What Our High Priest Does, Part 1

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. So it makes sense that Jesus would be the one to say, no one comes to the Father, but by me. Today's message is titled What Our High Priest Does.

Let's listen in. So we're in the section of Hebrews where the author of Hebrews is describing the high priestly function of Jesus Christ. For those of us who are Western evangelicals, we don't think much about what a priest does because we don't have that in a human sense in our faith system. Most other faith systems of the world have some kind of priestly function. But we do have a high priest and it's very important for us to understand that we do have a high priest. If we have a high priest, it's very important for us to understand what that high priest does. And this is what the author of Hebrews is teaching us as he is writing.

As we continue with this, I first want to begin with a little bit of review. There's a reason why we have a high priest and that is because we have an ultimate objective. When we talk about an ultimate objective, what do we mean by that? An ultimate objective is the finish line. It's the goal. It's where we're headed. The ultimate objective is where we will be when we say, I have arrived.

Success. I am at the place where I was designed to be. And what is our ultimate objective?

The writer of Hebrews gives that to us and it's in chapter 7 at the end of verse 19, through which we draw near to God. Drawing near to God is our ultimate objective. Our ultimate objective is not a place. It's not a time. It's not an event.

It's not a task. Our ultimate objective is a person. But here's the point of the author of Hebrews. To get to that objective, to get to that destination, which is God himself, we have to be in the right vehicle. And what does it mean to be in the right vehicle?

The vehicle that can get you there. So we talk about this, the parable, Jesus' parable of the prodigal son. The prodigal son, what did he do? He walked away from the father because he didn't want the father. He just wanted the father's stuff.

Did you know how that's how most people live? They don't want God. They just want his stuff. What is God's stuff? Well, it's the air we breathe. It's the water we drink. It's the produce from the ground and the trees. It is the food. It is transportation.

It is housing. All of those things is God's stuff. He provides that. But we don't want God. We just want his stuff. The air we breathe is from him.

And those who would rail against him and even dare to say that God does not exist have to use the air that he provided in order to say he doesn't exist. You see, that was the prodigal's problem. He didn't want the father.

He just wanted his stuff. So he walked away from the father. And when he came to his realization, when he realized that stuff doesn't bring success or meaningful satisfaction, he realized what I want is to be with my father. And here's where that parable breaks down. Because you and I, unlike the prodigal who just walked up, came to his senses and walked, got up and walked back to his father, you and I can't just come to our senses, get up and walk back to the father. Because there is a huge gulf that separates us. And that gulf is the problem of sinfulness and unrighteousness.

My sinfulness, the self-preeminence with which I was born, separates me from an infinite holy God. And I cannot just get up and walk back to him. There must be a vehicle to get me back to him. That vehicle is the high priestly function of Jesus Christ. And that's why we must be in the right vehicle. It was Jesus who said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the father but by me. And so last time I gave the illustration of the destination where the International Space Station, which orbits about 240 miles above the earth, how do you get from here to there? Well, you have to have the right vehicle to be able to get from here to there. It is a rocket powered shuttle.

That's the only thing that will get you from here to there. Down here on the earth we have things called launch simulators. You can get in the launch simulator and it will give you the idea and the sense of being launched but it doesn't launch you and it doesn't get you there.

What the writer of Hebrews is saying, it's time to move on from the launch simulator and get into the vehicle that will get you to destination. Because any human priesthood is inherently insufficient and powerless to get you into the presence of God. Any human priesthood is inherently insufficient and powerless to get you into the presence of God. Even if you consider yourself your own priest.

Can't do it. The vehicle has the power, as it says in verse 16 of chapter 7, the power of an endless life, an indestructible life. So you must be in the right vehicle, the vehicle that God provides, and that is Jesus Christ.

Here's the second. You must be in, not only the right vehicle but you must be in it. You must be in it. All the way, both feet, in it. Remember I gave the illustration of a boat? The dock, you can walk on the dock and the dock leads you to the boat. The dock doesn't span the troubled waters within which you will drown. The troubled waters is the sea of unrighteousness. You must be in the boat.

You can't have one foot in the boat and one foot on the dock and be in the boat. This is faith. To entrust yourself in faith to the vehicle that God has provided and that is Jesus Christ and specifically his priesthood. Because the word faith in the Greek is pistis, pistuo, oftentimes translated entrusted.

So faith means to entrust yourself to and you have to be in that right vehicle that will take you to God. That is the priestly function of Jesus Christ, the vehicle that takes us to God. So with that understanding, the challenge that the writer of Hebrews is giving us, what does our high priest do?

Very important that we understand this. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to present today is going to be kind of a nutshell presentation of chapter seven, eight, and nine of Hebrews. And then for three Sundays we are going to unpack this because there are three main components to the high priestly function of Jesus Christ. Today we're going to present that in nutshell fashion and then for three Sundays we're going to unpack each one of those components in chapter seven, eight, and nine of Hebrews.

But let me give it to you first of all in a nut, in a concise nutshell and then I'm going to give you the three components after that. All right, now this is very important because without this we are hopeless. Without this we are hopeless. But here's what our high priest does. He guarantees to God that those who are in him are acceptable to God. He guarantees to God that those who are in him are acceptable to God.

Using the language of the scriptures. Guarantees to God that those who are in him and that that phrase in him is what I'm talking about faith, pistis, both feet in the boat. You can't both feet in the boat. You can't have one foot in the boat and one foot on the dock and expect to be carried to safety. If you're going to have entrance into the very presence of God you've got to be in the boat all the way. You can't have one foot on the dock. I mean just think of it this way. If you're going to be launched to the international space station you can't be halfway in the rocket and halfway out, right?

Okay, makes makes pretty much sense. So let's let's put it very bluntly. If you're just associated with Jesus Christ and you have not entrusted yourself to him in faith you are not headed for safety. You can't be just associated with Jesus Christ. Have you entrusted yourself to him in faith?

That is the question today. That is the challenge of the writer of Hebrews, particularly in the warnings that he gives. Okay, so he guarantees to God that those who are in him, that is in Jesus Christ, the vehicle that gets us to God, are acceptable to him. Now that word acceptable to him just simply means this. That his righteousness is covering me and is credited to me. His righteous, Christ's righteousness is credited to me that I have right standing before the demands of an infinite holy God. I have to be acceptable to him. You see that's why I cannot just stand up and walk back to God on my own. I have to have the vehicle that God provides because on my own I am not righteous. Let me give you an example.

There's a reason why I have to have that vehicle. If I were to put up here a gallon jug of pure distilled water, we would say that that water is absolutely pure, right? We don't want anything to contain. There's no contaminants in there at all.

Hospitals use that, right? All right, now what if over here I have a tiny little flask of a very powerful poison called ricin. This whole gallon jug, okay, I'm going to put and I'm going to say, you know what, I'm just going to put one tiny little drop of ricin in this gallon of distilled water.

What becomes of the water? It's no longer pure. You see that is the way it is with an infinite holy God. To have fellowship with us, we have to be acceptable to him because he is an infinitely pure man.

God is light and him is no darkness at all. Light and darkness cannot have fellowship, which is why I have to be acceptable to him. That is why I cannot approach God on my own righteousness because I'm not righteous. I must have another righteousness credited to me so that I become acceptable to God. That's Jesus Christ. All right, so this is what the high priestly function does.

He guarantees to God that those who are in him are acceptable to him, the father. We need to know this. We need to grasp this. Folks, listen, this is the stuff of meditate. You like that word stuff?

I've used that several times this morning. This is, this, these are the truths upon which we must meditate. Somebody mentioned to me earlier this week, it was on Wednesday night, in fact, we were discussing Hebrews and he says, you know, Rich, after, after reading Hebrews and unpacking Hebrews, how can you not love Jesus Christ more?

There it is, folks. A delight in the word of God leads us to a delight in God himself, and that's life transforming. It is upon this sort of thing that we must meditate. This needs to be front shelf in our minds because this is what defines me.

This is who I am. Without this, I have no entrance to God at all. So let's talk now about the three components of the high priestly function of Christ. And again, what I'm going to be doing here is this is a very brief three point outline unpacking chapter seven, eight and nine of the, of the letter to the Hebrews and presenting it to you all together today.

And then for three Sundays, we're going to unpack each one of these individually. 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 AM.