[Scott Delamater] At baptism…when a person is baptized in the church, we have a ceremony that we go through. And we have a few things that we say during that ceremony. I found out this morning that one of my nephews was baptized today. So, welcome to the family, Zarek. That's very exciting. And it was neat because, you know, as we approach Passover, we're all thinking along these lines and thinking about these things. And we're excited to renew our commitment to what we committed to at baptism. And so it's one of...there's one thing we say in there during the ceremony that I want to focus on today is something that I have been studying a lot on as we lead up to Passover.

I think sometimes Passover is a very big thing, and what Jesus Christ is, is a very big thing. And year after year, you can really hone in and focus in on some aspect of what He did and draw that out for yourself personally, and then the next year, maybe find some other aspects and draw that out. Because it's really very hard to wrap your head around all of what He did, and all that we've committed to. And so I'd like to look at one aspect of that today, which is still going to be a very big thing, so we'll be moving through a lot of material.

At baptism, as part of the ceremony, you're asked if you've accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. And we say, "Because you've accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, your Master, your High Priest, and your soon-coming King." And then the baptism proceeds. It's interesting that in there, we acknowledge that we have accepted Jesus Christ as our High Priest. We say, “Yes, He is my High Priest.” A lot of these other things that we acknowledge, they can feel a little more direct. Being a Savior is something. A Lord and a Master, that's maybe a little bit more foreign than what we're used to in our society but still, I think, we can connect to that. High Priest is something that feels a little bit ancient, or distant sometimes, and yet, it is something that all of us who are baptized have acknowledged, is that Jesus Christ is our High Priest.

So, I want to look at that today. I want to look at the history of the priesthood, really. And then we'll get into the Book of Hebrews because it's very hard to talk about the priesthood without talking about Hebrews because that's really where it culminates, and really where we get a sense of where things are. But we'll move through the history today. And actually, in my notes, I have a little bit of a timeline with six dots on it that we're going to move through in the Old Testament. And we'll go dot to dot to dot chronologically through the history, and then we'll get to the Book of Hebrews.

Let's go back to Genesis 14. Let's go to that first little stop along the way. Genesis Chapter 14, because here is where we are introduced to the very first priest in the Bible. This is the first time anybody is acknowledged and called a priest. Genesis 14:18. You'll notice here that we are in the context of Abram. So, Abram, who later became Abraham, he has gone and rescued Lot, his nephew, and he's taken his men and they've gone, and with God's help, they've rescued Lot. And they're coming back from rescuing him and from saving him and all these other people and all this stuff. They're saving him and they're bringing him back. And as Abram is heading south, and he's on his route home, somebody comes out to meet him.

Genesis 14:18 Says, "Then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was the priest of God Most High."

Here we have...again, this is the first priest. And his name is Melchizedek, which means king of righteousness. So, here the king of righteousness, who's also the king of Salem, the king of peace, he comes out to meet Abram. And he is the priest of El Elyon is the word in Hebrew there. El Elyon, God Most High, the Most High God. He is the priest of Abram's God, the same God that Abram worships. And notice what he brings out. He brings out bread and wine. This is a priestly thing that he's doing. He's coming out as a priest, and he's bringing bread and wine, which we recognize as the symbols of Passover. So, what he's coming out and doing here is a priestly act in meeting Abram. And we're introduced to him as a high priest.

Genesis 14:19-20 "And he blessed him and said, 'Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.' And he..." that's Abram, "He gave him a tithe of all.'"

So, Abram tithes to Melchizedek. He pays a tithe to this mysterious figure that comes out and meets him. And then, just like that, he is gone and we really don't hear much about him for a long, long time. But a few things are very clear here. He comes out and he meets Abram bringing priestly symbols, bringing bread, and wine. He's bringing out, again, what we know as the Passover symbols. We see him bring those things out. We see him bless Abram, the greater blessing, the lesser. He is something more significant, bigger than even Abraham would become. And Abram acknowledges this in paying him tithes.

As tithe payers, we know what is involved in that and the significance of that. We understand paying tithes is an act of reverence to God. We don't pay our tithes into any human or to any system, right? That's not what compels any of us to pay tithes. We pay tithes because we're acknowledging authority, we're acknowledging God, we're acknowledging what God has done for us and given us in our lives, and so we tithe to God. And that's what Abraham is doing here. He's coming back from this miraculous venture that he's gone on that God has blessed, and he is taking a 10th of what was there and tithing that to God. So, he clearly is acknowledging Melchizedek is something greater than he is. He is a great high priest.

His identity is really unclear in pretty much all of the Old Testament, and really even in modern Jewish thought because you don't get a sense of who Melchizedek is until we get to Hebrews, and we'll get there. But even today in modern Jewish thought, the thoughts about Melchizedek are some, you know, he's maybe some Canaanite king, he's an interesting fellow, he's typical of some messianic figure later. And it's all very vague. But Melchizedek is something great and there's a reason that he's the first high priest that is introduced.

That's our first stop, we'll get back to him. Let's keep moving. Let's go over to Exodus Chapter 13. Exodus Chapter 13 because something interesting happens here that sets up the priesthood. So, this is right after the Passover. This is right after the Passover. So, recall the Passover story, God has come through the 10th plague and He has come through and He has passed over Israel, sparing what? Their firstborn. It's not like God came through and wiped out everybody in Egypt. He came through very specifically and wiped out the firstborn in all of Egypt. And it is the firstborn that God passed over, that He spared. So here in Exodus 13, he says, verse 1.

Exodus 13:1-2 "Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'Consecrate to Me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and beast, it is mine.'"

So, He puts a claim on the firstborn. He says, "The firstborn are mine." Let's go down to verse 11.

Exodus 13:11-13 "It shall be, when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as He swore to you and your fathers, and gives it to you, that you shall set apart to the Lord all that open the womb, that is, every firstborn that comes from an animal which you have, the males shall be the Lord's. Every firstborn of a donkey, you shall redeem with a lamb and if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck."

Remember, God didn't just take the firstborn of humans. He also took the firstborn of all the livestock. He took the firstborn of every living thing. Well, at least of the livestock and the humans, I don't know about pet dogs or whatever, right? But clearly, the sacrificial animals and the humans, God took the firstborn of all of those things. And here He says, every firstborn, you redeem it somehow, whether it's of your livestock, or whether it's a human.

Exodus 13:13-15 "And all the firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. So it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, 'What is this?' That you shall say to him, 'By strength of hand, the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. And it came to pass, when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of the beast. Therefore, I sacrifice to the Lord, all males that open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.'"

So, we see God put a claim on the firstborn. He said, "These are mine." But then something happens in the Book of Numbers. Let's turn to the Book of Numbers. Because this is still setting up the priesthood. This is setting up priestly service. Numbers 3:12.

Numbers 3:11-13 "God says to Moses, 'Now behold, I myself have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of every firstborn who opens the womb among the children of Israel. Therefore, the Levites shall be mine because all the firstborns are mine.'"

So, He says, "I'm making a trade here, all the firstborn are mine, but I'm swapping it out, I'm going to take the Levites in place of the firstborn.

Numbers 3:13 "All the firstborn are mine. On the day that I struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt..."

Remember, He's going back to that rationale and saying, this is why the firstborns are mine. I took the firstborn of the Egyptians, I passed over your firstborn, I spared them so they belong to me. He's saying, that's the rationale. But now because the firstborn are mine, He says,

Numbers 3:13 "On the day that I struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified to myself all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast, they shall be mine, I am the Lord."

So, He says, okay, firstborn were mine. Now I'm going to take the Levites.And so then He gives them instructions and He says, "Count how many firstborn are in Israel, count how many Levites there are." And it turns out there were a few more firstborn than there were Levites. And so they had to redeem, they had to pay. Israel brought money forward to redeem those firstborn that were not offset by the Levites. So, God...in baseball terms, God trades the firstborn for the Levites plus cash. That's how the trade works out. And this is what they did.

So, God now takes the Levites in place of the firstborn of Israel, but they still...they are symbolically in that sense, firstborn. They're setting up something significant that we'll see later. Because the original plan seems to have been for them to be the ones who would assist in worship. Let's go over to Numbers Chapter 8. Numbers 8:18.

Numbers 8:18-19 "I have taken the Levites instead of all the firstborn of the children of Israel. And I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and his sons from among the children of Israel, to do the work for the children of Israel in the tabernacle of meeting, and to make atonement for the children of Israel, that there'll be no plague among the children of Israel when the children of Israel come near the sanctuary."

So, it seems like the original plan was the firstborn were going to be the ones that God gave to Aaron to do this service. And here, He says, I'm swapping that out, instead of the firstborn being the ones who are going to come and serve in the tabernacle, who are going to assist, who are going to serve in the tabernacle, make atonement, right? Instead of doing those things, it will be the Levites. So, He's setting up the Levites here. And this is really the birth of what we call the Levitical priesthood. So, when we talk about the priesthood in the Old Testament, generally, we're talking about the Levitical priesthood. And it's Levitical because Levites are the ones that are doing it, right?

It could have been the firstborn priesthood, but it's not and it's the Levitical priesthood. And that came with a lot of laws and conditions for serving in the tabernacle. And so we see there's all sorts of stipulations given about what you may or may not do as a priest serving in the tabernacle, what you are allowed to do, kind of person that you have to be, the kind of blemish-free person that is allowed to serve in the tabernacle. And there are things that can exclude you, there are things that can count you out from being able to serve in that way. But here we see God has set up now this Levitical priesthood system. Again, those priests are sort of typical of firstborn children of the ones that God had originally claimed in Egypt.

Let's go over to Exodus 29. Here's our next stop. Exodus 29. So, here, now we see it's not just that there's this sort of general priesthood that's serving and everybody kind of rotates and takes a turn, there is some of that, but God is setting up a high priest, as well. He's saying there is going to be one priest that is the high priest. And here we learn about the first Levitical high priest, which is Moses's brother, Aaron. He is consecrated here in Exodus 29 and he is set apart as the high priest, the one and only, right? There's only one person who is allowed to do certain things and that's the high priest. All the other priests that served under him were allowed to minister in certain ways in the tabernacle, but there were certain things only the high priest could do. And here we learn a little bit about the high priest.

Exodus Chapter 29:1 "This is what you shall do to them to hallow them for ministering to Me as priests."

So, it's talking about Aaron and his sons. So, Aaron, at this point, his two oldest sons are serving underneath him. When Aaron dies, one of those sons would become the high priest. But God is setting apart Aaron as high priest, and then his two sons sort of in succession to come behind him.

Exodus 29:1-4 "Take one young bull and two rams without blemish, and unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, you shall make them of wheat flour. You shall put them in one basket and bring them in the basket, with the bull and the two rams. And Aaron and his sons you shall bring to the door of the tabernacle of meeting and you shall wash them with water."

So, He says, there are these offerings that they're going to be required to bring as part of their consecration. This is a one-time setting apart of the high priest and his sons. That's what He's doing. He's setting this up and He says they have to do certain things to be able to approach Me, they have to bring these sacrifices. And the first thing they do right when they get up to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, they have to be washed with water, they have to be cleansed. This is important, coming before God requires cleanliness, a certain purification, in this instance, physical, but as we see, it gets to be something even more important. But here they had to approach God, they had to be washed. Let's look at verse 5.

Exodus 29:5 "You shall take the garments." God had given instructions about holy garments that the priests were supposed to be clothed with. He said, "You shall take the garments and put the tunic on Aaron and the robe of the ephod, the ephod, and the breastplate." These all separate pieces of priestly garb. You can look them up. It's pretty cool. There's a lot of really great information about what those are. We're not going to go into all of that but a lot of really neat symbolism of what is going on there. But he has to be dressed appropriately. He's dressed in this white linen garb, white linen tunic, there's all this holy insignia on him that he's wearing. "The breastplate, and gird him with the intricately woven band of the ephod." So, he had to be clothed in linen and had to be dressed appropriately.

Exodus 29:7 "You shall take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him."

So, the high priest had to be anointed with oil. And this is an act of consecration of setting apart. He had to be anointed. This anointing is something that was done of priests, was done of kings. It's a consecration act. So, he had to be washed with water, he had to be anointed with oil, he had to be clothed in the right clothes. And then look at verse 21. So, they bring their offerings in, and their offerings are offered and various things are done there. We're not going to go into all of it. But then in verse 21.

Exodus 29:21 "You shall take some of the blood that is on the altar, and some of the anointing oil." So, blood and oil, "You take those and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments, on his sons, and on the garments of the sons with him. And he and his garments shall be hallowed and his sons and his sons' garments with him."

So, they would take on this white linen, right, this clean garment that he's wearing, they would actually take it and sprinkle it with blood and with oil. And to us, that might seem a little weird. And you'd think, why would you dirty up that pretty garment? But in their society, they would have understood these as purifying agents. Blood and the oil were purifying agents, they were things that made the high priest pure and able to go before God. He was not allowed to go before God until all of these things had been done, until he had been consecrated, purified, set apart, and then he could go and do his ministerial duties, he could go and serve, he could be the priest.

And then it gets into...if you look through the rest of the...verse 38, it starts talking about the daily offerings. You notice he had to go in daily and perform offerings. The priest had offerings that were offered day by day. That was part of the priestly act. All of this setting apart is done so that there's a human being, one human being here who can represent God to the people of Israel. The high priest is there clothed in these holy garments so that in a sense, he can represent God's holiness to the people of Israel, that's part of his job. It's like one important sort of half of his job.

Let's go to our next stop now. Leviticus Chapter 16. Now, usually, we're going to turn to Leviticus Chapter 16 on the Day of Atonement, and that's probably the heading in your Bible. But there are a lot of very important Passover tie-ins here with what Jesus Christ did with His service as High Priest, and with what we read about here in Leviticus Chapter 16. Leviticus 16:2. So, now you have this high priest who has been consecrated who is of the Levitical line who's representing the firstborn, right? You start seeing all these symbols and these types build-up, and you know where it's going, right, but still let's build them up.

Leviticus 16:2 "The Lord said to Moses, 'Tell Aaron your brother not to come at just anytime into the holy place inside the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark, lest he die.'"

You couldn't just go in there whenever you wanted. You could go in there one time a year if you were the high priest. So, you had to be high priest, you had to go in one time a year.

Leviticus 16:3 "Aaron shall come into the holy place with the blood of a young bull as a sin offering, and ram as a burnt offering."

You couldn't go in there without blood. You couldn't appear before God's presence without blood.

Leviticus 16:4 "He shall put on a holy linen tunic and linen trousers on his body. He shall be girded with a linen sash with the linen turban, he shall be attired."

These are holy garments. So, he had to be wearing the right clothes, he had to be clothed in linen, purified. He had to be washed.

Leviticus 16:4 Says, "Therefore he shall wash his body in water and put them on."

So, he had to wash first, and then he had to put on the clothes, and then...well, not quite. That's not all the requirements.

Leviticus 16:13 "And he shall put incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat."

So, he was supposed to take a sensor and put some really hot coals in it, and a handful of incense. And then as he went into the holy place, he could throw the incense on the altar, and it would create smoke. And then after he's done all of those things, that's how he can go in. Now, this one person, this one day of the year, after he's purified, after he's wearing the right clothes, after he's brought blood and incense with smoke, now he can go in there. You get the sense that...oh, and let's look at verse 17. One more thing.

Leviticus 16:17 "There shall be no man in the tabernacle of meeting when he goes in to make atonement in the holy place until he comes out."

Nobody else could even be in the tabernacle. So, he's got to do this by himself, all alone. So, here, you really get the sense that this is a very restricted place. This is a place that nobody's getting into. We see elsewhere where his sons tried to get in there, they brought profane fire and they were approaching and God took them out.

So, this is a very restricted place that he is going into. That was the job of the high priest, nobody else had that job. That's the high priest's role. In that role, he's representing Israel to God, he is atoning for the sins of all of the people. So, we see in his more public roles, he is representing God, His Holiness to the people. But here he alone, apart from the people, is going in and representing the people before God to make atonement for them. That's the high priest's job. So, he performs both sides of that function.

Okay, next up, Psalm 110. Psalm 110. Psalm 110 is the most quoted Psalm in the New Testament, and direct quotations and allusions to it are all throughout because it's saying something really important about Jesus Christ and about His role.

Psalm 110:1 "The Lord said to my Lord." So, this is a Psalm of David it says in the very beginning. "Psalm of David. The Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit in my right hand.'"

Now, again, if you don't understand what this is pointing to, and if you don't believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, there are other explanations people have for, well, this was...you know, I read one commentator said, "Well, this must have been a court poet who wrote this who thinks that, you know, the Lord God said to my Lord, the King, David." But in all of the New Testament references, that approach doesn't make any sense. The only approach that makes sense is the approach that was acknowledged in Jesus Christ's time, which is that this is a Psalm where David is talking about God speaking to who we understand is Jesus Christ. "The Lord said to His Lord." And when we are baptized, we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord, Savior. So, this is David's Lord in that same way. And God is speaking to His Lord, "Sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool." And so this is a really powerful imagery that we get about Jesus Christ as a King, who's coming back who will rule and reign.

Psalm 110:4 "The Lord has sworn and will not relent, 'You are a priest forever.'" He's not simply a king who's coming back to rule and reign. This Lord, this Messiah, who's coming back is also a priest forever, “according to the order of Melchizedek.”

So, here, we finally get this throwback to Melchizedek, which, you know, he's been absent from the narrative for so long. And now here it's like, oh, yes, Melchizedek, that guy, we remember him. And there's something apparently really important about him because this Messiah, who God is going to appoint. It says, He's a priest, according to the order of Melchizedek. Not according to the order of Levi. So, this is not talking about the Levitical priesthood. This is talking about a different priesthood. This is talking about a different order, going back to Melchizedek. And we're just sort of left to ponder what that means because he doesn't elaborate on that.

Psalms 110:5 "The Lord is at Your right hand. He shall execute kings in the day of His wrath. He shall judge among the nations."

It goes back to a lot of the kingly imagery. But we do see here that there's this Messiah who is going to be the priest, a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. So, we get that little glimpse. Okay. Let's go to Zechariah Chapter 3, one more stop. If you feel like these stops aren't quite connecting, just keep going, keep going with me. Zechariah Chapter 3. Now, we get a very interesting vision where God is going to connect the high priest of Israel and say this is foreshadowing something. This is foreshadowing something that's going to come, that is almost imminent in their day, it was still a few 100 years off, but.

Zechariah Chapter 3. Now, the setting here, this is about 520 BC. So, this is after the nations of Israel and Judah have gone into captivity, they have been taken away. And now Judah has started to come back, they started to come back to Jerusalem about maybe 18 years or so before this was written. The captives started to return to Jerusalem, and the temple was starting to be rebuilt. And here Zechariah is given a prophecy and he's given something to tell them, he's given a vision.

Zechariah 3:1 "Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him."

So, we see the high priest at that time whose name is Joshua, not to be confused with Joshua who succeeded Moses. Again, this is much, much further on down the road, like, almost 1000 years later.

Zechariah 3:1-2 "He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. And the Lord said to Satan, 'The Lord rebuke you, Satan. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?'"

Now, Joshua was clothed in filthy garments and he was standing before the angel. The high priest can't be clothed in filthy garments and go in and minister before God. Here, he's clothed in these filthy garments, almost representative of the people in this way. Here's the high priest representing the people to God before God in this vision, right? He's standing before the Angel of the Lord. So, here the high priest is representative of the people clothed in these filthy garments.

Zechariah 3:4-5 "Then He answered, and He spoke to those who stood before him, saying, 'Take away the filthy garments from him.' And to him, He said, 'See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.' And I said, 'Let them put on a clean turban on his head.' So, they put a clean turban on his head, and they put the clothes on him and the Angel of the Lord stood by.'"

So, here what we see is Joshua, symbolic of something, something bigger than simply just the high priesthood. Let's keep reading.

Zechariah 3:6 "Then the Angel of the Lord admonished Joshua."

Now, this Angel of the Lord might be capitalized in your Bible, this is generally understood because He is referred to as the Lord earlier in the passage. This is, again, the pre-incarnate word, this is Jesus Christ standing before God, who is addressing Joshua, and purifying him, cleansing him, making him able to stand before God.

Zechariah 3:6-8 "The Angel of the Lord admonished Joshua, saying, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts, if you will walk in My ways, and if you will keep My command, then you shall also judge My house and likewise have charge with My courts. And I will give you places to walk among these who stand here. Hear, O Joshua, the high priest, you and your companions who sit before you, for they...'" So, this is generally understood to be inclusive of Joshua and his companions. "They are a sign, they're a wondrous sign," it says, "For behold, I am bringing forth my servant, the Branch."

He's saying, the priest, the high priest here, and the priesthood are symbolic of this Messiah that God is going to bring forth. He's going to bring forth His servant, the Branch.

Zechariah 3:9 “‘For behold, the stone that I have laid before Joshua, upon the stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave its inscription,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.’”

Here he's prophesying something that's going to happen because of this Branch that Joshua is symbolic of. That not only would this Branch be able to purify Joshua, who's standing there before the Lord's presence, but He's going to remove the iniquity of the land in one day. He's going to be able to cleanse the land in one day by His priestly actions, not by Joshua's priestly actions. This is not talking about Joshua the high priest, this is talking about the Messiah to come. In one day, would be able to cleanse the land of its iniquity.

Zechariah 6:11-13 "Take the silver and gold, make an elaborate crown, and set it on the head of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest. And speak to him saying, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts, saying, 'Behold, the Man whose name is the Branch, from His place, He shall branch out. And he,” he is capitalized in my Bible. Again, this is not talking about Joshua. This is talking about Joshua as a symbol of the Messiah, of Jesus Christ, and what His work would be and what He would do. "Behold, the Man whose name is the Branch, from His place, He shall branch out, and He shall build the temple of the Lord." The high priest will build the temple of the Lord. "Yes, He shall build the temple of the Lord and He shall bear the glory. And shall sit and rule on His throne. So, He shall be a priest on His throne." He shall be a priest, a king, He is a ruling priest, that's Jesus Christ.

So, here, we see that there's this future high priest-king who will build a spiritual temple. That is the job of that future high priest. He's going to build the spiritual temple. Okay, that's sort of our whirlwind tour through the Old Testament through the priesthood, there's a lot more that we could talk about. Let's go over to the Book of Hebrews, I'd like to spend the rest of the sermon, so, you know, the next couple hours here in the Book of Hebrews. If you're new, I apologize, we were not going to spend the next couple of hours here.

Okay, the Book of Hebrews, let's set some context here real quick. Sometimes when we think about a lot of the symbols that we understand in the Bible, we mix up metaphor and reality. We think about one thing as being real and then we say, "Well, this other thing is kind of like that." And I'll give you example, marriage. We look at marriage and we say, well...okay, marriage between a man and a woman, that we understand, that's a real thing. And Jesus Christ and the church, they're kind of like that, it's kind of the same way. But that's backwards because that's not actually how it is, right? Jesus Christ and the church, that's the real thing, that's the more real thing. And the human institution of marriage is the thing that is the metaphor, right? We are the metaphor, right? We point toward what is real. -And generally, you can sort of discern which thing is metaphor and which thing is real by looking at which thing is going to last longer. Which one is more permanent? The relationship between Christ and His Church is far more permanent than human marriage.

Another thing that we do this with is family. We look at family and we say, "Oh, well, you know, I've got a dad, I've got a mom, or I've got kids." And God, well, He wants to have a family, and that's kind of like what we're doing here. But again, that's backwards because what God is doing is real. He is actually making a family, He is reproducing himself in a way that is eternal, that's going to last forever. That's the real thing. And what we're doing here humanly, physically, we're the metaphor, we're doing the temporary thing that teaches us about a permanent thing.

The Book of Hebrews, you have to make sure that when you read it, that you're getting your metaphor right. He's going to talk a lot about Jesus Christ as the high priest. If you think of Jesus Christ as doing this thing, it's kind of like what we read about in the Old Testament, then we get it backwards. Because what Jesus Christ is doing as our High Priest now is not...well, kind of like what the priest did. What the priest did is kind of like what Jesus Christ is doing. What He is doing is permanent. It is the fullness, it is the real thing. And what they did was temporary. It was something that is metaphor that, again, is not going to be permanent because it's pointing to what He did.

Now, if we understand that, then when we get into some of the imagery here, it all starts to expand on His role and on what He is doing for us, what He has enabled for us by His sacrifice. And it starts right at the beginning of the book. Hebrews 1:3. We're going to jump through some things here and we're going to recall some of the things that we looked at in the Old Testament.

Hebrews 1:3 "Talking about Jesus Christ who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, God the Father's person. And upholding all things by the Word of His power, when He had by himself purged our sins."

By himself, remember the high priest went into the tabernacle, the holy of holies alone. He did it by himself, nobody around. Nobody could be there because that was pointing to what Jesus Christ did. He did this by himself. He was abandoned by His friends. He was alone in what He did.

Hebrews 1:3 "By himself, He purged our sins."

Here we see Him purging sins. So, now we're harkening back a little bit to Zechariah 3, right, where Jesus Christ is the one who was able to purify the people, who was able to give them the new robes to cleanse them, to absolve them of their sins.

Hebrews 1:3 "He by himself purged our sins, and He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high."

This is a reference back to Psalm 110. So here, we get a reference to Jesus Christ as the one who sits down at God's right hand, who's waiting for God to make His enemies His footstool, who is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. So, we get that little glimpse right here, and then He's going to build that up much further.

Hebrews 1:6 "When He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says, 'Let all the angels of God worship Him.'"

Jesus Christ is that firstborn. Remember the priesthood was...that Levitical priesthood was swapped for the firstborn, but what it's pointing to is the firstborn, Jesus Christ, the high priest, as the firstborn, the priesthood that would come along behind Him, that is another type of firstborn, those first fruits, that He is that firstborn. So, we have that connection back to Exodus 13.

Hebrews 2:11 "For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren."

Again, if He is the firstborn, that means He's got siblings, and here it talks about Him having brethren.

Hebrews 2:12 It says, "I will declare Your name to My brethren. In the midst of the assembly, will sing praise to You."

So, this is the work that He was doing was going through all that He went through so that He could open a way for His brethren so that He could proclaim God's name to His brethren.Verse 17. This is may be the SPS of Hebrews. Hebrews 2:17, it's hard to put an SPS on Hebrews because it's pretty rich. But maybe, let's say for the sake of today, this is going to be our SPS in Hebrews.

Hebrews 2:17 "Therefore, in all things, He had to be made like His brethren, His brothers, His sisters." He had to be made like us. "That He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation," just atonement, to redeem us. "To make propitiation for the sins of the people."

This is the first time in Hebrews that He's declared as a high priest. And then the author is going to go on and paint this picture of Jesus Christ as High Priest. And it's a very elaborate picture. We'll look at a few specific things here. But notice, even just in this verse, it says that He was made high priest to atone for us, to cover our sins. It says He's made high priest to be able to represent us, represent us to God, and to be able to aid us, right?

Hebrews 2:18 "For in that He himself has suffered being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted."

That's what He's doing. That's part of why...I mean, that's such a big part of why He came and did what He did. He became human like us, He suffered for us so that He could aid us, so that He could help us as a big brother, as a High Priest. Hebrews Chapter 5. Hebrews Chapter 5. So, here we start getting into the fact that this is not the Levitical high priesthood. Jesus Christ is not a high priest of that system. That was a system that was set up that was a temporary system that was...again, it was the metaphor that was pointing to something bigger. And Jesus Christ is not part of that Levitical system. He's not a high priest that needs to do those things. Those high priests needed to do what they did because of the things that He would do in the future.

Hebrews 5:5 "So also Christ did not glorify himself to become high priest."

He didn't take that role on himself. He didn't say, I think I'm going to do this. This is going to be a job that I'd like to step into. "He didn't glorify himself to become high priest, but it was He who said to Him, 'You are my Son, today I have begotten You.'" As He also says in another place, Psalm 110, "You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." It was God the Father, who appointed Jesus Christ as the high priest. So, at that point, God made Jesus Christ high priest apart from that system, apart from that Levitical system. He says, You are a high priest after a different order, after an order that is a permanent order, after an order that had already been established, a priesthood that had already been established long before the Levites ever existed.

Hebrews Chapter 7. Now we get back to where we started, we get back to Melchizedek. And here's where the author draws out just why Melchizedek is so important because Melchizedek is not just some Canaanite king that showed up on the scene and has some weird allegorical purpose for being there. Melchizedek is far greater than that.

Hebrews 7:1-3 "For this Melchizedek, King of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all. First being translated king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, meaning king of peace. Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually."

Here's what you don't get if you're just reading the Old Testament. Here's why so much Jewish thought misses what this actually is, is because here's where we come to an understanding of who Melchizedek is. He remains a priest continually. It is a permanent priesthood. That Melchizedek was Jesus Christ before Jesus Christ came as a human being. That is the Word of God. That's what Melchizedek is. That's why Melchizedek is so much greater than Abraham. Now, consider how great this man was to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils. He's saying this guy is greater. He goes on, he makes the case, Melchizedek is greater than Abraham. Abraham is perhaps the greatest character in all of Old Testament, except that this Melchizedek is even greater than he was.

Verse 11. I would encourage you this week to read through at least all of Hebrews Chapter 7. But the Book of Hebrews is very appropriate material for the Passover season. Hebrews 7 packs a lot in that we're not going to be able to touch.

Hebrews 7:11 "Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received the law, what further need was there that another priest should arise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be called according to the order of Aaron?"

Saying why did we need that? Why wasn't the Levitical priesthood good enough? What did it not do?

Hebrews 7:12 "For the priesthood being changed of necessity, there is also a change of the law."

This is not a grand sweeping change and elimination of the law, but this is a change...remember, Jesus Christ became the high priest of a spiritual temple. So, the laws pertaining to the Levitical high priest system and the physical temple, that's the constraint of the laws that he's talking about. Those laws changed because now there's a new high priest, there's a new spiritual temple. Those laws changed. That's what he's talking about here.

Hebrews 7:13-14 "For He of whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no man has officiated at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning the priesthood."

Right? The Levites were from or the priests were from the tribe of Levi. They weren't from the tribe of Judah. Jesus Christ was from the tribe of Judah, so He can't be a priest under that system. He's got the wrong lineage, doesn't work.

Hebrews 7:15-16 "And it is yet far more evident if, in the likeness of Melchizedek, there arises another priest who has come, not according to the law of the fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life."

An endless life, that's how Melchizedek is described and that's how Jesus Christ is described. He is coming in the power of an endless life. He had a little span there for three days where He wasn't alive, but now, it is an endless life. And He has been appointed as your high priest and my high priest.

Hebrews 7:25 Here are some things to start thinking about this week if you haven't already been thinking about them, I'm sure you have, some things to start thinking about when we think about Jesus Christ as our high priest, and we think about His sacrifice and what He has done.

Hebrews 7:25 “Therefore,” because He did all of this because He is this great high priest who's been appointed by the Father, "He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them."

He is able to do this to the uttermost. Do you believe that? Do we really believe that and do we internalize that? We don't need to approach Passover timidly knowing that we are sinners, knowing that we have these, you know, dirty clothes on. Because if we understand His role for us, if we've accepted Him in that role, then it says "He's able to the uttermost." Whatever those sins, whatever those filthy garments are, He's able to cleanse that, He's able to purify that. "Since He always lives to make intercession for them."

If you look at...we won't go there, John 16:26. He says, you know, I don't say that I'm going to pray for the Father for you. That's not what this is talking about. This isn't saying, oh, we'll pray, and then Jesus Christ will pray for us. He says, no, that's the whole point of Him opening up the way into the holiest of all, is that we have access. But He intercedes for us, He can come alongside us, He can aid us.

There's times when we go in prayer and we don't quite know what to say, we don't quite have the words. It says the Spirit groans with words that we can't utter. And Jesus Christ aids us, He helps us, that's his role. His role as intercessor is just a continual ongoing thing for us. He intercedes and makes it possible for us to come to the Father. And He wants to do that.

It's like Mr. Holladay said in the sermonette. He wants you to win, He wants that. He wants you to take advantage of this opportunity, of this way that He's opened up. He came and He did all of this so that we could have this chance at being a part of His family. He wants you to take advantage of that. Hebrews Chapter 10. Let's wind down in Hebrews Chapter 10.

Hebrews 10:19 "Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus."

He starts off saying having boldness, having this full assurance. We don't need to come timidly before God. We don't need to come and sort of be low and small. God wants us to come in assured that Jesus Christ has done something for us that gives us the access to Him. He doesn't want us coming in scared. Would you want your kids coming in scared to talk to you? That's not how He wants us to approach Him. He wants us to come in boldly.

Sometimes when I'm working during the day, my kids will come into my office a little bit too boldly. Most of the time, they know when I'm in a meeting, sometimes they don't. But they know, they know they can come in boldly and ask a question. I wouldn't want them coming in timidly and scared. He wants us to come boldly before Him. He wants us to be assured that we can do that.

Hebrews 10:19 "Having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus."

Now, He's not talking about entering the holy of holies, that's not the real thing, right? That's the metaphor. He's talking about entering the real thing, the holiest place of all. In all of whatever exists, the holiest, in my translation, it just says "To enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus." You can go to the holiest place because of the blood of Jesus Christ that was offered for you.

That's one of the symbols that we will take this coming week is the blood of Jesus Christ. That blood has made it possible for us to go into the holiest. Sinners have to approach God with purifying blood. That's it. And we have that purifying blood because of Jesus Christ and because of His sacrifice. Let's keep going.

Hebrews 10:20 "By a new and living way, which He consecrated for us."

There's a new and living way. This is a living way because there is another way that I could go in, but it requires that I die. That's not a really good way. I don't like that way. I don't want my way into the holiest of all to be, well, here you are and now you're dead and somebody has to come drag you out. That's what happened to Aaron's son. I don't like that way. This new and living way, really like that way. And He really wants us to take that way.

Hebrews 10:20 It says "Through the veil, that is, His flesh."

Now, there are some translations that associate flesh with this way. But the grammar here in the Greek apparently...I don't know Greek so I'm relying on some of the commentators that I've read, who do know the Greek, say that flesh is more closely affiliated with veil. What happened with that veil when He died? It was torn in two. And so, you know, here this coming week, we are going to take that bread, understanding that His flesh was torn for us, it was marred, it was shredded on our behalf. And it says that it is through that, through His flesh, that He has opened a new and living way for us.

Hebrews 10:21 “Having a high priest over the house of God.”

That temple that He is building. This spiritual temple that we are part of. He is our high priest over this spiritual temple. His siblings, He mediates for, that's what He's doing in His role as high priest. Here in verse 22, here's some final encouragement to think about as we approach Passover. Verse

Hebrews 10:22 Says, "Let us draw near." Draw near because we have access. We have access to the holiest place of all. "With a true heart in full assurance of faith."

He wants us to understand, to really truly believe, to be assured of the fact that we can draw near. He was successful in what He did, He really was. And if we understand that, if we believe that He was successful in what He did, that means we can draw near, there's no questioning it, there's no doubting it. He succeeded, and because of that sacrifice, we can draw near fully assured with true hearts.

Hebrews 10:22 "Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience." This goes back to the imagery of the consecration of the priest, where the priest is sprinkled with oil, with blood. It says "Our hearts have been sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water."

These are the purification acts of the priesthood. Our bodies have been washed with pure water, God's Spirit. We have been sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ, which purifies us and makes us able to come before God. He purifies what animals cannot. Elsewhere, it says that animal sacrifices could never cleanse the conscience. But Jesus Christ's sacrifice can cleanse even our conscience, even those sins that we know are tucked away that maybe you're still grappling with. If you are grappling with, if you are repentant, if you are fighting them, but you're grappling with them, know that you're doing what He expects you to do. And know that He can purify your conscience even from that.

Because what He's doing is He's consecrating a priesthood. He is setting apart, as the high priest, He is purifying His priesthood. Talks about Him purifying the sons of Levi. But here we are as that spiritual temple, as priests that will serve in His kingdom underneath Him as the great high priest. He is purifying you and purifying me. Verse 23. And here's really what we're going to do here on Passover.

Hebrews 10:23 "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering."

We are going to, again, renew our commitment to God, renew our commitment, renew the confession that we have made of our hope without wavering, without doubting, with full assurance because He who promised is faithful. He is our faithful and eternal High Priest.