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Jesus, the Perfect High Priest
July 18, 2010
Hebrews 5
by Pastor Stan
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THE SUPREMACY OF CHRIST: A SERMON SERIES IN HEBREWS
“JESUS, THE PERFECT HIGH PRIEST” (HEBREWS 5:1-10 / P. 848)
JULY 18, 2010

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

-- Last week in our study of Hebrews the author referred to Jesus as our great High Priest. That claim would have naturally raised a question in the minds of the Jewish Christians who first received this book—exactly how qualified is Jesus to be a high priest? After all, claiming to be a high priest is serious business.
    Remember in the Indiana Jones movie Raiders of the Lost Ark that Indiana is in a race with the Nazis to find the lost Ark of the Covenant. The Nazis want it because they believe that whoever has it can use its supernatural powers. Towards the end of the movie the Nazis take possession of the Ark, and the Nazi archaeologist who’s been leading the hunt dresses up like the Jewish High Priest and goes through a ceremony and then takes the Mercy Seat cover off the ark, and let’s see what happens.
        Show scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark (1:45:48-1:47:04)

-- Pretending to be a High Priest can have serious consequences. So when Hebrews claims that Jesus is our great High Priest, there are some questions that need to be answered.
For the original Jewish audience questions like:
    In what way is Jesus to be considered a High Priest?
    And, how qualified is Jesus to be a High Priest?

-- And for us non-Jews here in America 2,000 years later, there are other questions:
    What exactly is a High Priest?
    And, why should I even care? Why is all this even important to me?

-- All these questions are answered for us in the passage that we are looking at today, Hebrews 5:1-10.

I. WHY SHOULD WE HERE TODAY CARE?
    -- Let’s start with the question about why we here today should care about all this? What difference does all this talk about a high priest make to us? What is its relevance to us 2,000 years later, in a very different time and culture?
    The answer to that question is found in verse 9:
    “he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.”

    A. SALVATION
        -- When the Bible talks about salvation, it’s referring to a cluster of experiences:
            release from the guilt and condemnation we have because of our sins,
            deliverance from being the objects of God’s wrath against sin and from His determination to judge all sinners,
            and emancipation from the fear of death and the despair of life without meaning or purpose produced by our sinful separation from God.

    B. THE SOURCE
        -- The source of this salvation is Jesus, and the way He has provided for us to experience that salvation is by becoming our high priest; so it’s important for us to understand what that means.
        -- This verse adds 2 important aspects of Christ’s being the source of salvation:
            (1) It says that He is “¬the source,” not a source but the one and only source.
                Acts 4:12 And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.

            (2) And Hebrews 5:9 says that that salvation is “for all who obey him.” The salvation that comes only from Christ is for all peoples—not only Jews but Gentiles—not only those in the 1st century but also for those in the 21st—for all people anytime and any where. For us here today.

II. WHAT EXACTLY IS A PRIEST?
    -- Another question that would arise for us today is, “What exactly is a priest, any way?” Although that wouldn’t have been a proble


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