Sermon – November 8
November 8, 2015 Trinity 23
Text: Hebrews 7:23-27
Also there were many priests, because they were prevented by death from continuing. 24 But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. 25 Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. 26 For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; 27 who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.
Jesus the Ultimate High Priest
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ:
The letters in the New Testament were not written in a vacuum. They are inspired by God, but the writer had a particular purpose in composing it. This is true of the letter to the Hebrews. At the time that it was written, Christians were undergoing horrific persecution at the hands of the Roman Empire. Christianity was viewed as a new religion and so was frowned upon by the Romans. However, the worship of the Jews was grand-fathered in. Consequently one could practice Judaism and not be harmed. The obvious temptation was to abandon Jesus, pretend that the Messiah had not yet come, and go back to the worship of the Old Testament.
We have laid out before us in the letter to the Hebrews the horrible mistake that would be. That worship was a shadow of things to come. It had as its object of worship the coming Savior. The writer then lays this out step by step showing the superiority of Christ. In this section of chapter seven we see His superiority as High Priest. He is the ultimate High Priest. Ultimate can mean the best. It can also mean the last. Both of these definitions work with Jesus as we will talk about His work of intercession and sacrifice. Because of His perfection as a High Priest we have no reason to seek alternatives in our worship life. May God’s Spirit open our hearts to receive His message.
1. In intercession
God established the Old Testament priesthood so that people could see what was necessary to have access to God. The priest would be the go-between. He would intercede for the people in prayer. He would offer sacrifices on their behalf. However, it was never intended as a permanent position. The priests of the Old Testament had the role of portraying Christ until He would come.
The idea that it was not a permanent position is seen in the fact that so many had to fill it. By one historian’s count there were 83 high priests from Aaron until the time of Jesus. With that many men filling the role, you can imagine that there was some inconsistency. Some would do their job well and others would not. The only thing that was consistent is that there was change. One would die and the another would take over. There were many high priests, because they were prevented by death from continuing. But He, because he continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood.
We can always rely on Jesus to be there for us. This is His job forever. He will always plead our case to the Father. He doesn’t have bad days. There aren’t days when His heart isn’t in it, or He doesn’t feel like doing it. Unlike we humans He is perfect and perfectly reliable. He is always going to be in your corner.
He shows that there is no need for another go-between because we’re told in verse 25 that He’s able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him. In other words, He’s able to save completely. The inferiority of the Old Testament priesthood is seen in the fact that they could not truly save. Their role was important as types of Christ, but they had limitations. Without Jesus their work meant nothing. People were forgiven in looking to Christ, not in the work of the priests. Their access to God was based on Jesus coming, just as our access is based on the fact that He came.
No one has come after Christ to improve on what He has done. His work on the cross made salvation complete. It’s sad that some want to go back to having a system in which a human being would stand between them and God. We think of a few different groups in Christianity who use the term “priest” for their called servants, and there’s a reason for that. There is the idea that a person has to plead for God on your behalf.
There is the temptation to do that in Lutheransim as well. A barrier can be put there as a way of being in control, or out of laziness. That is that if I’ve got a pastor looking out for me, I don’t have any spiritual responsibility myself. Through the work of Christ, every Christian is a priest of God. We all have access to the Father through Jesus. There is no special training needed. The High Priest is Jesus. You all are then your own priest. It’s a great privilege, but also a great responsibility.
It might seem a strange set-up that we have Jesus, one member of the Holy Trinity, interceding on our behalf to the Father, another member of the Trinity. Yet that is what’s happening. He always lives to make intercession for them [those whom He has saved]. While we are not privy to those conversations we know that they occur.
We have a few examples from the Gospels: Luke 22:31-32: The Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat, But I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail. And in John 17:9, I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me. We cannot know everything that goes on in the spiritual realm, but it is enough to know that Satan wishes to destroy believers. We are self-destructive enough, but we have Satan also working against us. However, we have an Advocate. We have a High Priest who is going to bat for us. He pleads for us. He serves as our protection. He is a buffer against any judgments against us because His shed blood pleads for us. He defends us because of His priestly sacrifice which makes us right with God.
2. In sacrifice
It is to this sacrifice that we now turn because that is the role of a High Priest in addition to pleading to God on behalf of His people. Here too Jesus is the ultimate High Priest. Unlike the priests of the Old Testament who were saddled with sin, Jesus is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.
Let’s take a quick glance at those attributes which only belong to God: Holy: Jesus came to this earth and walked it for over thirty years without one speck of sin. Harmless (Blameless): Nothing even remotely bad can be pinned on Him. When He was on trial nobody could even agree on what He had done wrong. And they were looking hard! Undefiled: 100% pure. Separate from sinners: He walked among sinners, but He was never influenced by them. Think of how easily we are influenced by those around us, and many times not for the better. These are the credentials that Jesus brings to the table as High Priest.
This is different much different from the Old Testament priests. None of them could make a claim to any one of those attributes. In fact, before they could offer a sacrifice on behalf of the people, they had to offer a sacrifice for their own sin. One of the things that God made clear in Old Testament worship is that you could not approach Him with sin, and sin could only be removed by sacrifice. Their big day of worship was the day of atonement when the high priest could finally go into the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle, and later in the temple and sprinkle blood on the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant.
This was fulfilled by Jesus on the cross as went to the true mercy seat offering up His own blood on behalf of sinners. That was what God was trying to get across throughout the Old Testament. Blood had to pay for sin, and the only blood that would do is holy, harmless, undefiled blood of His Son. And unlike the repeated sacrifices of the Old Testament, this was only needed once. Once for all. There is no further needed payment for sin.
So what can we understand out of all this? We’re not in danger of drifting back to Old Testament worship. But we have the same temptation as the Christians of the early New Testament in trying to find a substitute for Jesus. We are tempted to be less than satisfied with His work. There are inferior alternatives offered to us every day.
We go back to a flawed system when we fail to believe that Jesus could not wash away our sin completely. Certainly we all have things for which we still feel guilty. We may have ruined relationships or put ourselves behind the eight ball by our actions or even our inactions. There are times that we mix up the earthly consequences of our sin with heavenly forgiveness. The blood of Jesus is so powerful that it scrubbed away each stain. Even if you don’t feel forgiven, in Christ you are. His sacrifice was once for all.
We go back to a flawed system when we feel like we have to do something to earn God’s favor. That’s just ego. Yes, there are fruits of faith, but anything that we do is the result of our salvation, not the cause of it. We go back to a flawed system when we don’t appreciate the work of Jesus, unplug ourselves from God or abuse His grace. That’s like saying, someone else can take responsibility for what I’m doing.
Appreciate Jesus as your ultimate High Priest. There’s no one better and no one to wait for. We find our Intercessor and Sacrifice completely in Him. Amen.