The Priesthood of Christ, Part 3

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Jesus entered into our experience so that by faith His experience becomes ours. Because of Christ, we gain access to a relationship with the great and holy God. Jesus is our perfect High Priest. One of us, but without the gruesome stain of sin. Fully God and fully man.

Our great mediator. Today, Pastor Rich looks into Jesus' role as our High Priest from Hebrews 5, 1-10. Let's listen to this message titled, The Priesthood of Christ.

This is the third part of a sermon first preached on June 24th, 2012. So it's at that point, one of the other statements that Jesus made on the cross was, Father, into your hands, what? I commit my spirit.

What is that? That is the prayer of surrendered trust. Father, all these savage beasts around me, the adversary of our souls is wanting to consume me. But Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

A prayer of surrendered trust. And so He was praying for resurrection. And the text tells us here, as Psalm 22 does, and He was heard because of His godly fear. Psalm 22, 21, You have answered me.

Resurrection happened. And God answered Him and brought Him back from the grave because of His godly fear. Now, in other words, very important for us to understand the word fear, because usually in the scripture, when it talks about us fearing God, it uses the word phobia, phobos, okay? We know what that word means, right?

That's not the word that it's using here. Because Jesus was one, the word is eulabeia. Jesus is, He revered His Father, and it was His singular ambition to please His Father. It was His singular desire to please His Father, which is why it is said, I come to do your will. And so it is with everyone who then says to God, into your hands I commit my spirit.

I come to do your will. And this was true of Jesus Christ. And so, it says then, in verse 8, though He was a son, yet He learned obedience. What a fascinating statement.

Who is it we're talking about here? But God Himself, the second person of the Trinity. Though He was a son, what is that telling us? He was a son, meaning He had divine nature. He was of the essence of God. He was equal to God, hence very God. And yet He learned obedience.

How on earth? How did Jesus learn obedience? That fact that He learned obedience was that He understood by experience and cost of doing what was required of Him.

Now think about this for a minute, okay? The Trinity is a perfect community, a perfect other focused community. Each one delights in pleasing the other.

And it has been that way for eternity. But this now was a new occasion where the son was required to do something that was not the natural outflow of his relationship with the Father. What was he required to do?

To experience separation. And the son being separated from the Father was not the natural outflow of his relationship with the Father, but it was the will of the Father, and therefore the son was pleased to do it. The verse at the very beginning of the service today, Isaiah 53-11, probably one of the most profound passages of Scripture, written 700 years before Jesus Christ. But it says of the Messiah, He saw the travail of His soul and He was satisfied. And so even as the second person of the Trinity, though He was a son, yet He learned obedience. What does that take us to then? It takes us to His priesthood.

Look with me at verse 9. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to those who obey Him. Having been perfected, the word perfected is telios, means complete or accomplished. He was brought to the place, He was brought to the goal fixed by God. God established the goal and He says, this is what I'm going to accomplish. And the Son did that perfectly, which is why He says, if you go back to verse 5, you are My Son, today I have begotten you. That was a statement that was said to the Israeli kings back in the Old Testament, because He was considered to be a Son of God. Having been perfected, now He is a priest forever and He says, today I have begotten you. That is a message of the resurrection.

Romans chapter 1 verse 4 says that He was declared with power to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead. We're a little bit ahead here. Back up here just a little bit. All right, here we go. All right, today I have begotten you. This is where Christ, another title for Christ, is that He is the chosen one. We find that in Luke 23. We find that in Isaiah 42 and Isaiah 49. Isaiah 42 says, my elect one in whom my soul delights, meaning that Jesus Christ was the one called and appointed by God to accomplish God's purpose, even as the second person of the Trinity. And then it says He is a priest forever because He is in God's presence.

Remember what it says? Look with me back at chapter 1 verse 3. Hebrews 1, 3.

Look at that with me. At the second half of the verse, beginning with the word when. When He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Because He is in God's presence, forever I can be too. In other words, Christ's presence there and His work of redemption, His sufferings that He suffered is the grounds for my right standing before God. This is so important for us to understand the high priestly work of Jesus Christ. His work of sacrifice is the grounds for my right standing before God, which is why He alone had the authority to say this, I am what? The way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father, but by me. He alone had the authority to say that.

Why? Because He was the sacrifice and He stands before God as we speak in your place in mine. That's the high priestly ministry of Christ. With Christ, I get God.

Without Him, I do not. So the question is, have you been reconciled to God? And so it says then that He is the author of eternal salvation. The author of eternal salvation.

Having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him. The author means He is the source, He is the cause, He is the grounds for our salvation. And our salvation has eternal value and duration because its source is eternal. And then it says the author of salvation, next phrase, to all who obey Him. The source of our salvation is the work of Christ. The means of our salvation is our response of surrender to Him. That He is our brother cried out to the Father and said, into your hands I commit my spirit. At the end of that verse then, at verse 9, when it says, salvation to all who obey Him.

What is that? Interesting how it equates obedience and faith, because faith is an act of obedience. We are responsible to know and respond to the revelation that God has given. And when we understand what God has revealed to us and the salvation that is available to us, we respond to Him in surrendered trust. We say, into your hands I commit my spirit.

Into your hands I commit my spirit. You see, the only appropriate response to sovereignty is surrender. There are other responses, but they will not get you into the presence of God.

The only appropriate response to sovereignty is surrender. We cannot come to God on our own terms. We must come to Him on His terms. And so here is then the high priestly ministry of Christ. He entered our experience so that by faith, into your hands I commit my spirit, so that by faith His experience becomes ours.

And what is that experience but the presence of God? This is what He says in chapter 2 verse 10 where it says He was perfected in bringing many sons to many sons to glory. Jesus is a king and He will rule, but He must have a people to rule and it must be a righteous people. Jesus as a priest makes that people. We are the people of God and the people of God are those who are defined by His righteousness.

Very, very important for us to understand the high priestly work of Jesus Christ because it magnifies God's grace and His glory. This is your God. Is there any other God like this?

There is not. He is the God of grace and we are thankful for that. Into your hands I commit my spirit. What an appropriate response.

I trust that that is your response this morning. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's Word the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace weekdays at 10 a.m.