Jesus is our... (Hebrews 5:1-10)

I love studying the book of Hebrews, because it’s helping me grow as a Christian, it’s helping me love Jesus more, and love sin less. This is how it’s supposed to be for Christians. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says ‘we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to another.’ Put simply, as we spend time with Jesus, we become more like Him. As we spend time with Jesus, we come to life. Jesus says in John 17:3 that ‘this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ who you have sent.’

Every religious activity is only valuable to the degree that it helps us to see Jesus. And the author to the Hebrews is relentless in His approach, grabbing us by the collar and focusing us on Jesus. When you know Jesus better, your confidence in Him is stronger and you are filled with courage to live and speak for Him. We need to meet the real Jesus in the Bible. We need to see Him as our only hope if we are to have any hope.

We see four things about Jesus in this passage as the author continues where we left him a couple of weeks ago explaining to us about His role as our High Priest, our representative. Tonight we see that Jesus represents us, helps us, heals us and saves us. What a great God we have, what a great God Jesus is!

First of all we see that Jesus, our High Priest, represents us. Verse one tells us that the High Priest was chosen from among men to act on behalf of men. Verses 9 and 10 tell us that Jesus, as a man, was made perfect so He could represent us. We understand why the High Priest had to be a man. No one else could represent men, no one else could stand in front of God for the cause of men. And that’s why Jesus had to be a man. Every Christmas, near enough, we hear people talk about the virgin birth as if it didn’t matter. What do we lose if we lose the virgin birth, they ask. Well we lose Jesus, we lose our representative. What does it matter that Jesus was fully man? Well He is only our representative to the extent that He was a man. Only a man can stand before God and represent men, Jesus can only represent you if He was fully human.

Just let that sink in for a moment, Jesus is able to represent you. That’s why we pray ‘in Jesus name,’ because He represent us. When you think about Heaven, it’s not a place where you are a stranger, or where you are not known or recognized, it’s a place where you are represented by the Son of God.

Next we see that Jesus is able to help us. Look at verse 2 and verse 8 with me. Verse 2 is talking about the human High Priest. Since he was best, or weighed down, or familiar with weakness, he was able to sympathize with those who were weak. You could go to the High Priest and find a sympathetic hearing because he was just like you. Verse 8 tells us that Jesus, ‘learned obedience though what He suffered.’ Don’t be thrown off by the idea of Jesus learning to be obedient, He was always 100% obedient to His Father, but, as a man He now has knowledge of what suffering really is like. First hand, knowledge of brutal, unfair suffering. He didn’t have that in Heaven at His Father’s side. So He didn’t become obedient, he became obedient through suffering.

So get this. The next time you suffer, whether physically or socially or spiritually. The next time you’re injured or betrayed, and you go to Jesus about it, He knows. He mourns with those who mourn and hurts with those who hurt, and He knows exactly what it’s like. What a saviour, how can this Jesus not dominate our lives.

Next we see that Jesus is able to heal us. Verse 3 tells us that human high priest ‘was obligated to offer sacrifices for his own sins,’ but verse 7 tells us that Jesus was heard, not because of His offerings, but ‘because of His reverence.’ The human High Priest had to make an offering for his own sins before he could make an offering for the sins of the people. He was heard because he killed a goat and shed it’s blood on the altar for his own sins. Jesus was perfect, and was heard because of His reverence. Now, the blood of sheep and goats can not take away sins, they can not healing a sinner. They were never supposed to, they were always just a sign post.

But Jesus blood can.

If you feel trapped in a sin you can’t get out of, Jesus can heal you. If you fell stuck in sin, Jesus can heal you. If you feel like there’s no way you have any hope of escaping sin, you’re right. Only Jesus has that power, and Jesus blood can heal you. Jesus shed His blood to win you from sin. Jesus went to the cross so that you would see Him and love Him more than sin. He went to the cross to heal you. He didn’t shed goats blood, He shed His own blood.

And because He shed that blood, He’s able to save us. Verse 9 tells us that Jesus is the source of eternal salvation. Isn’t that good? The human high priest could not save his people, he could only cover their sins and look forward to the day when Jesus would come and die, and by dying offer forgiveness. Eternal salvation to those who want it. That’s what it means to obey the Him in verse 9. Just by asking for salvation, living with confidence in Jesus, not yourself. Have you done that? When the devils comes and asks you why God would ever listen to you, ever accept you, ever save you, does your answer start with ‘because I,’ or ‘because Jesus?’

Where is your confidence tonight? This author, and this youth pastor desire that you trust, and hope, and delight in nothing apart from what Jesus has done. You will be tempted your whole life, every moment, but when you are tempted remember you have a sympathetic representative in Heaven who can and will help you overcome sin. And when you fail, you have someone in Heaven, God’s Son, who has shed His blood for you, and will forgive you every time you ask. The next time you’re tempted to compromise your faith, the next time you’re tempted to walk away, the next time you’re tempted to trust in yourself for salvation, remember Jesus helping you, healing you, sympathizing with you, and saving you.