Hebrews 5: 5-11

“So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him: ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You.’ ⁶ As He also says in another place: ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek’; ⁷ who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, ⁸ though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. ⁹ And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, ¹⁰ called by God as High Priest ‘according to the order of Melchizedek,’ ¹¹ of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing” (NKJV).

We will begin a very technical part of this journey in Hebrews from here and for a while. We will do our best to take small bites and make sure that we cover all of the doctrines as best we can. There are many that have Jesus only as a New Testament character, and they do not see Him very much in the Old Testament. But we are about to explore that Jesus was not only in the Old Testament but that He fulfills a role that was set up before the Law of Moses was ever written. And that puts Him in a unique position to execute both the office of our High Priest and be the King of Israel.

It is thus very important to establish that this is possible. The writer of Hebrews had to be able to do this because in the Law and even before that, the office of king was held in one tribe, that being Judah, and the office of High Priest was given to the tribe of Levi, and the two did not mix. We know for sure, according to both Luke and Matthew, that Jesus was born from the tribe of Judah. See Luke 3:33-34, which shows Jesus was born from the tribe of Judah, who was the son of Jacob. In Matthew 1:1-3, we again see that Jesus was born from Judah. Thus, as the oldest living male from the tribe of Judah, He has the legal right to be the King of the Jews. If you will recall, Jesus was executed as the King of the Jews.

Matthew 27:36-37, “And sitting down, they kept watching over Him there. Above His head they posted the written charge against Him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS” (Berean Study Bible).

Notice what Pilate had written; not he claimed to be the King of the Jews, but “This is Jesus, The King of the Jews.’ So, the Roman government recognized Him as the King of the Jews. This is witnessed in John 19:19 as well. It is clear then, from the Bible, that Jesus was born from the tribe of Judah, the king tribe. It is clear that He is the oldest living male of the tribe and falls from the lineage of Mary, not Joseph. This is important, but this will take another very long lesson; as such, His claim to the throne of Israel is legitimate. He was recognized by the Roman government as such.

But what about the office of High Priest? No one from the tribe of Judah has even been a High Priest. So, to show us that Jesus also has the right to be the High Priest, the author of Hebrews – really the Holy Spirit – takes us on a historical journey all the way back to Genesis 14, and there we meet a man called Melchizedek in verses 18-20.

“Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said: ‘Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; And blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.’ And he gave him a tithe of all” (NKJV).

Abraham paid tithes to a person called the King of Salem, King of Peace. Then we are told in Hebrews that Jesus is ‘priest’ after the order of Melchizedek. So, this Melchizedek was both the King of Salem, the King of Peace, and the High Priest. Now, Salem was a small city that would be conquered by a people called the Jebusites in about 1000 BC, and they were then conquered by King David.

2 Samuel 5:6-7, “And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who spoke to David, saying, ‘You shall not come in here; but the blind and the lame will repel you,’ thinking, ‘David cannot come in here.’ Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion (that is, the City of David)” (NKJV).

The city that we know as Jerusalem was once ruled by a man, Melchizedek, who was the King of Peace (Salem) and the High Priest. The writer of Hebrews then is telling us Jesus is going to rule Jerusalem one day, the King of Salem (Peace), and He is our High Priest now, as we have established with His intercessory work over the past few weeks. Jesus then has the right to be both for us. God established this before the Law and had Abraham pay tithes to him. Notice as well that Melchizedek also shared ‘bread and wine’ with Abraham and that He blessed Abraham. The only other person to bless Abraham was God.

Genesis 12:1-3, “Now the Lord had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (NKJV).

Jesus is the King of Peace, and He is our High Priest in a spiritual sense, but He is also the legal heir to the throne of David. And one day soon, He will come to claim His rightful place. Will you be ready for His return?

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch
Online: https://www.mississaugamissionarybaptistchurch.com/ (under construction)
Email: missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

Hebrews 5:1-4

“For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness. 3 Because of this he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sins. 4 And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was” (NKJV).

Over the past few weeks, we have talked about Jesus’ role in our sinful state and how He is there to help us to sin less and also to help us be restored when we sin. There has been and is a lot of discussion about sin in the life of a Christian and what is and is not a Christian. There are things that we are called to be and do as Children of God. But a child of God is a child of God. If one is saved, whether he is the next Samson or the next Paul, he is a child of God. The ‘heroes’ of the Scriptures, except for a few like Daniel and the Christ types like Joseph and Joshua, all have sin recorded in their lives. All the way from lying and adultery like Abraham to murder like David.

In the New Testament, we find Jesus and Peter sparring over the direction of the movement; we find men vying for positions; we find lying, deceit; we find adultery that even the Gentiles did not talk about, according to Paul as he addressed the church in Corinth. There are a few things that we should look at here in these four verses. I pray that they will encourage us when we fall, that they will inspire us to be gentler with those that fall and help us to truly be loving spiritual siblings. One may say that I am becoming soft as I get older; maybe. But I think that as we get closer and closer to the time of the accounting of our lives to the Lord, we can maybe see life more and more clearly.

• The High Priest and Compassion, verse 2

The word that we get in the New Testament for compassion is often this word in the original language: SLAGCHNIZOMAI; it means to ‘be moved as to one’s bowels, hence to be moved with compassion.’ In the time that the writer was writing Hebrews, the bowels were thought to be the seat of love and pity. We get the phrase ‘a gut feeling’ from this concept. The High Priest was not to be a judgmental superior; rather, he was a man who loved you and felt compassion in that he understood your weakness. He would have to offer sacrifices for his sins just like he was offering sacrifices for yours.

By the time of Jesus’ day, the Pharisees and other sects had hijacked the whole Judean religion and made it to be a source of hatred rather than a source of compassion. The high priest took on a role of superiority rather than being a compassionate servant. The high priest that God called, beginning with Aaron, knew they were sinners, humbly acknowledged it, and used it as a tool to help them deal with their fellow Jews lovingly and in Godly pity. At no point did this compassion condone sin – never; rather, the compassion acknowledged the weakness that we all have, and the high priest had to come face to face with his own sins each time he performed a sacrifice on behalf of a brother or sister.

We have lost or, for the most part, suppressed this kind of compassion in our churches and in our lives. While we are not to condone sin, we are not to behave so Pharisaical that we present ourselves as sinless and as above anyone. Many Pastors fall into the trap; they want to appear spiritually mature, so they portray a façade of sinlessness. But spiritually mature means acknowledging our/my sins and asking for God’s forgiveness, and then extending the same compassion and grace to others when they ask me to forgive them. Look at Luke 7: 3-4,

“3 Watch yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. 4 Even if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times returns to say, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him” (Berean Study Bible).

Notice the imperative command in verse four above, ‘you must forgive him.’ Why? Because this is what compassionate, saved people who live in God’s grace do. This is the love from John 13: 34-35, not tolerance for sin but compassion for our human weaknesses and frailty.

• Jesus, God’s Choice for High Priest verse 4

God sent Jesus to be our final and eternal High Priest. Jesus, the Bible tells us in Hebrews 12:1-2 that Jesus became both the High Priest and the sacrifice for us and that He did so with joy.

“Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (NKJV).

Jesus did not have to be coerced or cajoled into helping us; why? Because He is our compassionate High Priest. He does not condemn us and does not turn us away. He never leaves us, and when we fail, even the consequences can be mitigated by His compassion. Even in the sinfulness of Samson, there was a victory; Solomon came out of David’s sin; the sparring between Peter and Jesus did not disqualify him from being the leader when Jesus left.

Now, there are some sins that reap immediate and seemingly harsh results. Ananias and Saphira died instantly, Moses was forbidden from entering the Promised Land, and we can think of a few others. But for the most part, the Bible is filled with a compassionate God, who sent His Son; that Son came joyfully to show us God’s love, to be our Advocate, and to be the full payment for sins. He took on our flesh so that He could understand the frailty of man and deal with us compassionately. Stop giving up on each other; rather, be compassionate and helpful. The one you help today will one day be the one to rescue you. Galatians 6: 1-2 reminds us of this.

“Brothers, if someone is caught in a trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him with a spirit of gentleness. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ.”

Notice, we are to use a ‘spirit of gentleness’; this is compassion and pity. The goal is to forgive and restore, not to recall and destroy. We are to carry each other’s burdens; this is what Jesus does for us, and this is what we need to do for each other. Lord, please forgive us for the number of brothers and sisters we have given up on when You did not give up on us. Lord help!!

My family and I will be away for a much-needed break next week; the next lesson will be on August 13th.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch
Online: https://www.mississaugamissionarybaptistchurch.com/ (under construction)
Email: missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca