Let’s take our Bibles together and turn to the Book of Hebrews. We are continuing our series today, “Christ Supreme in All Things.” And today we are going to see Christ’s supremacy as a high priest. As I told you last week, Jesus is not just a ἱερεύς (“priest”), he’s not just an ἀρχιερεύς (“high priest”), he’s a ἀρχιερεύς μέγας (“great high priest”). That is substantively better than any priest who has ever represented mankind. 

One of the things that you’ll see if you study history and ancient cultures is this universal presence of priests or holy men who represented the people before God. Those things didn’t start with the Israelites. The ancient Egyptians had priests. The Assyrians had priests. The Babylonians had priests. In ancient Hinduism there was an entire priestly class, the Brahmans, who mediated for the people. Buddhism has priests. The American Indians had priests or shamans. Ancient Rome had priests. In fact there was even a political priestly office called a rex sacrorum, the so-called “king of the sacred things.” That’s interesting to me, especially in light of what we’re going to see today with the reference to Melchizedek. 

And with these priestly institutions, there is oftentimes the presence of sacrifices. That didn’t begin in ancient Israel either. In Mexico, for example, the ancient men in that culture would take thorns and pierce their tongues in order to pay for sin. There seems to be for whatever reasons, intrinsic to the human heart, a need for representation before God, and also an intrinsic need for atonement. We know we need someone to represent us before God, and we know we need to rectify this sinful state we are in before God. 

And no culture gave this greater attention in the ancient world than the Israelites. And no culture had a richer tradition of priestly activities and atonement rites than the Hebrews. It’s no wonder that the Jewish Christians that the author of Hebrews is writing to were being tempted to go back to the religion of their youth and the practices that they had held dear for centuries. 

And yet, here’s the argument in the book of Hebrews. Here’s the argument for our passage today. It’s this: “Yes, the ancient priesthood of the Israelites was great. God instituted it for a purpose, and it was good. But the high priest of that world was a sinner who had to account for his own sinfulness, whereas Jesus Christ is a sinless high priest par excellence. And he is the one that we want representing us before God.”

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So here we go. Here’s your outline for today. The title of today’s message is “High Priest Par Excellence.” And I want to show you three ways that Christ is a better high priest than any other. And here’s the first:

1) Jesus didn’t offer up a sacrifice for his own sin (5:1-4) 

The author of Hebrews says in verse 1,

1 For every high priest [ἀρχιερεύς] chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.

Now this is important, because the office of high priest is not something that people chose for themselves. It’s not like joining the Army or taking a job at Microsoft. It was a hereditary position among the Israelites. It was the Levites who were the priests in the OT, and that was because of their faithfulness to Yahweh in a moment of Israelite weakness (see Exod 32:25-29). 

And it wasn’t just Levites who were the high priests in the OT, it was the Aaronites. It was an Aaronic priesthood. Aaron was a Levite. He was the brother of Moses. And his offspring served as high priests among the Israelites.  

And notice the language of verse 1. They were chosen (divine passive) from among men and “appointed on behalf of men in relation to God.” That’s mediator language right there. The high priest would offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. That’s good. That’s the way God set it up in the OT world. People know they are sinful. People know that they have this problem inside of them. And God set it up in the OT where people could assuage their guilt and their taintedness by offering up a sacrifice of blood or grain or a drink offering to the LORD. These are shadows of the sacrifice to come, that is Jesus Christ. 

When I was a kid, my pastor called the sacrificial system of the OT “God’s credit card.” God put the sins of the Israelites on credit through those OT sacrifices until Christ would come later and pay the bill for all of us, OT and NT saints, on the cross. And that’s a good reminder to us that the blood of bulls and goats don’t ultimately atone for sin. Christ had to do that. He paid for the sins of both OT and NT believers.

And speaking of those OT sacrifices, once a year, on Yom Kippur, the high priest would sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies (see Lev 16:1-34). And here’s the thing about those high priests. Not Christ, but the sons of Aaron who were “chosen from among men” and “appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God.” Look at verse 2:

2 He [the high priest] can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. 

The high priest has problems just like the people. The high priest got into fights with his wife, just like the people. The high priest had trouble with lust and with bitterness and with dishonesty, just like the people. Remember Aaron? That guy was “beset with weakness” right? Moses went up on Mt. Sinai and came down, and what did Aaron do in the meantime? He let the people run wild. And he gave Moses the most ridiculous excuse for sin in the history of excuses. “I threw some gold into the fire, and out came this golden calf” (see Exod 32:24). 

And later Aaron was resentful towards Moses that God had given him so much power. And he and his sister Miriam started a little mini revolt. And because of that God struck Miriam with leprosy (see Num 12:1-16). So, just to be clear, Aaron was a sinner. And so were the high priests that followed him.

So the high priest can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward. He’s got that propensity towards ignorance and waywardness inside of him. He knows what that is like. He himself is beset with weakness. 

And look at verse 3, 

3 Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. 

Now, just a quick nota bene here. This is a reference to Yom Kippur in verse 3. Once a year, the high priest would offer up an overarching sacrifice for the people. And this was the one time in the year that the high priest would enter into the Holy of Holies. This is the “Day of Atonement” ceremony. The Hebrew yom means “day” in Hebrew, and kippur means “atonement.” 

But for the high priests in the OT, they had to offer up a sacrifice for their own sins first. In that Day of Atonement passage in Leviticus 16:11, it says, “Aaron shall present the bull as a sin offering for himself, and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. He shall kill the bull as a sin offering for himself.” That’s what Hebrews is alluding to in verse 3. 

By the way, Jews still celebrate Yom Kippur in our day. In our calendar, this takes place usually in the fall in late September or early October. And it is still an important day for Jews. I just heard this last week that some famous Jewish baseball players like Sandy Koufax used to object to playing games on Yom Kippur. And that was problematic for baseball teams because late September and early October was the most important part of the baseball season. Sandy Koufax wouldn’t pitch in game one of the 1965 World Series because it was Yom Kippur. 

But in the modern day celebration of Yom Kippur, there’s no blood sacrifice. There’s no high priest offering up sacrifices for his own sins and then for the people. That was the most important role among the Israelites in the OT. And it’s interesting to me that it’s been abolished in the modern world. Temple sacrifices really haven’t been part of the Jewish faith since 70 AD and the destruction of the Jerusalem temple. 

And that’s not a problem for us as Christians, because our Messiah has come. We understand that the blood of bulls and goats has been surpassed by the blood of Jesus. The Lamb of God is the once, for all time, sacrifice. And that’s why we don’t need blood sacrifices. Christ is better than those sacrifices.

And speaking of Christ being better. Let’s circle back here with verses 3-4. Here’s what the author of Hebrews is arguing in chapter 5.

3 Because of this he [the High Priest] is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. 4 And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. 

Now here’s the point of this first section. And it’s really subtle. The author doesn’t state it explicitly. But if you are listening, you can read between the lines. He’s saying here that an OT high priest is obligated! He must sacrifice for his own sins as he does for those of the people. He must do this! He’s a mediator for the people of God, but he’s a flawed mediator. He needs a mediator for himself because he’s a sinner who has violated God’s commands too. 

Let me just state the obvious and connect the dots for you. These statements don’t apply to Jesus. Verse 3 doesn’t apply to Jesus. And that’s what makes him not just a “priest” or a “high priest,” but a “great high priest.”

In fact if you want to make verse 3 apply to Jesus, all you have to do is apply the word “not” to this verse. “Because of this [Jesus] is [not] obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people.” Jesus does not have to do this, like Aaron. Jesus does not have to do this like Aaron’s offspring. He’s a true and better high priest than Aaron! 

And by the way, if you’re keeping score. Here’s what we have so far. Jesus is better than the angels (1:1-14). Jesus is better than Moses (3:1-6). Jesus is better than Joshua (4:8). And now Jesus is better than Aaron (5:4), and the high priests of the OT. You might say, “Tony, we already knew that Jesus was better than all those OT persons.” Well, now you know that … even better.   

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Go ahead and write this down as #2. Here’s a second way that Jesus is our high priest par excellence: 

2) Jesus is from the line of Melchizedek not Aaron (5:5-6)

Look at verse 5 with me. 

5 So also Christ 

Now that’s actually a surprising statement there. You might have expected here instead a “But Christ” or a “Not so, Christ” or a “on the other hand, Christ…” But that’s not what the author argues here. He’s not arguing that Christ is different here. He’s arguing that Christ is the same. 

And he actually oscillates back and forth throughout this section between Christ is the same and Christ is different. Christ is the same. Christ is different. He’s like us. He’s unlike us. He’s transcendent. He’s immanent. He’s superior. He’s familiar. And here’s a place where he emphasizes his likeness to us not his unlikeness. 

5 So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, 

Or more literally, “Christ did not [glorify himself] to be made high priest!” In other words, he didn’t sign up for that; he was assigned that duty by God the Father. And in fact, Jesus isn’t even a Levite or a part of Aaron’s line! Jesus has a Judahite lineage, not a Levite lineage (see Matt 1:1-17). More on that in a second.

Look back at verse 5.

5 So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”; 

Who said that? God the Father said that in Psalm 2. Psalm 2 is the most important Psalm in the Psalter concerning Christ. And it’s the most important psalm that the Book of Hebrews quotes other than Psalm 110. And Christ, who is the Son of God, is appointed by God to be made a high priest. 

And speaking of Psalm 110, let’s keep reading… 

6 as he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.”

God the Father said, “You are…” in Psalm 2. God the Father said, “You are…” in Psalm 110. “You are my Son” (Ps 2:7). You are a priest forever” (Ps 110:4). 

“You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.”

And all God’s people said, “Melchize--who?” Who’s that guy? And where was Jesus called the priest forever after the order of Melchizedek? The answer to that question is Psalm 110.

I preached on Psalm 110 not that long ago on a Wednesday night. [Those of you who were here for that sermon can check out right now. You already know what I’m going to say. I’ll tell you when to check back in in a few moments]. But here’s a little synopsis of Psalm 110 and the order of Melchizedek.

Melchizedek was an OT Canaanite king. And in the Book of Genesis (14:1-24), there is this mysterious King-priest who appears to Abraham whose name is Melchizedek. The word melek means “king” in Hebrew, and tsedek means “righteous.” So he was a “King of Righteousness.” 

And what happened is that Abraham went to rescue his hapless nephew Lot and a bunch of other people with a small army he cobbled together. And after winning a battle, he returned back to camp with a lot of plunder. And after returning, these two kings came out to congratulate him: 1) the King of Sodom and 2) Melchizedek, the King of Salem. And the King of Sodom says to Abraham, “thanks for rescuing our people, you can keep the plunder.” And Abraham basically rebukes this wicked king and says, “thanks but no thanks. I don’t want anyone thinking I got rich or was blessed by your gifts. I want God to get the credit for this.” 

But there’s this other king there too, Melchizedek. And this king brings out bread and wine to Abraham. He blesses Abraham. And Abraham gives him a tenth of everything he has. And this guy Melchizedek is also called in Genesis 14 a “Priest of God Most High.” But he has no recorded history. He has no lineage in the Bible. He’s just this mysterious priest-king who shows up out of nowhere as the King of Salem (“salem” by the way means “peace” in Hebrew – שָׁלוֹם). Salem later is called “Jeru-salem.” So Melchizedek was this ancient King of Jerusalem. He’s this mysterious King of Peace. He’s this mysterious King of Righteousness. And he’s never heard of again in the OT until 1,000 years later when David writes Psalm 110. And then he’s not heard of again until 1,000 years after David when the author of Hebrews writes about him.  

Now here’s what D.A. Carson says about Psalm 110. Here’s his conjecture about Psalm 110. He said that the Israelite kings were required to know the Book of the Law inside and out. In fact, they had to write out their own personal copy of the Law and read it daily. Deuteronomy 17 says this, “When you come to the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ you may indeed set a king over you whom the LORD your God will choose. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother” (17:14-15). And then it continues, “And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them” (17:18-19). 

So David, in obedience to Deuteronomy 17 as King of Israel, had read Genesis several times. And he knew all about Melchizedek. So possibly, one day, as David was doing his morning devotions, he came across Genesis 14 and this mysterious priest-king. And David says to himself, “Wait a second, he’s a king and a priest. How can that be? You can’t be both.” The priests came from the Levites, and so if you weren’t a Levite you couldn’t be a king. And David was from the tribe of Judah, so he could never be a priest. In fact when kings usurped the priests, there were stiff consequences. When King Uzziah tried to burn incense to the Lord, he was struck with leprosy (2 Chr 26:16-23). When Saul offered a sacrifice to the Lord instead of waiting for Samuel, he was rebuked by Samuel (1 Sam 13:1-15). 

But in the Bible, there tucked away in Genesis was this mysterious priest-king named Melchizedek. And wouldn’t you know, just like David, this guy was King over Jerusalem. And Abraham gave him a tenth of all that he had! Father Abraham did this!

So D.A. Carson says that as David was thinking this out, this great oracle was given to him by God. And it has to do with a coming King, a coming Master, a coming Priest like Melchizedek. But he won’t be a Levitical priest. No, he’ll be a Melchizedekian priest. And he’ll be a “forever” priest. Yahweh swears it in Psalm 110:4: “The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.’”

And now in the book of Hebrews… [Those of you who had checked out, you can check back in now]… the author of Hebrews is saying “this is that” and “that is this.” Psalm 110 is about Jesus. And Jesus is the Melchizedek who David prophesied in Psalm 110. He’s a priest-king. He’s a king and a priest. His priesthood is better than the Levitical priesthood or the Aaronic priesthood. 

What’s interesting is that as you study Judaism in the time of Christ, especially the Qumran community of the desert, they were expecting not just one messiah but two messiahs. They were expecting a messiah-king and a messiah-priest. They saw both of those prophecies in the OT, and they couldn’t figure out how to put it together in one person, so they thought there might be two. 

Here’s how Philip Hughes says it in his commentary: “By contrast, the adherents of the Dead Sea Sect looked for the coming of two messianic figures, a lay, royal (Davidic) personage and a priestly (Aaronic) personage. If indeed our author has the Qumran teaching in mind, his instruction here and in the chapters that follow demonstrates, on the basis chiefly of Psalm 110:4, that they were wrong in two important respects: first, because there is only one messianic personage, both King and Priest, and, second, because his priestly category is that of Melchizedek, not Aaron.” 

It’s not two messiahs, it’s one. It’s one priest-king. It’s one high priest of the order of Melchizedek, and this is the Jesus Christ that we know and serve. He’s the fulfillment of Psalm 2. He’s the fulfillment of Psalm 110. He’s the whole package. 

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And finally. Write this down as #3. Here’s a third way that Jesus is our high priest par excellence: 

3) Jesus became a source of salvation for all (5:7-10)

In verse seven, the author says, 

7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 

One of the things that we see about Jesus is that he was praying all the time. Jesus was always offering up prayers and supplications to his Father in Heaven. He spent a whole night on a mountainside praying before he came down and chose his twelve disciples (Luke 6:12-16). 

But this statement in 5:7 has something more specific in mind. What the author is probably referring to here is the Garden of Gethsemane. And speaking of reverence, The Gospel of Mark says, “And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, ‘Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.’” 

Jesus cried out to the Lord in anguish in this Garden. Jesus agonized over what God the Father was asking him to do. His perspiration was mixed with blood. He struggled profusely. He cried out to “him who was able to save him from death.” And yet God didn’t “save him from death.” Not immediately anyway. God didn’t “take the cup from Jesus.” Jesus started out saying “take this cup from me” but he ended saying “not my will be done but yours.” It’s an amazing transformation. And it shows us the power of prayer to help us conform our will to God’s will. 

The Garden of Gethsemane is also amazing because it shows us Jesus’s full humanity on display. Keep in mind that the great heresies throughout the centuries don’t just attack Jesus’s deity. They also attack his humanity. If you diminish either of those, you end up in a place of error.

I heard Tommy Nelson say once that, “The absence of tears in Jesus Christ would have been just as heretical and condemning as the presence of sin.” Jesus cried real tears when Lazarus died (John 11:35). Jesus cried real tears when he entered Jerusalem (Luke 19:41-42). And, according to this, Jesus cried at Gethsemane too. 

And the author of Hebrew says, 

8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 

Jesus was and is the son. We dealt with that already. Hebrews 1 was all about the supremacy of the Son. And yet the Son suffered. The son learned obedience through suffering. He wasn’t some spoiled prince who was spared all difficulties in life. He wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He wasn’t given everything to him on a silver platter. He was the Son of God! And yet, counterintuitively, he learned obedience through suffering. In that way, Jesus became a model for the church that the author of Hebrews was writing to. He wants them to learn obedience through suffering too. 

9 And being made perfect, 

By the way, that doesn’t mean that Jesus was flawed and then became unflawed.  It doesn’t mean that Jesus was an imperfect sinner, but then he became perfect and sinless. No. It can’t mean that. We just saw last week that Jesus was tempted in every way but without sin (4:14-16). This means instead that he was made complete. He was fully fitted out. It means that he got all the way to the end of his obedience task. In fact the Greek word here is τελειόω, and it intimates this. It means “to complete” or “to finish.” Remember Jesus’s words from the cross? Τετέλεσται! “It is finished” (John 19:30). 

9 And being made perfect [being “completed” as the Savior], he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, 

10 being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

Everyone see that “all” there? “All” means “all.” All means not just Jews, but Gentiles too. He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. 

And that’s another reason that Jesus is better than Aaron and the other high priests of the OT. Aaron was a priest to Hebrews. He was a priest to Jewish and Jewish converts. The worship of Yahweh was localized in Jerusalem. The temple was in Jerusalem. The high priest offered up sacrifices in Jerusalem. Everyone came to Israel in order to be saved. But Jesus isn’t just a high priest to Jews. He’s a high priest to all. He’s the source of eternal salvation to all. He’s a high priest in the order of Melchizedek, a Gentile priest-king!

Now there’s more to say about Melchizedek. There’s more to say about Jesus’s high priesthood and kingship. The author of Hebrews is going to go into great detail on this in chapter 7 and following. But first, before he does that, he warns his readers. He gets straight with them. And what follows at the end of chapter 5 and the whole of chapter 6 is some of the most difficult material in the Bible. And we are not going to skip it. We’re going to cover it… next week. So come on back. 

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But before we finish today, let me address one final matter. The message today is a little foreign to us as twenty-first century Americans. We don’t often talk about our need for a high priest like Jesus. We don’t think about priests or utilize priests like people did in the ancient world. And Jesus is often presented in our culture not so much as a priest (or a king), but as a prophet. So for example, people will quote Jesus from the sermon on the mount. “Don’t lust” and “Don’t hate” and “Don’t hurt other people.” “Judge not lest you be judged.” This is the Jesus we know. Jesus tells us how to live. And Jesus is imminently quotable, even in our modern society. This is Jesus the prophet. And when people have embraced Jesus as the prophet, but not the priest or king, you might ask them, “Are you a Christian?” And they say, “Boy, I hope so. I’m trying.” That’s a person who is not a Christian. That’s a person who has only come to know Jesus as a prophet. 

Listen, you can’t just know Jesus as a prophet who tells us some great things. You have to know Jesus, the priest. Jesus didn’t just come from heaven to tell us some good things and then zip right back up to heaven to the right hand of God the Father. Jesus came as a priest to offer up a sacrifice for your sins. And his sacrifice was exceptionally better than any sacrifice for sins that has ever been offered. Because his sacrifice was himself. We know that we need atonement. We know that we have sins to reckon with. And Jesus Christ, our great high priest, offers up himself as atonement for your sins.

And listen, this is important too. Not only do you need to believe that Jesus was sent to be a high priest. You need to believe that Jesus is your high priest sent as a sacrifice for your sins. You need to personalize it. 

Martin Luther said once, “[I]t is not enough for a Christian to believe that Christ was instituted high priest to act on behalf of men, unless he also believes that he himself is one of these men for whom Christ was appointed high priest.” The question this morning isn’t “Is Jesus a high priest?” The question for you is this: “Is Jesus my high priest? Has he, through his death and resurrection, paid for my sin?” Has he? Paid for your sin? Put your faith in Christ, not just as a prophet, but as the high priest who died for your sins and rose from the dead.