Hebrews 7:11-28 - Jesus Is The Best High Priest

Well, welcome back to Tabernacle Talk, and it's been a good day here at Tabernacle. Had several people in the Lord's House this morning, and I got to preach a message.

Frankly, that was just an encouragement to me.

I don't know if it did anything for anybody else, but my blesser was blessed, and the Lord spoke to me, and just encouraged me in some ways that I needed to hear, and challenged me in some ways that I needed to hear.

So today, we are in Hebrews chapter 7, and we're looking at verses 11 through 28 today. We're now in the homestretch, so we've got at most 22 episodes that we were going to be doing in Hebrews.

It kind of mapped out my way through the book, and we are now, I believe, this is episode 12, or this might be episode 11. So we're right along that now second half of our work, and I'm really, really looking forward to today's episode.

We've been looking through, like, why Jesus? Why should these Jewish people from the first century, why should they follow the way of Christ when it was resulting in persecution against him?

Not just, like, from Rome or from the Greeks or from those people that they would expect to persecute them, but even from their fellow Jews.

That they were following Jesus because they felt like he was the Messiah that was promised, the son and heir of David, the offspring of the woman and the son of man from Daniel 7.

So they're just trying to follow God, and these people aren't getting it. And they've wondered because they've seen other people abandon Jesus and go back to Judaism. They've wondered, is that what we should be doing as well?

And the author of the Book of Hebrews has been challenging them in a bunch of ways. Don't turn your back on Jesus. He's the point of it all.

He is better than the angels, better than Moses. He's the final word and declaration of God. He is our great high priest.

He's a priest of the same sort as Melchizedek. And we learned about that last time, that he has his priesthood by the fact that God gave it to him. And it wasn't just that he was someone's family member, but he was one that deserved it.

And he is everlasting. And all those things that we're going to hear a little bit more about today, as the author specifically, not just looks at like Jesus in comparison with Melchizedek and the ways in which they're kind of similar.

Now he's looking at Jesus in comparison with the Levitical priesthood. So this was, you know, about a 1500 year old or so priesthood. These descendants of Levi and then the descendants of Aaron, that their whole job was offering sacrifices.

Only those descendants of Aaron could be the high priest. And that was handed down from father to son when they would die.

This was something that every aspect of worship in Israel revolved around, first the tabernacle and then later the temple with these priests. There was no like Jewish religion back then without the priests.

And so it was vitally important that people have a relationship, with the priests, they all of their like foods and tithes and gifts and all of that, that would be given to the priests to be used by the temple.

So they had a close interaction with the Levitical priesthood. And now the author of Hebrews is going to say, okay, you guys loved those priests, like they were a huge part of your walk and worship of the Lord.

But Jesus is even better than those priests. And we're going to find out why starting in verse number 11.

Now, if perfection came through the Levitical priesthood, for on the basis of it, the people received the law, that is, the priests were the ones, the Levitical priests were the ones that were teaching the people God's law and God's word.

But he says, if people could have become perfect through the Levitical priesthood, through hearing about the law, it says, what further need was there for another priest to appear, said to be according to the order of Melchizedek and not according to

the order of Aaron? He said, if God's design was that the Aaronic priesthood, the Levitical priesthood, if that was like the end-all be-all, then why did God, through David and Psalm 110, prophesy about a coming king slash priest who would be like

Melchizedek? Verse number 12, for when there is a change of the priesthood, there must be a change of law as well. You don't just like swap out the priesthood for no reason.

You don't switch out the priesthood and keep the exact same rules and regulations. Verse number 13, for the one these things are spoken about belonged to a different tribe. No one from it has served at the altar.

There was only one guy from the tribe of Judah that tried to sacrifice on the altar, and that was King, it's either Uzziah or Uzzah. I can't remember which one. Obviously, their names are very, very similar, but he got impatient.

He just thought that he was going to offer sacrifices when that was not what God had set up in the Old Testament under the old law with the old priesthood. And he was struck with leprosy as a result of his presumption.

So he says, the writer here says, no one from the tribe of Judah has served at the altar. Now, it is evident that our Lord came from Judah. Notice he says that Jesus is the Lord.

Jesus isn't some lesser God. He is given the exact same title as Yahweh from the Old Testament. That is the Lord.

So Jesus is God, full stop. Amen and Amen. Now, it is evident that our Lord came from Judah, and Moses said nothing about that tribe concerning priests.

So he's saying, there's a difference between the law of Moses and now this new law of Jesus. David prophesied there was going to be a new priestly order with one priest king there after the order of Melchizedek, and that is who Jesus is.

And so because there's a new priest, there's a new priesthood, there's going to be a new law, a new way of interacting with God.

Verse number 15, and this becomes clearer if another priest like Melchizedek appears, who did not become a priest based on a legal regulation about physical descent, but based on the power of an indestructible life.

For it's been testified, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. There, that's Psalm 110 and verse 4 again. So, the previous command, Moses' law, is annulled because it was weak and unprofitable for the law perfected nothing.

There was nothing in the Old Testament law that could change the Israelites from the inside out, and it couldn't make, you know, any Gentiles that wanted to follow the God of Israel, it couldn't change them.

It wouldn't bring what Moses would call in the Book of Deuteronomy the circumcision of the heart that Israel needed, not just like an outward physical circumcision that said, okay, this is what marks off the people of God.

Moses said the people of Israel need a change in their heart. It's that new heart that Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the prophets of the Old Testament, talked about often.

And so, he says, what was given to Moses through the law, that was to show us our need of Jesus. It was to tell us about who Jesus was and what it would be like. It would show us the righteousness of God, but it couldn't change anyone.

You can keep as many of the laws as you would want to, but it would not change you. It would not perfect you. Continuing in verse number 19, but a better hope is introduced through which we draw near to God.

Jesus is the better hope.

Now God's not looking at you going, okay, we've got these three feasts during the year, and you got to make sure that you're at each of these feasts, and you got to make sure that you're given this, like, you know, somewhere between 30% and 33% of

your annual income to the temple and to the priests and the Levites, and you got to make sure that you're giving these sacrifices at these times. These ones are thank offerings, and these ones are sacrifices for sin, and you got to make sure that you

are doing all of this. We have a better hope, and that better hope is Jesus, and we can draw nearer to God because of this better hope, because Jesus does perfect us.

I think of all the different times in Scripture where that promise of our maturing, our being made complete, the word is teleos, where that is promised to us.

My wife right now is going through the Book of James with the ladies in Women's Bible Study, and think of James 1 and verse number 2.

To consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you fall into various temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith produces endurance.

And endurance, and let endurance have its perfect work, so that you may be perfect, complete and entire in need of nothing.

I think of 1st Peter chapter 1, where Peter tells us the echoing admonition from the Old Testament, be ye holy for I am holy, that we are to be perfect even as our father in heaven is perfect. You might say, wow, I'm not there yet.

Yes, but praise God, one day you will be. That's the promise of Romans chapter 8, where we hear that who God has foreknown, he has predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, and those that he predestined, he justified, and those he just...

There's a whole list in there. Predestined, he called, he justified, he sanctified, and those he sanctified, he glorified.

And one day, every single person that has ever accepted Christ, everyone that has truly been born again, every single one of us will be perfect.

We will have reached a state where God has made us completely new, where he has given us that brand new heart, that the Holy Spirit has completed his work in us. I think of Philippians chapter 1 and verse number 6.

That says being confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. That there is no future for you.

If you are a child of God, there is no future for you, where you do not end up perfect, blameless and holy before your God and your Savior forever and ever to enjoy and worship and love Him and His people for all of eternity.

We've got a better hope and we can draw near to God because of this hope. In the Old Testament law, we couldn't go into the inner holy of holies. We couldn't enter into that holiest place where God's glory was hovering over the mercy seat.

We couldn't go there because we would die. That's what God told us. But now, Jesus is in there, and so we've got access to God because of the sacrifice of Christ.

Verse number 20. None of this happened without an oath. That is a promise, a solemn swearing.

He says, For others became priests without an oath, but he became a priest with an oath made by the one who said to him, The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever. God is the one who declared Jesus to be our priest.

That go between God and man. That Jesus is the one.

And he says, you know, earthly, God didn't swear to any other person that they were going to be a priest, but God swore to Jesus, to God the Son, our Messiah, Christ, he swore to him, you are a priest forever.

Come on, Jesus will never not be our interceder. He will never not stand before the Father, pleading the sacrifice of his blood. And that's not to say that the Father isn't absolutely like thrilled and on board with that.

But when the accuser would want to come before God and to accuse you and to accuse me and to say they do not deserve to be in your presence, don't you realize what they've done? Don't you realize what they've said?

Don't you realize what they've thought? How they've treated others? The words that come out of their mouth, the way that they have betrayed and not loved others, that our High Priest is a priest forever.

And his everlasting priesthood means that we've always got an advocate with the Father, that there is no one who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect because it is God, the Son, that justifies us.

And if Jesus gave his life for us, if the Father laid down the life of his Son for us, then who in the world is going to reject us? If God is for us, who can be against us? Praise the Lord.

Verse number 22, because of this oath, Jesus has also become the guarantee of a better covenant. Because there's a new priest in town that didn't come from the old law, there's also a new covenant, a new testament that we are experiencing.

Verse number 23, now many have become Levitical priests since they are prevented by death from remaining in office. He says, you know, you keep cycling through your priests in Judaism, because those Levitical priests, they're not everlasting.

They die eventually. And so they just keep getting new ones and new ones and new ones. Verse number 24, but because he, Jesus, remains forever, he holds his priesthood permanently.

Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, since he always lives to intercede for them. Man, okay, DC and CC, I love you guys. I know you guys mentioned a lot of the songs.

I got all sorts of songs. Some of my favorite songs of the world are on this truth. I think of, I serve a risen Savior.

He's in the world today. I know that he is living, no matter what men may say. I hear his hand of mercy.

I see his loving cheer. And just the time I need him, he's always near. He lives.

He lives. Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way.

He lives. He lives. Salvation to impart.

You ask me how I know he lives? He lives within my heart. I think about the song, God sent his son, they called him Jesus.

He came to love, heal and forgive. He bled and died to buy my pardon. And life is worth the living just because he lives.

Because he lives, I can face tomorrow. Because he lives, all fear is gone. Because I know he holds the future.

And life is worth the living just because he lives. Jesus is the one who ever lives to intercede for us.

Okay, we can have our hearts that condemn us, our consciences that accuse us because of the wrongs that we have done, the evil we really have committed. We can have people that point out the flaws in our life, and they are truthful.

And what we deserve for our sin is judgment and rejection and isolation from God.

But because Jesus already took all of that, for every unkind word that you've ever said, that you should be doomed to hell, for every time that you've cussed someone out, or you've said something gossipy, or you stabbed someone in the back, and you

should be separated from your Lord and your Creator forever in a pit of hell. Jesus took the penalty for your sin, and now he's the one going to God saying, Hey, forgiven, paid in full, loved eternally. There is no need for them to run far from you.

There's no need for them to be cast off. The price has been paid. There is redemption.

There is forgiveness. And it's accomplished through our High Priest. Verse 26, this is the kind of High Priest we need.

Holy. He always does what's right. He's never trying to take advantage of us.

He is a holy priest. He is an innocent priest. That is, he has never done anything wrong.

He never has ulterior motives. Everything that he does is pure. He's holy.

He's innocent. He is undefiled. He has never known sin and will never know sin.

He is the one who is separated from sinners. That is, he is not, you know, taking bribes from someone. He's not accidentally going to fall into some sin because he's been around the wrong people.

He's separate from sinners. And it says he is exalted above the heavens.

That the heavens during that time period was thought to be like, hey, that's where, you know, your angels, your demons, like those kinds of spiritual beings, that's where they live. They live in the heavens and Jesus is above that.

He is far and away more powerful and greater than anything else in this world. That's the kind of high priest that we need. Verse 27, he doesn't need to offer sacrifices every day as high priests do.

First for their own sins, then for those of the people. They were imperfect, so they had to fix themselves and then others every single day. It says he did this once for all time when he offered himself.

Jesus doesn't have to keep being re-crucified. There are some well-intentioned denominations or groups that would say, hey, every time you take the Lord's Supper, you are re-crucifying Jesus. That once again, Jesus is being sacrificed for your sin.

That cup and that bread, it becomes the body of Christ once more. And he purchases salvation or that sacrifice is given once again. Jesus died once for all time.

That's what the Bible says. That's what the Book of Hebrews tells us. He did this once for all time.

What Jesus accomplished on the cross, it doesn't need to be redone again and again. It is good enough to be done once for all time. And that's what scripture tells us.

Verse number 28. For the law appoints as high priest men who are weak, but the promise of the oath, the promise of God, which came after the law, appoints a son who has been perfected forever.

This in essence just says, human high priests, they're weak, they sin, they're not holy, they're not innocent, they're not separated from sinners, they're not higher than the heavens, but Jesus is all of these things.

And Jesus is the one perfectly equipped, made absolutely complete in every possible way as very God of gods, and he exists for us forever, to forgive and to love and to intercede for us. So, let's worship him.

Don't turn aside to your own way, like go again and again and again to the God who loves you and who gave his life for you. So much more could be said, but I love this passage of scripture.

I'm sure some of you could tell that even as we were going through, but I'm looking forward to continuing in chapter 8 with you tomorrow, and looking forward to that time.