Hebrews 4:14-16 Sermon

the first sunday in lent

Shepherd of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS)

 

Tested, Tried, and True

Hebrews 4:14-16

¹⁴ Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. ¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. ¹⁶ Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (NIV)

In the Old Testament, the pastor serving God’s people did not have nearly as clean a robe as I do.  He also smelled quite a bit different than I do.  Why?  Because the pastor – or “priest” at that time – served in a role that shared more similarities with a butcher than what we’ve come to know as a pastor.  The bulk of his time was spent slaughtering animals to be offered up as sacrifices for God’s people.  For that reason he was often a smelly, bloody mess.

The offering up of sacrifices on a daily basis was one of the ways the high priest served  to intercede between God and men.  He was also allowed to go into the special places in the temple, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, which were off limits to other all other people.  He was the representative of the people, approaching God on their behalf to offer up prayers for them.  This arrangement was intended by God to illustrate that sinful man on his own could not come before a holy, righteous God; he must have someone intercede.

Of course the office of high priest in the Old Testament was also established to serve as a shadow of what was to come.  The reality, the Great High Priest, is Jesus.  High priests in Old Testament times offered up repeated sacrifices to illustrate that blood was to be shed in order to atone for sin.  But Jesus, the Great High Priest, offered up himself as a one-time sacrifice for all, and by his blood the sins of the world were atoned for.  Even today he carries out the role of High Priest as he sits at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us.  The point the writer to the Hebrews is stressing is that Jesus is a superior High Priest to all of those who preceded him in the Old Testament, because he is the fulfillment of everything they foreshadowed.  Even more remarkable is the truth that he is our great high priest: “Therefore, since we have a great high priest…” (v.14).

Consider the following two scenarios.  A woman who really appreciates high end purses plunks down a considerable amount of money to buy a new name brand purse.  Shortly thereafter, after inspecting the new purse a little bit, a friend regretfully points out to her that the purse is a cheap knock-off of the name brand, hardly worth a fraction of what she paid for it.  In another case, a woman shares the same affinity for name brand purses, but knows she can’t afford the real thing, so she’s content to pay for a generic look-alike.  However, she soon discovers that the purse she thought was just a cheap knock-off is actually the real thing.  Do I need to ask which of the two ladies you’d prefer to be?

Brothers and sisters, in Christ Jesus, we don’t have a cheap knock-off or generic version, but the real, genuine thing.  We don’t have to settle for the Kirkland brand, because Jesus is top-of-the-line!  We have the High Priest!  We don’t have the shadow, but the reality.  Our faith is not waiting for something better to come along – we have the best!

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess” (v.14).  Our High Priest is superior, which means our faith is not unfounded.  How can we know?  For one, our High Priest has “gone through the heavens.”  Every high priest in the Old Testament had in common that they were earthly.  As human beings, they were born and when they died, they stayed dead.  Not so with our High Priest, who is divine,.  He is without beginning and without end.  Though he was born, he had no beginning.  Though he died, he did not stay dead.  Earth was temporary; heaven is his temple, his home.

Second of all, one can’t help but notice that his name is superior to all other high priests.  Only One is called “Jesus the Son of God.”  Only One can call God his Father.  Only One can claim the name that means “Savior” or “helper.”   Our High Priest is superior, for he hails from heaven and his name alone saves.

But if he had not made good on his saving name, then his name would have no more power to save than yours or mine.  But he did make good.  He did deliver.  “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin” (v.15).  God’s only requirement to get into heaven is that no sin whatsoever would stain our pristine record of perfect obedience.  If that describes you, then you’re in.  Congratulations.  Job well done.  The only problem is that if we set out to find even one person who met that requirement, we’d be searching endlessly all over the world and we’d never find him.  He certainly isn’t sitting right next to you in the pew.  He isn’t preaching to you from the front of the church.  He’s nowhere to be found in this building or anywhere else. 

The result of that problem is this: if we cannot meet the requirement to get into heaven – and we cannot – then there is only one other place that awaits us.  It is a place called hell.

Here is where we must know how necessary it is that we not only have a Savior who paid for our countless sins, but also a Savior who was without sin himself.  We heard in the Gospel this morning how Satan tried to test and trip him up, but Jesus overcame.  His record remained spotless.  He didn’t stumble or falter in sin, which means we have a Great High Priest who has met God’s requirement to get into heaven.  He was tempted in every way – not to some lesser degree or some lower set of standards – but in every way, and was without sin. 

And what a comfort to have One who experienced the temptation that we do!  For those who consider an organization like Alcoholics Anonymous to be successful, it would be difficult to imagine similar success if it were set up differently.  For example, if instead of a group of people all struggling with alcoholism gathering together to support and encourage one another, AA consisted of a group of non-drinkers trying to convince alcoholics that it’s not that hard to go without drinking, because after all, they can do it, the organization probably wouldn’t have been around very long.  But what a powerful thing for a person to see that others have walked in his shoes, have shared the same struggles, and yet have been able to overcome.  The same holds true for those who’ve experienced losing loved ones to death.  It is comforting to share that experience with someone else who has gone through a similar experience and can relate to the aching emptiness.  So it is with our Great High Priest.  He quite literally knows what we go through when we’re faced with temptation, and as our High Priest, he is ready and willing to help us get through it.

So let us be unafraid to rush to his throne of grace with renewed confidence, for we have One who has navigated through the maze of temptation and come out unscathed.  Go to him for guidance and support and direction when the heat of battle is burning and temptation is luring with its tantalizing promises of gratification and satisfaction and self-serving feel-goodness.  Do not avoid the throne of grace out of shame or embarrassment in the moment of temptation, but hurry to it and plead for the aid of the One who has been where you are at that very moment and has passed through to the other side still sinless!

Dear friends, do not forget why your High Priest invites you to approach his throne of grace, for listen to what awaits all who do: “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (v.16).  There, at that throne, you have all you need when faced with temptation.  You have mercy, and O how we need that!  Mercy does not dish out the deserved punishment for sin.  It is unconventional and incomprehensible because it goes against everything we expect and fully deserve.  It casts our sin aside because of the payment already received through the sacrifice of our Great High Priest, Jesus Christ.  Mercy ignores that we should be guilty and damned, and does not treat us as our sins deserve.

But there is more!  There is grace, too!  For it is not called the “throne of grace” for nothing, but grace in abundance is exactly what one finds there!  And grace feeds the new creation in each of us that desperately wants to shun the devil and topple his towers of temptation like a helpless stack of blocks in the path of a teetering toddler.  Realize that anything good in you, anything good that you’ve become or ever done is because of God’s grace.  And the only hope you and I will ever have of overcoming temptation is directly related to God’s grace working in us.  So run – don’t walk – to the throne of grace and be filled to the brim. 

A convicted criminal sat in his cell the night before he was to be executed.  After giving it some thought, he made the request that a Christian missionary be sent to his cell.  When the missionary arrived, he was surprised that the criminal asked to be baptized into the Christian faith, since he knew the man to be a Buddhist monk for the duration of his adult life.  Convinced that the man knew what he was requesting, the missionary baptized him.  He then asked him why he now wished to be baptized all of a sudden.  The man responded by saying that he “wished to die in a faith by which he could come freely to God – unrestrained by personal unworthiness and confident that he could entreat forgiveness simply out of love and mercy.”  What a testament to faith, if even at the final moments of his life!

There is, though, no reason for us to wait, no reason to put it off, no reason to avoid that inviting throne of grace.  We have access to it right now and always.  Grace awaits!  Run to the High Priest, one who has been tested, tried, and is true.  Run to where you will find the mercy and grace needed to stand tall against temptation.  Amen.

“For the freer confidence is from one’s own works, and the more exclusively it is directed toward Christ alone, so much better is the Christian it makes.” (Luther)