“THEREFORE, SINCE WE HAVE A GREAT HIGH PRIEST …”
Heb 4:12-16
Introduction
You telephone someone, what is the first thing you say when they answer? “How are you” And they answer “I’m good, thanks”.
Two things wrong here, firstly, that’s an American response and shows that you have been watching too many American programmes on TV (you need to stop and find something more productive to do). Secondly, you are not ‘good’; it’s why you are here today! (Rom 3:23) “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”; we just have to thank God that we (Rom 3:24) “are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
1. “for all have sinned”
How do we know that we have sinned? (12) “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
Yes, we do have the Word of God. It speaks to us as we read it, helping us to discern what is right and what is wrong. Psalm 1
1Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
2But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.
Note Ps 1:2 – not about actions and words (v1) it’s about what we really are, our whole being, the Bible often refers to it as our heart. (v1) is about actions (walking, standing, sitting), (v2) is about what we are, and how we take on the characteristics of the life that Jesus wants us to live.
What does Jesus say in Mark 7 14Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15Nothing outside a man can make him `unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him `unclean.’"
17After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18"Are you so dull?" he asked. "Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him `unclean’? 19For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean.")
20He went on: "What comes out of a man is what makes him `unclean.’ 21For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23All these evils come from inside and make a man `unclean.’ "
So the Psalmist is saying that it is not what we are doing that counts, it is what we are, and the only way that we can change what we are is by what we meditate upon. Before it can change us, it has to explain to us where we have gone wrong in our relationship with God (v12) “it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
God isn’t interested in what we say or do, He is interested in what we are, and we can change what we are. This is what the Cross is all about.
Repentance leads to forgiveness and the remission (the taking away) of our sins. It only leads to the forgiveness of our our sins because of what Jesus did for us on the Cross, He loved us so much He was willing to die for us. And God so loved us that He sent His only Son to die upon that Cross for us (John 3:16).
Again, repentance is not about what we do or say. We could say that repentance is saying we are sorry. How often have we heard someone say that they are sorry, when we know very well that they are not (politicians, seem to do it all the time, but is it only they?). Repentance is not saying sorry for what we have said or done, it is saying sorry for what we have become and wanting to be someone different. Someone who, instead of having an antagonistic attitude towards God, has an ‘all embracing’ attitude towards God, accepting Him as Sovereign Lord of all aspects of life and being. Sovereign Lord of our heart.
Being a Christian is not having a negative life. The Bible does not just tell us that we have gone wrong (Heb 4:12; Rom 3:23), it also tells us how we can get our lives sorted out with God, how we can grow closer to God, how we can change our attitudes to God and life, how we can change our hearts (Ps 1:2).
Hey! Look at the result in Ps 1:3, not planted by one stream but many, never run out of refreshing water. You will be eternally fruitful and you will be an evergreen.
Do you want to be an evergreen for God? There is only one way, and that it is to meditate upon His Word, because it can show us all that we need to know.
How does God know that we have sinned? (v13) “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” God, our Father, is omniscient, which means ‘all-knowing’. He knows everything about us.
When we are confronted by the Word of God, we are confronted by God Himself, and “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight.” The Bible is God speaking to us, but not just speaking to our eyes and ears, but to our hearts; our innermost beings; our spiritual selves.
Some may say that they are spiritual people, and by consequence, that others are not spiritual people. We are all spiritual people, made in the image of the Father Himself. Just as the Father has the Holy Spirit, so each one of us has a spirit, and it is to this spirit that God is speaking through His Word so that He can change us more and more into His likeness.
Rom 12:2 “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
2 Cor 3:18 “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
Do not confuse ‘repentance’ and ‘transformation’; repentance comes when we see that our lives have been lived in the wrong way and away from God and we respond to the call of the Holy Spirit to enter the grace of God, our Father. Transformation is a lifelong process which starts with repentance and finishes when we finally enter the presence of our Lord.
2. Therefore
One of the most important and powerful words in the whole of scripture!
We have come before our Lord, we have had the Word of God opened to us, it has spoken to us, it has judged us, we have repented and accepted Jesus as our Lord and Saviour – Therefore, let’s use what God has provided us with, a GREAT HIGH PRIEST, Jesus Christ Himself.
The writer to the Hebrews explains why! (15) human high priests are – human and flawed, just as we are. They are weak, they are one with us, they are all part of (Rom 3:23) “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.
They can go through the rituals laid down by God, but not really know our heart nor our heart’s need. God is all-knowing, human priests can be all-unknowing. At the time the writer was writing, it was the high priest who went into the inner sanctuary for all the people. It was he who spoke to God, it was he who performed the rituals and sacrifices.
We can forget all that. We have a High Priest who takes us a different route. At the Cross the barrier between the people and God was torn in two (Matt 27: 50, 51) “And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” Hallelujah! No longer are we locked outside. No longer are we at a distance from our God. It has all been broken down and we are lead through the curtain into the presence of Our Father, right up to the throne of grace itself.
The barrier set up between God and His people has been broken apart and washed away in the shed blood of Jesus Christ upon the Cross of Calvary. I love that hymn ‘Rock of ages’, in particular for some of the words in the first verse:
“let the water and the blood,
from Thy riven side which flowed,
be of sin the double cure,
cleanse me from its guilt and power.”
All that gets in the way of our approach to the throne of Grace has been washed and cleansed away in the shed blood of Jesus Christ. There are now no barriers left when we are in Jesus Christ.
Furthermore, we have one “who has gone through the heavens”. As the Aaronic high priest on the Day of Atonement passed from the sight of the people into the Most Holy Place (Lev 16:15,17), so Jesus passed from the sight of his watching disciples, ascending through the heavens into the heavenly sanctuary, his work of atonement accomplished (Ac 1:9-11). He is there to intercede for us for all eternity.
We also have someone who is able “to sympathize with our weaknesses”. You know, for me this is a great comfort; it’s the difference between having read the book and knowing the theory, and having lived the life and knowing the practice. Jesus knows what we face day by day, what we go through. He knows what life on this earth, in this dominion of darkness is like, being assailed by all the forces of the evil one. Matt 4 tells us that Jesus was lead into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He knows the temptations that we face, He has experienced them. When you read the temptations that He faced I wonder how many we could have put to one side; how many would we have fallen for? (Matt 4:8, 9) “Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me."”
Here you are Michael, you can do anything you want to in this world, heal all the sick, take away disease, pain, war, stop all crime and bring in an era of world peace and love. I wonder if you could resist that temptation, I wonder if I could have resisted.
Or what about the Garden of Gethsemane, knowing what He was to face. The travesty of a trial, the mocking of the soldiers and the people, the denial by His own disciples and followers, the exhausting walk to Calvary, the pain of the nails, the agony as the Cross was lifted and the piercings took the full weight of His body. He pleaded with His Father that this part of His future be taken away; He could have just walked away, knowing that for the vast majority of people down through the ages of creation it would be a wasted act. But for us He was obedient to His Father’s will. What would we have done? Jesus held firm to the end.
(14) “Therefore…, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.”, which is why we read together the Apostles’ Creed earlier in the service.
3. “approach the throne of grace with confidence”
(14) “hold firmly to the faith we profess” and we can “approach the throne of grace with confidence”. We have nothing to fear, Jesus has broken down all the barriers. We do not even have to stumble through the wreckage of the broken down barriers, because they are all washed away in the shed blood of Jesus. He has broken down the barriers; He has torn down the curtain separating the people from the Holy of Holies. No longer do we need a human high priest representative to go in to plead our case before God. We have Jesus and His Holy Spirit, (Rom 8:26, 27) “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.”
We can approach with confidence because we are no longer clothed in sin and degradation, with all the decay that sin brings, we are clothed in righteousness, put on us in the blood of Jesus.
We can approach with confidence because God is omniscient. Not only does He know all our sins, He knows our needs, and He knows them far better than we do.
We can approach with confidence because we will receive and find.
(a) We will receive mercy from an almighty merciful God who loved us so much that He sent His only beloved Son to be sacrificed to atone for our sins.
(b) We will find grace, the free gifts from God our Father:
i. The gift of forgiveness, despite the fact that we do not deserve it in any respect whatsoever.
ii. The gift of guidance through all that the world can throw at us.
iii. The gift of protection as we put on the whole armour of God, to protect us from all the wiles of the evil one (and don’t we need this one gift!)
Conclusion
“Therefore, since we have a great high priest …” “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
