Call to worship:
1 I love the Lord, because he has heard
my voice and my pleas for mercy.
2 Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
3 The snares of death encompassed me;
the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
I suffered distress and anguish.
4 Then I called on the name of the Lord:
“O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!”Psalm 116:1-4
Gathering Video
Questions for reflection:
What comparisons are made between Jesus and the high priest? How is Jesus not only “better” but “the best?”
Seeing the life of Jesus, how does he show us the ways he thoroughly understands the human condition?
What is the way for our lives with this high priest?
Corporate Prayer:
Our Father in heaven,
We thank you for the presence of Christ and the peace He brings. We are grateful for this grand story that centers on Your Son and shapes the entirety of our lives. May Your Spirit send us from this place with boldness, kindness, compassion, and love.
In the name of Christ we pray,
Amen
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Notes//Quotes//Slides:
Hebrews 5:1-10 - Linda B
Slide 1
Big Idea
Jesus our High Priest understands our lives, mediates between us and God,
and provides eternal salvation.
Slide 2
Phases of God’s Program to Restore His Creation
God dwells with His sinful people
God walks among His sinful people
God lives in His redeemed people (YOU ARE HERE)
God lives with, among, and in His glorified people
Slide 3 (and maybe 4)
“If you were an Israelite living under the old covenant, and you did not belong to the tribe of Levi, ninety feet is as close as you would ever get to the presence of God in the Holy of Holies.
God had fulfilled his promise to dwell among his people, but his holiness demanded separation. He was near, yet guarded; present, yet veiled; inviting, yet intimidating. The mere presence of the temple revealed God’s desire to be near his people. But everything about the temple said, “You dare not approach me on your own.”
The cherubim that once flashed a flaming sword at the entrance to Eden now blocked the way to the Holy of Holies. Any who broke through the barrier would fall before the consuming fire of Sinai. Safer for a man to walk on the sun than a sinner to stand unshielded before God.
Every day, the temple preached a silent sermon to any who had ears to hear: You need a mediator to make atonement. You need an advocate to intercede. You need a priest to make a way.”
Scott Hubbard
Slide 4/5
“And in the first century, as he laid his hand on the head of the animal, he would say ‘O God, I have committed iniquity and transgressed and sinned before thee, I and my house and the children of Aaron, thy holy people. O God, forgive, I pray, the iniquities and transgressions and sins which I have committed and transgressed and sinned before thee, I and my house.’ Only then was he able to minister on behalf of the people.”
Leon Morris
Slide 5/6
““This is what his training involved: learning to submit his natural desires to his Father’s will, even when it meant pain and hardship and self-denial—as it often did. And this is why he prayed with loud cries and tears. It wasn’t an act—he wasn’t faking. He prayed with loud cries and tears because the prospect of drinking the bitter cup put a terrible strain on his human nature.
Further, for this holiest man who ever lived, the prospect of sinning would’ve been more loathsome than sinners like us could ever imagine. It’s we who can’t understand his temptations. As C. S. Lewis noted, Christ, as “the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means.”
Justin Dillehay
Slide 6/7
“His Sonship was perfect, and therefore raises the problem why he needed to learn obedience at all. Here we are faced with the mystery of the nature of Christ. In considering the divine Son it may be difficult to attach any meaning to the learning process (he learned obedience), but in thinking of the Son as perfect man it becomes at once intelligible. When Luke says that Jesus advanced in learning (2:52), he means that by a progressive process he showed by his obedience to the Father’s will a continuous making of God’s will his own, reaching its climax in his approach to death. The cry of acceptance in the Garden of Gethsemane was the concluding evidence of the Son’s obedience to the Father. No one will deny that there is deep mystery here, but the fact of it makes our high priest’s understanding of us unquestionably more real.”
Donald Guthrie
Slide 7/8
Big Idea
Jesus our High Priest understands our lives, mediates between us and God,
and provides eternal salvation.