The following sermon is from the Westminster Pulpit, extending the worship ministry of Westminster Presbyterian Church, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. We are a local congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America. Please contact us for permission before reproducing this message in any format. We've been walking through the letter to the Hebrews, and I invite you to take a Bible, if you don't have one of your own, go ahead and use one in the pew and turn to page 1003. In the book of Hebrews, we discover a theme concerning the supremacy of Jesus. In Hebrews chapter one and two, we learn that Jesus is a better revelation from God. He's not merely a reflection of God's glory, like the moon, but he is the exact radiance of God's glory. He doesn't merely speak God's word, he is God's living word. Also in chapter one and two, we see that Jesus is greater than the angels, not simply a messenger from God, but he is God in human flesh. And then in chapters three and four, we see how Jesus is a better Moses and a better Joshua because Jesus brings his people into a better promised land and he offers a fuller, more substantial rest. rest as Dr. York had talked about last week. The writer of Hebrews continues by showing Jesus as a better high priest, better than the one established by God in the Old Testament through Aaron and the sons of Levi. Now the idea of Jesus as high priest has already been briefly touched upon in chapters 2 and 3 of Hebrews, but in the next chapters 5, 6, and 7, the writer will take his time. to explain all the reasons that Jesus is superior. as high priest and he fleshes out all the unique and wonderful benefits Jesus provides as our high priest. And the short section that we're going to look at this morning in chapter 4 verses 14 through 16 it's it's an introduction of sorts to the fuller explanation of Jesus's high priesthood in chapters 5 through 8. Two questions are going to guide us through the text this morning. The first is, generally speaking, what does it mean that Jesus is our High Priest? And the second is, what difference does it make? So follow along with me in your Bibles as I read from Hebrews 4, 14 through 16. 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 yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need. So the first question generally speaking what does it mean that Jesus is our great high priest. Well the passage tells us four things. Jesus as our high priest is is one of a kind personally present thoroughly sympathetic and he's our righteous representative before God. In other words Jesus is the only one who is accepted into heaven who can truly represent you as a fellow human being. Look at it in verse 14. Since then we have a great high priest. Jesus is unique as a high priest. Notice it says we have a a high a great high priest meaning one not many. In other words when it comes to the high priests of Jesus. Jesus is uniquely great. He's one of a kind. How so? Well as we read this morning in our worship service when we were confessing our faith we said that Jesus Christ executes the office of a priest in his once offering up of himself a sacrifice to satisfy God's divine justice and to fully reconcile us to God and in making continual intercession for us. Now to understand Jesus's great role as a high priest, it's helpful to compare his uniquely great role as a prophet. As prophet, Jesus represents God to man. As fully God Jesus is uniquely qualified to represent God to man but to accomplish his prophetic work Jesus had to come down from heaven to earth to show us what God is really like. And he does this in his incarnation when he took on flesh was born of a virgin. And so when we gaze upon Jesus we see the very face of God. When Jesus speaks God speaks. Now, as priest, Jesus's representation points in the reverse. As priest, Jesus represents man to God. Being fully human and having lived a fully human life, Jesus is able to truly and fully represent his people to God. After having been born as a man, suffered as a man, died as a man, and as the only one to defeat death, now he lives ever to intercede for his people as a representative before God. So Jesus is our high priest is utterly unique. We have a high priest before God one only one. Not many. Second, he's personally present before God in heaven. Look again at verse 14. Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the son of God. Now once we recognize that the writer is talking about Jesus being a priest, not a prophet, we know the direction Jesus is passing through the heavens in verse 14. As God's prophet, Jesus passed through the heavens coming from heaven to earth. But as our great high priest, Jesus passes through the heavens returning from earth to heaven at his ascension in order to represent us before God. And he can, because he was not just sort of human. He was fully human and he knows what it's like to walk on this terrestrial dust ball to live in weakness and in temptation and sin. Remember what we read in Hebrews 1 4 that Jesus after making purification for sins as our high priest he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. So Jesus is unique as our great high priest because he is on site. He is the only one who's ascended to heaven to represent us in heaven before the throne room of God. Now we all recognize the limitations the frustrations and the dangers inherent when our needed representative is not on site. Whether it's at a home inspection in the courtroom or in the boardroom. But at the same time we all know the benefits the comfort the confidence the protections of having the needed representative on site in the right place at the right time. How much more benefit and blessing to have our most necessary our most needed representative on site in the very throne room of God. advocating for us. In contrast, all other high priests merely served the earthly house of God, whether a tabernacle or a temple in Jerusalem, and that was merely a copy, a model of the actual house of God in heaven, the real throne room of God where angels sing over and over again, holy, holy, holy. Jesus is the only human qualified to transcend the heavens and permanently serve there as our high priest before the face of God not on an occasional basis not once a year on the Day of Atonement as Aaron's sons did but on a constant basis he ever lives to intercede not after making sacrifice for his own sin and then the sin of his people but offering himself once and for all as the sacrifice the innocent substitute to pay for all the sins of his people, for you and for me. Jesus is utterly unique as our great representative and advocate before God because he is personally present before God. He is constant, personal, on access, on-site access to the very presence of God, his throne room. So how does that apply? Why go anywhere else for help? Jesus is already on site he stands ready to intercede on your behalf to be your advocate. But it gets even better. Thirdly he's entirely sympathetic as our representative. Look at verse 15 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. In becoming human, Jesus submitted himself to every limitation. From infancy, he was totally dependent for others to provide for him, protect him, care for him. It's nearly unimaginable to think God so loved us that he became vulnerable to the point of being open to every neglect and abuse known to mankind. As a toddler he knew what it felt like to stumble and fall as he learned to walk. He knew the sting of scrapes and cuts and burns. In life he knew the pounding pain of headaches and dehydration and cramps. He grew tired and needed sleep. He grew hungry and needed food. See, he was totally sympathetic to all of our weaknesses. And in fact, Jesus knew the power of temptation that arises uniquely from our weaknesses. after fasting for 40 days in the wilderness, or on the night he was betrayed in the garden. See, when Jesus was at his weakest is when he was most often attacked by Satan with repeated attacks to seduce him with half-truths and lies. Jesus was at his weakest when Satan launched his attacks. Trying to seduce him into immediate gratification ungodly does the light selfish gain all packaged in these short lived comforts but Jesus endured. But he knows those temptations well. Jesus knew loneliness, he knew it better than any, despite his faithfulness to his friends who all let him down, they all fell asleep at his greatest hour of need, they fled after his arrest, they betrayed him outside of his trial, they abandoned him to his cross. Jesus knew the temptations that come from loneliness and abandonment. Jesus knew what it was like to be cursed and reviled by the very people who should have praised him. See, Jesus could sympathize with every weakness, every trial, every suffering, and thus, our every temptation. In fact, he knew it better than we do because he never yielded. Temptation goes away once you yield, but he never yielded. Growing up, I had little sympathy for those who suffered from mental illness. until in my twenties I was hospitalized for liver surgery. After surgery and recovery I was given meds that would reboot my digestive system and the side effects of those medicines really weakened my mind. I could not distinguish any longer between reality and hallucinations. I saw my wife and a very scary looking clay man right next to her. It was very real to me. I felt uncertain and afraid and that experience humbled me and made me more sympathetic toward those who struggle and wrestle with mental illness. I could no longer look down at them who struggled. I learned to check my assumptions that it should be easy just to think straight or just to stop worrying or just to trust God. Because in my weakness in the hospital, I failed over and over again at all three of those things. In uncertainty, I lashed out at loved ones in uncontrolled anger. In fear, I accused others of lying. I accused God of not caring. I gave into deep depression and a forlorn helplessness. See, in my weakness, I became humbled. It made me much more sympathetic. But see, Jesus could not only sympathize with our every weakness and trial and suffering. Unlike us, unlike me, Jesus was without sin. And this explains the fourth reason Jesus is our uniquely great high priest and why he is granted access to the very throne room of God. Look at verse 15 at the very end. He was perfectly righteous. He who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet he was without sin. He began without sin, he remained without sin. In weakness, he did not sin. He never yielded to it, never turned from God's will. He never doubted God's promises or goodness. In temptation, he did not give in. Instead, he blessed those who persecuted them. On the cross, he says, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. He entrusted himself to the Father when Satan was launching attacks, when he's tired and hungry. He says, man does not live on bread alone, but every word that comes from the mouth of God. See, Jesus knows the power of temptation. He knows what it's like to suffer weakness. He knows trial and struggle and difficulty. However, and this is the really good news, he also knows victory. over temptation. Constant and perfect victory. He knows the sufficiency of God's promises. He knows God's goodness even in the midst of suffering and pain. And that makes him all the more qualified to serve as our mediator for he knows what it means to tempt God's goodness but he didn't. And so he can encourage us to keep trusting in God because he is one who knew what it was like to suffer and be tempted not to trust God, and to see lots of reasons not to trust God, and yet he does. He has passed the test. When tested, he's the only one that's passed the test. He's the only high priest who ever lived without sin, who was truly righteous, who alone pleased God. And because of that, he alone has permanent access into the real throne room of God in heaven. No other Israelite high priest qualified for such a high role. Israel's high priests of the tribe of Levi, of Aaron's sons, were all sinners themselves. They could serve, but not in the real house of God like Jesus. Their role was to point to the greater high priest, to prefigure him. Their priestly work and rituals were but a copy, a model, a teaching tool to show us what God would do through Jesus, the real high priest in the real throne room of God. So in summary, we learn that Jesus is our one of a kind, personally present before the face of God, thoroughly sympathetic and perfectly righteous representative before God. Jesus is the only one accepted into heaven that can truly, sympathetically represent you before God. That leads us to our second question. What difference does it make? Well, all the difference in the world, both in this world and in the next. The writer of Hebrews summarizes the significance With two points, two phrases, he says, hold fast to your confession and draw near. First, hold fast. Look at verse 14 again. Since we have a great high priest who's passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. See, the original audience, Hebrew believers in Jesus, were being persecuted because they confessed Jesus as the greater high priest who surpassed the Aaronic priesthood by fulfilling the purpose of that priesthood. And Jews, threatened by how this new Christian teaching seemed to make their rituals obsolete and their beliefs inferior, were trying to persuade these Hebrew Christians to recant of confessing Jesus as the one true high priest, and to return to their old priesthood, their old Jewish rituals. But the writer says, let us hold fast our confession. Don't be swayed. Stay true to your confession of Jesus. Don't be seduced away from Jesus, even temporarily. Hold fast to him. It's as if he's saying to those Hebrew believers, remember what it was like before you met Jesus? Remember how you were overwhelmed and exhausted by the law's demands? And like a swimmer about to drown, you grabbed hold of Jesus as your life preserver. So don't let go of them now lest you drown in your own moral weakness and sin. And the writer of Hebrews implores them hold fast. Don't hold slow. Grab hold quickly. Don't hesitate. Grab hold of Jesus now and hang on for dear life. If you hesitate you may be dragged away by the confusion others are calling and causing and drowned under by the weight of stubborn self-righteousness. and foolish self-reliance. Now how does this apply? Most of us are not Jews tempted to return to the ways of our Jewish community where we were raised lest we be excluded from family and friends or persecuted. But there are other ways we may be tempted to lose grip of our confession. See because our fearful hearts are doubting hearts are prone to wander personally relationally and institutionally. But we must not allow anything to take Jesus's place as our great high priest. Personally our natural inclination is towards self-trust. and disbelief but we must reject all creeping thoughts that we can represent ourselves or we can barter with God somehow and put him in our debt. This stems from self-righteous unbelief. We must check every inclination that Jesus is not necessary on the one hand or not sufficient on the other hand as our mediator. These lies stem from the enemy. Turn to Jesus alone, not your moral efforts, not your spiritual devotion. Rest on Jesus alone, not your feelings. Only He can vouch for you before the throne room of God. You cannot vouch for yourself. You, like me, are a miserable sinner. Relationally, don't allow other Christians to take the place of Jesus. It's good to confess to others, we're told, confess to one another and you shall be healed, but only Jesus stands in God's presence, so don't allow confessing to others to replace confessing to Jesus and repenting toward him. See, we tend to turn first to friends and counselors to express our troubles and our needs and our concerns and our joys. But do we go to Jesus first? Or is he an afterthought. He must be our first thought our first love. He alone can bear the weight of all our expectations so he must be our first comforter and our first counselor on the flip side. Sometimes others turn to us for counsel and comfort but they never really are interested in taking their issues to Jesus and as faithful brothers and sisters as counselors we must be aware when this is happening and direct people to Jesus not ourselves. They need His peace that passes understanding. They need His power. They need His transforming grace and His presence. Institutionally, some Christian traditions unfortunately misunderstand the high priesthood of Jesus by teaching you to approach God through other intermediaries. But the scripture is clear, dead saints, no matter how great, are fellow sinners. They cannot help you. They did not die for your sins. The only high priest and mediator for mankind is Jesus. Turning to other mediators, whether the Aaronic priesthood, in the case of the Hebrews in the first century, or the saints, or the Virgin Mary, or whoever, in our modern case, means turning away from Jesus. Don't do that. It's useless it's unbiblical and it's an offense to the holiness of our God in the high priestly work of our Savior Jesus Christ. So hold fast to Jesus as your great high priest and then because you hold fast to Jesus Christ draw near draw near to God with confidence. Look at verse 16. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need. Draw near with confidence, not insecurity, because you know you are welcomed by one who is sympathetic to your weakness. He knows weakness and temptation. He has walked that path. He knows what it's like, and he is abundantly compassionate toward those who are weak. Draw near with confidence, not fear. You are represented by one who loved you enough to die in your place, to pay for all of your sin so that you could be welcome into the very presence of God, fully forgiven and seen as pure and clean and justified in God's very sight. Draw near with confidence. Don't hesitate because you're constantly welcome. into the very throne room of God because Jesus ever lives to intercede for you. You don't have to wait until you feel crummy enough before you can go. You don't have to wait until you attend church three weeks before you can go. You can come constantly. Draw near with confidence to the throne of grace because it is a throne of grace. And there you will receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. What needs do you have at this time? Draw near to God. If you hold fast to Jesus as your high priest, that is your right, to draw near to God with confidence. So come to God through Jesus to receive mercy. What sins weigh heavy on your conscience? What moral failures? What failures to love? extent of apathy that you now have discovered that you regret? What jealousies and envies are eating you up? What lusts and pride is destroying you? What lies have you told and lived? Come to Jesus. Confess your sin. Turn to Jesus and receive mercy. He came for sinners just like you. Come to Jesus. to find grace, where has shame lingered in your life? Shame isn't always something that comes into our life because of sins we've done, but sometimes because of the sin done to us. What defilement contaminates your peace and robs you of joy? Jesus knows the pain of defilement, of abuse and neglect. And He knows how to offer grace to such a one as you. Come to the throne of grace. Jesus stands ready to intercede on your behalf, to silence your shame, and to drown out your darkness with His sympathetic, I've been there, loving grace. Come to the throne of grace through Jesus to find help in your time of need. Are you worried as a parent, overwhelmed by the challenges, feeling powerless because you're all too easily dismissed by your children? Maybe unsure how to intervene in the life of your elementary school child. Maybe you're disturbed by your child's trajectory. They're not heading in a good direction. Come to Jesus to find help in your time of need. He is the great fisher of men. He can intercede for you before the Father who can intervene through providence and through His Holy Spirit that can get into the nooks and crannies of your child's heart in a way you never can. Are you heartsick over a failed friendship or a broken marriage? Come to Jesus to find help in your time of need. He heals broken hearts. He's the sympathetic helper who knows what it's like to be rejected by the very ones who should have loved him. And he's still able, believe it or not, to surprise us with his power to restore broken things that we never thought could be restored. He excels at it. So come to Jesus. Are you humbled maybe by the realities of mid-age and the opportunities that have passed you by? Are you discouraged about the limitations and ailments of old age? Come to Jesus to find help in your time of need. He's not only the great physician, He's the risen Savior and His resurrection promises, it reframes time. Loss of time, loss of opportunity is totally reframed. by the thought of eternity. It reshapes our sorrows over physical degeneration and sufferings because it gives us an unshakable eternal hope that he will make all things new. So dear Christian, draw near with confidence, come to the throne of grace through Jesus your high priest to receive mercy, to find grace, to help you in your time of need no matter what it is. Jesus is our unique, personally present, thoroughly sympathetic, perfectly righteous representative before God. Come to Him. Let us pray. God, thank you for Jesus. Without Him, we would be hopelessly alienated from you. Without Him, we would live in constant uncertainty of whether or not we did enough. lived well enough, we loved enough, but in him we can know that one has done enough for us and he has earned our way. We know that you don't save people because they're good enough for grace. Rather, the reason anyone can be saved and accepted by you is because Jesus has been good enough and he stands as our representative where our first representative failed. God, I pray that these truths would transform our hearts, give us great confidence to run to you in our time of need. I pray for anyone here who hasn't yet run to you even once, that they would hear these words from your word and they would have courage to turn to you and come home. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.