Food
for Thought: With You Forever
A Summer
Sermon Series: The Jesus I Want to Know
June 3 , 2007
Dr. Mark Ruppert
Hebrews 4:15-16
This morning we begin a summer sermon series entitled: The Jesus
I Want to Know. As I stated in the article I wrote for this month’s
edition of our monthly newsletter- First Things, “the Session
has claimed 2007 THE YEAR OF DISCIPLESHIP with the hope and
prayer that each and every one of us would consider and pray about
ways we can look at our Christian walk and contemplate what it means
to be a disciple of Jesus Christ….” The meaning of Discipleship is
really up for grabs today in the Christian Church. In reality the
call from Christ to follow Him is not a request, but rather a
command. We talk about Christ, we say we are a Christian but what
does that mean? What does that look like? Webster’s New World
College Dictionary [fourth edition] defines Discipleship as a
pupil or follower of any teacher or school of religion, learning,
art, etc. Christian discipleship means forsaking
everything to follow Christ.”
Friends, there is a problem today both inside and outside the
church and the problem is this- we have reinvented Jesus
on our terms. And this reinvented Jesus, this “other Jesus,”
if you will, makes very few demands on us. This reinvented Jesus
makes us feel happy but doesn’t challenge us. This reinvented Jesus
doesn’t move us to love and passion to do something about the
situation of the world, our community, our city, our own lives,
whatever. The Jesus of the New Testament had a habit of meeting
people where they were and, as only Jesus could do, He loved them,
challenged them, and yes, at times made them feel uncomfortable to
the point that there were those who were willing to see the world
through His eyes and go out and make a difference. Friends, when
the day is done, when life is over, don’t we want to have made a
difference in our part of the world in which we live?
Jesus was not bashful in calling people to a life of discipleship
back in His day and He still does today.
He says in Matthew 16:24- “If any want to become my followers,
let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” In
Matthew 28:19- “Go therefore and make disciples.” These are just a
few of the passages where Jesus puts forth a call, a challenge to be
His disciple, His follower.
This summer I am inviting you to join me on a journey where we
get in touch with “The Jesus I Want To Know,” as revealed in
scripture. For, I believe, the more we look at the Jesus of
scripture, the more we will want to know Him and serve Him. And as
we seek to follow Jesus, this will engage our total being- heart,
mind, soul and strength.
This morning we are going to get things started by looking at a
passage from the book of Hebrews but to do so let me share an
overview of the book of Hebrews. First of all the book of Hebrews
give us a powerful picture of Jesus Christ. Our
particular passage that we will look to speaks of Jesus as the high
priest whom can sympathize with our weaknesses.
But to take the book and dissect it we find in chapter 1 Jesus,
who is the Son of God, is being said to be superior to angels. You
see, there were some in the early Church that thought that Jesus was
some sort of special angel and so this issue is put to rest. The
superiority of Christ to angels is stated. Chapter 2 stresses that
Jesus was also 100% human. Now Jesus was also 100% God but His
humanity is being emphasized. A major point in Hebrews is to stress
that, as someone once said, Jesus is “our man in heaven.” The last
verse of Hebrews 2 says, verse 18, “Because he himself was tested by
what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.”
Chapters 3 & 4 tell about a Jesus who is the true Joshua, in other
words, He is the one who leads God’s people into their true Promised
Land. Chapters 5, 6 & 7 speak about Jesus being the true high
priest. Chapters 8, 9 & 10 speaks of Jesus’ sacrifice and the new
covenant. Chapter 11 speaks about the great heroes of the faith and
12 gives us a mandate to follow Jesus who is “the pioneer and
perfecter of our faith.”
And the final chapter 13 tells us that Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday, today and forever.
Which brings us to our passage today where we find the theme of
Jesus our high priest. What people needed when Christ entered
the earthly scene was a perfect priest and a perfect
sacrifice. What the world needed was someone who could be
the ultimate sacrifice who could also, once and for all, open the
way of access to God. And this is exactly what the writer of
Hebrews says Christ did. For Jesus is the perfect priest because He
is at once perfectly man, and, at the same time, perfectly God.
Think of it this way- in His humanity Jesus can take humankind to
God and in His Godhead Jesus can take God to humankind. And this is
also true- Jesus has no sin. So He is the perfect sacrifice and He
brings Himself, a sacrifice that is so perfect that it never needs
to be made ever again. The writer of Hebrews is saying to Jews,
“[Look,] all your lives you have been looking for the perfect priest
who can bring the perfect sacrifice and give you access to God.
[Well,] you have him in Jesus Christ and in [Christ] alone.” And to
the Jews the writer is also saying, “You are looking for that
perfect sacrifice which will open the way to God which your sins
have closed; you will find it in Jesus Christ.” And to the Greek
the writer of Hebrews is saying, “You are looking for the way from
the shadows to reality; you will find it in Jesus Christ.” (The
Letter to the Hebrews, Barclay, pp. 4-5)
Let me just stop right here and focus on something that was
problematic in the early Church. If you go over to Hebrews 5:1-6
and read along with me you continue to see this theme of Jesus the
high priest. And when we get to verse 6 you will see the name of a
priest called Melchizedek. So please read along with me- every high
priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things
pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for
sins. He is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward,
since he himself is subject to weakness; and because of this he must
offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the
people. And one does not presume to take this honor, but takes it
only when called by God, just as Aaron was. So also Christ did not
glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the
one 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, according
to the order of Mekchizedek.’” Now the problem in the early Church-
what house was Jesus from? He was from the house and linage of
David. This meant He was qualified to be Messiah, in other words,
King of Israel. But it disqualified Him from being a high priest,
who should have been from the house of Levi, which was a different
tribe altogether. That is why the writer of Hebrews points out that
in Psalm 110, the King is said to be a priest forever, according to
the order of Mekchizedek, whose priesthood is not dependant on
ancestry but on the call of God alone. So our Jesus is not some
kind of transient high priest who will eventually be replaced by
someone else. He is a priest forever.
And so this, Jesus, who is the Son of God and is 100% human, is
leading His people, He is available for all people, He is
sympathetic to our weaknesses, He is the priest through whom we can
come to God. And so following Jesus is the only answer in this
earthly life.
Found in these few verses are what is known as the parabola of
salvation. The word parabola literally means
application, comparison. In mathematical terms it is a plane curve
consisting of all points equidistant from a given fixed point and a
given fixed line. If you look at the diagram in the bulletin you
will see where the lofty place where the exalted Son, Jesus Christ,
is high above all things on the left hand side. He is the Glorious
Son, the reflection of God’s glory. But then you follow the line
downward where Jesus the Son traveled from the heavenly throne of
God down into the earthly realm, moved through history as a
suffering pioneer where He became a full participant in the human
experience, and then the line moves upward where Jesus is swept
triumphantly back up into heaven where He is seated at the right
hand of God. (Hebrews, Interpretation, Long, pp. 22,
63)
Our high priest, Jesus Christ, is not so lofty or separated from
us that He is unable to understand our human situations- our pain,
our temptations, our sufferings, our joys and victories. Isn’t it
comforting to know that our Jesus was tempted in every way we are,
but He was without sin. So our feelings have already been His
feelings, and yet He was also God, and we are not.
The thing that baffles me and blesses me is that God sent His
only Son to not only be priest for us but sacrifice for us. And so
our high priest gave up His very life on the cross as our ultimate,
final sacrifice that was once and for all given for you and for
me.
Maybe some of us feel it is hard to follow Jesus because we
somehow feel we have started out on the wrong foot, with a deficit
to erase because we are sinful, broken people. And I would agree.
It is not easy to be a follower of Jesus given the world in which
we live, and for some it is harder than others given where they live
and their lot in life. But the writer of Hebrew wants us to not
only follow Jesus whole-hearted, but he sets the record straight by
telling us that the moral deficit has already been dealt with.
So the writer of the book of Hebrews gives us, Jesus. He gives
us the Jesus who will always be there to help us because He is one
of us, He has walked the path we have and are walking. The writer
gives us the Jesus who fulfilled God’s plan of redemption; the Jesus
who is the final and complete sacrifice; the one who did what we
could not do for ourselves, who has lived our life and died our
death and now lives eternally with the Father and makes intercession
for us. This same Jesus meets us today as we break the bread and
drink from the cup at His table and remember Him until He comes
again. And it is the same Jesus who lovingly, gently but oh, so
clearly calls us to follow Him. Join me at the table and join me in
following Him. Amen.
Key Points
Introduction: Webster defines discipleship as a pupil or
follower of any teacher or school of religion, learning, art, etc.
Christian discipleship means _________ everything to follow
Christ
A problem today- we have ________ Jesus on our terms
A quick overview of Hebrews
Hebrews gives us a powerful _________ of Jesus
Chapters 1-13
Hebrews 4:14-16
What people needed when Christ entered the earthly scene
was
a perfect _______ and a perfect ________
Something that was problematic in the early Church- what
house
was Jesus from?
Jesus was qualified to be Messiah- King of Israel but
disqualified
from being a high priest
Found in these few verses is the parabola of __________
Parabola means
(Hebrews, Interpretation, Thomas Long, p.22)
Conclusion: The writer of Hebrews gives us the Jesus who…
Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.)
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