Sunday Gathering 10:00 am, Bur-Mil Park Clubhouse

Week Night Small Groups Office Phone: 378-0062

Sermon Outline

Hebrews 4:14-16 

Jesus Our Great High Priest 

(14) Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. (15) For 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. (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.

 
A. Remember the Theme of the Book – Access to God

B. From Warning to Comfort, from Exhortation to Encouragement

1. Remember the real life struggle and temptation of these Hebrew Christians.

2. And thus the need for warning, and the need for encouragement and comfort.

3. So, how does Jesus fit into this latter need?

4. And what does this have to do with access to God?

C. Jesus…..the Son of God….(Hebrews 4:14)

(14) Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

1. …..is our real and great high priest…

2. …..has passed through the heavens (and, as we have seen, has sat down at the right hand of the Father), to the throne of grace…(this corresponds to the holy of holies, the place above the mercy seat in the temple, where God’s presence and glory dwelt)

3. Jesus the captain of our souls has complete and total access to our Father!

D. So Let Us Hold Fast to Our Confession

1. Access to God depends upon “holding fast to our confession,” that is, believing in and clinging to Jesus Christ in all that He is.

2. Thus, to “fall back” or to neglect Him and his message is to forfeit access to God, since He is the only way in which that access can be gained.

E. But It Is So Hard Being Faithful and Resisting Temptation

1. Yes it is. Being a Christian faithfully over time until the end can be a hard path.

2. Many counter voices, temptations, and opposing worldviews tempt us off the path of exclusive reliance upon and belief in and loyalty to Jesus Christ. And there are so many competing definitions of the “abundant life.”

3. In the face of those we feel very weak, very vulnerable, very insecure. We are impacted by the pressure of others, by ostracism, by the pain of saying “no” to sin, by the refusal to ride along with the culture’s values. We as human beings are not immune to the pressures not to identify fully with Jesus as His disciples.

4. So, being faithful, staying true, resisting sin, can be very hard indeed, in light of our weaknesses and vulnerabilities.

F. But Jesus Our Great High Priest Understands This (Hebrews 4:15)

(15) For 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 si

1. Jesus is our High Priest.

a. This means that He represents us to the Father

b. This means that he ministers to us on behalf of the Father

c. We have continued access to the Father through Jesus

2. This Jesus, our great High Priest, is able to sympathize with our plight, with our weaknesses, and has been tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sin.

a. Jesus was tempted, even until the very end, to step off mission, to say “no” to the terrible fate that was before him. We cannot begin to know the extent of his temptation, or his sense of weakness and vulnerability in the face of it.

b. Only the person who has resisted temptation to the fullest knows its full extent. Jesus has done this. He has trusted in His Father in the face of the most terrible temptation imaginable, and remained true.

c. But wasn’t this because he was God? No, a thousand times, no!

d. It is in his full humanity as our high priest that he sympathizes with us.

e. But how could he really be tempted if he had no “sin nature”? Well, Adam and Eve had no sin nature either, and it didn’t stop them from sinning. We can’t blame our sin on our “sin nature.”

f. Whose encouragement and help do we want, one who has walked through the fire and come out the other side, or one ran back out the other way?

g. Or, to change images, if you are climbing a mountain, and all your strength is gone, and you want to give up, do you want encouragement from the top, from someone who climbed it, or from the bottom, from someone who gave up?

G. So Let Us Draw Near With Confidence (Hebrews 4:16)

(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.

1. Rather than shrinking back in double mindedness, let us press forward, in faith, and draw near in confidence (boldly) to God’s throne room, where Jesus is before the Father, so that through his intercession we may find the help and mercy we need in our need. Note the paradox of coming boldly for mercy.

2. We do not forget that this is a throne of grace. The God who dwells there is a God who both fully knows us and the depth of our sin and who has yet extended His grace to us.

3. This grace will uphold us and keep us all the way to glory. This grace will enable us to come to him in times of need, and also to know and explore and experience the full blessings of Life which He has poured out upon us.