Introduction

• Last week we looked at the warning that was given to us about having a hardened heart and what that can do to us as Christians.
  • A hardened hearts dulls our ability to hear and understand God’s Spiritual truths.
  • We cannot grow as Christians our heart is like this.
  • We must instead open our heart so that we can fully receive Him.
• This week we will again turn back to Jesus who is as our great high priest.
  • Jesus being the Son of God is not one whom knows nothing of what it is like to be human.
  • To suffer and experience the pain that we go through.
  • We’ll see very clearly that Jesus came to live as one of us and experience what we go through so that He could be come the perfect and complete savior.

Holding on to the confession that we have in Jesus Christ | Hebrews 4:14

Read Hebrews 4:14

• Through these verses our Hebrew writer tells us more about who Jesus is, that he is our great high priest.
• But Jesus is not just any ordinary priest he is the Son of God.

Our Hebrew writer now refers to Jesus as the great high priest.

• The priests of the Old Testament were instruments used by God to make sin sacrifices for His people.

  • The priests were decedents of Aaron who is the brother of Moses. Only they were allowed to be priests as was commanded by God.

  • It was their responsibility to make atonement in the tabernacle for the sins of God’s people.

    Leviticus 16:32-34

    • Only the high priest could enter the 3^rd layer of the temple. The first is the outer court, then the Holy Place and finally the Most Holy Place.
    • This was done once a year on the Day of Atonement in tabernacle.

  • This sacrifice was always with blood, because without it there was no forgiveness.

    Hebrews 9:22

    “According to the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”

  • This process had to be continually performed because the sacrifice of the priest was temporary.

• However now we have a MUCH greater priest being Jesus who is the Son of God.

  • God had always intended for the actions of the priests to be temporary. They were simply a placeholder until the great high priest came who is Christ.

    Hebrews 8:5a

    “These serve as a copy and shadow of the heavenly things…”

  • Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice for all our sins something that the priests could never do.

  • While the priest’s sacrifice was temporary Jesus’s was permanent and far greater.

    Hebrews 9:13-14

    “For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”

Jesus the Son of God has passed through the Heavens because of his ultimate sacrifice.

• Jesus is fully identified in this verse as the Son of God.

• Jesus Christ while living on earth as a man in flesh, he was still God. His deity is made perfectly clear.

• The great purpose for Jesus to come down to earth was for his sacrifice and resurrection for the forgiveness of our sins.

  Hebrews 2:9

  “But we do see Jesus—made lower than the angels for a short time so that by God’s grace He might taste death for everyone—crowned with glory and honor because of His suffering in death”

• He had to die, there had to be blood so he could forgive us of our sins.

• Christ now has passed into the truth Most Holy Place once and for all.

• No longer would a human priest need to do this ever again.

What do you think about how God used the priestly system of sacrifices and the tabernacle as a prelude to Christ’s work on the cross?

Why do you think it was necessary for this to take place before His sacrifice on the cross?

Let us hold on to this confession instead of committing apostasy

• We are to hold onto our confession and to not show apostasy

  • Confession – To declare publicly a personal relationship and commitment to God. To continually abide in Christ.
  • Apostasy – To renounce God, to abandon our previous loyalty.

• Since we have a great high priest who is Jesus Christ the Son of God who has sacrificed himself for us, let us hold onto our confession by publicly declaring our relationship and commitment to God.

  Hebrews 10:23

  “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.”

  • Doing this is evidence of salvation, not that we have to “keep it” so we don’t lose our salvation.

• To hold onto our confession is to continually abide in Him, to abide in His Word.

  John 10:31

  “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples”

  • This gives evidence of our belief in who Jesus is.

• Let us hold on to the truth claims of Christ and our belief in them.

• Let us not allow ourselves to drift away or neglect God’s Word and the truth that we believe.

• Let us show our endurance in our faith, to always hold onto our confession and faith regardless of what happens.

Why do you think it is so important that we hold onto our confession?

Jesus our high priest suffered and was tested just as we are. Yet he never sinned. | Hebrews 4:15

Read Hebrews 4:15

Sometimes we think that God doesn’t understand what its like to be human, that he sitting all happy on his throne that he doesn’t know what its truly like to live as his creation.

• He doesn’t know what its like to be tempted, to suffer, to feel pain and misery.

This belief however couldn’t be farther from the truth.

• Jesus can sympathize with our weaknesses because he fully experienced them.

• Jesus suffered for our salvation

  Hebrews 2:10

  “For in bringing many sons to glory, it was entirely appropriate that God—all things exist for Him and through Him—should make the source of their salvation perfect through sufferings.”

  • For Jesus to become our Savior it was necessary that he experience the sufferings of man to the fullest.

  • If you look at the life of Jesus as he was here on earth, he made it a point to experience everything.

    • Baptized by John the Baptist even though He had never sinned.
    • He was tempted, He suffered, He cried, He died, and he served.

  • Jesus didn’t use his deity for His own advantage.

    Philippians 2:5-6

    “Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage.”

    • Jesus could have used that fact that he was God to his advantage and never suffered and could have easily removed himself from all troubles.

    • Yet that was not what he did, because it was necessary that he suffer FOR US.

    • Jesus instead humbled himself down as a lowly slave.

      Philippians 2:7-8

      “Instead He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave, taking on the likeness of men. And when He had come as a man in His external form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even to the death on a cross.”

      • His obedience wasn’t that Jesus needed to learn what that was as of course he his God but instead he needed to be our example.

• Jesus was tempted just as we are

  • The later part of verse 15 tells us that Jesus had been tested or tempted in every way that we are.

  • Again we may think well Jesus doesn’t know what its like to be tempted, it is so hard to no give in.

  • Again, however we see from Scripture that Jesus was tempted by Satan, the only difference between Him and us is that Jesus NEVER SINNED.

    Matthew 4:1-11

  • Jesus didn’t give into the human desires to do something that would cause Him to sin.

• For Jesus to be the complete and perfect Savior He became the model for all Christians.

  • We now have a perfect example of how a Christian should act and how one can get through any trial or suffering that we may encounter.

  • When God asks us to persevere through hard times, he isn’t asking us to do something that He himself has never done.

  • God went through all of this so that he could help us in our struggles and times of need.

    Hebrews 2:18

    “For since He Himself was tested and has suffered, He is able to help those who are tested.”

    • Isn’t it encouraging to know that God suffered so that he could help us?
    • God uses Christians who have endured trials to help others just like He did for us.
      • This verse should sound familiar to us.
      • Does God not allow us to go through trials at times so that we can learn from that experience and then use that to help others?
      • This is no coincidence.
      • God uses our struggles so that we can strengthen others.

• Jesus had to become just like us so he could make propitiation for our sins.

  Hebrews 2:17

  “Therefore, He had to be like His brothers in every way, so that He could become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”

  • It was necessary for Jesus to partake in human nature so that by His sacrifice it would satisfy God’s requirement for sin.

    Hebrews 2:14

    “Now since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these, so that through His death He might destroy the one holding the power of death—that is, the Devil—“

  • This shows God’s love, grace and mercy that He has for us, that he would do that for those that are undeserving.

  1 John 4:10

  “Love consists in this: not that we loved god, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

• There was one thing that Jesus did that we cannot, Jesus never sinned.

  • So although Jesus became just like us, he was tempted and suffered.
  • Yet through all that He never sinned.
  • This sets Him apart from us as He did something that we can never do.

How does knowing that Christ has experienced our pains and sufferings, that He understands what we go through tell us about Him?

When you read Hebrews 2:18 what does this Scripture mean to you?

Approach the throne of God with boldness | Hebrews 4:16

• We can be bold to approach the throne of God because we are part of His family. God is our heavenly father.

• We are brothers in Christ and children of God.

  Hebrews 2:11-13

• When we think of God and His might and power, we may at times think well God is to busy or isn’t concerned about our small issues.

  • Or perhaps we are scared to go to God because of who He is.

But the Bible tells us that we can approach His throne with boldness.

• This is because we are His children that God loves dearly.
• Of course we can approach our heavenly Father. He desires that we do.
• He is not a God that sits on his throne who doesn’t care what goes on in our lives. In fact it is the complete opposite.
• God desires to be involved in everything moment of our lives, he is there waiting for us to call out to Him to trust Him with everything.

This is different than it was in the Old Testament

• In the Old Testament we can see that only the high priest was allowed into the most holy place in the temple, not everyone could do this.

• In fact they could only do this once per year and never just whenever they wanted to.

  • We as Christians can come to the throne of God at any time, which is not something they were able to do in the Old Testament.

• We see now with the new covenant and because of the fulfillment of the works of Jesus Christ that we now have full access to God because of the cleansing of our sins. Because of the blood of Christ.

  Hebrews 8:10-13

We do not have to hesitate to come to God

• Because of this relationship that we have with God, we do not ever need to hesitate about weather we can go to Him.
• God will always accept us just as we are no matter what we have done.
  • People sometimes say well I’ve disobeyed God to much He will not accept me however the Bible has made it clear that God will accept us regardless of what we have done.

We receive mercy and grace from God.

• Mercy
  • Mercy isn’t what we deserve; it is what God choose to give us because of His love for us.
  • We deserve punishment and condemnation, but God shows us his mercy when we approach His throne.
  • When we approach with our confessions of sins, He will show us mercy with his forgiveness. Even though he could show us judgment.
• Grace
  • Grace is freely given to us by God.
  • We can come to God’s throne with boldness and he will give us grace.
  • With God’s grace he strengthens us and help us with all of our trials in life.
  • We as Christians need God’s grace as our lifeblood to live out the Christian life.
• Let us not be fearful but instead be bold to come to the throne of God.

What does it mean to you knowing that you can freely approach God on His throne? That there is no mediator needed other than Jesus Christ?