Please turn in your Bibles this evening to Hebrews chapter 5 as we continue our study through the Word of God. In our study of Hebrews so far we have seen the superiority of Jesus over angels in Hebrews chapters 1 and 2.  Then we saw the superiority of Jesus over Moses in Hebrews chapter 3.  In our last study we looked at the superiority of Jesus over Joshua in Hebrews chapter 4.

            This evening we are going to begin a section that deals with the superiority of Jesus over the Levitical priesthood and it covers Hebrews chapters 5 through 10.  First of all, in Hebrews chapters 5 through 7 we will see that Jesus is from a better priestly order.  In Hebrews chapter 8 we will see that Jesus is a better covenant.  In Hebrews chapter 9 Paul shows us that Jesus is a better sanctuary. And in Hebrews chapter 10 we will see that Jesus is a better sacrifice.

            As we finished up last week, Paul said starting in verse 14 of Hebrews chapter 4, “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.  For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.  Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”  Hebrews 4:14-16.

It is an introduction to show us that Jesus is a Great High Priest, not entering the Holy of Holies but into the Heavens and it is through Him who became flesh and dwelt among us that we can go to God in our time of need and find help at His throne of grace.  With that said, let’s begin reading in Hebrews chapter 5, starting in verse 1 and see what the Lord has for us this evening.

VERSES 1-4

            In this section there are four main points regarding the high priest and his position. First of all the high priest is taken from among men and specifically from the linage of Jacob’s son, Levi.  Now Levi had three sons: Gershon whose family took care of the veil, altar, fence and curtains of the tabernacle – Numbers 3:21-26.  Then there was the family of Kohath whose family took care of the ark, the table of showbread, the lampstand, the altars, the utensils of the sanctuary of the tabernacle – Numbers 3:27-32.  And the family of Merari whose family took care of the boards of the tabernacle, the fence – Numbers 3:33-37.  Now please understand that only the descendants of Aaron could be the high priest, the others could work in the temple, but they could not be the high priest or even a priest, that came through Aaron’s family who was a descendant of Kohath. So the priest was to represent God before the people and the people before God and one of the qualifications was that he was to be from the tribe of Levi, a descendant of Aaron, a man.

            Secondly, he was to be sympathetic, have compassion for the people, not to look down upon them because of the position they had.  You see, they too were men and subject to failure, they too were sinners, and to think they were better than anyone else was just plain pride on their part and it was wrong. Proverbs 16:18 reminds us, “Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.”

            The third point is that he offered sacrifices for the people, not only blood sacrifices but grain sacrifices that expressed thanks to God, fellowship with God.  You see, the grain offering was made of fine flour, oil, and it was mixed with frankincense to give it a pleasant aroma. Sometimes it was baked or fired into a cake and part of the offering was burned on the altar to God and the remainder belonged to the priests to eat.  The person who gave this to the Lord was showing that he had dedicated all he had to the Lord and was giving the Lord thanks for what He had provided for him.  And keep in mind that the high priest did not offer these to God for the people alone, he too was a sinner and needed to offer sacrifices before the Lord.

            And the fourth point is that God appoints the high priest, no man. Remember when Korah, Dathan and Abiram rebelled against Moses and felt that any Israelite could be a priest, you did not have to be from the tribe of Levi a descendant of Aaron. What did the Lord do when they rebelled like that? He had the earth swallow them up because what they wanted to do was wrong – Numbers 16.

Here at Calvary we don’t appoint elders or pastors but I watch to see what God is doing in peoples lives, how they are living and then I recognize that and raise them up because it truly is a work of God. If it isn’t then it is a disaster and I have seen it where men have tried to raise themselves up and it doesn’t work. Every ministry should be by divine appointment!

            Now we are going to move from the lesser - the order of Aaron to the greater – the order of Melchizedek, which Christ came from!

VERSES 5-10

            We are going to see that the four points that Paul made regarding the high priest he is going to make of the Great High Priest, Jesus Christ. First of all God became flesh and dwelt among us but He was not from the tribe of Levi, interestingly enough, He was from the tribe of Judah which was not a priestly tribe, so how could He be a high priest?  Because He is from a high order, that of Melchizedek whose name means “king of righteousness.”  This king was also a priest according to Genesis 14:17-20 which is interesting because Aaron was not a king, he was just the high priest!

            Secondly, as He was in the Garden of Gethsemane the night He was arrested, before He was taken to Calvary the next morning, Jesus felt pain, anguish, the struggles to the deepest degree and yet He was without sin.  Thus, we are told, “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”  Hebrews 4:15.  Aaron and his descendants never resisted sin to the point of being sinless nor did they have the compassion towards the people they were ministering to like Jesus did.

            The third point is that He offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice, not to cover our sins, but to take them away. Now, when Paul quotes out of Psalm 2:7 saying, “You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.” He is not speaking of the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem but His resurrection.  How do I know that for sure? Because Paul tells us in Acts 13:33, “God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second Psalm: ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.’”  You see, Aaron and his descendants could not take away our sins by their sacrifice, they could only cover them for a time but Jesus has come and taken away our sins and conquered death for us so that we may live with Him!

            And the fourth point is that Father God appointed Him as High Priest, not according to the order of Aaron but according to the order of Melchizedek.   Not a temporary order but one that is eternal!

            Who is this Melchizedek and what does this all mean? You are going to have to wait because Paul is not going to deal with this subject again until chapter 7 where he picks up on this thought once again and thus, that is where we will deal with it.  Right now Paul is going to make a small detour as we are going to see in the next verse, it is not a place he wanted to go but because of their condition, he had to go there!

VERSE 11

            Paul wanted to explain more about Melchizedek and how that relates to Christ but because of their immaturity, because they were dull of hearing, lazy, slothful with their spiritual lives, they wouldn’t understand what he was saying. Keep in mind that these people he was writing to were Jewish believers, they knew the Old Testament very well, but because of their spiritual condition, they just didn’t get it!

            The first warning that Paul gave them was in Hebrews 2:1-4 that dealt with them drifting away from the truths of God. The second warning is found in Hebrews 3:7-19 and it deals with the hardening of their hearts to the things of God. And here in Hebrews chapter 5 it is a warning against spiritual immaturity or what we might call, ASD or Arrested Spiritual Development!

VERSE 12a

            At this point some of these Jewish men and women could have been believers for some 30 years and yet, they were still babes in Christ.  Paul is not speaking of new believers here, which is normal for them to be babes in Christ, but this is not normal.  Imagine the head of some company speaking to a room filled with new employees and he begins his lecture by saying, “ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ!”  And then he closes the meeting that is all he has learned, that is all he knows as the head of the company.  Yes, you need to know your ABC’s, the basics but you also then need to grow and be able to put the letters together, you need to be able to form words and sentences and-so-on.  Growth is the thought and it was what they were lacking!

And please understand when Paul speaks of them being teachers he is not talking of the gift of teaching but to be able to share their faith, to teach others the things of God, to show them the things you believe.  Yes, babies are cute and I love them, but a 20 year old who is still crawling and is saying Goo-goo and gaga is tragic!

VERSES 12b-14

            A baby needs milk to grow, Peter even tells us in I Peter 2:2-3, “as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”  But as a baby grows you start to introduce more solid food until you finally introduce meat into their diet. You see, these Jewish Christians were caught up with the Old Testament, the ABC’s you might say, but the New Testament is the complete message. It is not that the Old Testament is bad or wrong, but as Christ comes on the scene, we see that which was concealed in the Old Testament is now revealed to us in the New Testament and thus, as we read the Old Testament it is now far richer than ever.  In Psalm 40:7 we are told, “Then I said, ‘Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me.’”  You see, the Old Testament is a picture of Christ. It is as Jesus said in John 5:39-40 to the religious leaders, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.  But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”

            Today some churches feel that the unchurched people, the seekers can’t take solid food, the meat of God’s Word so they give them milk week after week and they make their people weak!  You see, the sheep who go to that church are starving, you don’t feed the goats, the unsaved, you feed the sheep and as you do, because God’s Word is living and powerful, some of the goats will become sheep, they will get saved and you will have healthy sheep that are reproducing, sharing their faith!

            Where are you at this evening? Have you become a babe in Christ? Is your life unstable, being tossed to and fro by winds of doctrine that blow through the church or by different things that happen in your life?  You see, if you are then you are like a baby being tossed from one person to another!

            Maybe you are a person who causes divisions wherever you go because you have to be right, it is only your way, it is all about you just as a child wants what he wants and when he wants it!

            Maybe you love to sleep, zone out when it comes to God and His Word, spiritually speaking you are out like a light.  You are just like a baby who needs to sleep often, you have not grown up!

            And the list can go on and you know where you are at this evening.  And here is the thing, if you are being a babe in Christ, not a new believer, but those who are having their second childhood in the faith, they have gone backwards and not forwards, you have become unskilled in God’s Word.  And notice the contrast between those who are mature, they are skilled in the Word and the evidence is seen by the discernment they have regarding good and evil. This is a huge problem today in the church, there is no discernment because so many are just babes in Christ.  How does this maturity happen, how do you grow?  By exercising your faith, by putting into practice what God has said in His Word, by sharing your faith.  You have to put your faith to use or, like a muscle, if it is not used it will atrophy!

            Now as we move into chapter 6 this evening, Paul is going to continue dealing with this thought of Arrested Spiritual Development!  It was an important issue back then and I believe it is just as important for us today!

VERSE 1a

            Paul has just rebuked them for their spiritual immaturity and told them to grow up, to mature in the Lord. You see, because of all that Christ is, all that He has for us, don’t remain spiritual infants but grow up to perfection, to maturity!  What a great admonishment for each of us – to go on to perfection and not become dull, stagnant in our faith!

VERSES 1b-2 

            The point that Paul is making here is this was common ground or safe ground between Judaism and Christianity. Thus, if they were facing persecution from the Jews, they would remain in this common ground so as not to stick out, be noticed. We see that today as people try to blend in with their faith but folks, Jesus causes divisions because He said some things that were very radical, that He is the only way to the Father, that if you don’t believe that He is God you will die in your sins!  That is divisive but it is also true and we need to stand strong in the faith that has been entrusted to us!

VERSE 3

            Is Paul saying that God does not want some to mature in the faith? Absolutely not!  What Paul is telling them and us is that our growth in the Lord is dependant upon Him and all He asks us to do is walk by faith, to listen to His voice, to trust in Him. You see, the work that He has started He will complete, let’s not get in His way!

VERSES 4-6

            Here is a verse that Satan loves to use to twist the Scriptures and get people to believe that you can lose your salvation and once you lose it you can’t return to it, you are lost forever!  That is not what these verses are saying here and please understand that Satan knows the Scriptures and he will twist them to confuse us, discourage us, and-so-on.  Let me give you two things you can do when you come to a difficult passage that you don’t understand so that you don’t come to an unbiblical conclusion.

            First of all never isolate the verse from the context from which it came from. Secondly, never come to a conclusion that contradicts the rest of the Scriptures. If you use those simple principles I believe it will keep you out of trouble, it will keep you on solid ground!

            Now what is the context of this letter?  Paul is writing to Jewish believers who were struggling with their faith. He is not writing to unbelievers or those who were sitting on the fence, close to salvation but not entering in.  Then is this saying that you can lose your salvation and once you do you are lost forever, you can never get it back? Not at all because that goes contrary to the rest of the Scriptures, what they teach. Peter put it this way in I Peter 1:3-5, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”  Jesus has saved us, and that salvation will not fade away, it will not be lost because we have a place reserved for us in heaven and in this life it is the power of God, not our own strength that will keep us saved!

            Then what is Paul saying here?  Again, keep in mind he is writing to Jewish believers who are struggling with their faith, going back to the legalism of Judaism because of persecution.  Thus, I believe this is just a hypothetical or supposed situation that Paul is speaking of. In other words, to those who are thinking about leaving the Lord, walking away from Him, where are you going to go if you could go, what else are you going to do?  If you reject Jesus, if you write Him off, what other hope is there for you and if you reject Him there is nothing else you can go to, He is the only hope.  And keep in mind the reason they are even thinking like this, it is because they are dull of hearing!

            And here is an important point. When Paul speaks of them “falling away” in verse 6 he doesn’t use the Greek word APOSTASIA (ap-os-tas-ee’-ah) that we find used in II Thessalonians 2:3, but he uses the Greek word PARAPIPTO (Par-ap-ip’-to) which speaks of falling alongside.  In Galatians 6:1 we are told, “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.”

            That word “trespass” or “fault” is the Greek word PARPATOMA (par-ap’-to-mah) from which PARAPIPTO comes from.  So I don’t see this as the falling away spoken of in II Thessalonians but a falling alongside, not departing from the faith but slipping, moving away from it.  You see, I think Paul is trying to encourage them to hang in there, don’t give up, where else were they going to go when Jesus has the words of eternal life. And when you look at Hebrews 6:9, which says, “But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner” I think Paul is writing to believers. Yes, maturity is vital but not for salvation but for the deeper things of God, that is the call, to grow in the Lord, don’t move away, don’t remain spiritual babes in Christ, don’t go backwards!

            Also, look at the words that are used of them: enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, partakers of the Holy Spirit, tasted the good word. Those are the things spoken of believers, not unbelievers, so these verses are dealing with believers and like I said, it is a hypothetical situation, not that it could happen, but how foolish it would be to go down that path.

VERSES 7-9

            The illustration here is bearing fruit and if you are dull, if you are lazy, you will not bear fruit because you are not taking in the nourishment of God’s Word into your life, you are not spending time with Him to be refreshed, you have fallen away!  Paul again is trying to encourage them to mature in the faith, to receive all that God has for them and see the fruit He will produce in their lives.

VERSE 10

            Yes Paul rebuked them but now he is encouraging them by telling them that he has seen fruit in their lives, that God is working in them and how they are serving the Lord.  He says, “which you have shown” which speaks of what they were doing and then he says “and do minister” what they are presently doing for the Lord.  Yes there is fruit in their lives but God desires more fruit, greater fruit so he wants them not to go back but to move forward. You see, God won’t let you go all the way back, how do I know? Did He let the children of Israel go back to Egypt, back to the world once He delivered them by the blood of the lamb? Not at all, yes many remained in the wilderness, walking by sight and not by faith, but they did not go back to Egypt and God desired for them to enter into the Promise Land as He does with us!  He wants us to walk in the Spirit, not by sight!

VERSES 11-12

            Progress demands effort on our part, thus, let’s move forward, don’t give up.  Listen to what happened to David as he was living in Philistine territory and was suppose to go and fight against King Saul, his fellow Jew, but the Philistines didn’t want him to do that so as he and his men return home, they find that the enemy has invaded their city and taken their families.

In I Samuel 30:1-6 we are told, “Now it happened, when David and his men came to Ziklag, on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the South and Ziklag, attacked Ziklag and burned it with fire, and had taken captive the women and those who were there, from small to great; they did not kill anyone, but carried them away and went their way. So David and his men came to the city, and there it was, burned with fire; and their wives, their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive. Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept, until they had no more power to weep. And David's two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite, had been taken captive. Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.”

You see, keep your eyes on the Lord even and especially when things seem to be falling apart around you for He is our strength!  For David, he “strengthened himself in the LORD his God” and so should we!  If you do you won’t be dull, weak but fully assured not only of your salvation but of all that God has for you, knowing that He is able to bring to pass all that He has said.  Don’t go back to your works but come forward to the rest that Jesus has for you, the rest in Him, the rest of His Spirit!

            Now this is a good lesson for all of us, to follow those who have walked with the Lord, learn from their examples. Paul said in Romans 15:4, “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”  The promises of God are ours; all we need to do is walk by faith!

VERSES 13-15

            Abraham waited 35 years for what God promised Him to come to pass and when he tried to help God out, it only caused trouble.  When Abraham was 100 years old and his wife Sarah 95 years old, God brought to pass the promise, the impossible became possible, the barrenness of Sarah’s womb for all those years was now going to bring forth a child, Sarah had a son named Isaac.  Paul is telling us to look at the example of Abraham as a man who was patient with God and follow his example!

VERSES 16-17

            Jesus told us that our yes should be yes and our no should be no, we should be men and women of our word. And if we do take an oath we swear by that which is greater not lesser. In court we swear on the Bible not on our mother’s grave!  And when God makes an oath He swears upon His own name because there is nothing higher for Him to swear by. Thus, when God takes an oath and swears by His name, He is going to do it, you can count on it.

VERSES 18-20

            We have this hope, the promises of God because God has made an oath and He can’t lie or go back on His Word as I have said.  We can have this hope as we take refuge in God’s promises, they are that certain.  And as you trust in God, as you trust in His promises it will dispel fear, discouragement as our life is anchored in the promises of God.  That is why Satan loves to twist the Word of God, he loves to see us fearful, discouraged, to doubt God’s promises to us. Don’t let him!

            So don’t be discouraged, hope in the promises of God and Jesus will lead us to glory! When the storms come, and they will; when the weather starts to get rough, and it will; anchor your life in Jesus!  You see, Paul tells us that we will see the very presence of God, we are assured of access to God right now through Jesus but one day we will see Him face-to-face.  So don’t go back, don’t remain dull of hearing but move forward keeping your eyes upon the Author and Finisher of your faith, Jesus Christ!

            As I close this evening, let me end with this.  Paul tells us that He, Jesus, is our “forerunner” which was a Greek military word that spoke of a reconnaissance man who blazed the trail for everyone else to follow.  Thus, Jesus has gone first to make it safe for us to follow, He blazed the way to heaven and to God and now we must follow right behind Him, our High Priest, Jesus Christ!