A high priest is something we are not familiar with because there are none today but they existed in the old testament. In Hebrews 5:1-3, it explains what a high priest is and in summary, they are chosen to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins to God. Sin created a barrier between the people and God and so God appointed the high priest to be the middle-man. Since the high priest was not perfect and a sinner, he had to offer sacrifices for his own sin as well as the people. Jesus is the great and final high priest and through him, we can go to God. He did the ultimate sacrifice and died on that cross for our sins. He did not have to because he was of no sin, but he did it on his own will. He did not want any animal blood or our blood but his precious blood to be sacrificed to God so that when God sees this sacrifice for our sin, the debt has been paid.
Jesus got tempted the same way we do every single day but He did not give in to any sin. There could have been many times where he could have complained, lied, or taken revenge but He was strong and did not sin. He sympathizes with our weaknesses because he went through the same thing while He was on earth. But, He defeated the battle of sin every time and till the end. He does not roll his eyes at our pain or say “here we go again” when we struggle with our sin.
Jesus is alive. He is the Son of God and we should hold fast our confession which means the unshakable hope that God is for us and not against us. Hold fast that we have a great high priest and that is Jesus. So how do we hold fast to this hope? It says “with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” We all need help. It doesn’t matter who we are, everyone needs help. We are not God and we cannot do anything on our own. We also all sin so deep down in our hearts we know that we do not deserve the help we need. This brings us to a dilemma but God says that because we have this great high priest, the throne of God is a throne of grace. The help we get from that throne is mercy and grace in time of need. This is not help we deserve but gracious help. This was God’s plan from the very beginning, that we have a high priest, a saviur, redeemer, and a gracious helper.
So let’s draw near to his throne of grace. Let us humble ourselves before him knowing that we cannot do this on our own and that we do not deserve the help so that we can be filled with his grace and mercy. Let us rejoice in Him that he sent his only perfect Son to die on the cross for our sins by choice and created a way for us to go to God anytime. God is good all the time. Amen.
In everything, we need to be prepared. As a Christian, we must always have our guard up. Marathon runners and swimmers have many things in common. They have to train daily, make sure they're eating a healthy diet and most importantly, their outfit cannot be heavy. Runners wear light and airy outfits that don’t drag them down and swimmers wear speedos that are tight and a head cap so they can get the maximum amount of speed. After all the training, they don’t want all that hard work to go to waste if they wear something heavy.
The same applies to us as Christians. We can read the bible, serve in a ministry, and obey God, but we won’t get very far with anything holding us back or down. We have to have the willingness to “lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us.” (Hebrews 12:1) A willingness to determine and remove anything weighing us down.
Really look inside yourself and see if you have any underlying sin that might cause you to not give your all to God. How can we give one hundred percent to God when we haven’t let go of the things that are holding us back? Some things may be small like your priorities but bigger issues might cause the small ones that could lead to more.
For me, I prolong my procrastination. I understand that it’s a major problem in my life that I need to fix. It started out as something small like waiting to get air in my tires even though the light would be on for months until my tires actually sounded low. I would procrastinate on school assignments which led me to miss class and get behind even more. Spiritually, I know there are things that have to be dealt with before God, but I pushed it deep in my heart which has grown like a tumor. I’ve learnt the hard way that you cannot run away from your problems. At the moment it might seem easy, but it will bite you later on. You cannot wait until it is too late. It’s unnecessary to hold it in. Would you take all that to heaven? Of course not! We wouldn’t even be able to.
As we are running this race for God, there will be many obstacles and even more struggles, but we can not let that hinder us. As I talked about last week, we need to resist going into Satan’s candy store. We cannot be so easily distracted and lose sight of the prize. God has his promise set out for us. There’s no way to move forward if your eyes are not fixed on him.
Who do you call your master? Is it God? Is it you? Or do you have many? You should only have one and God does not want us to be bogged down by sin. Sin only clouds our judgement and brings us further from him. We need to be one hundred percent for God so let us repent and push out all the dirt. God is for us and not against us. Ask him to purify your heart and follow what he wants you to do. “ Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12: 1-2) Let us lighten the load and keep our eyes fixed on Him and His promise.
I think we often forget that God is God and he is our king which is why we should fear him. Do you talk back to God? Do you have the respect for him like you would for your CEO? Or do we treat him like just something on the side until we really need his help? God is all powerful and can definitely have his wrath on us anytime but he is also very patient. God’s mercy and grace is what saves us. We are mere humans and the world does not revolve around us so why should we be complaining or ignoring God? Christ came into this world because of mercy “in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy” (Romans 15:9). We were born again “according to his great mercy” (1 Peter 1:3). We pray daily “that we might receive mercy” (Hebrews 4:16) and we are now “waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life” (Jude 1:21).
As Christians, when we ask God to give us more faith, what are your intentions? Do we do it so that we can brag to others or are you truly having a hard time believing God can do anything? God doesn’t have to give us anything but because of his great mercy, he does. We need to accept that we are unworthy before him and we can do nothing. God can do everything. In the story of the mustard seed, the disciples say, “increase our faith!” Jesus goes on to say, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” (Luke 17:5-6) The quantity of our faith does not matter because even the smallest can uproot trees. God is the one in control and he will give enough of his power for all you need. It’s not about what we can do because God is the one working so all we have to do is have faith.
When I think about my faith, I realize that I have a really hard time believing that God can do anything and he is in control. I am always stressing for the future and I hate not knowing what is coming next. I always thought that I believed God can do anything but I think it more of something I knew instead of believed. I feel like I had faith because of all the miracles he has done in our family and that I have seen in others and also in the bible. As it says in Mark 9:24, “ I believe; help my unbelief.” Without God, we cannot believe as we ought to believe. This really has to do with our pride as well. I’m always forgetting that God is in control and can do anything and we can do nothing.
Even if we have the greatest of faith and obey God completely; we do not do that for rewards but because it is our duty. (Luke 17:7-10) “Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table?’ Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink?’ Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, We are unworthy servants, we have only done what was our duty.” God is the one in control and all we can say is that “we are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.” We can only hope for God’s mercy. We are always utterly dependent on what we do not deserve; his mercy. A song that reminds me of this is ‘The Stand’ by Hillsong. “What can I say? What can I do? But offer this heart oh God completely to you. So in knowing that, let us humble ourselves before God. Let us pray to him to take our pride away. We should rejoice in his mercy and glorify God.