Dear God, we thank you so much that we can look forward to the sweet by and by, that
we can look forward to the blessings that you have promised for us.
And as we gather here, as we open up your word, just instruct us, help us to learn more
of your grace, learn more of your love, so that we can share that with someone else.
In your name we pray.
There we go.
So maybe your house is a little bit similar to mine.
That whenever you are about to go somewhere, maybe to church, maybe out to supper somewhere,
maybe to go visit family or friends, that you know how long it takes, it's going to
take 15 minutes to get there.
There's time, there's no traffic, so we need to leave at such and such a time.
Maybe your house is similar to mine, that when that time comes to go, that there will
be one person or one group of people who are ready to go, with shoes on, with keys, ready
to walk out the door.
And then there's another person or group of people in the home that when the time comes
to go, they're not quite ready yet.
Does anybody else have a home similar to that?
You don't have to point fingers or say which is which, but sometimes in the home there's
one part that's ready and another part that is not quite ready yet.
And so when that circumstance sometimes arises, often questions are asked.
What are you doing?
What's taking so long?
Don't you have your shoes on?
And there's healthy discussion that takes place sometimes as you're anticipating that
moment when it's time to go.
Questions are asked.
We recognize that here we are in the summer of 2024, and we realize that Jesus ascended
in the clouds almost 2,000 years ago.
That is quite a long time.
That is a vast amount of time that has passed.
And perhaps as we live in this world of tragedy and tears, as we live in this world of sin
and sadness and sorrow, then maybe sometimes those same questions arise.
What's taking so long?
What are you doing in all of this vast amount of time?
Now for the last several months, since about January, in our sermons we've been looking
at the stories of the early church.
We've been going through the first chapters of the book of Acts.
We're going to step away from Acts for just a little bit.
We'll come back to it at some point in the future because we got through those stories
of the early church as it was growing, as it was being founded, as the Holy Spirit was
being poured out.
Now we stopped at a key moment because when we come back to Acts, and we've got to because
we've got to talk about Saul or Paul and his conversion and how he was sent by the Spirit
to the world, to the Gentiles, to reach everybody.
But we're going to step away from Acts for just a little bit.
And there's a reason for that because in the fall, in September, October, we're going to
have a seminar here.
We're going to have an evangelistic meeting and we're going to talk about the Bible.
We want to point people to the cross and we want to point people to Jesus.
And so over the next few months, we want to remind ourselves why that is important and
what we can do and how we can reach people and what are some things that we need to be
telling people.
So as we look at the New Testament, we recognize that the Gospels, those four Gospels, Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John, they tell the story of Jesus while he was on this earth.
And then Acts, which we have been studying, they tell the story of the early church.
And then as you continue on through the New Testament, there's a bunch of books which
are usually shorter by different authors, Paul and James and John and different people.
And we call those the epistles or the letters.
Those are letters that those early apostles wrote to different churches.
And those letters, those epistles were theology and instruction for these new believers, for
these churches that were in these massive cities surrounded by people who were worshiping
idols and different things like that.
And then as you go to the very end of the New Testament, there's the book of Revelation.
And Revelation kind of traces the whole history of humanity in this thing that we often refer
to as the great controversy.
And of course, that ends gloriously as Jesus comes again and sin is wiped out once and
for all.
And there's one other book in the New Testament that is not quite the history of the church.
It's not necessarily, you know, prophecy.
It's not fully an epistle.
And it's this book known as Hebrews.
And we're going to spend a little bit of time in Hebrews today.
Just one or two chapters.
In fact, we're going to focus on just one verse in this book of Hebrews, because we're
going to try to answer this question.
What are you doing, Jesus?
What is taking so long?
Why haven't you returned yet?
What is going on?
Many of you may remember a radio commentator who's been dead for several years, but this
particular commentator would tell stories.
I think it was every day.
It was at least once a week.
I know he had a news segment every day, but often there was a story time and he would
tell a story about some person in history.
And then at the end, he would say, and that, of course, my friends, was Abraham Lincoln
or John F. Kennedy or whoever it might be.
And then Paul Harvey, the radio commentator, would say, and now you know the rest of the
story.
You guys have heard those classic stories before.
And so as we ask this question, what is Jesus doing now, perhaps this could be the rest
of the story.
So as we explore these current actions of Jesus, we have to begin to compare and contrast
some different priesthoods that the Bible mentions, because the Bible talks about several
different priesthoods.
And so in your mind, let's go back to the Old Testament, because we've got the story
of Joseph.
Joseph is sold by his brothers.
He goes down to Egypt and through dreams that he's able to interpret, he becomes the one
who rescues Egypt from this time of famine and this time of awfulness.
And eventually his brothers and the whole family comes down, Jacob's sons, and Genesis
ends with all of these descendants of Jacob, these Israelites, in Egypt.
And then just a page over, you get to the book of Exodus.
And time has passed, a long time, hundreds of years have passed.
And in the meantime, they have forgotten the hero that Joseph was.
And those Israelites, those Hebrews, have now become in bondage.
They have become enslaved in Egypt.
And as Moses rises up as a leader, God works through him and sends plagues, darkness, and
water to blood, and lice, and all these different things, which culminates in that night of
Passover.
And the people of Israel are delivered from that bondage.
And they soon make their way to the shores of the Red Sea.
And another miracle takes place.
And the Red Sea is parted, and the Israelites walk through, and the Egyptian armies are
swept away.
And it was shortly after that that God spoke to this group of people who had just been
rescued and He said, let them make a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.
And so throughout these first books of the Old Testament, it is explaining this sanctuary
and what is happening.
And in those early books, Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers, it talks about a certain group
that is assigned to be the priests.
And it deals out certain ceremonies that they're supposed to do to represent forgiveness and
to represent this whole plan of salvation.
And in fact, this whole sanctuary service from lamb to priest, it's all pointing forward
to Jesus.
That's what it's all about.
It's all pointing forward to Jesus.
So as you go through Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers, there was a specific group of
people that were supposed to be the priests.
What tribe, there's a question, what tribe were the priests supposed to be from?
The tribe of Levi.
And in fact, that high priestly family, even more specifically, they were to be the descendants
of Aaron, the very first high priest, Moses' brother.
And so a very particular group of people were supposed to be the priest.
And the role of the priest was to represent the people before God and to represent God
before the people.
And as you read through Leviticus and so forth, there were certain things.
They would bring the animal, most often a lamb, and the head of the household would
confess the sins upon that animal.
And then that animal would be sacrificed, would be killed.
Imagine if every time we sinned, we had to do something like that.
And then the priests, they would go in and there was an altar of sacrifice.
The sacrifice would be burned upon, and then the next stage, you would come to a big basin
of water.
What's that called?
That laver, which represents that cleansing.
And then into the holy place where there's bread and there's a candlestick and then there's
an altar of incense.
And then there's a veil on the other side of the veil.
And the most holy place is the Ark of the Covenant, the mercy seat, angels above.
Inside was an ark and manna and a staff and so forth.
You guys are probably familiar with some of these things.
But all of that was a show and tell of this plan of salvation.
But this Old Testament priesthood, which was specifically selected from a certain tribe,
from a certain family, it was not perfect because they were humans just like the other
people.
And so these priests, just like the other people, made mistakes.
I mean, who was that first priest?
Aaron.
When Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments, Aaron was down in the valley
and the people came to him and said, you know, Moses has been gone a long time.
We've got to do something about this.
Is there another God that we could have?
And so it was Aaron, the high priest, that gathered the precious metals.
And I don't know if he crafted it himself or got somebody, but before that event was
through, a golden calf had been made.
And the people were saying, this is the God that brought us out of Egypt, this thing that
we just made.
And there's Moses in the cloud on Mount Sinai.
And he came down.
You guys remember he broke the Ten Commandments and all those different things.
And so the priests were not perfect.
The priests were sinners.
You can trace down several generations, there was another priest named Eli.
And Eli was the high priest and his sons were also priests.
And the Bible tells stories that they were not doing proper things as priests.
And that's the story of why the little boy, Samuel, received a special vision, a special
message from God.
And part of that message was to tell Eli, your boys are messing up.
You need to straighten these guys up.
And so we see that this Old Testament priesthood was not perfect.
They made mistakes.
And in fact, not only did they make mistakes, but they got old and they died.
Aaron passed away and his son, this is a quiz, anybody know the name?
I know somebody does, be brave.
Eliezer was Aaron's son because Hophni and Phineas had already died because they were
another group that had messed up.
Thank you for reminding me of that.
But Eliezer was the one that was next anointed as the high priest.
And so this priesthood was not proper.
It was not complete.
Something else was needed.
And so let's turn in our Bibles to Hebrews chapter four.
We're going to pause in Hebrews chapter four.
And honestly, this verse here, these verses, this could be our sermon.
We could do a sermon series on this for the next long time, but we're only going to pause
here briefly just because it's such a powerful thing.
It says, seen then Hebrews four verse 14, seen 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.
So there's a great high priest.
And it says, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses.
So there's a couple negatives in there.
If you take out those negatives, it would say we do have a high priest who can sympathize
with our weaknesses.
Because he was in all points tempted like we were, and yet he was without sin.
He was tempted and yet he overcame that.
And then it says in verse 16, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we
may obtain mercy and find grace to help in our time of need.
We could spend a lot of time in those, in that passage.
That's a very, very powerful passage.
It's a very powerful passage.
And it says, let us not be afraid of anything.
But we're going to skip over to chapter seven, where our scripture reading was.
Because in chapter seven it brings out another idea of a priesthood.
The first part of chapter seven begins to talk about someone from the Old Testament.
Priesthood, and it starts off talking about someone named Melchizedek.
Melchizedek.
Now Melchizedek first shows up very briefly in the story of Abraham.
Abraham, his relative, his nephew Lot lived in the big city.
And that city was conquered at one point and they were taken away as captives.
And Abraham, with his workers, with his shepherds, with his soldiers that he had, with God's
guidance, they got together and they pursued this enemy group.
They conquered this enemy group and they delivered the people from this city, including Lot.
And they wanted to give him all of the loot, all of the booty, because he had conquered
this group and he was entitled to it, according to the day.
But Abraham didn't want that.
He said, you know, give these guys something for their work, but I'm not going to take
that.
But it talks about Abraham in this incident meeting this person named Melchizedek.
And it says he's known as the King of Salem.
This is Hebrews seven verse one.
Or the priest of the most high God.
So Melchizedek, that's what we know about him.
He's a king and he's a priest.
We don't know what his nationality is.
We don't know anything about his history.
We just know he was a king and he was a priest.
And we know that when Abraham saw him, Abraham paid him tithe.
Abraham took a tenth of what was his and he gave it to this unknown guy, Melchizedek.
And so it appears that we worship, we pay tithe to someone who is greater than us.
We give our tithe to God because God has asked us to do that.
Here Abraham is honoring this king, this priest.
And so this Melchizedek becomes a symbol of this greater priesthood.
And that's what chapter seven is all about.
This greater priesthood and it talks about Jesus being a priest forever according to
the order of Melchizedek.
But we want to focus on just one particular verse, verse 25.
So Hebrews seven verse 25.
It says, therefore he, Jesus, and this begins to answer that question.
What is Jesus doing now?
What are you doing?
For Jesus is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him since he
always lives to make intercession for us.
And so this new priesthood, this heavenly priesthood, I want to read that again.
He is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him since he always
lives to make intercession for them.
Some have called this the greatest truth in the book of Hebrews because this one verse
begins to describe what this priesthood is all about.
And it reminds us what Jesus, this perfect high priest is doing.
So we want to break this down phrase by phrase.
It says he is also able.
He, Jesus, is able.
Jesus is able to do what he says that he can do.
Aaron could not, he was not able to do other things.
Eli was not able to fulfill the promises of God, but Jesus, this perfect high priest,
it says he is able to save to the uttermost.
I want to look at a couple of verses here.
This is Hebrews 50 verse 2.
Excuse me, Isaiah 50 and verse 2.
This is just one example where God asks a rhetorical question.
Isaiah 50 and verse 2.
It says, it says, why when I come was there no man?
Why when I called was there none to answer?
And here's the question, is my hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem or have I no
power to deliver?
That's a rhetorical question that God is asking.
Do you think that I can't do it?
Do you think that I can't perform the rescue?
Do you think that I'm going to fall short?
And the unspoken answer is no.
God is able to do that.
He's not limited in any way.
God is able to rescue.
God is able to fulfill to the uttermost what he says.
Another verse that we could look at is 1 Corinthians 15 speaking of Jesus.
It says, oh death, where is your sting?
Oh Hades or oh grave, where is your victory?
This is a passage that's talking about the resurrection of Jesus.
Think about that high priest.
If a high priest has this on their resume that they were dead and risen again, then
yes, he is able to do what he says.
We have confidence that if God says something, he is able to do it.
Now I know most of our young kids are not here right now, but there's a song that says
he's able.
You guys familiar with the song?
Do you think we can sing it without the children being here today?
It says he's able.
Let's just sing it.
Are you ready?
I'll try to find the note.
He's able, he's able, I know he's able.
I know my Lord is able to carry me through.
Let's do that one more time.
He's able, he's able, I know he's able.
I know my Lord is able to carry me through.
What did he do?
He healed the brokenhearted and he set the captives free.
He made the lame to walk again and he caused the blind to see.
That's why he's able, he's able, I know he's able.
I know my Lord is able to carry me through.
That's what this verse says.
He is able.
He's able to do what?
Well, let's go on.
He is able to save to the uttermost, to save completely, to save totally.
He is able to save to the uttermost.
If we look back just to verse 18, it says, on the one hand, there is an annulling of
the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness.
So it compares something that is weak and unprofitable.
And it says, for the law made nothing perfect.
On the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope through which we draw near
to God.
This high priest, this heavenly high priest is able to save totally, to save to the uttermost
because there's not a weakness, but there is something better.
There is a better hope.
And then we can look down at verse 27 in the same chapter, it says, who he, Jesus, does
not need daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifices.
Jesus wasn't a sinner.
Jesus didn't need to offer a sacrifice for his own sins, first for his own sins and
then for the people's.
For this he did once for all when he offered up himself.
Jesus is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him.
He's able to save from sin.
There's a theologian who speaks of this passage like this.
He says, looking back over the past, looking back at the past, we have been saved from
the condemnation and guilt of sin.
Hallelujah.
That's a good thing.
Because the Bible says we've all sinned.
We've all fallen short, but we are saved from the condemnation of sin.
We are saved from the guilt of sin.
That's the past.
But then it goes on.
It says, looking round about the present.
That's right now.
We are being saved from the power, love and defilement of sin.
Through the power of Jesus, we are able to overcome the temptations of sin.
Those things that we used to be attracted to, God can take that away from us.
God can help us to be drawn to him instead of drawn away from him.
That's the present.
But then it goes on.
It says, looking forward to the future, we shall be saved from the very presence of sin
and the glorified state above.
So we're saved totally to the uttermost from the guilt and condemnation of sin, from the
current temptation and desires of sin, and even from the future presence of a sinful
world.
Jesus is able to save totally.
And then it says that Jesus lives to intercede.
He always, that's how it ends there.
Therefore, he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him
since he always lives to make intercession for them.
So we have to figure out what this is talking about.
Because this is not a picture of God wanting to seek out anybody who's made one little
mistake and maybe picture a little target on their back.
And as soon as we say something we shouldn't or get upset, you know, the heavenly button
is pushed and we're zapped with a lightning bolt or whatever it might be.
That's not the picture.
Jesus is not there.
Please, please, please don't hurt them.
Because that's not the picture of God that we have.
There's a famous sermon from many years ago.
It's called Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God, as if God is out to get each person.
And sometimes people have that view of God.
But that's not a proper picture of God.
What's that most famous verse in the Bible?
John 3, 16.
It says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes
in him will not perish but should have everlasting life.
God loves the world.
So the picture is not Jesus groveling and begging.
Please don't hurt these people.
But the picture is of Jesus as a victor saying, I have overcome sin.
I have overcome Satan.
I have overcome the grave.
This person is a child of mine and they get to share in the victory with me.
It's not trying to appease God, but it's about sharing in the victory of Jesus.
I want to go to Romans 8, verse 33.
What does this intercession mean?
What does this look like?
There's several different verses that we can look at.
Romans 8, verse 33.
I'm going to go back just a verse or two to verse 31.
It says, if God is for us, if God is for us, who can be against us?
And then in verse 33, it says, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Then it lists off several things.
Whoops, I'm reading the wrong verse here.
Verse 33, who shall bring a charge against God's elect?
Is it God who justifies?
Who is he who condemns?
It is Christ who died and furthermore is also risen.
Who is he who is even at the right hand of God who also makes intercession for us?
What is Jesus doing now?
Jesus is making intercession for us.
And then it says, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
And it lists off thing after thing, death, angels, life, principalities, powers, persecution.
Nothing can separate us from the love of God because Christ always lives to make intercession
for us.
We can go to 1 John is another passage that talks about intercession.
1 John, the little John backed by Revelation, and in chapter 2, chapter 2, it says, John
writes, my little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin.
So that's a goal that God would love for us to do.
I hope my desire is for you not to sin because God created us.
God knows what's best for us.
God knows that when we go down a different path, we're going to have guilt, we're going
to have different things.
So it says, I write this so that you will not sin.
But the verse doesn't end there and I'm thankful for that because I recognize that I am a sinner.
I recognize the Bible says we have fallen short, we are falling short of the glory of
God.
So it says, I write this so that you will not sin.
But then it goes on and says, and or but if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the
Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he himself is the propitiation, the substitute for our
sins and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.
The goal is yes, to live a life perfect, walking with God each step of the way.
But we have a promise that even when we have messed up, even when we made mistakes, that
Jesus is still our advocate.
Jesus is still on our side.
Jesus is with us.
Jesus takes care of us.
In fact, in John chapter five, it tells us that God has given judgment to Jesus.
John 5 22, God gives judgment to Jesus.
So if we have Jesus as the one judging and Jesus is our defense attorney, it seems as
if things are weighted in our favor.
And that's why in Daniel, it says judgment is given in favor of the saints because if
the judge and our defense attorney are together, well, guess what?
We cannot lose that case.
As long as we choose to be on Jesus's side, as long as we have surrendered to Jesus and
said I want to be on your side.
And that is the best of all the good news that we have an intercessor.
So how does that take place?
John 1 9, just back a verse or two from what we just read.
John chapter one has a series of if then statements.
If something happens, then something else happens.
And this is one of them.
If we confess our sins, if we confess our sins, then he is faithful and just to forgive
us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
We have a promise of forgiveness.
We have a promise of an intercessor for us if we confess our sins, if we take that step
with him, if we decide we want to walk with God.
What did it say in Hebrews 4 16 that we read?
That we can come boldly before the throne of grace.
We have the opportunity to come before the throne of grace boldly where we can obtain
mercy and find grace to help in our time of need.
So how can we confess?
How can we come boldly?
Why would we be able to do that?
I think it's because we belong there.
We can come boldly before God's throne because we've been invited there.
We belong there.
There's a famous picture from several years ago.
John F. Kennedy was the president and there's some pictures of his visitors that he has
in the Oval Office, that most important room in the White House.
It's not a head of state.
It's not the secretary of defense who's visiting him on this day, but it's his children.
They're playing and jumping and dancing and JFK Jr. is under the resolute desk.
If you or I tried to go into that office to even get close to that office, we wouldn't
even be able to knock on the door before we got tackled and hauled away somewhere else.
But these children could play in the Oval Office because they belonged there, because
they were family.
That's why we can come boldly before the throne of grace because we're family.
We belong there.
We have been invited there.
The gift of salvation is ours to the uttermost.
As it says, I want to read this one more time.
Therefore Jesus is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him
since he always lives to make intercession for them.
That's what Jesus is doing.
He lives to make intercession for us.
I want to look at one more verse here.
Second Peter, Second Peter chapter three, Second Peter chapter three in verse nine.
It says, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some count slackness.
He's not slow.
He's not lazy, but he is long suffering or he is patient toward us, not willing that
any should come to repentance, not willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance.
What is Jesus doing now?
He's not slack.
He's not lazy.
He is interceding for us so that we may all come to repentance, that we can come boldly
to that throne of grace.
There's a story of Martin Luther, that famous reformer from the 1500s that kicked off in
many ways the Protestant Reformation.
Martin Luther had a dream one night.
In this dream he sees the devil.
The devil comes to him with a scroll and this words, lots of words, sentences, paragraphs,
huge scroll.
And as Martin Luther looks at the writing, he recognizes what is written on there.
Satan Lucifer, the devil has written the sins that Martin Luther has committed.
And in this dream, the devil says, these are your sins.
How can you call yourself a Christian?
How can you call yourself a child of God?
How can you talk about righteousness by faith when you have done all of these things?
And in the dream, Martin Luther was looking, hoping he could find one thing that he had
not done.
But the more he looked, the more he recognized his actions and his sinfulness.
But then as this dream went on, it says, Luther told the devil, take your pen and write in
red across the scrolls.
This is what he was supposed to write, the blood of Jesus cleanses me from all sin.
Yes, I have committed those sins, but the blood of Jesus cleanses me from all sins.
And so we can come boldly to the throne of grace.
We can come boldly to Jesus' side because he is able to save to the uttermost each one
of us when we come to God through him.
But today you are forgiven.
The question is, have you accepted it?
Have you confessed that sin?
Have you drawn near to Jesus today?
You want to draw near to Jesus, just raise your hand wherever you may be.
Dear God, you see each hand, you see us coming before you.
You've promised us as the heavenly, eternal, high priest that you are able to save to the
uttermost.
And Lord, you do not want any to perish, but all to come to repentance.
And Lord, we long for that day when you come again.
But until then, thank you for interceding for us each and every day.
In your name we pray, amen.