Deo Gloria
Sermon for March 21, 2021
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: Hebrews 5:7-9
Theme: Jesus—the Perfect Priest for Imperfect People
- One who is perfectly pious
- One who is the source of salvation
New and improved—you see that advertised all the time. Try new and improved Clorox 2. Try the new Dr. Pepper—same great taste but only one calorie. Check out the new Artic Cat 10,000, the fastest snowmobile Artic Cat has ever made. The fact is the products we buy are constantly changing, constantly being improved. Just think of all the improvements that have been made to the TV in the past 25 years or to the telephone.
In our text this morning we hear about something completely different, though, something that will never be improved, something that is absolutely, 100% perfect. That something, or I should say someone, is Jesus Christ our Savior. He is the perfect priest for imperfect people. And in these verses the author of the book of Hebrews explains why. He tells us that Jesus was perfectly pious, and that he is the source of salvation.
The letter to the Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians, Christians who were experiencing persecution because of their faith in Jesus, persecution far beyond anything you and I have experienced. In some cases they had their property or their business confiscated. The local authorities just came and took it—not because they needed it for a new road or some other public project. They just took it. In some cases these Christians were arrested and put in prison. And some were even put to death. They faced the kind of persecution Christians today often face in places like Iran or Afghanistan. If they were convicted as a follower of Jesus Christ, they were put to death—unless, of course, they renounced their faith in Jesus. In that case they would be spared. And what a temptation that was for them! If they turned their backs on Jesus and went back to their Jewish religion, they could avoid being persecuted. And that explains why this book was written. The author’s purpose was to encourage Jewish Christians not give up, not to turn their backs on Christ and forsake their Christian faith.
In this section he encourages them by pointing out that Jesus is vastly superior to any priest who ever served at the temple. Jesus is the perfect priest, a priest who was perfectly pious! Listen again to the way he describes it: “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission”(v. 7).
During his days on earth, Jesus offered many prayers and petitions to his Father in heaven, but the instance the author has in mind here is obviously the time Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane.
You remember the scene. Jesus took Peter, James and John and withdrew from the other disciples. He told them that his soul was overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. He told them to watch and pray and then he went off by himself to pray. He prayed “with loud cries,” the author tells us, so loud in fact the disciples could hear him even though he was a stone’s throw away. He prayed with “tears” the author adds. There were many other times that Jesus prayed, but never with tears. Likewise Luke tells us that Jesus prayed so earnestly that “his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground”(22:44). What on earth was on Jesus’ mind that he could be so upset, so troubled that he would pray to his Father in heaven with tears? Suffering, torture, death, hell. Yes, that is what was on Jesus’ mind. As the Son of God, he knew what was coming. He knew about the mocking and the ridicule. He knew about the whipping and the beatings. He knew about the excruciating pain and suffering. He knew he would be forsaken by the Father. He knew he would die as a criminal. And as a true human being he was struggling.
Imagine how you would struggle if somehow you knew your son or daughter would be killed in a tragic accident later this week. Would you get any sleep? Could you find the strength to make it through the day, to even stop crying? Or imagine how you would struggle if somehow you knew you would contract some terrible disease in the near future. It would be awful. It would be painful. And you would die in a matter of days. Just imagine how you would struggle, knowing something like that! That’s what Jesus was going through. The time for his suffering and death on the cross was fast approaching, and his human nature was struggling. So he cried out to God, to the one who could save him. He prayed with loud cries and tears.
And his prayer was answered. The Father did not ignore his Son. As the Bible tells us, God sent an angel to strengthen him, to encourage him and renew his resolve to finish the work he had been sent to accomplish. And Jesus was strengthened. We see that just a little while later when the soldiers came to arrest him. What did Jesus do at that point? Did he try to run away and hide? No, he calmly walked out to meet them and allowed himself to be arrested. The Father had answered his prayer, and from that point on Jesus did not waver his resolve to walk the road to Calvary’s cross.
But did you catch the reason why his prayer was answered? The author says that he was heard “because of his reverent submission.” Another way to translate the original word is piety. The basic meaning of the word is to “hold well.” Picture a little girl holding on to her favorite doll or teddy bear. Another little girl comes over and starts looking at her doll. And what does she do? She wraps both arms around it and holds it tight to her chest. Another meaning this word takes on is that of being cautious or careful. Imagine you’re carrying a glass of water, but you filled the glass a little too full, almost to the top. So as you’re walking over to the table or the living room or wherever you’re going, you walk very carefully and you hold the glass very carefully, as steadily as you can, so you don’t spill.
Now apply that picture not to a glass of water but to the Word of God and the commands of God. Who was more careful with God’s Word than Jesus? Who was more careful to listen to God’s Word and hold on tightly to everything it said than Jesus? Who was more careful to obey God’s commands in his day to day life than Jesus? The author of Hebrews highlights this at the end of the previous chapter. He states that Jesus was tempted in every way just as we are—“yet was without sin”(v. 15). Jesus himself made that point in a discussion he had with the Pharisees. “Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?” he challenged.(John 8:46). And none of them could. Jesus was perfect, perfect in the way he handled God’s Word and held on to God’s Word, perfect in his obedience to God and his commands, perfect in his devotion and service to God. Jesus was perfectly pious.
Just like you and me, right? It kind of makes you feel like hanging your head in shame, doesn’t it? How often have you and I not been very careful when it comes to listening to God’s Word? How often have you and I been rather careless when it comes to holding on to God’s Word? Sure we listen to it on Sunday morning, but then often forget about it the rest of the week. How often have you and I been rather careless when it comes to obeying God and his commands? We’re like the little child who’s learning how to play catch. When it comes to devotion and piety and living a godly life, we’ve dropped the ball time and time and time again.
How thankful we can be that we have a priest like Jesus, a priest who was perfectly pious! You see, Jesus didn’t live a life of perfect piety and obedience to God just to show us that it could be done, or as an example for us, to show us how it should be done. He did it in our place as our Savior. His perfect life God sees as our perfect life. His perfect piety God sees as our perfect piety. His perfect obedience God sees our perfect obedience. God credits what Jesus did to us, to all those who believe in him as their Savior. He credits it to us so that we might be perfect and blameless in his sight and therefore qualified to live with him in his heavenly kingdom. Jesus is the kind of priest we need, the perfect priest for imperfect people.
A second reason the author of Hebrews gives for Jesus being the perfect priest is that he is the source of salvation. We pick it up at v. 8: “Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered, and once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him”(vv. 8+9). Unfortunately, the NIV translation is a little misleading here. One could easily get the impression that Jesus wasn’t perfect, but that he became perfect after learning obedience from what he suffered. And that isn’t the point at all. The word translated “made perfect” has the basic idea of reaching a goal or reaching the end of something. So the word is often used for completing something or finishing something. Let’s say you’re working on a book report for school and you make it your goal to have the book read by Wednesday and the report finished by Friday. So when you hand in your report on Friday, you’ve reached your goal. You’ve finished that assignment. Now do you see what it is saying in these verses? Jesus was not made perfect through suffering. Through suffering he reached his goal. Through suffering he accomplished his mission. And having done so, he became the source of eternal salvation. Having completed the work of our salvation, Jesus became the source of our salvation.
And if Jesus is the source, then that means it comes from him, right? It does not come from us. We couldn’t save ourselves no matter how hard we tried. It doesn’t come from someone like Mary or some other saint. They couldn’t help us even if they wanted to. It doesn’t come from Mohammed or Buddha or some other self-proclaimed prophet. Looking for salvation from them is like looking for milk from a chicken. You’ve got the wrong source. Jesus is the source of our salvation. He is the one who paid for our sins, so he is the one who can give us forgiveness for our sins. He is the one who conquered death, so he is the one who can rescue us from death. He is the one who rose from the dead, so he is the one who can raise us from the dead one day and give us life that never ends. He is the source of eternal salvation.
And isn’t that where we want to get salvation, from the source? Do we want to look for salvation from someone who thinks they know the way or someone who is the way? Do we want to look for salvation from someone who thinks they know the truth or someone who is the truth? Do we want to look for salvation from someone who is dead or who will die one day just like us or someone who lives forever? Yes, as Jesus himself said, he is the way, the truth and the life.(John 14:6) He is the kind of priest you and I need, the kind of priest all people need. He is the source of eternal salvation.
Is Clorox 2 better than the original? It probably is. Is the iPhone 12 better than the iPhone 10? They say it is. Many products like that have been improved over the years, and chances are they’ll be improved again; but one thing that will never, ever be improved is Jesus. As the writer to the Hebrews tells us this morning, Jesus is the perfect priest for two important reasons: he was perfectly pious, and he is the source of salvation. Jesus is the perfect priest for imperfect people. Amen.