We Have Such a High Priest, Part 1

I wanted to ask a question of you as we begin the sermon today. I'd like for you to think about this a second, and it's okay if you answer the question. I know up in Fulton, if I ask a question or if I even look funny, they make some kind of comment. Sometimes the light is shining the way the windows are in the building.

Sometimes the light will be creeping toward me, and then it will be right in my eyes. I can't hardly see anything. And of course, everybody can see what it's doing for me. But I wanted to ask all of us what... I know all of you are your students of the Bible, and actually because of some of the particular training that you have been... you've had available to you over many years. I think you may know what I'm even going to try to address today as far as the specifics of it. But I'd like for you to think about one particular book in the Bible.

And I ask that you think about what stands out to you. What stands out to you about the book of Hebrews? The book of Hebrews. It's a book that has 13 chapters. It's a little longer than some of the later books in the New Testament. But what could we say? What stands out to you about the book of Hebrews? Anyone? Mr. Johnson mentions priesthood of Christ. Mr. McAlexander? Hebrews 10. Well, you could have picked 1 through 13. What else? Getting together. Yes, that's one of the verses that says not to forsake the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is.

Yes, Mr. Crosby? Why we were born? Chapter 2? Why we were born? That's correct. That's clearly what is in there. What's Chapter 11 about? See, that's the most obvious. That's the only one I wrote down. As far as when I was thinking, what might the answers be? Chapter 11, we know of as the faith chapter in the Bible. Because it goes through a listing of many of the Old Testament paragons of faith. And of course those individuals, as they're listed there from Noah, on down through many of the pretty well-known names in the Old Testament, you find that in many ways they were wonderful examples of faith.

In many ways they were rescued and delivered and blessed by God. In other ways they were sawn into, they were distressed and in trouble. And yet both of those sides still involve and include living by faith. That's not what I'm going to talk about. I just want us to think about the book of Hebrews. Because I often think at night I can't sleep. I try to think of the Bible and I'm thinking about different books and what they're about and even different chapters and what they're about. And if I can get through any of them reasonably close then I feel pretty good and maybe I eventually go back to sleep.

Well, I think it's good for us to think about the book of Hebrews. I would say it might be good for you to read that prior to the spring Holy Day season as we are going to be heading into that here at the end of next month. I'll tell you that the book of Hebrews in many ways is a very unique book. It's very unique for a number of reasons.

See, as you read the books of the New Testament, and we all know that the Gospels are about the life of Jesus and the book of Acts is about the church, about the New Testament church, about the first years and the people directly involved in ministry and the church and then the membership and the elders in numerous places. That's what we find written about in the first few books of the New Testament. But then after that you find books that are written, many of them by Paul. You find books that are written to specific churches and then you later find books that are written by Paul to specific people, ministers, Timothy, Titus.

And you later see books written by Peter or John that seem to be pretty general in their direction. They seem to be written to the entirety of the church, not just to a single location. So when you think about the book of Hebrews, it is unique because it's not written as a letter to a specific church or to a younger minister or even to the entire church as a general epistle. But it is written to the Jewish people. It is written to the people who were becoming Christians having a, in a sense, a Jewish background. And so, who is it that this book was written to?

Well, it was written to people who were aware of the law. It was written to a people who were, when you read through the bulk of what you find here in Hebrews, it's written to people who must know quite a bit about the Old Testament, must know a good amount about Noah and Abraham and Moses and all down through the list of people in Chapter 11.

It's, you know, assuming people know something about the Levitical and the Aaronic priesthood. I mean, those are, if you, if you didn't have any idea about any of that, then the book of Hebrews would not be especially informative because you'd have to go back and try to learn something about that. But see, the book of Hebrews is a book that's written to, it doesn't directly say, as far as Jewish Christians in Jerusalem or Jewish Christians in Rome or Jews who have become Christians in any other part of the Middle East, which we know there were all throughout the scenario of the cities that are noted here in the New Testament.

But it's written to those who would be aware. And I think you could say that in some ways when you read certain statements that are in the book of Hebrews, it appears to be written to those who maybe were a second or even a third generation of knowing about the law. You know, they'd grown up with it. And so we could say to a degree, it could even be written to those who have grown up in the church. See, many of you, many of us, including me, could say, in a sense, I've kind of grown up in the church since I've been aware of it.

I didn't know about it when I was tiny. But there was a point in time in my later teens when I began to know about the truth, Mr. Beyer. I came to understand certain things as being true and become involved in the Church of God. And so, you know, over the last 45 years, I've been aware. I've been aware of many things about the Bible, some things about the Old Testament, some about the New, and trying to live that. But I think you could say that, you know, when you read the book of Hebrews, you find that it could be written to second generation Christians.

It could be written to people who are very familiar with the law. But, of course, there are some very main points that are in the book of Hebrews.

And I want to cover some of those, and I've been thinking about this. And it also, we had some comments earlier from you, it also features the New Covenant.

The New Sacrifice, the New Sanctuary, the New Promises, the Better Covenant, the Second Covenant that all of us need to embrace. We need to very much be aware of that, and I'm not going to cover that today. As I started thinking about this, I thought, well, I may give one or two sermons about Hebrews, and now I think it's four. I've been thinking a little more about it, and I can tell how it's going today. I've got at least two already written down, and I know that there are at least two more. And yet, I think it's important that we cover this at this time.

It also states in chapter 12, or excuse me, chapter 7, verse 12, that there's a change of the law. What's that talking about? Is that talking about the Ten Commandments? Is there something that we're missing here? What kind of change is being spoken of of the law? And, as we also had mentioned, the plan of God is revealed because it does point out that God is in the process of bringing many sons and daughters to glory. He's in the process of bringing us through a training ground and equipping us with all the help we need to be His divine children. And that's wonderful, absolutely wonderful. That's tied in directly with the New Covenant. It's tried to tie in directly with the priesthood, as we also had mentioned here to begin with. So, I think it's good in preparing as we've mentioned is probably everything we will cover in the next six weeks. We'll have something related to the Spring Holy Day, something related to the Passover. And sometimes we are certainly wanting to follow the instructions of the Bible and examine ourselves. We want to see ourselves as best we can and certainly see our need for forgiveness. And that is clearly a direction the Bible shows us that we're to have as we approach the Passover. But I think we also want to focus on growing. Growing in our awareness of Jesus' role in our lives. Not only do we want to see ourselves and repent and rededicate our lives, we want to fully understand or grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And a part of that is fully understanding that He's not only our Savior, He's not only the Lamb of God who allowed Himself to be slaughtered for my sins, but He also is our glorious High Priest. And this is clearly what the main focus of the book of Hebrews is about. There are many focuses that we could say that there are a lot of different things we could study or focus on in the book of Hebrews. But I want for us to be mindful of the fact that the book of Hebrews talks about it's actually a book about the priesthood.

It's a book about particularly the High Priesthood of Jesus. And yet, without a background, as many of us have, we've studied much in the Old Testament. We are aware of what the law says. We're clearly aware of the book of Leviticus. It gives a whole book of outline of what the Levitical priesthood was to be, all of the specifics, all of the detail, all of the actions that they were to perform, and not only that the Levites were to offer in service to the Israelites, but also what the High Priest was supposed to do. And that was going to begin from a designation from God through Aaron, and that through the line of Aaron, the High Priesthood would be passed down from generation to generation and century to century. And yet, all of that changed whenever Jesus came. If we want to know what changed, that's what changed.

So I'd like for us to look in Hebrews chapter 8, because here in Hebrews chapter 8 we find a focal point that's mentioned. Hebrews chapter 8, actually I'll give you a little later, I'll give you a little more of a breakdown of the book as far as there are about three sections that are pretty clearly predominant. And yet here in Hebrews chapter 8, starting in verse 1, I want to point out just what it is that this book is about. It says in verse 8, now the main point, and what we are saying is this. So the writer of the book of Hebrews says this is main point. Now he's been talking about this main point for eight chapters as we get to this point. If you read through chapter 1 through chapter 8 and down to verse 6, you'll see that he's talking about Jesus over and over and over and over again. Being greater than the angels, being greater than Moses, being greater than Aaron, being far more superior than anything that these Jewish Christians might have been familiar with as a way of life in the past.

This book tells them that Jesus is far superior to any of that. And he says in verse 1, the main point of what we're saying is this. We have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven.

We have a minister in the sanctuary and the true tabernacle that the Lord and not any mortal is set up. And so here's a direct statement about the high priesthood of Jesus Christ. Now we'll go back to chapter 7 and I'll go through much of it today. And yet, this summation, this is actually kind of a turning point in the book in chapter 8 from verse 1 down to verse 6, because it talks about Jesus and it talks about how fabulous he is. And of course, the statement is made such a high priest. It's actually the sermon title today. I rarely come up with sermon titles, but that is the sermon title. Because as this says, we have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens. He is a minister in the sanctuary in the tabernacle that the Lord has set up. For in verse 3, everything high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. Hence, it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. And so here it describes more about how it is that Jesus is our high priest and what he does have to offer and how wonderful his high priesthood is and how beneficial that high priesthood is to us. If we drop down to verse 6, it says, but Jesus has now obtained a more excellent ministry, and to that degree, he is the mediator of the better covenant. The mediator of a better covenant which has been enacted through better promises. See, that's absolutely wonderful to think about. Whenever you read the Old Testament, and as we see it usually in our Bibles described as the Old Testament and the New Testament, we often also think of those as the Old Covenant. Or really, you could think of it as the first covenant because it talks about a covenant that God made with Israel. And then it talks of this covenant that Jesus is the mediator of as the better covenant or the second covenant. And so, sequentially, it's coming after the other one.

So, here we find that Jesus is the mediator of the better covenant. He's the mediator of the new covenant. A covenant that each and every one of us want to embrace in its entirety. And it is an absolutely fabulous covenant to embrace and to enjoy and to be inspired by and to be uplifted by, and knowing that it is going to eventually lead us to eternal life. Because that's the big promise. That is the promise of the second covenant or the new covenant. Let's drop back to chapter 7 because this is information again I know you're familiar with, but if you haven't read it recently, maybe it would be good to review it. Here in chapter 7, you see a discussion.

The writer of this book is explaining about Melchizedek. Melchizedek is a character that you read about in Genesis 14. You read about him there interacting with Abraham. And you read about how that Abraham has come to worship Melchizedek because he deserves worship and praise.

But let's start in verse 1 of chapter 7. This king Melchizedek of Salem, the priest of the most high God, met Abraham as he was returning from defeating the kings and blessed him. Melchizedek blessed Abraham as he returned and to him Abraham apportioned one tenth of everything.

His name in the first place means king of righteousness.

Next he is also the king of Salem, which means the king of peace.

And he is without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but he resembles the Son of God. And he remains a priest forever. That's a beautiful description of the one that we know as Jesus Christ, the one who was the Lord of the Old Testament, the one who is described as the Word with God the Father, and yet the one who also abides forever as a priest in a role that's called the role of the Melchizedek priesthood.

Now in verse 4 it says, see how great he was. See how great he is. Even Abraham!

And of course the writer is saying, you know, to those of you who do honor Abraham and who even know you are descendants of Abraham, because Jewish Christians would be aware of that, at least from their genealogy they'd be aware that, yeah, we're a descendant of Abraham. Even Abraham, the patriarch, gave Melchizedek a tenth of the spoils. See, Abraham was subservient to Melchizedek. He was yielded to Melchizedek. And the descendants of Levi, who of course were children of Abraham down through Isaac and Jacob, and then Jacob's son Levi, the descendants of Levi who received the priestly office have a commandment in the law. They have a command that's in the law.

I point that out because that's what this is going to be talking about. They have a commandment of the law to collect tithes from the people, that is from their kindred, though these also are descended from Abraham. But this man, who does not belong to our ancestry or their ancestry, collected tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had received the promise.

It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior.

See, of course, the book is written to try to help Christians to realize, and Jewish Christians with the background in the Old Covenant, with an understanding of even the working of the priesthood at that time, during the time of Jesus, when the temple was still there and when the function was still well known to those in Jerusalem and to those who related to that system, the Jewish people, it says it's beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. See, this system, this Levitical system that is still in existence at, again, the time of Jesus' life, you know, this has been passed down from your forefathers, but that chief forefather was Abraham, and Abraham honored Melchizedek. He honored Melchizedek by giving him tithes.

And he goes on to say in one case in verse 8, tithes were received by those who were mortal, and the other, they were received by one of whom it is testified that he lives, meaning that he lives, he lives, he really lives, past, present, future, eternal, the one who is Melchizedek, the high priest. One might even say in verse 9, even say that Levi himself who receives tithes, paid tithes, through Abraham, for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him. So, in a sense, you could say, and if you can follow how this is describing this, essentially through Abraham, Levi, who was eventually going to be a descendant, was paying tithes to Melchizedek. It was just directed through a command in the law that Levi would receive those tithes and then use those in the Levitical priesthood, and that Aaron, as a high priest and as his descendants, would fit that role. You know, they would benefit from tithes or they would be cared for by tithes from the people. Now, in verse 11, it says, now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood, for the people received the law under this priesthood, what further need would there have been to speak of another priest arising according to the order of Melchizedek, rather than one according to the order of Aaron? See, that's a pretty plain statement, at least in this particular translation that I normally use, as I think most of you are familiar with the fact that I use a new, revised, standard version, but that statement is pretty clear.

Here in this verse, if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood, it was saying, which it was not, you could not be perfected. You could not be fully relieved, because it's going to say the blood of bulls and goats really didn't forgive.

That was simply a reminder. It was simply a ritual. It was a system that God did institute, and God set up for a purpose and reason. But he says, if you could obtain perfection through that priesthood, then why would there be a need for another? And why would it need to come from somewhere else besides through Aaron and through Levi? For in verse 12, when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law. I quoted that earlier, talking about a change in the law. In verse 12, it's talking clearly about a change in the priesthood. A change no longer relying on, no longer depending on, a Levitical priesthood and a system of offerings and sacrifices and rituals and washing, all of which you can read, you know, excessively. If you go back and you can read page after page after page of what the requirements were to try to fulfill all of those roles. But it says here there's a change in the priesthood.

That priesthood is changed from the Levitical priesthood to the priesthood of Melchizedek, the spiritual priesthood of Jesus Christ, the high priesthood of Jesus that we embrace and that we actually enjoy. So here it talks in verse 12 of a change in the priesthood and in connection with that a change in the law. See now, is that talking about the Ten Commandments? No. It's not talking about changing the Ten Commandments or doing away with what Jesus said. I did not come to destroy or abolish at the least. But there was a change. A change and the change was that the law says that all the priests need to come from Levi because that's not going to be the case with Jesus.

It's not going to be the case from his time on. And so we go on, you know, the change was in the law regarding the priesthood. That was the change that is being discussed here. It was a change in who would receive tithes from a physical and Levitical priesthood to a spiritual priesthood that we would see as being, by extension, the Church of God today. A priesthood where we are doing a spiritual work. But it goes on in verse 13. Now, the one of whom these things are spoken. So here he's talking about Jesus or Melchizedek, but he's also showing very clearly that Jesus was the one who had the priestly role of Melchizedek in the past, and he still has that today, and he is still embraced by us in that same way. Now, the one of whom these things are spoken belong to another tribe from which no one has ever served at the altar, for it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah.

And in connection with that tribe, Moses has said nothing about the priests. See, that doesn't fit the pattern. That doesn't fit what was set up for all of the priests. See, Jesus came through the tribe of Judah. He goes on in verse 15. It is even more obvious when another priest arises, talking about Jesus rising after his death, after his life and then death, his sacrifice, and being in the grave, and being resurrected and ascending to the Father. It is even more obvious when another priest arises resembling Melchizedek, one who has become a priest, not through a legal requirement, not according to the Levitical instruction, not according to what the law says regarding the Levites will be the priests, and they will respond to Aaron as the high priest. He says it is even more obvious when another priest arises, resembling Melchizedek, one who has become a priest, not according to a legal requirement concerning physical descent, but through the power of an indestructible life.

See, that's the fact that Jesus has always existed. That's the fact that Jesus, as the word of God, came to the earth in a very humble fashion to provide us the mercy and the forgiveness and the gratitude we should have for what he has done involves an understanding of his priesthood.

If we drop down, we could just read in verse 17, it's attested of him that you were a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. See, he reiterates that. He wants Jewish Christians, he wants all of us who are familiar with the law. And actually, in many ways, brethren, we've had we've had some benefit of observing the holy days throughout the many years that most of us have, because we've studied the book of Hebrews, we've studied the Old Testament, we've studied the law, we're familiar with what that says, whereas I would say many people could not say they're really aware of that. They're really familiar with that, and even we are more familiar with that because we observe the Day of Atonement, which directly ties into Leviticus 16 and what the high priest was required to do on that day and how it was he was going to appear before or come into the Holy of Holies and appear for himself and for the people and sprinkle some blood.

You know, that of course was a type that was going to be important for us as we understand it, but here the whole concept of the priesthood of Jesus Christ, the Melchizedek priesthood, is what the book of Hebrews is all about. And it's important for us to be familiar with that and aware of that and appreciative of Jesus' role in that. Let's drop down to verse 18.

It says, there is on the one hand the abrogation of an earlier commandment.

Okay, is that getting rid of the Ten Commandments? No. You know, there was a change in the command or law that designated the priesthood to be coming through the physical descent of Levi.

That was what was changed. The system of offerings and sacrifices and the priesthood itself was being changed by the new priesthood that Jesus would be installing. The abrogation of earlier commandment because it was weak and ineffectual for the law made nothing perfect. Again, it points that out. See, even the work of the priests in offering daily sacrifices and offerings, the work of the high priest on the day of atonement, did that perfect the people of Israel? No, it didn't. We even read that here in the book of Hebrews, you know, that the blood of bulls and goats just was not able to do that. It was not able to provide perfection. It was not able to extend the type of forgiveness that I need and that you need. It was only going to come through Jesus Christ. It was only going to come through the Melchizedek priesthood of Jesus Christ. Verse 19, for the law made nothing perfect. There is, on the other hand, and so this is the transition. He says, what was involving the priesthood of the past, the priesthood that was written as a command but is now being altered. It says, for the law made nothing perfect. There is, on the other hand, the introduction of a better hope, the introduction of a wonderful hope through which we approach God. That hope was Jesus Christ. That hope was the one that the book of Hebrews is about, because in many ways you could say the whole book is about Jesus Christ. But I'd like to just point this out because it's really significant that this book is written to elevate. It's written to exalt. It's written to extol Jesus Christ as the high priest of Christians. And of course, this is directed to Christians or those who would become Christians, and it would have the greatest meaning to those who really understood something about the law and about the Levitical system and about how it was that that has so much meaning whenever you study it. And yet, you know, there is a better hope. There is a new covenant. There are better promises.

There are things that we are looking forward to.

So to drop down to verse 23, he says, furthermore—and again, you can read all the sections in between. I'm just pointing out the parts that I think are maybe pertinent to what we want to focus on today.

Verse 23 says, furthermore, the priests in the past, the former priests, were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office. You know, how long the high priests last? Well, I don't know. Whatever the generation was—60, 80, 100 years—you know, I think it kind of got blessed as they went on. And so because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he who holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever. That's a completely different type of life, a completely different type of power that is available in Jesus Christ.

Consequently, verse 25, he is able for all time to save those who approach God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them. That's what Jesus said. He said, I didn't come to condemn. I came to save people. I came to offer my life as the Lamb of God, to sacrifice my life in order to save them, to provide salvation to them. And so verse 25 points out that that's why he came, and he is always available to provide intercession for us.

And so in verse 26, he says, for it is fitting that we should have such a high priest. That's what he said down in verse 8, verse 1, that we have such a high priest who is holy, who is blameless, who is undefiled, who is separated from sinners, and who is exalted above the heavens. Now, I know all of you know that. I know all of you believe that. And yet I point this out simply because this whole book is written about how exalted Jesus Christ is as our high priest, and how that ties together with the New Covenant. The New Covenant that, as I said, I probably will go over next time, because it ties together. See, we find numerous – see, that's what this book is about – we find numerous exhortations, but also you find warnings to heed as we appreciate the high priesthood of Jesus. That's what you find when you read the book of Hebrews. And I'm not going to have time to go through the warnings today.

You know, there are six very clear warnings that are there. Warnings to Christians.

And, as I said, there's an entire explanation of a New Covenant that we want to embrace, and in a sense, that we rededicate ourselves, too, as we come to the Passover season every year. So, we should clearly understand what it is. I want to give a little bit of information just about the, maybe, the book of Hebrews itself. Actually, if we turn back to chapter 1, you can see very clearly that the first few verses, again, are going to point to Jesus Christ. They're going to point to how it is that God, at this time when this book was written, which was in the mid-part of the first century after Jesus lived, it says in verse 1, long ago, God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets. So, it's very clear that this is being written to Jewish Christians, people who were familiar with their Judaic background, people who identified with that, and I guess you could even say it would be written to the Pharisees, but I don't think they ever paid any attention to these warnings, because there are warnings and exhortations throughout the entire book. But it says, long ago, God spoke to us through the prophets, but in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He also created the worlds.

And so, not only has Jesus eternally existed, He's the one through whom the Father created everything.

And so, if we get up every day and if we acknowledge the fact that I am a created being, and I need the help of the Creator, then we're way ahead of Lucifer.

See, that's what Lucifer forgot. He forgot that he was a created being. He forgot that he owed his whole life, his whole existence, to God the Father, to the Word who was with the Father and who had created Him and all the rest of the angelic beings. But as human beings, we ought to be reminded of that. And of course, we all have a physical genealogy, and we came from somewhere. Our parents or grandparents. We came from some country, maybe, if not right here, going back into Europe or other parts of the world. But ultimately, when we go back to Adam and Eve, you know, we were created by God. And God breathed into Adam and Eve the breath of life, and He created individuals who would have the capacity, when they received the help of the Spirit of God, to relate to God and to be grateful to God for what He had extended to them. And that's, of course, where we want to be.

And so here in verse 3, it says, talking about the Son of God, He is the reflection of God's glory and exact imprint of God's very being.

He sustains all things by His powerful Word. And when He had made purification for sin, He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name He has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

So this is the type of very descriptive language that you see being used describing Jesus Christ, describing how much greater, how much more powerful, how much more honor does He deserve from created beings whom He has come to save. That's what you find throughout the entirety of the sections that are written about Him, specifically, really here in chapter 1, up until about chapter 8. That's really the first section. It talks about Jesus and numerous different descriptions of Jesus and about how He is even far greater than the angels, far greater than anything Moses wrote down. Moses did a good job. That's what this says, said He did a great job. It was just limited. It was certainly not going to be of the magnitude of what Jesus did. And certainly Aaron, I guess he tried to do as good a job as he could, and the descendants of Aaron tried to carry on their role. But see, that priesthood ultimately changed. That priesthood, even though it was designated by the law, the priests were to come through the Levites or through Levi. That ultimately was changed. And of course, there was going to be a time when it would stop. And whenever the destruction of the temple occurred in Jerusalem, the overthrow of Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple, essentially, that priesthood was then scattered. And there was no longer that central temple to come back to or to use as a focus of the sacrifices and the offerings that all of their role involved.

And of course, that's what was in a sense happening at the time, or I believe, probably shortly after, this book was written. Because it appears from what is said in this book that this was written prior to 70 AD. Now, I know that's disputable, but it would appear to me. I mean, just from some of the reference, that it doesn't sound like this has already been dismantled. It sounds like, well, that's what we're still doing. But Jesus is the high priest that we need to look to, the one that we need to adore. Now, I've mentioned a few times the writer of the book of Hebrews, and I assume most of you have an idea of who that was, although it doesn't say who it is. You find in most of Paul's and Peter's and John, James' writings, they say who they are. You know, this doesn't directly say who it is. It is, at least by many, attributed to Paul.

Although, and actually, I thought it was interesting, and I read this in reading some of the introductory information about Hebrews, that there was a period of 1200 years when it would seem very likely that Paul wrote the book of Hebrews. And I look back to see one of my oldest Bibles, the oldest one that I have that I still have and use, or I don't use. It's in kind of a box. I pulled it out, and I find why I've got a different one because it's falling apart.

But it said in the heading, it says the letter of the apostle Paul to the Hebrews. That's what it said in the heading. It may say that in yours. I don't know. I think you would also find that in many of our Bibles, you find it just says the letter to the Hebrews. It doesn't say, as most of the others do, the letter of Paul to the Corinthians or to the Romans, or it doesn't say that. And I'm only pointing that out, not for this to be a major point at all, because I'm going to assume, clearly, Paul could have been the writer of this with ease. There are others who think, and actually, this has been more of a disputed issue about who wrote it. Of course, in many ways, it doesn't make any difference. God included it in the canon of the Bible, and whether we can figure out who wrote it. Barnabas is thought to possibly have been a possible writer, so is Apollos. But we see them both listed in Acts. And you see certain things about each one of those individuals, as far as having a certain amount of authority within the church. Paul appears to have much greater, at least, name brand notice than either Barnabas or Apollos would.

I think, in many ways, we could say, probably Paul wrote it, but there is dispute over that. And so, I'll just tell you that. It appears to have been written prior to the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple, because it's never mentioned that they've torn all this apart, and this doesn't even exist. Now, I did read one source that said, oh, it was probably 80.

I think it was earlier in the 60s. 63 or 4 is a date that I read several places, and so I think it possibly would be more accurate. And, of course, it's written to Jewish Christians who were scattered in many areas in the Middle East, and its purpose is to exhort and encourage those Christians not to be dismayed, not to be frustrated by the fact that a system that they had been thoroughly embracing and feeling like, you know, this is a part of the way of life, that I live, you know, because, you know, their belief or understanding of many of the offerings and the sacrifices, all of those had tremendous meaning, certainly leading up to the ultimate sacrifice, leading up to the sacrifice of Jesus. And so the purpose was to encourage and exhort these individuals who had become Christians with a background in the law, and as all of us, we have a background because we've learned that we want to be exhorted by the warnings that are here. We want to be uplifted by what it says about how wonderful our high priest is and how wonderful the new covenant is that we embrace.

The three sections that I mentioned the first one earlier, three sections are from chapter 1, verse 1, over to chapter 8, verse 6. We've read kind of the first and the last of that, and that simply talks about Jesus as our high priest. Numerous different ways, in numerous different fashions it exalts and uplifts Jesus. From chapter 8, verse 7, on through chapter 10, verse 18, it talks about the new covenant. It talks about the transforming power of the new covenant. It talks about how we want to be transformed by the Holy Spirit working in us as we embrace a better covenant, a better covenant who has better promises.

And that, of course, is important for us to understand. In the last section, chapter 10, verse 19, and to the end of the book, chapter 13, verse 23, we've got a number of exhortations.

But what are those exhortations to do? Well, we had some of them mentioned.

Meet together. Live by faith. That's what chapter 11 is entirely about.

And then chapter 12 and 13 are numerous kind of exhortations about living a Christian life and relying on the high priest and the new covenant that you have embraced as a way of life that you live by faith. That would be a summation or a summary of the book that we have here written for our benefit, the book of Hebrews. I hope this will help us as we, again, look toward the time of the Passover and, again, not solely focus on things that we know we need to address in our own lives, but to truly know that the wonderful benefit of having Jesus Christ as our high priest is that He is available to make intercession for us and that we can fulfill what it says here in chapter 4. What it says in chapter 4, starting in verse 14, because this is, again, not something that you're unfamiliar with, but in connection with what we've just described, maybe this can have more meaning. Maybe it can be more important. Maybe it should be more important for us to realize, you know, we pray in the name of Jesus. You know, we're told to do that. That's what we're guided to do by the Word of God. But when we do that, we want to be reminded that He's at the right hand of the Father and that He is the intercessor between God and us. He is the one who is our mediator, and He is the mediator of the covenant that we individually have embraced with Him and toward the Father. And so it enables us, in verse 14 of chapter 4, since we have such a great high priest, such we have a great high priest who is pastor of the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. Since we have Jesus, the right hand of the Father interceding for us, we want to be faithful. We want to hold fast to the confession, the profession of our calling, the acknowledgment of our commitments to God. And He says in verse 15, we don't have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. We have one, and every respect has been tested as we are yet. He was without sin. He identifies with us. We read this the other day when we were talking about taking the yoke of Jesus upon us. He understands that we need help. He understands, and He's available. He's clearly willing to help. And yet, that's what this also emphasizes. He clearly understands the weaknesses that we have as humans. But then He tells us, the author of Hebrews writes in verse 16, that we should therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness. We should come before God with gratitude and appreciation, with thankfulness, but with boldness. It doesn't have to be a fearful thing. I think in many ways, much of what the Jewish world had as a system, in a sense, kind of created a certain amount of fear for God.

And certainly when you read the Old Testament, they didn't want to get close to the mountain. They're going to get zapped. That was the perception. They didn't want to get too close to God. And yet, what's the opposite of that? We want to be as close to God as we can possibly be. We want to be as close to God as we can get as we draw close through our high priest, Jesus Christ. And so He says, boldly come before the throne of grace, so that you may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. All the things that we labor with or struggle with, we want to be able to bring to God, bring to Him knowing that Jesus is at His right hand and that He is interceding for us and that He is pulling for us, that He is wanting to lift us up. He's wanting to strengthen us. He's wanting to comfort us. And yet, the beginning here of the book of Hebrews is about that great high priest. And so I'm thrilled to be reading this myself. It's exciting to me. I hope it can be exciting to you, because we will cover some more of this here in the next few weeks.

But I hope that we will think about this in just regard of how much we appreciate the intercessory work of our great high priest and the one who is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.