back to index2019-08-25 Qualifications of a High Priest
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If you can turn your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 5, I'll be reading from 00:00:07.520 |
verse 1 through 7 this morning. Hebrews chapter 5 verses 1 through 7. 00:00:13.200 |
Reading out of the NASB. "For every high priest taken from among men is appointed 00:00:18.840 |
on behalf of men in things pertaining to God in order to offer both gifts and 00:00:23.000 |
sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided since he 00:00:28.200 |
himself also is beset with weakness. And because of it he is obligated to offer 00:00:33.080 |
sacrifice for sin as for the people so also for himself. And no one takes the 00:00:37.560 |
honor to himself but receives it when he is called by God even as Aaron was. So 00:00:42.160 |
also Christ did not glorify himself so as to become a high priest but he who 00:00:46.120 |
said to him you are my son today I have begotten you. Just as he says also in 00:00:50.840 |
another passage you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. In 00:00:55.240 |
the days of his flesh he offered up both prayers and supplications with loud 00:00:59.360 |
crying and tears to the one able to save him from death and he was heard because 00:01:08.440 |
Heavenly Father we thank you and we thank you for continuing to be gracious 00:01:17.800 |
to us. Lord no matter how much we study and contemplate and meditate we know 00:01:24.240 |
that we're only scratching the surface of all your thoughts, your love and grace 00:01:28.920 |
that you poured upon us. I pray that you would help us to recognize even a 00:01:33.880 |
portion of that grace that we may be in awe, that we may worship you in spirit 00:01:39.280 |
and in truth and all that we do may be a reasonable response to your great mercy. 00:01:43.200 |
So we ask for your Holy Spirit to lead and guide us in Jesus name we pray, amen. 00:01:49.840 |
You know yesterday I was talking to a missionary who's been out in China and 00:01:54.080 |
obviously there's a lot of things going on over there and if you don't know you 00:01:59.720 |
know our church has been engaged in the ministry out there just in various 00:02:03.280 |
capacities since 1999 and the genesis of our mission there wasn't because I was 00:02:08.880 |
praying and God gave me this this heart for China. Early on in the church in 00:02:14.200 |
order to pay the bills I had to work as a ESL teacher and it was just random I 00:02:19.360 |
had a friend who was teaching and then he was going out to missions and he said 00:02:22.800 |
Peter you want to take over and the only qualifications that I had to have a 00:02:26.320 |
master's in something so because of my seminary degree I qualified I've never 00:02:31.120 |
taught you know ESL before I just went in and started winging it you know and I 00:02:35.080 |
just learned how to do it as I was going but I spent about five years teaching 00:02:39.040 |
Korean grandmothers and mostly grandmothers and everyone said I would 00:02:42.840 |
have a grandfather literally one lesson for five years mainly because they just 00:02:48.320 |
kept forgetting and so it was easy for me because there was nothing to prepare 00:02:52.160 |
so you know it helped pay the bills it gave me insurance for the kids and so I 00:02:57.440 |
did that for about five years but as time went by even though was paying the 00:03:01.480 |
bills I was starting wrestling why why am I doing this because I put all that 00:03:05.560 |
time preparing and studying and then I'm spending about 30 plus hours a week you 00:03:10.040 |
know teaching ESL to grandmothers that really isn't going anywhere you know it's 00:03:14.080 |
a lot of it is just to kind of give them something to do in the morning and as I 00:03:18.880 |
was wrestling with this I got an email from our denomination saying that they 00:03:23.440 |
needed people to come and teach ESL and again at that time people didn't come in 00:03:28.280 |
and out of China that's that easily like it is now there weren't a lot of foreign 00:03:31.760 |
companies in there and so you have to have a special reason so I thought maybe 00:03:36.280 |
this is it and so all the five years of training I told them what I was doing 00:03:41.160 |
for a living and so that was how I got our church together you know did the 00:03:45.640 |
training and then we started going out to China and so that was kind of our our 00:03:49.160 |
entrance into China the reason I share this with you is during that whole time 00:03:53.480 |
I was wrestling with what is this for you know I really felt like I was 00:03:58.040 |
wasting my time but I'm sure all of you have different stories of how there are 00:04:02.680 |
things that happened in your life that you didn't fully understand and then 00:04:05.720 |
later on how God kind of connected the dots and that's what led you to where 00:04:10.240 |
you are so whether you believe in predestination or not I think everybody 00:04:15.040 |
in some sense at least recognizes it it's hard for us to explain predestination 00:04:19.040 |
here like God's sovereign election and and how it goes forth but when we talk 00:04:23.200 |
we always say well this event or that thing or sometimes very painful 00:04:27.960 |
experiences to how God used that to orchestrate something that he had 00:04:32.160 |
planned and so any Christian could clearly see that now the reason why I 00:04:38.200 |
share the story is because so much of Scripture when we read through the Old 00:04:43.160 |
Testament that didn't make sense like a whole book of Leviticus there are 00:04:47.800 |
certain events that take place that said what is this for and so when you first 00:04:51.440 |
read it you just kind of skim over it because you don't quite get it but the 00:04:55.280 |
more you dig into the scripture the more you begin to see there's a clear purpose 00:04:59.180 |
for every little thing even the thing that seems so insignificant the more you 00:05:03.400 |
dig the more you see why that was there in fact not only was it there but it 00:05:08.440 |
plays a huge role in connecting the dots ultimately brings to Christ now the 00:05:14.600 |
theologians call that type the word the technical word the theological word is 00:05:19.800 |
type that God has placed different types of Christ to prepare for the coming of 00:05:25.600 |
Christ so basically is keep embedded into the Old Testament in history 00:05:31.040 |
through the laws of tabernacles things that ultimately point to Christ so that 00:05:35.760 |
when Christ came it was clear that that was talking about Christ so the 00:05:41.240 |
tabernacle was a type to teach the nation of Israel the need for sacrifice 00:05:46.400 |
and what Christ was going to do Adam was a type of Christ he was the first Adam 00:05:51.440 |
that he comes and he as a as his fruits the whole world multiplied but Jesus is 00:05:57.560 |
is the second Adam the sacrificial lamb is a type of Christ that the blood of 00:06:02.920 |
the lamb covers the sins of Israel and so Christ becomes the lamb so he's that 00:06:08.280 |
lamb was a type of Christ the Passover the sacrifice or at least attempt to 00:06:13.240 |
sacrifice Isaac was also a type pointing to the sacrifice of the Son of God Jonah 00:06:20.000 |
him being in the belly of the well for three days and then coming out of that 00:06:23.760 |
was a type of his death and resurrection but all the types that are implanted in 00:06:29.400 |
the Old Testament one of the clearest and one of the most important types was 00:06:34.000 |
the high priesthood the high priesthood that is explained that we we took a lot 00:06:41.200 |
of time studying through the book of Leviticus of the requirements of the 00:06:45.000 |
high priests we're gonna be looking at chapter five six seven why this type of 00:06:51.080 |
high priest was placed in there and how that ultimately points into is fulfilled 00:06:56.640 |
in Christ and it is so important for us to do that because you know a lot of 00:07:01.920 |
times when you read through the Scriptures because we don't understand 00:07:04.320 |
it we just assume like well it's not for me I think our elder James at the 00:07:09.280 |
retreat did a in my opinion did a great job presenting the canonicity of 00:07:13.240 |
Scripture like why do we believe it's authoritative and I know there was a 00:07:16.640 |
quite a bit of information and so because it went over your head it's like 00:07:20.520 |
well this is too complicated well he spent most of the time describing the 00:07:24.520 |
authority of the Scripture by quoting Scripture and it may seem like circular 00:07:30.080 |
argument but the primary evidence of the authority of God's Word is in the Word 00:07:34.880 |
itself because no man could have orchestrated all that we see in 00:07:40.920 |
Scripture no man could have been intelligent enough he would have had 00:07:45.520 |
enough information or the power to be able to bring all of this together and 00:07:49.120 |
so the more you dig into the Scripture the more you begin to see how all of 00:07:54.480 |
these things are connected to each other the end conclusion in an increasing 00:07:59.360 |
manner is this is divine man could not have done this and then the more you 00:08:05.400 |
begin to understand it the more there is clear evidence that this isn't written 00:08:09.680 |
by human hands again one of the clearest of these things is the high priesthood 00:08:16.120 |
of Christ so today and probably for the next few weeks we're going to be talking 00:08:21.160 |
about Christ as how he fulfills that type of high priesthood so the first 00:08:26.760 |
thing that he says about that is that Jesus had to be a man in Hebrews chapter 00:08:31.600 |
5 1 it says for every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of 00:08:36.840 |
men in things pertaining to God in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for 00:08:42.040 |
sin so he said he had to be the priest had to be a man appointed on behalf of 00:08:48.520 |
men so he had to be a man now again just to take a step back if we understood 00:08:59.200 |
that there's a holy God who's angry with us because of our sins and we need to 00:09:05.960 |
choose somebody to represent us to go on our behalf and to plead on our behalf 00:09:11.360 |
not to be angry with us who would we choose what are the qualities that we 00:09:18.280 |
that that that person needs to have okay do you understand the question so if we 00:09:23.320 |
were to let's say we don't we were we don't have the access to Jesus we don't 00:09:27.840 |
know him and if we knew that our sins has caused the God who created us to be 00:09:35.000 |
angry with us he's just withholding his anger and we are choosing the person to 00:09:40.960 |
represent it as a goal and plead on our behalf who would we choose what are the 00:09:45.840 |
qualities I think the first one that we would think of is he has to be one of us 00:09:49.800 |
because if he's gonna plead on our behalf he needs to understand what our 00:09:54.640 |
problem is he needs to know what we need to plead for he needs to he needs to 00:09:59.440 |
represent us so first thing he needs to be a man chosen among us and that's 00:10:05.320 |
exactly what he is saying here that the high priest was chosen among them 00:10:08.720 |
because his primary role is to plead for the people that he represents but then 00:10:16.640 |
not only does he have to be a man he has to be a man who who can even have access 00:10:22.880 |
to this God because any man who comes before the presence of God and has any 00:10:28.320 |
sin what happens to him he dies no man can even see him it being the presence 00:10:35.440 |
of his glory and so whoever represents us has to be able to get into his 00:10:41.080 |
presence so he cannot have any sin because if he has any sin he wouldn't be 00:10:47.440 |
able to represent even if he's the best of us if he even if he understood us 00:10:51.160 |
perfectly and he knew exactly what to say he can never get to him he had to be 00:10:56.720 |
perfect without sin but not only did he have to be perfect without sin his 00:11:01.360 |
purpose of getting to God when he has access to God is to plead for mercy for 00:11:07.120 |
our sins how do you do that well that's what he says the whole point of the high 00:11:12.800 |
priest sacrifice was on our behalf to make sacrifices to give offerings again 00:11:19.800 |
for the purpose of appeasing his anger if you look at all three qualities Jesus 00:11:26.240 |
walked among us he became one of us he lived a sinless life he was tempted in 00:11:31.120 |
every way yet without sin so he has perfect access to God but not only does 00:11:35.840 |
he have perfect access to God the sacrifice that he made to appease his 00:11:41.120 |
wrath and his anger was his own life was his own self so if we look at those 00:11:47.680 |
qualities there is only one person that qualifies and that's exactly what first 00:11:52.600 |
Timothy 2 5 says where there is one God and there's only one mediator also 00:11:57.120 |
between God men the man Christ Jesus only one person qualified to be able to 00:12:03.920 |
do this task and that was the man Christ Jesus and John 1 14 is that in the word 00:12:08.640 |
became flesh and he dwelt among us he walked in our shoes and he became a man 00:12:15.600 |
because he had to represent us before God now I think every single one of us 00:12:21.840 |
like when you first came to church right those of you who've been here you know 00:12:26.480 |
in the last maybe four or five years you know when you first come to a church one 00:12:30.080 |
of the first things that we look for is to see who is like us right so if you're 00:12:34.720 |
a college student you gravitate toward college students because you can relate 00:12:37.320 |
to them better you know if you're a certain age you know a certain 00:12:40.880 |
background whatever it may be you kind of naturally tend to look for and 00:12:45.920 |
gravitate toward things that you you are familiar with you know I know that from 00:12:50.840 |
talking to many of you that that many of you some of you were raised in a 00:12:55.540 |
pastor's family right and so immediately I don't have to say a word especially if 00:13:00.760 |
you're the middle child of that pastor's family right if you happen to be a male 00:13:04.480 |
middle child of that pastor's family right and if you happen to be an 00:13:08.280 |
immigrant of a pastor's family who happened to be a male middle child I get 00:13:12.880 |
you right I get you immediately without any having any conversation we our 00:13:19.040 |
natural tendency is we gravitate toward people that we are familiar with so once 00:13:24.280 |
become familiar we can kind of venture out outside of that the purpose of why 00:13:29.760 |
Jesus did what he did because his whole purpose was to bring us to God and he 00:13:36.120 |
stepped in our shoes and he invites us if you notice the sportscasters usually 00:13:42.320 |
they choose exports the athletes and reason why even though they're not the 00:13:47.560 |
most articulate you know most of them did not go to broadcasting school they 00:13:51.320 |
weren't communication majors they were just athletes you know but the reason 00:13:55.600 |
why they are chosen to be the broadcasters is because they can relate 00:13:59.000 |
to the athletes and so when they call the plays and when they analyze they're 00:14:03.400 |
analyzing from a athletes perspective that this is what they're thinking this 00:14:07.280 |
is what they're struggling with and so they represent the athletes well to the 00:14:12.040 |
people who are watching and so the scripture says that Jesus was made a man 00:14:16.920 |
because his role was to represent us to God it wasn't just that he was 00:14:23.320 |
representing God to us he is our representative to him you know those of 00:14:31.400 |
you who've been to India with us I remember the very first year that we 00:14:34.480 |
went I think about six six or seven years ago we went to the boonies I mean 00:14:41.600 |
it's about five hour drive into the countryside so when we first got there I 00:14:45.880 |
would say the two-thirds of the road was not paved and even my even my friends 00:14:51.960 |
you know my Southern Baptist friends were asking me Peter do you know what 00:14:55.600 |
you're doing you know this is a little bit further away and so we said you know 00:14:59.840 |
what I I want to at least go and meet this guy and I want to meet his dad and 00:15:03.240 |
see you know what kind of ministry and if anything that he said was true I just 00:15:06.920 |
want to meet him and so we took a team out there and it was the boonies I was I 00:15:11.040 |
would say about two-thirds of the road was not paid right now about two-third 00:15:14.480 |
is paved and then the one-third is not paid but at that time was a two-third 00:15:17.360 |
wasn't paid and so I remember going there thinking in the back of my mind 00:15:22.240 |
what did I do right because it was it was in the boonies and when finally we 00:15:28.000 |
got it to the city and when you get to a city that you're not familiar with what 00:15:33.020 |
is the first thing that you do those of you who've traveled and typically when 00:15:37.960 |
we travel we travel to places where you know where there's a lot of tourists 00:15:41.240 |
gathered together and and every once in a while you might go somewhere where 00:15:44.600 |
where you don't see anything familiar but when you when you go somewhere where 00:15:48.080 |
you're not familiar what's the first thing that you look for something 00:15:52.040 |
familiar right so the first thing we look for is McDonald's right is there 00:15:57.600 |
are there is there any McDonald's here because even though everything looks 00:16:01.280 |
strange once you enter into McDonald's everything's familiar 00:16:04.880 |
apple pie Big Mac well not in India okay those of you who know what I'm talking 00:16:10.000 |
about right but maybe Starbucks or something but we look for something 00:16:13.280 |
familiar because that's our connection when it is foreign so when we think of 00:16:18.440 |
God when we think of God oftentimes we see an image of God that is far and 00:16:25.160 |
distant so Almighty God who who created the universe and in a few donor pieces 00:16:29.160 |
anger that he he comes and brings judgment and so we admire him and love 00:16:33.360 |
him from a distance but Jesus came and he walked in our shoes and he suffered 00:16:40.320 |
along with us for a whole purpose of defending us and representing us to God 00:16:45.800 |
pleading on our behalf you know the public defenders typically in at least 00:16:52.840 |
in our culture get a bad rap because when public defenders are really good at 00:16:56.760 |
their job criminals get to walk you know what I mean and so is that all your 00:17:01.400 |
public defender or how do you live with yourself you know and so we want them to 00:17:05.920 |
slack off a little bit because then more more bad guys go to jail at least that's 00:17:09.920 |
what we think until we become a criminal or somebody that we love gets into 00:17:16.520 |
trouble then all of a sudden this this public defender becomes our best friend 00:17:23.320 |
the scripture tells us that Jesus is playing that role as a public defender 00:17:28.000 |
but instead of being paid to do this he pays himself with his own blood to stand 00:17:34.600 |
before a holy God this judge and he is pleading on our behalf does that give 00:17:41.560 |
you some comfort I'm sure it does I mean when I think as I stand before this holy 00:17:49.320 |
God that Christ himself is standing on my behalf pleading with his father right 00:17:58.680 |
he says so he became a man for that purpose and the whole purpose is so that 00:18:02.840 |
he can invite us so that's something familiar when we look at Christ that he's 00:18:09.040 |
something familiar that we can go to to get us to God secondly the high priest 00:18:17.000 |
had to be appointed by God now why was this important he was up to 5 4 3 5 no 00:18:22.840 |
one takes the honor to himself but receives it when he is called by God 00:18:26.280 |
even as Aaron was so also Christ did not glorify himself so as to become a high 00:18:31.580 |
priest but he who said to him you are my son today I have begotten you today I 00:18:37.080 |
have begotten you why is it important that that they were appointed now you 00:18:45.360 |
have to understand that the nation of Israel was not like any other nation 00:18:49.520 |
that the king of Israel was not the final king that those offices were 00:18:56.400 |
separated so you can't just decide one day so you know what maybe maybe let me 00:19:01.280 |
try the sacrifices you will get into trouble in fact we have examples of 00:19:06.440 |
examples in the Old Testament these Kings who are presumptuous and they 00:19:10.520 |
thought you know what instead of instead of going over to Jerusalem going to the 00:19:13.880 |
temple I'm just gonna give the sacrifices myself and God brings 00:19:18.480 |
judgment upon them because they didn't they didn't take heed God's warning and 00:19:22.720 |
a high priest couldn't by himself decide one day you know what I want to be the 00:19:26.840 |
king let's overthrow King David and I'm gonna be the king those two offices were 00:19:30.600 |
completely separate you had to be appointed as a king and you had to be 00:19:34.440 |
appointed as a high priest now the reason why this is important is because 00:19:39.720 |
he mentions that Jesus came in the order of Melchizedek now this name it appears 00:19:47.800 |
in Genesis chapter 14 18 just as a blip this is one of those things that when 00:19:53.000 |
you read it's like oh that's weird you know Abraham is coming back and he runs 00:19:57.000 |
into this king of Salem and then he offers sacrifice and gives him a tenth 00:20:01.200 |
and then says hi bye and he blesses him and he disappears and then we don't know 00:20:06.320 |
much about him so if you remember Melchizedek it's probably because you 00:20:11.280 |
read it and probably asked that question and if you don't it's because it didn't 00:20:14.600 |
make sense and you just kind of buried it somewhere and so that was placed in 00:20:19.640 |
there and then now he's going to explain what that was again we're not gonna go 00:20:25.760 |
too deep into it today it's gonna come out you know as we go forward from 00:20:29.160 |
chapter 5 but the reason why this is important is because in the nation of 00:20:34.040 |
Israel you could not voluntarily do that God kept this offer separate because the 00:20:40.700 |
whole point of this King priest office was reserved for Christ and Christ alone 00:20:46.960 |
so to take that role as a king to make sacrifice was no different than the high 00:20:53.560 |
priest entering to the Holy of Holies and sitting on that mercy seat that I'm 00:20:58.560 |
gonna try this seat and God said no remember when the high priest came in 00:21:04.040 |
there there was such reverence for the things of God he put it on a bell and 00:21:07.760 |
he's to do his work you need to hurry up and get out because that was not his 00:21:10.720 |
place the whole purpose was to with the sprinkling of blood to cover the sins of 00:21:16.600 |
Israel to cover himself with his sins and then hurry up and get out because 00:21:20.920 |
that mercy seat was reserved for Christ and so his high priesthood just as the 00:21:27.680 |
human high priesthood could not appoint himself Christ himself had to be 00:21:32.320 |
appointed meaning that his king priesthood that the throne that he sat in 00:21:38.760 |
that he also was the high priest making sacrifice was uniquely Christ and all of 00:21:46.440 |
that was prepared in the Old Testament and he gave bits and pieces of that so 00:21:52.120 |
when Christ shows up there he is an aha statement I didn't know who Melchizedek 00:21:58.640 |
was where does he where does he come from why is Abrahams giving tithes to 00:22:02.880 |
him and all of a sudden he says Jesus Christ comes as king priest in the order 00:22:08.260 |
of Melchizedek because the only king priest that we see in the Old Testament 00:22:12.120 |
that didn't get into trouble is the king of Salem king of righteousness now if 00:22:18.520 |
you fell asleep even for two seconds you probably what is he talking about right 00:22:23.160 |
but if you stayed with me this is huge this is one of those things that again 00:22:29.160 |
in our life we have certain things that happen and we can't connect the dots but 00:22:32.680 |
years later we realize wow God used that to bring me here this is one of those 00:22:40.520 |
big things that God was doing behind the scene that they didn't understand but 00:22:44.480 |
now when Christ comes he sits at the throne of mercy and that was his throne 00:22:51.080 |
it was reserved for him and so no man could come in and say let me rest here 00:22:55.200 |
for a second that was reserved for him that's why it was important they say it 00:22:59.600 |
was appointed to him not only was it appointed to him thirdly it says that 00:23:09.440 |
not only was he a man not only was it was this prepared and appointed he said 00:23:15.160 |
he was a sympathetic high priest in Hebrews chapter 5 - it says he can deal 00:23:21.200 |
gently with the ignorant and misguided since he himself also is beset with 00:23:26.520 |
weakness he didn't just he didn't just establish he didn't just establish a 00:23:33.520 |
mediator he established a mediator that was going to be compassionate and 00:23:39.120 |
gentle now why was that important because if you send an ambassador to 00:23:45.840 |
represent you the whole purpose of this is to bring grace and mercy so that 00:23:51.240 |
people can come to him his whole purpose and Jesus's existence and his and his 00:23:56.280 |
sacrifice was to draw us to to his Holy God so the sacrificial system was an 00:24:04.880 |
expression of his mercy even the sacrifice even all the slaughter of 00:24:09.480 |
animals we may look at that and say wow that's harsh why are you killing these 00:24:13.760 |
animals all of the slaughter of the animals was because God was trying to be 00:24:18.120 |
merciful to sinners if God didn't care if he wasn't merciful none of that is 00:24:24.840 |
necessary as soon as you sin you're squashed but everything that God was 00:24:29.660 |
doing in the Old Testament was an extension of his arm inviting sinners to 00:24:33.600 |
come and so the man that was sent to do his work must also be a gracious and 00:24:41.000 |
compassionate man and why did he do that all for the purpose of inviting us to 00:24:48.720 |
him inviting us to the mercy seat inviting us to the throne of grace in 00:24:55.960 |
order that we may be able to be reconciled with this Holy God it says 00:25:02.680 |
that because he was beset with weakness he can be gentle you know the word for 00:25:06.040 |
gentle is really interesting because some of your translation says it's 00:25:09.760 |
compassion but the word literally means to be in the middle right it doesn't 00:25:15.200 |
sound exciting right that because he was beset with with weakness he can be in 00:25:20.440 |
the middle right now that's a literal translation of that word what that word 00:25:24.440 |
means is he's neither harsh nor apathetic he's neither harsh nor 00:25:31.000 |
apathetic that's why this word is so perfect for this scene because if he was 00:25:35.440 |
harsh he would crush them the sinners come is that again you're gonna 00:25:42.160 |
sacrifice again you're gonna bring that again forget you I'm not gonna sacrifice 00:25:45.920 |
for you so if he was harsh he would just squash them when they send and they 00:25:50.000 |
would deserve it or on the other hand is that you said it's like you know we all 00:25:54.960 |
sin you know I mean we all sin and just kind of sweeping it's not that big of a 00:25:59.160 |
deal don't worry about it we're not gonna go through this all them oh you 00:26:02.280 |
don't have much money for these sacrifices you know let's just kind of 00:26:05.480 |
you know do a little bit of this and just kind of sweep it under the rug what 00:26:09.240 |
this word means was neither was he apathetic towards and he hated sin and 00:26:14.000 |
yet he was compassionate and so he was a perfect mediator because he understood 00:26:19.160 |
the wrath of God because he himself was God so he understood how his father 00:26:25.760 |
hates sin and he knew that he couldn't just sweep it under the rug he couldn't 00:26:31.440 |
just look the other way so I'm gonna pretend like that never happened he 00:26:35.520 |
wasn't apathetic towards sin he understood that if something did not 00:26:40.000 |
happen the wrath would come and crush all sinners and yet because he was a man 00:26:46.520 |
he understood our weaknesses he was beset with weakness he was surrounded by 00:26:50.920 |
weakness and so yet he had hatred towards sin he was compassionate toward 00:26:56.440 |
the sinners and that's why this word gentle is such a perfect word to 00:27:01.000 |
describe that's the priesthood of Jesus Christ and that's why you have this 00:27:06.560 |
juxtaposition of the mercy seat as a throne of grace you don't think of 00:27:13.920 |
thrown as being gracious you don't think of grace as having power and authority 00:27:18.640 |
and yet Jesus's position is a throne of grace he's neither apathetic towards sin 00:27:26.080 |
nor is he harsh towards sinners he's in the middle he is compassionate he will 00:27:34.400 |
deal with our sins he will appease the wrath of God by his own sacrifice and 00:27:41.200 |
that position was appointed to give to him since the beginning it was something 00:27:48.600 |
that only he could do and that's what all that priesthood was for everything 00:27:53.360 |
that we learned about the high priesthood was to prepare so when Christ 00:27:56.680 |
did it that all mankind would see that and say aha he didn't just he didn't 00:28:03.320 |
just on a whim say you know what we tried everything nothing is working it 00:28:08.920 |
wasn't plan B from the very beginning that was his plan he himself was beset 00:28:17.840 |
with weakness he surrounded himself and he tasted what it was like to be in 00:28:25.040 |
sinful society learning on their sinful men being surrounded by simple siblings 00:28:30.400 |
even being raised by simple parents that he may be a sympathetic high priest we 00:28:37.280 |
have a team right now that has gone to Ecuador and they went to visit we have 00:28:42.240 |
about a hundred and forty three different children that are being 00:28:44.760 |
supported by our church and I think we have about 16 or 17 members that have 00:28:48.960 |
gone there they're gonna come back on Saturday and they'll give us an update 00:28:51.960 |
on Sunday what they saw now we all know if you're one of those families that are 00:28:57.440 |
supporting these children we're getting a letter so we have an idea we've seen 00:29:00.040 |
pictures but it's a completely different story when you walk in their shoes when 00:29:04.600 |
you go into their homes you know I had a chance to go to Philippines through 00:29:08.200 |
Pastor Peter and my wife and an elder Philip but we all had opportunities to 00:29:12.040 |
go typically when we travel we travel to the nicest places go to the nicest 00:29:16.760 |
hotels they need the nicest food and I want to encourage you that if you get an 00:29:21.480 |
opportunity I'm not sure if we're gonna go next year or not if you get an 00:29:24.660 |
opportunity to to really invest that money and go see for yourself because it 00:29:29.600 |
really is paradigm shifting and it's not like you didn't know like we know right 00:29:34.960 |
we know because we read it we watch films and television but it's completely 00:29:39.960 |
different when you're engrossed in it and you begin to understand why certain 00:29:44.600 |
things are happening in the world when you watch from a distance you know there's 00:29:48.800 |
a lot of young people especially so you know what the sex trafficking we need to 00:29:53.000 |
stop the sex trafficking and so we need to find out these men who are doing 00:29:57.360 |
these things and stop it and and make sure that the law goes and stop it but 00:30:00.780 |
the when you get in there and you walk in their shoes you realize that so much 00:30:05.560 |
of this sex trafficking is happening voluntarily part of the reason why it's 00:30:10.640 |
so hard to stop is because they can't eat if they don't do that so it's not 00:30:16.160 |
like these men are going into these villages and and they're preying on 00:30:19.520 |
these young children all they do is they go on a tour bus and get in a nice 00:30:24.240 |
hotel and these young girls come to the hotel of course they don't want to do 00:30:28.240 |
that and a lot of times the parents send them because a lot of them it's a choice 00:30:34.240 |
between selling their bodies and eating so when you step into their shoes and 00:30:39.840 |
you you're engrossed in that poverty the problem is not that simple but we get 00:30:46.480 |
into problems when we watch them from a distance and say oh that's a problem 00:30:49.640 |
this sex trafficking has to stop and we try to get involved without fully 00:30:53.360 |
understanding what's going on and that's why these trips are very helpful because 00:30:59.160 |
you see poverty while you're there in a different light see our Savior came and 00:31:07.200 |
he walked in our shoes and the scripture says in verse 7 the days of this flesh 00:31:10.680 |
in days of Jesus's flesh he offered up both prayers and supplications with loud 00:31:16.760 |
crying and tears to the one who was able to save him he didn't just taste the 00:31:24.760 |
suffering of mankind he experienced agony he says he was crying in tears he 00:31:32.480 |
understands he understands the agony that would bring him to tears to get on 00:31:37.920 |
his knees and to pray till our sweat turns into blood that's how that's the 00:31:44.160 |
kind of agony he experienced so now that Jesus who experienced that kind of pain 00:31:49.080 |
Romans 834 says who is the one who condemns Christ Jesus who died yes 00:31:54.480 |
rather who was raised who is at the right hand of God who also intercedes 00:31:58.840 |
for us because he cried out in pain because he shed tears because he pleaded 00:32:09.000 |
with the father he knows how to plead for us these aren't just empty words his 00:32:17.680 |
compassion was earned even though he was a son he learned obedience he learned 00:32:25.000 |
obedience he stepped in our shoes all of this for what purpose to invite us that 00:32:34.600 |
he's sympathetic high priest and he says come to me all who are weary and heavy 00:32:38.360 |
laden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am 00:32:45.120 |
gentle and humble in heart you know what's crazy about all of this the 00:32:51.200 |
scripture says if you abided my words and my words abide in you ask whatever 00:32:56.120 |
you wish it shall be done for you right but the problem that we have is rarely 00:33:02.400 |
do we feel completely confident rarely do we feel completely confident that we 00:33:08.160 |
are abiding in him and his word is abiding in us completely so we pray and 00:33:11.400 |
we plead but there's always a doubt in my mind that I haven't done enough and I 00:33:15.040 |
remember the compromises in the sins so even though we cry out there's always a 00:33:19.000 |
doubt in our mind that maybe my prayer is not effective Jesus has no problem he 00:33:26.200 |
cried out to God but God heard him it says because of his piety because there 00:33:31.520 |
is no sin in him he has full access to God because he was tempted in every way 00:33:38.320 |
without sin it is that Savior that is pleading on her behalf and if we have 00:33:46.200 |
any doubts that maybe God doesn't hear us because of our sins there is no doubt 00:33:50.240 |
that our intercessory our high priest when he cries out and he is praying for 00:33:56.680 |
us that God hears him perfectly that's the high priest that's the king priest 00:34:02.760 |
that we worship and that is the Savior that invites us to come to him and find 00:34:08.760 |
rest there is no barrier there's only one mediator there's no other man 00:34:15.720 |
there's no other system there's no other church there's only one mediator between 00:34:19.040 |
us and God and is the man Christ Jesus come come to Christ stop coming to 00:34:27.720 |
church come to Christ come to Christ and find rest that you will only find in his 00:34:35.120 |
presence all this he did so that he can bring us to him how can we resist this 00:34:44.760 |
guy I pray that the more we dig the more we are in all the more we are in all 00:34:50.200 |
that we would truly become worshippers who worship him spirit in the truth