1. "Sometimes you don't know you need help until you need it."

2. "It's amazing how good we can look at church on an Easter morning, when on the inside things feel all messed up."

3. "The King has become our brother. Our Judge is our Savior. He stretches out His hand to us in invitation. He knows every temptation we face and every need we have."

4. "God can pluck sense out of a confused prayer. Friends, we can go honestly to our heavenly Father through Christ. He's on our side. You don't need to sound as eloquently as someone does who's reading a prayer up front. Just go honestly and speak to Him. He's not there to disqualify your prayer."

5. "Don't have unkind thoughts of God when you think of coming to the throne of grace. You come to one whose love is corrupted by no sin. He was tempted but never succumbed. Satan continued his assaults, but he never obtained his goal. Jesus Christ is on your side, my friend."

6. "You're mistaking the Holy of Holies where the atonement is made on the mercy seat for a court of law where justice is handed out."

7. "Jesus, in fact, did not come to make God merciful. Jesus came because God is merciful. God sent his Son full of mercy, as he always has been."

8. "Brothers and sisters, if we have been dealt with so gently in our sins, shouldn't we be the same way with others?"

9. "Sometimes God is better served in weakness than in strength. If that's how God wants you to serve Him, do you still want to serve Him?"

10. "Without the empty tomb, the cross just becomes a question mark, or at the most, His becomes the desperate death of a martyr. But with the resurrection of Christ, His whole life and ministry take on new and wonderful meaning. The mysterious is revealed. The desperate is given hope."

Observation Questions

1. According to Hebrews 4:14, what two descriptions are given of Jesus that establish His credentials as our high priest, and what does the author say He has done?

2. In Hebrews 4:15, what does the text say our high priest is NOT unable to do, and what qualification is given about His experience with temptation?

3. What does Hebrews 4:16 instruct believers to do, and what two things does the verse say we will receive when we do this?

4. According to Hebrews 5:1-3, what is the high priest appointed to do on behalf of men, and why is he able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward?

5. In Hebrews 5:7, what did Jesus offer up "in the days of His flesh," and what was the result of His prayers?

6. According to Hebrews 5:8-9, what did Jesus learn through suffering, and what did He become as a result of being "made perfect"?

Interpretation Questions

1. The sermon emphasizes that Jesus was "tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sin" (4:15). How does Jesus' sinlessness actually increase rather than decrease His ability to sympathize with our weaknesses and help us in temptation?

2. Why does the author of Hebrews describe God's throne as a "throne of grace" rather than a throne of judgment, and what does this reveal about the nature of our access to God through Christ?

3. Hebrews 5:1-4 describes the characteristics of human high priests before explaining how Jesus fulfills this role. What is the significance of showing that even sinful, weak priests could deal gently with people, and how does this point forward to Christ?

4. The sermon explains that Jesus being "made perfect" (5:9) refers to the completion of His messianic work, not moral improvement. How does this understanding connect to the larger argument about why Jesus is qualified to be our source of eternal salvation?

5. What is the significance of Jesus being designated a high priest "after the order of Melchizedek" (5:6, 10) rather than after the order of Aaron, and how does this relate to the permanence and superiority of His priesthood?

Application Questions

1. The sermon describes how we can look good at church while feeling "all messed up" inside. What specific struggle or need are you currently hesitant to bring honestly to God in prayer, and what does this passage teach you about how Jesus will receive you when you come?

2. Hebrews 4:16 invites us to "draw near with confidence" to the throne of grace. What misconceptions about God—such as Him being harsh, critical, or distant—have hindered your prayer life, and how should this passage reshape your approach to prayer this week?

3. The sermon points out that if we have been dealt with gently by Christ in our sins, we should treat others the same way. Think of someone who has recently sinned against you or frustrated you—how might you respond to them this week in a way that reflects the gentleness Christ has shown you?

4. The passage shows that Jesus learned obedience through suffering (5:8). How does knowing that your High Priest experienced real suffering and fear change the way you approach a current difficulty or hardship in your life?

5. The sermon challenges us that "sometimes God is better served in weakness than in strength." In what area of your life are you striving for control, health, or success in a way that might need to be surrendered to God's purposes, even if His answer involves continued weakness or difficulty?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Hebrews 2:10-18 — This passage provides essential background for understanding how Jesus' incarnation and suffering qualified Him to be a merciful high priest who helps those being tempted.

2. Psalm 110:1-7 — This messianic psalm, quoted twice in the sermon passage, establishes Christ's dual role as King and eternal priest after the order of Melchizedek.

3. Genesis 14:17-20 — This brief account of Melchizedek blessing Abraham provides the Old Testament foundation for understanding the unique priesthood that Jesus fulfills.

4. Leviticus 16:1-22 — This passage describes the Day of Atonement rituals performed by the high priest, illustrating the sacrificial system that pointed forward to Christ's perfect and final sacrifice.

5. Romans 8:31-39 — This passage reinforces the sermon's theme that nothing can separate believers from God's love, and that Christ intercedes for us at God's right hand.

Sermon Main Topics

I. Sometimes You Don't Know You Need Help Until You Need It

II. How Do You Know You Can Find Help in Jesus? Because He's Been in Trouble Himself (Hebrews 4:14-16)

III. How Do You Know You Can Find Help in Jesus? Because the Whole Bible Shows Us That God Will Help Us (Hebrews 5:1-4)

IV. How Do You Know You Can Find Help in Jesus? Because That's the Whole Reason God Sent Jesus (Hebrews 5:5-10)

V. Come to the Throne of Grace in Your Time of Need

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Detailed Sermon Outline

Sometimes you don't know you need help until you need it.

Movies from cartoons to comedies to suspense to tragedies play on the audience realizing the need that the main character is about to have for help, even when he or she doesn't know it yet. The tension builds. The crisis breaks. So the coyote stops chasing the roadrunner, but only when he's already run off the cliff. The waiter realizes how much the hotel's guest wants a Waldorf salad, and he doesn't have the right ingredients for it.

The main suspect is hoping to escape the detective's attention and just about gets away with it, but the camera lets us know that the detective is actually behind the door the man is about to open. The ship seems fine, even making record time until one evening she scrapes against an iceberg. Sometimes you don't know you need help until you need it. That last example will perhaps bring to mind for many here, the fact that this weekend is the 110th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. The great liner was on its maiden voyage.

It was widely regarded as unsinkable, the safest passage then possible across the Atlantic. And then it encountered a field of icebergs in which one penetrated the seemingly impenetrable hull below the waterline, and more than 1,500 people lost their lives. Many have criticized the proprietors of the Titanic for not having enough lifeboats on board. In fact, they had the standard percentages. No ship provided lifeboats enough for everyone on board.

They were just for some passengers. While others were to wait on board for a rescuing vessel, the assumption was that any damage would be reparable and in the unthinkable situation of the ship sinking, it would happen slowly enough that all passengers could be rescued. The lifeboats were merely meant to transit from one ship to another. There was little thought that they would be needed at all. And certainly not by this ship.

But they were.

There's a passage about a maritime drama in the book of Acts.

Which depicts what mariners have long known, that the sea only looks calm, but it can turn to raging in just a moment. What looks safe from the shore can quickly turn terrifying on the ship. In Acts 27, Paul's final voyage to Rome is recounted by Luke. Beginning in Acts 27 verse 13, we read, Now when the south wind blew gently, Supposing that they had obtained their purpose, they were trying to reach a safe harbor on the island of Crete to winter there. They weighed anchor and sailed along Crete close to the shore.

But soon a tempestuous wind called the Northeasters struck down from the land. And when the ship was caught and could not face the wind, we gave way to it and were driven along. Running under the lee of a small island called Cauda, we managed with difficulty to secure the ship's both. After hoisting it up, they used supports to undergird the ship. This is almost certainly describing frapping, a practice where the crew would use ropes or bands that they had on board for just such times to go underneath the hull of the ship and then to pull it together extra tightly.

These are probably the supports that Luke mentions here in Acts.

Sometimes you don't know you need help until you need it.

I wonder if you're in that kind of situation this morning. Maybe something's going on in your life, a storm has suddenly come up, or maybe it's a long-running struggle with unmet desires or frustrated hopes at work or concerns about your health. Maybe the health of your spouse, maybe you feel like you're a mature Christian, but recently, somehow, you found yourself in a spiritual storm, or maybe a desert, or maybe even a crisis.

It's amazing how good we can look at church on an Easter morning, when on the inside things feel all messed up. If you're in that kind of desperate situation today, our study passage in the book of Hebrews has really good news for you. In fact, it's addressed to those, as it says in Hebrews chapter 4, verse 16, in time of need. So let's look at our passage together.

In Hebrews chapter 4, beginning verse 14 to chapter 5 verse 10, please turn there. You'll find it in the Bibles provided on page 1003. And if you don't have a Bible that you can read, feel free and take that one home from us as a gift from our church to you. We'll be referring to the text a lot, so it's probably good if you open it and leave it open. You'll be able to make your way through the sermon better that way.

The large numbers, if you're not used to looking at the Bible, are the chapter numbers. The smaller numbers are the verse numbers.

As you turn there, let me simply point out that it was the neediness of those he was writing to that seemed to prompt this author to write this letter. Maybe it was originally a sermon preached to them. The initial audience is a congregation, a church of Jewish Christians, some of whom, maybe many of whom, seemed to be considering throwing in the towel, spiritually speaking. The writer is showing them why they shouldn't do that.

In fact, the very kind of help they need in times of trial is exactly what they have in Christ. Let's listen to how he argues here. Chapter 4 beginning at verse 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. 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. 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.

For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins, He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this he's obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. And no one takes this honor for himself but only when called by God just as Aaron was. So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest but was appointed by him who said to him, you, are my son, today I have begotten you. As he says also in another place, you, are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. How do you know you can find help in Jesus? Three answers in our passage.

Number one, because he's been in trouble himself. That's chapter 4 verses 14 to 16, because he's been in trouble himself. Number two, Because the whole Bible shows us that God will help us. The whole Bible shows us that God will help us. That's chapter 5, verses 1 to 4.

And three, because that's the whole reason God sent Jesus. That's chapter 5, verses 5 to 10. Because that's the whole reason God sent Jesus. I pray as we study through this portion of God's Word, you will have confidence to draw near the throne of grace and so receive mercy and find grace to help you. So how do you know you can find help in Jesus?

First, because He's been in trouble Himself. And when I say He's been in trouble, I don't mean that Jesus was in a situation where He didn't know how it would turn out. I mean that He was in situations where He experienced as a true man real weakness and temptation, trouble. Look there again in chapter 4, verse 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 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. 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.

So you understand what the author is saying to these Christians here. We have, so we hold. See that have there in verse 14? Since we have such a one, he's saying, let us hold fast to him. Let us hold fast to what we believe about him.

Let's draw near to him in order to receive mercy and find grace to help us. Since we have such a priest, we should hold fast. This is the high priest he had described up in chapter 2 in verse 14. Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that He helps, but He helps the offspring of Abraham.

Therefore He had to be made like His brothers in every respect, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest, in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because He Himself has suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted. Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him. So he's saying here in chapter 4 and verse 15 that our kind of high priest is not the untempted, unsympathetic type. But he's the tempted and therefore sympathetic type.

Though he is a high priest, he is humble. He has lowered himself to sympathize with our weaknesses. So verse 16, Let us draw near to our high priest for grace. Brothers and sisters, what an attractive picture we have portraying Jesus Christ. Have you considered the blessing that we have been given in Christ, that we have such a high priest.

We have him, it says. In verse 14 there, did you notice that? It's not merely that this high priest exists, but we have him. Consider all the comfort there is in knowing that such a priest exists, yes, but even more that we are said to have him. And we have not merely a high priest, but we have a great high priest.

How great is He? Well, friends, in His power and His purposes, in His holiness and His goodness, in His wisdom and in His love, in His patience and in His kindness, in His faithfulness and His gentleness, in every way we have a great High Priest. He knows everything we want and everything we need, and he knows the difference.

The incarnation of our high priest continues on forever. Only now the Son is glorified and reigning on his throne of grace. This is why the author here in verse 14 exhorts us to hold fast our confession, that is, keep believing in Christ. Don't look for a better deal. There's not a better deal out there.

No, in 4:16 he says, Draw near the throne of grace with confidence. You can know the kind of reception that you'll meet with there. Verse 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. Our high priest, our intercessor, the one who represents us before the face of our heavenly Father, He is sympathetic. He has been tempted in every respect, and yet He has not sinned ever.

He is like us, except He has not sinned. Sometimes people wonder if the fact that Jesus is sinless means that He couldn't really have gone through what we've gone through.

But I have to tell you, if you think about it, you reflect on it, I don't think that's the case. If you think back to some temptation that you've resisted but then succumbed to, the writer is saying that Jesus has gone through temptation, but that where we've given up, he kept resisting until he had exhausted that temptation. It's like He found the full weight and measure of it. He went every round with it. He found its center and knows its limits.

The Son of God became one of us so that He can represent us, so that He can advocate for us as our Mediator, so that He can help us, so that we can be saved by His grace. So our writer concludes in this paragraph in chapter 4 verse 16, Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find help grace to help in time of need. Remember what we saw about Jesus Christ back in the first paragraph of this letter, back in chapter 1. He is the Son of God. He is appointed heir of all things through whom God created the world.

Chapter 1, verse 3, He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, that seating is His throne of grace, which is so called not because of any quality in the throne itself, but because of the gracious nature of the King who rules on it. And it is His graciousness that beckons us in our time of need to come and take of His mercy, take all that we need of His grace. Remember what we saw in our passage last week? In chapter 3, verse 14, We have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

Friend, to hold onto Christ is to receive mercy and find help. You realize that this is what we've been doing already today in our time together. So when we've been praying, we have been approaching the throne of grace. We've been drawing near with confidence. When I led us in prayer just a few minutes ago, Or perhaps you were praying silently in the time the piano was playing right before I came up here.

This is what I hope to do after the sermon and for those being baptized. It's what we hope to do when we gather again tonight. We bring our prayers to Jesus, the Son of God, who sits as the Messiah King, Great David's greater Son, and our representative, our Savior. And He pays attention. To each one of our prayers.

You realize we haven't come to the throne of judgment and critique, but to the throne of grace. I know we're on Capitol Hill, and I know this is a church filled with lawyers, but you understand that when you come to pray to God, he's not sitting there criticizing the grammar in your prayer. He's not trying to pick it apart. I love what Richard Sibbes said, God can pluck sense out of a confused prayer. Friends, we can go honestly to our heavenly Father through Christ.

He's on our side. You don't need to sound as eloquently as someone does who's reading a prayer up front. Just go honestly and speak to Him. He's not there to disqualify your prayer. Or maybe you feel like you're rusty at praying.

There was a period in your life when you used to pray well, you haven't for a while, so now really you don't quite feel up to it. Friend, come. Come to the throne of grace. He's not going to treat us harshly. Imagine a parent with a young child, and the young child begins to speak.

Can you imagine the parent correcting their grammar when they're forming their first words? And yet is that not like some harsh thoughts you may have of God when you consider, can I really pray? Should I really say what I'm thinking? What if I'm not very good at this? I'd rather the priest pray or the preacher pray or this Christian that I know who's very devout, I'd rather them pray, but I don't want to pray.

But here, this Let us draw near is said to all the Christians. Come, He's not going to throw out your prayer for the fault of the manner of the prayer or for fault in you. This is a throne of grace. Don't have unkind thoughts of God when you think of coming to the throne of grace. You come to one whose love is corrupted by no sin.

He was tempted but never succumbed. Satan continued his assaults, but he never obtained his goal. Jesus Christ is on your side, my friend. Maybe what hinders you is, as I say, the fear of faults you have in yourself. You know that God is perfectly holy and you know that you're not.

But, friend, you're mistaking the Holy of Holies where the atonement is made on the mercy seat for a court of law where justice is handed out. Surely finally the two will come together, but today we come to this throne not fundamentally as demanders of justice, though we can be certain that justice will be finally done. But because Jesus, the Son of God, is our Savior and He has taken the justice, the judgment which we have deserved, so that we can come openly seeking mercy and grace without shame. We must come here. If we would find mercy and grace, there's no other place we can find it.

There's no other place for sinners like you and me to go. But to a place where there would be mercy and grace. We shall be heard and we will receive mercy if we come in faith in Christ. Praise God that we have such a sympathetic High Priest. This has been a wonderful passage to meditate on this week.

I don't know if you do that practice. We give out the sermon card so you can tell what the passage is that's gonna be preached on Sunday. I try to use that every day in my quiet time. And this one has been so sweet to meditate on. This is why we praise Him as we do.

The King has become our brother. Our Judge is our Savior. He stretches out His hand to us in invitation. He understands every temptation we face and every need we have. He has been hungry.

He has been thirsty. He has been mocked. He has been betrayed. He has been lied about by others long before there were social media. He has had it happen in person.

He was rejected by his family. He was threatened physically by crowds. He was menaced by authorities, even with due process. And he suffered physically. He's been beaten.

He's been the victim of violence to the point of public torture.

And death. Friends, he not only fields for our suffering, but he himself has suffered. He knows what it's like, and he can offer real help to us. No one can approach God except through such a mediator, and there is no other. God made us to know him.

He made us all in his image. But we've all sinned against him. We've all done that which we should not do. And God, in His amazing forbearance and love, instead of rejecting us, He sent His only Son to be truly human and to live a life of perfect love and trust in His heavenly Father, as we should all have lived and have it. He did live, and He lived that life and then died on the cross, accepting the penalty for sins that he never committed, the sins that all of us have committed if we'll turn and trust in him.

He died as our substitute. And then God raised him from the dead. He ascended to his heavenly throne where he presented his sacrifice and began his messianic reign as great David's greater son. He calls us all now to turn from our sins and trust in him. That's what he calls you to do.

That's the good news for you this Sunday morning. That you can be forgiven of your sins and can have new life in him. You can find the help that you need. You can find mercy and grace in Jesus Christ. It doesn't have to be here at this church.

It has to be though in Jesus Christ. He is the one in whom you can find mercy. So don't fear to come to Christ. Don't be shy. He covers us with His goodness, with His grace, with His favor.

So come to Him while He rules in grace before that day passes and He comes again in judgment. So is this your time of need? If so, don't run from Jesus, but run to Him this morning. Find Him because He's been in trouble Himself. He knows how to help you.

How do you know you can find help in Jesus? A second reason, because the whole Bible shows us that God will help us. And what I mean by that is not to now go through the entire Old Testament and show you how God has always been helpful, but rather I'm simply picking out one of the main structures in the Old Testament which the writer of the Hebrews points to, the Levitical priesthood, and shows that the very thing which typifies the Old Testament, if you think about it, was not meant to keep us from God, but it was meant to help us. It was meant to draw us to God. You look at this paragraph at the beginning of chapter 5, the writer shows us how this image of Jesus as high priest is drawn on what God had done in the history of His people.

From the first high priest, Moses' brother-in-law, Aaron, down to the high priests who were still serving in the temple when this book was written. Look again at chapter 5, beginning there at verse 1.

For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this, he's obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins, just as he does for those of the people. And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. So a high priest is like this, the writer is saying.

He's describing a high priest for us. Every high priest acts on behalf of men, in particular regard to their sins, and that's why he offers gifts and sacrifices. Now these human high priests, he says, are gentle because they have weaknesses themselves. And unlike Jesus, their weaknesses included sin, their own sin. So we see in verse 3 that these human high priests offered sacrifices for their own sins along with those of others.

And these high priests are not self-designated, but God-designated. So the priest's concern is our sin against God, his teaching tools are his gifts and sacrifices, his method is gentleness, and his authorization is from God. You see, the writer is explaining here the role of high priest, as it is in the Old Testament, so that we can see how Christ then comes and inhabits that very role. That's what he's doing. He's explaining.

The Old Testament is filled with God's testimonies of salvation to his wayward people. He's always been a rescuing and redeeming God. And this comes to special focus in the Levitical priesthood of Israel, and especially in the high priest who would go annually into the Holy of Holies. Friends, do you realize the high priest doing that didn't make God merciful? Every year the high priest did that, he was showing God's mercy.

He was teaching something of the basis for God's mercy. So you realize if you're a casually religious person, and you've read your Bible some, maybe in your childhood home or in school growing up, and you have a vague impression that there is the Old Testament where God is pretty tough, And then Jesus comes along, he's a really good guy, and he kind of makes God more merciful.

If you keep reading your Bible, that's not the impression you'll have. You'll understand that Jesus, in fact, did not come to make God merciful. Jesus came because God is merciful. God sent his Son full of mercy, as he always has been. The God of the Bible has always been concerned about our sin.

He made us to reflect His own image and instead we've corrupted it and distorted it in everything from our drunkenness to our divisions and rivalries. Our sins needed not merely to be fixed, that is eliminated going forward, okay, okay, I can take care of this. But there's the reality of the sins we've all already committed. What about those? Those are real too.

Friends, our sins needed to be forgiven, and this could only be done through an atoning sacrifice, a sacrifice that would make atonement for those sins. But the obedience and sacrifice needed to be ours in some real sense, and that's why the eternal Son of God was made man. That's why he took upon him our nature. He shared with us our nature so he could be our representative.

And be mediator for us between us and God. The work of the priest was to reconcile God and man. And if human sinning priests were gentle with the ignorant and wayward, you know, when the Israelite would bring a sacrifice, not like chewing him out for the stupidness of committing the sin, but if the priest then took that and gently dealt with him and offered the sacrifice, how much more shall our High Priest be, whose own heart has never been darkened by sin? The imperfect gentleness of sinful priests points toward the perfect gentleness of the perfect priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. Friends, by such gracious reasoning, even imperfect people can show us Christ.

We can see what they're pointing to. Brothers and sisters, if we have been dealt with so gently in our sins, shouldn't we be the same way with others?

I wonder if anyone has sinned against you in this last week.

Maybe in the last couple of months. I wonder how you've dealt with them. Could they tell by how you dealt with them?

That you've been dealt with gently by Christ?

How could you better help them? The whole way the Levitical priesthood was set up, we can tell that God's concern was not just with you or me. He intended to make a whole people, a whole society, that would come to understand and reflect His holiness and His mercy. And friends, that's what Christian congregations do today. We are meant to reflect to be such a people marked by holiness and marked by mercy in our lives together, helping each other to draw near the throne of grace and to receive mercy and find grace there.

If you're here today and you know yourself to be one who is well described by this adjective of being ignorant about God and your sin, or about Christ and His sacrifice, then let me urge you to come to Christ. He is a willing teacher. He will patiently teach you about Himself. Talk to any of the pastors at the doors on the way out, we would be happy to try to help you. We actually have a copy today of a little booklet called Evidence for the Resurrection.

If you'd like to think more about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we'll happily give you copies of that on the way out if that would be of use to you. But I pray that your ignorance will end before your life does.

You are responsible for your ignorance in a way no one else is. Please let us know any way we can be of help to you in helping you be reconciled with God. The whole Bible, not just the New Testament, the whole Bible, including this Old Testament office of high priest, shows us that God has always been out to help us. This typifies this God. How do you know you can find help in Jesus?

One more answer, number three, because that's the whole reason God sent Jesus. Look again at the last paragraph in our passage, chapter 5, beginning at verse 5. Chapter 5, beginning at verse 5.

So also, Christ did not exalt Himself to be made a High Priest, but was appointed by Him who said to Him, 'You are My Son, today I have begotten you.' as He says also in another place, 'You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.' In the days of His flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Well, the writer is showing us that Jesus fit the expectations for a high priest. So for example, like Aaron, he was not self-designated.

God chose Aaron in Exodus 28, He tells Moses to set Aaron aside. So Jesus was not self-designated. And he quotes here two Psalms in which you very interestingly have, as one of the Psalms says, David's Lord being addressed by the Lord. And he is addressed in the second person. You.

So who's speaking? Who's saying I? Well, if you go back and read Psalm 2 and Psalm 110, the I at these particular points could be no one other than God the Father, speaking to God the Son. In verses 5 and 6 he cites Psalm 27, which we've already seen in chapter 1, and then Psalm 110:4. Back up in chapter 1, verse 5, and here in verse 5, we see this today being begotten, and that's referring to the Son's entering into His official messianic son of David, office, when he sits on his throne of grace at the right hand of the Majesty in high that is in heaven.

So in chapter 1 he was making the point that no angel had ever been begotten in this way. He was detailing how the angels are more excellent, or Christ is more excellent than Christ. Christ is more excellent than the angels. The angels were just mediating messengers, but Christ is the message. So like we saw in those earlier studies, this spring with the purification and sitting down up in chapter 1 verse 3, the inheriting the name, chapter 1 verse 4, this, Today I have begotten you.

It's not so much about the Son's eternal relationship with the Father, eternally begotten. Rather here, the Son's eternal relationship is not in view so much as His stepping into that official position of the divine human Son of Man, Son of David, Messiah, Deliverer. Here He is fulfilling the promise made to David that He could never fulfill as merely the Son of God, not incarnate. The only way he could be a descendant of David was to be incarnate. The only way he could receive all those messianic promises and represent us is by being truly man.

And this is referring to that time when he went through the earthly life and he died on the cross and was raised and ascended and presented his sacrifice to his heavenly Father. This is when the Son sat down at the Father's right hand, chapter 1 verse 3, having completed his work as the Messiah. So here in chapter 5, the author is simply beginning to make this comparison of Jesus with the earthly sacrificial system. Starts with the high priest. He'll keep this comparison going really for most of the book.

This is what's going on from chapters 5, really through most of chapter 10. And he is showing the superiority of the Son, not now to the angels or to Moses, but specifically to Aaron and to the Levitical priesthood. All those priests in the Old Testament. They're doing the same kind of thing, but they're just dim shadows of what he would do in reality. The angels were mediating messengers.

The priests were teachers, previews. But here he says, like quoting Psalm 110, he says here in verse 6, you, are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. This is another prophetic presentation of that time of what was then in the future, when Jesus would be called and appointed by God. Now he mentions Melchizedek and that's very unusual in the Bible because in the whole Old Testament Melchizedek is mentioned twice. He's mentioned once in Genesis 14 and it's so brief, I'll just read it to you, so you'll have everything he was working with.

Genesis 14, it's verse 17 to 20. 14:17-20. After his return from the defeat of Kedar, and the kings who were with him. The king of Sodom went out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh, that is the King's Valley. And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine.

He was priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said, Blessed be Abraham by God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand. And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. That's everything we have about Melchizedek, right there.

Now, David picks that up in Psalm 110, and he quotes that, and he alludes to it when he says, Today, today, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. So that Psalm 110 and the bit of Genesis is what the writer to the Hebrews is using when he mentions Melchizedek a few times. As he takes Melchizedek as another kind of priest to better represent what Jesus has done for us than even the priests of Aaron and the Levites. So Melchizedek, this king of Salem, that is righteousness, brought out bread and wine and the text said of him he was a priest of God Most High. He called down the blessings that God had for Abram.

He prophesied over him. Abram gave him a tenth of everything. He tithed, Abram tithed to this king priest. So whatever Melchizedek's priesthood is, it included royal priests whose office predated what the Lord set up through Moses in the wilderness and therefore it would not expire when the priestly ministry of the Levites came to an end. It was an older and therefore a longer lasting priesthood and this is the priesthood that Jesus has.

Even as Melchizedek had offered up effective prayers and supplications, so we see here in verse 7 that during his humiliation Jesus prayed and was heard. Look again at chapter 5 verse 7. In the days of His flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence. Christ's prayers were reverent, filled with godly fear and humble devotion to His heavenly Father. You remember He taught the disciples to pray, you, will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Early on in his ministry, he had taught them that in the Lord's Prayer. And then he prayed what he taught others to pray. When the cup of God's wrath was looming before him on the approaching cross, as we thought about just two nights ago, he reverently prayed in the garden that night before, Remove this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what you will. People sometimes look at that prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane and say, But his prayer wasn't answered.

I wonder if they're reading the same prayer I am. His prayer was answered. Yet not my will, but yours be done. That was his prayer, and that's what the Lord does. And in fact, he was heard even in regard to death, but not in avoiding death, but in his going through it, just like he went through temptation, but He wasn't captured by it.

So He went through death and came out through the resurrection and the ascension. We thought of it in chapter 4 verse 15, He was tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. So here in chapter 5 verse 8 we see the Son of God experienced suffering. Though Jesus didn't have sins of His own, He knew what it was like to bear sins, temptation and sins' punishment. Remember up in 218 we read, For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

He has experienced suffering. And the writer puts it very interestingly here in verse 8, Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. I think the suffering he's referring to is especially Golgotha, Gethsemane. It's all the suffering in his life, but it's especially focused there. But he didn't learn obedience in the sense of it was a fact that was unknown that he came to mentally know and be aware of, but rather he learned it in the sense of experience.

He hadn't experienced it yet, and then he came to experience it himself. It was in the sense of experience that he had. It was work that was not completed yet. Came to be completed as Jesus submitted to the will of the Father, even though it cost Him great physical pain. His prayer at Gethsemane suggests that He feared His approaching death and what courage He had to face it and go through it in reverent obedience to His Father's will.

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Oh, friend, if you are fearing today, come to Jesus. Pray to Him. He's truly man. He understands.

You don't need some other mediating saint to relate to. Come to Jesus. He's fully man, just as He has learned obedience in His humanity by obeying His earthly father and mother. He wasn't gathering new facts, but He was experiencing the lot of His fellow humans. In that sense, He learned experientially what He already knew mentally.

It's like the idea of in Hebrews 2:10 of his being made perfect through suffering. That is, he completed his messianic task by suffering. Christ is able to do this, to obey and truly learn because he's a man. As God, Christ didn't suffer. But as a man and on behalf of men, he was learning what obedience entailed.

Remember how Paul expressed it in Philippians, Philippians 2:8. That the Son was obedient until death, even death on a cross. So Christ in His humanity could change, even suffer, up to the point of dying, and so He did. He died for the sake of others. He showed what it was like to suffer, trusting the Lord through the whole thing.

He gained the knowledge of experience. So, I can know a lot about the 17th century Puritans. I could be a world expert on the 17th century Puritans. I could have a PhD from Cambridge and have taught there on the 17th century Puritans, and even publish a now out of print book on the 17th century Puritans. And yet, I promise you, if somehow in God's miraculous will I am transported back to Cambridge in 1610 and I live there for one hour, I will know far more about the 17th century Puritans than I could ever do merely by studying all the books in the world.

There's something we learn by experience. The Son of God became a man. He experienced humanity. Jesus had to learn this because of the mission that he was undertaking as the incarnate redeemer. As mediator, he is subordinate to the Father and obedient to him.

And when his mission was completed, he became, as it says here, the source of salvation for all who obey. And he was publicly designated a high priest at the order of Melchizedek. That's what the resurrection is about. And the ascension, the shape of Christian obedience, is the humble obedience that can pray for health and for power, and yet serve God with joy if he chooses instead to give us ill health, and sickness. Sometimes God is better served in weakness than in strength.

If that's how God wants you to serve Him, do you still want to serve Him?

On the cross, Jesus said, It is finished. Here in chapter 5 verse 9, the writer says, Jesus was finished. In the sense of His work being made perfect, that is, being completed. That is, He was crucified, dead, and buried, and on the third day He rose, ascended to His heavenly Father, and began His ruling and reigning session at the right hand of the majesty on high. From there He can save all who obey His gospel, that is, who truly believe His gospel.

And so God designated Him a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. A ruling and reigning King of righteousness who is also a priest, designated, that is by His ascension and is being seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, He has become our royal priest, our priestly King, the one who will both judge and save. Friend, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the fact without which you cannot understand Him.

If you're here today and you're uncertain about Christianity, let me promise you, it's a puzzle you will never complete without that peace. That peace, His resurrection, is what publicly identifies what God was doing uniquely in and with this man. Without the empty cross, the empty tomb rather, The cross just becomes a question mark, or at the most, His becomes the desperate death of a martyr. But with the resurrection of Christ, His whole life and ministry take on new and wonderful meaning. The mysterious is revealed.

The desperate is given hope. Even death itself begins to go down to its public and permanent defeat and suffering then. And then glory becomes the pattern for us too who would follow him. Suffering, then glory. Friend, will you come today with confidence to draw near to the throne of grace and so receive mercy and grace to help in time of need?

Let's pray.

Lord God, you know where each one of us stands with you. You know those ways that we are willing to celebrate the resurrection casually without understanding it at the very center of our lives. But we pray, Lord, that you would teach us today what it means that Christ has risen and that there is a throne of grace. And that we are called to come with confidence to that throne. Help each one of us to do that now, we pray, in Jesus' name.

Amen.