|
|
|
Jesus
: The High Priest
INTRODUCTION The book of Hebrews
proves to us that we have a subtle temptation to depend on ourselves.
It warns us about life and the seriousness of our shortcomings but
then gives us the answer for difficulties, pointing to the ministry of the
Lord Jesus to those that are weak and hurting.
We are therefore given a series of stern admonitions and then given
hope, that our drifting can be corrected, simply because of the fact that
God's mercy and grace are greater than any difficulty we will encounter. Let us first remember
that this book was written to Christians.
It is intended for us. We have been warned that
sin is deceitful, and that if we drift from listening to the message of
Christ we will become hardened. When
we become hardened we will not enter the rest of God, which involves
enjoyment of true life. We
are told therefore that we should fear coming short of attaining this
promise of entering into God's rest. The distinction is drawn
between hardening of the heart, or hard heartedness and weakness. Hard-heartedness results when our Christian life becomes such a routine, so monotonous that we slowly drift away from a vital relationship with Christ. We can see this happening to us when we begin to respond to fads and the myriad of seductive hype that we hear so frequently, while ignoring the deep and important things of God. This chasing of
will- o- wisps will eventually make our choices turn into habits, with
these habits leading to our destruction. The book sharply
differentiates between hard heartedness and weakness.
Weakness is demonstrated by an inability to resist deception.
Because of ignorance and foolishness, Christians do all kinds of
things that they deeply regret and wish they had not done. Then there is
an experience of real sorrow and repentance before God, and a willingness
to change is shown. God will
use this process to teach us wisdom and to produce growth in our lives. The Scriptures sternly
warn us not to live our lives under our own direction, but to look to the
enormous resources for help that exists, for those who live in the daily
presence of Christ. There is a real danger in becoming dull of hearing and unable
to understand what the scriptures are teaching and stressing. Nothing is hidden from
God for He sees our hearts. Everything
is naked and open before him. The context of today's
lesson therefore if this. Here
are Christians who are thinking about giving up on Jesus.
They have forgotten that God sees everything, and that his word is
quick, powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, dissecting and
exposing all the thoughts and intents of the heart.
The drift into hard heartedness will mean exclusion from God's
rest. This can happen because sin is very deceitful.
It can make a person think they are following Christ when they
really are not. Sin is tricky, cunning, misleading, and most dangerous.
Believers must strive spiritually to enter into that rest.
Unbelief is a terrible thing for it inevitably leads to
destruction. God has however made provision for us when the pressure gets too great, and Hebrews now invites us to look at our great High Priest who is our refuge, our fortress, our strength, our redeemer, our supporter, our motivator, our encourager, our lawyer, and our guarantee of success. THE TEXTChapter 4 Verse 14.
Here then is the
solution to all the difficulties, namely, Jesus, called the High Priest.
He is not just any High Priest, but a great one. This text indicates why
He is called great. He is
great because He has passed into the heavens. By this passing into the
heavens, the statement is made that He has completed the work of
redemption and is now transcendent over all.
He has ascended into heaven the place of supreme power. The turn ‘great’
denotes that he has done something that no other High Priest had ever done
or was ever able to do. No
other High Priest had ever passed through the heavens, for none other was
the Son of God. By ‘passed into
heaven’, the meaning can also be drawn, that Jesus has passed
through the veil that separates us from the immediate presence of God and
that separates Him from the carnal world in which we live. The word great
over and above indicates something about the office of the priesthood that
Jesus has. Since Jesus is the ‘first fruits’ and as verse 3
has indicated that these things were so from the foundation of the world,
Jesus then is the archetype and antitype of the many human legal high
priests. The other aspect of His greatness flows from where He officiates as High Priest. He does not work on Earth through a earthly temple, in the earthly Holy of Holies, but in Heaven. He is acclaimed great due to the virtue of his perfect sacrifice. Jesus is called the Son
of God. There are not many references to Jesus as the Son of God, but
here is one. Jesus, is stated
to be the Son of God. The first part of the
phrase indicates the significance of a Saviour.
The second part of the title impresses upon us, a sense of the
dignity due to his true nature. He
is God, the same nature as the Father, for he is not simply a mere man or
an angel, for the term indicates that He considered himself equal to the
Father. He is a great High Priest, due to his nature. It is important for us to look at the nature of the ministry of a priest, and especially that of a High Priest, so that we can see whether or not Jesus filled the required qualifications. The first high priest of
the Hebrew people was Aaron. He
was marked out from all the other priests by his clothing, his duties, and
the requirements for him to be the spiritual head of the people of God.
One writer comments on at Leviticus 21 requirements for this High
Priest: “ It's holder had to
be without physical defect as well as Holy in conduct (Leviticus 21:6-8).
He must not show grief for the dead-even his father or mother-by
removing his head dress or letting his hair go unkempt.
He must not tear his clothes in grief or go near a dead body.
Leaving his duties unperformed because of a death would “ profane
the sanctuary” (Leviticus 21: 12).
He could marry only a “ virgin of his own people” (Leviticus
21: 14), or a believer in God. She
could not be a widow, a divorced woman, or an impure woman.
He must not, by a bad marriage, spoil his own holiness or endanger
the holiness of his Son who would succeed him. A high Priest was consecrated (installed in office) by an elaborate seven-day service at the Tabernacle or Temple. (Exodus 29; Leviticus 8: 1). He was cleansed by bathing, then dressed in the garments and symbols He must wear in his ministry and anointed with special oil. Sacrifices of sin offering, burnt offering, and consecration offering were made for him; and he was anointed again with oil and blood of the sacrifice. Thus “ sanctified” to serve as a Priest and “consecrated” to offer sacrifice (Exodus 28:41; 29:9), he became “ the saint (Holy one) of the Lord” (Ps. 106:16). The high Priest special dress represented his function as mediator between God and man.” The high Priest wore
an EPHOD….. By two onyx
stones bearing the names of the 12 tribes of Israel fastened to the
shoulders of the ephod, he brought the whole nation before God in all his
priestly acts (Exodus 28:5-14). The “breastplate of
judgment” made of the same material was attached to the front of the
ephod (Exodus 28: 15-30) on its front were 12 precious stones engraved
with the names of the 12 tribes. In
its pocket, directly over his heart, were the URIM AND THUMMIM (Exodus 28:
30), the medium through which God could communicate his will.
By this the high Priest was Israel's advocate before God and God's
spokesman to them. Over the breastplate he wore the blue “ robe of the ephod” (Exodus 28: 31). Around its hem were pomegranates, pointing to the divine law as sweet and delicious spiritual food (Deuteronomy 8: 3), and bells that would ring as he went into the holy place before the Lord… that he may not die (Exodus 28:35). The bells announced God's gracious salvation for he had accepted the people in the person of their advocate, the high Priest. On his forehead the High Priest wore “the holy crown” of gold engraved with the words, “ Holiness to the Lord” (Exodus 28: 36-37). Thus he was represented as bearing “ the iniquity of the holy things” (Exodus 28: 38) which Israel offered to God a crowned mediator, making atonement for the nation so God might accept their gifts and show them favor. The most important
responsibility of the high Priest was to conduct the service on the DAY OF
ATONEMENT, this 10th day of the several months each year.
On that day he alone entered the Holy Place inside the veil before
God. Having made sacrifice for himself and for the people, he
brought the blood into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled it on the Mercy
seat, “God's throne”. ” This then was the ministry of the earthly high Priest. Our High Priest Jesus therefore ministers in the heavens on our behalf. Note that Hebrews nine goes into great detail to compare the ministry of Jesus with the ministry of the High Priest. Verse 15.
Our High Priest Jesus, though God,
is unique in the sense that He can sympathize and empathize with us. Here then we have someone
who is totally sympathetic to the perils, persecutions, and pressures that
we face in life, but he is all-wise and all-powerful, and has strength
that can never be exhausted. He
is in the place of supreme power and has no limits whatsoever on his
ability to aid, protect and assist us. It is often pointed out
that this is the most widely neglected resource for Christians.
Christians have been told over and over again that they should not
look first for human help, but even if they do and it does not work, they
should never succumb to discouragement, despair, defeat, or things like
suicide. Their defense
provision is always there. When
the times of trouble come, when afflictions press the soul, and the waves
of trouble roll over us, we should never forget that Jesus is able to meet
our every need. This then should ensure that Christians hold to our profession. We have the assurance that He understands the trials that come our way due to sin. He does care for us. This of course helps us when Satan tells us that we should go ahead and sin because we are too weak to resist. We know that we have the strength we need residing always with us, for we are in union with Jesus. His sympathy arises from his knowledge and experience (of temptations). The idea that Jesus is God, but that he is compassionate, or literally can “ sympathize or suffer along with” us, would have sounded strange to these Christians. One writer reminds us: “ To the Greeks, the
primary attribute of God was ‘apatheia’, the essential inability to
feel anything at all.” Hebrews denies that
secular idea, for it teaches that not only is Jesus completely aware of
the temptations we face and the battles against sin we go through, but
that He knows what it is like to be tempted and to battle against sin.
However, unlike us, He is not stained by sin. It was declared before
that Jesus was made like his brothers in every way and now we are told
that he was tempted in every way just like we are tempted.
Clearly Jesus exceeds us in his awareness of the power of
temptations, because being sinless he could feel the force of temptations to the full.
One writer explains why this is so: “
Only the sinless can experience the full intensity of temptations, for the
sinful yield before the limit of temptations is reached.” In
other words, when we are tempted we fall relatively quickly.
Temptation does not have to show its full force, nature, or extent
of its power, to defeat us. However
one who is sinless will be taken to the very limits of temptations power,
before that one can show that he is actually sinless. Jesus
did just that, temptation took him to its awesome limit, but his victory
demonstrated his sinlessness. The
Scriptures tell us that he was God, and that He was holy, and without sin,
even though He fully shared our humanity. Therefore it was rightly said: “The
Sinless One knows temptation in a way that we do not; only the one who
does not healed knows the full force of temptation.” Verse 16.
Therefore, because we have a Lord
and Redeemer who is both omnipotent and compassionate, and who has
suffered along with us, we can therefore approach God boldly since he is
in addition to everything else, our Advocate. There are a few things
that must be done on our part.
An active participation in the event of salvation and redemption is
needed. We are not just to go
anywhere, we must now draw closer to God. We must draw closer with
confidence, not with a prideful spirit. Jesus our High Priest, and Saviour
has offered the perfect sacrifice, so then we are able to approach God. The gift of mercy, is
just that, a gift. We did not
earn mercy from God, we obtained , or better yet, received it.
And also grace is extended to us through the remission and removal
of all our sins and the acquisition of spiritual gifts.
Jesus knows that in all times or seasons, sin will continually be
against us, but grace extends to cover it whenever necessary. Satan of course always
has his primary task of discouragement us from approaching Jesus.
He wants us to consider that Jesus is unapproachable or unhelpful.
He never wants us to consider that Jesus is sitting on a throne in heaven. Note that this throne of grace had been pictured as the Mercy seat in the Old Tabernacle. It was on that old Mercy seat that the High Priest sprinkled the blood of sacrifice every year, for it was there that God met sinful people on the Day of Atonement. One writer explains: “ The throne of grace….. is the throne of power in the universe from which grace constantly flows to needy suppliants. Mercy is the remission of deserved judgment, while grace is the supply of undeserved blessing. Both are needed by sinful believers such as we all are, and both are available to us when we come with confidence. We are loved as children and cherished as recipients of the great salvation 1 by the blood of our great High Priest.” Chapter 5:1In order to show how
Jesus was both God and High Priest and truly understanding and empathizing
with everything that we are going through, we are now shown how Jesus
fulfilled all the qualifications of this absolutely necessary role of High
Priest. First, to be a priest He
must be human, since He is called by God to represent men. Second, God must appoint
him. Every true High Priest that exists among men is called by God, or
ordained or appointed by God, such as in the office of the Levitical
priesthood. Third, the Priest's
ministry consists, and of offering gifts and performing sacrifices for the
sins of himself and the people. His
major work is therefore to deal with the alienation of man from God
brought about by human sin. All men have a universal
and awful problem of guilt from which they can never escape, and which
keeps us in perpetual bondage. Everyone has this overwhelming feeling of
guilt. The only answer to this guilt is found when a life is sacrificed.
That is why men need a priest. These priests were taken out of men and appointed for a particular task for God’s purpose. So the priest is to act on behalf of all men to offer sacrifices to God. The important aspect to note here is that the office of the priest or high priest was nothing to aspire to. It was an hereditary office, but the holder must be chosen of God. No man could take this honour to himself. Verse 2
The priest in the Old Testament that was chosen first of all had duties
to offer sacrifice for his own sins before acting on behalf of others.
The priest was open to sins just like any other man, because he was
a man. This priest was chosen as the “best” of man to serve God for
his people’ s sake. The
compassion that the priest must feel, relates back to his own
imperfections, but amplified since now he must go before God. Only an
intermediary appointed by God could be effective as an intermediary
between God and man. No human authority can supplant God’s appointment.
There were some instances
when people presumptuously decided to act as priests, ignoring the fact
that God had not chosen them. In
every case there was a quick and dreadful response from God.
Numbers 16 recounts the story of Korah. 1 Samuel 13 describes what
King Saul did, and 1 Chronicles 26 describes the experience of Uzziah. We note that Jesus was
chosen and appointed by the Father. The priest was also required to be sympathetic to human weakness, understanding the hurt men experience, the foolishness they do, and their inadequacies. The priest was instructed to deal gently with the people and minister with compassion. Since the priest, being human, understands the human condition, and in addition has been appointed by God, he has the ear of God, and understands enough of God's love, his heart and his purposes, he can offer help to the hurting and needy people of God that he serves. Verse 3. The Priest is really not all together different from the people he serves. He suffers from infirmities, that is to say moral weakness which leads men to sin, and hence to death. And so offerings are made for his sins, and also for the peoples, to make all worthy to stand before God. Verse 4. The office of a priest is no light office. None should desire it. The office must be filled, and so God chooses, just as he did Aaron. Only from Aaron’s line can the office of High Priest be attained. As regarding Aaron, the office of priesthood was conveyed solely to him and hence his descendents. They were to be separated form the rest of the children of Israel. For them, the principal honour lay in the work they performed, as they represented the people of Israel to God. Signs of Aaron’s confirmation to the office was the blooming of his rod. Jesus’ confirmation came with the witness from God the Father, and the Holy Spirit. Verse 5.
Jesus did not make himself High Priest, and did not engage in
any political intrigue to get the appointment.
He did not take the honor to himself as some presumptions humans
had done, but was clearly appointed by God. He was declared to be a priest forever as Ps. 110:4 prophesied. The quotation “Today I have begotten you” is a reference to the fact that Jesus was offered as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of men, was then resurrected from the dead, and then took on his role as our great High Priest. Here was a High Priest who was the sacrifice, and completed the work of redemption, who being sinless, did not have to atone for his own sins first. He could in one act bear the wrath sinners deserved. Verse 6.
Jesus’ priesthood was compared to the priesthood
of Melchizedek. Two
priestly systems are established by God.
One is that of Aaron, called levitical, since he came from the
tribe of Levi, who descended from Jacob. At first, the priesthood belonged
to the firstborn. Aaron was first separated to the priesthood in Exodus
28, and this is mentioned after Moses received directions about the
tabernacle and its furniture. The other system was
first referred to in a story about Abraham who we are told had given
tithes to the priest Melchizedek, who was not only a high priest, but a
King as well. Both were archetype and
antitype of who Jesus is. Melchizedek is a more
complete picture of the type of priest that Jesus represents.
The change in priesthood
form Aaron’s to Melchizedek’s also represents a change in the type of
longevity of the priests’ office. The
priesthood of Melchizedek is a priesthood which is very different as is
outlined in chapters 6 to 7. This is a priesthood that is
Jesus fulfilled this office of High Priest in every way, for he was man, priest, king, and He was also God. This appointment of Jesus by God as well as the humanity of Jesus is now discussed in some detail. Verse 7.
The reference is to Jesus Christ and here this text
concentrates on the human nature of Christ, to prove that He became a man
and thus qualified as a priest. He knew what it was like to struggle with
agony and with the difficulty of obedience. This is mysterious indeed for
how could the glorious divine Jesus come to go through and understand what
ordinary men go through on earth. How could He understand the pressures
men faced, if He never sinned? The answer is found in
Jesus’ experience in the garden of Gethsemane, shortly before he was
killed. There Jesus began becoming sin for our sake.
See 2 Corinthians 5: 21 which states clearly that Jesus became sin,
taking on himself all the accumulated sins of men. Christ had suffered
because his Father would not intervene or join him in this state of
defilement. He offered to God
prayers, cries, tears and supplications, but He was isolated and suffered
alone. Jesus prayed to the One
who could save him, asking for the bitter cup to pass, for He did not want
to die, but He knew that He did not want to disobey God either, or to
escape His Father’s will. He
obeyed even though He did not want to and learned how to obey in the
process. Note that in this process
Jesus was not disobedient and then passed later on to a stage of
obedience. He knew before how to obey, but now He had to learn or
experience what is really involved in obedience, when temptation comes in
full force to one who is sinless but human.
This could only be experienced after he had set aside the glory of
heaven and humbled himself to become a man. Clearly then Jesus faced
extreme emotion and misery because of the sin that he took on himself, for
he bore the full brunt of the shame, guilt, despair, sense of
hopelessness, total discouragement, feeling of utter defeat, feeling of
abandonment, feeling of being crushed, isolation, dejection, and anger
that sins bring. Jesus
therefore came to understand and experience exactly the same feelings that
we have, only in a more acute fashion. Jesus was the one perfect
sacrifice that could redeemed us and reconcile us to God.
He who had no sin in himself had taken the sins of all of us on
himself. God hates sin, and as
part of his holy nature, He separates himself from sin.
His only begotten Son was sent to redeem man from this sin, this
sin which God hates. The sin
Jesus took upon himself, resulted in God looking away from Jesus.
Disrupting the special communion they shared, if only for a moment. This is what Jesus feared, not mortal death, but spiritual death, separation from God. This is what the office of the High Priest entails. That is why no man can take this honour unto himself. Christ conceded to the will of His Father, showing the obedience we must all display. Verse 8.
Jesus was the only begotten Son of God.
On that, there is no doubt or dispute.
The sonship is tied to having the same nature and perfection as
God. Jesus did learn
obedience to the Father by allowing himself to be obedient to death, and
the death of the cross no less. He was not ignorant of the nature of this kind of death, but it was something that He did not as yet experience. It was a voluntary act, done in our stead. This is the true measure of his righteousness and dignity; that He was obedient to the will of His Father, to yield to this type of death. This demonstrates great humility, something every Christian should possess. One writer describes this learning of obedience: “ There in
Gethsemane he learned how it feels to obey when such obedience only
promises further pain. He could and did add to his prayers, ‘ yet not my will,
but yours be done’.
Thus Jesus learned obedience when every fiber of his being longed
to escape. He had gladly been
obedience to the Father all his life. In Gethsemane it was hard, excruciatingly hard, for him to
accept God’s will, just as it often seems hard to us to obey it.
But this is because we are impure, not pure.
Nevertheless, even though he was a Son who loved to obey his
Father, yet he learned obedience the hard way through his experience in
Gethsemane.” Note however that Jesus
was never disobedient. He
stated his preference, and asked his Father to save him, but He never
rejected his father's will nor sought to substitute his own will for the
Father's will. Note that suffering is never to be despised. Christians know that they are appointed to affliction. See 1 Thessalonians 3:3. Romans 8:17 states that our current suffering is only a prelude to glorification. Verse 9.
Being made perfect, this part of Jesus task was done. He
demonstrated obedience to the Father, which the Bible clearly says, it is
better to obey than to sacrifice. Jesus
proved that he had the qualifications to become the sin offering as well
as the High Priest who would offer this offering.
This is something that the Aaronic priesthood could not do. Jesus’ suffering and
victory made him perfectly suited to be the author or source of our
salvation. God wishes obedience from
His children. This is what
Jesus demonstrated. After
this perfect sacrifice Jesus received his glorified body.
He is now the one who is in control of our salvation.
The story of salvation is done. Christ is the author and finisher of it. To secure salvation, it should follow as simple logic that we follow the one who has set out a path already. Glory and honour should be given to Christ as He has made it possible for man to be redeemed to God. The only doorway to God is through Jesus. We should go to him boldly. CONCLUSIONJesus was victorious.
He sets us an example. He
absolutely refused to question the wisdom of the Father, strike back at
Him, blame Him, or slip into unbelief.
He placed Himself under the loving care of the Father. We should learn that we must do the same. The succeeding verses
show us the problem of these Christians. It also highlights our problems
today. They had become dull of
hearing, and therefore the desire had grown in them to give up on Jesus. They had failed to
mature. When they should have matured and become teachers, they were in a situation where they had to be taught. They were therefore
exhorted to go back to the first principles, the basic things. They had become babies,
people unskilled in the word of righteousness.
They were only fit for milk and not solid food, when in fact they
should be people who could discern between good and evil. We should question
ourselves as to why we are unskilled in the word of God, constantly tossed
to and fro with every wind of doctrine, into every new fad and fiction,
and generally unhelpful to those in need of salvation. Let us examine ourselves
and go back to our first love, focusing our attention and our study on
Jesus, submitting to the Holy Spirit, in total obedience to the word of
God.
|