Sermon Tone Analysis

MacArthur - Hebrews

 

The Perfectly Qualified Priest

*So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him, “Thou art My Son, today I have begotten Thee”; just as He says also in another passage, “Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”

*(5:5–6)

Verses 5–10 show how Jesus met all the qualifications for high priest mentioned in verses 1–4, and more.

Appointed by God

First of all, Jesus was chosen, sent, and honored by God the Father.

Again the writer chooses quotations from the Old Testament-*Thou art My Son, today I have begotten Thee* (Ps.

2:7) and *Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek* (Ps.

110:4)—to support his point.

The Jewish readers of Hebrews knew that both passages referred to the Messiah.

They knew that the Messiah was to be a great king and priest, appointed by God.

Those Old Testament passages confirmed that.

Yet even though He was the divine Son, Jesus did not take the position for Himself or give honor to Himself.

He told the Jewish leaders who questioned Him, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God’ ” (John 8:54).

God invested Jesus with the authority and honor of high priest *according to the order of Melchizedek*.

Melchizedek will be discussed in some detail under Hebrews 7, but a brief word here is necessary.

He was a king-priest who lived in the time of Abraham, and whose ancestry is completely unknown.

He was king of Salem (the ancient name for Jerusalem) and was a priest of the true God (Gen.

14:18).

He lived many centuries before the Aaronic priesthood was established and his priesthood was unending (Heb.

7:3), unlike that of Aaron, which began in the time of Moses and ended in a.d. 70, when the Temple was destroyed.

His priesthood, therefore, was superior to Aaron’s in two ways.

Melchizedek was a king, whereas Aaron was not, and his priesthood was perpetual, whereas Aaron’s was temporary.

Melchizedek’s priesthood, therefore, is a better picture of Christ’s than even that of Aaron.

Sympathetic with Men

*In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.

Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.

*(5:7–8)

Second, Jesus Christ was sympathetic with men—He was identified with them, understood them, felt with them.

He /was/ Himself a man, just as surely as any high priest that served in the Tabernacle or Temple.

“The days of His flesh” were an interlude in the life of Jesus Christ, who existed before and after His earthly life.

But they were an extremely important and necessary interlude.

Among other things, “He offered up both prayers and supplications,” because of the anguish He faced in becoming sin for those who believed in Him.

In the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before He went to the cross, Jesus prayed and agonized so intensely that He sweat great drops of blood.

His heart was broken at the prospect of bearing sin.

He felt the power of sin and He felt temptation.

He cried.

He shed tears.

He hurt.

He grieved.

What He had always known in His omniscience, He learned in a new way on earth by experience.

He could not have been a fully sympathetic high priest had He not experienced what we experience and felt what we feel.

When Jesus prayed to “the One able to save Him from death,” He was not hoping to escape either the cross or the grave.

It was for this very purpose that He came to earth (John 12:27).

A more accurate translation of Hebrews 5:7 is, “… save Him /out/ of death.”

Jesus was not asking to be saved from dying but to be saved out of death—that is, to be saved from remaining in death.

He was not asking to avoid the cross but to be assured of the resurrection (cf.

Ps.

16:8–11).

Jesus was heard by His Father *because of His piety*.

The Greek word /eulabeia/, translated “piety,” can mean reverential fear or awe, as reflected in the King James.

It carries the idea of being devoutly submissive.

Jesus recognized God as sovereign and committed Himself to the Father.

*Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.

*(5:8)

Often the best, and sometimes the only, way to learn sympathy is by suffering ourselves what another is suffering.

Suffering is a very skilled teacher.

We can read about and hear about the pain of being burned.

We can even see people being burned.

But until we have been burned ourselves, we cannot completely sympathize with a burn victim.

I had read about, and even seen, many automobile accidents; but only after I was involved in one that almost took my life did I realize how horrible they can be.

Jesus had to learn certain things by suffering.

He was given no exemption from hardship and pain.

Even though He was God’s Son, God in human flesh, He was called to suffer.

He learned the full meaning of the cost of *obedience*, all the way to death, *from the things which He suffered*, and God therefore affirmed Him as a perfect High Priest.

That is the kind of high priest we need—one who knows and understands what we are going through.

When we go to the Lord in prayer and fall on our knees before Him and say, “God, this problem, this loss, this pain is breaking my heart,” how wonderful to feel His arms around us and to sense in our hearts that He is saying, “I know.

I know.”

Sacrificing for Men

*And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation.”

*(5:9)

In His suffering and death, Jesus fulfilled the third requirement for high priest.

He offered the sacrifice of Himself and thereby became the *perfect* High Priest and the source of eternal salvation.

Jesus went through everything He had to go through, and accomplished all He needed to, so He could be such a perfect High Priest.

He was not, of course, *made perfect* in the sense of having His nature improved.

He was eternally perfect in righteousness, holiness, wisdom, knowledge, truth, power, and in every other virtue and capability.

Neither His nature nor His person changed.

He became perfect in the sense that He completed His qualification course for becoming the eternal High Priest.

In offering His sacrifice, however, Jesus differed in two very important ways from other high priests.

First, He did not have to make a sacrifice for Himself before He could offer it for others.

Second, His sacrifice was once-and-for-all.

It did not have to be repeated every day, or even every year or every century.

By His death, Jesus opened the way of *eternal salvation*.

All the priests of all time could not provide eternal salvation.

They could only provide momentary forgiveness.

But by one act, one offering, one sacrifice, Jesus Christ perfected forever those who are His.

The perfect High Priest makes perfect those who accept His perfect sacrifice, those *who obey Him*.

The *obedience* mentioned here of *those who obey Him* is not that regarding commandments, rules, and regulations.

It is not obedience to the law.

It is “the obedience of faith” (Rom.

1:5).

God wants us to obey Him by believing in Christ.

True obedience, just as true works, is first of all true believing.

“This is the work of God,” Jesus said, “that you believe in Him whom He has sent” (John 6:29).

Trust in Jesus Christ is the /work/ of faith and the /obedience/ of faith.

Sadly and tragically, all people do not believe.

And whoever does not believe does not truly obey, no matter how moral, well-meaning, religious, and sincere.

In First and Second Thessalonians, Paul speaks of the two responses to the gospel—the only two possible responses.

In the second letter he tells of God’s retribution on those who “do not know God” and who “do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (1:8).

In the first letter, by contrast, he praises the missionary work of the faithful Thessalonian Christians in Macedonia and Achaia (1:8).

Their obedience /in/ the faith brought others to obedience /to/ the faith—and to the gift of *eternal salvation*.

[1]

\\ Bible Knowledge Commentary

 

*III.*

*Part II: God’s Priest-Son (chaps.

5-10).*

In the first major movement of the epistle (1:5-4:16), the author set forth two major truths: (1) the exalted position and destiny of Him who is uniquely God’s King-Son and (2) the salvation-inheritance of those who cleave to Him by faith.

Included in the consideration of these themes have been solemn warnings not to neglect or forfeit the inheritance that His exalted station makes so attainable.