Hebrews- Encouragement for a life of Faith
Part 7
“I may not be perfect but I know someone who is”
Today we are going to continue with our study of the great book of Hebrews
This study has been a heck of a ride
Prayerfully the writer and I though his words have caused each of us
Myself included
To do some real soul searching
Last week in sermon 6
Titled
“The has to be a pony in here somewhere”
We learned how to become spiritual optimists instead of the pessimists that we tend to be
I showed you a picture of loving others through my friend David from Zambia
And we saw how when we love each other a Christ loves us
We develop our Faith
Which develops Hope
Which develops Endurance
Which develops even more Hope
And it is in this Hope that we find the Confidence to stand on God’s promises
The week before that was a bit of a mashing on
In the sermon titled
“Stunted”
We looked at our own spiritual growth and or the lack of it
We saw how we must accept all of God’s word for nourishment
Not just the basic things
Not just the things we like
Not just the milk not just the shema
Or we will end up stunted spiritually
The week before that was another exhortation
Titled
”Sharper than a two edged sword”
In that lesson we saw how God’s word is designed to separate us from our sins just like a two edged sword separates flesh from bone
Prayerfully we saw how there are no gray areas in God’s word
And
How if we want to truly get all that God has for us
We must obey his word- completely
All of his word
The week before that the sermon was titled
“Pure hearts”
Our writer showed us how when we let sin into our lives
We lose our purity
When we allow evil and disbelief into our hearts we are in real danger of turning from God and his word
And we took a hard look at some of what that means
He warned us not to allow ourselves to turn away from God and he also encourages us to warn others of the same dangers
In sermon 2 of this series titled
“Drift proofing your life”
We learned about drifting
And why drifting away from Jesus is extremely dangerous for us in our Christian walk
I have continued to us the points from sermon 2 throughout the rest of this series
Loss of focus
Loss of Priority
Loss of passion
Loss of commitment
And loss of Compassion
Are the warning signs that we may be drifting
And to avoid drifting
We must allow Jesus to become the anchor that steadies us in the storms of this life
This brings us back to sermon 1 in this series
Which I titled the
“ The real deal”
In sermon 1 we were introduced to Jesus as the real deal from the book of Hebrews
We saw how he and he alone is the image of perfection
How he is greater than the angels
How he is greater than the prophets
How he is greater than the law
And how he was and is and will always be our perfect savior
And this image of perfection brings us to today’s message
Once again we are going to look at the perfection of Jesus
But today we are going to look at his perfection as our High Priest
In order to do that we must first establish a couple of things
It is imperative that we understand this concept
While we as non Jews will never fully understand the concept of the High Priest and all his duties
We need to understand and admit that we do need someone to intercede or us to God
We are all sinners
Lost sinners or saved sinners
But sinners all the same
And because of sin
We like
All of humanity needs a priest in order to come to God.
Under the old system
Men were appointed as priests.
These priests ministered to the people of Israel.
They offered the sacrifices to pay for the sins of the people.
It was their job to represent the people of God before God.
And God to the people
There was a problem though.
As mere men, they could never measure up to God’s standard of perfection
So
There was a constant turnover in the position
As men, the priests died or were prevented from continuing in the office due to sin in their own lives or the lives of their families
Year after year
Generation after generation
There was a new priest.
These were mostly good men
In the eyes of the world they were near perfect men
Notice is said “Near perfect”
As a member of a corrupt human race, the priests first had to atone for their own sins before they deal with the sins of the people.
Sacrifice upon sacrifice had to be offered over and over again
In sharp contrast to this temporary, ineffective human priesthood is Jesus.
Jesus’ priesthood lasts forever because he is alive and well today.
He unlike all priests before him has overcome death
The consequence of Jesus’ priesthood is that he can save those who ask and believe
And his salvation is forever.
He is able to save forever because he lives forever.
His salvation is also complete.
Salvation through Jesus is all we need to make it to heaven.
Jesus has none of the limitations that affect us
None of the limitations that affect human High Priests
Jesus unlike ourselves
Unlike all the other priests that have ever lived
Is perfect
It is my prayer today to show you the perfection of our savior
Please open your bibles to
Hebrews 7:23-28
Let me read for you verses 23-28, and then we will come back and really focus on verse 26
There were many priests under the old system, for death prevented them from remaining in office. 24 But because Jesus lives forever, his priesthood lasts forever. 25 Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save[e] those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf.
26 He is the kind of high priest we need because he is holy and blameless, unstained by sin. He has been set apart from sinners and has been given the highest place of honor in heaven.[f] 27 Unlike those other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices every day. They did this for their own sins first and then for the sins of the people. But Jesus did this once for all when he offered himself as the sacrifice for the people’s sins. 28 The law appointed high priests who were limited by human weakness. But after the law was given, God appointed his Son with an oath, and his Son has been made the perfect High Priest forever.
We all sometimes tend to think we are perfect
We are not
I can tell you I’m a long way from perfect as many of you will attest
But because of my relationship with perfection
I will reap the rewards of his perfection
You see
I may not be perfect
But I know the one that is
And he is my High priest
He is my savior
Let’s read verse 26 again and see just how Jesus is perfect
And how his perfection qualifies him to interceded for us totally
Completely
And forever
“He is the kind of high priest we need because he is holy and blameless, unstained by sin. He has been set apart from sinners and has been given the highest place of honor in heaven.”
This verse shows us how Jesus is perfect in his character
Let’s talk about character for a moment
Webster’s dictionary gives this definition of character in the way we are using it here
“The way someone thinks, feels, and behaves: someone's personality”
The way someone thinks
Feels
Acts
Something that defines our personality
Character in today’s world as a whole seems to be something that not much value is placed on
Just look at our choices for political office
More specifically the upcoming presidential election and we see that for most of the world character does not mean much
But to God character is very important
Another thing about character is that while we often fall short in many areas
We all do
The way we react and respond to situations and people in our paths is often way different than we wish it was
But the good news
We have the ability to change our character
And the pattern for perfect character is Jesus Christ
When we make that our goal
To be more like him
Our character, even if less than we wish it was now’
Has the ability to improve
Based on our relationship with Jesus
The first attribute of Jesus’ perfect character is that he is Holy
Holy means that Jesus knew no sin
Listen
Jesus is Holy because he never sinned
Not once
Not even a little bit
Unlike any Priest or any person’
He alone has the ability to be Holy
Because he is God
I have used this verse from Colossians many times
Colossians 1:15
“Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.”
Jesus is Holy because God is Holy and he is Holy because he is God
Paul goes on to say
He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,[a]
16 for through him God created everything
in the heavenly realms and on earth.
He made the things we can see
and the things we can’t see—
such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
Everything was created through him and for him.
17 He existed before anything else,
and he holds all creation together.
18 Christ is also the head of the church,
which is his body.
He is the beginning,
supreme over all who rise from the dead.[b]
So he is first in everything.
19 For God in all his fullness
was pleased to live in Christ,
20 and through him God reconciled
everything to himself.
He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
21 This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. 22 Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.
He is holy
It is his nature’ it is his true character
And we are not
That is our true character
But
When we accept Jesus and his gift of salvation’
Verse 22 says he has brought us into his own presence
And we are holy through him
Back to verse 26
“He is the kind of high priest we need because he is holy and blameless”
Jesus’ perfect character means he is blameless
Above reproach
Not guilty of sin
He is complety innocent
There is no evil in him at all
Never has been
Never will be
And we are totally guilty the bible says we are all sinners
It says we all fall short of the glory of God
But it also says Jesus was blameless
Jesus was accused
He was tried
He was convicted
He was punished
And he died for crimes he never committed
2 Corinthians 5:21
“ For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin,[a] so that we could be made right with God through Christ”
We on the other hand are guilty of offenses that no one in the world knows
But since we have Jesus as our Perfect High priest
We get to stand before God
Blameless as well
Not perfect
But perfectly forgiven
Jesus’ character is perfect because it is unstained
Back to Hebrews 7:26
He is the kind of high priest we need because he is holy and blameless, unstained by sin
Unstained by sin
Sin
All sin
Leaves stains
Some of you may remember a sermon I preached some time back titled just that” Stains”
I used a bag of flaming hot cheetoes and the red they left on my jeans as an illustration of those stains
You see all sin leaves a stain
Some external for the world to see
Some internal that only we and God see
But stains just the same
We are all stained by our sins
But
Jesus is not stained
Because he never sinned
Jesus lived among the sinners
He ate with and walked with sinners
He healed and fellowshipped with stained sinners
But he himself remained pure
Perfectly pure
And because of his perfect purity as our High priest
Our sins are also washed as white as snow
Jesus is perfect in his Character
He is also perfect in his position
Jesus is perfect in his position because he is set apart
Back to verse 26
He is the kind of high priest we need because he is holy and blameless, unstained by sin. He has been set apart from sinners
Jesus was and is perfect and fully qualified to serve as our High priest because he was set apart
Jesus was born a s a man
Lived as a man in a sinful world
He was tempted
And tried
But he never succumbed to the temptations
It was his ability to defeat sin that sets him apart from all other humans
No one else has the ability to live this sinless life
No one else is qualified to serve as our mediator
Many want the position’ but Only Jesus died to attain the perfection needed
Jesus is perfect in his position because he holds the highest honor in heaven
Back to verse 26
He is the kind of high priest we need because he is holy and blameless, unstained by sin. He has been set apart from sinners and has been given the highest place of honor in heaven
Jesus is perfect because he and he alone holds the place of honor in heaven
No person
No angel
No prophet
No priest
No law
Can make that claim
It is Jesus Christ as our mediator
Our lawyer
Our advocate with God that holds that place of honor
He and he alone has the perfection required to fill that role
And because he does
We have the assurance that we will be in heaven with him one day
A place we cannot even dream of getting to on our own
Jesus can serve as our High priest because his character is perfect
Jesus can serve as our high priest because his position is perfect
But
Jesus can serve as our high priest because his sacrifice was perfect
His sacrifice was perfect as well
In Jesus is the whole package
He is the real deal
Jesus’ sacrifice was perfect because no more were needed
Verse 27
“Unlike those other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices every day.
In the old days
Sacrifices had to be repeated
Some yearly
Some as needed I guess we would have killed a fair sized herd of critters had I been Jewish and lived in that time in my old self
I believe most of you could say the same thing
Many animals through the years were sacrificed
And none of them ever completely removed the sin that was present in the lives of the people
The High Priests of the day spent their days
Every day of their tenor in that position making sacrifices
Jesus made 1- ONE
And it was and is and will always be perfect
He alone had this authority
The sacrifices offered before Jesus were only temporary
But
Jesus’ willing sacrifice of his own life’ was the perfect sacrifice
Jesus’ sacrifice was perfect because his sacrifice alone was totally for us
Verse 27b
“They did this for their own sins first and then for the sins of the people.”
All other high priests had to offer sacrifices for their own sins prior to entering the holy of holies
They had to purify themselves first
Then offer sacrifices for the people
Jesus as our sacrifice was perfect as he had no sin and no need of offering a sacrifice for himself
And still he willingly gave his live for ours
While we were still sinners, Paul says so well in Romans
That to me is amazing
Amazing grace
So sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me
I once was lost
But now I’m found
Was blind but now I see
Lastly Jesus’ sacrifice was perfect because it completely total 100% was the final sacrifice
His death on the cross
And the payment it made
Was the final sacrifice
No more are needed
No more are capable of removing sin
No others are capable of forgiveness
None other are capable of redemption’
All other sacrifices before Christ were mere shadows of the sacrifice Jesus made for us
Verse 28
“The law appointed high priests who were limited by human weakness. But after the law was given, God appointed his Son with an oath, and his Son has been made the perfect High Priest forever.”
As I said
Earlier
I may not be perfect
And that’s ok
Because
I know the one who is
Let me tell you a little more about him as told by the writer of the hymn “ He lives”
I serve a risen Saviour, He's in the world today
I know that He is living, whatever men may say
I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer
And just the time I need Him He's always near
He lives (He lives), He lives (He lives), Christ Jesus lives today
He walks with me and talks with me
Along life's narrow way
He lives (He lives), He lives (He lives), Salvation to impart
You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives within my heart
In all the world around me I see His loving care
And though my heart grows weary I never will despair
I know that He is leading, through all the stormy blast
The day of His appearing will come at last
He lives (He lives), He lives (He lives), Christ Jesus lives today
He walks with me and talks with me
Along life's narrow way
He lives (He lives), He lives (He lives), Salvation to impart
You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives within my heart
Rejoice, rejoice, O Christian Lift up your voice and sing
Eternal hallelujahs to Jesus Christ, the King
The Hope of all who seek Him, the Help of all who find
None other is so loving, so good and kind
He lives (He lives), He lives (He lives), Christ Jesus lives today
He walks with me and talks with me
Along life's narrow way
He lives (He lives), He lives (He lives), Salvation to impart
You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives within my heart
Do you know he lives?
Does he live within your heart?
Have you accepted his sacrifice as your perfect High Priest?
Close from the heart
Pray
