Our Great High Priest makes us confident.

 

Sermon for Lent 1, March 9, 2025

Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Hebrews 4:14-16  ¹⁴Therefore, since we have a great high priest, who has gone through the heavens, namely, Jesus the Son of God, let us continue to hold on to our confession.  ¹⁵For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin.  ¹⁶So let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (EHV)

Our Great High Priest makes us confident.

Dear apprehensive friends,

            How do you calm the fears of terrified people?  That might seem like an odd question when a person considers to whom this letter was written, but the reality of it is that though the writer is addressing the fears of fellow Jews who were facing persecution, and perhaps family opposition, for believing in Jesus, he also addresses the fears that afflict all people to one point or another.

The letter to the Hebrews was written to encourage and instruct the people whom God had chosen to be His people, people chosen to follow the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, their patriarchs.  Believing in Jesus as their Savior should have come easy to them.  Becoming a follower and believer in Jesus should have progressed naturally from their former practices into Christianity.  But, as we all know, nothing is ever truly easy in our world.  There are oh so many temptations and threats that fight against our faith, and really, against God’s Word of promise.  On account of that, the writer explains the reasons that Our Great High Priest makes us confident.

The fear spoken of here is really the terror of entering God’s presence either to plead for help or finally to face judgment.  The Jews to whom the writer has addressed this letter, were familiar with the high priest interceding for the people on the annual Day of Atonement.  He likewise took the lead in asking God for whatever help and protection was needed.  This was long standing in their culture dating back to when the Children of Israel were struck with terror as God addressed them from Mount Sinai in the wilderness. (Exodus 20:19)  God’s awesome voice with its thunder, lightning, and smoke was too fearsome for the people to bear, so the Lord had appointed Aaron and his sons to be priests in the temple, offering sacrifices for sin and thanksgiving, and lifting up the prayers of the people.

Of course, Jesus came to be the end of all those Old Testament sacrifices, because He became the great sacrifice, once and for all for all mankind.  God’s Son entered our world to live the perfect righteousness we all need and then to die as God’s sacrificial Lamb to bear away all the sins of the world.  This is the Christian faith.  No more sacrifices are needed.  No one else needs to intercede for God’s people, because Jesus has made us right with God and opened heaven’s gate.  But, the era in which this letter was written was filled with great opposition to the Good News of all Jesus has done.  Powerful Jews opposed Christianity because they feared losing their authority and prestige.  The Romans had begun to oppose the teachings of Christ because they wanted to cling to their old pagan ideas. 

The Jewish converts felt torn between future safety and present security.  If they renounced Jesus and stayed in their previous Pharisaical ways, the rulers in Jerusalem would praise them.  If they rejected Christ, the Romans would consider them allies.  Yet, both of those groups offered no hope before the One true God.  For the unbeliever, there is no hope for the future.

You and I are likely to face similar pressures today, sometimes even from some fellow Christians.  Many people and denominations in our times have reverted to preaching law as the way to be Christian.  The Gospel gets forgotten in trying to compel people into good behavior. The promises of what Jesus has done for us slip to the wayside when the focus tends toward pharisaical use of the law.  Now, I am not saying that we shouldn’t teach the law, but the law never saves.  It only condemns as Paul teaches us when he writes, “No one will be declared righteous in his sight by works of the law, for through the law we become aware of sin.” (Romans 3:20)

Of course, our enemies are not other Christians but anyone who promotes a god or salvation apart from Jesus.  “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12)  These forces of evil are primarily those beings who lead people to trust in idols and false ideas about God.  The devil wants us to be afraid of God.  Satan knows that we will face God’s judgment, just as he has already been judged, convicted, and sentenced to eternal damnation.  That devil wants to steal us away from God’s love.  Therefore, the demonic powers want us to be afraid to seek God’s mercy and kindness, and they want us to be afraid to stand before Jesus on Judgment Day.

Nevertheless, the devil has been a liar since he deceived Adam and Eve.  Those forces of evil will never be on our side, because the most they could conjure up is jealousy of God’s grace and victory.  Thankfully, the Holy Spirit has given us this message of God’s grace to lead us to believe that Our Great High Priest makes us confident to approach Him for anything.

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest, who has gone through the heavens, namely, Jesus the Son of God, let us continue to hold on to our confession.”  Our High Priest isn’t some fellow sinner who must sacrifice a lamb or goat for his own sins before interceding for us.  Instead, our High Priest is the Son of God who came down to earth to live and die to rescue us from the deceiving kidnapper.  Furthermore, Jesus doesn’t go into the Holy of Holies at the temple to speak to God in our defense.  Rather, after dying on the cross in payment for our sins, Jesus was raised from the grave victorious over the devil and his wicked ways.  Then, alive and triumphant, Jesus ascended to heaven where He now lives and reigns with His Father forevermore.  “This Priest, after he offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God.  Since then he has been waiting until his enemies are made a footstool under his feet.  By only one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:12-14)  Because of Christ cleansing us of all sin, Our Great High Priest makes us confident to approach Him.

So, our High Priest is real and powerful, and all of creation has been put under His authority until the end of time.  That means, He will also judge us in the end.  For our sinful flesh, that news is and will always be terrifying.  That is why every pagan needs to devise some way to appease his conscience.  It’s why every other faith system relies on teaching people some moral code of ethics that must be followed to satisfy its deity.  However, Christ has already fulfilled all law in our place.  He has already carried the sins of the whole world in His suffering and death on the cross.  Therefore, the debt for every sin, of believer and unbeliever alike, has been paid by the blood of Jesus.

Now, how might you expect to be received by someone who paid all your debts?  Might he expect your gratitude, your service, and your trust?  Yes, to all of those things.  But be careful.  Jesus didn’t come into the world to give us new law.  Instead, He substituted Himself in our place so that we could be restored to the grace and peace in which God originally created mankind.  To do so, Jesus lived as one of us.  “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin.”  Jesus lived on this earth in the same conditions that have troubled people since Adam and Eve fell into sin.  He too had to face bullies and sinful brothers and sisters.  He too had live with liars, cheats, swindlers, and deviants.  Jesus had to face the same earthly illnesses, loss of friends, and trials we endure.  Plus, Jesus dealt with the devil’s temptations head on yet never once sinned against God nor man.

We read in the Gospels about a few temptations Jesus resisted while He spent forty days and nights in the wilderness after His baptism.  Yet, that in no way includes all the temptations Jesus faced on our behalf.  Every day of His life was an opportunity for Satan to try to find a moment of weakness in God’s Son.  Right up until the last moment of Jesus’ life when Jesus could declare boldly, “It is finished,” the devil had been at work trying to defeat the one Man who could live a holy life.  Therefore, because He has conquered all temptation for us, “Jesus knows our every weakness.”

Not only does Jesus know what we are going through in this life, whether that be temptations or trials, persecution or violent opposition, illness or danger, the loss of loved ones or our own end, Jesus has been there too, yet without any sin.  Furthermore, His righteous obedience and trust in His Father’s care are now credited to our accounts so that no matter what fault or sin the devil or this world might accuse us of has been laid on Jesus’ strong shoulders and paid for by His sacrifice for the world.  The accuser can no longer testify anything against God’s children for we have been washed clean in the water and Word of Baptism and welcomed into God’s everlasting love through faith in His Son, Jesus.

The writer then offers us everlasting comfort: “So let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”  To approach the throne of any ancient king would bring that ruler’s judgment upon the person.  If you were perceived as a threat or enemy, that would likely be your last day of life.  Here, we are reminded that Jesus has removed that fear for those who believe in Him.  As we approach the throne of God, either now or on Judgment Day, we are not approaching an angry or wary foe.  Instead, we come before God’s throne with a Brother ruling at His Father’s side for our benefit, a Brother who loves us with a love so strong that He was willing to bear our temptations, rejections, worries, and fears, and finally our sentence of death, so that we may live with Him in heaven forever in peace and unity and joy.

Your Savior proved His love for you with His willingness to live and die so that you have life and peace.  Thus, Our Great High Priest makes us confident to approach Him with any request for our good.  Jesus promised His disciples, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.  Until now you have not asked for anything in my name.  Ask, and you will receive, so that your joy may be made complete.” (John 16:23-24)

Therefore, dear friends, do not go about your days in this world being afraid of what God might do to you.  Don’t be afraid to lay before Him your worries and fears, your sins and faults, because Jesus paid the price for them all.  Furthermore, never be afraid of what the world, nor any opponent might do to you for Jesus’ sake, because we have a Brother interceding for us who has bought and paid for our redemption with His life and sacrifice.  Our Brother, Jesus, who has risen triumphant from the dead, already assured us, “In this world you are going to have trouble.  But be courageous!  I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)  “So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.” (Romans 14:8)

Therefore, we can be confident in any danger and when Judgement Day comes, as well, because this Savior, “The Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them, to meet the Lord in the air.  And so we will always be with the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)  Because Jesus lived, died, and rose again to make us righteous and acceptable to His Father in heaven for life everlasting, Our Great High Priest makes us confident in His love and His judgment.  Amen.

He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.  Amen.