Hebrews 4:14-5:10 New American Standard Bible (NASB)^[1]

14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. 16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

5:1 For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins; 2 he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness; 3 and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people, so also for himself. 4 And no one takes the honor to himself, but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was.

5 So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him,

“You are My Son,

Today I have begotten You”;

6 just as He says also in another passage,

“You are a priest forever

According to the order of Melchizedek.”

7 In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. 8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. 9 And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, 10 being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

Last week we looked at the believer’s rest and how faith is the key to entering that rest.  We also saw how faith and obedience are tied together.

If the believer has faith the believer will walk in obedience, and that as James said works are the outward manifestation of the genuineness of the believer’s faith.

At the end of chapter 2 the preacher touched on the topic of Jesus as our High Priest as an introduction to this topic.

Here the preacher expands on this and as we will see throughout the rest of Hebrews Jesus being our Great High priest after the order of Melchizedek is a central theme.

Again we see that the preacher is still giving exhortation Verse 14 says  

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.”^[2]

First we see the reason we should hold fast to our confession,  Jesus is our Great High Priest.

He is not just our High Priest, or even our Chief High Priest.

The word for Great here is the greek word we get mega from.  

Today this word is used so often it has almost lost it’s meaning.

I saw a picture of a convenience store drink with the label Super Mega Triple Gulp.

To get just a glimpse of an understanding of great in the context of our Great High Priest think of atomic bombs which are measured in megatons of dynamite.

Jesus as our Great High Priest is supreme.  There is no one that would even begin to come close to the magnitude of His greatness.

So since we have this Great High Priest who passed through the heavens.  Remember in chapters 1 and 2 we saw that The father raised Him up and invited Him to sit at His own right hand.  

This means that Jesus is the supreme High Priest abiding in the Holy of Holies at The Father’s right hand.

When I picture this The Holy Son of God, The Supreme High Priest I feel inspired to fear and trembling.

I think I would feel just like John in Revelation 1:17 when he said quote “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man.”^[3] end quote.

But that is not what the preacher wants to inspire here, because he continues in verse 15 “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”^[4]

When we hear about Jesus being tempted we think about His experience in the desert, but that was just satan’s opening salvo.

Throughout Jesus ministry there were many times satan had the chance to tempt Jesus.

One such could have been when Jesus was in the synagogue Mark 3:3-5 “3 He *said to the man with the withered hand, “Get up and come forward!” 4 And He *said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?” But they kept silent. 5 After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He *said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.”^[5]

This would have been the perfect opportunity to give in to the temptation to smite them.  After all they deserved it.  Instead Jesus was grieved at the hardness of their hearts and showed them the right way by doing the compassionate thing.

Throughout Jesus ministry satan was there poking, and prodding, and trying to find any trap he could use to tempt Jesus.  

In all this we are reminded here Jesus never sinned.

Since Jesus was tempted as we are the preacher encourages us to draw near.

Hebrews 4:16 “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”^[6]

The key to holding fast to our profession is to draw near.  This is crucial to our walk.

The natural thing is to be afraid when we do something wrong.  We want to run away and hide, but He wants to show us mercy.  He wants to forgive.

Paul reminds us in Romans 8:15 “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’”^[7] 

We should have a healthy reverence because He is the Holy Son of God.

The lord wants us to remember that we can be confident in His love for us that we can approach Him any time with any need and cry out “Abba!

Father!”.

Hebrews 5 continues by comparing the high priests after Aaron with Jesus as our Great High Priest.

Hebrews 5:1-2 “1 For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins; 2 he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness; ^[8]

First we see that the office of high priest has to do with representing us to God.

Remember the prophet was God’s spokesman to us.  He spoke to us about what God wanted us to hear.

The priest in general and the high priest in particular provided a way for us to approach God and seek forgiveness for our sins.

The high priest was only able to go into the Holy of Holies once a year, and this was to offer a sacrifice for all Israel.

Notice that the high priest taken from among men is able to deal gently because he is beset with his own weaknesses.  

This is not so with Jesus.  He had no weakness but He does understand the pressure we go through because He walked the walk.

The Lord is not someone way up in heaven divorced from our experiences.

He came down and breathed the same air we breathe.  

He became tired.  He got hungry.  He got thirsty.  He learned a trade as a carpenter’s son.

He experienced humanity to its fullest extent.  

All this He did without sin.

Hebrews 5:3-4 continues about the high priest taken from among men “3 and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people, so also for himself. 4 And no one takes the honor to himself, but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was.”^[9]

We see the high priest taken from among men didn’t just offer sacrifices for his people.  He had to offer sacrifices for himself also.  That’s because he was a sinner just like everybody else.

The high priest taken from among men was also not supposed to take honor for himself because God was the one who appointed him to the position.

There are 2 things that are required for someone to be high priest.

First he must be taken from among men.  Hebrews 2 deals extensively with the fact that Jesus became a man, fully human so He could become our High Priest.

Second he must be appointed by God.

In Hebrews 5:5-6 we see that Jesus was appointed by God.

5 So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him,

“You are My Son,

Today I have begotten You”;

6 just as He says also in another passage,

“You are a priest forever

According to the order of Melchizedek.”^[10]

After the order of Melchizedek Is taken from a prophecy in Psalm 110:4

“The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind,

‘You are a priest forever

According to the order of Melchizedek.’ ”^[11]

Melchizedek was a type of Christ as He has become our Great High Priest.

The passage in Genesis that mentions Melchizedek is just 4 verses long.

Genesis 14:17-20

“17 Then after his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). 18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; now he was a priest of God Most High. 19 He blessed him and said,

“Blessed be Abram of God Most High,

Possessor of heaven and earth;

20 And blessed be God Most High,

Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.”

He gave him a tenth of all.”^[12]

Yet between Hebrews 5:6 and 7:17 Melchizedek is mentioned 8 times.

The preacher has many important things to tell us about Christ as our Great High Priest.

Here we see He is compassionate, and loving so we can approach Him.

We also see that He has given us access to approach Him in the Holy of Holies any time we need.  This is access we have right now that even the high priest of the old testament never had.

In verses 7 through 10 we also see that The Father appointed Him as our Great High Priest because of what He did on the cross.

“7 In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. 8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. 9 And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, 10 being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.”

Verse 7 talks about His prayer.  I believe this is in reference to His prayer at Gethsemane.

Luke 22:39-44

39 And He came out and proceeded as was His custom to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples also followed Him. 40 When He arrived at the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” 41 And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, 42 saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” 43 Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. 44 And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground. ^[13]

So The Lord prays to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.

So that means Jesus didn’t die on the cross right?  No Jesus certainly did die on the cross, but He did not stay dead.

This is a key difference between Christ as our Great High Priest and the high priests taken from among men.

When was Jesus appointed our Great High Priest?  

He was appointed after He performed the sacrifice.  After He died on the cross The Father raised Him from the dead, sat Him at His right hand, and appointed Him to be our Great High Priest.

The high priests of the old testament were here for the short time they were to spend here on this earth.  Jesus on the other hand is our Eternal High Priest because He is now and will forever be our Great High Priest.

This is why we can claim to be His children.

This is why we have eternal life.

This is why we have access to the Holy of Holies where we can come and ask for mercy and grace.

Remember mercy we do not get what we deserve, and grace we get what we do not deserve.

This is why we do not need to be afraid.