Category: Devotions

Tuesday 23^rd

Hebrews 7

NIV (v25) – ‘Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.’

ESV (v25) – ‘Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.’

I remember hearing someone preaching from this verse and saying, ‘He is able to save to the uttermost, he is able to save form the ‘guttermost’. That is that the power of the Cross, the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ is sufficient to save the whosoever, no matter how far into the gutter of sin they may have fallen. And this is good news. Some of us may feel that before we came to Christ that we were reasonably good living people in comparison to those we may have known or heard of that had committed the most heinous of crimes, but the verdict that God placed upon everyone of us is very clear in Scripture, that there was none that was righteous, not even one, and that we had all sinned and fallen short of his glory. (Romans 3:9-10, 23) We were all in the gutter, we were all dead in trespasses and sin, we were all cut off, alienated from God and we were all heading for the same destination, but thank God that he was rich in mercy and abounding in grace and he put forward a plan to redeem and reconcile, which he put into place in his Son the Lord Jesus Christ. John 3:16 reminds us. ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.’ Notice the words, ‘that whoever believes’ that is from the ‘guttermost’ the vilest and most wretched of sinners can be saved if they come in repentance to the Cross. That is the wonder of Calvary love.

Our Hebrew writer is reminding us of this fact, Jesus can and will save to the uttermost. The one that today seems the most furthest away from God can be brought near to him through the blood of the Cross, the one who may today be languishing in a prison cell suffering the punishment for deeds he will have committed can be brought near to God through the blood of the Cross, the one who is filling their day with all sorts of good works can be brought near to God through the blood of the Cross, the one who would fit the bill as the person who never seems to do anything wrong can be brought near to God through the blood of the Cross, any man, any woman, any boy or any girl who puts their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ can be brought near to God by the blood of the Cross, for because of what Christ has done, the whosoever can come. And the writer continues that in coming we are saved to the uttermost, that is we are saved into eternity, as the NIV says, we are saved completely. This is in  comparison to the Old Testament sacrifices, where the priest would enter into the holy place and make a sacrifice, but it was only temporal, it would need to be repeated, but Christ having offered himself as a sacrifice was a once only sacrifice which has effect for all of eternity. The Old Testament sacrifices were like a sticky plaster, a temporary cover, but In Christ the sin is not covered it is taken away, a permanent cleansing that saves us to the uttermost, that saves us into eternity.

Jesus has died and has risen again,

Pardon and peace to bestow;

Fully I trust him, from sins guilty stain

Jesus saves me now.

Sin’s condemnation is over and gone,

Jesus alone knoweth how;

Life and salvation my soul hath put on;

Jesus saves me now.

Jesus is stronger than Satan and sin,

Satan to Jesus must bow,

Therefore I triumph without and within;

Jesus saves me now.

Sorrow and pain may beset me about,

Nothing can darken my brow;

Battling in faith I can joyfully shout,

Jesus saves me now.

Jesus saves me now!

Jesus saves me now!

Yes, Jesus saves me all the time,

Jesus saves me now.

And he is saving me to the uttermost!

Monday 22^nd

Hebrews 6:13-20

NIV (v19-20) – ‘We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.’

ESV (v19-20) – ‘We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.’

‘We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure’ (NIV) ‘We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul’ (ESV) ‘Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast’ (KJV)

‘We have an anchor that keeps the soul, steadfast and sure while the billows roll, fastened to the Rock which cannot move, grounded firm and deep in the Saviour’s love!’

Our text tells us that we are safely anchored because of the hope that we have before us (v18). It is a hope that is certain because of what Christ has a) accomplished at Calvary and b) because of what he continues to accomplish as he has gone through the curtain into the inner place as a high priest on our behalf.

This hope that we have is sure or certain, it is guaranteed because as we saw yesterday it is based upon the promises of God who cannot lie. The hope becomes ours immediately that we come to Christ and accept him as Saviour and Lord. We could say that at that moment when we were saved or born again, we were like a ship that came from a stormy sea into the harbour and moored, safe from the danger of the storm, the rope or chain firmly anchored to the mooring post. And we have anchored our lives to the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, may I say we have anchored our lives to the post, the Cross, it is a solid, and a firm anchor, and as long as we remain there we are safe in the promises of God. But it is not only the Cross that is our anchor, it is the one himself who hung on the Cross, he is the anchor for our soul, for he himself is the one who is in heaven at this time interceding for us, and our text also reminds us that our hope itself is also an anchor. That is because the hope that we have set our souls upon is a sure and certain hope, not a finger’s crossed hope, but a hope that is firmly established in the fact that God has accepted what Christ has done on our behalf, therefore in Christ he accepts us. We don’t wish for eternal life, we already have it, and we know with a confidence assurance in our hearts that when our departure time from this world comes we will leave all our struggles behind and pass straight into our eternal abode with our heavenly Father. It is a definite hope, it is an eternal hope. O the joy that should fill our hearts when we contemplate the wonder of this great salvation, the joy that knows with absolute assurance that our souls are safely anchored.

‘When our eyes behold, through the gathering night, the city of gold, our harbour bright, we shall anchor fast by the Heavenly shore, with the storms all past for evermore. We have an anchor that keeps the soul . . .’

Sunday 21st

Hebrews 6:13-20

NIV (v18) – ‘God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged.’

ESV (v18) – ‘so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.’

I have included this verse in our devotions for it reminds us of the surety of the truthfulness of God. Paul when writing to Titus made a similar claim about the truthfulness of God by saying, ‘Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Saviour.’ (Titus 1:1-3)

God cannot lie, therefore everything he speaks is truth, truthful. Therefore, we can conclude that if God has promised salvation for all who put their hope and trust in him, then salvation is what we will have. Salvation that entails all that is involved in the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ.  ‘And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.’  1 John 2:25

We can make promises and fall back on our word, or just not fulfil it, but not so with God, he is not only a truthful God but he is also a faithful God and what he says he will do, he will accomplish, he will fulfil. Sadly that also leads to a negative aspect, and it is this, if he has promised salvation for all who believe, what is in place for all who fail to believe, and we know from Scripture it is eternal destruction, the day will come when it will be declared, ‘Depart from me for I never knew you’, and those who hear this declared to them will be cast into the lake of fire and will be tormented day and night forever and ever. (Revelation 20:10, 13-15)

The fact that God is a God who cannot and never will lie is a comforting thought for us as believers, for as our text says, it is an encouragement to us. After we have surrendered our lives to the Lord Jesus Christ, we can go through life, however long it may be for each one of us, knowing that whatever life throws at us, whether good or bad, easy or tough, sickness or health, wealth or poverty, there is an eternal destination we are heading toward that is a sure guarantee based upon the promises of God. And Scripture elsewhere reminds us that all God’s promises are yes and amen in Christ Jesus. (‘For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.’ 2 Corinthians 1:20) That is they are outworked and fulfilled a) through all that Christ has done for us at Calvary and through his resurrection from the dead, b) through the very fact that he is in heaven at this moment interceding on our behalf and c) through the assurance we have that he is coming again and in coming again it is to take us to our eternal reward. This will be our subject in the devotion on Sunday 28^th.

Here are a couple of verses from the book of James which remind us of the promises made by God, remembering that he is faithful toward his promises for God cannot lie. The first encourages us to hold on, keep going, the second reminding us that even if we may not be rich in this world, we are rich in the promises of God.

‘Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.’ James 1:12

‘Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?’ James 2:5

Saturday 20th

Hebrews 6:1-12

NIV (7-8) – ‘Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned.’

ESV (7-8) – ‘For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.’

The Hebrew writer in these verses has continued the theme for the importance of moving on from milk (the elementary doctrine of Christ v1) to the meat (maturity v1). He has then considered the state of those who once believed but

have fallen away, saying that they have crucified  once again the Son of God and holding him to contempt. (see also Hebrews 10:39) This leads to the verses we have for today which suggests that as those who have tasted or received Christ, we should be fruitful or productive in our Christian life. Receiving the rain is linked to our knowing the blessing of God, our hearts, our lives need to be cultivated once the seed of the Word of God has been planted, which in turn yields a harvest. The writer continues that we need to ‘show the same hope and earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end’ (v11). That is to persevere, the alternative is to be sluggish, this means, to be lazy or to procrastinate, put off or delay and this runs the risk of our lives becoming barren and unfruitful, bearing instead thorns and thistles which are worthless. In the context it could signify our desire to be content to stay on the milk and not progress spiritually with the meat, which would be spiritual laziness, therefore our lives / hearts  will not become cultivated sufficient to reap the full benefits of all the blessings that God has stored up ready to pour out as spiritual rain upon our lives. We have chosen to have a small vegetable patch in the garden, and already we are discovering we have to work at it to enable it to produce a harvest, and once we have started to sow and to plant it will require even more hard work, unless we are willing to do it, it will be just a worthless patch that will become taken over by the weeds. May our hearts never become a ‘worthless patch’ because we have been unwilling to cultivate the seed of the Word of God.

These verses are also  linked to the heroes of faith who through faith and patience inherit the promises, (v12b see also Hebrews 11:39-40) and we like them, that is the  heroes of faith, are called to persevere in the faith, as well as to progress or grow in the faith and it requires work, it requires discipline, it requires a determined effort to ensure that come what may we will take the meat, moving on from the basics to that which is needed to bring maturity.

One of the parables that Jesus gave was about the Sower and the seed, in it he described that the different soils represented the different conditions in which the human heart can be found, of the heart that is like the good soil, Jesus said, that after receiving the seed of the Word of God, some produced fruit thirty fold, some sixty fold, some a hundred fold, can I suggest that the deeper we allow the seed of the word of God to be planted into our lives the more fruitful we will be, and this means that the more we grow in the Word, the more fruitful we will be. To do this we need to move from the milk to the meat! Maybe the milk only produces the thirty-fold, the milk with a little meat the sixty-fold, the meat a hundred-fold, just maybe! Finally, it was Jesus again who said that a fruitless branch is worthless and only fit to be cut off and cast into a fire! May we be connected to the Word, that is the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us who is now the Vine and also be fed by the living and powerful sap of the written Word so that our lives will be fruitful.

Friday 19^th

Hebrews 5:11-14

NIV (12) – ‘In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!’

ESV (12) – ‘For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food.’

As we move on in this chapter, we discover that the writer is wanting to say so much more about what has been written before, but he is concerned about the spiritual maturity of those he is writing to. He expresses his concern by saying that by this time, they have been believers for so long that they should now be able to teach the very things he is sharing with them, but sadly it was not the case, it had become necessary to go over again the basics of the Christian faith. He uses the phrase ‘You need milk, not solid food’, it doesn’t take a lot for us to work out what he means. Milk is for young children, solid food is for those who have advanced a bit further on in maturity, the weaning days are over, time to get something more solid. Paul used similar language when he wrote to the Church at Corinth, in 1 Corinthians 3:1-2 we read, ‘But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh’.

These verses are a reminder not only to those who the authors were writing to but us as well in that having come to a believing and trusting faith in the Lord Jesus Christ we should grow and develop as believers. When we had each of our children, we did all we could for them to grow, develop and mature. We would have been extremely concerned if after a year or so one of them was still no different to what they looked like as they came into the world, and was still just wanting milk and showing no signs of beginning to form words, grasp hold of things and to show a sense of awareness. We expected them to move through the various stages into adulthood. Likewise this is the concern that the Hebrew writer is expressing here, the believers who perhaps should have been mature believers were still acting like babies, and it was a little like the children of Israel, going around in a circle and not getting anywhere.

The challenge to us from these verses is to examine our own spiritual lives and our own spiritual well-being and to see if we are growing, maturing and developing, are we grasping more than just the basics of the Christian faith, are we desiring to learn more, to understand more, or are we satisfied to remain as immature, babes in Christ? Knowing the basis elementary truths and not becoming skilled in the word of righteousness. (5:13)

It is apparent from Scripture that we need to know and we need to grow and we need to protect the faith. For example, let us just refer to a couple of Scriptures.

• Grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ – 2 Peter 3:18
• Study to show yourself as one approved, a workman who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the Word of truth – 2 Timothy 2:15
• Know enough to be able to give an answer – Galatians 4:6.
• Contend for the faith – Jude 3.
• Build yourself up in your most holy faith – Jude 20.
• It keeps us anchored – Ephesians 4:11-14.

One of the books I am reading at this moment is called ‘The faith once entrusted to the saints’ by Geoffrey W. Grogan (the title is based on Jude 3) and it is a book that challenges some of the important doctrinal subjects that are being disputed or denied today. I firmly believe that in this ever changing world and society that we are living in today that we need to move from the milk to the meat so that we will be able to stand against all the attacks that are coming against God and his Word.

Are you still enjoying the milk, that is good but what about moving onto the meat as well!

Thursday 18^th

Hebrews 5:1-10

NIV (v6) – ‘And he says in another place, “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”’

ESV (v6) – ‘. . . as he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.”’

Where is ‘in another place’ referring to? It is a quotation from Psalm 110:4, ‘The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”’ It is quoted again later in this letter in chapters 6:20, 7:17 and 21. So who is this one called Melchizedek? It makes life easier for me if I reference the work that others have already done to enable us to understand who he was.

I quote first from R. Albert Mohler Jr:^*

‘The first mention of Melchizedek occurs in Genesis 14, when Moses describes Abram’s encounter with the man. Hebrews does not merely reference this encounter; it draws deep theological comparisons between Melchizedek and Jesus and informs how we understand Christ’s identity as our great high priest. In other words, to understand who Jesus is more fully, we must understand who Melchizedek is . . . he is identified as a king over the region of Salem and as a priest of “God Most High.” Surprisingly, he has a coalesced ministry as a king and priests which sets him apart from any other priest or king in Israel. While Melchizedek’s kingship is important, the author (in Hebrews) primarily develops the significance of Melchizedek’s priesthood and how it relates to Jesus.

Outside of Jesus and Melchizedek, Scripture identifies no one as both a king and priest. In fact, Israel markedly differentiated the roles of king and priest. No priest in the Old Testament could lawfully act as a king, and no king in the Old Testament could lawfully act as a priest . . .’

Earlier in the same commentary Mohler says:

‘Melchizedek appears and disappears quickly . . . What does it mean for Jesus priesthood to be “according to the order of Melchizedek”? While it is tempting to think that “according to the order” refers to a Melchizedekian line of priestly succession or that Jesus came from the outside of the tribe of Israel as Melchizedek did, this is not the case. There was no Melchizedekian line of priestly succession, and only someone from within Israel could fulfil the Davidic monarchy. Therefore, “according to the order” must mean that Jesus’s priesthood, like Melchizedek’s is born out of the sovereign purposes of God. The order-that is, the nature-of Jesus’s priesthood is of a sovereign order, a sovereign nature. Like Melchizedek, Jesus did not take the honour of priest upon himself; he was sovereignly appointed. And in his appointment and service as high priest, he was exalted above all others.’

^{* Christ – Centred Exposition. Exalting Jesus in Hebrews. CSB Commentary, BHPublishingGroup pp 99-100, 73-74}

The second I quote from is R. Kent Hughes^{^} who follows the same line of thought as the previous quote, but also says (and I don’t have room to copy all he says);

‘The big picture the writer (Hebrew’s author) wants us to see is that Jesus perfectly fulfils what was foreshadowed in the Genesis account of Melchizedek. Melchizedek’s character type regarding king, priest, righteousness, and peace was fulfilled to perfection in Christ. Melchizedek’s qualifications, being without genealogy and without beginning or end, prefigured Jesus who had no priestly genealogy or priestly term of service but was appointed by God and ministers eternally.’

^{^ Preaching the Word. Hebrews. An anchor for the Soul, Crossway.  p189}

So that is just a summary, to answer the question, who is this one called Melchizedek? But above all he points to Jesus, the one who we have the joy and privilege of knowing as our great high priest.

Wednesday 17^th

Hebrews 5:1-10

NIV (v9) – ‘. . . and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.’

ESV (v9) – ‘And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him . . .’

Our word today is ‘eternal’, and there are two ways in which we will consider it, the first is that Christ has become an eternal high priest and secondly the effects of what he has done for us are also eternal. Everything I am sharing this week dove tails into each devotion, there is a lot of overlap, and we come to a clear conclusion that everything that Christ has accomplished is for eternity. And why not, for the whole plan of redemption was designed in eternity past and thus must also be assumed to be designed to last for all eternity, this is evident in the teaching of Jesus, that he came to give life that was not only abundant but also eternal. And it is here in Hebrews that we have affirmation of the eternality of all that Christ has accomplished.

In our text ‘he became the source of eternal salvation’. (clarified as being ‘to all who obey him’) His priesthood is eternal, ‘So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”; as he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.”’ (Hebrews 5:5–6)

There is only one source for eternal life, and it is through our great high priest, Jesus himself. In John’s gospel we are reminded many times that whoever believes in the Son will have eternal life. John 3:16, John 4:13-14, John 5:21, John 6:40,51,68, 10:27-28, 11:25-26, 12:25, 20:30-31, and this eternal life means exactly what it says on the label, life that is eternal, endless in the presence of the triune God. Sadly, for those who refuse to believe they will be the recipients of eternal punishment, cut off forever from the presence of God.

How can this life be eternal? a) because as we are told in this verse it’s source is the Lord Jesus Christ, and the source of this eternal life began to flow at Calvary, he poured out his soul unto death so that those who believe and respond to the glorious message of the gospel may become recipients of eternal life. We already possess it. b) Because the effects of Christs atoning work are eternal, it was a once for all for all time sacrifice. It was effectual and therefore will never need to be repeated. ‘For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.’ Hebrews 10:14 ‘. . . he has perfected for all time’ means he has perfected for ever, for eternity, those who are being sanctified.

Finally, Jesus is our eternal high priest – this is good news, it means that when we come to Calvary we have come to a pair of safe hands. The day is never going to come where we will find that Jesus is sleeping in the boat as it were, while we are going through a storm, his work on earth is finished, he has ascended into the presence of his Father, he is sat at the right hand of the majesty on high and he is interceding 24/7 for you and me, and his high priestly work will never cease, for God has declared that he is a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

This will lead us tomorrows devotion, who on earth was Melchizedek. I better get looking into it . . .

Tuesday 16^th

Hebrews 5:1-10

NIV (v9-10) – ‘. . . and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.’

ESV (v9-10) – ‘And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.’

Our word today is ‘effective’, another word is efficacy,  our great high priest is an effective high priest because he has made an effective sacrifice, we read later in Hebrews chapter 10 that Jesus came to do his Fathers will ‘Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’ ”’ Going to the Cross was God’s will for him and afterwards it says in verse 10 ‘And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.’ Then later in verse 14 ‘For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.’

The fact that the sacrifice Christ our high priest has made on our behalf was effective or sufficient means that we do not need anyone else to act as our go between, (we considered this last Thursday 11^th) and secondly it means that we can be assured of our eternal salvation, if I have committed my life to Jesus I AM saved. This means that the doctrines that the Roman Catholic Church teaches of confession, penance, indulgences, and purgatory are completely alien from what the Bible has to say. Christ HAS for sin atonement made, what a wonderful Saviour, we are redeemed! The price is paid! What a wonderful Saviour. Hebrews is very clear that no priest on earth has any power to take away sin, (Hebrews 10:11) but continues ‘But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.’ His single sacrifice for sins was sufficient, Jesus accomplished his mission, and it was an effective mission.

The effectiveness of Christ’s once for all sacrifice means that when we come in repentance to the Cross, our sin is dealt with, it is taken completely away, we are as we sing in the hymn, washed in the blood of the Lamb, we are both justified and sanctified and we enter into a new covenant relationship with God as our Father. Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe, sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow. Let’s remind ourselves of what Peter had to say on this matter, ‘knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.’ 1 Peter 1:18–21

Let us thank God for the effectiveness of Christ’s sacrifice, for as we also read in Hebrews ‘He ever lives to make intercession for us.’ Its effectiveness is for all of eternity which is where we continue tomorrow.

Monday 15^th

Hebrews 5:1-10

NIV (v8) – ‘Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered.’

ESV (v8) – ‘Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.’

It is important that when we look to Jesus and see him as our great high priest that we not only see him for he who is and what he is doing, but also to see what he has done. Obviously, we look back and see what he has done in the great work of redemption, but out of this comes our word for today ‘example’. As our great high priest, he has left us an example that we should follow. We see this in the book of Philippians chapter two which I will quote in a moment.

In the verses 1-10 of this chapter we see he left us an example of prayer and of reverence to God as his Father – ‘In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.’ (v7) Jesus although being both fully God and fully man still prayed! He often prayed, he prayed when he needed to make a big decision, (see Luke 6:12-16) he prayed before he had a busy day (Mark 1:35) and after he had had a busy day, (Mark 6:46) he prayed what we call the high priestly prayer in John 17 and he prayed that great prayer of total surrender to the will of his Father in the garden of Gethsemane. (Luke 22:42) It is from that prayer we see that he learned obedience, not that he had been disobedient in any way, but his obedience was wrapped up in his committing himself fully to the way of the Cross, to the will of his Father. For ourselves in following his example, we need to surrender our lives fully to the will of God, see Romans 12:1-2.  

Philippians 2:5-8 says ‘Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.’ Jesus was not only an example of obedience he was also an example of humility. He was willing to humble himself, become as we have seen already in Hebrews a little lower than the angels so that as a result he through his death and resurrection might lift fallen man up from out of the pit and lift us to the place where he has gone.

We have that great example of the humility of Jesus when he washed his disciples feet saying afterwards, ‘For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.’ Jn 13:15

Then we have the example in Jesus of what genuine love is all about ‘Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.’  Ephesians 5:1–2

What an example to have, Jesus, the Son of God, but what an example to follow, may we learn from him, and may we follow his example. ‘So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.’ Philippians 2:1-3

Sunday 14^th

Hebrews 5:1-10

NIV (v2) – ‘He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness.’

ESV (v2) – ‘He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness.’

The text for today is expressing the necessary ability of every priest in the Old Testament to be able to represent the people and deal with the people because he himself knew the same weaknesses, we have already learned that because of what Jesus went through as a man, he is able as our great high priest to empathize with us in our weakness, we saw this in Hebrews 4:15 ‘For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.’ and in Hebrews 2:17-18 ‘Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.’

This should really encourage us and spur us on in our Christian life, we are not trying to make it on our own, we make it knowing that Jesus is interceding for us, he not only approaches God on our behalf but he comes alongside us, to help us, to carry us through.

I guess we have all been in a situation where someone has had a particular need and we feel helpless because we have not been in the same place to which they are found, it is always so much easier to enter into someone else’s experience if we have already been there ourselves. We can empathize with them because sometime in the past we had already been there. A typical example is a bereavement of a close family member such as a parent, it is not until we have lost a parent ourselves that we can truly know what someone else is going through when it happens to them.

I remember a very clear example, my mother died in November 2003 and less than two months later a lady in our Church at the time took ill and was taken into hospital, and I had a phone call from her son very early one Saturday morning to say that the hospital had rung to say she was dying, he asked if I would be willing to go over to the hospital. Now I was still feeling raw having only just lost my own mum, and so personally it was not an easy thing to do, but I wanted to be there for him and so went along and I sat there with him as his own mother passed away, but my own recent experience meant that at that very difficult time that he was going through I could empathize with him, I knew exactly how he was feeling because I had just been through the same.

This is exactly how it is with our great high priest, he has been where we are and he can empathize with us, he knows exactly how we are feeling and he is able to minister to us personally and minister for us in the presence of God.

This should encourage us, that even if we may have someone to turn to, we can still turn to Jesus, and even more importantly if we have no one to turn to, let us never forget we can always turn to Jesus, he is there in the presence of his Father on our behalf and for our behalf.

Over the next couple of days, I will continue to consider some various points concerning Jesus as our great high priest. Then as we continue through the book I will pick up on other points. As today we used a word beginning with the letter e (empathize) so will the other points. Example, Effective, Eternal.

Our verses tell us today that Jesus is where he is because he learned obedience, (v8 ‘Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.’) that is that he was willing to fulfil his Father’s will right down to the minutest of details, and that meant going to the Cross and surrendering his life on our behalf.

This leads to our second word for tomorrow and that our great high priest has left us an example to follow.