Bible Passage: Hebrews 4:14-16
Pastor: Michael Willitz
Sermon Date: October 17, 2021

Bulletin October 17, 2021

Hebrews 4:14–16

¹⁴Therefore, since we have a great high priest, who has gone through the heavens, namely, Jesus the Son of God, let us continue to hold on to our confession. ¹⁵For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin. ¹⁶So let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

We Have a Great High Priest

1. Our reason to hold onto our confession
2. Our reason to approach the throne of grace 

Dear fellow redeemed in Jesus Christ, our great High Priest,

What is the motivation that encourages you to keep going when adversity comes and you are under pressure to give up? The football player thinks about the upcoming game when he needs to summon the strength to lift the bar off his chest three more times. The medical student thinks about the patients she will one day help when she chooses a late night of studying over a night out with her friends. A soldier pulls out a picture of his family far away when he needs to remember why he fights and why he puts himself in harm’s way. But what is our motivation to continue in our faith when adversity comes because of it? What is our motivation to hold onto our faith when we are tempted to give it up?

The Christians to whom this letter was written were facing that very temptation. They were being persecuted because they confessed that Jesus was the Christ, and they were being tempted to give up this confession and to revert to the Jewish ceremonies. What would give them the strength that they needed to endure as Christians? What gives us the strength we need to endure as Christians? The author of the letter gives us an answer: We Have a Great High Priest. We Have a Great High Priest. This is our reason to hold onto our confession. This is our reason to approach the throne of grace.

We are told right away in verse 14 of our text, “we have a great high priest, who has gone through the heavens.” Maybe when you hear that, you think of the ascension of our Lord, that after he died, and after he rose from the dead, Jesus ascended into heaven. And if you think that is what the author is talking about, you are right! He is talking about the ascension of Jesus into heaven. But he is also making a very important point about that ascension into heaven. He is showing that the ascension of Jesus into heaven proves that Jesus is a greater high priest than any high priest before him.

You might remember that one of the duties of the high priest in ancient Israel was to pass through the curtain in the tabernacle, or, later, the temple. Only one day a year, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest would pass through that curtain, and he would enter that room called the Holy of Holies, where the LORD was present in the midst of his people. Shielded by a cloud of incense, the high priest would sprinkle blood on the mercy seat that covered the Ark of the Covenant. He would sprinkle the blood of a bull on that mercy seat, to make atonement for his sins and the sins of his household. Then, he would go get the blood of a goat and he would sprinkle that on the mercy seat, to make atonement for the sins of the people. After that, no one else would pass through the curtain and enter the Holy of Holies, until one year later when the high priest would enter again with more blood to be sprinkled for atonement.

Jesus did not pass through that curtain in the earthly temple. Instead, Jesus passed through the heavens. In his ascension, Jesus entered the heavenly throne room of the LORD. And he did not bring with him the blood of a bull or the blood of a goat. Jesus brought his own blood, blood that he offered when he sacrificed himself on the cross for the sins of all the world. It was a greater entrance of a greater Priest into a greater sanctuary, and he was bringing greater blood. He was bringing holy, precious blood, blood could satisfy God’s wrath for all sins with one single sacrifice. We sing about that blood in one of our hymns,

Lord, I believe your precious blood,

Which at the very throne of God

Forever will for sinners plead,

For me – e’en for my soul – was shed. (CW 376:3)

What a loss it would be for Christians to give that up – to give up our great High Priest, to give up his precious blood, to give up the full atonement that he has won for sinners, to give up his continued service pleading for us before the throne of God. That was what was at stake for the Christians who were tempted to give up Jesus and to join the Jews who rejected him. But no other high priest could match Jesus, the great High Priest. No other sacrifice could do what his sacrifice alone accomplished. The suffering Christians to whom this letter was written had a confession that was worth dying for. They confessed that Jesus was the Christ. They confessed that he died for their sins and rose for their justification. They confessed that he ascended into heaven and that he was standing there as their High Priest.

We have the same confession, don’t we? What a powerful confession it is! Just think of the bearing that this confession has on your life and your future – that you have a High Priest who is standing in heaven, that he has blotted out from the sight of God every sin that makes you ashamed, that he has broken the power of death with his own death on the cross. That he has risen and ascended into heaven, opening the way for you too. It makes everything else in this life rather small, doesn’t it? Your hot water is out on a cold day? Well, Jesus’ blood is still pleading for your peace before God. Someone unfriended you on Facebook? Well, Jesus still stands as your advocate before the Father. You got fired from your job for doing something that you knew was right? Well the way into heaven has still been opened for you by Jesus. Someone threatens to end your life if you won’t renounce your Christian faith? Well, Jesus has the keys of death and of hades. He will get you out of your grave alive. We Have a Great High Priest, and that is all the reason we need to hold onto our confession.

It is also our reason to approach the throne of grace. Unlike the former high priests who had to go into the Holy of Holies alone and then come back through the curtain, leaving the presence of God blocked, Jesus, our great High Priest, remains in the heavenly throne room of God, and he has opened up access to that throne room for us. In Jesus, we may approach God. You remember what happened in the temple in Jerusalem when Jesus died on the cross? That great curtain that divided the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. Jesus has opened the way for us to approach the throne of grace and to make our requests for all the help that we need. Imagine if there was a wealthy and powerful king who ruled over a vast kingdom. And imagine if the king’s son opened the palace doors wide and summoned anyone to go with him and make a request of the king. The privilege that Jesus has granted to us is a greater privilege by far, because his Father can grant us so much more than any earthly king. And Jesus is the perfect mediator, because he knows all of our needs from his own experience.

Our text says of him, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin,” [15]. Your weaknesses and your sufferings are known by Jesus, because he has carried them all for you. Your trials and temptations are known to Jesus, because he has been tempted in every way that you are. The fact that he was sinless did not make temptation more pleasant. Instead, if we think of temptation like a boxing match, Jesus took all the punches for the full twelve rounds without ever giving in. He knows what it is like to be tempted. He knows what kind of sufferings can come in temptation. He has successfully navigated through every single temptation that you or I will ever face. So he is well prepared to give exactly the grace we need.

When we are hard pressed by temptation, he can give us the strength that we need to endure. When we have fallen to temptation, he can give us forgiveness purchased by his own blood and righteousness earned by his sinless life. When we are in pain or we are in turmoil, and we don’t even know what to ask or what to say, in Jesus we have a sympathetic High Priest, who intimately knows every pain we endure, and who knows just the cure that is needed for each one.

So we can approach God’s throne with boldness. We do this when we pray and we lay our bold requests before God in Jesus’ name. We also approach God’s throne with boldness every time we gather here in Jesus’ name to receive his gifts. Here we petition our God for his grace and mercy in our time of need. And here, we receive his provision. He gives us strength, life, forgiveness, and peace in Word and in Sacrament in answer to our need.

So when adversity comes, when the going gets tough, when we are under pressure to just give up, we can look to heaven, and we can remember that our High Priest is standing there. He is pleading on our behalf. He has opened the way for us. He has invited us to request all the help that we need. We have reason to hold onto our confession, and we have reason to approach the throne of grace. We Have a Great High Priest.

Amen.

Permission to podcast / stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-716390. All rights reserved.

If you would like to give an offering after today’s worship, click here.