Jesus, Our Great High Priest

Well, if you have your Bibles, I’m going to ask that you turn with me to Hebrews chapter 5 this morning. Hebrews chapter 5. We’re going to actually stay there for most of the time today. I would say today is a little bit more teaching, perhaps, than what I normally do. So if you have your Bibles, I’m going to encourage you to go there, because we’re going to be going through this verse by verse this morning.

Hebrews chapter 5. If you don’t have your Bible, bring it. I would encourage you to do that. Mark it up, take notes. And if you don’t have a Bible, please let us know. We would love to get you a Bible.

All right, are we there? Hebrews chapter 5. Can we do this this morning? Before we read, can we just lift our hands to the Lord? Lord Jesus, we open our hearts, Lord, to receive your Word to us today. Lord, let us not leave here the same, but Lord, let us see you clearly through your Scripture. Holy Spirit, come, Lord, and speak to us. We give you this time. We give you our attention. In Jesus’ name we said amen.

All right. Hebrews chapter 5, starting at verse 1, says: “For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness. Because of this he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sins. And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was. So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him: ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You.’ As He also says in another place: ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek’; who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, called by God as High Priest ‘according to the order of Melchizedek,’ of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.”

Why we need a high priest

We have been going through the Book of Hebrews, and I hope you’ve been enjoying it. I feel like we are now getting to one of the primary themes of the Book of Hebrews, which is Jesus, our great High Priest. Jesus, our great High Priest.

For many of us, we hear that and it might not mean a whole lot to you, because in our culture today we don’t really have that process. We don’t go through those motions. But according to Scripture, and according to the author of Hebrews, Jesus is our great High Priest.

Now, we talked about how the Book of Hebrews was written to believers who were discouraged in their faith. They were going through many things that were getting them to question, “Did I make the right decision? Was it the right thing for me to give my life to the Lord?” Because hard times were coming, and there were more hard times on the horizon. And so the author is encouraging the Hebrew believers with this: Jesus is our great High Priest. Everybody say that: “Jesus, our great High Priest.”

You see, the concept of the great high priest means very little to us today. It’s just not in our culture. It’s not something we’re very familiar with. But for first-century Christians who came from a Jewish background, this was very important, because the high priest was the one that would mediate between God and them. That person had to be called by God, and they stood in the gap. They stood in between. It was a way for God to relate to man and for man to relate to God. So the high priest had a major role, a major significance. They had to come through the mediator, through the high priest that God had appointed. It was the way for them to get right with God, so that they could be in relationship with God.

So the author here is making the case: Jesus is now our great High Priest. In other words, you don’t need just another man to come to the Lord. You can come to Him freely, because Jesus is now your High Priest. The way we have access to the Father, the way we have access into His throne room, into His presence, is through Jesus. Somebody say amen.

Taken from among men

So in the first four verses here, we see the high priest needed to have two essential qualities. There were two things that made him qualified to be the high priest. Number one, he had to be full of compassion. Everybody say, “Compassion.” Number two, he had to be called by God. You could not become a high priest through ambition. When there was a career day at school, there was not a booth that said “High Priest.” You could not choose it as your occupation. You had to be called by God. But you also had to have a heart of compassion.

Listen again to verses 1–4: “For every high priest taken from among men” — say, “Among men” — “is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can have compassion” — say, “Compassion” — “on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness.” Think about that. “Because of this he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sins. And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was.”

The first thing we see here is that the high priest was to be taken from among men. Now, this is interesting, and I find it fascinating, because God really could have chosen anything or any being to be the mediator. He could have chosen an object, or crafted an object, and said, “You have to come to this object to come to me.” He could have chosen an angelic being and said, “You will be the mediator between the people and me.” But He said, “No, the high priest must be chosen from among men.” Why? Because they had to know what it’s like. They had to have a heart of compassion — a heart that says, “I get what you’re going through. I know the pain. I know the suffering. I know the stress. I know the anxiety.” Everything that you have felt has been experienced by the Lord Jesus Himself.

The high priest had to have a heart of compassion, because God wanted the one who stood between man and God to be full of compassion. So even though one of the main duties of the high priest was to offer sacrifices, and to supervise and organize the sacrifices of all the other priests, the high priest was much more than just a butcher. He was much more than someone who cut up animals and laid them on the altar before God in the tabernacle, in the temple. Ideally, the high priest did it all with a heart of compassion.

I want you to picture this in your mind, to get a glimpse of what this looked like back in the ancient days. Someone would travel days or weeks to go to the temple or the tabernacle to bring their offering to the priest. And the priest would have to inspect the offering. It was usually an animal, or some sort of firstfruits. It could be a sacrifice, but for the forgiveness of sins it had to be blood. So they would bring this offering, this sacrifice, to the Lord, and the priest would inspect the offering. In other words, you couldn’t just bring the worst of your flock to the Lord. Just because you had a lamb that was a couple days from dying, you can’t say, “Okay, God, you can have that one.” You were to bring the very best to God, to be offered to Him. So the priest would inspect it and make sure: yes, this is an acceptable offering. And before the offering would take place, the priest would say to the person who brought it, “Put your hands on the head of the lamb and begin to confess your sins.”

Picture that. The offering had to be approved by the priest. It had to be pure. It had to be spotless. It had to be the best you had to offer. I think it’s sometimes interesting how lazy we can become in our interaction with the Lord. We give Him our leftovers. We’re out all night living it up, partying, and then when we come into the presence of the Lord, we’ve got no energy to give. We go through our budget: “If we have enough, maybe I’ll give to the Lord. Oh, I can’t, because I already spent it all on whatever.” I don’t say that with condemnation. I say that because it’s just our nature. How many times have I come and just sung the song with my hands in my pockets, standing before the Lord, and I didn’t even say how great He is?

They used to have to travel days. It was an investment to come to the Lord. They would travel, and they would bring their offering, and when it was acceptable the priest would say, “Now put your hands on the head of the lamb and begin to confess your sins.” And as he’s confessing his sins, I want you to picture with me the man confessing, with tears coming down his eyes, saying, “Lord, I’m not enough. I’m not good enough. Lord, my heart has gone astray. Lord, I’ve lied. I’ve cheated.” And he would begin to confess these things. And as he’s pouring out his heart, I would hope the high priest would be there with compassion in his heart, saying, “Yes, yes. Let’s get right before the Lord. Let’s get right with God right now.”

This was a prerequisite for the high priest. The high priest had to have a heart of compassion. God was so concerned that the high priest would have a heart of compassion towards those who are ignorant and going astray. And I think sometimes, as the church, we can lose sight of that — that this is really the same heart He’s asking us to have: that we would also have hearts of compassion for those who have gone astray, for those who are ignorant, who don’t know any better. I feel like the church sometimes gets so judgy, and it really puts up a fence between God and them. But may we also, like our great High Priest, have a heart of compassion. Somebody say amen.

Called by God

In ancient times, once a year there was something called the Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement was like the Super Bowl for the high priest. It was the day when he would make sacrifice on behalf of the sins of all the people in all of the land, including for himself. Now, this was important, because he had to make offerings for himself. There are multiple reasons why, but one of the primary reasons was the high priest had to know that he was a man too — that he was not so good that he was above anybody else. There was this compassion, this understanding, between the high priest and the people. So on the Day of Atonement, the high priest was to bring the sacrificial blood first for his own sins, and then for the people.

All of this took place in the Holy of Holies. What does that mean? There was a place in the temple that was reserved only for the high priest. There was the holy place, which was kind of the entrance — if you were imagining it, you would come in, and there was this place. But then there was this veil, this separation, where only the high priest could go, to make offerings and to put the blood of the sacrifice on the altar. Only the high priest could go. And he would sprinkle the atoning blood of the sacrifice upon the Ark of the Covenant, fearing that perhaps God might even strike him dead if he did it with a wrong heart or a wrong attitude. This was not an easy job.

There were times throughout Scripture when people tried to do the duties of the high priest, but they weren’t called by God. Remember, you had to be full of compassion, but you also had to be called by God. There were instances in Scripture where people tried to perform those duties. Korah, in the rebellion of Korah, tried to take the role of the high priest, and God said no, no, no, no. It says the earth swallowed them up. God was not having it. King Saul began to perform some of the duties of the high priest, and God rejected him as king after that. So there was an approach that you were to have, and the way that you came to God was through the high priest. Are we good? You guys with me? Oh, that we would see the Lord Jesus today.

In modern Judaism, none of this is happening anymore. There is no sacrifice. There is no temple. There is no recognized priesthood. There is the Day of Atonement, and on that day many Jews will fast or try to make sacrifice. And the hope is that the good that they’ve done will outweigh the bad. And I need every person to know: that is not how it works. You cannot earn your atonement. The good that you have to provide cannot outweigh the bad. Scripture says without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. Without the shedding of blood. So instead of looking at what we might do to earn our salvation or to earn forgiveness, we need to look to our great High Priest and the perfect sacrifice He made. Amen.

So not only was the high priest filled with compassion; the high priest was also called by God. I already mentioned a few examples, but you cannot take the role of the high priest yourself. Let me put it this way: you cannot appoint your own high priest. I believe there are so many people today, even in the church, who try to be their own high priest. There are people who believe they’re good with God, but they say, “I don’t need the Bible. I don’t need to do it God’s way.” What is that? That is trying to be your own high priest. That is trying to live according to your rules and say, “I can make things right between me and God. We have an agreement. We have an understanding.” “Well, I believe…” How many times have I heard that? “Well, you see, what I believe —” What does Scripture say? Amen. So you cannot become your own high priest. You need a high priest. Turn to the person next to you, look at them, and tell them, “You need a high priest.”

Approaching God His way

We live in a culture that celebrates individualism. We live in a culture that has this spirit of entrepreneurship, the spirit of self-independence: go make it happen for yourself. And trust me, there are a lot of good things that come from that. But that’s not the way of the Kingdom. When God wants you to come to Him, you have to come by His appointed means. You have to come to the Lord His way.

That is why we don’t worship just however we want. Listen, the way that we worship here in this church is not because we just say, “Oh, we like that style.” That is not why we worship the way we worship. The reason we lift our hands is because Scripture says, “Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord.” The reason we sing a new song — and listen, some of the most powerful times of worship in this church are when the screens are off. You don’t know the words. What does that mean? You’ve got to make up your own. I often go to other churches, and a lot of times I don’t know the songs that they’re singing, and that’s my favorite, because I just close my eyes and I begin to bless the Lord. The Lord is looking at the heart. He’s looking for those who will worship in spirit and in truth.

I say all this because we can’t just approach God however we want, whenever we feel like it. We have to do it God’s way. And Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” There is only one way to the Father. And there are people who take offense to that. There are people who say, “Well, I don’t want to come to God that way. I don’t want to give my life to Jesus. Why did He make Jesus the only way?” But aren’t you thankful that God made a way? Because there was no way. We were all dead in our sins, all dead in our trespasses. But because Jesus is our great High Priest, He is now our mediator between God, between heaven, and us. We good?

So we do not want to fall into the trap of thinking we can be our own high priest, or that we’re just good enough. We have to approach God the way He says. The high priest had to be full of compassion. He had to be called by God.

A priest after the order of Melchizedek

And then in verse 5 he starts talking about Jesus — my favorite. Verse 5: “So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him: ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You.’ As He also says in another place: ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.’” We’re going to talk about Melchizedek in future weeks, so don’t miss out. It’s amazing.

But I want you to think about this. It makes sense that there was some confusion among those early, ancient believers about Jesus being their high priest, because from the beginning of the priesthood itself, from the inception of the priesthood, it always came from the descendants of Aaron. Now, Jesus was not a descendant of Aaron. The high priest had to be called by God, and the first high priest was Aaron. The next high priest was his oldest surviving son, the next one was the surviving son after that, and so on and so forth.

So when this author is stating that Jesus is our great High Priest, notice the words: “according to the order of Melchizedek.” Jesus isn’t our High Priest out of ambition or desire. God the Father said to the Son, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” The author is quoting Psalm 110:4, which says, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” The author is saying there is a different priesthood now. There was a priesthood according to Aaron, but this is the priesthood according to Melchizedek. Somebody say amen.

Again, we’re going to talk about Melchizedek later, because it is too much. The funny thing is there are like three verses in the Bible on Melchizedek, but there’s a lot to say there. The point is this: Jesus truly is called to be our High Priest. He was called by God, and full of compassion.

Prayers with vehement cries and tears

And we see that compassion in verse 7. It says, “Who, in the days of His flesh” — talking about Jesus, the days that He was in the flesh here on earth — “when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death.”

Picture this. I believe this is a picture of the Garden of Gethsemane. This was the night before Jesus died. He’s in the garden, and He’s praying to the Father, and He’s crying out. He is being overwhelmed. Scripture says that He was sweating blood. This was such a time of intense pressure. People will make the connection that the blood He was sweating was because He was being pressed, because He was being crushed. Does anybody ever feel pressed or crushed a little bit? Okay. Jesus was feeling this to an extreme. He knew what was about to happen. He knew He was about to die on the cross. The cross was before Him, and He knew He was going to be up there and was going to call out to God, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” He knew that He was about to suffer and to die.

So here He is, calling out to the Father and saying, “If it’s your will, would you please take this cup from me? Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.” There’s this picture happening in the Garden of Gethsemane where He is praying. And I used to think He was only feeling the pressure because He was about to give His life. But I actually think the greater thing was this: He did not want to lose the fellowship He had with the Father.

God can know no sin, and Jesus was about to take all of it — all of your sin, all of my sin, every time you’ve gotten it wrong, every time you set your face against the Lord Himself, the times you cast judgment on others. All of it. The pain, the suffering. He was about to take all of it. And I believe if it was just about Him dying on a cross, He would have done it. It says that for the joy set before Him He endured the cross. There was a hope that you and I would be saved by what He was about to do. That’s why we say you are His reward. Did you know that? Okay. But think about this: God can know no sin, and Jesus was going to take all of it. Oh, the ache in His heart: “I might not be with the Father. I’m going to give my life, and all the sin is going to be nailed with me on the cross.” He was the pure, spotless Lamb who was the perfect sacrifice.

Think about this. When He was standing before Pontius Pilate after the Garden of Gethsemane, they are inspecting Him and asking Him questions. They’re grilling Him: “Are you the Son of God? Are you the Messiah?” What was that? They were inspecting the Lamb. And they found no fault with Him. Scripture says they found no fault with Him, and yet they demanded His life. And so the pure, spotless Lamb — without blemish, without sin, without defect — became our sacrifice.

And in this anticipation in the garden, Jesus is praying, and we see this snapshot of Jesus’ life so that we would know that He knows what it’s like in your life. There is no level of stress, fear, anxiety that you have gone through that He has not. And yet He did it perfectly, in full submission, in full obedience to the Father. That’s why when we say God knows where you’re at, He really knows.

Think about this: Jesus is God. Somebody say amen. And He has been since the beginning. He created all things. It says all things were created by Him and through His Word. And when we sinned, we were separated from God, and blood was needed to cover that sin. So Jesus, who was with the Father and the Holy Spirit, humbled Himself and took on flesh. The Creator of the universe became man. Can you imagine this — humbling Himself to the point that He would know exactly what it’s like for you?

He couldn’t just say, “Be saved. Oh, I’ll just take care of that. Just erase that. Undo.” You know, you’ve got the Control-Z on the keyboard. No, this was not a Control-Z moment. We did not choose Him. We rejected Him. And so what did Jesus say? “I’m coming down for you.” And He humbled Himself. He took on flesh. He laid aside all that made Him divine, yet He was still fully God. And He went through suffering, through pain, through disappointment, through hurt, through hunger. He did it all because He wanted to know — He had to know — what it was like. He could not be our great High Priest if He could not have compassion.

Learning obedience through suffering

I’ve always believed in the power of God to heal. But it wasn’t really until I had experienced pain in my body that I was able to pray with others with a different level of compassion. I had never cried putting my hands on someone and praying for them until I first had pain in my body, because I knew: I know what you’re living with. I know what it’s like when it just doesn’t go away.

I think one of the most underrated things in the church, especially the American church, is the understanding of suffering. The church has sold the gospel as though God is a genie in the bottle and He’s just going to make your life better. There is only true joy found in Him, but suffering is a part of us becoming like Him. If Jesus, God Himself, came to the earth, humbled Himself, and suffered on a cross, how can I deny that in my own life it is what makes me better?

And so Scripture says despite all of His agony, He “was heard because of His godly fear.” Verse 8 says, “Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.” It is mind-blowing to me that Jesus, who is God, had to come and learn something, and the only way it could be learned was through suffering. Many of us have prayed the prayer, “Jesus, make me more like you.” And yet all we do when we leave the church is say, “What can I do to be comfortable and make it easy?” rather than, “Jesus, how can I lay my life down for others the way that you laid your life down for me?” May we learn obedience the way Jesus did.

There are different levels of suffering. There’s suffering because of my own bad decisions. Anybody know what I’m talking about? Yeah. The other day I let our dog out. We don’t have a fence — we have a wireless fence — and I just started training this dog. And I was like, “He’s good, he won’t leave,” so I let the leash off. What does he do? Six in the morning I’m running around the block, looking for my dog, trying to track him down. That is suffering because I was not smart. Okay?

There is suffering because of your own bad decisions. But there’s another kind of suffering where I believe the Lord wants to teach us something. He wants to teach us, in the midst of your suffering, “Will you still trust me to deliver you?” And that’s what Jesus learned. He learned through suffering, to the point of dying on a cross, where He said, “Not my will, Lord, but yours be done.” Amen. There is suffering that you may endure where God says, “My child, though this is difficult, this is my path for you at the present time. Would you believe me in the midst of it? Would you walk with me and learn something?”

I hate to say this, but some of the times that I’ve been closest to the Lord have been in my greatest moments of pain. Depending on the heart, you’ll either run from God in your pain, or you’ll get on your knees, desperate for God, in the middle of your pain. How will you respond?

You see, the Bible never teaches us that a strong faith will keep the Christian from suffering. First Thessalonians 3:3 says, “That no one should be shaken by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we are appointed to this.” Paul is saying, “Don’t you know, when you gave your life to the Lord, you signed up for this?” Acts 14:22 says, “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.” Romans 8:17 says we are “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him.” Suffering can be a beautiful tool that He uses to teach us obedience and a deeper level of faith and trust in Him.

The author of eternal salvation

And then verses 9 through 11 say: “And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, called by God as High Priest ‘according to the order of Melchizedek’” — there it is again — “of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.” In other words, there are things that the author was wanting to get into with the people who were a part of this church, but they weren’t ready for it, because they were hard-hearted, hard of hearing.

But I want you to notice this: “Having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation.” If you are here today, I need you to hear this. He is fully capable of being the author of eternal salvation. He has been perfected. You cannot save yourself. There is no one perfect but Him. There is no one else. There is no other pure, spotless Lamb whose sacrifice is worthy to pull us up and out of the pit and set us on the Rock — the Rock of life, the Rock of Him. You cannot author your own salvation. You need Jesus to be your salvation.

He is our great High Priest, full of compassion, full of a heart that says, “I see you. I know you. The pain that you feel in this moment — I feel it too. But will you put your trust in me? Will you let me pull you up and out?” Because He is our firm foundation. Amen. He’s the one we can put our trust in.

Can we stand together? I’m going to close with this scripture, and I’m going to ask that we stand, that we close our eyes, that we lift our hands to heaven. I want us to receive from the Lord this morning. Come on, let’s be filled with faith. Lift your hands to the Lord and just say: Jesus, I’m desperate for you. Thank you, Lord, that you are my great High Priest — that I don’t need to go through the hoops and the obstacles, but I can come to you boldly, because you are the perfect sacrifice.

With your hands lifted, I just want to read this over you. This is Hebrews 4:14–16: “Seeing then” — oh, Jesus, that we would see you — “that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens” — to the highest place, the Lamb of God who is seated on the throne — “Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.” May we never lose heart. May we never lose faith. May we always put our trust in the one who is faithful, Jesus, our compassionate High Priest. “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly” — let us come boldly — “to the throne of grace.” You don’t have it in you to save yourself. We enter in by the blood of the Lamb, our great High Priest, who continually makes intercession for us. Come boldly to the throne of grace, “that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Jesus, we love you. We receive you. We receive your love. We thank you for what you’ve done for us, Lord — that you died, you suffered, you were tested at all points, and yet you were perfect. And Lord, you said, “Not my will, but yours be done,” and you were obedient to death on a cross. But because you were faithful, Lord, you were raised to life on the third day, and you were glorified by the Father, and you have ascended into heaven, and you are now seated on the throne. And Lord, your Scripture says you are making intercession for us — that we might know you, that we might know Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Lord, we thank you, because of what you’ve done, we have full access.

Jesus — just with our hands lifted, I’m going to ask: if there’s anyone here that has not made Jesus the Lord of their life, and you would like to do that now, can you just look at me right now? This is more than a prayer. This is “I’m not going back to how it was.” This is an all-or-nothing moment. We’re not saved by just repeating a prayer. We’re saved through faith in what He’s done. And Jesus said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” This is not a call to live a comfortable life. This is a call to live a holy life, covered by the blood of the Lamb.

So if you would like to give your life to Jesus, look at me. We’re going to pray a prayer, and I want us all to say this out loud together, in a voice loud enough for the person next to you to hear. Listen, Scripture says if you confess Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. So this is why we proclaim it out loud. Okay? If you want to give your life, let’s say this together.

Say: Lord Jesus, I confess my sin to you. I can’t save myself. There is no other God. There is no other way. You are the path of life. You are the way, the truth, and the life. So Jesus, I receive what you’ve done for me. I give my life to you, and I place my trust in your hands. I’m not going back. I reject the world. I reject the devil. And I keep my eyes on you — the Giver of Life, the King of kings, the Lord of lords. And I choose to follow you from this day forward, giving my life to you, loving you, because you first loved me. This is more than a prayer. This is life eternal. And I declare that by your grace, by your mercy, and in faith, I am a son and a daughter of righteousness. My life is yours. Use me for your glory. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Amen. Let’s thank the Lord this morning. Can we thank the Lord like He’s our great High Priest? Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus, for what you’ve done. Amen. We’re probably going to talk about this a little bit more. We did a lot of teaching today, so tap your friend next to you and say, “You stuck with it pretty good.” There are a lot more good things in store. Amen.

Transcribed from the message recording and lightly edited for reading.