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December 9, 2024 • 15 mins

Have you ever felt like no one truly gets you? In this Christmas-themed message, discover how Jesus, our High Priest, knows your every struggle and pain. Hebrews 4:15-16 assures us that He sympathizes with our weaknesses and invites us to approach His throne of grace boldly.

Listen as we unpack the incredible gift of understanding Jesus offers, providing comfort and hope for the misunderstood.

💻 Tune in weekly to explore geek culture, faith, and powerful biblical truths.

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Episode Transcript

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Greater Guild Announcer (00:02):
Hey there, nerds and geeks. Welcome
to Church Nerds United, thepodcast where faith meets fandom
and we level up in God's truth.Today, we're kicking off our
brand new Christmas series, TheGift, with a message that hits
close to home, no oneunderstands me. Have you ever
felt like no one gets you? Yourstruggles, your pain, or even
your joys?

(00:24):
Well, here's the good news.Jesus does. As our high priest,
he understands us completely andwalks with us through every
battle. So grab your favoritecozy beverage, settle in, and
let's dive into a powerfulmessage about the gift of being
fully known and deeply loved.

Pastor Brandon Holm (00:44):
Welcome to today's message in our Christmas
series, The Gift. This season,like every year, we celebrate
the birth of Jesus Christ. Andtoday, we're reflecting on the
gift of understanding, theassurance that, Jesus knows us
deeply and walks with us in ourstrength in our strengths and
struggles. So when we talk abouttoday's service, it's titled No

(01:08):
One Understands Me.
And it'll explore how Jesus, asour high priest, fully
understands our weaknesses, ourpain, and our joy. So let's dive
into the word of God with thistheme of hope and connection.
From the beginning, the dividebetween God's holiness and
humanity's sinfulness has beenone of the most crucial themes

(01:28):
in scripture. God is not justgood or powerful. He is holy.
The word holy comes from theGreek word, agios, which means
set apart or other. This meansGod is entirely distinct, pure,
and perfect in every way.Consider Isaiah's vision in

(01:49):
Isaiah 6:1 through 5. Theprophet sees God seated on his
throne, surrounded by angels whoare crying, holy, holy, holy is
the Lord of hosts. The wholeearth is full of his glory.
Isaiah, he has an immediateresponse of terror and exclaims,
woe is me. I am ruined, or I ama man of unclean lips. Isaiah

(02:15):
recognized that in the presenceof God's holiness, his
sinfulness was laid bare. Butwhat does this mean for us
today? Many in our modernculture dismiss the concept of
sin.
It's often seen as an outdatedidea and is replaced by phrases
like, you know, mistakes orpersonal flaws. Yet if we

(02:36):
diminish the reality of sin, wealso diminish the gravity of
God's holiness. Withoutunderstanding the vastness of
God's perfection, we can't graspthe depth of our need for his
grace. In our geek culture, weoften see this tension reflected
in the story as we love. Thinkof the relationship between

(02:56):
Frodo and the ring in the Lordof the Rings trilogy or even the
book.
The ring represents corruptionand sin, and it's constantly
drawing Frodo away from what isgood. Spikes Frodo's noble
intentions, the ring reveals hisvulnerability and the chasm
between his desires and purity.Similarly, our sin separates us

(03:20):
from God's holiness, and itexposes our need for a savior.
God's holiness isn't just one ofhis many attribute. Attribute is
the culmination of hisattributes.
He his love is holy. His justiceis holy. His mercy is holy. This
means that God cannot toleratesin. It's entirely incompatible

(03:43):
with his nature.
Now that's why it says inHabakkuk, chapter 1 verse 13,
your eyes are too pure to lookon evil. You cannot tolerate
wrongdoing. This this truth mayfeel heavy, but it is
foundational to understandingthe gospel. Now enter the
sacrificial system of the oldtestament. This was God's

(04:06):
provision to temporarily addressthe sinfulness of humanity.
Leviticus 16 describes the dayof atonement where the high
priest would enter the holy ofholies, offer sacrifices to
atone for the people's sins. Thepriest would sprinkle the blood
of an innocent animal, and onthe mercy seat, and it
symbolizes the payment for sin.This act wasn't random or

(04:30):
archaic. It showed the cost ofsin and God's provision of
forgiveness. Even the idea ofthe scapegoat during the
ceremony is a powerfulillustration.
The priest would simplysymbolically transfer the sins
of the people onto the goat,which was then sent into the
wilderness signifying theremoval of sin. So this visual

(04:53):
teaches us 2 truths. You know,sin is serious, and God is
merciful. Again, in our geekculture, it's like when a hero
sacrifices themselves for thegood of the entire group. No one
can really illustrate thisbetter than Spock in the second
Star Trek movie, the wrath ofwrath of Khan, where he states

(05:15):
dying in a highly radioactiveroom, the needs of the many
outweigh the needs of the few.
This echoes the sacrificialsystem and ultimately points to
the ultimate sacrifice made byJesus. God's holiness demands
justice for sin, but his loveand mercy provides a way for us

(05:35):
to be restored. The sacrificialsystem was not the end, but a
foreshadowing of somethinggreater. It reminds us of the
weight of our sin and thelengths God goes to bridge the
gap. This understanding sets thestage for Jesus, the ultimate
fulfillment of God's plan ofredemption.

(05:56):
Now the concept of Jesus as ourhigh priest is central to
understanding his role in ourrelationship with God. In in the
Old Testament, priests served asmediators between God and his
people. They performedsacrifices for the forgiveness
of sins and interceded on behalfof the people through prayer.
But in Hebrews 5 1 through 3, itreally explains it that every

(06:19):
high priest is selected fromamong the people and is
appointed to represent thepeople in matters related to
God, to offering gifts andsacrifices for sin. However, the
system of the old testamentpriesthood was imperfect and
temporary.
The priests themselves weresinful and had to offer
sacrifices not only for thepeople, but also for their own

(06:42):
sins. Moreover, the sacrificesthey offered, which was with
goats, lambs, and even bulls,would only cover the sin for a
short amount of time. Thesesacrifices were a shadow of what
was to come, pointing towards abetter solution. This is where
Jesus, the ultimate high prieststeps in. Hebrews 4 14 declares,

(07:05):
since we since then we have ahigh priest who has passed
through the heavens, Jesus theson of God, let us hold fast our
confession.
Jesus is not just anotherpriest. He is the high priest
who surpasses all others. Unlikethe human priests of old, Jesus
is sinless and perfect. Hebrews726 says, such a high priest

(07:29):
truly meets our needs. 1 who isholy, blameless, pure, set apart
from sinners, exalted above theheavens.
One of the most powerful aspectsof Jesus' priesthood is that he
didn't offer the blood ofanimals as a temporary solution
for sin. Instead, he offered hisown life as a perfect once for

(07:49):
all sacrifice. Hebrews 10:10states, we have been made holy
through the sacrifice of thebody of Jesus Christ through
once and for all. In his deathon the cross, Jesus sacrificed
the satisfied the justice ofGod, paying the penalty for sin,

(08:09):
and opened the way for humanityto be reconciled to God. In our
culture here as geeks, this canbe likened to the ultimate hero
taking the final unbeatablechallenge to secure a lasting
peace for everyone.
Again, think of a character likeAslan in The Chronicles of
Narnia who willingly sacrificeshimself to break the curse of

(08:29):
sin and death over Narnia.Aslan's sacrifice mirrors the
much greater reality of Jesus'atonement, which is not bound to
a fictional world, buttransforms the lives of everyone
who believes in him. Not onlydoes Jesus' priesthood deal with
sin, but it also gives us directaccess to God. So as you

(08:50):
remember, the Old Testamentpriests acted as intermediaries,
but Jesus removes the barriers.I mean, when he died, the veil
in the temple, and it's thishuge cloth, and it separated the
holy of holies from the rest ofthe people.
When he died, it was torn in 2.This act symbolizes that though

(09:11):
Jesus that through Jesus, excuseme, we now have open access to
God. As Hebrews 416 proclaims,let us then with confidence draw
near to the throne of grace thatwe may receive the mercy and
find grace to help in time ofneed. Jesus as our high priest
is also deeply personal. Hedidn't perform his priestly role

(09:34):
from a distance.
Instead, he entered into ourworld, experienced our
struggles, and walked among us.His priesthood isn't just a
theological concept. It's arelational truth. Jesus
understands our pain andintercedes for us daily offering
not only, forgiveness but alsoongoing grace and mercy. In his

(09:59):
role as high priest, Jesusfulfills both the justice and
the mercy of God.
He offers a solution to theproblem of sin that the old
testament system could onlypoint towards. He is the
ultimate bridge between a holyGod and a sinful humanity, and
through him, we are made new.One of the most comforting

(10:19):
aspects of Jesus as our highpriest is his deep and personal
understanding of us. Hebrews4:15 affirms this truth. For we
do not have a high priest who isunable to sympathize with our
weaknesses, but one who in everyrespect has been tempted as we
are yet without sin.

(10:39):
Jesus doesn't merely observe ourstruggles from a distance he has
lived them. Think about thisprofound reality. Jesus, the son
of God, stepped into thelimitations of humanity. He
experienced the full spectrum ofhuman emotions and challenges.
If you feel anxious oroverwhelmed, remember that Jesus
felt anguish so deep in thegarden of Geth Gethsemane, never

(11:04):
pronounced that word.
Sorry. That his sweat becamelike drops of blood. If you face
rejection, Jesus experiencedbetrayal from Judas, one of his
closest companions and denialfrom Peter Peter, a loyal
disciple. Jesus understandingextends even to the mundane
struggles of a life. He knewhungrier hunger after fasting

(11:27):
for 40 days.
He felt the pain of loss whenhis friend Lazarus died and he
wept openly sharing in the griefgrief of others. Even as a
sinless son of god, heexperienced the weight of
temptation as the devil soughtto exploit his vulnerabilities
in the wilderness. This truth isa gift to us. It means that

(11:48):
whenever we are whatever we'refacing, we can be assured that
Jesus has been there. Heunderstands the pressures of
life, the weight of sorrow, andeven the sting of loneliness.
Isaiah 533 describes him as aman of sorrows acquainted with
grief. Yet unlike us, Jesus didnot sin. His victory over

(12:09):
temptation shows us that he isnot only sympathetic to our
struggles but also able to helpus overcome them. This reality
speaks powerfully to the heartof geek culture. Many of us have
felt like outsiders,misunderstood by family, peers,
or society as a whole.
Jesus knows what it's like to bemisunderstood and judged. From

(12:32):
his birth in the manger to hisdeath on the cross, his life
defied expectations and norms.People questioned his legitimacy
and still do today. People stillmock his teachings as they did
back then, and many rejected hislove like still many do today.
Yet his he continued his missionwith unwavering purpose and

(12:53):
compassion.
Imagine Jesus is the ultimateally in your favorite RPG. He
isn't just a healer standingfrom the sidelines. He's in the
thick of battle with you, takinghits and clearing obstacles.
He's not a distance a distantobserver, but one who
understands every struggle youface, fighting alongside you and

(13:14):
guiding you towards victory. AsI said, Hebrews 416 gives us a
profound invitation.
Let us then with confidence drawnear to the throne of grace that
we may receive mercy and findgrace to help in time of need.
Because Jesus understands us, wedon't need to approach him with

(13:34):
fear or hesitation. We can comeboldly knowing he will meet us
with grace and mercy. This meanswe can be honest with him about
pain, doubt, even our failures.He really knows them and
welcomes us into his presence.
Jesus' understanding of ourstruggles isn't just comforting.
It's transformative. It assuresus that we are never alone no

(13:57):
matter how isolated we feel. Hisempathy strengthens us, and his
grace empowers us to face life'schallenges with courage and
hope. Whatever you are carryingtoday know that Jesus sees you,
understands you, and invites youto draw near him.
So as we celebrate Christmas,let's embrace the truth that we
are fully known and loved byJesus. The gift of his

(14:20):
understanding is profound.Whenever you're you know,
whatever you're facing,loneliness, stress, or the
feeling of being misunderstood,Jesus is your refuge. Take time
this week to come boldly to himin prayer. Carry your heart,
your struggles, and yourvictories.
For as it says in Matthew 11 28,come to me all who labor and are

(14:43):
heavy laden, and I will give yourest.

Greater Guild Announcer (14:49):
Thanks for joining us today on Church
Nerds United. I hope this firstmessage from our Christmas
series, The Gift, reminded youthat you're never alone. Jesus
understands you deeply and walkswith you, no matter how
misunderstood you might feel. Ifthis message encouraged you, be
sure to like, share, andsubscribe to the podcast. Don't
forget to follow us on Twitch,YouTube, and all your favorite

(15:12):
platforms for more upliftingmessages and geeky fun.
And, hey, if you wanna connectfurther, head over to
greaterguild.org. Until nexttime, keep leveling up your
faith and geeking out for God.See you in the next episode. And
remember, you're loved, known,and understood.
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