Part 8, Maintaining the Course of Our Faith, Hebrews 5:1-14
There is a shortage of cooks, food servers, housekeepers, and many more, well even nurses and doctors. We live in the days when quitting (or retiring early) is the most viable form of escape since Covid 19 has convinced a lot of us to retire early. But it isn’t just in that sector of our society where we see shortages of workers. There is even an acute shortage of pastors and ministers in this country. There are too many churches who closed down (or about to) because the pastors retired early and there were so few who wanted to step up.
But even in the day of the Hebrews, the church was suffering from many fall outs. Many Hebrew Christians wanted to go back to the old ways – to their old religion because of persecutions, hardships, and insults. And thus, this unnamed Jewish Christian author was persuading them to maintain the course of their faith.
My goal today, is to help you understand that Jesus’ high priesthood is of special order. And I hope, this will strengthen your resolve to continue in the faith, and even encourage you to continue serving Him with all your heart and strength.
1. God appointed His Son to be our High Priest. Read Hebrews 5:1-5.
Qualifications of a high priest.
· He must come from God’s people.
· He must be appointed by the Lord.
· He must be concerned about matters relating to God.
· He must always look to God’s holiness to see his own need of forgiveness.
· He must have a gentle spirit, a compassionate heart towards others.
· “gently” in Greek, metriopathein, implies, empathy/sympathy.
· Metriopathein (Strong’s Greek 3356) - the feeling of divinely-measured intensity which is not too severe or not too tolerant.
· The high priest can’t be too emotional to the point he can’t help the troubled at heart. And he cannot also be too cold as to not feel their pain.
2. Jesus is forever our High Priest. Read Hebrews 5:6-10
· Unlike the priests of the old who needed to be replaced as they pass away, Jesus holds forever the High Priest office.
· Twice in these 4 verses the order of Melchizedek was mentioned, to emphasize Jesus’ unique and superior high priesthood.
· We first met Melchizedek in the Book of Genesis 14 where he was said to be both King and Priest of Salem.
· Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything he recovered as a recognition of God’s help.
· Abram is the ancestor of the Levites; therefore, Jesus’ Melchizedek-type high priesthood is superior to the Levitical High Priesthood.
· Melchizedek’s dual role as king and priest is much superior to the Levites’ priesthood.
· Since the Bible did not mention the birth and death of Melchizedek, so it alludes to the eternal high priesthood of Jesus. V.6
3. The Forever-High Priest is the source of eternal salvation. Read Hebrews 5:9-10.
“7 During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he prayed and cried to His Father who can raise his human body to life, and God heard Him because of his humble submission.”
42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” And verse 44 says, “44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.” Luke 22:42,44, NIV.
· Jesus cried in anguish due to the horror of God’s wrath on sinners being placed on him, but the Lord did not evade suffering and death.
· He used suffering to teach himself the human experience of obedience to His Father’s will.
· Obedience and suffering linked His humanity to His divine being. He was perfect as God; and now able to suffer, He is also perfect as a human being.
Thank Jesus every day for your eternal life.
Jesus gave as an example to follow, and if we are truly God’s children, we too, will obey Him who gave us eternal life.