From the time of the fall of Adam man has needed a mediator… someone who would span the gap that now separated him from God. Man is sinful. God is holy. And because of His holiness God will have no fellowship or connection with sin. Before the fall God and man had close fellowship with each other. Each day God would come and walk in the garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. There was a friendship between God and man; a companionship. Man was sinless, he was pure. There was nothing to hinder him from approaching the presence of God. There was nothing to impede upon his communion with God.
But when Adam ate of the forbidden fruit the sinful nature took its place in the heart of man and forever drove a wedge between him and his Creator. No more could man feel free to enter into God’s presence. No more could God have that intimate fellowship with His creation. There was a wall of separation between God and man.
But God did not leave man hopeless. He was not satisfied to leave no way for that wall to be spanned. No, but He initiated a way for Him and man to still have a connection. Very early in Scripture we see God establishing a priesthood. He ordained men who would act as mediators between God and man.
The first of these individuals that we see in the Bible is a king by the name of Melchizedek. We find him in Genesis 14 where he is called “the priest of God Most High.” We see the system officially instituted in Exodus 28:1 where God tells Moses to take Aaron, Moses’ brother, and his sons with him, that they would minister in the office of priesthood. These would be the ones who would act as intermediary. They would be man’s representative to God and God’s representative to man.
God laid out every specific detail needed to make these men acceptable to Him and suitable to enter into His presence. From the minute details of the necessary uniform to the sacred rituals that were to take place God’s plan was made clear. They had to be pure. They had to be consecrated. They were the ones who entered into God’s presence on behalf of the people of Israel. And His holiness would not tolerate anything unclean.
Down through the ages God’s system was in place. The descendants of Aaron were ordained as the mediators between God and man. They were the ones who offered sacrifices to God in order to atone for sin. They were the ones who pointed man towards God. But this was only a temporary fix. This was only a system that God used to make the way for His true plan.
What was His plan? What was his permanent fix? To make a way for that wall of separation to be permanently removed; to make a way for man to enter into His presence freely again. And how was He going to do this? By sending His one and only Son, Jesus, to our world to live and die as a man. What good would that do? Well, I think I can explain. Why don’t we look at our text this morning? There are a couple of verses I want us to think about this morning that tell us about God’s permanent plan for a Mediator.
Heb. 4:14-16… Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
This morning, there is no need for us to go to a priest and ask him to enter God’s presence on our behalf. We don’t need another person to act as our representative to a holy God. Why? Because Jesus Christ has become our eternal High Priest. He has become our eternal Mediator. He is the One who now bridges the gap between God and fallen man. And I think there are three things that these verses tell us about our High Priest that should come as an encouragement to us. And I want to share those things with you this morning.
I. He’s A Sympathetic High Priest
First of all, our High Priest is a sympathetic High Priest. You know, when election season comes around and it’s time to vote for the ones who will represent our fair state in Washington, D.C., I think we will probably end up voting for someone who lives in Tennessee, won’t we? I mean, it’s very doubtful that we’ll elect someone who lives in New York and has never been a resident here to be a Senator or Congressman for us, right?
Why is that? It’s because when we choose someone to be represent us we want someone who understands where we are coming from. We don’t want someone who has never been near our state, who doesn’t care anything about the values that we hold high here in the south, who doesn’t know anything about us, who only considers us a bunch of rednecks; we don’t want that person to be the one who goes to Washington on our behalf. We want someone who can relate to us. We want a Tennessean to represent Tennessee. We want someone who has walked in our shoes, or boots as the case may be here. We want someone who is one of us.
And I think that is something that we can shift directly over to our discussion this morning. You know, a high priest was someone who could represent man accurately because he was also a man. He knew the struggles that other men faced because he faced them too. He was able to understand where the ones he was offering sacrifices were coming from because he shared their shoes. Heb. 5:2 tells us that the priests “could have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself was also subject to weakness.” He was able to be sympathetic with his fellow man.
Can you imagine what it would be like if God never sent Jesus to this world? What if He had never been born? What if He had never grown up in a human family? What if He had never felt the hurt, cried the tears, or enjoyed the friendships that we experience? What if the One who were to be our representative to God had never been one of us? Do you think He would be able to represent us very well?
I know He’s God and He can do anything, but I believe that God understood that the only way for Jesus to truly be able to be our Mediator was for Him to walk in our shoes. The only way that He could represent us properly would be for Him to become a man. So that’s exactly what He did. Jesus was born of a woman. He entered our world as one of us. He experienced our physical limitations. He knows what it feels like to stub your toe, to be hungry and thirsty and dirty and cold. He experienced our ever-changing emotions. He knows what it feels like to be joyful and to be angry, to be sad, to be betrayed by a friend, to be frustrated in your purpose. He even experienced our spiritual battles. He faced discouragement. He faced temptation.
Our Scripture this morning tells us that we don’t have a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are. Our Mediator is someone who has walked in our shoes. He isn’t sitting up in heaven totally disconnected with us. He isn’t unfamiliar with our situations. He doesn’t see us as a bunch of filthy humans that He doesn’t want anything to do with. No. He has been one of us. He knows what we face because He’s faced it. He understands what we go through because He’s gone through it. He can relate with us. And He is able to sympathize with us.
That’s why I think He’s so patient with us. That’s why He’s so willing to do everything in His power to help us... because He’s been there.
Come with me to a third grade classroom. There is a nine-year-old kid sitting at his desk, and all of a sudden, there is a puddle between his feet, and the front of his pants are wet. He thinks his heart is going to stop because he cannot possibly imagine how this has happened. It’s never happened before and he knows that when the boys find out, he will never hear the end of it. When the girls find out, they’ll never speak to him again for as long as he lives.
The boy believes he’s really in trouble, so he puts his head down and prays this prayer: "Dear God, this is an emergency! I need help now! Five minutes from now I’m dead meat." He looks up from his prayer, and here comes the teacher with a look in her eyes that says that he has been discovered. As the teacher is coming to snatch him up, a classmate named Susie is carrying a gold fish bowl that is filled with water. Susie trips in front of the teacher and inexplicably dumps the bowl in the boy’s lap. The boy pretends to be angry but all the while is saying, "Thank you, Jesus! Thank you, Jesus!"
Now all of a sudden the boy is the object of sympathy. The teacher rushes him downstairs and gives him gym shorts to put on while his pants dry out. All the children are on their hands and knees around his desk, cleaning up the mess. The sympathy is wonderful! The ridicule that should have been his was transferred to someone else, Susie. As the day progresses the sympathy grows better and Susie’s ridicule grows worse.
At the end of the day they are waiting for the bus. Susie has been shunned by the other children. The boy walks over to Susie and says, "Susie, you did that on purpose, didn’t you?" Sue whispers back, "I wet my pants once too."
Jesus has been where we are. The Psalmist said, “For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.” He understands all about our humanity. He is appreciates our struggles. He relates to our problems. And He is sympathetic towards us.
II. He’s A Qualified High Priest
But He isn’t just sympathetic, our High Priest is also a qualified High Priest. I talked to you before about some of the things that were expected of the priests before they could dare to enter into God’s presence. One day a year, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest would offer a sacrifice for the sins of the people. Their clothes had to be spotless. Their bodies had to be cleaned several times. Their own sin had to be atoned for before they could offer sacrifices for the people.
If they were to attempt to step into God’s presence unworthily or if they were to make a mistake they would be immediately struck dead. They had a rope tied around their ankle and a bell strapped to them before they entered the holy of holies, the place where God’s presence rested. If they were unclean or unworthy or not atoned for they would fall dead. The bell would stop ringing and those outside the holy of holies would know that he had died and would drag his body out and send in his appointed substitute.
Imagine being a high priest in that kind of situation. You’d better know that you’re fit to enter into God’s holy presence. You’d better know that you’re qualified for the task. It was a very unforgiving job.
But let’s think about Jesus for a moment. How is He so qualified for this job of High Priest? I think there are several ways. First of all, straight from our text, Jesus is worthy because He is sinless. Verse 15 tells us that He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. While Jesus was completely human, He was also completely God. It’s not an easy doctrine to understand or explain. But Jesus was at the same time all God and all man. He was born of a woman, which made Him human. But He was also born of a virgin. The Bible tell us that He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. This still allowed Him to maintain His deity which in turn allowed Him to live as a human without having that sinful nature that each of us is born with.
I don’t want to go too far down this road, just enough to tell you that Jesus never committed a sinful act, neither was He born with the sinful nature. He was sinless. He was spotless. What does that mean in the context of our discussion this morning? It means that He is the perfect One to be our High Priest. While the priests of the Old Testament had to always burn sacrifices for their own sins, Jesus has no need to offer those sacrifices. While the priests of the Old Testament had to make sure to clean and purify themselves before they could enter into the holy of holies, Jesus never was unclean.
Heb. 7:26-27 says “For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens, Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.”
You know, no matter how sure those priests were that their sins were atoned for as they prepared to enter into the holy of holies, they still had to come back the next year and offer those sacrifices for themselves again. They were sinners, just like the rest of the people who needed forgiveness. But our High Priest is one who has never had to seek atonement for His own sins. He is perfect. He is spotless. He is sinless.
But another reason Jesus is qualified is because His is constantly in the presence of God. The high priests of the Old Testament were only allowed in the holy of holies once a year. If they dared to walk in there at the wrong time they would pay dearly. But Heb. 10:12 tells us that Jesus, “after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God.” Paul says in Rom. 8:34 that Jesus is right now “at the right hand of God, making intercession for us.” While Old Testament priests could only enter the presence of God at certain times Jesus is constantly at the right hand of the Father.
What does that mean to us? Well, I believe it means that there are no more sacrifices to be made. No longer must our High Priest offer burnt offerings on our behalf every year on the Day of Atonement. No more must He kill a bull or a ram or whatever in order to seek the forgiveness of God for us. Because He offered one sacrifice that will last for all time. When Jesus laid down on that old rugged cross He became the perfect, spotless Lamb that would take away the sins of the world. And with His death He made it possible for all men to be forgiven. No more blood needed to be spilt because His blood would forever have the ability to wash away sins.
And you and I didn’t need to kill a lamb or a bull in order to receive the forgiveness of God. We didn’t have to burn sacrifices. All we had to do was receive the gift of forgiveness that was paid for with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. He made one sacrifice and it can cover all sin.
One final reason that Jesus is qualified is because He is the one and only Son of God. When I was in high school a friend of mine and I ran for office. I wanted to be student government president and my friend, Matt, was going to be vice president. We weren’t really sure why we wanted to get in office. It probably was just one of those cool things. We got an extra picture of ourselves put in the yearbook. We wanted the prestige of being called the mediators between the students and the administration. We really didn’t have any plans for the great strides we wanted to take. We really didn’t have many plans for anything at all. We just thought it would be cool to run for office.
Well, the day for us to give our speeches in chapel came and I can’t remember much of what I said, but I do remember our strategy. You see, we had a great asset and we were going to use it to our benefit. My friend and running-mate, vice presidential hopeful, Matt, was the son of the principal. And that gave us a great advantage over our opponents. And we decided we were going to point that out. I mean, who better to represent the students to the administration than the principal’s son? Who could gain an ear easier than he could? Who could act as a better mediator? Nobody could. And both of us harped on that. And we won. Sure, we had no idea what we were going to put in the principal’s ear, but our strategy worked.
And while we may not have accomplished squat during our time of office, I do think that we had a valid point that we can, again, apply to our discussion today. Who better to represent us to the Almighty God than His only Son? Who better to act as a Mediator than the beloved Son of God? Who could intercede in a way that would tug on the very heart of God better than His Son, Jesus? Nobody could.
What a consolation it is to know that Jesus is ever on the right hand of His Father making intercession for you and me? Who is more qualified than He is to be our Mediator? Who is more qualified to be our High Priest? No one. Because He alone is sinless, because He has sat down in the presence of God, and because He is the only Son of God.
III. He’s An Approachable High Priest
Finally, this morning, not only is our High Priest sympathetic and not only is He qualified, but He is also an approachable High Priest. The last part of our text today says, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Because we have Jesus as our High Priest we have an open invitation to enter into the presence of God.
One of the amazing and wonderful things about the day that Jesus offered the final sacrifice is what happened in the temple. You see, the temple is divided into sections. There was an outer court, which was something like a great foyer that stretched the entire distance around the rest of the temple. There was the inner court, which housed the altar and many different basins of water. Inside of that was the holy place, which housed the altar of incense. And inside of the holy place was the holy of holies, which housed the ark of the covenant as well as the presence of God.
I said all of that not to confuse you, but to say this: separating the holy place and the holy of holies was a thick veil. As I mentioned before, no one could enter past that veil except the high priest, and him only on the day of atonement. That veil represented the wall of separation between God and man. It represented the shutting out of all access into the presence of God.
But the day that Jesus died the Bible tells us in Matt. 27:51 that the veil that separated the holy place from the holy of holies was torn in two, from top to bottom. Because of the sacrifice of Jesus we now can have full access into the very presence of God. We do not have to remain shut out any longer. The wall between us and God has been broken down. The gap that widened the distance between us and God has been bridged. Christ’s sacrifice has made God’s presence approachable again.
At the end of the Civil War, a dejected confederate soldier was sitting outside the grounds of the White House. A young boy approached him and asked him why he was so sad. The soldier told him how he had repeatedly tried to see President Lincoln. He wanted to tell the President that his farm in the South was
unfairly taken away by the Federate soldiers. But each time he tried to enter the White House, the guards crossed their bayoneted guns in front of the door and turned him away.
The boy motioned to the soldier to follow him. When they approached the guarded entrance again, the soldiers came to attention, stepped back, and opened the door for the boy. He proceeded to the library where the President was resting and introduced the soldier to his father. The boy was Tad Lincoln. The soldier had gained access to the President through the President’s son.
Heb. 10:19-22 says “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; And having an high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.” Eph. 3:12 tells us that we can “have boldness and access with confidence.”
This morning, you and I can have full access into the very presence of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords through His very own Son, and our High Priest, Jesus Christ. It’s so good to know that we don’t need another individual to go into God’s presence for us. We don’t have to wait till a certain time of year to have a mediator go to the Father for us. We don’t have to live in fear of being struck dead if we enter His presence unworthily anymore, but we can rest in His promise that if we draw near to Him He will draw near to us. His invitation is open to all men to come boldly before His throne at any time, in any place, in any condition.
His presence is available in our Sunday services. His presence is available in our daily quiet times. His presence is available at our family altar. His presence is even available on the job or in our car. It doesn’t matter where you are or what time of day it is, the invitation is still extended. He’s approachable. He’s accessible through His Son and our High Priest.
This morning, we still need a mediator. Man’s sin is still something that God’s holiness cannot have fellowship with. But we have a Mediator that is sympathetic towards us. He knows what we face. He knows what we struggle with. He understands our humanity. And He sympathizes with us. We have a Mediator that is qualified. He’s sinless. He’s sitting at the right hand of the Father. And He’s God’s own Son. And we have a Mediator, this morning, who is approachable and who makes the presence of God approachable.
We can once again walk day by day in the presence of our Creator because of our Great High Priest. The wall is broken down. The gap is bridged. And we can boldly and confidently step into the presence of God again.
