Jesus our Sympathetic Priest, giving confidence and support to our prayers (Hebrews pt.3: 4:12-5:10)

  • We can gain a deeper appreciation of what Jesus does for us from this description of O.T. priests.
  • Hebrews urges us to come to God in confidence because Jesus truly knows what it is like to be human: weak and tempted.

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Video cover image by Aaron Burden Unsplash License

  • Three large chunks of Hebrews taken up talking about priests!
  • These are introduced near the beginning with these verses:

Hebrews 2:17–3:1

  1. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers and sisters in every respect,
    so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in things relating to God,
    to make atonement for the sins of the people.
  2. For since he himself suffered when he was tempted,
    he is able to help those who are tempted.
  3. Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, partners in a heavenly calling,
    fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess.
  • Parallel with verse near the end “Fix your eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith”
  • Sometimes things are so big or abstract that we teach them to children using models.
  • Similarly the priests were just pictures of the work of Jesus

Goal

To gain a deeper appreciation of what Jesus does for us from the picture of O.T. priests.

Jesus our Sympathetic Priest, giving confidence and support to our prayers (Hebrews pt.3: 4:12–5:10)

  1. Problem of Sin and Failure
  2. How Jesus helps us to pray
  3. His sympathy with our struggles

“100% helpless”

100% helpless
  • We once had a cat that had kittens
    • It was an amazing experience to see how the mom cared for them
  • In what ways does a kitten depend totally on it’s mother?

Leviticus 16:3–6, 13–15

  1. “In this way Aaron is to enter into the sanctuary—with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.
  2. He must put on a holy linen tunic, linen leggings are to cover his body, and he is to wrap himself with a linen sash and wrap his head with a linen turban. They are holy garments, so he must bathe his body in water and put them on.
  3. He must also take two male goats from the congregation of the Israelites for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering.
  4. Then Aaron is to present the sin offering bull which is for himself and is to make atonement on behalf of himself and his household.
    …
  5. He must then put the incense on the fire before the LORD, and the cloud of incense will cover the mercy seat which is above the ark of the testimony, so that he will not die.
  6. Then he is to take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the eastern face of the mercy seat, and in front of the mercy seat he is to sprinkle some of the blood seven times with his finger.
  7. “He must then slaughter the sin offering goat which is for the people. He is to bring its blood inside the veil-canopy, and he is to do with its blood just as he did to the blood of the bull: He is to sprinkle it on the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat.

based on NET Bible

  • The was the “Day of Atonement”, once a year
    • Atonement means paying the price to take away guilt
  • Once a year. If he didn’t take all the precautions, he would die
  • But even all this did not actually cleanse them
    • It was just a picture of the real sacrifice
    • If they did it faithfully, God counted it as trust in Jesus

Hebrews 10:1–4

  1. For the law possesses a shadow of the good things to come but not the reality itself, and is therefore completely unable, by the same sacrifices offered continually, year after year, to perfect those who come to worship.
  2. For otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers would have been purified once for all and so have no further consciousness of sin?
  3. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year.
  4. For the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins.
  • But there was another role the priests had:

Two Roles of O.T. Priests:

  1. Animal sacrifices for sin
  2. Incense offered as a symbol of prayer
  • When we think of Jesus being a priest for us, we usually think of his great work on the cross
    • But today we are going to talk about his work now
    • Actually, he provides for all our needs (just like the mother cat and the kittens)

Hebrews 4:14–5:10

  1. Therefore since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.
  2. For we do not have a high priest incapable of sympathizing with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin.
  3. Therefore let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace whenever we need help.

Jesus: A Better High Priest

  1. For every high priest is taken from among the people
    and appointed to represent them before God,
    to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.
  1. He is able to deal compassionately with those who are ignorant and erring, since he also is subject to weakness,
  2. and for this reason he is obligated to make sin offerings for himself as well as for the people.
  1. And no one assumes this honor on his own initiative, but only when called to it by God, as in fact Aaron was.
    1. So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming high priest, but the one who glorified him was God,
      who said to him, “You are my Son! Today I have fathered you,”
    2. as also in another place God says, “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”
  1. During his earthly life Christ offered both requests and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death and he was heard because of his devotion.
  2. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through the things he suffered.
  3. And by being completed in this way, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who hear him,
  1. and he was designated by God as high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

based on NET Bible

  • Note the phrase: let us confidently approach the throne of grace
    • =Prayer
  • What might stop us being confident in our prayers ??

Not confident because:

  • Our sin and failure
  • Feel God does not really care
  • Feel God is angry
  • Our prayers sound foolish
  • Not important enough to bother God with

1. Problem of Sin and Failure

1. Problem of Sin and Failure

  • We sin again...
  • But this is the 100’th time with this sin
  • and 100 times we have asked forgiveness
  • Feel too guilty to ask again
  • How does this teaching help us?
  • Stories of cat hair
  • Story of dry cleaners

Leviticus 5:5–9

  1. when an individual becomes guilty with regard to one of these things they must confess how they have sinned,
  2. and they must bring their penalty for guilt to the LORD for the sin that they have committed, …from the flock, a sheep or goat, for a sin offering. So the priest will make atonement on their behalf for their sin.
    …
  3. Then he must sprinkle some of the blood of the sin offering on the wall of the altar, and the remainder of the blood must be squeezed out at the base of the altar—it is a sin offering.
  • I want you to imagine the scene!
    • There is the priest, standing by the altar
    • Dressed in white
    • Lineup of people, all with their sheep or goats
    • Why are they there? —because they have sinned, and this is exactly the place to come
    • There is only one qualification for being in that lineup —what is it ??
  • When we sin, there is one place to go where we should not be fearful
    • Just like that priest was waiting for the people in line, Jesus is waiting for us
    • Sin is not good, we are not happy about it, but it should not keep us from God

1 John 2

  1. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.
    But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous One,
  • So: Never let your sin keep you from coming to God in prayer
    because that is the very place you should go when you sin.

2. How Jesus helps us to pray

Part 2. How Jesus helps us to pray

  • Romans 8:34–35, 26
  1. Who is the one who will condemn? Christ is the one who died (and more than that, he was raised), who is at the right hand of God, and who also is interceding for us.
  2. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

The Spirit helps as well:

  1. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how we should pray, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings.
  • What does intercede mean?
  • I once had a disagreement with someone based on a misunderstanding
    • I was talking to a mutual friend about it, and he said, “Don’t worry, I’ll talk to him about it for you”
    • With his help, the problem was quickly resolved
  • Sometimes we feel our prayers are very pathetic
    • We just don’t know what to say
    • Jesus (and the Spirit) take our pathetic prayers and make them effective
    • So never let your lack of ability to pray stop you praying—Jesus sees your heart!

Luke 22:31–32

  • Jesus prays for Peter:
  1. “Simon, Simon, pay attention! Satan has demanded to have you all, to sift you like wheat,
  2. but I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. When you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
  • Jesus is praying for us!

3. His Sympathy

  • I don’t know if any of you suffer from …
    • If you do, then let me tell you, I can sympathize with you!
  • When you pray to God, how do you visualize him?
  • This is very important—we have to have some conception of the person we are praying to
    • Some people pray to a picture of Jesus, which God doesn’t seem to like us doing at all, because it’s not him!
    • Worse, some people have a model of Jesus hanging on a cross—but he’s not there anymore!
    • The reason God doesn’t like these is because he has given us a much better way!
    • Jesus came purposefully to give us a mental picture of God
      • Stories of his life are the best picture to fill our minds with
  • What stories can you think of that could help us form a picture?

Pictures of God:

  • Speaking to the woman at the well
  • Compassion on the hungry crowds
  • Weeping over Jerusalem who rejected him
  • Stopping for blind beggars
  • Defending/not condemning the woman in adultery
  • Weeping a Lazarus’ death as he saw people’s grief
  • Angry with the hypocrites
  • Tempted like us
  • Of course this is mostly just one side
  • But he really was tempted. He was single. He must have been very lonely at times.
  • The verses we had earlier:

Hebrews 4:14–16

  1. Therefore since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.
  2. For we do not have a high priest incapable of sympathizing with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin.
  3. Therefore let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace whenever we need help.

Summary:

  1. He provides a place to go when we sin—a place of forgiveness
  2. He makes our prayers perfect and prays them on our behalf
  3. He is the most sympathetic person we could ever know
  • “Let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need”

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