Hebrews 4:14-16 Jesus, the Great High Priest
Thesis: In light of the two options left us by our exposure to the word of God in verses 11-13, we must choose whether to bear the scalpel or the sword. We are “naked” and “exposed.” We cannot claim ignorance. What shall we choose to do? Recently, we have been told to “be diligent” on this matter. For those who are informed by the Word of God and undecided, the Preacher of Hebrews urges two things: 1) Cling to the confession of faith which saves, and 2) Go deeper into a relationship with Christ.
A. Isa 52:13-53:12. Fourth Servant Song of Isaiah
1. 52:15: Sprinkle many nations,
a. Allusion to the Day of Atonement, sprinkling of blood.
b. Includes not only the Jews, but also gentiles.
2. 53:1: Believed the revelation. It’s about believing what has been revealed.
3. 53:3-6: Jesus is not only the priest presiding over the atonement, but he is the sacrifice as well. He is the one who takes the penalty for our sin and brings peace.
4. 53:9: He is sinless
5. 53:10: When he is done, he can rest and be satisfied, seated in glory
6. 53:11-12 The work of Christ is sufficient to save.
7. 53:12: Part of his work is to intercede, the priestly role.
B. To our text: Heb 4:14-16. Jesus has been shown superior to Angels and Moses, and his followers are superior to those of Moses. He is superior to Joshua because he actually leads us into real rest. Here, he is shown superior to the High Priestly office, and Aaron in particular.
C. H4:14:
1. Theme of Jesus as High Priest introduced in 2:17; 3:1. Exposition begins here and runs for most of the rest of the book.
2. “Great High Priest” never used of any High priest except Simon Maccabeus, who was simultaneously a political head-of-state and High priest (1Mac 13:42). Jesus will be all the more.
3. “Passed through the heavens”:
a. διεληλυθότα; διέρχομαι dierchomai “to come” in the Perfect tense, plus the prefix “dia,” meaning through. “To have come through once in the past with continuing effect in the present.”
b. οὐρανούς “of the heavens,” pl.
c. The High Priest would traverse through the outer court, through the Holy place, and into the Holy of Holies.
d. Jesus passed through to the third heaven (2Cor 12:2)
1) Atmosphere
2) Space
3) The abode of God
e. The tabernacle of Israel is modeled after a heavenly reality.
f. When the High Priest came in, he was to do his work quickly, and then leave. (Lev 16)
g. Jesus sat down. (Acts 7:55; Romans 8:34; Eph 1:20; Col 3:1)
h. Only chair in the Holy of Holies is the Mercy Seat, the Throne of God. The priest dare not sit on that. There is no rest for a human High Priest, but there was for Jesus.
i. The High Priest sprinkled blood on the Mercy Seat (Lev 16:14)
j. Jesus, still bearing his wounds, was seated on the Mercy Seat (Rev 5:6).
4. Jesus: His human name and nature, taken up at the incarnation.
5. Son of God, His heavenly divine nature, the name by which He has always been known.
6. “Let us Hold Fast” κρατῶμεν; κρατέω krateō
a. “Let us” not in the text, implied by the conjugation of the verb.
b. First Imperative Verb: Strong, emphasizing position. 1st person plural. Cling to.
c. Don’t let go of the truth you know and have confessed. (Homologia).
D. H4:15: Jesus; humanity is full and authentic, yet unstained by sin.
1. Jesus can “sympathize with our weakness.”
a. Συμπαθῆσαι; συμπαθέω sympatheō To suffer with Sym: with; Pasxo: to suffer or be vexed.
b. Ἀσθενείαις; ἀσθένεια astheneia A: not; Thenow: to strengthen. To not have strength. Not a synonym for “sin,” since he is without sin.
c. Jesus has felt all the fatigue, frustration, sickness, injury, and despair that a human can encounter.
2. Jesus has been tempted in every way:
a. Πεπειραμένον; πειράζω peirazō: “Peril”
1) Prove, test, try, examine
2) Perfect tense. Once with ongoing effect.
b. There is nothing that comes our way to test us, from above or below, that is unique to us. 1Cor 10:13
3. Without sin: Jesus has endured it all perfectly!
a. “But He’s God!” Objection doesn’t stand. He emptied himself (Phil 2) and was empowered by the Spirit (John 3).
b. Who has it harder, the one who holds up a weight indefinitely without letting it drop or the one who bears for a moment and then folds?
c. Jesus’ fitness for sacrifice depended on his perfection (Ex 12:5; Lev 22:19; 1Pe 1:19)
E. H4:16: Jesus seated on the Mercy Seat
1. Προσερχώμεθα; προσέρχομαι proserchomai
a. Again, “Let us” is implied by the conjugation, not given in the text.
b. Second Imperative verb: Emphatic position Imperative, First person plural.
c. After taking hold of the confession, draw near to Christ.
1) Possible to take hold of the confession and not draw near (Four soils, wilderness generation).
2) Salvation involves perseverance, which requires drawing near, abiding.
d. John 15:1-11
1) Abiding involves belief, relationship, and obedience
2) Abiding requires the word
3) Evidenced by fruit.
4) No word, no fruit, not abiding.
2. With confidence: παῤῥησίας; παρρησία parrēsia:
a. Approach a superior to speak without fear of reprisal:
1) Mark 15:43
2) Acts 4:13
b. “Permission to speak freely”
c. Eph 3:7-14
d. 1Jn 4:17
e. If we have held to the confession and placed our faith in Christ, we are without reason to fear (Rom 10:9-10; Rom 5:1)
3. “Throne of Grace” as opposed to the “One with whom we must deal” or “The One to whom we must give an account.”
a. Remember the final scene of last week. The lost are naked and exposed, ready for execution. Waiting for the decision from Caesar.
b. For the saved, that same person, on the same throne, represents Grace and Mercy.
c. Mercy Seat
d. Grace: Not getting what we deserve. Mercy: Getting what we don’t deserve.
4. In time of need:
a. Εὔκαιρον; εὔκαιρος eukairos
1) Eu: Good, true
2) Kairos: Time
b. Not just “seasonal help.”
c. “Of need” is implied by “receiving help.” Not in text.
d. In this good season, this right time.
e. “Today” the day of salvation (3:13-15).
f. This is the window of salvation, before you have been hardened (3;12) and the judgment is passed (4:13)
g. Jesus bears our sins in his heart while he serves as our priest (Ex28:29-30)
F. Three emphatic imperative verbs in this region:
1. Be diligent (vs11)
2. Cling to (vs 14)
3. Draw near (vs 15).
4. “In the context are three great exhortations which bear a very remarkable and distinct relation to each other: ‘Let us labour to enter into rest’; ‘Let us hold fast our profession’; Let us come boldly to the throne of grace. It is a hard thing to labour to enter into rest. How is it to be done? The second exhortation helps us to answer, ‘Let us hold fast our profession,’ which being translated into other words, is this: our true way of labour is to cling in faith to Him whom we acknowledge; but knowing the weakness of our own hearts, and how they waywardly fluctuate and pass away from the one confidence and happiest trust, it is with profound wisdom that the ultimate injunction is held out for the foundation of all - ‘Let us come to the throne of grace.’ There we get the strength that will enable our slack and benumbed fingers to grasp again the thing we hold. There we shall get that fresh grip of Christ which will quicken us for the labour of entering into rest.” Expositions Of Holy Scripture, Alexander MacLaren Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.
5. We need the strength of Christ, which comes from abiding in Him, to “be diligent” and “cling” in a hard, persecuting world.
a. Our own “persecution” in Hawaii is light and silly in comparison with others’
c.
Most Christians are familiar with the word “confessor” when it refers to an ordained priest who hears one’s confession. However, the original meaning of the word, derived from the Latin confiteri (to confess or profess) was a term used by first-century Christians for a completely different reason. They used it to refer to the stalwart champions of the Church who had confessed Christ publicly in times of persecution and were exiled, imprisoned, tortured or enslaved, but not killed, rather than abandoned their faith in Christ.
Father Douglas Joseph Shimshon Al-Bazi, a Syriac-Catholic priest, is that kind of confessor. He was kidnapped and tortured for nine days by Islamic State terrorists in November 2006. As a result of the torture, he suffered two broken vertebrae. His torturers brutally beat hit him in the face, with a hammer crushing his front teeth and breaking his nose. He also was beaten repeatedly with a hammer on his knees.
The Chaldean Catholic Church raised $170,000 as a ransom for his release and that of his confrere, Father Samy Al Raiys.
Since his release, with the assistance of the greatly put-upon Catholic community of Erbil, Father Al-Bazi sheltered hundreds of Christian refugees on the Mar Elia parish grounds in the predominantly Christian Ankawa neighborhood.
Most of the Christian refugees escaped Qaraqosh as ISIS thundered across Syria and Iraq beginning in August 2014. A great influx of funds, mostly from overseas, have been used to purchase and operate prefabricated housing units, schools, clinics, community kitchen and a library. Mar Elia Refugee Camp and others in Erbil house and feed more than 4,000 Christian families.
Two Christian citizens of Pakistan interrogated in association with a mugging were stripped naked, hung upside-down, beaten, and dunked in buckets of water. The torture happened May 13th. They are currently in critical condition and may not survive. Two other men, muslims, arrested at the same time in association with the same investigation, were questioned and released. It was later discovered that they were not even involved.
May 11th: A man who converted from Hinduism to Christianity was beaten and left for dead by a group of Hindu radicals angered that he and his family refused to stop worshiping Jesus.
According to Morning Star News, Hindu extremists in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Varanasi kidnapped 30-year-old Joginder Gold in April after he refused to comply with their demands that he and his family stop worshiping Christ.
An area church leader named Rev. Patsy David told the outlet that six Hindu radicals accused Gold of stealing vegetables from their farmhouse after he left a local store one morning. Gold denied the accusation and said he could take the men to the seller who sold him the vegetables.
One of the Hindus told Gold that he would take him to the seller and told him to get on the back of his motorbike. However, the radical took Gold to the Hindus' farmhouse, where he was tortured for nearly three hours.
"They tied me upside down on a tree and started verbally abusing me for my faith in Christ and started to beat me on the soles of my feet," Gold told Morning Star News.
He also revealed that one of the men stuck a stick in his mouth, while two other extremists held him down by sitting on his chest. Before finally losing consciousness, Gold threw up three times.
David, a male clergy member, told the outlet that the extremists then threw Gold's body in a pit and covered his body with leaves. A witness eventually took Gold to his home and notified the police, who in turn took the Christian man to the hospital.
"The injuries he suffered on the soles of his feet were so severe that they affected the veins in his head, and he suffered severe head pain along with severe pain in his chest, thigh, arm, buttock, upper back and left calf," David revealed.
David said that Gold and his family have long been harassed by Hindu radicals because of their faith: "For the past two years, they tried to implicate Joginder in a false case and told him to stop worshipping Christ or that he will pay for it," he said.
While police took Gold to the hospital, they took little action after a legal complaint was filed by a local Christian leader, and instead of asking questions about the assault and kidnapping, the police were more focused on when Gold converted and who converted him.
Gold told the police that he gave his life to Christ over eight years ago after seeing how Jesus helped heal his sister and witnessing the other members of his family put their trust in Christ.
Morning Star reports that Gold was transferred to a private hospital after six days of treatment and was discharged from the hospital after 20 days. Gold was not initially able to talk and as of last Friday was still not able to walk normally.
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c. Perhaps our turn will come for this kind of persecution in our lifetime. Perhaps not, but in all cases, the need to Be Diligent, Cling to our Confession, and Draw Near to Christ is supreme. God will preserve his children, but they must be diligent to persevere.
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