I want us all to consider this morning one of the key features of God's character. I want us to consider His holiness. God is not like you and me. He is fundamentally and radically different than man is. This should instill in us a sense of awe and a sense of wonder, but at the same time, this holiness presents a serious barrier to us. If we want to know God, then we must look outside of ourselves, because on a very essential level, God is beyond us. Our knowledge of God does not come naturally. We cannot look into ourselves if we want to know who this God is because He is holy and different. And so it is difficult for humankind to relate to God because He is so radically different than we are. And the scripture bears testimony to this. Isaiah 55 verses 8 through 9 says, Romans chapter 11 verses 33 through 36 says, and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable are His ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? Or who has given a gift to Him that He might be repaid? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen. And again in Exodus chapter 33 verse 20, when Moses expresses to God that he desires to see Him, he wants to be near to this God, God responds and says, You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me. and live. So the holiness of God is so great that imperfect creatures like us can hardly bear to be in the presence of this God. Though there is a yearning in some of us to know this Lord and to draw near to Him, there are these barriers. All of this should make it exceedingly clear to us that if we want to come close to this God who is so different, who is incredibly unique, who is so other, then we're going to need some help. Man needs a mediator. Man needs a mediator. A mediator is an external agent who can facilitate interaction between two parties. Almost like a spiritual interpreter of sorts, a mediator acts as a go-between who can help us draw near to and make sense of this perfect and holy God. There are many in our church who have made the journey over to Haiti, which is a very small nation that is in great need of help. And for those whom the Lord has called to that kind of mission work, when you go over to Haiti, you immediately see, as soon as you get off the plane, that you're not in Kansas anymore. You're in a place that has a very distinctly different culture than yours. You're in an absolutely different economy and no one sounds like you sound in the nation of Haiti. So if you want to be effective at connecting to the people of Haiti, you're going to need help. You're going to need somebody who is connected to the culture already. It is incredibly important that you find missionaries who are like-minded, who love the Lord and His Word, that are living in Haiti, and that you partner with them because they have their finger on the pulse of what is going on there. They know the needs of the people. They know the special challenges that will be facing up against the Gospel as you go to preach and share and help. You're also going to need more than just somebody who knows the people. You're going to need somebody who knows the language. You could preach the most beautifully eloquent sermon in the world. You could express hermeneutics that would blow other people's minds and everyone will just sit there looking at you if they don't speak the language. And so, Haitian Creole, the language of Haiti, you're going to have to have somebody who can interpret those words. You're going to have to depend on that person to relay the message that you're trying to relay, this important, critical message, so that it might get to the hearts of the people who live there. And so, missions can be a very humbling experience because you realize you cannot do it on your own. Likewise, we need mediators if we want to connect with the Lord God. The distance, the divide between man and God is even greater. It is not merely cultural. It goes beyond linguistics. It is a divide of monumental proportions. We are but physical beings. We have a spirit, but it's very different from being a being who is spirit, which is what God is. He is everywhere. We are confined to one place and space and time. We are temporary. He is eternal. There has never been a time that He did not exist. We are finite, but He knows all and can do all. There is no end to His power or His wisdom. So without a mediator, we have no access to this God. And without a mediator, we can only have very limited understanding of who He is and what He is like. So part of what separates us from God is how holy and how great He is. But there is another barrier, another reason that we are in need of a mediator. We are in need of a mediator. Not only is He holy, we are not holy. We are sinners and God is pure and spotless and perfect. Because of that, we need help approaching Him. This is in very much contrast to the way that most people think about their interactions with God. If you were to just talk about somebody off the streets in our culture, there are many men and women in our society who think that approaching God is very casual. It is completely voluntary and it's totally on your whim whether you want to or not. People behave as though they can take or leave God depending on their mood. They may speak about God as being good and then they might even believe in their hearts and communicate to others that they have peace with God. But many of these same people will not think twice about using that God's name in vain. They break His commandments without even considering the fact that doing so comes with real consequences. Sin has wages, and the wages of sin are death. People who have not made any kind of meaningful commitment to Jesus Christ will still often think that they have access to Him. They will speak as though they pray to Him all the time, regardless of whether they have a true understanding of the Gospel, or whether they have even repented of their sins against that God. In their minds, they don't see a need for a mediator. If they feel like talking to God, they just close their eyes and say whatever's on their mind or their heart, and they assume that God is ready to receive that counsel. There's no humble request for an audience with Him. In its place is an entitled sense that we deserve to have counsel with the grandest being in the universe. We deserve to be near to Him. Now, this kind of approach, my friends, largely ignores the seriousness of our sin. God is good, and God has created us. Yet this God has also given us laws and commands. He has determined and decried for us what is good and what is evil. And we, in our arrogance, have chosen to do whatever we care to do, rather than follow the guidelines and the directions that He has given to us, even though He is the giver of life, and we owe Him credit for every breath we take. So today we're going to be learning about how Jesus can provide loving intercession for us. How there has never been a better mediator between God and man than Emmanuel, who is God with us. He left the heavenly realm to dwell among us so that this great divide between man and God could be overcome. But we have to understand that his intercession is not for us unless we have received it in faith. I hope and pray that there is a desire in your heart to be near to the Lord God. But please believe me when I say this. You need help getting to Him. You need a mediator who can stand between you and the Lord God. For many generations, God appointed a special group of people to provide that mediation. In the Old Testament, we read that God desired to bring mankind closer to Himself, and so He started with one man and one woman in that effort. This is Abraham and Sarah, just normal people. He called to them and said he would build a nation from their offspring, even though they had none. And then incrementally, he began to build a people from them. Sarah had a child in her old advanced age. She was able to bear a baby boy named Isaac. And from that, God began to multiply Abraham's descendants. When God was organizing this nation, which He called Israel, He divided them into 12 tribes, which correlated with the 12 sons of Jacob, who was Abraham's grandson. Of these 12 tribes, God set apart one of the tribes for a special purpose. This tribe of Levi was to try and help facilitate interactions between a perfectly holy God and an incredibly imperfect people. And so let me give you the breakdown here. You've got 12 tribes that make up Israel. One of those tribes is Levi. That tribe is set apart for holy service. Of that tribe of Levi, those who are descended from Aaron, who is Moses' brother, were eligible to serve in a priestly capacity. Of those priests, only a very select few were able to serve as the high priest. And the high priest performed a very special function which we'll talk about here in just a second. The Levitical priesthood, those who descended from Levi and were of Aaron's descent, were appointed to act as mediators on behalf of men in relation to God. They offered gifts of worship. They offered gifts of thanksgiving to the Lord God, acknowledging the good blessings that they had received from Him. They offered sacrifices which were intended to cover the sins that man had committed so that they might still draw near, at least to a degree, to this God. And they did this gently. They did this gently because they themselves were aware of their own sin and their own weakness. Though they were interacting between God and man, they knew that they themselves also needed a mediator. So when God entered into a covenant promise with this Israel by Moses, He gave the Israelites law, did He not? But He didn't just give them moral law. Moral law is law that you're probably most familiar with. Commandments like, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife. So these are things that are just intrinsically wrong and they are still true for the people of God today. Even though we are not under the law, this law still resounds in our minds because it tells us what is good and what is bad and what is important to God. But God did not just give a legal law, a moral law, to Moses. He also gave them ceremonial law. These laws defined how sinners might come near to the Holy God. This included laws about their clothing, the way that they dressed, about the diet that they ate. God wanted His people to eat differently than the rest of the world so they would see that these people were set apart for something special. It included special holidays that were given to remind the people of aspects of the covenant that they had made with the Lord God. All of these laws, ceremonial laws, dealt with the divide between God and man. God also helped facilitate these laws by giving the people a tabernacle. A tabernacle was a very important and holy tent of meeting where the people of Israelite, or the Israelite people would gather together to offer praise to the Lord God and to try to draw near to Him. And this tent was very important because the Israelites believed that the presence of God dwelt there. Now God is everywhere at all times. But they believed that in this special place that God had provided, that they could encounter Him in a very real and supernatural way. And God showed manifestations of His power there, such as a fire by night and a smoke by day, that indicated to them that this was a special place. So the people could draw closer to God at the tabernacle, but they couldn't quite dwell with Him. Because inside of the tabernacle, there was a special compartment, about 15 feet by 15 feet, that was cordoned off from the rest of the tabernacle by a large, heavy, ornate curtain. And behind that curtain, the nation of Israel understood that the very presence of God resided. The throne of God, called the Ark of the Covenant, was placed in that small room that we refer to as the holiest of holies. And no man could enter into this room. No one except the high priest. And the high priest was only allowed to enter into that room once a year. and only after intense amounts of personal purification where they washed their body and they offered a sacrificed bull and a sacrificed lamb to cover the sins that they had committed against God. They had to cleanse themselves and they did so with great reverence and even holy fear for what was going to happen to them if they didn't cleanse themselves fully before they entered into the presence of the living God. This special day was called Yom Kippur. the day of atonement. And on this holy day, after purification of self, the high priest was allowed to take two goats, one of which would be sacrificed in a representation of all the unconfessed sins of Israel, and the other of which would be set free to go into the wilderness. That lamb that was set free represented the freedom that we would enjoy thanks to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the last sacrificial lamb. This priest acted as a buffer to God's wrath and a communicator of man's repentance to God. This model of drawing nearer to God but falling short of true fellowship with Him was carried over when the tabernacle was replaced by the temple. The temple was a grander structure. It was bigger and better decorated. It was fixed and permanent, not portable, but it served the exact same purpose. It still had a Holy of Holies that separated man from God and God from man. People could go there to draw nearer to God, but they could not actually be in His presence. These Levites, specifically the Levites who descended directly from Aaron and served as priests, they tried their best to play the part of mediator that they had been called to play. But they were not perfect. And while their work served an important purpose, man needed something more for this interaction with God to be complete. Man needed a better priest. Man needed Jesus Christ. And so I want you to turn with me in chapter 7 of Hebrews, and I know I don't have the verses up on the screen for you today, so I'm trying to be kind of slow in the way that we transition from verse to verse, so that you'll have a chance to catch up and read along in your scriptures. So if you've got Hebrews chapter 7 open before you today, I'm going to start by just reading verse 11. says, Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received the law, then what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? So this one verse indicates to us that there is a different order of priesthood. We spoke just a minute ago about how the priesthood in Israel was through the line of Levites, through the bloodline of Aaron, that these individuals were born into a service to the Lord God. But we hear from verse 11 of Hebrews 7 that this Levitical priesthood was not a perfect priesthood. It was imperfect. It was flawed. It didn't have the power to bring people into the true presence of God. And since the Levitical priesthood was not perfect, and could not perfectly mediate between man and God, a greater kind of priest was necessary. A priest who was not of the tribe of Levi, but was of a different order altogether. A priest like Melchizedek. Now, Melchizedek may be a confusing term for you. You might not have ever heard that before. I hope that you have. He is a figure from biblical history, but he's a little bit of an enigma. You only hear about Melchizedek three times in all of the scripture. You hear it in the book of Genesis in chapter 14, which we're going to talk about here in just a second. You hear it in a psalm that David, the beloved king that God put on the throne, wrote about in Psalm 110. And then you hear it here throughout the book of Hebrews in the New Testament. Nowhere else in scripture do you really see this picture of Melchizedek. And so the writer of Hebrews points back to the first glimpse of this different kind of priest. We're going to learn about him this morning and we're still in chapter 7 of Hebrews. Let me read to you verses 1 through 3. For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him. And to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. He is without father or mother or genealogy. having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God, he continues, a priest forever. This recalls Genesis chapter 14, where Abraham, that man with whom God began the covenant process of developing a people for himself, Abraham's just returned from an amazing battle that he fought against four different kings and their armies. These four different kings had joined forces and they were just ravaging the land. They were a superpower of sorts. And part of their victims were people that were very close to Abraham. Abraham heard that his nephew Lot had been defeated in battle by these kings and that they had taken him captive and all the people that were under Lot's leadership. And so he took 318 of his own skilled men only 318, and at night he went and approached these four kings and attacked them. And only by the grace of God's sovereign hand does this small army of 318 have the power to somehow defeat the four kings that had captured Loth. Not only does he defeat them, but he recovers Lot and all of his household, and all of the spoils of war that these four kings had stolen. And so they're victorious, and they know that this victory comes from above. So they are returning with gladness in their hearts, and as they return to their homeland, they come upon this character, this individual, and his name is Melchizedek. Melchizedek is interesting in what we don't know about him. Sometimes when God says, I'm not going to give you much information about that, the human mind tends to become wrapped up in it. We want to know more. There are many things that I just want to sit down with the Lord when I one day sit in heaven with him and just say, God, give me more of the story. Tell me more of the secrets that you chose not to reveal. People have speculated since they don't know the details about this man. Some have said that perhaps Melchizedek was an angel of God. But I don't believe that's true. Angels, as we spoke about last week, Jesus being better than the angels, angels play an important role. But their role doesn't seem to match what Melchizedek has done. Melchizedek is someone who dwells with men. He is a leader over men. He's continually ruler over the town of Salem. And when angels come from the Lord God, it seems that they have a specific message to deliver, a specific task to accomplish, and then they return to the heavens. That's not what Melchizedek does. He persists as a king. We also see here that Abraham does not react to him like men always react to an angel. He does not fall down in reverent fear to Melchizedek. He's not blown away by the man. He shows him reverence and honor, but he does not have fear or fright that some supernatural intervention has affected him. So I don't believe that Melchizedek is an angel. Other people have asked, is this pre-incarnate Christ? Is Melchizedek perhaps Jesus himself making a cameo appearance in the Old Testament before he takes on flesh later by being born of the Virgin Mary? Now this is called theophany. Theophany. And we do see examples of what I believe to be theophany in the Old Testament. You might remember when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, three young Hebrew boys, were exiled to the land of Babylon. And at one point their faith was challenged because they were told that when the sound of the trumpet resounded in the land, that all people were to bow and worship a statue of King Nebuchadnezzar. This to them was idolatry and blasphemy. They could not bring themselves to do it. So when everyone else in the land bowed before this statue, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, They stood. And they knew that that was going to come with consequences, and it surely did. The king, in his rage, gave them an opportunity to worship the statue. They would not do it. And so he determined to throw them into what was a fiery furnace, a place of great punishment, to burn them up alive. These three boys were thrown into the furnace, and yet the Scripture reports that the men who looked upon this scene saw the three men not writhing in agony, not being consumed by the power of the flames, but rather perfectly healthy and well, singing praises to the Lord God. And there was a fourth figure among them. One who was not thrown into the fire, but joined them and sustained them through it. Many people believe, I'm included, that that was Jesus Christ saving those three boys and keeping them from harm. And after they see this, they pull the boys out of the fire. The boys didn't even smell like smoke. They were so perfectly preserved by the power of that fourth individual, theophany. There are other situations in the Old Testament where we may see a picture of Christ before Christ actually comes. So is this a theophany? I don't believe that it is. And I don't because verse 3 says that Melchizedek resembled the Son of God. I don't resemble Nick Neves. I am Nick Neves, right? And so if this Melchizedek resembles the Son of God, that means that he was not the Son of God. So I believe that Melchizedek is what we would call a type. A pattern that is presented for us by God, set forth through us in the scripture, that points forward to somebody that will be like this individual, but will more fully manifest the characteristics that were present in Melchizedek. He was a preview of sorts to the greatest priest, the one that we truly needed, that God would provide for his people when the time was right, his Son, Jesus Christ. So God does not bother to reveal many details about this Melchizedek. He is interesting in what we don't know about him, but he is also interesting in the few things that we do know about him. We know that Melchizedek is a king. He is a king. Melchizedek, the name, translates literally to king of righteousness. And if the pattern holds true, oftentimes the names of a person in an Old Testament record would reflect the character and the way that person lived. And so if this Melchizedek truly is a king of righteousness, that means that he didn't rule over his people with cruelty. He didn't exploit the resources of those he was in charge of. Instead, he upheld the law. He cared for justice. He looked after the weak. He was a righteous king and he was king of a certain place, an important place. Salem may sound familiar to you. That's because Salem is the first name or an earlier name of Jerusalem. He was king of Jerusalem, and Salem in the Hebrew language is very close to the word Shalom, which means peace. So if you translate his name and title together, Melchizedek means king of righteousness, king of peace. Does that sound familiar to you? Does that sound like somebody else that we know? This king is in many ways a picture of who Christ will be and how he will reign over us. But Melchizedek is not just a king. He is also a priest. Melchizedek is also a priest. And this is very interesting because if you study the political history of Israel as it is recorded throughout the Word, never will you see a king who serves also as a priest. The two roles were separate. In fact, Saul, the first king of Israel, will fall out of favor from God and lose not only his throne, but eventually his own life, primarily because he crossed the line and acted presumptuously in a way that only priests were supposed to act. Saul leads the nation of Israel into battle and there's a great victory that is won. And as a thank you to the Lord, they want to offer sacrifice to God as gratitude for the victory that he gave to them. And so Saul is eager to do this, and he's waiting for Samuel, who was born of the line of Levi, who is a prophet and also a priest. Samuel was supposed to come and offer up the sacrifice, but he delayed. And Saul waited and waited and he didn't want to wait anymore. And so he took it upon himself to do what only priests should do. And he went out of order. And he offered the sacrifice on behalf of Israel. And just when he was finished doing that, Samuel shows up. And he realizes that he has sinned greatly against God because he has gone directly against the commands that God has given for him to be worshipped. So we've never seen this picture of a priest and a king together. We live in a nation where the idea of church and state coming together is a big no-no, right? And for the most part, that is true. And so long as we have earthly governments that are run by men who make mistakes and sin. But the best picture of leadership is the combination of church and state where God rules as the priest himself and our king. You're starting to see these similarities between Melchizedek and Jesus. It is hard to deny that this interesting enigmatic historical figure is a kind of foreshadowing of Christ who would come to take on the role of the greatest priest and king that God's people had ever known and the only one they would ever need. In verse 3, we hear that Melchizedek is without father or mother or genealogy. Now that's confused a lot of people. It is not saying there that Melchizedek just sort of appeared one day and began to rule as a king. He was not some alien that came in and joined the human race. No, what it's talking about here is specifically the fact that kings almost always have a lineage. And priests must surely be able to tie their lineage back to Levi, or else they're not allowed to serve as priests. But this Melchizedek is clearly a king and a priest, honorable to God, worthy of Abraham's appreciation and honor. And yet he has no record of where he came from. And there also is no record of his death. This is significant because it means that Melchizedek did not inherit his priesthood. It was bestowed upon him. This is also true of Jesus. Jesus was not of the tribe of Levi. He was descended from which tribe? Judah, David's tribe. And in accordance to prophecy, he was to reign on the throne of Israel forever as a descendant of Judah, as his seed. Hebrews 7, verses 13 through 14. For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with the tribe of Moses, said nothing about priests." So in the Hebrew tradition and in the laws that have been given and the covenants that they made with God, there was nothing that authorized anybody other than a Levite to serve as a priest. So if Melchizedek is a priest, who must have authorized him? the Lord God must have authorized him to be a priest. Jesus likewise did not come to his priestly position through inheritance. He was not a Levite, but because he was appointed a priest by God. And he was appointed to this special priesthood not based on his genealogy, but because of the nature of his perfect character. Hebrews 7, 15 through 16 says this, This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become a priest not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life." I love that description. By the power of an indestructible life. This is Jesus that we're talking about. Jesus, though He bled and died for us on the cross and was crucified and put to death, on the third day proved that death has no power over Him. Proved that He has power over death and sin by raising again. You cannot kill God. And so this Jesus is made a priest not based on a legal requirement, not because he was a Levite, but because his life was indestructible. He was so perfectly holy that he deserved to carry that title. So God sent Jesus to be a priest of a unique and better order, to serve in the pattern of Melchizedek instead of the pattern of Aaron. And there were plenty of those who had come from the pattern of Aaron, plenty of those who had descended through the bloodline of the Levites, who served as priests because they had inherited that role and did not do a good job at it. They were not worthy just because they were born into it. You might remember that Aaron, the first priest, his own sons, Nadab and Abihu, went into the tabernacle and offered what was described in Scripture as strange fire, meaning that they offered some sort of a burnt sacrifice to the Lord God that was not pleasing to Him, that was in contrast to the rules that God had given to His people about how to worship Him well. And the fire that they offered, because they were sinning against God in His tabernacle, in the holy presence of God, grew and consumed those two boys, and they were killed because of their disobedience. We read about it again later on with the prophet, or not the prophet, with the priest Eli, who served during the time that Samuel became a prophet. Eli had two sons, Hophni and Phanehas, and these two sons were not morally upright people. They did not fear the Lord God to such a degree that when people would bring tithes and offerings to the Lord, they would take a portion and stick it in their own pockets. They would steal from the things that the people of God were bringing to give to God in thanks. And such irreverence, such imperfection resulted in them both being slain in a key battle against the Philistines. So men had served as priests and had served inappropriately. People who did not deserve those positions had served in those positions. But Jesus was of such impeccable character. that no true charge could ever be brought against him. Even as he is crucified like a criminal, the charges that were brought against him were slanderous and false. They claim that he blasphemed and yet as God he could not blaspheme. He is perfect in every way and spotlessly free from sin. and this priestly king, Melchizedek, because he pointed forward to Jesus, was given great honor. We look at how Abraham reacted to Melchizedek when he met him after that victory. See how great this man was to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils. And those descendants of Levi who received the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people, that is, from their brothers, though these also are descendants from Abraham. But this man, who does not have his descent from them, meaning he was not even an Israelite, Melchizedek received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. In the one case tithes are received by mortal men, but in the other case by one of whom it is testified that he lives. One might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes and pays tithes through Abraham, who receives tithes, paid his tithes through Abraham, for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him." What that's saying is that this Melchizedek, this unique priest, though he was not even an Israelite, receives tithes from Abraham, who is the most important figure in the history of the nation of Israel. And even within the loins of Abraham, Levi, who was not yet born, but who would descend from Abraham, in a sense, paid tithes and honored this man. Now turn to chapter 2. I told you we were going to bounce around a little bit today. Chapter 2, beginning in 14. I want to talk a little bit about how this greater Melchizedek came to be. Speaking of Jesus here. that through death he might destroy the one who has power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery." And in a couple of weeks we're going to talk about how Jesus is not only greater than the angels, he's not only the greater priest, but he himself is the greater sacrifice. Verse 17 says, Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. To become the better priest for us, Jesus had to come down to interact with us in a way that we could relate to. We call that the great condescension. The Great Condescension. Now you might remember that Pastor Paul mentioned this concept a couple of weeks back. The word condescend in the English language is often seen as an arrogant thing. It is often viewed as a negative. Most of you don't want anyone to condescend to you because you feel like that's some kind of an insult, like they're questioning your intelligence or your wisdom. But that word is not so negative as it might seem. In fact, historically, the word condescend didn't really carry much of a negative sense to it. It is not necessarily bad to condescend. Condescension happens when one who is in some way greater approaches the lesser on their own level. So let me show you how this can be a beautiful thing. Say a mother has a little child. That little child is extremely upset. Something has gone wrong and mom needs to know what's happening. So what does mom do? she condescends. She comes down to the level of her child. And she looks that child in the eyes, and she puts her arms around that child and brings him close. And she maybe even communicates to that child in simple, even childlike language, so that the child can understand what she's trying to understand from the child. She talks like a child. She helps that child, even though it makes her maybe look foolish, even though her pant legs are now dirty because she dwelt in the dirt with her own little one. That is not insulting. That is loving and kind. That is a compassionate interaction from one who is greater to one who is lesser. See, we have a problem with the word condescension because condescension can be perceived negatively and it can be perceived negatively mainly for one of two reasons. When the greater comes down to the lesser in order to mock them, or make fun of them, or assert their dominion over them, rather than to teach them and help them, then we often see that kind of a condescension as very negative, don't we? Here the fault would be with the one who is greater. They are obviously lacking love. Though they have a position of influence, they have some kind of authority, they are using that to only bolster their own egos, rather than to help the ones that they are called to lead. Some of you might have worked at jobs before. where you're in the trenches and you're doing the front line work and every once in a while somebody from the corporate office leaves their high crystal palace and puts on a hard hat and saunters on to the job site and then starts shouting orders and telling people what to do as if they know everything that goes on right there at the grassroots level. That individual is not listening. They're not trying to learn from their people. They're not trying to guide them. They're simply there to assert their power and to act like the leader when in reality they haven't taken any time to care for the people that they're trying to lead. That's a failure from the greater. The lesser is not blessed by that kind of an interaction and that's a negative kind of condescension. There's another kind of negative condescension and it happens on the flip side. When the lesser refuses to acknowledge the greater as greater, then any kind of an interaction from the greater can often be taken as patronizing or belittling. When a person really needs someone who knows more than them, but refuses to admit that, and in pride thinks they can do it by themselves in their own way, they'll often put out the straight arm and keep that greater person from coming and having any kind of positive impact on their lives because they want to do it themselves. This is a failure from the lesser point of view. And that kind of condescension can be seen as negative. Some of you have seen this from your teenagers who have decided that everything you can teach them you taught them when they were five and they've got it all under control now. Don't worry, you'll be smart again when they turn 30. They have a bunch of kids trying to bug them. Jesus does not condescend to mock us or to make fun of us. for being sinful and foolish. He comes to bring light to the darkness of our hearts. He comes like a mother who cares for her child and will come down to the level of the thing that he's created. He takes on flesh and humbles himself out of love so that he can be near to us, so that he can take us out of this condition of brokenness that we are in and bring us near to the presence of our creator. This kind of a condescension is in no way negative, It is beautiful and loving, generous and kind. When Jesus condescends, by the way, He doesn't come on a fact-finding mission. He's not just coming to learn what it was like to be human. He's not limited in knowledge the way that we are. He knows all these things beforehand. So the condescension is not for His benefit. It's for our benefit. It's so that we in our finite minds might be comforted because seeing Him here in the flesh makes it easier for us to relate to Him. It casts away our fears and doubts and helps us to identify with our Savior. Man tends to see things only from his own existence and context. It is so difficult for humankind to relate to something outside of himself. That's part of the reason why the Trinity is such a difficult concept for us to understand. Because none of us is three in one. Only God is three in one. So if God's not like us, then that must not be real. But in reality, God is very different than us. He is set apart. He is other. Maybe that is why when God was ruling over liberated Israel, God had freed His people Israel from 400 years of slavery in Egypt. He had given them liberation. He had brought them into a different place and He had promised to bring them to a holy land, a great place of inheritance that they could dwell forever. and He is ruling over His people, and He's doing it well. They were set up as what we would call a theocracy. In other words, they had limited government because God was their king, and whatever God said to do through the prophets and the priests, the people of the nation did it. God directly ruling His people. And even though that was a beautiful way for this nation to run, the people began to grow restless. They began to look around at other nations and see that they were doing things differently. Nobody else had a theocracy. And so they came to the prophet and they cried out to him and they said, tell the Lord God that we need a man on the throne of Israel. We need a human being, someone that we could see, someone that looks like us. We need a human to reign on the throne of this nation. And Samuel went to God and shared their complaints to Him. And God said, they do not need a man on the throne. Tell them that they have a king, that I am providing for their needs, that I have always been faithful to them. Tell them they do not need a downgrade to some human king. And yet the people persisted in their grumbling. And they continued to demand a king. And so God said, I knew you would say that. And He allowed them to have a man on the throne. And then you can read through the book of Kings, 2 Kings, Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, and you can read the never-ending saga of human kings failing the nation of Israel over and over again when they have a perfectly good heavenly king that they are not satisfied with. Sadly, human kings cannot do what a divine king can do. They had to learn that the hard way. They thought they would be better off with a physical manifestation of that king. King Saul, we've read already, did a fairly terrible job of leading the nation of Israel. And from then on, a pattern was established that was rarely sidestepped by the kings of Judah and Israel. In the same vein, God knows that man is lacking a kind of spiritual leadership that he wants to be able to relate to. But the only way to give man that kind of leadership, the kind of leadership that he really needs, the only way for that to happen is for God to do it himself. And so he does. He takes on flesh, and in doing so, he experiences firsthand all the trials and the tribulations of life in the fall. He understood it perfectly already from his vantage point in heaven. He didn't have to learn anything to take on flesh. But this time, walking in the flesh makes it easier for us to see that Jesus understands us and can relate to our experience. And as we watch him live out perfect obedience in his life, we have an example that we can follow, that we can benefit from. Like the high priests that they were used to interacting with in this respect, Jesus was a man so that he could relate to man. But he was remarkably different in one important aspect, that he had no sin of his own for which to atone for. So there was no need for a lengthy process of preparation for Jesus. He didn't have to cleanse himself and put on special clothes so that he could enter into the holiest of holies without sin. No, he was qualified from the minute he breathed his first breath to the minute he cried out his last. And so we have a new high priest. We have a better priest, one who serves not only as our special mediator, but also as our Lord and King. And it is this greater high priest who was born in a manger 2,000 years ago. It is this priestly King who we come to adore today. So if you're wondering why we're going through the book of Hebrews during this Christmas season, it's because the manifestation of God's leadership and his priestly mediation between God and man was made real in Jesus Christ when that little virgin Mary gave birth to him in a stable some 2,000 years ago. When we celebrate and we decorate and we sing these songs, let's not lose track of the fact that because Christ took on flesh to dwell with us, we have someone that can connect us to God now. We have that important mediator that could not be substituted with other men. It had to be God Himself. And so in conclusion, as we consider these things, I want us to look at one more passage of Scripture. I told you we would be jumping around a little bit, so Hebrews chapter 4, and again, just to remind you. We don't normally preach this way. We usually take one passage of Scripture and carefully analyze and dissect it and try to understand it thoroughly. But there are times when it's beneficial to put the microscope away and to pull out the binoculars and look at the big picture of God's Word. And that's what we're doing right now. We're seeing this concept of holy priesthood and mediation as it plays out through the whole book of Hebrews. And so chapter 4 starting with verse 14. Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, and yet without sin. And let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Jesus is the perfect high priest. And we see here that he has passed through the heavens. He's actually done this twice, hasn't he? He came down from the heavens to take on flesh and be with us. And then he lived a perfect life and allowed that life to be crushed on the cross for our sake. And after three days, he defeated death and sin. And then after he prepared his church for about 40 days, he ascended and passed through the heavens again, where he is now seated at the right hand of God the Father. And what is he doing for us there? He is interceding. is interceding for us forever. Our connection to God is through Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone. Every single person on earth has a relationship with God. You might sometimes hear someone who means really well in evangelism saying, would you like to have a personal relationship with God? Let me clarify that. Everybody has a personal relationship with God. The question is, what is the quality of that relationship? Are you right now at enmity? Are you at odds in conflict with a God who says, I am your Lord and King, I am holy and good, and if you want to approach me, you have to come through the means that I have provided for you in love. Or are you desiring instead to push that God away, to be your own king, to live your own life the way you want? You have a relationship with God if that's you, but it's a relationship of conflict. And if there is not a change, it will be a relationship of wrath one day. We have a patient and merciful God, but there is only one way to be right with him. And that is through this mediator who has come and made the one narrow and straight path by which we might approach this holy and perfect God. Others have a relationship with God that has been redefined by His very blood. Because God so loved us, Christ came down into the world to make our sins powerless in our lives. To overcome the debt that we had accumulated that we could never pay back, Christ is willing to make that go away through His ransom. So those who have trusted in Jesus Christ have a redeemed relationship with God through this mediatorial work that Christ does every day at the right hand of God the Father. You might wonder sometimes why you close your prayers in the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. Why? Because if you didn't do this through the work and the name and the person of Christ, if you did not pray through His work, then you'd have no business speaking to the Lord God. Did you know that? His holiness would have no reason to listen to what you have to say and to respond. He is so good and so perfect and pure, but he's also so merciful and loving and kind that he has made a way where we could not make a way. This superior priest gives us great confidence to draw near to the throne of grace. Not an arrogance that just says, oh yeah, I'll approach God whenever I want to, but confidence knowing that I can speak to God, that he will hear me, that he cares about my heart. Why? Because I'm his son, or because you're his daughter, because you belong to him through adoption, because God has brought you into his family even though you were his enemy at a time. You have confidence now that the work that he has done has given you full access to him, that he loves you and cares for you, and is working out his will in your life. So as we think about this doctrine of Jesus Christ as our greatest priest, how can we live this out? How does it apply to our lives, friends? Well, first of all, let us understand. Let us understand His role and rejoice in this priestly job that Jesus has, that He fulfills for us. Let us pray in His name. Understanding that by doing so, we are declaring that he is the one and only priest that we need. That we don't have to go to some priest in a confessional booth to have access to the Lord God. We don't have to find some guru. We don't have to talk to a Pope. We can go right to the Lord God through the Son Jesus Christ who intercedes for us in this very moment. Even as we open His scripture together and hope to learn from it, those who belong to Him can see what this means and why it is powerful to them because of the work that Christ is doing for them right now. And when we think about the birth of Jesus Christ at Christmas time, let us remember that it was the manifestation of His priestly ministry to us. We in our sin could not make it to God, so God sent his son to dwell with us, to know our pain and struggle, to endure the punishment of sin that we had earned, so that through his sacrifice, he might bring near that which was so far away. We may never, or may we never pine for a lesser priest. We don't need another priest anymore. We don't need someone to go between us and the Lord God. There is a reason why 40 years, roughly, after Jesus Christ died and rose again, do you know what happened in Jerusalem? The temple that was the locus of all the ceremonial law of the old covenant law, the temple was burned to the ground in a great riot. And since that day, those who have rejected Jesus as Messiah but still count themselves as following the Jewish faith, they've had nowhere to offer a sacrifice. They still count priests and rabbis as part of their faith, but they don't have any way to actually offer anything up to the Lord God because their priests are limited. But Jesus Christ never needs to be replaced. He never dies. He lives forever as our High Priest. And there's no need for a temple anymore. Why? Because Christ has now come to dwell with us. The Holy Spirit is inside of those who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and trust Him. So now we are the living temple of God that we may with our whole lives offer a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to Him. So don't put your hope and faith in your pastor. I love you all. Paul loves you. Ross and Sean and Clint care for you deeply. But do not come here for us. Come to worship the Lord God and know that there are times when we will let you down, but Christ never will. Be content to follow Him and Him alone. Don't look at that TV evangelist and just think he's got all the answers. Know that as long as he's preaching Christ, he's good for you. But if he's not preaching Christ, he's not anything more than a distraction. We don't need a Pope, we don't need some priestly intervention, because we already have all that we need in Jesus Christ. Rest your hope on Him. And may we be so impressed by the ministry of Jesus as our High Priest, under the order of Melchizedek, this King who is also a priest, that we would even draw near to the throne of God with a confidence, not in our own works, but in the works that Christ has accomplished to make us near to Him. Let's bow our heads together. And today we're going to close in a word of prayer since we don't have the electronics to run the full band. So let's thank the Lord God for what He has taught us. Mighty God, we do come humbly before you right now, but with a real sense of boldness, Lord, we can know confidently that we are yours. Father, we can trust that if our lives were to end right now, that we are certain we would be in your presence if we trust in your Son, Jesus Christ. If we've repented of our sin and turned our life over to you, then we are yours. So God, do what you will with these lives. Be our good high priest and direct us in the way that we should worship. Lord God, teach us what is holy and good. Help us to see how you want to be glorified. May we not be so arrogant as to think that we can improve upon your methods and worship you in different, innovative ways, Lord God. Let us worship you the way you've told us to worship you. Let us be humble before you, Lord God. Let us understand that as long as you sit at the right hand of the Father intercede, that nothing can keep us from you. You're so very grateful to be called after your name today, Lord. And we pray that as we think about these words and meditate on their meaning, that we would carry this message with us throughout the week, Lord God, that it would impact our attitude towards you as we approach you in personal devotion times and prayer, as we read the scripture, that we would not forget this role of yours, that you are this priest. So often we don't think in those terms because most of us, we're not from a Jewish background, God. But I pray, Lord, that we would not forget this important role that you play. May we be thankful for all that you do for us, Lord God. May we never let anything get in between you and us, as sin used to get in between you and us. And we pray all this in Jesus' name, amen.