Brave Church

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Pastor Jeff Ministries, the Bible teaching ministry of
doctor Jeff Swarzentraup, Senior Pastor of Brave Church in Denver, Colorado. Today,
Pastor Jeff begins his message Our Great High Priest from
the series The Greatest and helps you see how Jesus

(00:22):
represents you, advocates for you, and sympathizes with you. But
before we get started with today's teaching, we invite you
to check out Pastorjeff dot com to find more resources
to help you grow in your walk. While you're there,
be sure to sign up for Pastor Jeff's weekly email
devotion to receive encouragement right near inbox. Now, let's hear
from Pastor Jeff as he brings us today's teaching from

(00:44):
God's word.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
It's been said in this world it's not what you know,
it's who you know. We say that a lot, and
what we mean by that is if you know somebody
in a certain environment, they can help you in a
certain sugue situation where you wouldn't have otherwise been helped.
I started learning that when I was a little boy.
I remember going to basketball camp as a sixth grade
kid at the University of Illinois, and I got to

(01:09):
know one of the assistant coaches there pretty well. We
developed a pretty good relationship and I oftentimes went to games.
But he told me if I ever came to a game,
just to get him and he would take me into
the locker room to meet the players and get autographs
and do that kind of thing. So I remember coming
down to the place behind the bench and telling the usher, Hey,
I know coach so and so, and he's like, you

(01:29):
don't know him. I'm like, no, no, you need to go
get him, and he wouldn't do anything I was asking.
And all of a sudden, the coach noticed me after
the game and he came over and he said to
the usher, he's with me, to which I looked at
the usher I was like, see told you. He walked
me down on the court, we went into the locker room.
As a sixth grade kid, I got all the autographs

(01:50):
I wanted, and every time I went to a game
from then on, if he saw me, he always welcomed
me to do that. It wasn't what I knew, it
was who I knew. In life. All of us have
situations where there's certain people in certain venues that have
come and been our advocate or come to a rescue
at some point in time, or they've taken up for
us when nobody else was listening and they say, oh

(02:10):
I know her, Oh I know him. You need to
listen to what they're saying, and they vouch for us,
and they help us. When it comes to our life
with God, we need an advocate too. We need one
who can speak on our behalf, who can vouch for us,
who can be our mediator because he knows us. And
this is so important for us when it comes to

(02:31):
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When Jesus said I am
the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one
comes to the Father except through me, he wasn't just
mincing words. He was telling the truth that for those
that he knows, who know him, he will be an
advocate between us and the Father. And there's one mediator
between God and man, and that's the man, Jesus Christ.

(02:52):
As we've been studying the Book of Hebrews, we've been
taking a look at about how Jesus Christ is the
greatest of all time. He's the greatest prophet, he's the
greatest king, he is the greatest. He's greater than the angels,
He's greater than Moses. And we're gonna start taking the
look out at how he is the greatest high priest.
Here's been the challenges I've been reading and studying this

(03:14):
passage in this text. I think if I said Jesus
is the greatest high priest for most of us here,
we'd be like, yes, So what I never think about
a high priest? What is a high priest? Why is
Jius the greatest high priest? And what benefit is it
of Jus being my greatest high priest? Those are the
three questions we want to ask an answer today. And
I think if you follow through, you'll see that it

(03:36):
is so important that you understand Jesus Christ in his
role of high priest in your life. So to do
that this morning, I want to look at Hebrews chapter four,
starting in verse fourteen, and we'll read through Hebrews chapter
five and verse ten, and we'll take a look at
the text and then ask that question, what's a high priest?
And why is Jesus the greatest high priest of all time?

(03:56):
And what benefit is Jesus being a great high high priests?
To me? How can I personally benefit from that? And
I think it's important because throughout this book we've been
taking a look not only how Jesus is so great,
but how so many people miss the mark, and how
so many people stumble and come up short, and how
so many people think it's about their good works, or
so many people think it's about religious ritual, or so

(04:19):
many people have hardened their heart and Jesus Christ is
really not the lord of their life. So what do
they do? This is what the text is going to
answer for us today. Read along with me, and then
we'll unpack it together. He says in Hebrews four fourteen. 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

(04:41):
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.
For every high priest taken from among men is appointed
on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in

(05:01):
order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. He
can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he
himself also is beset with weakness, and because of it
he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins as for
the people, so also for himself. And no one takes
the honor to himself, but receives it when he is

(05:22):
called by God, even as Aaron was so, also Christ
did not glorify himself so as to become a high priest.
But he who said to him, you are my son,
today I have begotten you. Just as he says also
in another passage, you are a priest forever, according to
the order of Melchizedek. In the days of his flesh,
he offered up both prayers and supplications, with loud crying

(05:46):
and tears to the one who is able to save
him from death, and he was heard because of his piety.
Although he was a son, he learned obedience from the
things which he suffered, and having been made perfect, he
became to all those who obey him, the source of
eternal salvation, being designated by God as high priest according

(06:06):
to the order of Melchizedec. And here in this text
we're gonna ask and answer those three questions, what is
a high priest? Why is Jus the great high priest?
And what's the benefit to me of Jesus Christ being
our great high priest? And the first question we need
to ask is what is a high priest? What is
a high priest? Today? To do this, I'm gonna start

(06:27):
in chapter five and going through those first ten verses
because they really buttress and support Chapter four verses fourteen, fifteen,
and sixteen. That's really the lynchpin of all of this,
and that's where we're gonna end up today because that's
really gonna answer for us why what's the importance of
this coming out of the whole understanding of our need
for Jesus Christ to be our lord. That's where we're

(06:47):
gonna end. But let's start first with what is a
high priest? Notice what he says. He says for every
high priest is taken from among men, is appointed on
behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order
to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sin. Every Jew
knew what a priest was and every Jew knew who

(07:08):
the high priest was. So let's just make it really,
really really simple. First thing you need to know is
a high priest is always a man. When God appointed
a priest and a high priest, all the priests in
the Old Testament were men. God has used women and men.
They are both created in the image of God, male
and female. He created them. But you need to understand.

(07:29):
If you study the priesthood line, the levitical priesthood, the
arionic priesthood, you will find that every single priest and
high priest is a man. And we need to understand
that from when we start asking the question of what
makes Jesus Christ our great high priest? Because in order
to be the high priest, you had to be a man.
You had to be a male. And notice what else

(07:51):
had to be true, You had to be submitted to
God's God's designated appointment. It says for every high priest
taken from among men, is appointed on behalf of men.
He's appointed. Notice what verse four says, and no one
takes the honor to himself, but receives it when he
is called by God, even as Aaron was. If you

(08:14):
go back and study the Old Testament. There's several scriptures
in the Pentituke, the first five books of the Bible,
which talks about the high priesthood, which talks about the
priesthood and how it came through Aaron, Moses's brother. You
look up Exodus twenty eight, numbers eighteen, Leviticus twenty one.
Here's also what the high priest needed to do if
they were going to be appointed and designated by God.

(08:36):
They needed to be without physical blemish and they needed
to have holy conduct. You remember a couple of Aaron's
sons were, you know, playing with strange fire. They said
they weren't having holy conduct, and God killed him. I mean,
the high priest had to be holy. He needed to
be set apart. He needed to look different. And that

(08:56):
high priest, even though it came out of the levitical priesthood,
the Trial of the Levites, even though it came from Aaron,
all of them were appointed by God when they were
in leadership. Is It's as if God was saying, I'm
the one who placed them there. Here's what it means.
No young boy in Israel could have woke up and said,
you know, someday, I think I'll be a priest, maybe

(09:16):
even a high priest. I aspire to that. Now we
live in a generation where we tell kids all the time,
you can be whatever you want to be, don't let
anybody stop you. And for the most part, that's a
pretty good statement. Now you really can't be anything you
want to be, no matter what. But you'll learn that
as you age. But the point is, we think we can.
But if you weren't from the levitical line, and you

(09:38):
weren't appointed by God from among men, you couldn't be
that high priest. God was the one who called people
to it. God is the one who appointed them to it.
And notice what else we learn that this high priest
not only was a man, and not only was submitted
to God's designated appointment, and he was set apart, but
notice this, he ministered as an intermediate between men and God.

Speaker 1 (10:03):
This is Pastor Jeff ministries with doctor Jeff swarzentraup and
today Pastor Jeff is sharing his message our great High
Priest from the series The Greatest, helping you find comfort
in Christ, who represents you, understands you, and helps you
in every weakness. We'll get back to Pastor Jeff in
just a moment. But first, generous listeners like you make

(10:25):
programs like this one possible. And when you give a
gift in support of Pastor Jeff ministries today, we'll thank
you with a copy of Pastor Jeff's Battle Test and Wisdom,
a ten day prayer journey for real life decisions to
help you learn to live by God's wisdom not your
own understanding. To get your copy, visit us at Pastorjeff
dot com to gift. Once again, that website is Pastorjeff

(10:47):
dot com. Now let's get back to today's message. As
we listen to the conclusion of this teaching from God's word.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
And notice what else we learn That this high priest
not only was a man, and not only was submitted
to God's designated appointment, and he was set apart. But
notice this. He ministered as an intermediary between men and God.
He ministered as an intermediary between man and God. Notice
what it says he was on behalf of men the

(11:18):
things pertaining to God in order to offer both gifts
and sacrifices for sins, which we'll talk about in a minute.
He can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since
he himself is also beset with weakness. He ministered as
an intermediary. Prophets speak to men for God. Priests minister

(11:39):
unto God for men. It's a different role, it's a
different responsibility. When a prophet stands up and says, thus,
saith the Lord, he's saying, here's what God said, and
you need to hear it as if he's speaking it
exactly through me. That was a prophet. A priest was
one who ministered on behalf of the people to God,
interceded for, prayed for, taught them, you know, lived in

(12:04):
such a way where they could model what it looked
like to be set apart. That's what the priest's role was.
And we'll see his major role here in just a minute.
But notice what else. If he's going to minister as
an intermediary between man and God, it means that his
acts on earth had significance in heaven. I mean, is
what he did as a mediation between the people of

(12:27):
Israel and God. What he did on the earth had
significance for what took place in heaven. Number four is
this he genuinely sympathized with the weakness of humanity. God
wanted the high priest to genuinely sympathize with the weakness
of humanity. No notice this. He can deal with the ignorant,
those are people that don't have the knowledge of God
and the misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness.

(12:52):
God wanted the high priest to have compassion for people.
Religious people do not have compassion for people. Religious don't
get the fact that some people just don't have a
knowledge of God, and that some people, even though they do,
are misguided in how they live. But God wanted his
priests to understand, Hey, sometimes people aren't gonna understand me,

(13:14):
and hey, sometimes even when they do, they're going to
do the wrong things. And you need to understand that
because you're a sinner too. Right, you're beset with your
own weaknesses. Religious people forget that they're beset with their
own weaknesses. Some pastors forget that they're beset with their
own weaknesses. Some ministers forget they're beset with their own weaknesses.
Sometimes we forget that we're still weak before God, and

(13:37):
we expect other people to know God and always do
what's right, but we don't have the same expectation ourselves. Right,
here's what a priest would do. God's priests were designed
so they could lead people into the knowledge of God
and tell people the right things to do, but do
it with a sense of compassion and grace, understanding that
people won't always do that. It's important for pastors to

(13:58):
understand that. I understand that. I understand that not every
single person that comes to Brave churches one hundred percent
of the time always gonna hear God correctly and do
exactly what he says. And the reason I know that
is because I don't always do that either, right, I mean,
that's what he's talking about here, He goes, we're beset
with some of the same weaknesses, and so here's what

(14:18):
he wants us to do. He wants us, he wants
as priest to minister unto God, to intercede for people
to get the knowledge of God, to model for God
what it looks like, to walk it out. That was
the priest's job. Now, let's talk about the high priest specifically,
give you a final one offered sacrifices on behalf of sinners.

(14:39):
Priests always offered sacrifices on behalf of sinners. You remember
how the Old Testament was set up, the Old Covenant
was set up. If you sinned, or should I say
when you send, there needed to be blood that was
shed in order for sin to be covered or atoned for.
So all the way back in the gard and when

(15:00):
Adam and Eve sinned and they played hide and go
seek with God and they put coverings on themselves, what
was the first thing God did for them? He made
garments out of what skin? Where did the skin come from?
An animals? So what happened? An animal had to shed
blood for the covering of the sin. Hebrews nine twenty
two tells us without the shedding of blood, there is
no forgiveness of sin. So if you read through the

(15:22):
Old Testament, you see this extensive treatment on why animal
blood needed to be shed in order to cover the
sins of the people. That's what was going on. Now
why was that so important? Here's why can you imagine
living in a world where sin separates you from God? See,

(15:43):
the Israelites knew that their sin condition kept them from
being around a perfect, righteous and holy God. God is perfect,
God is righteous, God is holy. God is nothing like you.
That's what God told his people. And there's nothing that
you can do to get right with me. So Therefore,
I'm appointing a high priest and priests who are going

(16:04):
to offer sacrifices on behalf of your sin, so that
I can cover over your sin and not have to
look at your sin. Very similarly, when Israel left Egypt
the night before they left the last plague, what did
they have to do? They had to paint blood on
the door post so that the Angel of Death could
see blood and pass over to keep them alive. Without

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the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin.
Israel knew that they had no hope of getting to God.
Can you imagine a world like that? I hope you do,
because you live in it. There's nothing you can do
to get right with God. Did you know that that
God is perfect, He's holy, he's righteous, he's good. You
can't wake up and say I think I'm just gonna
get right with God today. You can't do it. God

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is perfect and God only takes perfect people. That's always
been the way. And so for Israel, what He did
was he covered over their sins. He never atoned him.
They were never their sins weren't gone. The guilt and
shame was still there. But God used those gallons upon
gallons upon oceans of blood to cover over all the

(17:10):
sins of the people until Messiah would come. And the
High Priest was the only one of the priests who
every year on yam Kipur, which is the day of
Atonement on the tenth day of the seventh month seventh month,
would enter into what was called the Holy of Holies,
either in the Tabernacle or eventually in the temple. This
was a place that only the High Priest could go,

(17:32):
and only the High Priest could go once a year.
Jewish tradition tells us there was a curtain that separated
the Holy of Holies from where other people could be
and other priests could be. Jewish tradition tells us there
was about a four inch thick curtain went about sixty
feet up in the air and covered the Holy of Holies,
so only the High Priest could get through. And when

(17:53):
he went, and before he went in, he had to
offer a sacrifice of blood on behalf of his own sins,
and then he took blood in with him to sprinkle
it on the mercy seat, which was where the presence
of God was to atone for or cover for the
people's sins because throughout the year, people had send over
and over and over and over and over, just like

(18:13):
in every generation sins like one thing you'll never see
on the news. I'm always surprised at what I'm going
to see on the news, But one thing you'll never
see on the news breaking this generation doesn't sin anymore.
That is never going to happen, right, And so the
priests had great job security because the only way that
people could relate to God is if their sin was covered.

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And the only one that could cover sin was a priest,
And the only one that could atone for the whole
nation was the high priest who went in once a
year to atone for the sins of the people. He
was God's chosen instrument who ministered as an intermediary between
God and men who genuinely sympathized with the people's weakness.
And he offered sacrifices. It says he offered gifts and sacrifices,

(18:58):
and we know the grain offering was a gift. We
know everything else was a blood sacrifice. He offered everything
that God required so that the people's sin could be covered.
You know how great it is to know that your
sins covered. Oh, how great it is that you know
that you can have a relationship with God because he's
not holding your sins against you. So what's a high priest?

(19:20):
A high priest was God's chosen designated instrument of divine
appointment to make sure that the nation's sins could be
covered when they sinned. It's that an important position. Now.
The reason we need to go over that is because
for most of us we're like, I don't need a
high priest, never had a high priest, never even thought
about having a high priest. Well you should, because if
that's what a high priest is, then why is Jesus

(19:42):
the greatest high priest of all time? What makes Jesus
so great? And why do we need to be aware
that he's a he's a high priest. Let's keep reading
it says in verse five. So also Christ did not
glorify himself so as to become a high priest. But
he who said to him, he's going to quote Psalm
two and verse seven, you are my son today I
have begotten you, just as he also says in another passage,

(20:05):
which is Psalm one hundred and ten, verse four, you
are a priest forever. According to the order of Melchizedec.
Now here's what you need to understand about Jesus. What
makes Jesus the great high priest? First of all, he's
a man through the incarnation. Now that should make your
mouth drop. Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity,

(20:26):
God of God, who has always existed. There was never
a time that he didn't exist, became a man. In
the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God,
and the Word was God. He spoke the world into existence.
Everything you see and don't see what's created by Jesus.
And what we learned in the New Testament is the
Word became flesh, and he made his dwelling among us.

(20:49):
God became a man. If you ever wondered what's God like,
how would God respond to this? What would God do
in this situation? Study the person and life of Jesus,
and you're seeing God God live in a body. That's
who our God is. In order for Jesus to be
a high priest, he had to become a man. Now,
notice what it says. It says he didn't become a

(21:11):
high priest when he did all these wonderful things, but
God appointed him as a high priest. Notice, he was
submitted to God's designated appointment from eternity past. He said,
you are my son today. I have begotten you. When
did Jesus become God's son? He's always been God's son,
He's the eternal son of God. He's always existed. And

(21:34):
he says, you are a priest, how long? Forever since
eternity passed till eternity future. That's always been one of
your roles is to be a high priest according to
the order of Melchizedec. Now we're gonna get into Melchizedec
in a little bit, in case that sounds like a
big word, and like, what are we talking about with Melchizedec.
Every Jew would have understood who Melchizedek was. You can
go back and read Genesis fourteen. We're gonna flesh it

(21:56):
out in the coming weeks. But when Abraham came back
from battle, he tied a tenth to Melchizedek, who was
a priest, the King of Righteousness, the King of Salem.
We're going to see what that was. But that order
of priesthood, the milk Chizedecian priesthood, was a priesthood that
was different than the levitical priesthood. To be in the
levitical priesthood, you had to be born into it, and

(22:17):
then you died and somebody else took your place. This
milk chisedec priesthood was somebody who had always been and
will always be, And we're going to discover who that
is and how that worked. Jesus Christ has always been priest.
He's always been the one who is going to fulfill
everything that a priest was supposed to do, and he's
going to do it perfectly. I mean, we read in
Philippians two. Now Jesus Christ, being found in the flesh

(22:43):
as a man, humbled himself and became obedient to death,
even death and a cross. Therefore God gave him the
name that's above every name, the name of Jesus. Every
need will bow, and every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ
is Lord. So why went he was here? He says,
I only do what I see my father doing. The
Father and I are one. It's really because at the
end of Jesus Christ's life, what really set the crucifixion
in motion was Jesus having to talk with the current

(23:05):
high priest. Did you know that? So the High priest
of the day was questioning Jesus in Mark chapter fourteen,
right at the very end of Jesus's life before the
whole Crucifixion series get started, and the high priest is
asking Jesus a question. He's saying, are you the Christ
the blessed One? He's asking Jesus, do you think you're God?

(23:27):
Do you think you're the promised Messiah who's been promised
to come forever and ever? And why were they asking
that question? Because the Jews of the day knew that
of high priests and that priest could only do so
much for them. They could atone for the sins in
order to cover them, but they couldn't cleanse any of them.
They weren't washed away. There was a promise that there
was a high priest coming that would cleanse them and

(23:48):
wash away all their sins. This high priest is now
standing in front of Jesus Christ and he's asking him,
is that you do you think your God? Do you
think you can atone for the sins of the world?
Do you do you think you're the promised Messiah, the
one the whole Old Testament scriptures testifies about. Are you
not going to answer me, I mean, is it really you?
What is Jess's answer?

Speaker 1 (24:10):
I am Thanks for listening to Pastor Jeff Ministries. That
was Pastor Jeff with his message our Great High Priest
from the series The Greatest, helping you find comfort in Christ,
who represents you, understands you, and helps you in every weakness.
Before we say goodbye, we want to remind you that

(24:31):
when you give a gift to keep teachings like this
one going out to you and others, we'll send you
Pastor Jeff's battle tested wisdom, a ten day prayer journey
for real life decisions to help you lean on God's wisdom.
Visit Pastorjeff dot com to give That's Pastorjeff dot com.
While you're there, be sure to sign up for email
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(24:54):
Thanks again for joining us today,