OCTOBER
5, 2014
HEBREWS
4:14-5:6
4:14
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.
4:15
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.
4:16
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;
5:2 he can deal gently with the ignorant and
misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness;
5:3 and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the
people, so also for himself.
5:4 And no one takes the honor to himself, but receives it when he is called by God,
even as Aaron was.
5:5 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";
5:6 just as He says
also in another passage,
"YOU ARE A PRIEST FOREVER ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK." NASB
FIRST THOUGHTS
·
Baby
Christians are plagued by a many of doubts of their faith because of
circumstances, such as persecution.
·
More
mature Christians are able to stand fast in their faith.
·
This
letter seems to be aimed at less than mature Christian’s because of their fear
of persecution.
·
The
first readers of Hebrews had begun to experience the truth of Christ’s warning
and were now in danger of drifting from their confession of Christ, because of
the increasing threats to believers, and
was causing them to distance themselves from the congregation.
UNDERSTAND THE
CONTEXT
·
We
have previously learned why Jesus had to
come in the complete likeness of us in order to be the perfect sacrifice for
us; we will now see how this was also important in His role as High Priest.
·
The
book of Hebrews also explores deeply the matter of believers in endurance in
the faith.
·
These
two realities – Jesus’ priestly ministry and believers’ endurance are vitally connected.
·
We
will see the importance of not developing the habit of disobedience, it is all
important instead to develop the habit of obedience.
EXPLORE THE TEXT
VERSE
14:
·
The
recipients of this letter have been used to approaching God through their high
priest.
·
They
are aware that this high priest had to cleanse himself by a sacrifice (just as
they had to), before he could enter before God.
·
Since
we learned that man was a little lower than the angels, and that Jesus has been
raised to preeminence, therefore in His role of High Priest, He is even more superior
to the earthly high priest.
·
Jesus
is here called “a great high priest” to emphasize His elevation over the
earthly high priest.
·
This
is going to be the theme of the rest of the book.
“…the Lord Jesus Christ was not a priest
while here on the earth. The only mention in Scripture of His ever making any
kind of sacrifice (He never needed to make a sacrifice for Himself, of course)
was the time He told Simon Peter to catch a fish and take the gold piece out of
its mouth that He might pay a necessary temple tax from which the priests were
exempt. He did that, I think, to make it very clear that He was not a priest
here on earth. To be a priest you had to be born in the line of Aaron, of the tribe
of Levi. The Lord Jesus was a member of the tribe of Judah. He was not in the
priestly line. He was in the kingly line. When He was here on earth He came as
a prophet speaking for God. He went back to heaven a priest to represent us to
God. He became a priest when He ascended into heaven.”
Thru
the Bible with J. Vernon McGee
·
We
are now exhorted to hold fast, do not give up our public testimony of our faith
in Jesus.
Mark 8:
38 "For whoever
is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son
of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father
with the holy angels." NASB
VERSE
15:
·
In
mythology the gods were thought to be above and aloof from mankind, and
therefore were not capable of understanding what it was like to feel hunger,
pain, exhaustion; but because Jesus in His earthly life was as one of us in
experiencing these things without sin.
·
His
High Priestly role is one of complete understanding and in sympathy with us.
VERSE
16:
·
Because
of this we may approach Jesus knowing the He will not turn us away through an
inability to sympathize with us; and so we will receive the appropriate mercy
and grace to help us in our need.
“God might have set up a tribunal of
strict and inexorable justice, dispensing death, the wages of sin, to all who
were convened before it; but he has chosen to set up a throne of grace. A
throne speaks authority, and bespeaks awe and reverence. A throne of grace
speaks great encouragement even to the chief of sinners. There grace reigns,
and acts with sovereign freedom, power, and bounty. 2. It is our duty and
interest to be often found before this throne of grace, waiting on the Lord in
all the duties of his worship, private and public. It is good for us to be
there.”
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible
VERSE
1:
“Only men with the weaknesses of humanity could
serve as high priest.”
John
MacArthur
·
He
would serve as an intermediary between God and man
·
He
would offer all kinds of sacrifices in behalf of man.
VERSE
2-3:
·
He
can be gentle because he is understanding of their weakness and of those who didn’t
know any better, because he himself also had to make sacrifice.
·
Jesus
did not have to offer any sacrifice for Himself.
“1. He must be human, ‘selected
from among men’ since he ‘is appointed to represent them’
before God (Hebrews 5:1).
2. His ministry consists of offering ‘gifts
and sacrifices for sins,’ as his major work solves the alienation
created by human sin (Hebrews 5:1).
3. He must ‘deal gently with those who are
ignorant and going astray,’ and he can do so because of his own sense
of weakness and sin (Hebrews 5:2-3).
4. He must be appointed to his priestly
office by God. No one can make himself a priest (Hebrews 5:4).”
The
IVP New Testament Commentary
VERSE
4:
“He must have both an internal and
external call to his office: For no man taketh this honour to himself (Hebrews 5:4), that is, no
man ought to do it, no man can do it legally; if any does it, he must be
reckoned a usurper, and treated accordingly.”
Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible
VERSE
5:
·
Jesus
did not take this role on Himself, but had it bestowed on Him by God the
Father.
7 "I will surely tell of
the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, 'You are My Son, Today I have begotten
You.” NASB
VERSE
6:
4 The LORD has sworn and will
not change His mind, "You are a priest forever According to the order of
Melchizedek." NASB
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