|
|
HOLY HELP FOR THE HOPELESS WHO FIND HELP AT THE THRONE OF GRACE Hebrews 4:14-16INTRODUCTION If you and I were sitting down over a cup of coffee and I asked you, what is your biggest problem right now? What is your greatest need? What would you tell me? Some of you might tell me, “I’m lonely. I don’t have any friends.” “I’m single and can’t see anyway that’s going to change.” Others might talk about how far in debt you are and how you’re teetering on the edge of financial ruin. Others might tell about an uncontrollable younger child or an adult child who has rejected you and your values. Others might complain of unsympathetic or harsh parents. For others there is the burden of chronic pain or depression or illness. For yet others there is the heartache of broken relationships. Some of you might tell me that you have no direction in life. Some, no doubt would talk about your lack of self-control with food or drink or drugs or anger or pornography. It doesn’t take much living to realize that human beings are weak and needy creatures who live in a world that is full of trouble. These three verses are written for weak and needy people like us who live in a very troubled world. In the flow of this letter’s argument they are a summary of chapters 1 & 2. In chapters 1 & 2 and up through 3:6 the author’s primary aim was to convince us of the greatness of Jesus who is the Son of God who has become man so that he can be our merciful and faithful high priest. He interrupted that argument with his extended reflection upon and warning from Psalm 95 and its connection with Genesis 2 and the history of Israel entering the land. Like every good preacher he summarizes, in these three verses, what he has just said and makes a smooth transition into his next topic, which is the priesthood of Jesus. Martin Luther says this about vv. 12-16, “After terrifying us, the Apostle now comforts us, after pouring alcohol in our wounds he now pours in ointment.” In vv. 12-13 we saw that God’s word is like a terrible sword that is wielded by a God before whom all things are naked and laid bare and who will one day require each of us to explain ourselves. There is a throne implied at the end of v. 13 and it is the throne of God’s judgment where each person must give an account to God. It is a terrifying throne. Yet, in just three short verses this same throne of judgment has become a throne of grace. It is in vv. 14 and 15 that we discover how it is that this throne of terror has become for us a throne of comfort. We discover how it is that God, the judge of all, is able to help sinners who are in trouble. MAIN POINT God, the judge of all, is able to help you in your time of need because…I. Jesus is our great high priest who has entered heaven (v. 14) There are two commands in these three verses. In v. 14 the command is that we are to hold firmly to the faith we profess and in v. 16 we are to approach with confidence the throne of grace. These are not two different things but two ways of expressing the same thing. The heart of the Christian life is to hold fast to Jesus by faith, trusting him as my only hope of being accepted by God. This is the central theme of this letter and the passion of the author, to motivate Christians to never let go of Christ and the benefits we have through him. In v. 14 there are two things that form the motivation for our holding fast our confession and approaching the throne of grace. First, we are told that we have a great high priest. This is not the first time we have been told that Jesus is our high priest. If you will remember, at the end of chapter 2 and the beginning of chapter 3 Jesus was first identified as our high priest. I made the point then and will repeat it here that the author is using OT language and categories because he believes the entire OT is about Jesus. He is going to spend most of the next six chapters giving many of the ways in which Christ’s ministry was typified in the OT priesthood and temple and sacrifices. However, in this verse he is simply pointing out two things about our high priest Jesus. He is a great high priest. The point is that Jesus is the high priest that is above all other high priests. There is no other high priest greater than Jesus. Again, priests are those men appointed by God to represent men to God and God to men. Priests are the ones who are to go between God and men. There is no greater mediator between God and men than Jesus. He is supreme above all other representatives between God and men. The other point is that this Jesus, our great high priest, has passed through the heavens. The idea here is that just as once a year the Jewish high priest, on the Day of Atonement, would pass through the curtain out of the sight of the people, into the Most Holy Place where God dwelt above the ark of the covenant, so Jesus has passed out of the sight of his people, through the heavens into the very throne room of God. The OT is full of language identifying God’s throne with his place in heaven. Psalm 11:4 says, “The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven; his eyes see, his eyelids test the sons of man.” Psalm 103:19 says, “The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, his kingdom rules over all.” The point is that the Lord Jesus Christ who is our great high priest has passed out of our sight into the very presence of God who sits upon his throne in the heavens ruling over all things. Jesus is there as our personal representative, the only one who can successfully represent us to God and God to us. I experienced a great need for a personal representative, a mediator, when I was detained in Korea in 2004. I was on my way to Mongolia with Dave Cullum to assist Tom and Lynn Suchy in their missionary work. I was going to teach the leadership of the church they are helping to establish. Tom, who loves to hunt, had asked me to bring along ammunition for his two rifles, which I did. I was assured by the agents at the United Airlines counter at O'Hare that it was OK to transport the boxes of ammunition in my checked luggage. Our flight plans included a one night stop in South Korea. My checked bags came off the plane and were sent on the luggage carousel for me to pick up and take with me to the hotel in Korea. When I picked up my bags there was a strange device attached to them and as I walked towards the exits an alarm went off and lights began to flash and I was surrounded by a large group of very agitated Koreans, some of whom were carrying weapons. They had me open my bags and when they discovered the boxes of ammunition they became even more agitated and kept asking me in very broken English who I was, where I was going and why I had so much ammunition in my bags. Eventually I was taken to the police station in the airport where I met the commander of the airport security. I really felt the need for someone who could understand me and represent me to this man who was obviously very concerned about the ammunition I was carrying. He didn't speak English and I didn't speak Korean. If I was going to get out of Korea I needed someone who could represent me to him and him to me. Fortunately, there was a young man on the airport security team who had lived in the U.S. for 10 years and who knew English. He was given to me as a mediator between the Korean police and me. Through his mediation I discovered that I was guilty of breaking Korean law. However, the police, by his mediation were able to discover that I broke their law innocently. Due to his ability to understand the Korean police and me I was able, though guilty of breaking Korean law, to be set free. This young man became very dear to me in a very short period of time because of my need for a mediator which only he was able to meet. It will only be good news to you that Jesus is your high priest who has passed through the heavens if you know that you need God's favor and you know you have no way to get his favor on your own. Jesus by being our great high priest in the presence of God has obtained our freedom because of his successful mediation between God and us. The second thing that v. 14 tells us is why Jesus is able to be our high priest. The reason that Jesus is our great high priest in the presence of God is summarized in his name and title: Jesus, the Son of God. By calling attention to his name, Jesus, the author is identifying the fully human nature of our high priest. He is a real person, born of the virgin Mary, who lived for some 30 years on this earth in the land of Israel during the rule of the Roman governors, Herod and Pontius Pilate. He, as chapter 2 described and as v. 15 will reiterate, is fully human. As 2:17 says he was like us in every way so that he might be a faithful and merciful high priest in service to God. But not only is he fully human he is also fully God. He is the eternal, exalted Son of God, who, as chapter one asserted, is God himself. This one who is our high priest is the one who made the universe and who sustains the universe by the word of his power. He is superior to every created being because he is the creator of all things. How could anyone be a greater high priest than this one who is 100% human and 100% God united in one person forever? He is our great high priest because of who he is. There has never been and never will be one who is more fit to represent you in the presence of the God to whom you must give an account. He is able to successfully obtain God's favor for you because of who he is. How can you not trust this Jesus, the Son of God? How could you possibly abandon him? Where else can you go to find someone to obtain God's favor for you? Let us hold firmly our faith in Jesus, the Son of God who is our great high priest. God, the judge of all, is able to help you in your time of need because…
II. Jesus was tempted yet never sinned (v. 15) While v. 14 describes the exaltation of Jesus; v. 15 describes how completely he has identified with us. It is one thing to know that Jesus is fit to be our high priest and that he now lives in the very presence of God, it is another thing to know that he is sympathetic and not indifferent to our condition. No one else has ever entered into your weaknesses and your temptations like Jesus has. No one else feels the weight of your temptations like Jesus does. There is no other person who has been tempted in every way that you have been tempted and will be tempted and yet has not sinned. This exalted Son of God who is our high priest is able to sympathize with our weaknesses because he has been tempted in every way as we are. This verse is full of such glory that I feel very inadequate in helping us to see the beauty of Jesus in it. This verse is meant to overcome all your doubts and your hesitations in trusting Christ. The word translated weaknesses is used some 24 times in the NT. Most often it refers to illness or physical disability of some kind. It also is used to speak of the limitations of human knowledge and wisdom. We are finite and weak people who do not understand, much less control the world we live in. It is used to refer to hunger and thirst and weariness. In 2 Corinthians 12 it refers to a whole host of troubles that can beset us and the fragility of the human being in this world. It is the word that summarizes our susceptibility to injury and harm and disability in this world. This word summarizes what the author said back in 2:8. After quoting Psalm 8 which says that God’s eternal plan has been that humans rule the world as God’s representatives he tell us that right now the world does not submit to us as it ought because of sin. Verse 15 tells us that Jesus fully entered into this cursed world and experienced our weaknesses, which is why he so fully understands and is sympathetic towards us in them. Dr. Warren Gage in a sermon reflects on a few of the “weaknesses” that Jesus shared in with us. He points out that Jesus’ enemies knew that he was conceived out of wedlock, that he was a bastard child. The essence of being a bastard is that you are unwanted. Your life is a mistake. Jesus knew what it was to grow up surrounded by people who felt his very existence was shameful. The gospels also tell us that his mother and brothers and sisters thought he was out of his mind and tried at least on one occasion to take him by force back home. He knows what it is to live in a family who doesn’t accept you or respect you. Jesus knew from an early age that he was never to marry, never to have children. He never had a wife who cherished him as a husband or children who were delighted in him as a father. Though fully man he never experienced the intimacy of marriage. He knows the isolation and loneliness of singleness. While hanging on the cross he uttered the cry of dereliction of abandonment. “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” He knows the agony of being abandoned by God and wondering why. He lived with the knowledge of his death. He lived in the valley of the shadow of death in ways that none of us have ever experienced. He knew he was going to die a violent and painful death. He experienced the mocking of enemies and the betrayal of friends. He was the brunt of false accusations and the victim of the grossest sorts of injustice. He was abused, physically beaten and tortured while being innocent of all wrongdoing. There is no “weakness” that any human will ever experience into which Jesus did not also enter. He sympathizes and has compassion on us because he has shared in our weakness as a human being. However, notice that the author views all human weakness as the occasion of temptation. Jesus, as he experienced the full weight of human weakness was tempted, as we are, to turn from God and to respond to the experience of weakness with sin. I want you to think about how our finiteness and susceptibility to injury and accident and sickness and our ignorance, in short, our weaknesses are always accompanied by temptation to sin. A week ago I was sick for two days with an intestinal flu. What are some of the temptations associated with being sick? You are tempted to demand that those around you take care of you and when they don't respond as you want you are tempted to get mad at them or have a pity party or both. You are tempted to worry about the work you're not getting done or the money you're not earning. You're tempted to grumble and complain and even get mad at God for not keeping you healthy. A couple of weeks ago one of our cars sustained minor damage. I was immediately fearful and anxious about how I was going to be able to afford the repairs or the increased insurance premiums. I was angry with the one who drove it. I sinned in the sight of God and man. We act as though the two great commandments come with an exception clause: you are to love God and neighbor except when something bad happens to you or you are sick or you are insulted or you lose your job or you are single or you are married or… This is the temptation that accompanies our experiences of weakness. We are tempted, when difficulties beset us, when people are mean to us, to stop trusting Christ and to take matters into our own hands. The point of v.15 is that Jesus fully entered into this misery and the weakness of human existence as a man and he felt the temptations to sin that accompany our weakness, but he never sinned. He never gave in to the temptations to complain or to be angry or to despair or to cover up the pain by getting drunk or indulging in illicit relationships. When people insulted him or mocked him, he never retaliated or spoke an unkind word in return in order to pay them back. He felt the temptations more keenly than we do as he never gave in and therefore he never grew dull to the temptations. Most of the time we are hardly aware of the temptation, so quickly do we sin. Jesus always resisted and so always felt the pressure to not trust God with what was happening. The intensity of the temptation that he felt is clearly shown in his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane where he wrestled with God's will to go to the cross. So intense was the temptation to not obey God by going to his death that Luke tells us he sweat great drops of blood in the extremity of the temptation. He submitted to and fully experienced the weakness of being human and the temptations to not love God and neighbor that accompany our weaknesses for us, in our behalf. He entered this misery and endured the temptations and never sinned for our sake. He did it so that he could be our faithful and merciful high priest in service to God. He did it so that he could offer himself as an atoning sacrifice and thus successfully intercede for us before his Father. He did it so that he would know just how to help us when we are in the same kinds of weakness and temptation. He is one of us. He is our brother who is now at the right hand of all power and authority in the universe. He is there with full understanding of our condition and with compassion for us. He is not a haughty, distant Savior who is untouched by the weaknesses and temptations we face, but a Savior who is full of pity and empathy. He is infinitely wise regarding our situations and knows exactly what we need in order to stand up in every imaginable human condition. This verse so clearly tells us that Jesus is the perfect mediator, the perfect person to make peace between us and God. He knows us and our condition because he has lived it with us. Yet, he is fully accepted by the Father because he never sinned. The Father loves Jesus because, unlike us, he never sinned. He always did what pleased his Father. He is the only person who can pass through the heavens and dwell in the Holy presence of God because he is in himself holy, without stain or blemish. God is always eager to listen to his Son and do what his son asks because his son has earned the right to intercede by his being faced with every temptation that humans experience and yet he never sinned. He is our perfect representative because he knows us and our needs perfectly. There is no one else like him to whom you can go for help. Nobody knows you and the circumstances you face as well as Jesus does. Nobody has access to the help to which he has access. God, the judge of all, is able to help you in your time of need because…
III. Jesus turns the throne of judgment into the throne of grace (v. 16) Verse 16 begins with a "therefore". The point is that if it is true that Jesus is the Son of God who has passed through the heavens into the very throne room of God and if he has shared our weaknesses and has fully experienced the temptations associated with being a weak human living in a cursed world and did this without ever sinning, then we ought to confidently draw near to the throne of grace to get help in our troubled times. If all this is true, then we ought to be a praying people. When trouble comes, when we face the diverse weaknesses of our humanity we should not turn away from God but rather we ought to run to him. This is why the Son of God became a man and shared our weaknesses and temptations and never sinned. The God against whom you and I have sinned and before whom we must one day give an account has been satisfied with the obedience and death of his sinless Son so that his throne is no longer a throne of judgment and condemnation but a throne of grace. God is eager to exercise his Almighty power on behalf of undeserving sinners because of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. He does not help us because we have done something to obligate him to do what we want. He offers us his help contrary to what we deserve. All that is required of you is that you approach the throne of grace with confidence. In this letter to the Hebrews this means that we approach the throne of grace confident in the sufficiency of Jesus' life, death and resurrection. We come in his name, on the authority of his person and work. We don't come with self-confidence but with Christ-confidence. This is where so much of the teaching on prayer goes astray. So many think that obtaining God's favor depends upon the quality of our faith. God will do what you want as long as you don't doubt or allow any negative thoughts into your head or don't say anything negative. We are told in a variety of ways that the confidence we have is confidence in the quality of our "faith". However, what this verse tells us is that we come to God's throne and expect help because we are fully confident that Jesus has performed everything on our behalf and God is willing to receive us and listen to us and help us because of him, not because we have the right attitude or the right words or the right faith. The person who is terrified of flying and has small faith that the plane will safely carry him to his destination but yet gets on the plane will safely arrive because he placed his weak faith in a strong object. On the other hand, the person who has great faith that his homemade plane will fly will perish because his great faith was in an untrustworthy object. All who approach the throne of grace confident in their faith or who they are or what they have done or what words they have uttered will not find a throne of grace, but a throne of judgment because only one man has been tempted in all ways without sinning. Only he deserves to be treated well. All others must come in his name if they are going to receive help. What is the help that the child of God is looking for from this throne of grace? I want to answer that question first by reminding you of the context of this promise. If we were to ask the writer of this letter to the Hebrews what is the greatest need we have, what is the help that God wants to give us, what would he answer? He’s stated our greatest need on numerous occasions. At the end of v. 14 our need is that we hold firm the faith we profess. In v. 11 it is that we make every effort to enter the eternal rest of God and not fall by engaging in the same kind of disobedience that Israel did in the desert. In 4:1 it is that we not be found to have fallen short of God’s promised rest. In 3:12 he would say our greatest need is to not have a sinful, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. In 3:13 it would be that none of us is hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. In 3:14 it is that we hold fast the confidence we had at first. In 3:6 it would be that we hold onto our courage and the hope of which we boast. In 3:1 our need is to fix our thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. In 2:1 it would be that we pay more careful attention to what we have heard so that we do not drift away. In other words, the author says our greatest need is to have a faith in Christ that does not fail but perseveres no matter what happens. The help that we are to seek at the throne of grace and which God is eager to give us, is help to hold fast to Christ in the face of suffering and trouble of all sorts. God, by his Son has offered to us the hope of living in his eternal rest forever and so the greatest need we have is to believe the promise gained for us by Christ and not be like Israel in the desert who disbelieved and disobeyed God because they didn’t like God’s plan. God wants to help us in our time of need to keep trusting in Jesus, no matter what problems confront us. He gives this help to us as his wisdom and power determines. We do not come asking God to remove the weakness or the temptation but we come asking God for the strength to not turn away from him in the face of the suffering and the temptation. We come to the throne of grace like Jesus did in the garden to obtain the mercy and grace we need to not let go of Christ in the midst of the fire. If you consider the situation of the recipients of this letter you can see that this is what the author means. These people are being threatened with persecution and death for believing in Jesus. They are being tempted to turn away from Christ, to return to their old way of life as Jews in order to avoid the difficulties. What do they need from God? They need to have their faith strengthened so that they will believe that to have Jesus and to lose your life is better than keeping your life and losing Jesus. Being loved by God is better than living and so we need God's grace to believe that and not stop believing. My greatest need is not to have my injured son healed but to continue believing that to have my sins forgiven and to be loved by God and to enter into God's eternal rest is infinitely better than not having an injured son. Every day I need his mercy to believe in Christ and to not let go of him. That's what you need every day as well. God's love for you is not shown by his removing all the weakness from your life now but in his giving you faith in Christ that holds fast so that you can enter God's eternal rest and enjoy his fellowship forever. God, the judge of all, is able to help you in your time of need because…
© Copyright 2007 John Swanson.
|