Can you please turn to the letter to the Hebrews, Chapter 3?
Hebrews Chapter 3. We read from the first verse:
Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, even Jesus;
Who was faithful to Him that appointed Him, as also was Moses in all His house.
For He hath been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by so much as He that built the house hath more honor than the house.
For every house is builded by some one; but He that built all things is God.
And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken;
But Christ as a Son, over His house; whose house are we, if we hold fast our boldness and the glorying of our hope firm unto the end.
Maybe we will just read this portion for the time being.
On the Lord’s Day morning, we mentioned how, at one time, God shook the earth. God allowed Jerusalem to be destroyed, and He allowed the temple in Jerusalem to be completely demolished.
It was because God wanted to deliver His people—those Jewish believers—from the bondage of Judaism, that they might enter into the liberty of Christianity. Judaism, as a shadow, must pass away; and Christianity, as a reality, must come.
But to the Jewish believers at that time, unless there was such a great shaking, such a separation was impossible. They would like to have Christianity, but they would cling on to Judaism.
In a sense, today, as we find in Hebrews Chapter 12, the Word of God says, “Yet once more.” Once again, God will not only shake the earth, but He will shake the heaven. Everything that can be shaken must be shaken off, so that what remains is that which cannot be shaken.
Because we are to inherit a kingdom that cannot be shaken. To us today, it is not a matter of Judaism versus Christianity, as the shadow versus the reality. To us today, it is, shall we say, Christianity versus Christ—or Jewish Christianity versus pure Christianity, which is Christ.
God is doing this work of shaking throughout the world. God is taking away that shadow of Christianity, that which has made Christianity a system like Judaism.
In many places, God has taken away the place of worship from His people. They could not go to a place, to a building, to worship, so that they might worship God in spirit and truth.
God took away organization, system, rules, regulations, creed, and discipline, so that God’s people may enter into and experience the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
God takes away that exclusive priesthood, that professional ministry, so that His people may really enter into the universal priesthood of believers.
God takes away many earthly, material things, that His people may seek for the spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.
I believe we are living in such a time. God is delivering us from anything that is but shadow, that we may possess the reality.
As we mentioned on the Lord’s Day morning, before the sun arrives at its meridian, there is bound to be shadow somewhere. But when you have the full light, full revelation—and we find in Hebrews that the full revelation has come—then the shadow should disappear.
In the past, God spoke in many ways and in many parts through the prophets to our fathers; but at the end of these days, God has spoken in His Son. The full light has been given in the Son.
Because of that, there should not be any shadow in our experience, both individually and collectively. It is only when the sun goes down that you begin to have shadow again, and that is something we have to be guarded against.
In other words, God is bringing His people to the reality of Christ, because He is the only reality.
Now, in order that this may be possible, there is this exhortation: “Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus.”
We are called with a heavenly calling. We are partakers; we are to take part in the heavenly calling. Our calling is not an earthly calling; it is a heavenly calling.
We are called to set our hearts upon the things that are above, where our life is hid with Christ in God. We are called to be conformed to the image of God’s Son, Who is now in heaven. We are called to be that holy city that one day will descend from heaven.
Our calling is a heavenly calling. Now, how can we fulfill that heavenly calling? The word is, “Consider.”
We need to consider. You know, the word consider is more than just trying to think something over. The word consider means to set your heart upon something.
We are exhorted to set our hearts, not upon something, but upon Someone: Jesus. We are called to set our hearts upon Jesus as the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.
Before we consider our Lord Jesus as the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, in the first two chapters of the book of Hebrews the writer presents to us the Son—Who He is.
Before we can really appreciate what He is to us—our Apostle and our High Priest—we have to know Who He is. That is the reason why the first two chapters of Hebrews are devoted to this matter of Who He is.
He is the Son. You find in the first chapter the sevenfold glory of the Son.
First, He is established Heir of all things. Before God created all things, God had established His Son as Heir of all things. In other words, all things were created for Him.
God did not create all things and then, after He finished creating, begin to think, “Now, what are these things for? To whom should I give these things?” Not at all.
Before God created all things, He had a purpose and a will. That will was to make His Son Heir of all things, to inherit all things.
“Through Whom also He made the worlds.” After He had decided that He would make His Son the Heir of all things, then by His Son He made, He created, all things.
Third, being the effulgence of His glory and the very image of His substance. This Son is the outshining of His glory, the exact image of His substance.
God being Spirit, no one has ever seen God. But the Son is the outshining of God’s glory. He is the exact image of God’s substance, and He declares the Father.
Fourth, upholding all things by the word of His power. The Son was not only the One Who created all things—and without Him nothing existed—but after all things were created, how could they continue on?
They are upheld by the word of His power. Otherwise, the whole universe would disintegrate.
And then, number five: having made by Himself the purification of sins. Sin entered into this world and spoiled all things.
So the Father made His Son the purifier of all things. He came to bear in His body the sins of this world, and He reconciled all things to Himself by His precious blood.
He is not only the Creator, the Upholder, and the Heir; He is also the Redeemer, the Savior.
And then, number six: He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. After He had accomplished the work of redemption, He was made to sit at the right hand of the Most High, waiting for His enemies to become His footstool.
Finally, He is given a name better than the angels, a name that is above every name. At that name every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.
This is the sevenfold glory of the Son.
He is the Son of God. As the Son of God, of course He is better than the angels. He is far superior to the angels. Again, you find seven quotations from the Old Testament to prove this point.
The angels rank at the top of creation, but the Son is the Creator.
Yet He is not only the Son of God; He is also the Son of Man. That is why in Chapter 2 we see Him made a little lower than the angels.
So far as the work of creation is concerned, angels are higher than men, because angels are spirits. We have spirit, but we also have a body, and that body limits us in time and space.
But so far as the purpose of creation is concerned, man is higher than the angels, because God does not redeem angels, but redeems men. God does not give the world to come to angels, but to man to rule.
Our Lord Jesus, as the Son of Man, was made a little lower than the angels. Because we are people of flesh and blood, He also took part in flesh and blood. He was made as one of us.
Think of it. He, being God, emptied Himself, took upon Himself the form of a man, and being found in fashion as a man, He further humbled Himself and became obedient to the Father, even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.
As man, He tasted death for everything, and now He is crowned with glory and honor.
Here in the first two chapters, the writer tries to present to us Who the Son is. He is the Son of God, far above all; He is the Son of Man, Who became lower than the angels and tasted death for every man.
Now, having known Him as the Son, we are to consider what the Son is to us. We are told that He is the Apostle of our confession.
When we think of apostles, immediately we think of the twelve apostles as the first apostles. But not so. Before there were the twelve apostles, there was the Apostle of our confession.
Our Lord Jesus is the Apostle of our confession. In other words, He is the One Who was sent by God with a mandate. An apostle is someone who is sent on a mission with a mandate.
Our Lord Jesus, the Son of God, was sent into this world by His Father with a special mission to fulfill. He came into this world with a specific purpose and work to do.
What was His mission? We know that He has fulfilled His mission. He is faithful to the One Who sent Him.
The Bible uses two men to compare with Him, to serve as comparison as well as contrast: Moses and Joshua.
To the children of Israel, Moses was an apostle. Moses was sent by God to the Jewish people with a mandate, with a mission, with a work to do. Moses was highly honored by the children of Israel.
Joshua was another apostle to the Jewish people. He was sent by God to accomplish a certain work. The writer of Hebrews uses these two men, among the greatest apostles to the Jews, to compare with Christ.
What did Moses do as an apostle to the children of Israel? He was sent by God to deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt. They were slaves in Egypt. They were put to hard labor. They cried to God, and God sent Moses to deliver them.
Moses led them out of Egypt through the wilderness to Mount Sinai. When you read Exodus 19, you find that God said, “I have borne you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto Myself.”
It was actually God Who led them out. It was God Who brought them to Himself. God said, “If ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be Mine own possession from among all peoples.” He would make them a kingdom of priests.
After that, God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses. But while Moses was receiving the Ten Commandments on the mountain, you remember how the children of Israel were breaking the commandments on the plain.
The law was given because of transgressions. We were not able to keep the law, but through the law they came into the knowledge of sin.
At Mount Sinai, God gave to the children of Israel more than the Ten Commandments, the precepts, the statutes, and the ordinances. On the mountain, God gave Moses the pattern of the tabernacle.
God said, “I want to dwell among My people.” In order that He might dwell among His people, He commanded Moses to build Him a tabernacle. With that tabernacle, God was able to dwell among His people.
In other words, Moses was sent by God to the children of Israel, not merely to deliver them out of a situation. Deliverance was just a process.
God delivered them out in order that He might bring them to Himself and dwell among them. Moses’ work was to bring these people to God, that God might dwell among them. In other words, they might be the house of God.
That was Moses’ great work. The tabernacle is actually given more chapters than the giving of the law, because it was through the tabernacle that God was able to dwell among His people.
They broke the law, but by the tabernacle they were able to be restored to God, and God was able to dwell among them.
Moses was faithful in God’s house because he did everything according to what God said.
Moses was a great man. He learned everything while he was in Egypt, mighty in words and mighty in deeds. He was a great architect and a great builder.
Yet when God commanded him to build a tabernacle, what was a tabernacle compared with a pyramid? Moses could have built a pyramid, but God commanded him to build a tabernacle.
Moses was faithful to God because he obeyed God in everything. He made everything according to what God had commanded. He did not change any color, any shape, any design, or any material—not even a nail or a string.
He did everything according to what God had commanded, because this was to be God’s house. This was to represent the people, and God was to dwell among His people. Therefore Moses was faithful, following everything according to the pattern shown him on the mount.
But, of course, we know Moses failed. He failed to lead God’s people into Canaan. He himself could not enter into the promised land.
Moses was faithful in God’s house as a ministering servant, but Christ Jesus is faithful in God’s house to His Father as a Son over His house. That is the difference.
Moses is but a servant in God’s house, and how faithful he was. But Christ is the Son over God’s house. How much more glory He has!
The tabernacle that Moses built was but a shadow. But the house of God that our Lord Jesus builds is the reality.
Moses dealt with linen, gold, silver, and boards. It was temporary. It is gone. It is a shadow, and the shadow passes away.
Even with the tabernacle, you find that God eventually had to leave the people. God could not dwell among His people because His people were unfaithful to Him.
But our Lord Jesus is the Son Who builds the house, not with linen or gold or silver or boards, but with living stones, such as we are.
He is the Son Who builds living stones into God’s house, and this is the reality. This house of God is eternal. One day it will appear as the holy city, the New Jerusalem.
So far as our Lord Jesus is concerned, it is finished. On the cross He said, “It is finished.” He has been faithful to the Father. He has accomplished everything.
So far as God is concerned, the work of Christ is done. It is finished. You cannot add anything to it, nor can you take anything away from it.
Do you know? We are complete in Him. “For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and in Him ye are made full.”
So far as God is concerned, so far as the finished work of Christ is concerned, the house of God is already here. It just needs to be manifested. The holy city, the New Jerusalem, is already here. It is done.
But so far as we are concerned, you find in Hebrews Chapter 3 these words: “Christ as a Son over His house; whose house are we.”
We are His house. He built us into His house. When you look at His finished work, you find that the house is already built.
But then you find this word, if: “Whose house are we, if indeed we hold fast the boldness and the glorying of hope firm unto the end.”
Truth has two sides, or may we put it this way: there is the side of truth, and there is the side of experience.
Truth is something that God has done in Christ. That is true. Experience is something that the Holy Spirit is doing in us.
So far as truth is concerned, it is finished. You cannot add anything to it. It is done. It is finished.
But so far as experience is concerned, it is going to be finished. So far as truth is concerned, it is here, because there is no time and space to it. Spiritual reality is always now and here.
But so far as experience goes, there is a time factor and a space factor. We are going into it.
Christ as the Apostle, so far as His work is concerned, is already done. God has already accomplished it. But so far as our experience is concerned, now we are God’s house.
Yes, we are God’s house. There is the potential here. But whether this potential will become reality, there is an issue: “If indeed we hold fast the boldness and the glorying of hope firm unto the end.”
When we first come to the Lord Jesus, there is hope there: Christ in you, the hope of glory. When we first come to the Lord Jesus, we have the boldness and the glorying of hope. We know we are His, and He is ours.
We know that God’s will is that we be conformed to the image of His Son. But as we go on, sometimes we become a little discouraged. We wonder why we do not grow as we should.
Sometimes we find the going becomes a little too hard. We gradually lose our grip on the blessed hope. In other words, we begin to draw back and slip away.
But if we hold fast—hold fast—the boldness and the glorying of hope firm to the end, then we are God’s house indeed.
You are God’s house, but you will lose the experience of it if you lose your grip. Hold fast the boldness and the glorying of hope firm to the end.
In other words, let God finish this work in you. Do not slip away. He has begun a good work in you; let Him finish it. Actually, that is what it means.
Our Lord Jesus is doing the real work. Moses dealt with shadow, and even that shadow was so incomplete. But our Lord Jesus is dealing with reality.
So far as He is concerned, it is done. There is no reason why it should not be done. Everything is ready. Everything is prepared.
If it is not done, it is because we fail on our part, in our responsibility. He is well able. He Who calls us is faithful; He will perform it.
He has already prepared everything for the success of it. Therefore, we should not draw back, and we should not be at ease. We should press on to perfection.
Now, that is Moses. But then the Bible uses Joshua. Joshua is another apostle to the Jewish people. He was sent to lead a new generation into the promised land.
Did he succeed in his mission? Yes and no. He brought the people of God into Canaan. He broke the backbone of the enemies. He apportioned the land to the twelve tribes of Israel.
But the children of Israel failed to fully possess their possession. During the time of the judges, instead of fully possessing their possession, they did not even have rest.
They were supposed to rest in the promised land. Out of the unrest in Egypt, they should enter into rest in the promised land. But though they were in the promised land, they had no rest.
Again, their enemies oppressed them. They were restless. Joshua failed.
But Joshua was only dealing with shadow. What is physical is a shadow, and he failed.
Therefore, you find David, hundreds of years later, in the Psalms setting a day and saying, “To-day if ye shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” This shows that Joshua had not given them rest.
There remains, therefore, a Sabbath rest for the people of God.
Our Lord Jesus is the Apostle of our confession. He has given us rest. He has led us into the promised land.
Of course, our promised land is the unsearchable riches of Christ. He has led us into the promised land. By God, we are in Christ Jesus, and God has made Him wisdom unto us, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
Thank God, Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. We are in Christ Jesus, and we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.
He is the One Who gives us rest.
In Matthew Chapter 11, we are told:
Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
We labor, and we are heavy laden—laden with sin. But when we come to the Lord Jesus, He gives us rest, rest in our spirit. I believe we have all experienced this.
But His rest is more than that. He said:
Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
He has promised not only to give us rest in our spirits because the burden of sin is taken away; He has also promised us rest for our souls.
Even in our mind, even in our thoughts, even in our emotions, even in our will, we can enter into rest, just as He did.
What is rest? In Hebrews Chapter 4, we are told that rest is just like God’s rest. God rested after He had finished His work.
He worked for six days, and after the work of creation was finished, He rested on the seventh day and blessed that day. In other words, rest means the work is done; therefore, you rest.
But when sin entered into the world, God did not have rest. In John Chapter 5, the Lord Jesus said, “My Father worketh even until now, and I work.” There was no more rest, because the work had to be done.
But thank God, our Lord Jesus, on the cross, said, “It is finished.” It is finished. Because it is finished, there is rest, and we are called into that rest.
In other words, we are called to rest in His finished work.
Why do we still struggle and strive? Because we lose sight of His finished work. We strive and strive. We try our best to please God, and finally we cannot do it.
Why? Because we lose sight of the finished work of Christ. We have died in Him. We have been buried in Him. We have been raised from the dead with Him and in Him. It is no longer we who live, but Christ Who lives in us.
Dear brothers and sisters, the Lord said, “Just take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me.”
As our Lord Jesus took the yoke upon Him—the will of the Father—how meek and lowly He was in heart. There was no resistance, but full agreement and yielding to the Father. There was no struggle. That is rest.
There is harmony in Him with the Father. Even though He was Son, He learned obedience by the things which He suffered, and now He has become the Author of eternal salvation.
It is true that when we learn obedience, we have to suffer. That is true. Through suffering, we learn obedience. We draw upon His life, the life of obedience, as our life. That is the way we enter into rest.
There is no need for us to be striving and struggling all the time.
That is the reason why, in Hebrews Chapter 4, we are told that the Word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating and dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Dear brothers and sisters, we find that our soul is in confusion. We do not have rest. We often wonder whether this is the spirit or the soul, whether this is me or whether this is God.
We try to analyze ourselves. But all we need to do is lay ourselves on the altar like a sacrifice, and let Him use the living Word to make the division. That is all we need to do.
Joshua failed; our Lord Jesus has succeeded. He is the Apostle of our confession.
When you think of an apostle, you think of a work that one has been sent to do. Christ, as the Apostle of our confession, has finished the work completely. There is no more for us to do. It is all done.
All we need to do is this: “To-day if ye shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” In other words, mix faith with the word that we hear. Just believe.
He is the Apostle of our confession. He demands that we believe in Him. He demands that we accept the work that He has done. If we do, we enter into rest, and we become His house.
Of course, an apostle has another sense. In that sense, an apostle is a leader. You have that in Hebrews too.
He is the One Who opens the way for us. He blazes the way. He opens a new and living way for us behind the veil. He enters into it as a forerunner, and He invites us to follow Him.
That is an apostle. An apostle goes ahead and opens the way so that we may follow. He is a forerunner. He has entered behind the veil.
Now there is a Man in glory, and He is there to assure us that He will lead many sons into glory. That is an apostle, and that is what our Lord Jesus is.
Because of that, how we need to yield ourselves to His authority. We need to yield ourselves to His authority, to hear Him, and to follow Him with assurance of faith, knowing that He is already there and that He will bring us.
All these things are included in the meaning of considering Jesus, the Apostle of our confession. But He is not only the Apostle of our confession; He is the High Priest of our confession too.
As a matter of fact, the letter to the Hebrews devotes more to the high priesthood of our Lord Jesus than even to the apostleship of our Lord Jesus.
From Hebrews Chapter 4:14 to Chapter 10:18, all these passages are concerned with Jesus, the High Priest of our confession. The book of Hebrews is a book on the high priesthood of our Lord Jesus.
When our Lord Jesus was on earth, He was the Apostle of our confession. Now He is in heaven, and He is the High Priest of our confession.
His work on earth is apostolic in nature. His work in heaven is priestly in nature.
As an Apostle, He represents God. He is sent by God to men, so He represents God and presents God to men. As High Priest, He is taken from among men to represent men before God and to present men to God.
These are the twofold works of our Lord Jesus. The work of our Lord Jesus on earth is apostolic; the work of our Lord Jesus in heaven is priestly. You need Him as the Apostle of your confession, and you need Him as the High Priest of your confession.
What is a priest? What is the work of the high priest? In Hebrews Chapter 5:1, we read:
For every high priest, being taken from among men, is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.
A high priest is taken from among men and established for men in things relating to God, that he may offer gifts and sacrifices for men.
In Hebrews Chapter 8:3, we are told:
For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices.
The work of a high priest is to represent men and to present men to God. Therefore, he has to offer sacrifices for sin and gifts: sacrifices so that things may be made right, and gifts that God may be pleased.
One thing is important with a high priest, and that is sympathy. A high priest must be one who can sympathize.
Why? Because he is to represent men, and he is to present men to God.
All the high priests taken from among men, from the tribe of Levi, were sympathetic because they themselves were infirm and weak. So they could sympathize with weak people and offer sacrifices for them, as well as for themselves.
Now, our Lord Jesus, as the Son of God, knows. But knowing and sympathizing are different.
We know that toothache is very painful, but if you have never had toothache, you cannot sympathize with a person who has toothache. You may be a dentist because you have studied it and have knowledge of it, but if you have never had toothache, you cannot truly sympathize.
As God, He knows. Our Lord Jesus knows. But how can He sympathize with us? We being infirm, and He being strong, how can He sympathize with us?
Dear brothers and sisters, this is why He came to become a man. As God, He knows, but as man, He was tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
In other words, He overcame, but He could sympathize with us. He knew how we are tempted. He knew the struggle, because He had to cry with loud crying and tears, and He was heard by God.
He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. Therefore, we have a High Priest Who can sympathize with our infirmities.
You know, I remember once an elderly lady was to be baptized. Her faith was to be examined by the elders, and she was asked, “What is Jesus doing today in heaven?”
This elderly lady said, “Well, Jesus is standing there in heaven, looking down upon me, trying to find fault with me.”
But that is not what He is doing. In heaven, He is our great High Priest.
On the one hand, He is holy, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. But on the other hand, He is sympathetic, merciful, and the Lord of grace.
He is always ready to dispense grace for seasonable help. This is our High Priest. Our Lord Jesus is our High Priest.
Then you find a comparison made between Him and Aaron. Aaron was taken from among the children of Israel to be the high priest, with his sons.
But the order of Aaron cannot be compared with Christ as High Priest, because He was made High Priest after the order of Melchizedek.
We do not have time to go into the order of Melchizedek, but just to mention this: the order of Aaron takes men to be high priests, but the order of Melchizedek takes the Son to be High Priest.
The order of Aaron is instituted according to a weak and fleshly commandment, but the order of Melchizedek is constituted according to the power of an indissoluble life.
The order of Aaron changes because those priests do not live forever. The high priests change from time to time. But He is the Son Who lives forever and is able to save us to the uttermost.
What the order of Aaron offered was but a shadow. The blood of bulls and goats could never actually cleanse our sins. Instead, once a year, it reminded us of our sins.
But this High Priest offered Himself once for all. Aaron’s sons had to stand to minister, but He sat down, because it is finished.
He is the Mediator of a better covenant, the covenant of grace and not a covenant of law.
Dear brothers and sisters, do we know our Lord Jesus as the High Priest of our confession? I am afraid that, to most believers, we know something of our Lord Jesus as the Apostle of our confession.
Yes, He is our Apostle. But do we know Him as the High Priest of our confession? What is the difference?
As the Apostle of our confession, He has accomplished everything for us. It is finished. There is nothing lacking. Everything that will bring us into the full purpose of God, as the house of God, into rest, is all done.
But as the High Priest of our confession, He is to make it complete in each one of us. That is the high priesthood of our confession.
There, at the right hand of the Father, He is representing us, and He is presenting us to the Father. He is seeing to it that everything He has accomplished on earth shall be accomplished in us.
He is making intercession for us, ever living to make intercession for us. Do not think that He is merely praying for us—that is not all He does.
He is praying for us, supplying us, and supporting us with all that He has done.
How we need our Lord Jesus as our High Priest. As a matter of fact, if we do not have Him as our High Priest, we cannot live a day.
But somehow this is vague to us. When you think of the Lord Jesus as the High Priest of our confession, somehow it is vague. “Yes, He is there in heaven praying for us.” Praying for us—that is it.
I think probably it will help if we see His high priesthood in connection with the Holy Spirit. Then I think it will be clear.
The Holy Spirit was not given until He was glorified.
When our Lord Jesus finished all His work as an Apostle and ascended on high to be our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, God anointed Him as the High Priest of our confession.
The anointing came upon the Head—that is, upon Him—and the anointing began to flow down upon the body, even reaching the skirt of the garment. Do you see the picture? This is the high priesthood of our Lord Jesus.
How do we enter into the good of His high priesthood? We enter into the good of His high priesthood by the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
The Holy Spirit is able to convict us, to convince us, to reveal Christ to us, to succor us, and to help us. All these are the result of the high priesthood of our confession.
In other words, do not separate our High Priest in heaven from the Holy Spirit on earth.
That is the reason why you find the Holy Spirit is another Comforter, and He is our Advocate with the Father. The word advocate is the same word as comforter: Paraclete.
He is our Paraclete with the Father, and the Holy Spirit is the Paraclete in us.
It is because of His representing us and praying for us with the Father that the Holy Spirit is able to work in us and bring everything that He has done to us, to make it good in our lives.
This is the high priesthood of our Lord Jesus.
Now, if you see this, then you will realize that to know Jesus as the Apostle of our confession is not enough. Why? Because it can be objective. It can be merely objective truth.
You have to see Him as the High Priest of our confession. Then there is something subjective in our experience.
How we thank God that our Lord Jesus is living. He ever lives to make intercession for us.
On the basis of that, today we experience the manifold work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, both individually and collectively.
This is what the writer of Hebrews means: “Consider. Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus.”
If we know Him in these two aspects—Apostle and High Priest—then we are able to fulfill our heavenly calling.
We will be led into reality. We will not be playing with shadows. So may the Lord help us.
Shall we pray?
Our Heavenly Father, we do ask Thee to quicken Thy Word to us, that we may truly see Jesus, the Author, the Apostle, and the High Priest, the Finisher of our faith.
Lord, we need to know Thee more as the Apostle. We need to know more of what Thou hast done and accomplished, that we may learn to obey and to follow.
We need to know Thee more as the High Priest, that we may not harden our hearts, but let Thee work in us by Thy Spirit until Thy work is fully manifested, to the praise and glory of the Father.
So, Lord, we commit ourselves to Thee and Thy Word, and allow Thee to work it out.
In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.