Sermon Details

Sermon Notes

Please note that these are only notes, not transcripts, and as such are not identical to the recorded sermons. They also contain frequent abbreviations.

Introduction

1. Christ is the Mediator’s Official Name.

   1. It describes the work that Jesus, the Son of God, in human flesh, is commanded and authorized to do by His Father, the Triune God.

      1. That work is simply this: to establish the kingdom of God and to perfect the covenant of God.

      2. To do that work, the Mediator has an office, a position of authority.

      3. No one else has the right (and certainly not the ability) to occupy that office.

   2. That office is a saving office: it concerns the glory of the Triune God through our salvation

2. Last week, we looked at Christ’s prophetic office – as the chief prophet and teacher he reveals the will of God concerning our redemption. This week: His priesthood.

“CHRIST: OUR ONLY HIGH PRIEST”

I. His Position

II. His Work

III. Our Participation

1. HIS POSITION

   1. What is a priest? Fundamentally, a priest is one who has access to God & brings others to God by consecrating them to God or making them holy. If a prophet brings the God’s Word to God’s people, a priest brings God’s people to God Himself.

      1. In the OT, the people of God needed to have priests, without which it was impossible to approach God or have access to Him. And the OT priests gave God’s people only very limited access to God.

         1. Just think for a moment, who had access to God, and to what extent did they have access to God? By access, we mean, who could stand in God’s presence in the tabernacle where God dwelled with His people?

            1. No-one who was not an Israelite could approach God; no woman could approach God; no one with any physical defect could approach God; no man of the tribes of Israel other than Levi could approach God (so that means the vast majority were barred).

            2. Of the sons of Levi, only those of the family of Aaron could approach God as priests. That ruled out a large portion of the Levites (who could function as servants in the tabernacle but not come too close). Most of the sons of Aaron who made up the priests could enter only the Holy Place of the Tabernacle.

            3. Only one person, of the sons of Aaron, the high priest, was permitted to enter the Most Holy Place. He did not have free access to Most Holy Place where God dwelled: he could only enter once a year and with the proper preparation.

         2. So, the people of God in the OT had access to God only through the high priest once a year, and that access was far from ideal.

            1. On the 10^th day of the 7^th month on the Day of Atonement the high priest came into the Most Holy Place with blood which he had to sprinkle on the Mercy Seat on the Ark of the Covenant.

            2. After that fleeting access to God in which the HP obtained forgiveness of sins for the people, the HP had to wait for another year to meet with God again.

            3. And remember that the HP did not enter only for himself: he went into the presence of God as the representative of Israel to obtain blessings for them.

      2. God gave the OT sacrificial system of priests and complicated rituals in mercy and to prepare them for something far better in the Messiah who would come.

         1. Christ is the fulfillment of the Aaronic priesthood but there is a problem.

            1. Jesus Christ was born according to the flesh of the tribe of Judah, from the seed of David. That qualified Him to be King, but not priest.

            2. No King of the tribe of Judah, of the seed of David, could be priest. Uzziah tried to offer incense in the temple and was punished with leprosy.

            3. So, the only possibility is that Christ is a priest after the order of a different priesthood, not the priesthood of Aaron, but the priesthood of Melchizedek.

         2. That is exactly the argument of the writer to the Hebrews in chapter 7.

            1. Melchizedek appears suddenly on the pages of Scripture in Genesis 14:18-20.

            2. Then, he disappears as suddenly as he appears, and his name appears once more in Psalm 110:4 where God swears to the Messiah, “thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

            3. The book of Hebrews discusses this matter of Melchizedek in 5:6-10 and 7:1-28 in order to bring out the superiority of Christ’s priesthood over the priests of the OT and of the priests of the Jews in Jerusalem at that time.

   2. Hebrews chapter 7 contains a careful argument to prove that Jesus Christ is a better priest than was Aaron, just as He is a better Mediator than was Moses.

      1. First, the writer argues from the superiority of Melchizedek to Abraham himself (and since Melchizedek is greater than Abraham he is greater than Levi and Aaron, great grandson and great great grandson of Abraham).

         1. Melchizedek blessed Abraham

            1. Since the priest is greater than the one he blesses, Mel. is greater than A (v. 7).

            2. Moreover, Abraham owned Melchizedek’s greatness by giving him a tithe of the booty; and since Abraham paid tithes Levi (who was in the loins of Abraham) also paid tithes to Melchizedek (v. 9-10).

            3. And the priesthood which blessed Abraham was before the priesthood which God established later in Aaron. The law which made Aaron a priest does not cancel out the promise that made Melchizedek priest (see Gal. 3:17).

         2. There are other indications of the superiority of the Melchizedekian priesthood over the Aaronic priesthood

            1. Even after the establishment of the Aaronic priesthood at Mt. Sinai God promises a priest after the order of Melchizedek. This would not be necessary if the Aaronic priesthood was to be permanent (v. 11)

            2. The priests of the order of Aaron all died and had to be replaced, but M’s death is not recorded in Scripture which makes him a picture of Christ whose life is truly endless for He lives on after His resurrection (v. 23-24).

            3. The priesthood of Christ after the order of M. was given Him by a solemn oath or promise and the law is always subordinate to the promise (v. 20-21).

      2. So, Christ is better than all the OT priests: they were many priests who were replaced at death; He was one priest who has no successor; they were weak priests with their own sins; Christ is the sinless Son of God; the priesthood of Aaron made nothing and nobody perfect; Christ’s priestly work truly sanctifies.

         1. This is why we can say of Christ, “He is ordained of God the Father and anointed with the Holy Ghost to be […] our only High Priest.”

            1. He has the right to be priest, not the right to go into the Jerusalem temple and serve at that altar. Christ never did that.

            2. But He has the right to exercise a better and greater priesthood, after a higher and better order, the order of Melchizedek.

            3. God determined to make Christ priest; He swore a solemn oath and He would never change His mind: thou art a priest forever after the order of Mel. And God ordained Christ into that office esp. at His baptism (see Heb. 5:4-6).

         2. Christ had a sacred office to be priest. He also had the gifts & qualifications.

            1. Who better to consecrate us to the holy God than the holy Son of God (v. 26)?

            2. Who had a closer & more intimate access to God than the Son of God. His priestly work is to give us that access so that we fellowship with Triune God.

            3. And, according to His human nature, He was qualified: He was given the Spirit, He was set apart for the work, and He was enabled to perform the dreadfully difficult work as our Mediator and High Priest.

2. HIS WORK

   1. [The work of Christ as HP is to bring us to God. That’s His main work. But there are three aspects of His work which serve that main goal: sacrifice, intercession and blessing]. The chief of those three is that as our HP Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice to atone for our sins.

      1. Christ’s sacrifice is superior to all the OT sacrifices offered by priests of Aaron.

         1. First, Christ sacrifices Himself.

            1. The OT sacrifices were animal sacrifices: lambs, goats, bullocks, etc. Christ offered His own body upon the cross.

            2. No one else had the right to do that – for us to offer ourselves in that sense would be suicide. Christ had the [authority] to lay down His life (John 10:18)

            3. Christ sacrificed His body – He suffered and died in His human nature by the power of His divine nature upholding Him under the wrath of God.

         2. Second, Christ did not need to sacrifice for Himself.

            1. Aaron & all the high priests after his order were sinners, and before they could offer a sacrifice for the people, they had to offer a sacrifice for their own sins.

            2. Blood had to be sprinkled throughout the tabernacle. Everything was cleansed with blood: even the sacrifices had to be cleansed with further sacrifices.

            3. But Christ is the sinless Son of God and therefore His sacrifice is perfect and the one offering the sacrifice is also perfect (v. 27).

         3. Third, Christ only needed to offer one sacrifice, never to be repeated.

            1. The sacrifices which the OT priests offered were daily, monthly, annually.

            2. Therefore they never dealt with sin: they were simply the pledge of a greater sacrifice to come.

            3. Now X has offered His one sacrifice there will be no more sacrifices (v. 26).

      2. But the main reason why X’s sacrifice is superior is that it was effectual: effectual means that it accomplishes what was intended.

         1. This is where many professing Christians go wrong. What did God in Christ intend to accomplish by the sacrifice of Christ? Did He have a definite purpose in mind, an outcome which He wanted?

            1. Many in the church teach that the purpose of Christ was to make salvation possible for all but actually to save none.

            2. Often they will not put it that way: they will say that God’s purpose and desire was to save ALL but if you press them you will see what they mean is God wanted to make salvation possible for all.

            3. That not Scripture teaches: Gal. 3:13; Rom. 5:9-11; I Pet. 2:24; Col. 1:21-22.

         2. That is why we teach what some call “Limited Atonement.” The teaching is that X actually accomplished the salvation of all those for whom He died. He actually atoned for our sins; He actually redeemed us; He truly reconciled us to God; He actually satisfied God’s justice; He really appeased or propitiated God’s wrath against our sin. He did not merely make it possible [explain]

            1. This alone glorifies Christ by saying that He is not a possible, potential Savior but the true and actual Savior who saves all those He set out to save.

            2. This alone explains substitutionary nature of X’s death: He died FOR us. That means that He died INSTEAD OF us so that we do not die. If Christ died for someone and that person still perishes how could Christ be a real substitute?

            3. And this alone takes salvation entirely out of the hands of man and places it in the goodwill and pleasure of God.

   2. The other two aspects of the priestly work depend upon the first: they are intercession and blessing.

      1. To intercede is to pray for. Intercession with God is always based on the sacrifice.

         1. That is how it was in the OT

            1. First, the priest sacrificed an animal on the altar of burnt offering.

            2. Then, the priest filled his censer with coals from that altar and offered them mixed with incense on the altar of incense. This produced a cloud of incense.

            3. The incense wafting up heavenward was a picture of Christ’s intercession.

         2. Thus it is with the intercessory work of Jesus Christ.

            1. Christ comes into the presence of God. He asks for all the blessings of salvation for His people; He asks that our sins not be counted against us; He asks that we be given the HS; He asks that we be made holy; He answers the accusations against us.

            2. But on what basis does He ask those things? On the basis of the sacrifice He offered on Calvary. That is why no one else can be the Intercessor: they have no sacrifice on which to plead our cause. Rom. 8:34; I John 2:1-2.

            3. But we must not imagine this intercession as a begging or pleading as if God has to be convinced to give us blessings. God already is willing to give us these things. Christ simply provides the righteous basis.

         3. We notice too, that like the atonement, the intercession is particular.

            1. The OT priest went into the presence of God wearing a BP on which were 12 stones with the name of the 12 tribes of Israel. He represented ONLY them.

            2. Christ enters the presence of God to request salvation & blessing only for the elect: He died only for the elect; He prays only for the elect (John 17:9).

            3. And, Christ’s intercession, like His atonement is effectual: He receives His request, all of it. It would be unthinkable and terrifying for Christ to ask God to save someone and that person still perish (read v. 25).

      2. Having offered sacrifice, having interceded for people, the priest blesses people.

         1. Blessings are obtained by the priest, then they are bestowed on the people.

            1. These blessings are fellowship with God, eternal life, forgiveness of sins.

            2. In a solemn gesture, the priest comes out of the tabernacle, raises His hands, and pronounces a blessing upon God’s people (Numb. 6:23).

            3. This assures the people that their sins have been forgiven, their prayers have been heard and that they are the objects of God’s love and favor.

         2. Thus, Christ blesses us with all the blessings of salvation.

            1. Blessing is pronouncement of good upon us so we are actually made blessed.

            2. That blessedness consists in knowing the one, true, eternal Triune God, as a loving Father to whom we have been reconciled.

            3. And that blessing will be perfected in heavenly glory.

3. OUR PARTICIPATION

   1. Our participation does not, of course, mean in any way, that we participate in our salvation. But we are called Christians because all of us share in His anointing and therefore are prophets, priests and kings.

      1. This is the doctrine, rediscovered at the Reformation, esp. by Luther, of the priesthood of all believers. Quite simply it means this: as believers we have access to God through Christ without the need of a priestly class of clergy, priests, bishops, popes or anyone else.

         1. The NT insists upon this precious truth.

            1. I Peter 2:9, “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood …”

            2. I Peter 2:5, “Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

            3. Rev. 1:6, “And hath made us kings and priests …”

         2. As priests we have access to God, we can serve God without the need for sacrifices, incense, elaborate rituals, fancy vestments, etc.

            1. We come to God as priests in prayer through the intercession of Jesus Christ.

            2. We come to God as priests in worship: we sing to Him; we have no need of choirs, worship bands and leaders.

            3. There is no longer a priest to represent us on earth before God: we have one high priest in heaven, and we are united to Him by faith thru the HS.

      2. As priests we offer sacrifices but not sacrifices to atone for our sins: we offer ourselves in thanksgiving to God: we devote everything we have to Him in love.

         1. The HC refers to Romans 12:1-2

         2. There is also a passage in Hebrews 13:15

   2. But we can only consecrate ourselves because Christ has already consecrated us.

      1. Christ the priest has devoted us to Himself, and through Himself to the Triune God.

      2. The Holy Spirit dwells in us to make us holy.

      3. Now our calling & privilege is to take everything we have & offer it as a sacrifice of thanksgiving to Him. acceptable in Christ. Acceptable only in Christ our HP. Amen.