Hebrews 5-7: Jesus' Ongoing Priestly Role

Sermon Outline

Text: Hebrews 7:23-28

Intro

Happy Father’s Day
As a father of 3 boys, myself, I wanted to extend a hearty thank you to all the fathers because you and I know that we don’t get enough thanks
For Mother’s Day, the family does homemade breakfast and handwritten cards
But for Father’s Day, you’re lucky if you get a tie with a label sticker–To: Day, From: Family
It’s understandable that mothers get a lot of appreciation because I liken them to tar
If kids are like ships, moms are like tar to waterproof the inside of the ships so that there are no leaks
Without moms, kids will sink, they won’t survive
But dads, we are like the sails–we provide the ships with direction
It’s a big responsibility as fathers to provide materially, to protect and most of all, to provide direction in life
My dad is in the audience
Growing up, I was shy, not very verbal
Whenever I got into a fight with someone at school, I had only one comeback–yeah, well my dad is smarter than your dad
That worked for a while in elementary school
It didn’t work in junior high – I started taking tae kwon do and from then on, I had to let my fists do the talking
My dad provided a lot of direction for me throughout my 40 years
To this day, he is still giving me advice in the form of Wall Street Journal and NY Times articles
Younger days, I read articles about academics and how the US is behind the rest of the world, esp. Asia
In college, he sent me articles about career and how to interview well
Now he sends me articles about child rearing and Christian faith
Thank you, dad

Congratulations to all of our graduates

If you graduated this year from Caltech or USC, please stand so that we can recognize you
You made it
Graduation is a momentous occasion
You passed one of the most difficult tests of your life thus far
What awaits for some of you is medical school, or masters programs or PhD programs or work in an ever competitive global market in a struggling economy
Then for some, onto the real tests of life–marriage and parenting
Life just keeps getting harder from here on out
I wish I had better news for you
Life is hard
On top of that, Christian life is hard
We are called to follow Jesus while denying ourselves and carrying a cross, to our death, if need be
On that note, let’s pray and ask for the Lord’s help [PRAY FOR FATHERS]

Yesterday, I was finding a spot to prepare for the sermon

I was biking up Oak Knoll from Huntington
That hill is steep
I started the incline and I forgot to change gears
It was about 90 degrees at the time
Sweating, breathing heavy, legs are burning
Halfway up, my chain slips off
And as I was putting the chain back on, I thought, this is such a good picture for life
Life is like a bike ride uphill on a hot summer day
You make up partway, like graduating from college, then it’s more uphill
Grad school, then work, then the real work of marriage and parenting
Along the way, your chain falls off or you get a flat tire
Someone gets sick or you get into an accident
Things happen in life that you are not prepared for at all
Life is hard, wouldn’t you agree?

If you’ve been with us the past few weeks, you also get some sense that Christian life is hard as well

In Heb 3, the author of Hebrews recalls the generation in Exodus under Moses who was led by God’s mighty hand out of slavery in Egypt
The most shocking thing we read about this generation is that they didn’t enter into God’s eternal rest, meaning, they were not saved
It’s hard to believe because this is the generation who witnessed incredible signs and wonders: the 10 Plagues, the miraculous parting of the Red Sea, manna falling from heaven, God’s glory manifest in a pillar of cloud and fire
Yet, they did not enter God’s rest
Why? The answer is given in Heb 3:10-13 [READ]
The Exodus generation under Moses could not enter God’s rest because they didn’t believe
We have to let this sink in
What do you mean they didn’t believe?
They witnessed the miraculous power and glory of God physically with their own eyes
With their own feet, they walked through the Red Sea with walls of water on either side
Yet they didn’t believe
This is not talking about intellectual belief
Heb 3:10 – the author is talking about belief in the heart – he writes of the Exodus generation – “they always go ASTRAY IN THEIR HEARTS.”
Saving faith always involves belief of the heart
Intellectual faith alone does not save
Just because you believe Jesus died for you and He rose again intellectually doesn’t guarantee your salvation
Even Satan believes that those things are true in his head but obviously intellectual belief is insufficient to save him
Life is hard enough and from reading this chapter, you get the sense that maintaining saving faith is near impossible
If this Exodus generation who witnessed God with their own eyes were not saved, what chance do we have?
Because of hardened, unbelieving hearts, they witnessed the activity of God in their midst, yet they failed to hear His voice
If eternal judgment was the fate of this generation, it seems like we don’t stand a chance

Today, I want to talk about our final salvation.

Not just initial salvation, not just the event years ago when you may have made a decision to accept Christ as a kid, but final salvation
How can you and I have any assurance that when we breathe our last breath, we’ll open our eyes and see Jesus?
I want to answer that question today

Before exploring Scripture for the answer to today’s question, I want to start by helping to understand the argument that the author of Hebrews is making

Simply put, in many different ways, the author is making the same one point over and over, that Jesus is awesome
It’s like the Lego Movie, everything is awesome…
That’s the only thing from the movie I remember
For the Christian, we should be singing–Jesus Christ is awesome
Not simply stating that Jesus is awesome as if it were an axiom like F=ma
Or saying it because it’s right or because you ought to say it
But singing “Jesus Christ is awesome” from the depths of our heart, joyfully, with deep conviction

It’s the difference between a die hard sports fan and a bandwagon fan

I’m a diehard Philly sports fan: Temple Owls bball, Sixers, Eagles, Phillies, Flyers
I admit that I am a bandwagon Lakers fan
This year the Lakers stunk
Because I wasn’t a true die hard fan, I became a Clippers fan because they’re doing much better
I’ll watch them once in a while because I can’t watch any Philly teams
I don’t act that way with teams I grew up watching
The Sixers were one of the worst teams, but I was singing in my heart, the Sixers are awesome…
Ask Jackie – a few years ago, through her work, we got front row tickets to the Clippers game against the Sixers
I had my Sixers jersey and I was screaming for the Sixers even though the Sixers were bad that year and the entire stadium was against me
I didn’t care because I am a die hard fan
The same goes for the Christian – we are die hard followers who shout, Jesus, you are awesome!
And we shout this not just once, but continually, every day until we meet Jesus face to face

How does the author of Hebrews build his argument that Jesus is indeed awesome?

By skillfully linking the Old Testament as well as the New Testament to the person of Jesus Christ
When I was in seminary, my OT professor was teaching us the book of Isaiah
His approach was to study Isaiah on its own merit and pretend that we didn’t know about the NT so that we wouldn’t be biased in our interpretations of the OT
I didn’t know any better so I thought, sounds good
Now I think, that approach was totally wrong
The author of Hebrews would strongly disagree because the whole point of this letter is to show the supremacy of Christ and how everything in the OT points forward to Jesus
If you are reading the OT and not seeing foreshadowings of Jesus or hearing echoes of Jesus, then your approach is wrong, the author of Hebrews would argue

Look at how the author skillfully links the OT to Jesus

In Heb 7, he mentions Melchizedek, an obscure character mentioned in Gen 14
Melchizedek – tsedeq means “righteousness” and he’s the king from Salem – shalom means of “peace”
So Melchizedek is both a priest of righteousness and a king of peace
And he appears before Abraham after a great military victory and Abraham gives him a tenth of his plunder to this kingly priest
This giving of a tenth indicates that Abraham somehow knew that Melchizedek was a priest
We don’t know much about Melchizedek except the fact that he has no known lineage
To be a priest, you had to be from the tribe of Levi, yet Abraham recognizes him as a priest, which is odd, because he couldn’t verify whether or not he was a Levite
And the author links this mysterious OT figure to Jesus, who is also a perfectly righteous high priest and a king of peace
Jesus is a priest in the order of Melchizedek also in the sense that he, too, was not a Levite
He was from the tribe of Judah and has a lineage that is partially known but that stretches to eternity past, before time began
Why does the author go through all of this?
To show that Melchizedek was a type or foreshadowing for Christ

The author makes another a link between the OT and Jesus in Heb 8

Heb 8:1-5
If you’re like me, sometimes you read Exodus or Leviticus and read about the tabernacle in all of its painstaking detail and you wonder, why is this in the Bible?
The answer is right here
The reason all of those details are recorded there is because the earthly tabernacle is a copy and shadow of the heaven tabernacle
On earth, only the priest could enter the Holy of Holies, the most sacred room of the tabernacle and this room was separated from the rest of the tabernacle by a thick curtain
He would enter only once a year on the Day of Atonement
And he would offer sins for the people
This is a copy and a shadow of what Jesus accomplished when he died on the cross
When Jesus died on the cross, one important detail that is recorded is the tearing of the curtain leading to the Holy of Holies in the temple
Just as His body was torn, the curtain that separately sinful humanity from God was torn
When Jesus died and resurrected, he conquered sin and death and entered the heavenly tabernacle and offered His own sinless life as a once for all sacrifice for sinful humanity
And because of this perfect sacrifice, we as children of God have the privilege to approach the throne of God with confidence

Why is the author trying so desperately to link the OT to Jesus Christ?

Because of his audience
The audience of this letter is Jewish converts to Christianity
The author is desperate to show the supremacy of Christ because these Jewish Christians are not seeing Jesus as they should
And as a result, they are not maturing properly
Heb 5:11-14
These believers should be mature by now, they should be eating solid food, but they are still spiritual infants drinking milk

Why are they not maturing properly?

The author explains the situation in Heb 6
Instead of holding onto Jesus because He alone is supremely awesome, they started to slide back into their Judaism
They heard the message of Christ and they were converted, but perhaps due to intense persecution or perhaps because they miss things from their old religion, they are being tempted to throw in the towel and abandon Christ and return to Judaism
This abandoning of Christ, the author expresses in Heb 6:6, is tantamount to recrucifying Christ
Jesus was crucified once for your sins
And by rejecting him, you are saying to Jesus, the first time wasn’t good enough so in essence, Jesus, I need you die for me a second time after I try out my old religious lifestyle and I discover a second time that religion cannot save me

Heb 6:7-8

The point the author is making here is that the rains fall indiscriminately
The rain falls both on good land and on bad land
Some rain falls on good land and produces good vegetation and fruit
But sometimes the rain falls on the pavement or the rocky path or bad land and nothing grows except maybe thorns and thistles
It’s not the rain’s fault
The fault lies with the land
If the land is good, there will be good fruit
If the land is bad, the rain can be super, mineral-rich Arrowhead spring water, yet nothing good is going to grow
It’s like the parable of the sower
There is nothing wrong with the seed
The problem lies with the soil
If the gospel falls on a rocky soil, even if the seed is perfectly healthy, it won’t bear fruit in a person’s life

Recall that the issue here is maturity, not whether or not someone is saved

These believers ought to have matured by now but they are not maturing properly
The author is not talking about those who used to have saving faith in Christ and now suddenly they stopped believing
How do we know this?
Because in Heb 6:9-12, he begins to praise them with a warning to not be lazy [READ]
The author is confident of the better things connected with true salvation
There is the fruit of salvation in the form of love for the saints
They are putting enough energy in loving others, but he advises them, now put that same diligence for the final realization of their hope
The author is obviously talking to these Jewish Christians as if they are actual, born again believers, immature but saved nonetheless
In case there is any doubt, he explains further in Heb 6:19 that our hope in salvation is like an immovable anchor, no one is going to move it, our salvation is safe and secure

Still, you may have your doubts about people who say, once saved, always saved

You might find it hard to believe when people say, no one can lose their salvation
Life is hard and spiritual life is impossible
Many times, our spiritual journey feels like riding uphill on the wrong gear
And when the chain breaks, you’re stuck
Many times, that’s when faith goes out the window
Or not just during hard times, but you bike down the wrong trail and you’re lost
And it feels like you are meandering through a forest and you have no idea where you’re going
We all go through times when we open the Bible and we’re just reading words on a paper
You agree with what you’re reading in your mind, but you don’t really believe in your heart
Yeah, Christ died for me, he rose, he loves me, yeah, the sky is blue, these are just trivial facts that don’t really impact your life
What do you do when you feel like a bandwagon Christian?
You say, “Jesus Christ is awesome” but he doesn’t really feel awesome in your heart?

When your heart is hardened, and when you doubt, what assurance can we have that we will reach final salvation?

The answer is in Heb 7:25-26
Jesus fulfilled part one of his priestly duty by offering himself as a once for all holy, innocent, undefiled sacrifice
But he hasn’t ceased being a priest for us
To this day, he continues his priestly duty by praying for us
His constant prayers for every one of us is the ONLY (and I repeat, ONLY) assurance that we have that you and I are going to cross the finish line unto final salvation

We read about a live example of Jesus’ intercessory prayer in Luke 22:31-34 [READ]

Jesus offers these words of warning and encouragement during the Passion Week, days before he was to be crucified
Luke 22:31 – Peter is singled out but the “you” there is plural
This means that Satan is always trying to sift every single one of us
We are like wheat in a jagged, mesh sieve and Satan is trying to sift us
Sifting wheat involves violent shaking through this jagged sieve
The wheat berry of the grain is violently torn apart from the the stalk and the chaff
The sifting process separates the valuable portion from the worthless portion
Likewise, Satan is trying to tear apart all believers
Satan is trying to tear you away from God
He wants your soul to be thrown away with the rest of the worthless things

When Peter heard this, he basically said, Jesus, you’re wrong

You don’t know me
I won’t deny you
I’m ready to die for you
But later that day, Peter would be proved wrong
He did deny him 3 times and he fled, like the rest

What was at the core of Peter’s denial?

Unbelief
He said with his lips that Jesus was worth dying for
He reasoned in his mind that he would die with Jesus
But when the testing came, his unbelief in his heart was revealed

We read about the events that transpired after Peter’s denial of Christ

And how depressed and dejected Peter was
I don’t know if Peter was more dejected about failing Jesus or failing himself
Because the resurrected Jesus appeared to Peter and the rest of the disciples
Jesus forgave them all for fleeing
But Peter couldn’t forgive himself
He was ready to throw in the towel and return to being a fisherman

Yet, why did Peter turn around?

Jesus came to him again in John 21 and asked him, Peter, do you love me?
3 times he asks, do you love me?
In other words, do you believe in me from your heart?
Do you trust me from your heart?
This is what love is
In that encounter, Peter is restored and Jesus’ prayer from Luke 22 is answered
Luke 22:32
When you have turned back – Jesus already knows that Peter is going to repent and turn back to Him

Without Jesus, Peter would have fallen away

No doubt about that
I’m certain of it
It’s shocking to think that Peter, the numero uno disciple, who lived with Jesus for 3 years could fall away
Just like it’s shocking to think that the entire Exodus generation would fall away in the wilderness
Satan would have successfully sifted Peter and he would successfully sift all of us except for one thing
Heb 7:25 – Jesus is interceding constantly for you and me
This is one of the most encouraging verses in all of Scripture
Our assurance for final salvation is completely anchored in the promise that Jesus is always praying for us
Without his prayers, you and I would never make it
If you are in Christ, let’s thank the Lord that you are on his prayer list
Jesus died 2000 years ago – he completed part 1 of his priestly duty
Now he is doing part 2 of his priestly duty – he’s praying for us

When I was a missionary in Tokyo, I didn’t know how to sky but the pastor I was serving with told me, don’t worry, I’ll be with you

So we went up and this mountain was the same one that Olympic skiers raced down during the Nagano Olympics
I didn’t know any better – it just looked like a mountain
No big deal
When we got to the top of the mountain, I saw the cliffs on either side of this narrow mountain and I said, okay, this is a big deal
Then, it started to blizzard
So much snow was coming down that you could barely see a few feet in front of you
Visibility was terrible
And the pastor looked at me and said, I got to go
What do you mean you have to go?
He said, I have stomach problems and he left
And I was stuck by myself, on top of the Nagano Olympic ski mountain with steep cliffs on either side, in a blizzard
And I barely knew how to ski
My method of stopping was to fall
The slope was so steep that I would have to go a few feet and then just fall to stop my momentum
Otherwise, I would fly off the cliff of the mountain
It took me like 2 hours to finally make it down

I share this story to make a point–Jesus will not leave you hanging

He doesn’t just save you and say, good luck, you’re on your own now
See you at the end of your life
If Jesus saved you, then He’s going to be with you every step of your life
Even when you think He’s gone, rest assured that He’s praying for you
We see from Peter’s example that Jesus’ prayers are powerful and effective
Many times, our prayers are weak and ineffective because we don’t even know what we should be praying for
And even when the prayer topic is clear, we don’t have the power to produce the results
But when Jesus prays, things happen
Lost sinners return home
Dejected followers turn back
Through Jesus’ prayer, people are saved, not just once, but every day until we reach the end

It’s like when I hold Elijah’s hands when crossing the street

Elijah has so much energy that he just wants to run across
He think’s he’s like mini-hulk and cars will just bounce off of him
So when I’m holding his hand, he lets go many times because he just wants to run
But even if he lets go, because my hand is stronger, Elijah will not be able to run into the street by himself and get hurt
He has to go where I go, when I go
It’s the same with salvation
If we are saved, we are in His hands
And His hands are stronger than our hands–thankfully, our Heavenly Abba has strong hands
Even when we let go and go astray and run out into harm’s way, the hands of God don’t budge
Jesus prayed near the end of his ministry to God, Father, I have not lost a single one that you have given me (John 18:9)

What confidence do we have that you and I are going to reach final salvation?

Through his prayers, Jesus is holding onto each one of us
And he won’t let go, he won’t lose any of us who are in Christ
Even now, He is praying for you
Without Him, we don’t stand a chance
Let’s thank Jesus for His faithfulness in prayer for us esp. in those moments when we are losing our faith in Him
Even when we let go of Him, He will never let go of us