Why? To Become Our Merciful And Faithful High Priest

I want to spend our time examining verses 16 through 18 this morning. Follow as I read these words. Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard. while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. Now, it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere. What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him?

You made him for a little while lower than the angels. You've crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet. Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present we do not yet see everything in subjection to him, but we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, I will tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.

And again I will put my trust in him. And again, behold, I and the children God has given me. Since, therefore, the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. for because he himself has suffered when tempted he is able to help those who are being tempted Let pray Father open this text to us that we might understand more of why Jesus came Help us to see Lord that he came to do so many things But help us to single out and to think about what you have told us in our text this morning, that we might find hope and that which will help us in the time in which we live here. Thank you now in Jesus' name.

Amen. So a sign the other day outside of Walmart said, Jesus is the reason for the season. I'm tired of seeing that sign. I am absolutely tired of seeing that displayed all over the place. You mean to say that Jesus is the reason for Christmas trees, mass commercialism, crass materialism, and people knocking themselves over on Black Friday? Is that the reason why we do it?

Because Jesus? It seems that we begin to think that the only way that we're going to get the Christmas message across is if we say Jesus is the reason for the season without telling people Jesus had a lot more things in mind than our crazy Christmas traditions. Jesus is a reason for other vastly more important, eternally significant things. We've seen three of them so far in this chapter.

Jesus came to fulfill God's original purpose for mankind. We saw that the Son of God became man in order to bring many sons to glory. Thirdly, we saw he came to destroy Satan's power and deliver us from the enslaving fear of death. That's the reason why Jesus came. And now lastly, as we look at verses 16 through 18, we find one more reason why Jesus came.

Follow along as I look at those verses one more time. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. according to these verses Jesus came to be a faithful and merciful high priest now the first thing I want you to see is Jesus came to help you who exactly does Jesus help well the writer has told us over and over that Jesus suffered like we do that Jesus tasted death like we do that he was made a little lower than the angels like we are, that he calls us brothers and sisters and therefore he must must partake of the same things that we do.

So it is not angels that he came to help. I remember in one of my semesters in seminary how absolutely disappointed and angry I got. In fact, I was tempted to go back to my professor and tell him that he owed me money for that class because we had a semester where we were going to study two doctrines, the doctrine of angels and the doctrine of salvation.

And we spent most of that semester talking about angels. I can still remember some of the ridiculous questions he posed to us. If two angels swing at each other will they connect right they're spirit beings right so if they get in a fight they won't connect and and i remember how angry i was that when it come to the doctrine of salvation we had very little time left in the semester angels aren't that important angels are powerful creatures and appear every once in a while in magnificent ways throughout scripture but remember what the writer has argued in chapter 1.

He argues that Jesus has a superior position over the angels because he is God. He also notes, by the way, not only that angels are his servants, but angels are our servants because he wrote in chapter 1 that they serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation. You know, we make much of angels this time of the year, don't we? they're prominent in our decorations if you don't have a star for the top of your tree you probably have an angel don't you right most of you do yeah some of you some of you kids are really shaking your head that's exactly right look at all the songs that mention angels angels we have heard on high hark the herald angels sing angels from the realms of glory and you know what they play a major part in the incarnation of Jesus.

But Jesus did not come to help these powerful and important creatures. That's not why he came. No, he did not come to help angels, our text says, but he came to help the offspring of Abraham Now remember that the original audience of this book were primarily Jewish people They were Jewish people who were trying to get out from under the persecution they were feeling from their Jewish friends and family.

They were starting to pay the price for giving their allegiance to this Messiah, this one called Jesus. And what they were doing was contemplating taking the pressure off by going back to the old ways of the Old Testament religion, a religion that was given by God, no less, but a religion that had now been superseded by the superior revelation of God in Jesus and the superior work of Jesus. And so because of that, there was no going back.

And they put a lot of stock in angels. now surely we can look at that and say he's not just talking about jews here is he originally he was aiming this at jews but we can honestly say that this represents not just jewish believers but all who claim christ jesus came to help people not angels jesus came to help people he came to help you you who created a little lower than the angels in position in power you who are created to rule over god's creation as image bearers but who have been subjected to death and to satan he came to help you who no longer wear the crown of glory and honor he came to help you and this is help that truly rescues i remember one summer we were down at the master's mission. Now the master's mission, for those of you who don't know, some of us go down there every year to teach these missionary candidates the counseling module of their curriculum. And back then it was Pastor Rick Wilson, Pastor John Street, and I would go down to master's mission and spend a week there teaching them the counseling part of their curriculum.

And we'd bring our families with us. This is up in the Smoky Mountains. It's really kind of cool and everything. And John, One night, John and some of the kids, his kids and some of mine, were on the other end of the lake that's up there on a dock fishing. And suddenly, Lydia, who was just a little girl about like that tall, fell off the dock and disappeared below the surface of the water.

Now, we all could have stopped there. and done this, Lydia, Lydia, if you flap your arms and kick your legs, you'll break the surface and when you do, grab the dock and if you can't pull yourself up, we'll pull you out. Okay? Now we could have given her that kind of help, but that's not what happened. John Street dropped to his knees, reached down under the water, found her, grabbed her, ripped her out of the water and put her on the dock.

We always tell John that Lydia owes him her life. So that, you know, he has a saying what happens to her. See, that truly that truly was help. Right? That truly was help. The kind of help that actually rescues.

That's the term that's used here. That's the term that's used here when he says he did not come to help angels but us. He's using a term that has the idea of reaching down and grabbing you and pulling you up. It's the kind of help that rescues. Now that says something about the kind of help that we need. Does it not?

God doesn't come to help us along. God intervenes to rescue us. So many people think of God as the one who helps us along. as if, God, you'll help us realize our potential. God, you'll help me love myself better. God, you'll help me accomplish all that I potentially can do. No, that's not the kind of help we need.

We need the kind of help where God has to reach down and rescue us. His intervention must happen or we will be lost. But you notice that the first part of verse 17, that in order to do that, he had to become one of you. By the way, have you noticed this theme through this chapter? Again, he says, therefore, or for this reason, because he came to rescue men and women, he himself had to be made like them.

And he had to be made like them, note, in every respect. Again we see this over and over in this chapter right He had to become one of us That the reason why Jesus came He had to be made like us in every respect in order to rescue us In every respect. A couple of weeks ago we had our Night of Carols. And I appreciated Enola as she came up here and read her thing.

Enola usually composes something every year for our Night of Carols. I love what she did this year. She reminded us that Jesus left the grandeur of heaven, if I can quote Enola, to enter the world where your first impression are the odors of animal bodies and waste, to be rubbed with salt on baby soft skin and wrapped in fabric so tight you can't move, and then put into a smelly tight place surrounded by itchy hay.

Jesus was made like us in every respect. And I love this line that she used. Jesus was a baby who cried and had to be burped and had to have his diapers changed. That's exactly right. He became like one of us in every respect. The best line out of that whole thing was Jesus had to be potty trained.

In every respect, he became one of us. Jesus knows what it's like to have brothers and sisters. And by the way, for you teenagers who say, my mom and dad don't understand me at all. Here's Jesus, the perfect child with sinful parents. Do you think they understood him? Do you think he went through periods where they didn't understand him?

I guess. Right? Every way. He knows that frustration. Do you think he smashed his finger while he worked in the carpenter shop with his father Joseph? Do you think he worked hard and came in physically exhausted at times?

Do you think he worked hard and there were a lot of people who did not appreciate his skills? He knows the heartache of betrayal. He knows the loss of a friend to death. He knows physical exhaustion, hunger and thirst, and he even bled. Right? He knows the distress of false accusations and what it means to suffer extraordinary pain and yet not sin He was made like us in every respect There isn anything that you face that Jesus himself has not experienced.

Now you need to let that marinate in your brain for a while. In every respect, Jesus entered into our humanity. You see, representation requires identification. Now, it's for very good reason that our laws stay that a congressman or a representative in the Statehouse in Columbus have to live in the districts that they represent. Why do you think that is?

Well, part of the reason is they understand what we go through and they can represent us better. Do you think a Berliner could represent you at the Statehouse in Columbus? Sure he could. But would he understand your problems, the obstacles that we face in these particular communities, and the issues that are ours? Do you think he understands that? He may read some reports about it.

He may interview some people, but he doesn't live there. And that's the way Jesus is, the Son of Man. The Son became man because it would have been impossible to redeem what he did not assume. Jesus became like you in every respect. So you see, Jesus came. Jesus became man to help, to help you.

Now, according to our text, he had to do this so that he could become a faithful high priest in the things pertaining to God. and he could become a merciful high priest in supporting and comforting God's people. So he came to help in this way, to become a faithful high priest in service to God and to become a merciful high priest to comfort and support and help the people of God. Jesus came to help you first of all with God Jesus came first of all to help you with God he came to be a faithful high priest in the service of God Understand now Jesus left the adoration of angels the throne room of heaven, a perfect loving relationship of joy with His Father in order to come to earth.

He came not to be served, but to serve. you see and he comes in the service of God as this faithful high priest first of all implied because the fact that he has to make an offering for our sin it's implied that he's come to reveal the perfections of God now when you look at the high priest in the Old Testament you will notice that the high priest had special obligations that only he could do there were obligations that only he could do the other priests had all kinds of other things to do but the high priest had things that no other priest had no other member of Israel had he was the only one with these obligations on the day of atonement only he could perform these tasks only the high priest could enter the most holy place on the day of atonement by the way when you look at your calendar and you see somewhere in the calendar I think it's normally in the spring you see Yom Kippur? You see that? That's Hebrew for Day of Atonement.

Okay? So just so you know that that's still part of our thinking. It's on the calendar. But here is the high priest on the Day of Atonement. He alone goes into the Holy of Holies, the innermost sanctum of the tabernacle or the temple. And he alone goes there, and he alone goes there once a year.

No, not even he was allowed in there other than the Day of atonement and he goes to purge the holy of holies from the pollution that has accumulated because of the sin of the people and he goes in and he sprinkles blood on the the top of the ark of the covenant that box in which there are two angels made of gold facing one another and he sprinkled blood on what was called the mercy seat to make atonement for the people and to purify it from the sins of everyone and only the high priest could purge the rest of the sanctuary with blood and only the high priest could place his hand on the scapegoat, the goat that represented, he represented the transfer of the sins of all the people onto that goat, and that goat was then driven into the wilderness to symbolize what? That your sins have been taken away. And only the high priest could offer his burnt offering for himself, the burnt offering for the people, and the fat of the sin offerings on the altar.

Now the message then is clear. There is a God who is holy and just. And without that atonement made, he would have to break out and destroy his own people. But he didn't, because atonement was made year after year after year after year, communicating that this God is holy and just and he is worthy of all your love and devotion and worship and obedience.

But there exists a problem. There is a people who are indifferent to him. Indifferent. Eh. Right? Who distrust God.

They don't trust him. It's a problem here because they prefer other things above God. Tell me that doesn't characterize the human race. Indifference to God, distrust of God, and preferring other things over God. And because of that, God is justly angry. He's not angry in a human way.

He is angry in a holy way. It is an anger that is entirely just because of the sin of people who care nothing for him and prefer other things over him. He is angry at that. Listen to the words of John R. Stott. Listen to him as he describes the anger of God.

Here's what he wrote. Sin arouses the wrath of God. This does not mean that he is likely to fly off the handle at the most trivial provocation, still less that he loses his temper for no apparent reason at all For there is nothing capricious or arbitrary about the Holy God nor is he ever irascible malicious spiteful or vindictive His anger is neither mysterious nor irrational.

It is never unpredictable, but always predictable, because it is provoked by evil, and evil alone. The wrath of God is his steady, unrelenting, unremitting, uncompromising antagonism to evil in all its forms and manifestations. In short, God's anger is poles apart from our anger. What provokes our anger? Injured vanity. never provokes his. What provokes his anger, evil, seldom provokes us.

What a great description of the anger of God. He's not going to lose his temper. He's not going to fly off the handle. He's not going to have a bad day and get on your case. He's only angry at evil in all of its manifestations. That's what makes him angry.

He is just in his anger. He is holy in his anger. And notice what this says then. That Jesus comes in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of God's people. The high priest comes to offer the sacrifice of himself. He actually comes as the sacrifice.

You see that? And his sacrifice is a propitiation. What does that mean? A propitiation is something that's given to appease the anger of something or someone. That is to say, that his sacrifice was what appeased this holy, just anger of God. Now, there are some who hate this idea of propitiation.

They say, what a barbaric idea. You trying to say this Christian God has to have his anger appeased That paganism That what pagans do Pagans offer their sacrifices in order to propitiate the anger of their gods Why do we incorporate that into this? That can't be what the Bible means. Well, what you have to see here clearly is this. We do not offer a sacrifice to appease God's anger.

Do you see that? We don't offer a sacrifice. It is God who makes that offering. Do you see that? It is God himself who makes the offering to appease his anger. Nothing you could do could ever appease the anger of God.

Nothing. His anger is so just that he cannot overlook one sin. He is angry of evil in all of its manifestations. And so we could never offer anything to appease His anger. So what does God do? God Himself offers the sacrifice that appeases His anger.

And it's God who makes that offering. Do not think, I want you to listen carefully now. Do not think that God loves you because His wrath was appeased. Do not think that He is gracious to you because his wrath has been appeased. Don't think that way. Why?

It is God's grace towards sinners that made him offer that sacrifice. It is the very love of Christ that moved him, that caused him to offer himself as a sacrifice. It was the love of God, it was the grace of God that moved him to make propitiation. He didn't make propitiation and then was gracious to you. He's gracious to you. He's loving to you.

And that's what motivated him offering of his son and Jesus offering himself to appease the wrath of God. Do you remember what the Apostle John wrote in 1 John chapter 4? In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love Not that we have loved God but that what He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins It was the love of God that motivated Him to give that sacrifice that would appease His anger.

There's no barbarism in it. There's no paganism here. this is a holy just and angry God who because of love offered a sacrifice that appeased his wrath aroused by our sin and evil one great theologian has written there was a great breach and quarrel between God and man by reason of sin but Christ by becoming man and dying has taken up the quarrel and made reconciliation so far that God is ready to receive all into favor and friendship who come to Him through Christ. Oh, listen to me this morning.

He came to serve as a faithful high priest to offer a propitiation for sin, to appease the anger of God aroused by your evil. He is the propitiation. Jesus helps you with God. He cannot fail in his duty in the service of God to reconcile sinners to him. Lastly, we notice in this text that Jesus came to help you in life. He came to help you.

He came to help you with God. He came to help you in life. He is merciful high priest for the comfort and support of God's people. No, he is a merciful high priest. He is faithful to God and merciful to God's people. Okay?

He is a faithful and merciful high priest. Faithful to God, merciful to God's people, verse 18. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. That is to say, he has great compassion. He has pity on people, on his people. Listen, because of his passion that is suffering at the hands of sinners, he has great compassion for us.

When I was 24, my appendix burst. I was in the hospital for nearly two weeks. And I did not find much relief for the pain from my doctor. In fact, the opposite happened. He rolled into my room one evening with this chest of drawers. And I thought, that's interesting.

I wonder what's going to happen next. Out of that, he got some scissors and snipped some of my stitches to make a hole. and then he took Q-tips that I think, I may be wrong, but I think they were this long. And he carefully put it in that hole and did this number. Oh. I remember just grabbing the head of my bed and holding on with all I was worth and when he was done, I had soaked that bed with my sweat.

Now, what do I mean by telling you this? I don't want anybody throwing up. But I do believe that he had never experienced what I was going through. He never said a word to me about it. He never gave me any warning this was going to be painful. He never said a thing.

He just walked in, a couple snips, Q-tips, and off he went. Never saying anything. I don't believe he had ever gone through what I just went through. however Jesus is not like that Jesus is a sympathizing physician tender and skillful he knows how to deal with tempted sorrowful souls he is touched with the feeling of our infirmities you know what that means he is touched when you feel like you can't make it.

He knows that feeling. Why? Because he has been himself sick with the same disease. Not the disease of sin, but of temptation and trouble and sorrow. He knows that The remembrance of his own sorrows and temptation makes him mindful of your trials and your sorrow and your temptations And he responds to you on that basis. He is one who has experienced it all.

And therefore, he is merciful to you. He has compassion on you in the midst of sorrow and temptation. And so, when Jesus summons His disciples to believe and obey, He does so with compassion. Let me say that again. When Jesus summons His disciples to believe and to obey, He does so with compassion because he faced the same things that you do. When your friends at work make fun of you, ridicule you, twist your words, and then you hear Jesus say to you, don't respond kind for kind.

You respond with a blessing. Respond to them who are mocking you, who are twisting your words. Respond to them, not with cursings, but with blessings. That's when you have to remember that Jesus hung on a cross with mockers surrounding him. But what was his response? Father, forgive them.

Right? When you face hate for the fact that you're not going along with everybody else, you're not going along with what everybody else is celebrating because you know it's unrighteous. And then Jesus calls you to commit yourself to your faithful creator and continue to do good. That when you remember that Jesus when He was reviled did not revile in return When He suffered He did not threaten but continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly When the one closest to you betrays you and leaves you all alone, and you hear Jesus say, do good to those who abuse you.

Remember this, Jesus restored Peter who denied him three times. And for the disciples who ran away and left him all alone in the garden to face the temple guard, taking off after he was resurrected, said, hey, I want you to meet me in Galilee. You remember that. When you feel all alone, when loneliness is your companion, and you hear Jesus give you this promise, God says, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

And you want to say, I don't know if I can believe that. you remember that Jesus was abandoned. And He experienced loneliness beyond compare as He hung on a cross and said, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Do you think He knows what it's like? There isn't anything that you've experienced that Jesus has not. And when he gives you these commands and calls on you to believe, remember, he's been there.

So you see, Jesus helps you. He helps you with God and he helps you in life because he lived that life. How do you see Jesus today? How do you see Jesus today? Is he only a baby alone in the world helplessly lying in a manger Oh certainly He is that But you must also see Him as the powerful Redeemer who has come to help you. When you hear about the birth of Jesus, do you find a sad, sentimental story that causes you to feel sorry for Him and His parents?

Or is He a faithful high priest who has come to offer a sacrifice that once for all will reconcile you to God and to swage His anger. When you consider Jesus now, is He a distant deity to you? Is He a sovereign sitting on His heavenly throne demanding worship and obedience ready to whack you if you have any infractions? or is he a merciful high priest who knows exactly how difficult it is to obey in this sin-laden, temptation-saturated world?

You see, Jesus is the reason for more than the season. Jesus is the reason for hope. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you that Jesus has come to help us as a faithful high priest who made propitiation for our sins and as a merciful high priest who walks with us in all our temptations and suffering and knows what it feels like. Father, help us to have a view of Jesus of not a distant sovereign on a throne demanding our obedience, but as a loving, faithful, merciful high priest who knows exactly how difficult it is to obey.

Oh God, help us to see Jesus as he really is. We pray this in His name. Amen.