A Forgiving Priest

Text: Hebrews 5:1-10

Focus: Jesus the great High Priest

Function: To help the congregation understand grace better.

Form: Bible study

Intro:

In the movie “Schindler’s List,” Oscar Schindler is giving some of his philosophy of life to one of his friends and he says, “What every man needs is a clever accountant and a forgiving priest.”

Of course, he was Roman Catholic and the idea of a confessional was part of his religious practice.

And his reference is to a priest who proscribes little or no penance for his sins.

But I wrestle in my own life with the concept of “a forgiving priest.”

I don’t want to advocate an idea that we get a sort of “get out of jail free” card with respect to willful sinning.

But what happens to us when after we have accepted Jesus as Savior and made a promise to turn away from sin and then fall into temptation?

(SHOW) What happens when we sin?

I have met believers who have shrunk away in shame wondering why it didn’t work for them.

I have met believers who have become extremely legalistic, as if rules will keep them pure.

And I have met believers who have abandoned trying to be pure because the effort is just too hard.

Hopefully you know this verse (SHOW) 1 John 1:9: if we admit our sins—make a clean breast of them—he won't let us down; he'll be true to himself. He'll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing.

He will be true to Himself because we are now part of His body.

Even after we are saved, we still struggle with sin and the promise is, that if we admit it, He will first forgive us, and then begin working on delivering us from the foothold it has on us.

It isn’t easy.

Even pastors come to me and say, “Phil, I am really struggling with my thought life or an area of forgiveness or bitterness or some other temptation…” And I am thinking, “I should be coming to you. No matter how hard I try in my own effort, I fail.”

I am so glad this passage is in the bible, because it gives me the promise that even though God STILL has a lot of work to do in me, in us, He has established by His promises, by His word which is alive and active forgiveness when we fail.

But even then we have a hard time believing it. Most often, the difficulty comes because we think and expect better from ourselves.

So, the passage in Hebrews is here to prove how and why God does indeed forgive us.

Schindler didn’t need a forgiving priest, he already has one.

Let us look at (SHOW) Jesus, the great High Priest.

(SHOW –same slide) The Old Testament (human) High Priest was sympathetic to our sins.

• He understood the human condition and he forgave it.
• He was a sinner himself, so he needed grace.

And the author refers to Melchizidek. Melchizidek was the priest who Abraham went to after God helped him rescue his Nephew, Lot.

Look at (SHOW) Chapter 7: 1-3 This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, his name means "king of righteousness"; then also, "king of Salem" means "king of peace." Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever.

Jesus is likened unto a High Priest who existed way before the formation of the OT law.

He is described as (SHOW) King of Righteousness and King of Peace

• Righteousness is justification of our sins before God.
• The priest confessed and thus carried away our sins.
• There are divine similarities in both Melchizidek and Jesus.
• Melchizidek had no human Father or Mother.
• Jesus had no Human Father.
• They were not priests of the OT law, but they were priests of a covenant where people are saved by faith in the mercy of God.
• Melchizidek is an eternal being.
• Differences also exist:
• We don’t read that Melchizidek was sinless.
• We don’t read that Melchizidek offered his own life as a sacrifice for sins.
• I believe that Melchizidek was a Christophony.
• That is the term for when Jesus appeared in the Bible in a different form than Jesus the Nazarene.
• Jesus appeared to Abraham right before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The text says that 2 angels and the Lord appeared came to visit Abraham.
• The Lord returned to heaven and the angels went into the city to rescue Lot.
• When Shadrach, Meshach and Abendego were in the fiery furnace, The Son of God was with them.
• It was Jesus who appeared to Moses in the form of the burning bush.
• He appears later on in the book of Revelation as the Lamb of God who was slain and was now alive.
• There are many more instances.
• The author of Hebrews wants us to know that this relationship goes on.
• What does that mean for us?
• (SHOW) What does it mean that Jesus is the great High Priest?
• Well, let us look at Jesus specifically as the great High Priest and see how He is different than an earthly priest.
• An earthly priest has sin. Jesus didn’t
• He is similar to the authority of Melchizidek.
• Melchizidek was a priest before the law was given.
• Abraham was saved by his faith.
• Jesus saves us by faith, not our effort.
• The emphasis is that faith delivers us.
• Melchizidek was both the King of Righteousness and the King of Shalom, the King of Peace.
• A King is someone who controls something.
• This king controls both righteousness and peace.
• Righteousness and peace are not earthly kingdoms.
• Righteousness and peace are concepts, human subjects under the domain of a ruler.
• But He controls both righteousness and peace.
• It is different from the human high priest who goes into the holy place on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and begs forgiveness from sins on behalf of the people in the presence of God.
• He begs God to make peace with His people.
• Jesus, being the king of that realm has the authority to give both righteousness and peace.
• (SHOW) Righteousness and peace are not in our authority to give or to earn.
• (SHOW –same slide) Righteousness and peace come to us as a gift from the King of Peace.
• They come as a decree from God.
• And although righteousness and peace is not an earthly kingdom, it does have a human population.
• In a few weeks, when we get to chapter 12, we will see this more clearly.
• But for now, we understand that this is the Kingdom of God
• It rules in the HEARTS of humanity and it joins heaven to earth.
• Abraham submitted to Melchizidek as his own king because of his faith in God.
• Our king is Jesus.
• Our Priest saves and forgives us by faith, not by our works.
• We know this in our head, but it is important to remember this in the way we live our lives.
• Let me unwrap this a little more:
• We teach the two Kingdom theology here.
• (SHOW) We believe that brothers and sisters in the faith are first members of the Heavenly kingdom, the Kingdom of God and second members of whatever earthly kingdom we are citizens of.
• That is why churches have often been sanctuary.
• Because the church building, in that sense is the “embassy of heaven.”
• In that sense, I am heaven’s ambassador, and you are heavens diplomats.
• That doesn’t mean you have diplomatic immunity from the laws of the Land.
• But it does mean that our first allegiance is to God’s kingdom.
• I think that there was a lot of backlash against Christianity in the last election because it seems to me that we have forgot where our first allegiance lies.
• Politics, health care, Presidential elections, Bail-outs, stimulus packages: All these things are temporary, what we do here in our Worship service is eternal.
• (SHOW) The impact that we make in the lives of people can bring them into an eternal, saving relationship with Jesus Christ.
• We are all soldiers in that eternal army.

Now, let us try to understand what it means to be part of the Heavenly Kingdom. What has the King of Righteousness and the King of Peace purchased for us by the price of His own blood?

Have you ever asked God the question why He didn’t just stay in heaven and offer a blanket forgiveness for everyone’s sins?

Agnostics, scoffers and also, people who are sincerely searching as the question: “why this bloody sacrifice? Is God’s power and sovereignty so limited that He couldn’t just offer a pardon from heaven?”

Folks, the image of the cross is terrible.

It seems to me that there is a simple answer to that question in this passage.

(SHOW) We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who was tempted in every way that we were, but without sin.

There is no record of Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father beyond Jesus’ 12^th birthday. So He suffered the pain of the loss of his earthly father.

His childhood friend and cousin, John the Baptist, was murdered by an evil ruler. So He lost a good friend, at that time, he was probably the only person who understood His mission.

He was unjustly accused by hypocrites and condemned to death.

Even His own birth was shrouded in oppression and poverty.

In His most desperate hour, when He needed friends the most, they either fell asleep or abandoned Him.

His best friend Lazarus died.

No one got Him. He tried to preach, but He was alone. People just didn’t understand his perspective. He had to have felt alone.

The Bible says, tempted in every way.

(SHOW) Jesus understands…

So, He understood what it is to overcome lust.

He understands what it is to overcome the temptation to lie to make oneself look better.

He understands the temptation to listen to, and repeat gossip.

He understands the temptation to remain bitter at someone who has harmed you.

At one point, the Bible says that even His mother and brothers weren’t believing in Him.

He understands abandonment by family.

I don’t know if he ever suffered a cold, cut his finger, broke his arm while playing.

But Isaiah 53 states that His physical appearance was one that people would rather not look at. It implies that He was ugly.

He understood what if felt like to not be the last one called when choosing sides for a game.

He understood what if felt like to have people reject Him because He was not as good looking as someone else.

He experienced, in one way or another, every form of Human pain.

And, He offered a perfect sacrifice on our behalf.

He is a forgiving priest.

Have you received forgiveness from Him?