Hark, the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn king, peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled. Joyful all ye nations rise, join the triumph of the skies, with the angelic host proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem. Christ by highest heaven adored, Christ the everlasting Lord, late in time behold him come, offspring of the Virgin's womb. Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, hail the incarnate Deity. Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel. Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace, hail the Son of Righteousness. Light and life to all He brings, risen with healing in His wings. Mild He lays His glory by, born that man no more may die, born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth." Charles Wesley, 1739. We have an absolute necessity for Christ to be our high priest. We're in Hebrews chapter 5. We're going to be looking at the first 10 verses. this morning, and as it so falls, there will be three points to this. There's an old traditional thing that every sermon is supposed to be three points in a prayer, or three points in a poem, or something like that. But this one just actually does happen to fall with three points. That's just the way the text is set up. Our reading though, because the context, it's really important, I want to jump back to 4 and start reading from 4.14 through 5.10 just to get the better context. So if you want to join me, and I'm reading from the New Living Translation, so the wording might be a little different, but either listen or read, whichever works for you. Says, so then, since we have a great high priest who has entered heaven, Jesus, the son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This high priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. Every high priest is a man chosen to represent other people in their dealings with God. He presents their gifts to God and offers sacrifices for their sins. And he is able to deal gently with ignorant and wayward people because he himself is subject to the same weaknesses. That is why he must offer sacrifices for his own sins as well as theirs. And no one can become a high priest simply because he wants such an honor. He must be called by God for this work, just as Aaron was. That is why Christ did not honor himself by assuming he could become high priest. No, he was chosen by God, who said to him, you are my son, today I have become your father. And in another passage, God said to him, you are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. While Jesus was here on earth, He offered prayers and pleadings with a loud cry and tears to the one who could rescue Him from death. And God heard His prayers because of His deep reverence for God. Even though Jesus was God's Son, He learned obedience from the things He suffered. In this way, God qualified Him as a perfect High Priest, and He became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him. And God designated him to be a high priest in the order of Melchizedek. Let's pray. Our most gracious God and Father, Lord, we commit this time to you. Lord, we ask only one thing, and that is that you truly meet with us. Lord, you've promised that it is by your word and the assembly of your people that you've promised to be with us. Lord, we ask that you would empower your word as only you can. Father, that we would all be confronted in ways that we need to be and comforted in ways that you intend to be. Father, we trust all things to your care and your keeping. This is your day and your hour. And Father, we just ask that you would be glorified and lifted up. In Christ's name and for his sake and for his glory, we pray. Amen. So as a reminder, the book of Hebrews is written to weary believers. Now, of course, you know, that automatically demands for us to ask, do we consider ourselves weary believers? If you're not weary today, don't worry, tomorrow's coming. But here in this original audience, and I would venture to say today amongst us, there are some who are tempted to drift. There are some who are dull of hearing. And there are some who are tempted to return to their old ways. This was the audience that the author of Hebrews was writing to. So the main thrust, as we've said before, of the book of Hebrews is to remind us of who Jesus is. The author reminds us that He is our only hope. He is our only anchor. And He is that as our High Priest. Now, we're in America. We don't have priests. We don't have kings. There was a rally not too long ago just to remind us of that fact, right? That we don't have kings. So a lot of times when we read these things in Scripture, especially the Old Testament, They're foreign to us. So there is this level of disconnect between our true understanding and what the condition was in that time. But nevertheless, there are ways that this is bridged. We have to understand that if we lose our understanding of Christ, and not just our understanding, but our value, If we lose our value in Christ, everything falls. But the opposite is true that if we hold to him, everything stands. Alistair Begg, I don't know if you're familiar with Alistair Begg, he's a Scottish He's a preacher in America. He's a pastor of a church, a Baptist church. He's an excellent preacher. He's not like many, and he's a funny guy. But he said, when we think in terms of why in the Old Testament, we keep coming across the sacrifice of these animals. You know this, when you read the Old Testament, there's just a lot of slaughter going on. I've never worked in a meat house. I have spent time on farms and grew up with animals and I know the smell of when you process an animal, that irony, meaty smell. Sometimes you buy meat at the grocery store and you'll have that smell. but to imagine the level that there was in the Old Testament on the day of sacrifice. I can't relate. I haven't had that experience. I can only imagine. But when you have this in the Old Testament and you're reading through and it's talking about all these sacrifices, we have to remember to use When we're reading these, the use of these sacrificial animals pointed us to three basic things. Number one, this is my German, sorry, number one. Number one, how costly forgiveness is. It's not a cheap word. Yes, I forgive you. No, it was costly. The second thing it should remind us of is the punishment for sin is death. That's how serious sin is. Anybody who teaches Christianity in any way that doesn't stress the fact that the punishment for sin requires death, then they fail to understand the seriousness of it. And the third thing that Alistair Begg reminds us of when we're looking at the sacrificial systems in the Old Testament is to be reminded that without shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. We could say that I wouldn't have designed it this way. I would have come up with a different way. But we have to understand that this is the way God set it up. going all the way back to the garden when Adam and Eve disobeyed God. And he had already told them beforehand, in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. They didn't know what death was. Death was a foreign concept to them. And when they did it, God could have killed them, but instead he killed an animal. And you may say, well, I didn't read that part in my Bible where it said he killed. He clothed them with the skins of an animal. Now he could have created that skin out of thin air. He had that power. But most likely, based on the pattern we have thereafter, an animal was killed in their place. So the teaching about the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ is absolutely basic to Christian living. Now we're getting into the area of priesthood. We'll talk a little bit about this. We are not Catholics. We do not have priests. Jesus was the final priest. Our three points that we're going to look at this morning, which is the outline is on your order of worship slash service. There's some debate about which one is proper. That's an inside thing. But our three points is looking at the biblical principles of priesthood. Two is Christ proclaimed as priest. And three is Christ the final priest. Some background here. As Jason kind of mentioned earlier with the advent, we have to look at the Old Testament to understand the New Testament. The Old Testament gives us shadows. The New Testament gives us the reality. In Genesis 14, we're introduced to a character who's very mysterious. His name is Melchizedek. In that text, Genesis 14, he is the king of Salem and he's a priest of the Most High God. We'll look at this character. We're also, in the Old Testament here, we're looking at Leviticus 4. chapters 8 through 10 and chapter 16, this is dealing with the Aaronic priest. This is Aaron, Moses' brother. We're looking at the priesthood there that was appointed and consecrated for the Day of Atonement. We've already talked about that in Hebrews earlier on, talking about how important that Day of Atonement is because that is the fulfillment that Christ gives us in His sacrifice. But the background for that is found in Leviticus, where God spells out all the dues and the instructions, the specifics of how things were to be done. We're also told in there what the consequence was when it wasn't done properly. Aaron had two sons. They got a little loosey-goosey with the instructions. and they violated the instructions of God and God struck them dead. Again, it's serious. But Hebrews draws us a straight line from Aaron to Melchizedek to Christ. Aaron shows the beginning of the priesthood, the Levitical system, which shows the shadow Melchizedek shows the pattern of an eternal king-priest appointed by God. And that Jesus is the true and final High Priest who fulfills every shadow and surpasses them. Every shadow that we talk about from the Old Testament, whether it's when we're dealing with the book of Hebrews or we're in some other passage of the New Testament, when we're talking about types and shadows in the Old Testament, they all find their fulfillment in Christ. The fun part is figuring out how. Section 1, we're dealing with the biblical principles of priesthood. This can be somewhat of a job description. We want to look at what was it to be a priest in the Old Testament. There were some general principles that every Jew knew from childhood. They were taught this. Principle one is a priest is chosen from among men. We see that in verse one. This is taken from Exodus 28 and 29 and Leviticus chapters 8 and 9. God didn't take angels. He took men to represent the people. If you remember back in Hebrews chapter 2, there was this distinction made between Jesus and angels and how he's greater, he's more than the angels. And we have this biblical pattern that we need to understand if we think about it, that throughout the Scriptures, here we're dealing with the Aaronic priests, but also if you think in Acts chapter 6, which is a passage that a lot of people think, or like the first deacons, it's our first example of deacons in Acts chapter 6, those servants that were to serve the tables, they were chosen from among the people. If you remember, choose from among yourselves. six men full of the Spirit. And then also in Titus chapter 1, Paul's writing to Titus and told him that one of the tasks he had to do was to appoint elders in Crete. The implication there is that the elders were appointed from among them, from among the people. So we have this pattern in Scripture that servants and leaders are chosen from among the very people that they are going to be serving and leading. And we know this to be true. Leaders who know the people are most effective. I'm sure you can remember growing up, there's times when maybe in school there was a new teacher or coach or somebody brought in that maybe you didn't know, but you're told, oh, they came from here, or they grew up here. When I was preparing this and was studying this, it made me wonder, Jason, if that's not one of the reasons why you stuck around Bremen. This is your people. This is your place. You know the place. You know the roads. You know the struggles. You know the people. You know the businesses. You know the ebbs and flows. all of this, but it makes you genuinely profitable to be a servant leader when you're amongst the people that you are involved with. Principle two with the biblical priesthood is a priest is appointed by God. We saw that in verse one also. These are not self-appointed or elected people. Somebody didn't just stand up and say, I'm the new high priest or I'm running for high priest. I'd appreciate your vote. That did not happen. These were appointed by God. God chose these people. In Exodus 21.8, we see that's where God appointed Aaron. He told Moses, bring me your brother Aaron. Principle three, a priest offers gifts and sacrifices for sins. We saw that in verse one as well. Now, we think about this, we think about, you know, if you watch Indiana Jones or any of these, Pagan groups exist out there where they're all about the sacrifices, right? It's like we gotta appease the angry god or gods. We gotta give them a sacrifice. Those are all perversions of the system that God established. And I have to confess, because I grew up watching those things, it's very easy for me, when I'm thinking about the sacrificial system that God set up in the Scriptures, it's hard for me to not think of those ways of doing things. You know, ripping hearts out. biting it or whatever crazy nonsense that we've been exposed to in movies and such. And God is not a deity that can be simply appeased by the sacrifice, the shedding of blood of innocent people and animals. I say that. It's the way he decided to cover the sins of the people because he was pointing to a greater sacrifice and offering that would not appease sin, but it would completely abolish the guilt that sin brings. So forgetting the pagan sacrificial system and thinking of God's sacrificial system, again, death is the penalty for violating the holiness of a holy God. As R.C. Sproul likes to call it, cosmic treason, right? Some people's like, I got a cousin-in-law, weird to say that, who's a Seventh-day Adventist. And there's just this low view of how terrible sin is. And there's this idea that God just so loves everybody. He's such a loving God that He don't want to punish anybody. He loves everybody and He's doing all He can to bring everybody to heaven. And it's such a low view of sin to think that the creator of the universe who breathed the breath of life into his creation, man, which we, the moment our hearts start beating, even before that, the moment that our cells start coming together with our unique DNA, the moment that starts happening, he calls that to be, and he gives everything that's needed for that life and establishes in a situation to where we would worship Him because of who He is. And then when we rebel against that in the slightest or most harshest of ways, we think that that's a light thing. We think that that's something that can just be dusted away easily with a simple word of, I'll overlook it. I'll forgive it. That's to deny how serious rebellion is and a lack of understanding, which we all have because we're in the flesh. There's a veil, but a lack of understanding of who God is. I'm always reminded of that passage in Isaiah 6, when Isaiah said he was in the temple on the Lord's day and he saw the Lord high and lifted up. And the train of Israel filled the temple. And the response of that, that awe. We use the word awesome about everything these days, right? Everything is awesome. We've watered the meaning of the word down because we use it for such trivial matters. But to be there and to see God himself, true awesome. How must that be? But to understand all that, then it makes the priesthood make sense. You think about Moses when the children of Israel saw God on the mountain and how it was dark and thundering and rumblings and lava and just night. It was terrifying. They were all scared. And they told Moses, you go talk to God. We don't want to talk to God because we know we'll die. That's how serious just that veiled glimpse of knowing that he's there. Moses, you go be our priest. You go represent us before God. Oh, if we could have that true view of God. In Leviticus 1 through 7, we see the offerings that the priest is to offer, right? A lot of sacrifices, a lot of fruit, the very things that provide life, the very essentials, we would say. Again, one of those things that's hard for us to understand because in our culture, we have such plenty, right? We waste more food than we have to worry about. but to understand that the things that they were offering to God was the essentials of their very living, represented that He, and being in a right relationship with Him, was more important than living physically. And then, of course, Leviticus 16, the Day of Atonement, we talked about before, How important that is. And that one day, that one day a year to cover, temporarily cover, calls God to pass over, calls God to postpone the judgment for their sin. The purpose was to handle sin so sinners may approach God. God did this not as a harsh punishment or some just anger towards the people, like an angry father that's just letting out his frustrations on a rebellious and disobedient child. He did this as a way to allow them to be in His mercy and His grace for the next year. It was more of God doing this for the people than it was for the people doing something for God. The fifth principle was a priest must offer sacrifice for his own sins. Obviously, he's taken from amongst the people. He are one of them. He's a sinner just like they are. Never forget that about your preachers and teachers. They are sinners just as you are. Leviticus 16.6 says, Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for himself. So he had to atone for his own sin before he could even begin to atone for the people's sins. But here's the striking difference. As we are looking through this, we've got to understand, remember, the point is to look at Christ. Christ was sinless. There was no need for an offering for Himself before He offered for the people. The summary of this whole first point here of the biblical principles of priesthood is that the Old Testament priest is a shadow. Real, but insufficient. God was preparing the way for the reality, which was Christ. And that leads us into point two, our second point there, verses four through six. Christ was proclaimed as priest. He was appointed, not self-proclaimed. Christ did not exalt himself, we see in verse 5. Old Testament priests didn't choose their role and neither did Christ. John 8 54 says, if I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. Because he knew his role. We see that the Father appointed him, Psalm 2 and 110. We've read Psalm 2 before because earlier chapters, he referenced Psalm 27 a lot. This is where, you are my son, today I have begotten you comes from. But then also today, he introduces another aspect of Psalm 110, which we've talked before. where today in verse 4 of 110 it says, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. This was an eternal priesthood. Now you might say, well, how do we get that? Well, if you look at Genesis 14, specifically in verse 18, this is after Abraham, okay? So the backstory is, you know, Lot, Abraham and Lot, they got so prosperous that they had to divide. It was just too much going on, so they're like, let's separate. You take your people and stuff, and then we'll go in separate ways. And Lot chose to go down to Sodom and Gomorrah because he wanted the city life, And so Abram's like, okay, I'll stay here. So they did that, and then some things happened, some skirmishes break out between some local nations and kingdoms, and a war ensued, and Lot got captured, right? He got kidnapped. So Abram gathered up some of his friends and neighbors, and they went down and rescued Lot. And in the midst of that, they rescued a lot of other people. And some of the people that were taken in that were taken from this nation, this city of Salem, in which Melchizedek was the king. And we read this account in Genesis 14, 18, where Melchizedek came to Abram. And it was known. The thing about Melchizedek here was it wasn't told where he came from. We have no genealogy. Most of the time in this time is so-and-so who was the son of so-and-so who was the son of so-and-so and so-and-so and so-and-so. But not with Melchizedek. We're not told of his genealogy. But what we do see is that he is a king, first of all. And it's interesting that the name Salem, which he was the king of, means peace. He was a king, but he was also a priest. It says he was a priest to the Most High God. And he prayed to God. And he offered sacrifices and blessings from God. And you read all this in Genesis 14 there in the second half of that chapter. Melchizedek existed before the law. So Aaron, who was owned down, he's 400 years after Abraham. Remember when the nation went to Egypt? The grandchildren got sent off to Egypt? And they were there for 400 years and then Moses brought them out. Aaron's the brother of Moses. This Melchizedek existed before Aaron. And what we read in there in that text in Genesis 14 is that Abraham offered a tithe to Melchizedek. So that made Melchizedek superior, in a sense, to Abraham. Abraham was superior to Aaron. So logic dictates that Melchizedek is superior to Aaron. Melchizedek provided the pattern. This keen priest who was outside and before the law of Moses, but yet he was God's man. And he had no genealogy per se, which we know Jesus, at least through Mary, had a genealogy. But of course we know there is no genealogy on the Father's side because God is His Father. So Melchizedek was the pattern and Jesus was the fulfillment. Now let's contrast this all with Roman Catholic priesthood, because we are a product of the Reformation. We are Reformed Baptists, so we like to really stay close and connected to that event. And Catholics today still have the priesthood. Rome, priests offer sacrifices, they mediate grace, and they stand between man and God. Has anybody been to a Catholic service? We got one. The only one I've been to was a Spanish Catholic service. And I got to witness this, the priests roaming around doing their all their stuff, trying to be nice, but they do all this, but they see themselves in the same way as the Old Testament priests offering sacrifices. That's why Jesus is always on the cross with the Catholics, because he's being offered as a sacrifice every week, re-offering the sacrifice. We understand the Scripture says, that's why our crosses, is there one on the front of this or is that the old one? Jesus is not on there because He's not here, He's risen. He's sitting at the right hand of God the Father and He's pleading and making intercession for us. His very presence in the throne of heaven stands as a constant intercession for us. 1 Timothy 2.5, We're told there's one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Christ is the only eternal priest. There is no other priest needed. There is no other priesthood. God did not establish another priesthood. Jesus completed what the Old Testament priesthood longed to do but were unable to do. So once Jesus offered the final sacrifice of himself in the heavenly place, the priesthood was abolished. There's no need for it. It would be akin to you going to a restaurant and ordering a meal after you've spent a lot of time looking at the menu, and then they bring you the meal, you eat the meal, and then you ask for the menu back. Not that you're... you just think you need it. I gotta have that. I need that. Oh, you've already had the meal. You're full. You're not eating again. If you already have a permanent bridge, you don't rely on temporary planks. Christ is the real bridge, John 14 6. All others are unnecessary and indeed unsafe. Bearing shame and scoffing rude in my place condemned he stood. And He sealed my pardon with His blood. Hallelujah. What a Savior. Our final point, verse 3, I mean, point 3, verses 7 through 10, Christ is the final priest. He fulfilled His duties. He offered prayers and supplications. When we're reading that text and it talks about that He had cryings and groanings, I don't know about you, but my mind went back to the Garden of Gethsemane when he prayed with such fervor. It said he prayed great drops of blood. And he prayed and he even asked God, he said, let this cup pass from me, but not my will, but yours be done. So we have this praying, this offering before he offered himself. But then also even on the cross, in the midst of the offering of himself, He cries out into the darkness, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabathanai. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But he learned obedience through suffering. He submitted himself. He lowered himself lower than the angels and submitted himself even to death, the death of a cross. He was not disobedient. He experienced obedience fully, Philippians 2.8. There was qualifications. He understood sufferings, Hebrews 4.15. He submitted perfectly, John 8.29. And he fulfilled righteousness, Matthew 3.15. He became the source of eternal salvation. We see that in verse 9. There was no temporary fix like the Old Testament sacrifices. Christ sacrifices once for all. If you think about it, if any of you do any DIY stuff, some of us are a little more handy than others. I know some handy guys. Me, I watch a YouTube video and try to replicate. Luckily, if it's a good video, sometimes I'm successful. But we know that DIY stuff, sometimes you just patch something, right? Just to get by, right? Until you can get a more permanent solution. Maybe it's a leaky pipe and you throw some Flex Seal on it until you can actually get the right piping or get the person who knows how to do it properly, whatever. That's kind of like the Old Testament. It was one of those temporary fixes. They were just limping along. But when Christ came and when Christ offered Himself, because He was faithful and because He learned this obedience through His suffering, it God granted as the final fulfillment and the completion. Christ sacrifices once for all. It's eternal. And He was the designated high priest forever. Scripture in the Old Testament, talking about Christ, says that you are a priest after the order of Melchizedek. It echoes this priest king, this appointed by God, who's eternal, who has no beginning and has no end. And He fulfills and completes the task that was set before Him. Christ is the permanent solution. It's finished. Tetelestai, he says on the cross. It is finished. It's final. It's forever. So for our Catholic friends, we point them to this fact. Jesus was the final priest. There is no need for the priesthood after Jesus. So why Christ's priesthood matters to us, the conclusion? It gives us access to God. Even in the Old Testament, you had to go through a priest to get to God, which is what Rome says now. But with Jesus, the veil was torn in two. There is no more separation between God and his people other than physical. That comes later. He gives us forgiveness of sins. and He gives us perseverance. That's why we talk all the time about the importance of the gospel. Once you're saved, you don't stop sharing or hearing or listening to the gospel. We need it. It fuels our soul. It feeds us. It reminds us, the same as the supper which will be taken. It reminds us of what Christ has done for us that we could not do ourselves. He done it for us. His gifts and offerings to God were accepted by God and it was once for all. We don't have to offer another sacrifice to God. Though we are sinners, I love this from the Reformation, we are at the same time sinners and saints. Foreign concept to Rome. They cannot grasp that. That's exactly what Scripture says. Because of the priesthood of Christ, because of His act of offering to God, we can come to God. Because He doesn't see us in our sin. He sees us in Christ. Christ is the reality. As Begg said, the teaching about the priesthood of Jesus is absolutely basic to Christian living. So Christ is your priest, He's your mediator, He's your access, He's your sacrifice, He's your intercessor, and He's your hope. Hebrews 7.25, which we'll get to at a later point, says, He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him. I'll close with this hymn line. Today's been about hymns. I don't know if you saw that. It comes through. I love it. I need no other sacrifice and I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me. Let's pray. Father, again, we thank you for your mercy and your grace, your kindness. Lord, that though we in and of ourselves, Lord, are still in the sinful flesh and we dwell among the sinful people, Father, even in this very state, you are applying the sacrifice of Christ to your people. Lord, you offered him up 2,000 years ago, but you are still sprinkling that blood on your altar for your people even today. Lord, I thank you for this Tremendous message. Lord, we know that there is no other source of comfort or hope. Father, we cannot find this, Lord, with any kind of religious activity or traditions of men or some inner peace or some philosophical pursuit. You alone are the Holy One who is offered up in our place. Father, I pray that you open our eyes to see and embrace and to be satisfied that that is enough. May you be glorified in your people. Lord, may you continue to minister to us because, Lord, we are poor beggars. And Lord, if it were not for your gracious providing hand, Lord, we would cease to exist even. Father, I pray that we continue to walk this day, Lord, rejoicing in your salvation. Lord, let us love one another in the way that you have designed and intended. And Lord, let us be mindful Lord, as we go into the dark world, that you still have sheep that have yet to hear your voice. But Father, you have appointed that they will hear your voice and they will follow you. I pray, Father, that you would give us the unction and the desire, Lord, to share that. Lord, we do not know who they are or where they are or when they are. But Lord, we rejoice in you and your message and your promise to save your people. And we look forward to the day when we are no longer hindered by the flesh in the physical world, that we will see you as you are. We thank you again, Lord, for your mercy and your grace this hour and this day. And it is in your name that we pray. Amen.