We’ve had a wonderful time these days. The Lord’s been with us. Our brother has been sharing in the morning from the book of Revelation, on the key to Revelation, and I am sharing in the book of Hebrews in the evening.
I’d like for you to turn to that book tonight, to Hebrews Chapter 2. We’re going to read the whole of Chapter 2 as we begin.
For this reason, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard,
so that we do not drift away.For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable,
and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty,
how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?After it was at the first spoken through the Lord,
it was confirmed to us by those who heard.
God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders,
and by various miracles,
and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His will.For He did not subject to angels the world to come, concerning which we are speaking.
But one has testified somewhere, saying,What is man, that Thou remember him?
Or the Son of Man, that Thou art concerned about Him?
Thou hast made Him a little lower than the angels;
Thou hast crowned Him with glory and honor,
and hast appointed Him over the works of Thy hands;
Thou hast put all things in subjection under His feet.For in subjecting all things to Him, He left nothing that is not subject to Him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to Him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, and because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.
For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the Author of their salvation through sufferings.
For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying,
I will proclaim Thy name to My brethren,
in the midst of the congregation I will sing Thy praise.And again,
I will put My trust in Him.
And again,
Behold, I and the children whom God has given Me.
Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.
For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendants of Abraham. Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.
Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of your confession.
See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven.
And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying,
Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.
This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.
But I urge you, brethren, bear with this word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly.
Our Father, as we come to You tonight, we’re so thankful for Your precious Word before us. We know that whoever that apostolic writer was, he was obviously inspired of the Holy Spirit to pen these words direct from heaven. Even these warnings were not the prophecies of men, but indeed warnings from heaven.
And so, as we gather together tonight before Your Word, we want to hear Your voice beyond the voice of the speaker. We pray that the Holy Spirit would speak to our hearts and open up our understanding with a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, that we may enter in and press on to maturity, which is the only way forward.
We thank You, Lord, that You’ve gathered us for such a time to consider weighty matters. We ask for the help of the Holy Spirit in speaking, receiving, understanding, and obeying. Lord, we come to You in the precious and blessed name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
For anybody who has studied the book of Hebrews, you know that this is a mature book. It’s a book of strong exhortation. There is a phrase in Hebrews Chapter 6 that refers to strong exhortation, strong encouragement, and surely this whole letter to the Hebrews is such a word of strong encouragement.
As I have shared, the Lord is always faithful to send the strong word of encouragement before any great shaking. These Jewish Christians were Christians, but only halfway home—not all the way through. They were Christians, but living somewhat in the shadow of Jewish traditions. They were being warned from heaven: let go. Let go, and lay hold of Jesus as your all-sufficiency.
Because a shaking will come, and if you’re holding on to anything shakable, you will suffer. Hold on to the Lord. Hold on to the Lord.
Of course, we know historically exactly what this prophet said came to pass. What a strong word of exhortation.
You would be interested to know that every time there is this word in Hebrews—whether exhortation, encouragement, or warning—it is all the same word: paraclete, that same word we have for the Holy Spirit, which means “to be called alongside.”
It is as if the writer is saying, “I give you a word of a strong coming alongside of God to you.” That is what encouragement is: when One comes alongside of us. Even as the Holy Spirit has become our Paraclete, He comforts us.
In the original King James English, comfort meant to strengthen—from that word fort, to be fortified. Your Comforter was actually, first of all, your Strengthener, and secondarily, the One who gives you comfort, succor, and mercy when you have need.
This Holy Spirit, this Comforter—and we find here that the Word of God is also such a Strengthener. We need a faith that is strong and able to stand through the tests of the last days.
The first night, I simply tried to say by way of introduction that this is a book of strong exhortation, which exhorted the saints to leave behind those shadows, press on into maturity, and settle four issues that forever mark somebody who has moved on to maturity.
Number one, settle it: Jesus is God. Not just a good man, not just the Savior, Son of God—He is God, the Son of God.
When somebody finally deals with this, as these Jewish Christians sometimes were hesitant to do, when they recognize the divinity of the Lord Jesus, there is a freedom to move on and take Him as their all-sufficiency.
The second issue that needed to be settled was His sacrifice, His atonement, His perfect work. His finished work was one time for all. Once it was done, it does not need to be repeated. It covers every sin that you have committed and will commit.
It is once for all. You do not go back; you do not sacrifice again. Jesus did it one time, and we need to settle on that. Otherwise, Christians who have been forgiven fall into condemnation: “What do I do now that I have sinned again since believing in Jesus?”
That same finished work is still effective for us all through our lives, by His grace and mercy. This is an issue to be settled in our hearts, and it is that issue that usually brings one to that great moment of assurance of salvation, where the enemy can no longer convince them they are not saved, because they know that that work ever pleads our cause.
The third thing that we have to face is that once you’ve set out, there is no going back. The writer of Hebrews makes this clear, not only with his example of the children in the wilderness who wandered. There is only one way forward, and it is into the land of Canaan. You cannot go back. The Red Sea will not reopen and let you go back.
There is one way forward. It is the way of the Lord. It is the way seen so faithfully in Abraham. In Hebrews, it says he could have gone back if he wanted to, but he never wanted to because he sought a better country, even a heavenly home.
And so must we press on forward. There is no going back. Do not let the enemy talk you into backing into the world. You will never find a home again. It is only forward we can go.
The fourth thing that maturity causes us to settle the issue on is that there is coming a shaking. We will be shaken, and much of the outward, created things—our comforts, our positions, the things we have relied upon perhaps way too much—may be shaken right away from us.
Facing that fact, we need to ask the Lord to help us let go of those things, that we might press on and gain His best, even through a time of shaking.
We find, as we read in Hebrews Chapter 12, that even during the time of shaking there were some who were victorious. They were able to have grace and serve one another in a time of shaking. Now, that’s an overcomer.
Then, in our second session, we tried to show by the thirteen convincing references in the book of Hebrews that Jesus is, and has opened, the better way. This word is used by our writer some thirteen times. Some people believe fifteen, but the word superior is also used there.
In any case, the emphasis is on the fact that Jesus has opened a better way. Whatever was good in the system of Judaism has been obsolete. Is that a word? Oh, obsolete. Now it is. It has been obsolete because Jesus brought in the better way—with a better sacrifice, a better tabernacle, a better calling, a better priesthood, a better blood. Better, better, better, better, better.
He has brought in the better way. He has inaugurated this better way. And even more precious than that, Jesus Himself is God’s best. Not comparatively better—He is God’s best.
When we read this book, I wish I had a deeper voice and could read it a little more threateningly, that we might feel the ground tremor when we read the words. Those words are words of tremor, words that speak of dire circumstances and warnings ahead, mounting persecution that is sure.
But stronger than the words of warning come great encouragements, great and precious promises, great rewards promised to us, and a better portion all the way through. Which voice do we listen to?
All of this is part of that great encouragement. Yet this pressing on to maturity, however you read it in the book of Hebrews, is a very daunting thing. It is a fearful thing, frankly.
As we read at the end of Hebrews Chapter 12, we serve God with reverence and awe in the light of the truth of His Word. These things are grave.
We know that He is our Savior. We read there at the beginning of the book, at the end of Hebrews Chapter 1, Verse 3, this wonderful gospel reality which all of us as believers have laid hold of:
When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.
How wonderful that probably almost everybody in this room tonight has seen Jesus, who has gone to Calvary for you, died for your sins, raised again, sat up in glory at the right hand of the Majesty, and you have taken Him as your Savior. What a wonderful place that is.
But in this matter of pressing on to maturity, how do we do this? How do we get started? That is what I want to share tonight.
It is not in man to direct his steps, nor even to know how to enter into this pressing on to maturity. As much as we may have read the comparisons and all such things, how do we get started?
The Lord has provided, in His wisdom and in our exhorter here, the way into pressing on to maturity. What is that way? In a word, it is to look up.
Your heavenly calling is to look up. The first thing he does here in Chapter 2 is have us look up, look into heaven, and see the greatest surprise of heaven.
All the angels, the twenty-four elders, and the cherubim surrounding the throne are all surprised by Someone who is in heaven. There is a man in the glory.
That is a great surprise. Now, for you and me, it may be la-la-la because you’ve heard it before. But in heaven they stand in awe. How did a man ever make it through to glory, completely transformed and completely glorious?
Having gone down to earth as a man, having gone through the severest tests of history, having suffered and been tried—yet He lived a sinless life, and then He died for others. Now He is risen again, and He is at the right hand of the Majesty. There is a man in the glory.
This is how it all opens. We are looking around at man’s purpose, but we do not see anybody until we can say, “But we see Jesus.” There is a man in the glory. What a surprise. What a praise.
Yet wait—there is more than that. When you continue to look into heaven, you see the Father’s glorious plan. It says there in Hebrews Chapter 2, Verse 10:
For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the Author of their salvation through sufferings.
That is the Father. We see something glorious: the Father has had a plan since the beginning of time. His desire is to bring many sons to glory.
So He took His Son, and His Son came down and suffered in order to bring many sons to glory. Wait just a minute. Look up there in heaven just another minute and see: that’s you.
Have you ever seen yourself in the glory? Oh, you say, “That’s not me. That’s the Apostle Paul and Peter and some of those guys.” But no, it says here in this gospel that is proclaimed, He is bringing many sons to glory. That is the reason He came down and suffered for our sake.
If you look up there, you will see yourself in the glory. Ah, that changes a lot of things. What a wonderful thought that is.
Because you are saying the same thing that the readers who read this said—“No, no, no, this can’t be me”—the writer goes on quickly to say, “Therefore He is not ashamed to call you My brother.”
Now listen: you can say, “I’m not worthy to be Jesus’ brother,” but Jesus says, “Well, I don’t care about worthiness. By grace, you are worthy.” He is not ashamed. Now look at us.
We are ashamed of ourselves half the time. At least, we are ashamed of our children most of the time. When we are in the light of God, we are ashamed of our own actions. Yet here is a God who, in light of glory, says, “I am not ashamed of you.”
Furthermore, I am going to prove it, because I am going to descend, as it were, and come in among you while you are worshiping, and join in the worship of our Father together with you.
All of this is because of that vision there in the glory. It is only a heavenly vision of the glorious Son and your glorious destiny that will ever bring you into pressing on to maturity.
All the words of exhortation will not get you on the road. All the promises set before you like a carrot will not get you very far. All the warnings, all the rewards, all those things stacked up, will not get you on the road of pressing on to maturity.
But if you can just see the Christ of glory—one nanosecond, one flash of lightning’s worth—and see yourself in God’s plan, in that glory, it will change your whole life.
Someone asked me, “How can you ever pursue God’s best? How can you ever let go of earthly things? How can you ever live not in the shadows, but in that simplicity of life of pursuing the best thing and pursuing the Lord alone?”
I’ll tell you how: just see Him in the glory. See yourself in the glory, and watch what goes stripping away.
Hast thou seen Him, heard Him, known Him?
Is not thine a captive heart?
What is the basis of that captivity? Are you warned into it? Does somebody sort of strong-arm you into it? Well, of course not. One moment beholding Him in glory.
Now, I just want to make this note: it is all part of the same revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. There are many who have seen Him as the One who did the finished work in a perfect way and now sits at the right hand of the Father. They have actually not seen the Christ of glory.
But to understand His High Priestly work, to understand His apostolic work among us today, you must see the Christ of glory. There is a man in the glory. There is a man in the glory.
If you do not catch the significance of that, then how do we press forward? There is a man in the glory. This is part of our heavenly vision.
Our heavenly vision is not merely a vision of the glorified Man up there, the Son of Man, even Jesus. The heavenly vision is seeing ourselves in there somehow.
When you see yourself in glory as God purposed you to be, I am not saying you are going to see yourself with a halo and angel wings—you know, a nice slim white beard. No, no, no, no.
But when you see the Christ of glory, you see yourself in the Christ of glory. Your life changes.
What could be simpler? In a second, your motives begin to be changed. You get spoiled for things that you once thought were important. They are no longer that important to you.
Your sense of service is no longer, “I’ve got to go. I’ve got to go to the meeting today, and I’ve got to speak. Well, I better come up with something. Let’s see. I’ve got to teach the kids—those crummy kids; I’d like to smack them around.”
No. You find that whatever your level of service, whatever the Lord has called you to do, there is glory in it. There is a very important reason why you are doing it. Service is glorious. Your calling is heavenly. It is glorious.
This is a tremendous thing. It lifts all that which is mundane and all that which is earthy in the church and in your Christian life. You realize that when you go before the Lord in the morning and read your Word, it is a moment of glory.
We need to be refreshed in this. Even for those who have seen these things, how quickly they slip away.
Our whole lives are changed in a moment of glory. Paul only saw a flash; it changed his whole life. Isaiah only saw a moment; it changed his whole life. Job only saw a moment; it changed his whole life. Abraham only saw a moment; it changed his whole life.
Abraham walked on higher ground. Abraham had higher pursuits. Abraham learned how to walk in a higher way. His family became more important. What he did became more important. The victories were more important. What he prayed and asked for became more important—everything, because he saw himself in the glory.
And so the writer here very simply says:
Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus.
What our dear brother is suggesting is that, whether you have seen this Christ of glory or not, if you will fasten your eyes upon Jesus—even get on your knees and fasten your eyes upon Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession—and ask Him, “Lord, I live such a mundane life. I am held down by so many earthly things. Even my service to You is earthbound. Even my mind and its workings are so natural.”
“Can I just see a moment of glory and see what the end is, what it is all about, and why I have been saved?” If you just get there with an honest heart, there is a Spirit that sends wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, a Spirit given to the church for those who seek and are hungry.
If you do not care, you get nothing. If you are just going to glide, you will not see either the Christ in glory or yourself in glory. But for those who see, there is a pressing on to maturity.
“Consider.” This English word consider is much too weak. Will you behold Jesus? Will you gaze on Him? Will you consider Him thoroughly? That is the closest to the Greek that I have been able to find: consider Him thoroughly.
Consider Him until some light dawns, that this whole business about Jesus is not something dead. It is not just something theological, but there is something living there. There is a man in the glory.
The angels see it. They are all aflutter. It would be a shame if we, who are destined to be many sons in glory, do not even see what we are about. We do not even see the destination and end because we have not seen this wondrous sight.
Perhaps we beat a dead horse by saying we need heavenly vision. But honestly, when you see the lives of people, you can almost see those who have caught on to something.
It does not matter how rough you are. It does not matter how sorely tempted. It does not matter when you came out of the gutter. It does not matter whether your education was high or low. None of that stuff matters.
The Lord has saved and shown His glory to some very coarse individuals. But my, what a transformation began in their lives. When you think of a fellow like D. L. Moody, he could hardly read and write when the Lord captured him. Yet his heart was so full by the end of his days that he could just stand up in an auditorium and people would get saved.
It does not take an education. It does not take some kind of special ability. It does not matter whether you are rough or smooth. When you see the Christ of glory, something changes in your life. Something hooks into your heart, and it begins to pull you toward maturity and toward the Lord.
How could we ever press on to maturity? We hardly know the way. We do not know what we are doing. But when we are so struck by this heavenly vision, we start on the way even when we do not want to be on the way.
It is true: a vision of glory does undo you. It is an undoing. But would you rather be undone by glory or undone by this world shaking?
If we are undone by glory, and the Lord releases those idols that we held onto until we saw Him anew—saw Him, heard Him—then when whatever shaking comes, He is more than adequate for you, because you have held onto that which is best.
So if we need to be undone by glory, then we need to be undone by glory. May our assemblies be undone with a good shaking and then a scene of glory, and us as individuals as well.
This is an upward way. What does this mean, “partakers of a heavenly calling”? It is hard to define. There are some translations that say our calling is up to heaven. That is not it. This is partakers of a heavenly calling.
All I can say is, if you see the Man in the glory and you see yourself in the glory, you find you are already a partaker. There is something causing you to rise. There is something renewing your mind.
If you will consecrate yourself and say, “Oh, Lord, I have seen something I do not even understand, but I want to live on that higher plane,” the Lord is so gracious. He lays hold of us, and we find a wonderful thing.
Here it is. In Chapter 2, Hebrews opens with that wonderful part of Psalm 8:
What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?
Thou hast made him a little lower than angels,
and hast crowned him with dominion,
and brought all things in subjection.
Then the writer says, “We do not see that yet.” So you can take all the failures of mankind, falling short of the glory of God; add to that all the failures of churches and assemblies in falling short of a glorious church; and add to that our own personal lives of weakness, frailty, and failure.
You can add that whole bunch together, and then right over the top of it: “But we see Jesus.”
The whole thing is impossible, but when you see the Man in glory, you suddenly have a hope in your heart against hope that God will do what cannot be done by man.
Right over your life—your wasted years of life—“But we see Jesus.” If your assembly is going all afoul and you feel like, “I don’t know, are we alive or dead?” right over that thing: “But we see Jesus.”
It is the Man in the glory to whom we are hooked. It is the One who has begun a good work in us, and He will complete it.
If we have seen this heavenly vision, if we have seen the Man in glory, then suddenly we can look away unto Jesus.
This is from Hebrews Chapter 12. It says we need to run the race looking to Jesus, most translations say. But more accurately, it says looking away, because we have to look away from some things we used to be quite taken with.
When we have seen the Man in glory, we can look away unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. Once we have seen the Man in glory, we can press on to maturity.
Once we have seen the Man in glory, here is the wonderful part that really opens the way in the whole letter to the Hebrews: suddenly He can come to us with very present help as we press on to maturity.
Holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.
There is one thing we need to note. Then I am going to briefly touch on this matter of Jesus as the High Priest of our confession tonight. Lord willing, tomorrow we will touch on His apostleship, if we can.
The first thing I want us to notice is something quite unique to the book of Hebrews. This exhorter, who has written this book under the inspiration of God, has seen that what we need when we are pressing on to maturity is not only a sure vision of the Christ in glory, who is divine, the Son of God, seated at the right hand of the Majesty.
In a very practical way, if we are to press on to maturity, we have to know the very human side of Christ, the Son of Man—Jesus, the Son of Man.
There is a unique part of the book of Hebrews. Within the New Testament, after the resurrection of Jesus, the names Christ Jesus, Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus the Son of God, and other such divine appellations of Jesus are used more than seven hundred times throughout the rest of the New Testament.
In other words, beyond the Gospels, you almost always find Jesus’ name attached to His divinity or His Messianic office: Christ Jesus, Jesus Christ, Lord Jesus. You understand what I am saying.
From the end of the Gospels through Revelation, Jesus is mentioned alone, without another description, twenty times. Ten of them are in Hebrews.
When the word Jesus is used by itself, the writer is trying to focus on the humanity of Jesus. As surely as He is Christ and divine, our Lord and the Son of God, He is also human.
When you see the Man in the glory, it releases something in you like this: “He was a human. I am a human. There is a possibility here.”
Then He comes to our aid as this very human Son of Man, clothed in these two offices, if you want to say it that way: the office of the human High Priest and the office of the human Apostle, to encourage us along the way.
Let me show you eight of the verses, just for our consideration, so you can see these references to Jesus. Every time you hear just the name Jesus alone, without some other reference or adjective, you know that this refers to the human One. The writer wants you to see the humanity of our precious Lord.
You can never divorce one from the other, but we want to see His humanness.
What a wonderful vision this is. We must come to the place where we see that Jesus is a man, because it is only in that way that He can help us in pressing through. This is a very human-divine transaction, this transformation, and the Man in glory has made it through.
His finished work involved His divinity and His humanity. But His very present help was revealed to these dear saints who were in fear and trepidation: do not be afraid of Jesus. He does not bite. He is a human just like you.
When we consider Jesus, the High Priest of this heavenly calling, we just want to notice three things. There is much to say, actually, from Chapter 3 basically through Chapter 10. Most of that is taken up with Jesus, the High Priest of our confession.
Let us look at three matters where Jesus the High Priest comes to us with help. The first is back in Hebrews Chapter 2. Let us read again those simple verses, beginning in Verse 14:
Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.
For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendants of Abraham. Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.
The first thing the writer tries to underscore for us is that Jesus had to take on flesh and blood just like us, with all the infirmity implicit in flesh and blood. That does not mean sinful flesh; it just means humanness.
He did this in order that He might learn, through the process of suffering in this life, how to be a merciful High Priest.
When we read Hebrews Chapter 5 and see the definition in spirit of what a high priest was supposed to be, the high priest in his purpose was a man of great gentleness. He could understand the frailties of all those people who came around the tabernacle because he was beset by the same frailty. He could understand these people and pray for them.
This is the nature of a high priest. But the fact of the matter is, in Judaism the high priest had become haughty and proud—a physician to fear. The very thought of Jesus being the High Priest for these Jews in that present day may have caused them to shrink back, saying, “Oh my goodness, not another one of those guys.”
Wearing the vestments, walking and strutting proudly, pushing people out of the way, commanding all reverence, and being austere.
But he says, “No. Jesus, in His High Priesthood—you know what He did? He took on flesh and blood so He could understand you and me, and so He could become, as he says here in Verse 17, a merciful and faithful High Priest.”
A merciful High Priest. That is what people need.
The first thing he is trying to show us is as if Jesus were standing as a priest inside the tabernacle, but He hears some rustling out beyond the gate. There are some people out beyond the gate, and they are fearful of coming in.
They are fearful. Their consciences are condemning them. They sense their temptations, how weak they are, and how they have fallen. They are afraid to come and even give an offering. They are afraid to come through the linen gate and come before the brazen altar.
But this High Priest has suffered, lived, and been tempted just like those men outside. This wonderful High Priest, being merciful and faithful, goes out, gathers them, and convinces them to come on in.
“It is okay. I understand. I can help you.”
We find Christians in every quarter who are truly saved, but they are sort of like on the outside of the tent, looking in. They feel so guilty about their sins. They live and hang back in the shadows beyond the curtains. They are struggling with temptation.
Jesus says, “I have been there. I suffered. I was tempted in all ways like you. But I did not sin. Still, I understand.”
Do you not think Jesus was tempted to hate? Do you not think Jesus was tempted to seek revenge? Do you not think Jesus was tempted to seek some way of saving Himself? Do you not think He was tempted by pride? Do you not think He was tempted by fear?
He knows all these things that we suffer from, and yet He did not sin. But that does not mean He cannot deal gently with all those who are suffering such temptations, and even in bondage to the enemy.
The enemy has made them so afraid of death that they cannot even live. Jesus says, “You come to Me. I’ll let you live. Come to Me. Let Me show you the way in.”
You can almost see this wonderful High Priest going out beyond the curtain and bringing them in one by one. “Come, come, come. It is okay. I am not going to bite. I know what it is like. I have been there.”
It says there in Hebrews 2:18:
Since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.
One translator said, “Because He understands, He runs to every cry.”
Is that your cry? The lonely cry, the silent person who is afraid, almost afraid to believe that it would be possible for you to come in. You know what you have done wrong. You know how you have hurt people. More than that, you know you have sinned against God.
This is the first thing we see about Jesus: those who deserve judgment discover the Priest of mercy.
He calls people in whom nobody would dare call in. He is a merciful and faithful High Priest. “You have been saved by My precious blood. I am going to bring you to glory. But first, you have to come in.”
Our Lord is so faithful to the weak and the lonely. He is not ashamed to say, “You are My child.” He is not afraid or ashamed to call you brother. If you will only come, do not stay outside. Do not stay outside. There is only the way forward.
When we turn to Hebrews Chapter 4, we find a second wonderful picture of this High Priest. It is quite similar, but there is something wonderfully different here. In Chapter 4, note Verses 14 through 16:
Therefore, since 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 cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
This is the High Priest’s job, if I could put it in just one word: the High Priest is the One who enables us and helps us to draw nigh.
Those two words—we see them there in Verse 16: “Therefore, let us draw near.” This is the job of this wonderful High Priest.
Look at it again in Hebrews 7:19:
For the law made nothing perfect, and on the other hand, there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.
This is our desire: to draw near to God. But it is Jesus, the faithful High Priest, who enables us to get there.
Then in Hebrews 7:25:
Therefore He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God.
Hebrews 10:1 says that the law, being only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, could never by the same sacrifices offered continually year by year make perfect those who draw near. No amount of sacrifices can do that, but His one sacrifice can.
Then, wonderfully, in Hebrews 10:21-22:
Since we have a great Priest over the house of God, let us draw near.
This is the High Priest’s job: to bring us in.
What is He preparing us for? This High Priest, on our road unto glory, in this heavenly calling—the first half of it, and a very essential half of it, is this: God wants us drawn nigh unto Him, drawn right into the Holy of Holies.
That is where we belong. That is where we must go. The mature would press on, with the help of their High Priest, all the way into the holiest, where we abide.
How precious is this High Priest. Again, we go back to Chapter 4 and note one thing in passing. It says, “We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize.” It is interesting that the Greek word is exactly that: one who cannot suffer with us.
We do not have a High Priest who cannot suffer with us, but One who understands us, who was tempted in all ways as we are, yet without sin.
Here is what this precious High Priest does: He brings us to the throne where we would dare not come by ourselves. He brings us to the throne of grace, especially those in time of need.
Did you notice that in Verse 16? “Let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
So often we stay away as long as we can, but when the need gets great enough, we find our way and stumble in somehow to that throne of grace. That should not be the way it is.
This throne of grace is not just for those with an occasional need. This throne of grace, for the pilgrim who is pressing on to maturity, is a need every day. The further you go, the more we sense our weakness.
Get into the throne. Get into the throne. This High Priest brings us daily into the throne until we can, with boldness, come into the throne and receive the grace and mercy that we need for that day.
Do not think it is a provision for those in need, or some special provision on special occasions. This should be our daily portion before the throne of grace, taking what we need to press on to maturity.
Have you done that? Do you have a boldness to do that every day? “Lord, I need Your grace today. Lord, I need Your grace today more than I did yesterday. There is more upon me, and I cannot live except by Your life. Oh, Lord, have mercy.”
This is our provision, and the High Priest brings us in where we would not dare to go.
Even more, along the same line—there is so much to say about this, but I see that we are running out of time—He is the High Priest who is ever making intercession for us. He is praying for us when we have no knowledge of it.
This whole thing is Him trying to draw us near unto God, near unto God. He is the Mediator of this new covenant, and that mediator simply means He closes the gap.
If there is any gap between you and God, He closes that gap. He takes God’s Word, brings it from your mind down into your heart, so you come to know Him, as we all know Him in that better covenant.
He is a Mediator. He brings us through. He shows us the way. He walks us through this thing. How do you know how to live in the new covenant? You need somebody to walk you through.
We had a dear teenager. I live in Manhattan now, less than a quarter of a mile from NYU, New York University. This girl came because she wanted to register at NYU as a freshman, and it is a daunting task.
You go over there on your own, and you end up going to the wrong buildings. Then the class is closed out by the time you get to the right building. The bursar is closed by the time you try to make a payment. Some people go there for two days, get lost in the place, cannot even find their way out, and nothing happens by the time it is over.
But this dear girl came and stayed with my wife and me. She was going over there to register the next day, shaking in her boots. One of the saints who had been to NYU said, “Let me walk you through it.”
Two hours later, she came back. She had all the classes she needed and had paid all the debts she needed. She walked through just as easily as could be because somebody walked her through.
The High Priest walks us through. We do not know how to go in this way. Do not think the High Priest is sitting up on a throne saying, “Hey, come on up here. Come on, come on, you can make it. More chin-ups. Let go. Up, up, up, up.”
No, no, no. That is not it at all. He is the great Encourager of our souls. He is the One who comes alongside of us and says, “Here, here, let Me help you along the way.”
Are you willing to take such humble help? Are we too proud? “No, no, I can take it from here, Jesus. Please, don’t bother.” You will find yourself in trouble by the time you turn the corner.
Oh, how we need this High Priest. He is so available to us, if we would only take it, to begin to live in the good of the new covenant.
How wonderful. We read these words of the new covenant. They are so wonderful, almost unbelievable. There is no more transgression. God is known by us. Well, it is so wonderful—but please, could somebody walk me through this?
If that is not enough, I will mention the last one that I would like to share. It is that wonderful passage in Hebrews Chapter 10, beginning in Verse 19:
Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great Priest over the house of God, let us draw near.
What a wonderful thought. Here is the saint, a dear worshiper, who is bid, “Draw nigh.” Listen: into the holiest place, with the living God.
Who dares go in? The priests in the Old Testament economy did not dare go in. The high priest went in because he had to, once a year, but it was a fearful thing to go before the living God.
We are not talking about the holiest place where Jesus is. Of course, that is where He dwells. We are talking about the holiest place where the Father dwells.
How are we going to get to the Father and worship the Father in spirit and in truth unless we have a High Priest who walks us through from the outer court, helps us wash our hands, gets us into the holy place, helps us offer the right sacrifices, and even though the veil is open, tells us, “No, I am right by your side, carrying My precious blood. Let us go right into the holiest place.”
There you are, right before the living God. That will bring maturity through transformation into your life as fast as anything ever would.
It is our privilege as worshipers to take that route boldly, by this new and living way, through the precious blood and the rent veil. But I do not see Christians going in there unless they are arm in arm with this High Priest.
This is the picture again in the Old Testament: the child of God needing the encouragement of the priest to get into the house of God. You cannot make it alone. You do not know the way.
There are too many places where you are supposed to bow and curtsy, you know. About two months ago, my son, who lives in London, England, had a meeting with the Queen.
He went to this dinner, stood on the line, and met the Queen and Prince Philip. Prince Philip laughed at something my son said, and they ended up talking for five or ten minutes. Later in the evening, the Queen and Prince came by again.
They gave my son two pages of instructions. You do not talk unless she talks to you. You curtsy, you bow. You do not say “ma’am”; you do not say this or that. There is such a rigmarole—you would not believe it.
There is divine order in the house of God. Even if we would press into that Holy of Holies, there is a way through. We dare not go by ourselves. We do not know the way so well.
But with our Lord Jesus, He says, “Come on. I know My Father. Let Me show you My Father.” We go in, and we find that the Father’s throne is the throne of grace after all.
Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the Father, and the Father is just as gracious as the Son. This is incredible to believe.
Jesus, our High Priest, is so human. He wants to help us so much. Now, whose heart will be humble and ask for that help?
You want to go and press on to maturity, but that sounds like big and heavy words. Our dear High Priest is waiting for us to take us by the hand.
May we hear the heavenly calling. It all begins when we see the Man in glory and see ourselves in the glory. You see that?
Your only right to ever go in there is the fact that Jesus purchased your way in. So go with Him. He wants to lead us in.
Whoever heard of such a gospel? It is so good. Who can believe it? There is a God who came down from heaven and died for our sins because we were just going to hell.
He died for our sins, rose again, and is sitting in the glory. That is the same One. He is Jesus.
Not only that, but then He comes down to us because we sort of wander outside this tent, fearful to get started. Many teenagers have so many temptations, so many hormones pushing them this way and that, so many distractions and potentials and everything. How can they set their course? It is almost impossible.
They just hang around outside, peeking through the windows. That High Priest, our Jesus, goes outside to get you. Do not think you can get outside of His curtains. If you are saved, He knows who you are. He will bring you in, because He is a merciful High Priest.
Then He will bring you to the throne of grace until you get used to it, and you can come boldly and always come with Him and find grace and mercy.
When you come to worship, He says, “Here, let Me lead you in there and worship too.” Otherwise, you get scared away by some of those angels fluttering around and some of the things going on. It is a different kind of atmosphere there, you know what I am saying? But you just stick with Me.
Sometimes our kids are afraid to do something. Occasionally there is a chasm to walk over or something. The parents can do it, but the kids are afraid. Not when you have the kid right here. Then the kid is not afraid.
It is not time for us to be afraid. It is time to consider Jesus, the High Priest of our confession. It is a time to see the Man in glory, to see ourselves in glory according to the Father’s pleasure and purpose.
Oh, dear brothers and sisters, if you have not seen the glory, there is a Spirit who wants to reveal Jesus to you in all His glory, if you will just come and ask.
Hast thou seen Him,
Heard Him,
Known Him?
Is not thine a captive heart?
For this we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.