7th Day of Christmas- Hebrews 7:26-28 - Pastor Jon Meenk

Good morning. You can remain standing. We're going to pick up right from there. Hebrews 7:26-28 is going to be our passage today. Picking up right there, For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens. He has no need like those high priests to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests. But the word of the Oath, which came later than the law, appoints a son who has been made perfect forever. This is the word, Lord. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for another day where you gather your church together. Lord, I pray that today we would... As we dive into your word, Lord Jesus, our eyes would only see you. And Lord, we'd see our weakness, but we'd see the great lengths that you have gone to to redeem us and Lord Jesus to be our high priest. And what that means for us, why we need a high priest.

Lord Jesus and why you are the perfect and the better high priest for us. Lord, we're in desperate need of you. I'm in need of you and preaching your word, and we're all in need of hearing your word. Through the power of your spirit, would you enable us this morning to hear your word? Would it be planted into our hearts, Lord? All for Your glory and Jesus name, Amen. You can have a seat. Well, Merry Christmas, everybody. I hope you had a good one. I have a quick story to just help break the ice and get us rolling. I think you'll find it funny. It has nothing to do with the message. We're opening presents Christmas morning, and my kids love giving gifts. And so they're little. So they either make funny little gifts for us or they just go and they find toys in their bedroom and they wrap them. And so these presents just keep showing up under the tree and there's tons. And you can tell they're all from our kids because of how they're wrapped. And so we're opening all their presents Christmas morning. And Everly, my oldest, hands Katie, my wife, a gift.

And so she opens it. And we're used to seeing either a craft or something that we've seen around the house for years, like a toy that's just been in the living room. Now all of a sudden, we're opening it up and she opens up and it's this serving spoon that I've never seen before. And so we're like, I'm shocked. I'm in the kitchen, Katie is open. I'm absolutely shocked. I'm like, Everly, when did you get a spoon? She can't drive herself to the store. And so she listened to her pastor, John Noyes, who I don't know if you guys remember weeks ago, he said, If you don't collect stuff out of the lost and found, it's a good Christmas present. And my daughter, I've never been more proud. My daughter, in her ingenuity, frugleness, she snuck a spoon out of that box, home, into a room, wrapped it. So whoever spoon that is, thank you. It was the best gift my wife received this Christmas. It was one of your spoons from my wonderful daughter, Everlee. So it was fun. I hope you all had a great and wonderful Christmas. Man, it's crazy how fast it goes.

Right? Like, so fast. It felt like it was over so fast. Every year, I know that's coming every year that every year it's going to feel like, man, Christmas just flew by. And so there's always this one moment I look to every year because I'm sure your Decembers are the same as mine. We're all doing the same thing. December, you so bad want to slow down and just enjoy that advent of the season and just wait and wait and wait. But man, life is crazy in December, and you're running from work party to the mall. You're trying to get presents. You're trying to wrap things. You're trying to bake things, you're getting have get-togethers with friends, and just December flies. And then Christmas Day shows up, and that day feels like a blink of an eye, right? There's always this one moment that I look forward to on Christmas morning, it's really simple, is just when all the running around finally stops, and it's Christmas morning, and I'm just in my sweats, sitting on the couch, a coffee in my hand, and just watching my wife and my kid smile. It's like, all right, the craziness and the running around has stopped just for a few moments.

And I know it's going to pick up again tomorrow, like the very next day. But I love basking in that moment. I don't know if you have that specific moment. I hope you all have a moment on Christmas that you just really look forward to where you can stop and bask in the goodness of God and not just run through this life and not stopping to smell the roses as it were. But here's the problem, right? That moment is so quick, like I was saying, that soon we're just back into running around, running around, running around. And it's, what is it? It's only 51 more weeks until Christmas, 2024. Is that like make your stomach turn? Just like thinking like, it's just life is going by so fast. In any case, however your fleeting moment is, whether it's like mine or something else, the moment is so quick. And so today, we're going to talk a bit about busyness, and we're going to look at the the weakness of the high priest here in Hebrews seven, and we're going to see a constant busyness in these high priests. And to be clear, before we dive into this message, we're dropping right into the middle of Hebrews, and there's just a lot there.

And it was messing with my confidence even writing this message because there's so much more on the cutting room floor than there is in this message. There's just no way that I could cover everything adequately and do it in a time span where you would want to pay attention for that long. And then also, for whatever reason, whether it's Christmas or whatnot, hey, young ones, you were on my mind the whole time. And so, Roland, you're on my mind, dude. Huck, you were on my mind, buddy. Yeah, you young kids, you were just on my mind through this. And my hope is that today, specifically for you young ones, that you would understand why you need a high priest, what is the high priest, and why Jesus is the new and better and perfect high priest for you and for me. I'm going to get through. You just heard chapter seven read. I'm going to get through this whole message, and I'm not going to mention Melchizedek once, right? And if you are reading through Hebrews, you're thinking, how do you get through chapter seven without even mentioning Melchizedek? But my hope today is that I can point out this contrast of the high priests under the law and the high priests that we have in the New Covenant.

This weakness of the old covenant, high priests, like I've said before, results in this endless, perpetual laboring and striving. And it's much like how I picture us. You see the world around you in December, just running, running, non-stop, non-stop busyness. And we see this weakness clearly. We read it already. It's in verse 18. It says, for on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness, for the law made nothing perfect. These high priests that were in the line of Aaron, who were appointed under the law were flawed men. They were sinful men. And so there was never a perfect sacrifice offered, which is why we read here, For the law made nothing perfect. The tabernacle, though it was a reminder to the people of God that God was with them, it wasn't like he was with them in the garden temple where he was communing with man. But there was that tabernacle was also a reminder to them that there was a separation from God and them. God had chosen to, after that temple relationship being broken in sin in Eden, we see then God at Mount Sinai bringing that relationship back together.

And so we see the temple at Mount Sinai where Moses meets God, right? And so then we move into God then gives His law, and through His law, He makes a way that He can be in relationship with man again. But it doesn't mean He just forgets about sin. And so He sets up all these very detailed rules and laws and rituals of sacrifice so that these priests, these high priests in the line of Aaron can make sacrifice and God can be with his people. But he's still separate from his people. And so this sacrifice, there was a weakness to it because it made no one perfect, like I said, because these men were not perfect. They were mere men. They had their own sin to deal with, just like any other human. So they couldn't approach God on their own merit. They had to follow these laws and they had to follow this sacrificial system to first make atonement for their own sin, and then to go in and make a sacrifice for God's people. But as we just read, it didn't make anybody perfect. The high priests appointed by the law were constantly working, constantly maintaining.

And this wasn't only just at the once-a-year sacrifice that we know as the Day of Atonement, where he would enter into the Holy of Holies and make a sacrifice for all the people. But daily in the morning and daily at night, there was a sacrifice known as the perpetual burnt offerings that they would offer in the morning, they would offer in the evening. And this happened every day, every day, over and over again. You're seeing this. I don't know if you know what the definition of perpetual is, but occurring repeatedly, so frequent as to seem endless and uninterrupted. These offerings were constant, seemingly endless. And there is no feeling of rest. There is no feeling of completion. There is no feeling of like, okay, we're finally at this place where we're back in that relationship with God, but there was always this distance. There was always this separation. But these high priests not only had a moral dilemma in that they had their own sin they had to deal with, and they weren't a perfect sacrifice. And so these lambs and goats and whatever they offered weren't perfect sacrifices. But they also had a mortal dilemma, is that these were mere men who sinned, and these were also mere men who would die.

So you would have one high priest, but then that high priest doesn't live forever. And so that baton needs to be passed to the next high priest. And can you imagine if we don't just read past this stuff or maybe think we know about the temple, sacrificial system or the high priests, if we don't read past and just think how this is affecting the people in the wilderness, God's people as this is happening, can you imagine the restlessness and anxiety that this causes to the people? There's a restlessness in the hearts of those people, I'm sure. Because as I think of this high priests, this is... God is scary, right? He's scary, and we want to be in relationship with him, but He's holy, and He's pure, and He's all-powerful, and he has these very detailed ways of approaching Him. And then you're... There's a man, a mere man that is going in there and following these. Right then, I don't know if I trust anybody that much. I don't think you should. Pick the person in here. I asked my kids when I was talking to them at the breakfast table, I was like, Okay, pick somebody from church.

They're going to be the high priests, so I can explain it to you. They go, Pastor David. I was like, okay, still. Yeah, exactly. Man, it's like, oh. Then imagine, this is what I was telling my kids, imagine you have this high priest who then is like, okay, at first you're like, Oh, dude, don't mess this up. Don't mess this up. And then year after year, okay, he's got this. He got this. But then that guy dies and then you got another guy like, Man. It's anxiety. It's stressful. Here you have the tavernacle where God's presence is resting. And I don't want to jump into itlike all the stories, but this is Old Testament. I'm not saying that God has changed, but this is Old Testament, Old Covenant. You don't approach God on your own terms. You approach God on his terms, and you don't make it up. If you guys know the story of Aaron's sons who approached God and didn't offer the right sacrifice, and they were consumed with fire, this is that God, right? The stakes are high. You have this guy who's living in, who's taking up residence in this tabernacle, and through his law, he's given this avenue, like I just said, of this relationship to be restored in some ways, not fully, but to be restored in some ways.

And this relationship would depend on mere men following detailed instructions. How crazy does that sound? How many of you here... Well, I don't know. There's probably millions of toys that were put together this Christmas, and no instructions were read, right? We aren't known. I would say us as men are not known for the details of these instructions and following these instructions. And so when I read that, when I see that, it's like, man, the anxiety and the restlessness of this. This perpetual, sacrificial system was never the end, but it was always pointing, right? This was always pointing to we needed a better high priest. Because perfection wasn't obtained by the law, and the high priests of the law were the shadow of the substance of what's to come. They were pointing to something. Young ones, I want you to get this concept, okay? So follow me with this. Your pastors will say this terminology. I know I say it. I can think of times where I've heard our other pastors say it, but like the shadow and substance. Okay? I want you to know what that means when we say that. Next time you go to the park, I want you to go out to a tree and I want you to find the shadow of the tree on the ground.

Look down and find that shadow. And you're looking at the shadow and you can tell some stuff from that tree, right? You can tell if it's a skinny tree. You can tell if it's a fat tree. You can tell if there's leaves. You can tell if there isn't any leaves. Maybe, depending where the sun is, you can tell how tall it is or it's not very tall. But then turn and look at the tree, right? The shadow gave you some details of what the tree was, but it never was the tree. It was a shadow of the tree describing a bit, a little bit of what the real tree is. And so once you have the tree, once you're looking at the tree, do you need the shadow anymore to describe the tree or to see the tree? No, you don't need the shadow anymore. Okay? Whatever new toy you got for Christmas, you can do the same thing. You have to go to the park. You can just go home. Hold your toy up so that one of the lights gives you a shadow on the ground and describe, look at your toy, the shadow, right?

And you can get a picture of that toy. But then look at the toy in your hand. What are you going to play with? You're going to play with the toy or you're going to play with the shadow of the toy? With the toy, right? These high priests were the shadow of the substance, which is what's to come, which is Jesus, which is the thing that we need. And the whole time it was pointed to that. So now we've seen the weakness, the moral weakness, and the mortal weakness of these high priests under the law. So now let's go back and see the fitting high priests that we have. And it's the beginning of verse 26 here, For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. Where the high priests of the Old Covenant were corrupt, Christ, our high priest is holy. Where the high priests of the Old Covenant were guilty, Christ, our high priest is innocent. Where the high priests of the Old Covenant were stained by sin, Christ, our high priest is unstained. And where the high priests of the Old Covenant were in separate from sin because they were sinners themselves, Christ, our high priest was sinless and separated from sinners.

Do you understand that? You see how Christ is our better and perfect high priest. Every moral weakness found in the high priests in the Old Covenant is contrasted by the moral perfection of Christ, our perfect high priests. The passage goes on to say, He has no need like those high priests to offer sacrifices daily. First, for his own sins that we talked about, the priests having to offer sacrifices for themselves, and then for the sins of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. As the perfect high priest, he didn't need to sacrifice for himself. As completely holy, without sin, he could approach God without fear and offer a sacrifice. But Jesus, our high priest, didn't go in with a sacrifice in his hands, but he goes in and he offers himself the Lamb of God. He offers himself to God as a sacrifice. This perfect sacrifice now doesn't just merely cover our sins, but it atones for our sins. Where the high priests under the law would go and offer a sacrifice once a year, but it would need to be redone next year and it need to be redone the next year, and it need to be redone the next year because it merely covered their sins.

But Christ offering a perfect sacrifice has wiped your sins out. His perfect sacrifice of laying himself down as the sacrifice, the Lamb of God. Now your sins, Christian, are not covered. They're obliterated. But it doesn't merely solve this moral dilemma. Christ also solves our mortal dilemma. In verse 26, it says that He's exalted above the heavens where the service of men ended and where it was limited by their lifespan. Christ, who has conquered death, who offered Himself, died for us, but also lives for us. Now there is no end to His service as the high priest. He lives forever. And so there's no next guy. There's no next one. There's no anxiety of what's going to happen when he hands this to the next guy. Jesus is our perfect and final high priest forever. Verse 28 says, For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, and these are the moral and mortal weaknesses we just covered. But the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a son who has been made perfect forever. Okay, that word of the oath, I don't know if you're like me, you're probably feeling like, hey, this is pretty straightforward.

Just reading the passage, saying what this passage is saying a few more times. Really straightforward. We got it. And then my brain, when I get to that word of the oath part, I just don't talk like that. So then my brain trips out for a second. As I was writing this message, I had a picture in my head of I got a drill in my hand, and we're just methodically drilling this screw in. It's all working. It's all working. And then that word of the oath line comes up and the drill skips and I strip out the screw head and now we're stuck. So what we're going to do, it's like everybody in here is done, we're going to back that screw out. We're going to get some momentum, and we're going to ram at home and figure this out. And if you're not like me and you're like, Dude, what's your problem? Then congratulations. You can go back to sleep. Going back. This is going to be fun. Going back to verse 18, we're going to cruise through this real quick. For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of the weakness and uselessness of the law.

Okay, we already read this. This is the weakness of the law and the high priests appointed by that law that we just covered. So that's the moral and mortal weakness. For the law made nothing perfect because it wasn't a perfect sacrifice, right? But on the other hand, a better hope is introduced through which we draw near to God. Okay, kids, who or what is that better hope? Good job, Breaker. You can almost always say Jesus, and you're going to be right. Jesus is that better hope. So verse 20, And it was not without an oath. Okay, so this new and better hope comes with an oath. Why does it need an oath? Look one page back or hold your finger and go back to chapter six, verse 16. Or you can just hear me read it here. It says, For people swear by something greater than themselves and in their disputes, an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desires to show more convincingly to the heirs of promise, the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath. Okay, let me explain that. So the people, us human beings and our weakness, we lie and you can't trust us.

Okay? So what do we do? And we want somebody to really, really, really trust what we're saying. We say stuff like, I promise or I swear, right? Or if you talk like this, you say, I give an oath. I've never heard my kids say I give an oath, right? So we lie. God does not lie, right? By giving this oath, it's not saying that, Hey, this is God's word that's actually trustworthy and nothing else is. This is God, as we just read, knowing the weakness of us, knowing the weakness of man. And when he wants to hammer home that we can be convinced of something that will never change, that he will never go back on, God then gives an oath. Do you guys see that here? So now let's go back, verse 20, And it was not without an oath. Remember we just talked about this new and better hope, which is Jesus comes with an oath. God is doubling down here by giving an oath because He knows our weakness. He's like, I promise, I will not change my mind on this. This is the oath. For those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath.

Under the law, there was no Oath that came along with the priests under Aaron. This was just the law given. Here's the law. Here's how you approach me and follow these rules. You got that? But with this new high priest, there comes an Oath. There comes a promise, right? But this one, who's Jesus, was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him. Okay, so here comes the oath. All right, so backtrack a little bit. We're trying to get this screw in, right? This better hope is Jesus, and God guarantees this better hope, this better high priest with a promise, with an oath. And here comes the oath, and it's at a Psalm 1:10-4, The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever. So if there's any doubt that we have a final and perfect high priest, God has made an oath that this is your high priest forever. That anxiety that you would feel of the changing high priests or these imperfect high priests ends because this is your high priest forever. This is the oath. God is sworn and He's not going to change his mind.

Verse 22, This makes Jesus the guarantee of a better covenant. The former priests were many in number because they were prevented from death by continuing office. This is the mortal weakness, right? But he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever. He lives forever because Jesus conquered death. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost. He's able to save fully and completely those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. Okay? And then we're in our passage that we started with today, For it was indeed fitting. This is the high priest that we need. This is the high priest that fit us. It was indeed fitting that we should have a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens. He has no need like those high priests to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests. But the word of the oath, which came later than the law. So this is Old Covenant and New Covenant.

The law came and this was the shadow. Remember, kids, this is the shadow pointing to the substance. But the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a son who has been made perfect forever. So this high priests that we rely on, that the people of God relied on to maintain this relationship with God, even though it was still separated. They needed someone to go before him and make peace with God because of their sins. And now we have the perfect high priest. We have the one who is sinless, going and offering himself. So don't leave me hanging here. I got an easy question. Who is the substance that the shadow is pointing to? Who is the son who has been made perfect? And who is our perfect high priest? Jesus, Breaker, you're on it, dude. Jesus. But before we end, I want to leave you guys with one last picture. You may have nailed it with somebody's present this year, or maybe somebody else nailed it for you and they gave you just something awesome. I'm going to give you bad news. Whatever that thing is, it's going to lose its shine pretty quick.

Your shoes are going to wear out, your clothes are going to get stained, games are going to get old, Legos are going to get lost, toys are going to get broken. Right? These things don't last forever. So we do all this running around. We run, run, run through December, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy to get to Christmas Day. And we have this quick moment, which is good. A quick moment before we're back to running, running, running, running, running to do it all again, hopefully by the grace of God, next year with these imperfect gifts that won't last forever. When I think of Jesus as high priest, there's one picture, descriptive picture in Hebrews that I always think of. And I was talking to Nate a few weeks back, and he actually brought it up to me. And it's what I always picture. And so I hope I leave you with this picture if you take nothing else away from this. It's in Chapter 10, verses 11 through 14. And it says this, remember these priests, if I haven't said enough, are offering an imperfect sacrifice, constantly maintaining, constantly, constantly, constantly striving to maintain this relationship.

And verse 11 says, And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sin. Reminds me of the busyness of December. That for me. Going, going, going, going, going, and maybe that's just a microcosm of just life, what life feels like, going, going, going, going, going, going, hoping you can work hard enough to take a moment. But right on the other side of that moment, it's you're going, going, going, going, going again. And there's just a restlessness. But the good news is verse 12, But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down. And he sat down at the right-hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstill for his feet. For by a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. That moment on Christmas morning that I look forward to that is fleeting, that I know to be only for a few short moments. And the whole time, like this year, I was thinking, man, even in that moment, I was thinking, Tuesday is coming and it's back to work.

It's back to going, going, going, going, going, right? That moment and all my striving is just a moment. But Christian, that moment has been secured for you for eternity. Christ is no longer leaving us restless, wondering what's going to happen, wondering what is my relationship with God like, wondering if I approach God, how will I find Him? Wondering what our status is with God Almighty. Jesus has done the work, and we're the high priests under the Old Covenant were constantly running and constantly working, Jesus Christ, our high priest, has offered a perfect sacrifice, and he sat down and finished the work. Young ones, if you take a picture away today of this message, it's that. Jesus, your high priest, at great cost to himself, went before God the Father and offered himself to God as a sacrifice, and he died for you, but he rose for you. And so now he's at the right-hand of God the Father, not trying to appease God the Father, but the sacrifice has been given. And so now you're in right standing with God the Father through your high priest, Jesus Christ. You guys get that? And it's been done.

It's been done perfectly forever. This is the shadow that was always pointing to the substance. These high priests under the law were pointing us to Christ. And so now we have Christ. We don't need to look back to our works and look back to our own sacrifices, thinking that our sacrifices are a way that we can gain acceptance and gain entry to God because Christ has done it for us, and He's finished the work. Christ has come, has become our perfect high priest who is holy and who can stand before a holy God. And Christ, our high priest, then doesn't offer a sacrifice as a lamb of a lamb, but as the lamb of God, He offers Himself as the perfect sacrifice. And where the smoke from the burnt offerings would ascend and float up, they'd rise and they'd ascend to heaven. So Christ, after his death, would rise and is ascended to heaven, and he's in the heavenly places interceding for you, interceding for you, interceding for you before God as the perfect sacrifice. Friends, there's nothing I can do to slow down the craziness in your life. There's nothing I can do to make things more manageable in your life.

I wish I could. I can't do it in my own life. But what I can tell you today, and hopefully you go home with this today, is that, Christian, there's rest for your souls. And I don't even say that there's rest for your souls in something that you can look forward to. It's something that you have now. There is rest for you. Though life is crazy, we live in the now and not yet, and this rest for you is current, and it's available to you now. Christ has done the work for you. And though our lives are crazy and we run from thing to thing, and it's New Year's, and then we're going to be off and running in 2024. Christian, there is rest because the work has been completed. And we can trust that it's not through our own hard work and our own laboring that we did good enough that we've earned a moment of rest, but it's just simply that we've placed our faith in Jesus Christ, the perfect High Priest, the perfect sacrifice who's gone before us. And he secured that forever because he lives forever. So as we come to the table today, let the table remind you of your high priest who stood in your place, who offered himself as a sacrifice, his body broken for you, his blood shed for you, who ascended into heaven for you, and who sits at the right-hand of God the Father Almighty, interceding on your behalf. You are in right standing with God because of your perfect high priest. Let me tell you again, Christian, rest in him. Rest in him. There's no other high priests. There's no one else to come after. It's been secured and it's been done. And so you can rest in him. Amen? Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, would you seal this upon our hearts? Lord Jesus, we thank you for what you've done for us. I ask that you would magnify these words. Would you cause us to remember? And Lord, would you cause us to rest in you that these words would ring true not just in our minds, but they would take root in our lives, realizing you as our perfect high priests going before us. We give you all the glory in Jesus' name, Amen.