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Introduction: Our Souls at Rest

Well Goodmorning.  Last week, we dove back into the Book of Hebrews after a short hiatus. Last week, I did a recap of the first three and a half chapters of the Book of Hebrews. So I did in eight minutes what took us eight sermons in the fall. I got an amen there. That was good. The passage we looked at today is quite extensive. I mentioned this several months back. I have a friend of mine who’s a pastor in the Memphis, Tennessee area, and he preached through the Book of Hebrews at his church. It took him seven years to get through it. 

The text that we’re going to look at this morning, he preached 10 sermons from this text. I was like, Jordan, I love you, bro. But that’s a lot of sermons from that text, bro. He’s like, there’s just so much there, man. How can you skip it? Well, because we want to get to other books of the Bible at some point, we’re going to have to skip some things. That’s just the nature of it. So I will attempt to serve, to give you what God is saying in this passage to the best of my abilities, in one sermon, not 10 in this particular passage. 

As we looked at last week in the Book of Hebrews, as we’re coming up to this passage, the writer of Hebrews in this book, this sermon. It’s a transcribed sermon. In this sermon, he has made mention of this idea of rest that those of us who are believers are on a trajectory to experience a glorious, forever rest where our souls will be at peace, where we will be satisfied. 

Think about the busyness and craziness, and anxiousness of our world. The idea that we will be at rest forever is a glorious proposition. So there is this glorious, joy-filled, loving, powerful, happy, intense, restful eternity awaiting us. The day where we join the resurrection, those who have gone before us, where we stand side by side with the heroes of the faith, and we shout the hymn of Heaven, glory to our God.

I look forward to that day. I look forward to that rest. The writer of Hebrews is trying to cultivate in us a desire, a hopeful expectation. We’re going to be in that rest one day, strive toward that. Do everything in this life that you know to do so that you are not disobedient or hard-hearted and that you miss out on the rest that God has for us thus far in the Book of Hebrews. The writer of Hebrews has also alluded to judgment. 

He’s made it very clear that not every human being will enter that rest. For those who do not genuinely believe on Jesus, there is judgment and wrath awaiting. For those who do not truly, wholeheartedly cling to Christ, rest does not await them. Wrath awaits, Hell awaits. It’s a serious reality. Later in chapter 10, the writer of Hebrews will come back to this concept, and he’ll say that those who do not strive to enter the rest should expect nothing but a consuming fire. That’s the language he used in Hebrews chapter 10. 

So for all of these reasons, the writer of Hebrews is telling us, stick with Jesus. Look to Jesus. Trust in Jesus. He is better than anything or any person in all of creation and beyond. Keep believing in Jesus, and you will enter into his rest. As we talked last week, the primary way that we strive to enter that rest is to seek to live by God’s word. The Scriptures, the truth revealed in the Bible. As we looked at last week, the word of God is living and active. It’s sharp, it cuts us, it judges our hearts, our intentions, our thoughts, and all of our ideas are measured against God’s word. 

When we realize that we are wrong, as we often do, we ought to repent of that and bring our minds in line with what God has said thus far in the book of Hebrews. His primary point has been, Jesus is better. So don’t stop believing in Jesus. The way you keep believing in Jesus is by submitting what you think under God’s word, because God is always right. Now he’s about to have a slight pivot here. 

He’s about to start talking about Jesus as the great High Priest. He’s going to spend the next five and a half chapters unpacking, What does it mean that Jesus is the great High Priest? What are the implications of that for our lives? So it’s a slight pivot, but it’s an extensive pivot throughout the book of Hebrews. So before we look at that, I want to pray one more time and ask the Lord for help. 

God, would you help us as we look at your word this morning? Help us to understand, and I pray again that you would use your word to cut us, to expose us. May nothing be left as the song we sang earlier, may there be no stain of sin left. May there be nothing in me that seeks to fight against your Holy war. May there be nothing in me remaining that continually says no to your will. Rip that out of me, God, rip that out of us. Cultivate in us a love for you and a commitment to strive to enter your rest. And now, God, as we look at the next few verses here in Hebrews 4 and 5, help us understand it. May it transform us. I pray in Christ’s name. Amen.

 

Jesus, Our Great High Priest

This is not the first time he mentions the idea of great High Priests. In fact, twice early in the book of Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews, in this sermon, has already mentioned this. In Hebrews chapter 2, verse 17, he calls Jesus the 

“Faithful high priest in the service of God.” 

In Hebrews chapter 3, verse 1, he calls Jesus: 

“The apostle and high priest of our confession.” 

But he doesn’t unpack that at all. It’s kind of like a side comment. It’s a big comment, but sort of a side comment. But then we get to the middle part of chapter four, and this is where he begins to unpack this idea of the high priest. He says this. Look at verse 14, chapter 4, verse 14. He says, 

“Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God.” 

Jesus is our High Priest. He’s passed through the heavens. He was in heaven, in glory, stepped off his throne in glory, became a human being, exposed himself to all of the pains and ills of this world, and experienced the human experience. He dies a brutal death, resurrects from the dead, and then goes back to sit in glory. As we saw in Hebrews chapter one, sitting at the right hand of majesty. He is a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens. He uses the word since but it could also be because. Because we have this great High Priest.

I’m about to give you some exhortations because Jesus is such a great High Priest. There’s something I’m about to tell you to do. There are some things I’m going to challenge you with. But before I really challenge you, let me tell you the kind of High Priest Jesus is. Look at verse 15. He says this: 

“We do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” 

This is a remarkable reality. We don’t have a God who doesn’t understand what we’ve been through. We have a God, a Savior who can sympathize with us. He understands what it’s like to be human, to experience the Human condition, to experience death, to experience the death of loved ones, the death of a parent, the betrayal of a deep friend. Jesus experienced these things. He understands. He gets you. He gets you.

He can truly sympathize in every respect. He knows how hard it is to say no to sin, and yet he says no to sin over and over and over again. For those of us who know how hard it is to say no to sin, and we regularly say yes to sin, we are blown away by this. You said no to sin every single time. Every time you were tempted to be prideful, every time you were tempted to get revenge on someone unjustly. I mean, you could have done any of those things at any time.

Jesus, you get us far beyond what we realize. Sometimes I think that we think that God’s just waiting to drop the hammer on us. He’s just this big, mean God just ready to catch you. You get one little thing wrong, bam, he’s on you. That’s not how our God is. In fact, this is Psalm 103. It’s one of my favorites. It’s hard to narrow it down, but I love Psalm 103. Psalm 103, verse 13. It says this, speaking of our God, 

“As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. (And then he says this,) For he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust.” 

Like when I struggle and I’m feeling insecure, I’m tempted to think God thinks I’m a loser. He’s saying, Come on, Kenny, get with it. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps and keep going. When I’m feeling insecure, he says, I was there when you were made. I remember you’re dust. You’re weak. You’re fragile. I totally get that you’re insecure, I get it. I was there when you were made. I remember your frame. I remember that sin has plagued you. I remember that you were created with finitude.

I remember that you get tired and cranky. I know. I know you. He shows compassion to us. So the writer of Hebrews is saying, since we have that sort of High Priest, that sort of Savior who remembers who we are, we should do some things. This is what he says in verse 16. If you’ve been around church for any length of time, you’ve probably heard this verse at some point in some fashion, because we have a great High Priest. He says this in verse 16. 

“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

He says this great High Savior, High Priest, who knows you, who sympathizes with you, loves you; therefore, draw close to him with confidence. Christians, you can have confidence. In our house, we have a guest room slash my office, and it’s right next to Lettie’s room. Lettie is our three-year-old daughter. So, Lettie will sometimes burst into my office. She’ll just burst the door open. There have been multiple times I’ve been on Zoom calls, and I’ve been on meetings.

Let me tell you, Lettie doesn’t care at all who I’m talking to. She didn’t care at all. She busted through that door with confidence because that’s my Daddy. I know I blow it all the time. I know he has to, you know, discipline me regularly, but I still know I can burst through that door. I know there’s nothing that’s going to stop my Daddy from loving me. So I’ve made it a habit. I know that as a father, how she views God will largely be shaped and informed by how I interact with her. So I have made it a habit that no matter how annoying it is, no matter how inconvenient it is, no matter how frustrated I am in the moment, no matter what is going on, when she bursts through the door, I turn and say, Come on, jump on up. And she jumps up on my lap. 

Whoever’s on Zoom, they’re gonna meet Lettie that day. If I’m on the phone, they’re meeting Lettie that day. It doesn’t matter. I’ve made it a priority because I want her to know that’s what God is like. In fact, he’s way better than me. You can burst through his door anytime. He welcomes it. The writer of Hebrews is saying, Go to him with confidence. Kenny, I blew it this week. You don’t know what I looked at online. You don’t know what I did. You don’t know how harsh I was. You don’t know what pride I demonstrated. You don’t know what lust I have. You don’t know what I stole this week. You don’t know the things I did. You’re right, I don’t. But you know what I do know?

That we have a great High Priest who can sympathize with us. So we go to him with confidence. With confidence. I love that phrase. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for putting that phrase in there. With confidence. 

 

Old Testament Priest Aaron 

Over the next five and a half chapters, he’s going to continue to unpack. What does it mean that Jesus is a great High Priest, and what are the implications of that? Now, in chapter five, he will begin to compare Jesus to the Old Testament priest Aaron. Look at verse 5, chapter or chapter 5, verse 1. He says this 

“For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God.”

It’s Super Bowl Sunday, so it’s appropriate to use a football analogy, right? Most athletes have an agent. A lot of celebrities do. Actors and actresses, lots of people will hire an agent. The agent’s responsibility is to negotiate on behalf of the client, right? So every player who plays today in the Super Bowl has an agent. That agent’s job is to negotiate with the team to get the most amount of money and benefits for that particular player. That’s the agent’s job. It’s not a perfect metaphor, but that’s sort of the idea of the High Priest that we get here in Hebrews chapter five.

He’s appointed among men to act on behalf of men in relation to God. So the High Priest is sort of the agent on behalf of humanity going to God, seeking to negotiate on behalf of human beings. That’s what the Old Testament priest Aaron did. The other priests in the Old Testament were negotiating with God on behalf of the Jewish people. That was sort of the idea. But they didn’t have much to offer in negotiation. In negotiations, you only win if you have some leverage. There’s nothing to offer there. Similarly, we don’t have much to offer. But Jesus is our great agent. He’s our advocate. 

He goes to the Father, and he advocates on our behalf. He negotiates with the Father. He says to the Father, This one, he’s mine. This one, she’s mine. So I want them to inherit all the good things that you have given me. Not because we deserve it, not because of what we have done, but what Christ has done on our behalf. 

If you were a first-century Jewish person, you would totally understand what this is talking about here. But if you’re here, if you’re not familiar with the Old Testament, there’s gonna be a brief look back. Most of us are familiar with the story of the Exodus. Many of us have seen the movie The Prince of Egypt. So the Jews are in Egypt under Egyptian tyranny. God sends Moses to rescue the people out of Egypt. They wander around the desert for several years. While they’re in the desert, God says to them, I’m going to come and dwell with you. 

I want you to experience the glory and joy, and the rest of my presence. So he brings them to the wilderness, and he tells them to come up a mountain. As you come up the mountain, I’m going to meet you there. You’re going to experience this incredible supernatural rest. But the people disobey God because of their disobedience, because of their fear, because of their guilt, because of their sin. They disobey and they do not come up the mountain. So God then sets up a structure where the priest could come up the mountain, experience God’s presence, and then go back to the people and bring what God had given him.

Moses is the first one. So Moses comes up the mountain, experiences the glory of God. In fact, in one instance, when he comes down the mountain, Moses is literally shining this supernatural shine coming off of him. God is saying to his people, I want you to experience my presence. But because of your disobedience, because of your fear, because of your sin, you can’t come up. So you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to come down to you. He begins to structure the people of Israel in such a way that his presence could come down to them. 

Of course, this is a foreshadowing of the cross. God saying, I want my people to be with me, but because of their sin, they cannot enter. Therefore, I will come down to them so that they can experience my presence. That happens, of course, in the person of Jesus Christ. Christ, the God man, the Son of God. Coming down, becoming a human being, living among us, making it possible for us to experience the presence of God. God wants to dwell with his people. He wants his people to experience the joy of his presence. 

However, he hates sin. He demands that sin be dealt with. So we can’t just waltz into the presence of God. I remember when I was a kid, I was terrible at wiping my shoes. I’d run around and do crazy stuff, and I’d run into the house, and I’d trek mud in. My mom would get so frustrated with me, and she’d be yelling. I remember she yelled at me once, Kenny, I love you, but I can’t stand that mud coming into my house. Not a perfect metaphor, but I think there’s a sentiment there that represents God.

God will say, I love you, but I hate the sin that you’re dragging around with you. And I refuse to have that spiritual mud, my presence. I’m repulsed by it, just like my mom was disgusted by the mud. God is disgusted by our sin. It makes him want to throw up, metaphorically speaking. And yet simultaneously, he is tender and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. God wants to dwell with his people, but he demands that sin be dealt with. 

 

The Old Covenant 

So he comes up with this elaborate priest system in the Old Testament to begin to deal with the sin of the people. God establishes this covenant, a very serious, sacred contract between Israel, the Jewish people, and God. Then God establishes one of those Jews, the first one being Aaron. You’re going to be the High Priest. There are going to be several priests. What the priest will do is they’re going to do various religious duties to sort of mediate this covenant between the Jews and God. They’re going to do all the religious duties. But there’s going to be one particular priest, a High Priest, starting with Aaron.

He’s going to do some really serious things. He’s the one who will represent God, represent the people to God. He will be the agent on behalf of humanity, looking to God. So God gives Moses this very detailed blueprint for how Aaron is supposed to behave, how he’s supposed to dress, and the rituals he’s supposed to perform. There’s this incredible Tabernacle, this very, very detailed, elaborate blueprint for how the Tabernacle was, where people would worship and sacrifice.

In the Tabernacle, there are the outer courts, then there are the inner courts. All the priests could go into the outer courts and the inner courts. Then in the center of the Tabernacle, was the Holy of Holies, where only the high priest could go in and only once per year. That’s where the presence of God dwelt. So they built this elaborate Tabernacle. The presence of God comes and dwells. Only once per year can the High Priest go into the Holy of Holies. For 1400 years, this has been the case. 

Anyone in the line of Aaron was a part of the tribe of Levi. So the High Priest had to be of the tribe of Levi. Whoever the High Priest was, once a year, would go into the Holy of Holies. He would experience the presence of God, the glory and the joy, and the rest that God has for his people. He would experience that. He would make a sacrifice for the sins of the people, and then he would exit.

This is the covenant that God establishes. So if you’re a Jewish person in the first century, reading the book of Hebrews, and you hear the writer of Hebrews say, Jesus is our great High
Priest, there’s all this imagery that starts flooding your mind. The Old Testament covenant had some great value to it. There’s still great value to the Old Covenant. We can look back and learn from and glean elements of it that can shape us as Christians today. But the Old Covenant was incredibly limited. The Old Covenant protected Israel from experiencing the wrath of God.

What God should have done to Israel is to cast them all into hell immediately. That would have been the righteous, right thing to do. That would have been perfectly appropriate. But the sacrificial priesthood system that God created protects them from God’s wrath. The wrath of God can be dealt with once per year. On the day of Yom Kippur, the Jewish holiday. It could be dealt with there. So it protected them from the wrath of God, but only for one year. They could never enter into God’s rest. They could never experience the presence of God.

If they went one year without making the sacrifice, then they would not be protected from the wrath of God. So the Old Covenant, while it was immensely valuable to them, was extremely limited. It only protected them from the wrath of God for a year. It never allowed them to enter into the presence of God. 

 

Jesus the Better High Priest

What we see in the book of Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews is saying, the New Covenant that Jesus established, oh, it’s far greater. It protects us from the wrath of God. Not for a year, but forever and ever and ever. It does more than just protect us from God. It actually ushers us into the glorious prayer presence and rest of God. So we, as Christians, will experience things that the Jews never had the opportunity to experience. 

Now, if you’re a Jewish person in the first century, a Jewish Christian reading the book of Hebrews, reading this, hearing this sermon, and you hear that Jesus is the High Priest. One of the immediate things that would stick out to you is, but wait a minute, the priest is supposed to be from the tribe of Levi. I mean, it’s a law that God gave us. The priest is supposed to be from the tribe of Levi. Jesus is from the tribe of Judah. That didn’t make sense. 

In fact, the tribe of Judah was the kingly tribe. That’s where the king came from. The priest came from the tribe of Levi, and they were never to intermingle. There was never to be a king who was a priest or a priest who was a king. That was absolutely forbidden. That was a capital crime. So if you’re a Jewish Christian living in the first century and you hear that Jesus is a great High Priest, you instantly will think to yourself, but he’s not a Levite. That doesn’t make sense. That doesn’t fit. 

The writer of Hebrews, over the next five and a half chapters, will begin to explain two things. One, he will begin to explain that the priesthood of Aaron, the Levitical priesthood, actually wasn’t that impressive. He’ll begin to explain that Jesus is a different kind of priest because he mediates a different type of covenant. He will say here, as you heard Leon read at the very end of the passage, you’ll say that Jesus is a priest in the order of Melchizedek. He’ll say, Jesus is not a priest the way Aaron was a priest. He’s a priest, the way Melchizedek was a priest. We will get to Melchizedek in just a few weeks. Today I have to skip him. It would be too long. 

That’s why Jordan Thomas, my friend, preached 10 sermons here. That’s why he did this. We’re gonna get to Melchizedek in just a few weeks. The writer of Hebrews will spend significant time talking about Melchizedek in chapters 7, 8, and 9. He’ll allude quite a bit. So we’ll come back to Melchizedek. But for our purposes this morning, the writer of Hebrews is simply pointing out that Aaron was a priest mediating an Old Covenant. 

You think that the Old Covenant is still potentially in play, but it’s been rendered obsolete. That covenant is not the covenant you actually want to follow. There is a newer covenant, a better covenant, because Aaron was good, but Jesus is better. That’s the theme of this sermon, of this book. Jesus is better. Whatever you think of that, no matter how good you thought that was, there is something better in store for you. Jesus is better. 

So we actually don’t want him to be like Aaron. We want him to be like someone else. By the way, there’s an example in the book of Genesis, this guy named Melchizedek, he’s actually the example that we will look to, and we’ll get to that in just a few weeks. One of the problems with Aaron as a High Priest and all of his lineage is that he’s a human being. So he actually has to do sacrifices for his own sin.

Every year, on the day of Yom Kippur, before he would enter into the Holy of Holies, he would have to make two sacrifices for his own sin. Then he would make two sacrifices for the sins of the people. Look at Hebrews 5, verse 3 says this, speaking of Aaron: 

“He is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins, just as he does for those of the people.”

Not only is Aaron sinful, but his sons are sinful as well. His sons are to be the ones who inherit the priestly duties. They administer in a way that offends God, so God strikes them dead. The Aaronic priesthood starts off on a really bad foot. The writer of Hebrews is going like that’s actually not the one we look to. There’s a different type of priesthood because we don’t want that kind of covenant. We have a better covenant.

Side note, side note, really important side note. Aaron’s sons decided to make sacrifices in the way they thought was best, rather than the way God told them. God had given them very specific instructions, very elaborate, very detailed, very nuanced. I mean, if you read through Exodus and Leviticus, there are these very particular instructions. God said, Do exactly what I have told you to do. These priests did mostly what God told them to do, but then they also did some other stuff because they simply thought they knew better than God. 

Christians, for you today, this is an incredible exhortation. God has given us some very specific instructions. Do what he tells you to do. Whether you understand it, whether you like it, or whether you think it’s necessary is irrelevant. Do what he tells you to do, because he has shown that he is a God that will not be messed with. He is loving, he is kind, he can sympathize, he is tender, and he is holy and righteous, and just. He demands obedience from his people.

So, since this priesthood from Aaron on is defective, it’s got incredible limitations to it. The writer of Hebrews is saying, Remember all those years where the priesthood seemed defective and limited? There’s someone else who’s come along who’s been appointed. Just as Aaron didn’t appoint himself, he was appointed by God, so Christ has been appointed to be a better type of priest. Look at verse five, he says this. 

“So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by Him. Who said to him, You are my son, today I have begotten you.” 

The writer of Hebrews is saying, Do you know who appointed Jesus to be that great High Priest? The same one who told him, You are my son. Which is a quote from Psalm 2, which we’ve already seen in Hebrews was a quote in chapter one. In chapter one, the writer of Hebrews quotes from Psalm 2 where God says to his son, You are my Son, today I have begotten you. So the writer of Hebrews is saying, listen, remember back in chapter one, God was the one who called Jesus his Son. That’s the one who appoints Jesus to be the great high priest. Jesus didn’t appoint himself. 

Then in verse six, it says this, and he says also in another place, 

“You are a priest after the order of Melchizedek.” 

This is a quote from Psalm 110. In Psalm 110, it’s a foreshadowing that there would be a greater priest, a greater priest than Aaron. The writer of Hebrews is saying, Remember that. Remember, a thousand years ago, in Psalm 110 when there was a prophecy about a greater priest that would be like Melchizedek, not like Aaron. He’s come. His name is Jesus.

Jesus is establishing a new covenant. This will lead us to great rest. It’s a covenant that does not merely protect us from the wrath of God temporarily, but it ushers us into the glory and joy of his rest forever. Then he gives us some additional insights into this, into the work of Jesus. Look at verse seven. Just a few verses left here says this:

“In the days of his flesh, (when Jesus was on earth,) Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death. And he was heard. Because of his reverence.” 

 

Obedience to God

Jesus prayed. The reason the Father hears him is because of his reverence. There’s a respect, there’s a healthy fear, a righteous fear of God that we ought to have. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. Being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. So Jesus offers up these prayers with loud cries and tears. There’s a passion, there’s a soul-filled lament and outcrying to God in his prayers. Although he was the Son, Jesus is the Son of God. He doesn’t rely on his sonship to accomplish the work that needs to be accomplished on our behalf.

He is willing to suffer. They are suffering, so I will suffer. I want to identify with them. I want to sympathize with them. He’s God. He could have commanded from the heavens all sorts of things, but he chose to come and be one of us. He gets us. And in verse nine, it says, 

“He became the source of eternal salvation. (For whom?) For all who obey.”

There’s this theme that keeps popping up about obedience throughout the book of Hebrews, and I mentioned this last week, but then we’re tempted to think, I must obey to earn my way into heaven. We want to be careful to push back on that idea. It’s not that we obey to earn our way to heaven. It’s those of us who genuinely believe we will want to obey. This is what Jesus says in John 14, verse 21. He says, 

“Whoever keeps my commandments, he is the one who loves me.” 

How do you know that you love God? It’s because you’re willing to obey him. That’s it. That’s how you know you love God. You’re willing to obey. You don’t obey to earn your salvation. Salvation is given to us as a free gift from God through Christ. But when we receive that, it causes us to want to obey. So, friends, I pause and ask you this. If you are not willing to obey, in fact, if you are willing to blatantly disobey, it’s fair for us to question whether or not you really love God. That’s a fair question to ask.

If you are not willing to obey Jesus, it might be a sign that you’re not really truly saved, that you’ve duped yourself. You think you’re headed for that rest, but you’re actually headed for judgment. That is a scary proposition. That is a scary reality, that there are people who think they’re headed for rest but are headed for judgment. If you hear the commands of Scripture and you’re willing to say to yourself, yeah, but I don’t think that’s necessary, or I don’t think that’s right, or I’m just going to ignore that. If you’re willing to do that, you’re in a dangerous place. Your soul is in a precarious place.

I would encourage you lovingly, I want to exhort you. Repent of that sin today, I beg of you. But for those of us who do seek to obey God daily, you’re not perfect. Maybe you blow it regularly. I know I do. But you genuinely do want to obey God. I’m genuinely striving to obey, to the best of my ability, even though I fail multiple times a day. If that’s you, then you’re headed for that rest. If you were to say, yeah, I really do trust the Bible. I believe it and I try to obey it, but I just fail so often. 

He would say to you, You’re one of mine. I remember your frame. I love you. I can sympathize with you. He doesn’t drop the hammer on you. For those of us who truly love him and demonstrate that through a willingness to obey him, that’s you. Then you’re headed for that great rest. Oh, and that will be a glorious day, friends, a glorious day. 

For those of us who genuinely believe in Christ, we have a great High Priest. We have an advocate, an agent, someone who goes to the Father and says, make sure he gets everything that we want him to have. Make sure she gets all the benefits of being in our family. Just like Aaron made sacrifices for ethnic Israel, Jesus makes sacrifices for spiritual Israel, Christians, the Church. But he accomplishes so much more, and it lasts forever. 

 

Closing: The Throne of Grace

Last thought this morning, I want to go back to chapter 4, verse 16. Let’s read it again because I think it’s such a helpful exhortation for us. We have this great High Priest, this great Jesus, the God man who loves us, who can sympathize with us, because we know that to be true. In verse 16, he tells us, 

“Let us with confidence draw near to the throne of grace.”

At the throne of grace, we will find mercy. At the throne of grace, we will find help. In our time of need. Church, in your greatest hardships, in your biggest weaknesses, in your darkest moments, when you blow it the most and you think, that’s it, I have now finally blown it so much where there’s no more forgiveness for me. In those moments, draw close to him with confidence. He will sympathize with you. 

Church, before the throne of God above, before that throne, we have a great High Priest. He forever lives and pleads for me and for you. We have this great High Priest who advocates for us, who sympathizes with us. Your name is graven on his hands. Your name is written on his heart. He was our sinless savior. Because the sinless Savior died, our sinful souls are counted free. Because of what Christ has done. No one can tell me, Kenny, depart from God’s presence. No one, no one, no tongue can bid me thence depart. Not because of what I’ve done, but because of what Christ has done on my behalf. 

 

Communion

That’s why we take communion every single week. Every single week, here at Horizon City, we come to the communion table. On the night that Jesus was betrayed, He grabbed some wine and some bread, and He established a New Covenant. Later that night, he would be arrested, he would be put on a sham trial, he would be brutally beaten, and he would die an unjust death. But he would take on the sins of the world. That night, through his death, through his suffering, he establishes a covenant that every week we pause to remember. 

A New Covenant, a better covenant, mediated by a better priest. On that night, he grabbed wine and bread, and he said, Tonight I establish this covenant for you. In just a moment, we’re gonna pass the baskets. We’re gonna take communion together in just a moment. If you are a believer here this morning, I want to invite you to take communion with us this morning. We’d love for you to remember Christ with us. But if you are here this morning, you are not a believer. If you would say, Kenny, I’m not 100% sure that I’m genuinely in on Jesus.

I would say, I’m glad you’re here this morning. I’d love to meet you and talk to you about what it means to follow Jesus. But this morning, if that’s you, I would ask you that when the baskets come, just let it pass. Communion is for Christians only. But don’t let the moment pass. Instead of taking communion with us, I implore you to take Christ for the first time this morning. Again, if you want to talk more about that, I’d love to have a conversation with you. But for those of us who follow Jesus, who love him, who seek to obey him, who know that he is our great High Priest, if that is you this morning, let’s pause and remember what he has done for us. 

If you’re new with us, we have two options. When the basket comes, we’ve got a little cup. It’s got juice and gluten-free bread. Then we have these little mini chalices. It’s got real wine and gluten-free bread. It’s got a little W on it. So, W is real wine, no W is juice. Grab whichever one is your preference, hold on to it, and then I’ll come up and lead us. He has established a new covenant. Let’s remember him together this morning. Leon and Daniel, brothers, come, let’s serve God’s people together.