The Supremacy of Christ (Hebrews 5)

The Supremacy of Christ
Hebrews 5:7-10

INTRODUCTION:
What purpose does Christ serve for you?

Is He an encourager when you are depressed?

Is He a teacher when you need guidance?

Is He a financial advisor when you need help?

Obviously He can be any of those things and more, but many of these points we can get from someone else besides Jesus Christ.

The one thing that Jesus does for us that no one else can do is save us from our sins.

He is our Savior. The Christians who received the book of Hebrews in the first century were tempted to leave Christianity and go back to their old Jewish faith. So among all the other things that the Hebrew writer will tell Christians… he emphasizes to them that they can go to no one else for forgiveness of sins.

When the Hebrew writer introduces Jesus in the first chapter, among the things he writes about Jesus, in 1:3, is that Jesus has made purification of sins. Jesus is our Savior. Where else are you going to go to find forgiveness of your sins? There is no place else to go! The Hebrew writer will use the word “sin” twenty-five times! Everyone has a sin problem! You don’t even have to be a Christian to know that human beings have problems. They might not call it “sin,” but they acknowledge that humans have problems! Major problems!

So the Hebrew writer tells his audience that Jesus made purification for sins (1:3). He made propitiation (a sin offering) for sins (2:17). Yet Jesus was without sin (4:15), which we studied last month.

Along with the idea of taking care of sins, the writer will talk a lot about Jesus being our high priest and he will write that the sacrifice Jesus offered was Himself. The writer will use the word “high priest” (which is one word in Greek) 17 times in his letter!

He says Jesus is a “merciful and faithful high priest” (2:17). He is the “high priest of our confession” (3:1). He is a “great high priest” who has risen from the dead (4:14). He is a high priest who sympathizes with our weaknesses (4:15). Now that last verse is only two verses removed from the text we are going to use this morning to feed our spirits: chapter 5…

JESUS IS EMPATHETIC AND GENTLE - 5:1-6:
The high priest under the Law of Moses represented the nation of Israel to God. The high priest acted on behalf of the Israelite who needed to offer sacrifices to God. An Israelite could pray to God without the high priest. He or she could sing to God without a high priest. But they could not offer sacrifices without the high priest. He was the mediator between God and the nation of Israel. He offered gifts and sacrifices for the forgiveness of sins (ver. 1).

Notice this important point in verse 2. Since the high priest was taken from among men, he could deal “gently” with the ignorant and misguided because he also was “beset by weakness.” Well, the writer just told us that Jesus sympathizes with our weaknesses because He was tempted in every thing just as we are. Yet, He was without sin! The priest under the Law had to offer sacrifices for the people and for himself! But Jesus did not because He was sinless.

And because Jesus was God in the flesh, we know and must trust that Jesus is gentle, compassionate, and merciful. No one understands exactly what we go through better than Jesus Christ. He understands our frailty and He understands our weaknesses.

The writer brings up the first high priest, Moses’ brother, Aaron (ver. 4). Aaron was guilty of creating a golden calf for Israel to worship and for leading Israel or at least not stopping them in practicing idolatry! But one thing the Hebrew writer says about Jesus, compared to Aaron, is that Jesus is not like Aaron!

Under the Law of Moses, a man could not decide he wanted to be a priest. He had to be chosen by God; he had to be from the family of Aaron, from the tribe of Levi. God killed people who presumed the honor of being a priest without having been chosen by God!

And Jesus did not chose Himself to be our high priest. He was chosen by God. Jesus has the character and the faithfulness to be a great high priest. Because Jesus is God, He can represent God to mankind. But because Jesus is also man, He is able to represent mankind back to God.

In verse 5, the writer quotes from Psalm 2:7 to show that God treated the king of Israel as His Son and no king of Israel is more the Son of God than Jesus Christ! But in verse 6, the writer quotes from Psalm 110:4 to show that Jesus is also our priest and it will be in that same context, Psalm 110:1, that the writer will show - as we saw from Zechariah 6 last week - that Jesus is a priest who also reigns as King!

Jesus is not only willing to forgive our sins, but He also has the authority and power to forgive us of our sins.

JESUS IS THE SOLE SOURCE OF SALVATION - 5:7-10:
Can you picture in your mind a man crying loudly? Weeping and wailing loudly? Some men do not seem to cry, at least not much. Others are very prone to cry. Joseph in the OT has been called the “weeping patriarch” (“father”) because he cried often. Here in our text, the writer tells us that Jesus offered up both prayers and supplications - notice - with loud crying and tears!

Never allow yourself to believe that Jesus lived an easy life and did not have difficult decisions to make! Never allow yourself to believe that Jesus accepted what Satan threw at Him without crying about it - even loudly! Here is the Hebrew writer’s point that he has been making… Jesus identifies with us and He sympathizes with us! Jesus is not apathetic to our pain and suffering and frustrations in life!

Never allow yourself to forget that Jesus is the “Suffering Servant” of God! Jesus can comfort us in our struggles and hardships.

Notice in verse 7 that Jesus’ prayer was heard because of His piety. This word is used only one other time in the NT, also in Hebrews (12:28) where the NASV translates it as “reverence.” In other words, God heard Jesus’ prayer because Jesus was faithful and obedient to the Father’s will. So how did God answer Jesus’ prayer? The only way God can answer man’s prayers: consistent with His will for our lives. He allowed His Son to die, but then He raised Him from death three days later.

Also, in verse 8, the Hebrew writer is talking about Jesus and he is sending us Christians a message as well… Jesus learned obedience by suffering! The writer will use the words “death” or “dead” or die twenty-five times and he will use the word “suffering” or related words seven times in 13 chapters. The message for us is this… we might suffer for our faith, and it might cause our death, but God will vindicate our faithfulness just like He did Jesus!

Was Jesus God? Yes! Did He have to learn to obey? Yes! And it was suffering that caused Him to rely more and more on the grace of His heavenly Father to sustain Him.

Some athletes have publicly denounced and evaded this lofty position in society. Charles Barkley, the iconic former NBA star, is one example. In a controversial 1993 Nike commercial, “Notoriously outspoken Phoenix Suns star Charles Barkley boldly and defiantly declared that he was not a role model and that kids should be taught to emulate their parents, not athletes or celebrities. ‘Just because I dunk a basketball doesn’t mean I should raise your kids,’ Barkley concluded” (Jeff Eisenberg, “Iconic Sports Commercials: Charles Barkley’s ‘I Am Not a Role Model,’” Yahoo Sports, July 17, 2019, https://au.sports.yahoo.com/iconic-sports-commercials-charles-barkleys-i-am-not-a-role-model-055726035.html).

Jesus lived a perfect life in full and complete obedience to the Father. It is because Jesus was “made perfect” through His suffering that He became - to all those who obey Him - the source of eternal salvation. Decades ago, you might hear someone say about members of the church of Christ: Oh, you think you are the only ones who are going to heaven. My mom had the perfect response to that statement - which is not a fair statement to make. My mom would respond, “well, we believe you have to obey Jesus to be saved, don’t you?” That comes from passages like this one right here. There is no salvation without obedience!

In verse 10, the writer is going to introduce the theme of a priest from the OT named Melchizedek, but he does so because he is going to point out that, in contrast to the priests from the Law of Moses who died, Jesus Christ serves as our high priest forever. But the writer will not talk more about Melchizedek until chapter 7.

Christians must obey the example of Christ and place their full confidence and faith in Him for their salvation.

GROW INTO MATURITY IN CHRIST - 5:11-14:
The writer is putting Melchizedek on the back burner because the Christians he is writing to - at least many of them - are not mature enough to handle that discussion! It’s one thing to be an immature Christian because you are, well, immature. It is a very different thing when you are a twenty-five year old still in diapers! He says in verse 11 they were “dull of hearing.”

Some of you wear some kind of hearing assistance device. The Hebrew writer is telling his audience that some of them need some spiritual hearing aids! Their eardrums had become dull. And that’s interesting because one of the famous texts from the prophet Isaiah is Isaiah 6:9-10 where the prophet said that the Jews’ ears had become dull so that they could not hear so they would not have to repent and turn from their sins. They were like little children who put their fingers in their ears and start making sounds so they cannot hear what someone else is saying to them. So the Hebrew writer is here using one of these texts that the Jews would be very familiar with, especially Jewish Christians because the NT quotes that text four times.

These Christians needed to relearn basic principles of the gospel. Now, to a certain extent, we need to be reminded of basic principles of the gospel. But if you have been a Christian for a couple of decades, you ought to, by now, know something about Melchizedek! That is not my point, that’s the Hebrew writer’s point! We need to grow and mature in our faith and our practice of Christianity. What are you doing today for the Lord’s church that you were not doing last year? Five years ago? Ten years ago? How do you know you are growing if your behavior has not changed?

From verse 11 and comparing the Christians to the elderly who can’t hear very well, he shifts to the metaphor of babies in verse 12… they need milk rather than solid food. I understand that babies should not be given solid food for at least the first six months, until their bodies mature. Here, we see that some Christians lacked the spiritual maturity to digest “solid food” of the Christian faith.

According to the author of Hebrews, solid food—the “meat and potatoes” of the gospel—is only for the mature. Only the spiritually mature “have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (v. 14). The spiritual senses of those who are mature in the faith are sharp and perceptive. The][\spiritually mature can be trusted with the deeper and heavier things of God because they are wise, discerning, astute, and full of knowledge.

This is why we have Bible study on Sunday mornings and Bible study Wednesday nights and Thursday mornings - so we can learn more about God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Christian life, so we can improve our powers of discernment in distinguishing between good and evil.

We come to worship to learn; we leave worship to put it into practice. When we do, we experience just how powerful our God is and what a wonderful Savior Jesus is!

Spiritual growth involves constant training and practice. “Sermonettes make Christianettes.”

Take home message: Embrace Jesus' empathy and let Him help you reach new levels of maturity in your faith. Salvation is just the beginning!