answer, though not a Levite, not a descendant in the priestly line, Jesus was still a priest, just in a different order, the order of Melchizedek. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. So Jesus isn't like Chora resisting God's priest and getting swallowed by the ground or consumed by fire, like Aaron's sons or like Uzziah, presuming to do something that he's not authorized to do.
On the contrary, Jesus is fully qualified to be your priest. After the author of Hebrews is teaching us. There have been no irregularities in his selection process. He's been duly appointed a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
So only Jesus is your priest. Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox priests are neither in the order of Levite nor are they in the order of Melchizedek. No wonder then that John Calvin wrote, papal priesthood is a spurious one because it was fabricated in a human workshop. I think we as evangelical Christians are allergic to the word priest because of its Roman Catholic connotations.
We think of a man with a collar if we went to Catholic school, perhaps a nun who yelled at us, but we shouldn't. Just because others misuse the word doesn't mean that we should avoid it altogether. If a Roman Catholic talks to you about a priest, you should talk to her about yours. You should say the Lord Jesus Christ exalted in the heavens is my great high priest and he does his work and he has done his work perfectly on my behalf.
Well speaking of the work that Jesus has done for us, let's pit it from the selection of our high priest to the service of our high priest, the service. A priest he was chapter 5 verse 2 can deal gently with the ignorance and wayward. Now the law of God provided ample opportunity for those who sin unintentionally to offer a sacrifice. Leviticus chapter 4 gives a long list of such instances and that stands in contrast to sins committed with a high hand.
Those that express presumption and open rebellion against the Lord, that person, Numbers chapter 15 verse 30, shall be cut off from among his people. So there are people who are ignorant, who are sin unintentionally and they're also the wayward. Those who are drifting away from the Lord Jesus, they need to be called back. Now one obvious reason for a high priest's gentleness is offered in Hebrews chapter 5 verse 2.
He himself is set with weakness. Now we can understand weakness in terms of human frailty, kind of natural weakness, or we can understand weakness as a moral weakness that is sin. And let's be clear, Jesus had the natural weakness of human frailty without the moral weakness of human sin. Jesus, those sympathetic to our weaknesses and tempted as we are, never sinned.
But being exposed to human frailty without being exposed to human sinfulness and being exposed to temptation without being exposed to giving in to temptation is more than enough for our Lord Jesus to be sympathetic to us. He's sympathetic because he knows with poverty, exhaustion, hunger, pain, and fear are. He knows temptation to the fullest because he resisted the whole way, where we give in at a moment's notice. And his sympathy towards us, unlike any other high priest's, is unmixed with sin.
He's all the more sympathetic because his tender concern for us is not mixed up with pride or selfishness or self-conceit. So in the midst of the sufferings of this life, both our human frailty, our hunger, our frustration, legitimate, our sleeplessness, but also even in the face of our own sinfulness, our own wanderings, we can trust that our great high priest will deal gently with us. Do not think that God is harsh and unforgiving. He is not.
He is so well disposed towards you that he has given you a high priest to deal gently with you and your weakness. And our high priest isn't just sympathetic. We see that he does something else. Hebrews chapter 5 verse 1.
He offers gifts and sacrifices for sins. And he is obligated verse 3 to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. Now, Leviticus chapter 16 describes the day of atonement. The one day and the whole year when just the high priest was allowed to go into the most holy place.
And the author of Hebrews makes clear and the Old Testament makes clear that the high priest has to offer a sacrifice for his own sins before he did anything on behalf of the people. Now chapter 5 verse 1, this gifts and sacrifices for sins, I think the best way of understanding this is to see this as one category of things, that something is both a gift and a sacrifice for sins. Our Lord Jesus in Matthew chapter 5, when he talks about offerings, he actually includes everything under the heading gifts. Notice too that the author of Hebrews here talks in the plural.
He doesn't say offer gifts and sacrifices for sin as though he was talking about the power of sin generically. Instead, he's talking about the individual sins that we commit. It is easy for us to consider sin in the abstract, but we ought to consider the sinning in particular, the careless remark that we made, the wicked thought that we had. Now, priest offers sacrifices and Jesus did priestly work standing before God on behalf of men, offering gifts and sacrifices.
Let's be clear, the real difference is between the priests and the high priest of the Lord Jesus and the other high priest, though tempted in every way, he never sinned. He is, he reads chapter 7 verse 26, a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens. In so chapter 7, it tells us that he had no need like other high priest to offer sacrifices first for himself and for other people. Let's be clear that there's one similarity that's very important.
The Lord Jesus, as our high priest, did offer a sacrifice. He offered a holy, perfect, priceless, unblemished sacrifice. That is to say, he offered himself on the cross Jesus gave himself as a true sacrifice for sins. And he died for our sins, not for his own sins, because he had none.
And because Jesus is our high priest, we can draw near with confidence to the throne of grace as the author of Hebrews has told us in Hebrews chapter 4, even though we are all naked before him, as he also says in chapter 4, we have a high priest, our Lord Jesus, who has given himself for us. Let's close with one word of application. With Jesus as your high priest, you have no need of anyone else. So stop looking to yourself to make things right between you and God.
Stop looking at someone else to make things right between you and God. Only the Lord Jesus, your great high priest, makes things right between you and God. When meditating on Isaiah chapter 54 verse 5, that the holy one of Israel is thy redeemer. Charles Spurgeon remarks that Jesus, the Redeemer, is all together ours and ours forever.
Then he continues, all the offices of Christ are held on our behalf. He is king for us, priest for us, and prophet for us. Whenever we read a new title of the Redeemer, let us appropriate him as ours, under that name, as much as under any other, the shepherd's staff, the father's rod, the captain's sword, the priest's miter, the prince's scepter, the prophet's mantle, all are ours. Jesus hath no dignity, which he will not employ for our exaltation and no prerogative, which he will not exercise for our defense.
It is good and sweet for us to think of Jesus as our great high priest because he holds that office in perfection for us sinners that we are. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you love us so much, that you sent your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to give himself up as a sacrifice for sins. Thank you, Lord Jesus, our great high priest, that you humbled yourself taking a form of a servant, and you were crucified between two thieves for us.
May we rest in your priesthood for us. May we rest that you continually intercede with the Father for us. May we rejoice knowing that you love us enough to die for us. And it's in your strong and powerful name we pray.
Amen.