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Getting What You Need from God
July 11, 2010
Hebrews 4
by Pastor Stan
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THE SUPREMACY OF CHRIST: A SERMON SERIES IN HEBREWS
“GETTING WHAT YOU NEED FROM GOD” (HEBREWS 4:14-16 / P. 848)
JULY 11, 2010

INTRODUCTION
-- Lead-in song: Lord, Most High

-- We’re continuing our study in the fascinating but often-avoided NT book of Hebrews, and today we come to some of my favorite verses in this book—in fact, they are some of favorite verses in the entire Bible. The verses we’re looking at today contain one of the greatest invitations and one of the greatest promises in the Bible.
    So let’s look at them. Turn in your Bibles to Hebrews 4:14-16 (p. 848).

-- The theme of Hebrews is “the supremacy of Christ.”  So far we’ve seen the author of Hebrews declare that Christ is superior to the OT prophets, to the angels, and to the great law-giver Moses. In today’s passage the author is going to show us how Christ is superior to the OT High Priest, the most exalted and sacred position in Judaism..
    Read Hebrews 4:14a

I. TWO REASONS JESUS IS SUPERIOR TO THE HIGH PRIEST (V. 14A)
    -- This verse identifies 2 reasons Jesus is superior to the High Priests of the OT.
         Read v. 14a

    A. BECAUSE OF WHERE HE IS
        -- The first reason He’s superior to the OT High Priest is because of where Jesus is.

        1. “Has gone through the heavens”
            -- The author says that Jesus “has gone through the heavens.” This is a reference to Jesus’ ascension in Acts 1:9-11.
            Acts 1:9-11 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11"Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

            -- We saw back in the first chapter of Hebrews the enthronement that happened after this ascension.
                Cf., Heb. 1:3

        2. The OT High Priest
            -- Remember that the OT Temple had 2 parts—the Holy Place, which could only be entered by the priests, and the Holy of Holies, which was separated by a heavy curtain and could only be entered by the High Priest, and just once a year, on the Day of Atonement. On that day he would take the blood of a sacrifice and sprinkle it on the Ark of the Covenant. That was the place where the presence of God was most fully manifest on earth. But the full presence of God was not experienced there—if it were the High Priest would never have survived it.

        3. Christ
            -- But Christ is in the full presence of the Father, enthroned at the Father’s right hand. And He’s there not just once a year but continually.
                Cf., 7:25
            
            -- The book of Hebrews was probably written around A.D. 65, which means that about 5 years later, in A.D. 70 the Temple was destroyed by the Romans and has never been rebuilt. Since the Temple in Jerusalem was the only place where sacrifices and offerings could be made, there have been no sacrifices or offerings for nearly 2,000 years. There is no Jewish High priest any more, and if there were there would be no Holy of Holies for him to enter on the Day of Atonement to intercede for the sins of God’s people. But that is all unnecessary anyhow, because Christ, the great High Priest, has made the perfect sacrifice for all sins and is interceding continually for us before the Father.

-- So Jesus is superior to the OT


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