Hebrews #18: an exposition of Hebrews 7:20-28. This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday morning, August 17, 2014.
Intro:
Depression made the news this past week with the tragic death of Robin Williams. Reminding us again that there is a great difference between being successful and being happy. It also served to remind us of just how vulnerable we are. It is said a person could live up to 3 weeks without food and a week without water but I’m wondering if you can survive a day without “hope.” When hope is gone people “give up.” Hopelessness kills the spirit. This is what concerns me most about our present condition. Even as people of God without hope we quit striving. We stop believing. We think defeat is inevitable. When you think you are alone in your striving for holiness you think, “What’s the use?” When you sense you are the only one concerned about the things of God you think, “Why bother?” The tide has turned. Our faith, once dominant in our culture, is waning. We are losing ground. At times it seems we are living in another place. This is not the world I grew up in. These are not the attitudes we once held. We look at certain indicators and we think, “We’ve lost the fight. It’s time to retreat, huddle with our remaining few and await the inevitable.” But that is not the Christian response. The Christian response is, “Our God is sovereign. He is still on His throne and the world is ‘on schedule’.”
The writer of Hebrews is writing to a struggling church in Rome. The blush of new-found faith has faded. Times have gotten difficult. They have experienced the rejection of their families. The government has come against them in a wave of persecution. For many, it seemed the battle had been lost. They cut their loss and returned to their former faith. Others continued to believe but their faith was wavering. The writer seeks to strengthen their faith and urge them to continue in belief. Consistently he points them to Christ. Christ is better than the best that Judaism or Rome has to offer. He is God’s final and ultimate word. He is the the shining forth of God’s glory, the exact imprint of His nature. In chapters 5-10 he points to Christ as our great high priest. Our text this morning is found in Hebrews 7 beginning with verse 20.
Text: Hebrews 7:20-28
At the end of chapter 4 he introduced the notion of Christ as our high priest.
In chapter 5 he tied our Lord’s priesthood to Melchizedek (Genesis 14; Psalm 110:4).
In chapter 7 he began laying out our Lord’s qualifications as a superior high priest.
That continues with our text this morning.
Let’s back up and begin our reading at verse 17…
From this text we are reminded that…
Thesis: Our hope and confidence rests securely in the Lord Jesus, our superior Great High Priest.
The author continues to point to Jesus. And he will continue to do so until he says in Hebrews 12:2, “…looking to Jesus the founder and perfecter of our faith…”
- How do we continue on in the face of great adversity?
- How do we continue to believe against all odds?
- We fix our eyes on Jesus our trailblazer.
- He is our hope, our confidence.
There are three things I want to call to your attention out of our text.
- Our confidence is born of the sovereign promise of our God. (7:20-22)
- Our hope is secured by the glorious work of Christ. (7:23-25)
- Our assurance is bolstered by our Savior’s unblemished character. (7:26-28)