FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF VILLA RICA, PCA

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Our Merciful, Faithful High Priest

By

Rev. Todd W. Allen

Villa Rica 1/18/04

Hebrews 2:14-18 

¹⁴Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, ¹⁵and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. ¹⁶For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham. ¹⁷Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. ¹⁸For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.

            I want you to visualize a lighthouse on a rocky stretch of Massachusetts’s coastline. It is a cold, lonely night. You are aboard a ship. The wind and the waves toss your little vessel ever closer to unseen danger. Suddenly, off of your starboard side you catch a glimpse    of the light from that lighthouse warning you that the treacherous coast is very near. As you watch the flickering light you become aware that there is a pattern to the flashing signal. It is flashing a message in nautical code. Slowly you discern a message coming from the lighthouse. The message is... I LOVE YOU.

I understand that such a lighthouse does exist.

Years ago the Coastguard sought to install new equipment in the lighthouse that would not be able to flash out any kind of message. There was such a protest, however that the Coastguard backed off. The old equipment is still intact -- still flashing out its message to weary seamen -- I LOVE YOU. 

            I think about that lighthouse sending out its beacon through dark and gloomy nights. I think about the gospel message. Christ sends his light into a dark and gloomy world. The light carries a message. At its very heart that message is -- I LOVE YOU.

I. The Making Of Our Priest

            In our Hebrew passage we are taught the necessity of Jesus becoming a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God. At first glance this is an unintelligible concept. Like the light from that lighthouse on the Massachusetts coastline with its blinking pattern we at first don’t understand what the light is saying. We may be thankful that the light is coming because it warns of treacherous rocks and shoals that would be our destruction. We ignore the light at our peril. But the message of the light can only be understood when we know the nautical code.

            The scripture tells us that He gives help to the descendant of Abraham. ¹⁷Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

     The question arises, why was it necessary for Christ to become a high priest? Christ is God -- and God can do anything -- why did he have to become a man and a priest? What does a priest do anyway?

             To answer that we note in the Hebrew passage that people are sinners. Something must be done about their sin if they are to be accepted by God. God is holy. He is a perfect being who cannot and will not permit anything unholy or unrighteous to approach him or come near him.

            Perhaps we can understand this if we think of the word virgin. A virgin is a woman that has never known a man sexually. She is untouched. We speak of virgin timberland as that which has never been exploited or used. When virginity is lost it can never be regained. Its virginity is its purity.

God's holiness is like that. To introduce sin into God's Being by communion with unrighteousness is to defile holiness forever. God can never allow anything impure or unholy into his presence without losing his essential holiness.      

For man to approach God there had to be a way found that his holiness could be preserved and maintained. God ordained a way through a sacrificial high priest. It had to be a priest who was sinless, who could share a common humanity with those who were to approach him, and he must be able to propitiate their sins.

            Humanly speaking this was impossible. Every man is a sinner so what man is holy enough to approach God in the first place? Secondly, what could propitiate the wrath of God against sin? Sin deserves banishment from God’s presence. Sin separates from God forever.

            It is here that the language of heaven in the light that shines can begin to be understood. God himself is holy enough to satisfy his own holiness. God himself must be made like his brethren. God himself must propitiate his own wrath against sin for those who would approach him and enter into relationship with him.

            This priest had to be not only a sinless man but he had to be a redeemer kinsman. Under the law only a kinsman could redeem a man who had sold either his property or himself into servitude. We read in Leviticus 25:25 ‘If a fellow countryman of yours becomes so poor he has to sell part of his property, then his nearest kinsman is to come and buy back what his relative has sold. (See also Lev. 25:48)

     The emphasis here is on the family relationship. God created Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to become a family. They were told to be fruitful and multiply. God made man in his own image for loving family relationships.    

            There was to be intimacy and love for God himself is love. Christ confirmed this principle as he spoke of the sanctity of marriage. ⁶“But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. ⁷“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, ⁸and the two shall become one flesh; so they are no longer two, but one flesh. ⁹“What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” Mark 10:6-9

     Immediately after giving this teaching on marriage some parents brought their children that Jesus might touch them and his disciples rebuked them. ¹⁴But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and said to them, “Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ¹⁵“Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.” Mark 10:14-15

     Man, woman, children, family, this is what the Kingdom of God is all about. We read in Hebrews

¹¹For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, ¹²saying,

  “I will proclaim Your name to My brethren,

  In the midst of the congregation I will sing Your praise.”

¹³And again,

  “I will put My trust in Him.”

And again,

  “Behold, I and the children whom God has given Me.”

¹⁴Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, Heb. 2:11-14.

      Jesus had to be made like his brethren in order to be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of his people. The Son of God had to be made man in all particulars except our sinful nature.

            He is the seed of Abraham. He springs out of the particular people chosen to be the people of God, and he appeases and absorbs the wrath of God as our high priest. He approaches God as our family head, our kinsman, and he redeems us from the debt of sin, from the guilt and shame, from the punishment and the penalty. By himself he received the full wrath of God for all of our crimes. That is why the psalmist says is Psalm 40, ¹²   For evils beyond number have surrounded me; My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see;     They are more numerous than the hairs of my head,

     And my heart has failed me.

¹³ Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me;

  Make haste, O LORD, to help me.

Psa. 40:12-13

Something within us rebels at the innocent being put to death for the unrighteous. But when the person taking the blame is the head of a family who accepts the responsibility for all his members, it puts it in a different light. The husband becomes responsible for all the debts of his wife. He can be held responsible for the misdeeds of his children. The head is responsible for the body.

Christ is the head of the body, the Church. Jesus is the head of the family of God. All who come to him for help are promised that help. All who have faith like father Abraham are considered the seed of Abraham and are included in God’s spiritual family.

            When Adam and Eve disobeyed God it introduced sin. The first recorded sin was the murder of Abel by his brother Cain. That is the kind of world we live in. Since that time we see disharmony and brokenness in families and among nations.

            A manuscript found on the desk of the noted novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald after his death was a plot for a novel that he never got to write. The plot concerned a wealthy man who died and left a strange will. The will bequeathed all of his millions to be divided equally, share and share alike, to all his relatives. There was one condition. They were to come and live together in his spacious mansion. Below the outlined plot was a note, “This could be a little spot of hell.”

            We understand how it could be. We live in a broken world. Even with the best of intentions, many families are torn simply by the race for survival. As one cynic put it, “Nowadays, dad works the night shift, mom works the day shift, and the kids simply have to shift for themselves.”

            But at the heart of it all is man’s broken relationship with his Creator. Nothing else can be right until our relationship with the heavenly Father is made right. And praise God it can be made right because of that light sent into the world.

      Jesus Christ came into the world to be a Savior for his brethren. His appointment as a priest makes a way for God himself to propitiate the wrath of God against sin. By his self-sacrifice he atones for the sins of his people. Under his headship we find the wrath due us falling upon our kinsman, the Lord Jesus.  He redeems us not only from the penalty for sin but also from the power of sin. He disarms the angel of death. As our text says:  ¹⁴Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, ¹⁵and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. ¹⁶For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham. ¹⁷Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. ¹⁸For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.

            A young woman once wrote the following letter to Billy Graham: “Until last January I was a stranger to Jesus. I was a rebel, thief, a drunkard, a hard drug taker, an adulteress, a hippie, and a self-centered, confused young woman. Thinking I was going to stump everyone with cynical questions, I went to a Bible study about a year ago out of curiosity. That night I became sincerely interested in the Bible. Finally after searching the scriptures for months John 3:16 spoke to my heart and I gave my life to Christ. I never knew this kind of happiness could exist. God shows you how to love and what is feels like to be loved. He was what I had been looking for since my early teens. It had seemed to me that drugs, liquor, free love, and bumming around the country would make me free, but they were all traps that led me to confusion, unhappiness, guilt and near suicide. Christ has made me free.

     How do we turn a spot of hell, as F. Scott Fitzgerald called it, into a showplace for heaven? We can’t but Jesus can. We are not able, but he is able.

The noted psychologist, William Glasser in his book Reality Therapy, makes this provocative statement: “At all times in our lives, we must have at least one person who cares for us and whom we care for ourselves. If we do not have this person,” says Glasser, “We will not be able to fulfill our basic needs.”

Perhaps you would say to me today, I don’t have anybody who cares for me like that. But think about it.  You do have someone who cares for you. Indeed, he calls you son, daughter, brother, sister. Jesus is the one who says to you, “I LOVE YOU!”

Every temptation that comes to us involves the doubting of love or the denying of love. Jesus experienced all of the ways a person can be tempted to doubt or deny love, thus he is able to offer help to you and me in time of need. He is able because he is God come to the aid of those who are tempted. His love enables us to love others the way we should.

Any person with a hint of romantic nature thrills to the story of the poet Robert Browning and his wife Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Her sonnets of the Portuguese have given many young lovers the words to express their emotion. Perhaps you recall the words: “How do I love thee – let me count the ways. I love thee to the depths and breadth and height my soul can reach.”

Do you recall that Elizabeth Barrett was an invalid held in captivity by a domineering, tyrannical father? This beautiful poetry grew out of the love of this bold, brash young poet, Robert Browning, who carried her away.

One day she went to his side as he had fallen asleep at his desk while working on his poetry, and wrote this note for him to see: “My dearest Robert, my whole world, my whole life, my whole future has been different since that day I first felt thy footsteps walk across my soul.”

            Many of us will never experience the grandeur of such love from a living, breathing human person. But such love is available. There is a lighthouse with its beacon shining at us individually in our personal darkness. As we gaze at that lighthouse, we discern a message blinking through the fog of our neglect and despair. The message is one that has warmed and transformed countless persons through the years. The message is, I LOVE YOU!          

            And it is that love that helps us to love one another. What a beautiful world this is when people are not afraid to say, I LOVE YOU.

            Max D. Isaacson tells about a friend of his, an attorney named Lee Shapiro. Isaacson describes Shapiro as a sincere, warm, enthusiastic, loving person whom he met at a convention. One of the things this attorney likes to do is to greet people with big bear hug and then he plants a little adhesive-backed red heart on their lapel. Isaacson says that most of the people at the convention were wearing those hearts.

            Once Shapiro visited in a facility for the mentally retarded. He passed a room and noticed a young man in his 20’s who was eating lunch. The young man’s name was Leonard, and he had food smeared all over his mouth, his face and his chest. At first Lee thought “Maybe I’ll pass him by for now and return some other time.” But then he changed his mind, went in and gave the young man an enthusiastic hug and planted a red heart on him.  

The young man, Leonard, started to grin from ear to ear, and made some guttural noises as if he were trying to say something. And as Lee Shapiro turned to leave, he noticed that the head nurse and her assistant were wiping tears from their eyes. “I’m sorry,” said Lee, “Did I do something wrong?” And the head nurse replied, “Not at all,” Mr. Shapiro, “ You see, until now, Leonard hasn’t smiled or tried to talk for more than ten years.”

            Love is the most miraculous force in this world. There is a lighthouse flashing out a beacon – a beacon the whole world needs to see. The message is from God and it is I LOVE YOU!

            Are you counted among his brethren by faith in his work of redemption? Are you availing yourself of his grace to help in time of need? Is your heart breaking today? He can help. He experienced what you are going through. Do you feel rejected? He can relate to that. Whatever your hurt or pain today, he has been there. He cares for you. He is the family head who will take you under his wing and comfort you. Turn to him today. Ask him to come into your heart. Trust in him and experience his forgiveness and his love. He is our merciful, faithful high priest.