Christ: The Perfect Man

As we’ve already said, this morning we will be partaking of the Lord’s Supper in our service. We ordinarily do this in our evening service because it allows us to do it together as one church, with both our English- and Spanish-speaking members. But a couple times each year, we do it in the morning because that also allows people to partake who can’t normally attend in the evenings.

The Lord’s Supper is a time to evaluate our own Christian lives and also to focus on Jesus Christ. This morning, we’ve come to a great passage to help us do that, which is Hebrews chapter 4, verses 14-16. These are the final verses of the chapter, and they introduce an extended section within Hebrews focusing on Christ’s role as our great High Priest. This topic extends all the way to chapter 10, so it’s a major part of the book.

The role of a priest is to mediate the relationship between you and God. In the Old Testament, the priests primarily did this by overseeing the sacrifice of animals. Christ reconciled sinners to God by offering Himself as the definitive sacrifice once-for-al. He is the Priest who made the sacrifice, and He is also the Lamb who was sacrificed. His death paid for the sins of all who will ever trust in Him.

Another aspect of Christ’s priesthood is His intercession. Jesus is now at the right hand of the Father, and He prays for us. That’s what Romans 8 tells us. We have the Spirit of God who intercedes from within us, and we have the Son of God who intercedes for us in heaven.

The sacrifice and the intercession of Jesus, however, are not the only aspects of His priesthood. We need to be careful that our understanding of Christ’s priesthood isn’t just theoretical. It’s supposed to be something that we apply to our everyday life. Christ is with us, and as our priest, He wants to help us and minister to us. We’re supposed to depend on Christ’s priestly ministry all the time.

If you don’t think you need help with your Christian life, you don’t understand what it means to follow Christ. We’re at war with our sin. We’re constantly fighting against the attacks and insults of the world, but more significantly, we’re at war with our own flesh, our own sinful nature. And that is an exhausting battle. We’re tempted to quit. We’re tempted to drift back into the world. We’re tempted to wander or walk away from the professions of our faith.

The book of Hebrews was written to help guard Christians from that. There are repeated warnings and exhortations and reminders. Let me read our passage today and show you two more of those exhortations. The first is in verse 14, and the second is in verse 16. Here’s what Hebrews 4:14-16 says.

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. [15] For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. [16] Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

The call of verse 14 is to hold fast our confession. The call of verse 16 is to draw near to the throne of grace. Hold fast and draw near. The opposite of holding fast and drawing near would be to let go and to walk away. That’s the temptation of the Christian life. We can let go and walk away completely, by abandoning the faith, or we do it little by little every time we sin.

“The confession” there is talking about the content of our faith—the truth of the gospel and the teachings of Christ. Our faith includes not just the core elements of the gospel, but every other teaching about what it means to honor Christ—in our morality and in our priorities.

None of us perfectly honors our confession. We think and say and do things that do not align with our Christian profession. We do things that grieve and dishonor God. But even in that, we need to come back to the truth. We need to cling to the truth which we so easily forget, ignore, and disobey. Why? Verse 14 says because we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. That’s a reference to Jesus’ ascension to the Father.

The earthly Jewish priests went into the holiest place once a year, and there was a mystery and glory to that. But Jesus ascended past the clouds, past the heavens we can see, into the very presence of God the Father, and He sat down at His right Hand. Jesus was exalted because of His sacrifice and Resurrection and because He and the Father are one. He completed what was necessary to bring God and man together, and He could do that because He is fully God and fully man.

Verse 14 gives us a reminder about that dual reality by putting Christ’s human name, “Jesus,” right up against His divine title, “the Son of God.” This is who you are disobeying or abandoning if you walk away from biblical Christianity. You’re walking away from the only perfect High Priest, the only one who can reconcile you to the Father.

The author of Hebrews knows that following Christ isn’t easy. He knows how costly it is. And so, we have in verse 15, three reminders about Jesus that help us and encourage us to stay on course. We need to keep these truths at the front of our minds every day. So, how can you help yourself, and help others, stay focused on Christ and connected to Him?

Number 1, we need to remember Christ’s compassion. Remember Christ’s compassion. Look again at verse 15. It says there—For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses.

Despite all our good intentions, we mess up constantly, don’t we? We have so many weaknesses. We’re weak in our thought life. We’re weak in how we respond to others or talk about others. We're weak in loving others. We struggle to love our spouses, our kids, our parents, our neighbors. We struggle with sexual purity. We struggle with anger. And the list goes on.

What does Jesus think about all those weaknesses?  In a broad sense, we need to recognize that Jesus is never unaffected or indifferent to anyone’s sin. For those who do not believe, His response includes both patience and wrath. There is final, eschatological wrath that will come for those who remain in unbelief, but until that time,  Jesus is patient.

For we who have trusted in Christ, what is Jesus emotional response to our sin. There is grief, or sadness, but there is also sympathy, or compassion. And we need to remember that.

The first part of verse 15 is worded as a double negative—we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize. That double negative anticipates some kind of opposition, either in people’s arguments, or in people’s minds. We forget that Jesus sympathizes with us.

The word for “sympathize” means more than just feeling sorry for someone. It means there’s action taken. It’s sympathy that leads to compassionate action.

Jesus doesn’t sit back with His arms crossed shaking His head at our stupidity and weakness. No, He helps us. He is compassionate. He continues to intercede and to provide and to protect. Yes, our sin grieves Him, but it doesn’t undo His love for us. He wants to restore us and guide us and grow us. That’s His compassion. He knows what we’re facing.

He perfectly expresses the heart of God described in Psalm 103—The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.

Christ’s compassion toward us is a perfect reflection of the Father, but it’s also rooted in His own experiences. And this brings us to a second reminder that should sustain our faith. Number 1, we need to remember Christ’s compassion. Number 2, we remember Christ’s temptation. Remember Christ’s temptation.

The reason Jesus understands our weaknesses is because He lived a human life, and He was tempted. Look at the next phrase in verse 15. We have a High Priest who in every respect has been tempted as we are.

What happens when you talk to someone else who has gone through the same situation you’re going through? It unites you. It encourages you. Moms and dad, when you’re frustrated with your spouse, and tired of taking care of the kids and the house, isn’t there something helpful about talking to another parent who is going, or has gone, through the same thing? When you’re facing some medical diagnosis or procedure, isn’t there a relief and a comfort in talking to someone who has gone through the same thing?

That’s the relationship you need to have with Jesus too! He understands. He knows what you’re going through. Jesus faced temptation, just like you and I do every day. He had to minister when He was tired. He had to put up with foolish people. He had to face disappointment and betrayal.

The point here is that there is no human experience, no human temptation that Jesus doesn’t understand. He was tempted in every respect. He was truly human, and He was truly tempted.

Now, this doesn’t mean that Jesus experienced every single exact temptation that you or I will face, right? Jesus wasn’t tempted with internet pornography. He wasn’t tempted with a grumpy spouse in the home. He wasn’t tempted with speeding down city streets in His car. But that doesn’t undo what this vers is teaching; it just reminds us that the essence of temptation is basically the same.

If my kids are fighting over an iPad, I can’t say to them, “Well, sorry kids, I don’t know what to tell you! I never had an iPad to fight over with my siblings.” No, we recognize that the expressions of sin will vary on a personal basis, but the essence is the same. That’s what Paul is getting at in 1 Corinthians 10:13 when He says—No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.

Jesus knows what we’re going through. He was tempted, just like us, in every respect. There is no temptation that you or I can experience that Jesus does not understand, or which He did not experience in some way.

This is part of the glory of Christ’s humanity. He didn’t just pretend to be human; He actually was. He got hungry. He got tired. He faced disappointment. But there is one major difference between Jesus and us, right?

The end of verse 15 says He endured temptation, and was yet without sin. And this is the final reminder for us in the Christian life. We remember Christ’s compassion. We remember Christ’s temptation. And we remember Christ’s perfection. Christ’s perfection.

We know that Jesus was fully God. And as God, that means He could not have sinned. But theologically, we need to understand that Jesus’ deity was not the reason He never sinned. Jesus lived as a man. That’s why His perfection can be credited to us. He lived as a man. Jesus endured the pain of the battle against temptation. He fought against sin, the way we’re supposed to fight, with prayer and with the Scriptures.

Think of it like a tight-rope walker using a safety net. The net, we could say, keeps him from falling. But the net is not the reason he doesn’t fall. The reason he doesn’t fall is because he has trained himself to do it without falling.

Jesus trained Himself to fight sin as the perfect man. As a child, He grew in wisdom, in stature, and in favor with God and man. And what means for us, is that Jesus is now our Champion and our Guide. He knows how to lead us out of temptation, and into obedience with God.

This is why we are to pray for wisdom. This is why we pray for help every day. Because Jesus knows how to do it, and He has given us His Spirit within us to lead us. Our job is to be guided by the truth and by the Spirit, rather than by the flesh.

If the Christian life is like a dangerous hike up a treacherous mountain, Jesus is not half a mile out in front beating you. He is right there next to you showing you how to avoid the dangers. He wants you to be victorious over sin every day.

Jesus knows more about sin and temptation than any of us. He knows how to overcome it. He knows how to endure and to persevere. He is the Champion who will lead us to victory, if we will trust Him and obey Him.

So, remembering Jesus’ compassion, temptation, and perfection, how should we respond? What’s the point of these truths? What’s the application?

Look again at verse 16—Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Are you in a time of need? Whether you admit it or not, whether you feel like it or not, the answer is, “yes.” We’re always in time of need. We need Christ’s help. We need Christ’s mercy. And we especially feel that need in moments, or even seasons, of temptation.

We have challenging parts of our days. We have challenging seasons of life. Where do we go? Don’t let your first inclination can’t be to go to YouTube or Instagram of Reddit or Facebook or Instagram. We need to go to Jesus in prayer.

And how do we go? We go in humility before the powerful throne of God and of Christ, but here it says we need to go with confidence. We go with the confidence that God wants us there. He wants to hear us. And He will hear us. And He will help us. Jesus will help You when You go to Him in humble prayer. Draw near to Jesus in any temptation.

Sometimes that temptation is obvious—anger, sexual immorality, bitterness, greed. Other times the temptation might feel more subtle—apathy, indifference, you just don’t care about the things of God. Go to the powerful throne of grace. And what will God give you? He’ll give you mercy and grace. He’ll give you exactly what you need to honor Him.

So, let’s go before God’s throne right now together. Let’s pray to confess our sin, and to prepare our hearts for the Lord’s Supper.