Pastor Jonah Sage preached from Hebrews 5:1-10. He taught that Jesus is the Great, eternal High Priest of God. Listen to and obey him as you await your eternal salvation. Lector: Kristen Gilles
Pastor Jonah Sage preached from Hebrews 5:1-10. He taught that Jesus is the Great, eternal High Priest of God. Listen to and obey him as you await your eternal salvation.
Lector: Kristen Gilles
Over the last few years I’ve done a lot of hiring. I don’t mean professionally…think of all the people you hire
We remodeled a house, and now have an old house, which means we hire all the time
Masons and dry-wallers and plumbers and electricians and fence builders and….a lot!
Then there are babysitters, dog watchers, landscapers, and, for some, employees.
Doctors and dentists and lawyers…on it goes.
We’re looking for the right person for the job all the time.
how do you do it? How do you decide who has what it takes?
3 questions all of us ask everyday of our lives:
You have to understand the problem. You have to know the person has what it takes. And you have to have some kind of reason to pick Jim over Joe, Sarah over Stacey.
For the original congregation of Hebrews, there was one job more important than all others: the High Priest.
Priests stood above common people in the Old Testament. And, above them stood the High Priest.
OT emphasized the High Priests status and dignity in relationship to God.
He was not like anyone else and was chosen to fulfill this special duty.
He offered sacrifices for sins, both his, and those of the people.
He came before God to represent the people…verse 1 summarizes all this for us:
Every high priest is a man chosen to represent other people in their dealings with God.
-Hebrew 5:1
That’s what he does…he represents the people to God. How does this relate to 1st question? What do I need?
Verse 1 continues:
He presents their gifts to God and offers sacrifices for their sins.
-Hebrews 5:1
The problem is we are sinful and separated from God.
Anybody said something in the last month you wish you hadn’t? Not sure why you did?
Done something in the last month you wish you hadn’t? Not sure why?
Anyone still doing the same thing you’ve been trying to stop for a decade?
Ever came under the clear sense that God was telling you to do something…and you refused to listen?
Your problem is you don’t do what you want to do and you keep doing what you wish you didn’t.
OUR problem is that we fight or petty things, we overlook those who need our attention most, we neglect the obvious in favor of our preferences…we need someone who can go and plead our case before God.
We need an attorney, a mediator, SOMEBODY, who will place one hand on our shoulder, and one hand on the throne of God, and set our crooked hearts straight.
We must be purified of sin. We must be reconciled to God. We must be healed of our suffering. We must be reconciled to each other. That is our problem.
And that is what a high priest is for. To offer gifts and sacrifices for our sins, to represent us in matters related to God.
That takes care of question 1. Now…what makes someone qualified for this kind of work?
This is harder for us to understand than the congregation of Hebrews, again, verse 1 gives us a clue.
High priests were chosen from a group of people.
They were picked. What were the qualifications?
Verse 2:
He is able to deal gently with ignorant and wayward people
-Hebrews 2
Now we’re getting somewhere. First, he deals gently with people. Did you see that?
God help our churches that celebrate angry, mean, aggressive, macho pastors.
Macho and aggressive are not fruits of the Spirit.
A high priest needed to be someone who could be gentle.
It means to be kind to others and to moderate your own emotions.
A stable person, steady person.
Two kinds of people (general categories, of course there are more)
Ignorant: some people sin because they don’t know better
Wayward; some people sin because they’re lost, some because they’ve suffered.
So, some folks need correction. Some folks need instruction. Some folks need healing.
A high priest must be wise, gentle, patient, so he can deal gently with ignorant and wayward people.
Now something really interesting happens in the text here, we don’t see it.
In the OT, high priests are often said to be clothed in splendor.
They are righteous, they are LIFTED UP. But the Preacher is setting us up here.
He’s preparing us to see the High Priests in a new way…look what he says next
He is able to deal gently with ignorant and wayward people because he himself is subject to the same weaknesses.
-Hebrews 5:2
Part of what made the High Priest qualified was his status as a human.
But that also meant he was not entirely safe in the God’s presence. Why?
Because High Priests do the same dumb stuff you and I do.
They sin just like you and I sin. In other words, they have the same problem.
Would you invite a plumber to work on your house whose toilets didn’t flush?
Maybe if he was the only one…but you’d sure hope for someone else to come along, amen?
“Subject” here is elsewhere translated clothed. It’s reminding this congregation that High Priests were respected, yes…but they were clothed in weakness, it hung around them like a cloak, because they were human just like you and me.
They were picked out of a crowd of people by God.
So, you and I are separated from God and each other. We need a high priest.
A high priest must be able to gently deal with ignorant and wayward people, and he must be chosen by God, not self appointed.
The preacher now helps us see this Jesus whom he’s preached about for 4 chapters in yet another fresh light.
Not simply in the wonder of who he is, but also what he does as the new high priest.
This leads us to our third question…Hebrews has called Jesus High Priest several times now, and again in today’s passage, and more still in the chapters to come.
Many voices today promise redemption. Can you hear them?
You’ll be reconciled to God and each other if you were a little thinner, a little wealthier, a littler calmer or a little more active, if you were better at gentle parenting or home schooling or more engaged with the PTA…do you hear all the voices telling you do this and you will live?
Do you hear the many high priests applying for the job of reconciling you to God?
How are we to choose? I mean this sincerely. What criteria do we use?
how are we to choose who we will have as OUR high priest?
The Preacher quotes two psalms here. Listen:
[Jesus] was chosen by God, who said to him, “You are my Son. Today I have become your Father.” And in another passage God said to him, “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”
-Hebrews 5:5-6 (quoting Psalm 2:7 and 110:4)
Two reasons to pick Jesus as your high priest.
First, he is God’s son! God calls him Son!
SECOND, HIS PRIESTHOOD ENDURES FOREVER.
Have you ever wondered why we never hear of the Jewish high priest now?
Where has the high priesthood gone? Where have the sacrifices gone?
High priests used to go and offer sacrifices for people and themselves.
That’s what verse 4 told us. Now listen to what the eternal son did:
While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death. And God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God. Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered.
-Hebrews 5:7-8
Why have Jesus as your high priest? Because while high priests used to go and offer sacrifices for people and themselves, Jesus the final high priest offered himself as a sacrifice.
We don’t sacrifice anymore because Christ was sacrificed once for all.
His priesthood is eternal. Though he is without sin, he took upon himself the consequences of sin. Listen:
In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him.
-Hebrews 5:9
How can you trust him to save you from death? Because he himself rose.
He offers you salvation, eternal assurance, and he has made it possible by joining in our weakness, sympathizing and understanding it, being clothed in it, so that we might become clothed in his righteousness. Oh the great exchange!
No other priest offers to suffer for you, with you, alongside you.
No other priest offers you eternal salvation with the evidence of their own resurrection.
No other priest but JESUS is named by God both Son and Priest forever.
No other person’s priesthood is grounded in their sonship…Christ alone, Christ alone, Christ alone.
His priesthood is not temporary, it is eternal, which means, in him, you and I are eternally safe.
We eternally have one who places his hand on our shoulder, and another on the throne of God.
He has wounds in his hands, his feet, his side and forehead. By his stripes, we are healed. By his wounds, we are forgiven.
Oh he deals with us gently when we are ignorant and wayward. He is stable and steady, an anchor for our soul.
Jesus is the only one qualified to be our High Priest forever. He’s the right man for the job, and he has fulfilled his duties perfectly.
So, who else will you choose to save your soul? To heal your soul? To reconcile you to God and your brothers and sisters?
Jesus is the Great, eternal High Priest of God.
Listen to and obey him as you await your eternal salvation.