Job Qualifications of the High Priest Jesus Christ
Introduction:
Job Qualifications of the High Priest (Hebrews 5:1-4):
- Must be a Man . (Heb 5:1)
- Must be Appointed by God . (Heb 5:1,4)
- Must offer Sacrifices . (Heb 5:1,3)
- Must Understand others. (Heb 5:2-3)
Jesus' Resume' Meets the Qualifications (Hebrews 5:5-10):
- Jesus was fully Man . (Heb 5:1)
- Jesus was Appointed By God . (Heb 5:5-6)
- Jesus offered a Sacrifice . (Heb 5:9-10)
- Jesus Understands you. (Heb 5:7-8)
Matthew 26:39 - And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
3 Things Jesus Understands, and Teaches Us, About Trials:
- Sometimes Suffering is God's will.
Philippians 3:10 - that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death...
- Knowing God's will doesn't mean Doing God's will is easy.
- God's will is all that Matters .
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:01-01:29
Hebrews chapter 5, if you would bow your heads with me please for just a moment, and I would ask if you would please pray for me to be faithful to communicate God's Word, and I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive it. And yes, I am aware that that's not fair. I have a lot more people praying for me right now than you do for you, but that's just the way it goes. Let's pray.
01:38-01:59
Well, all of God's people said, "Amen." Last week, Pastor Taylor preached from the book of Hebrews, chapter 4 and verse 14, a concept was very suddenly introduced And that was the concept of high priest.
02:02-02:08
And in Hebrews chapters five through 10, it's actually the biggest chunk of the book of Hebrews.
02:09-02:12
This section is all about one thing.
02:12-02:15
Jesus is our high priest.
02:16-02:24
And with such a huge chunk, I guess the question is, why is this concept so important?
02:24-02:27
Jesus is our high priest.
02:31-02:32
Why does it matter?
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Well, we're gonna talk about priest for a second.
02:39-02:45
When I say the word priest, what's the first thing that you think of?
02:47-02:48
Roman Catholicism, right?
02:48-02:51
I think in our culture, that's where our mind goes.
02:51-03:02
We think of the guy who wears all black and has the collar with the little white sticking out and he's in the confessional booth and he doesn't get married.
03:03-03:08
And that's typically what we think of when we hear the word priest.
03:08-03:16
But that's not really the way God designed the concept.
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The concept of a priest and high priest, as we'll be talking about today, takes us back to the Old Testament.
03:26-03:31
Remember, after man had sinned, God became inaccessible.
03:34-03:36
Sin had separated man from God.
03:36-03:45
So by God's design, specifically under Mosaic law, a priest was to serve as a mediator between God and man.
03:46-04:12
says we're going to make a way that this relationship can get restored, but you need a mediator to stand in between. And that is the concept of a priest. The priest would offer a sacrifice on behalf of people to deal with people's sin. And specifically regarding the high priest in the Old Testament.
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It's look, this is very hard for us to understand because most of us here are Gentiles living in 2023.
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Well, I guess all of us are living in 2023, but most of us, that most of us phrase applies to the Gentile thing, right?
04:29-04:33
But like, what's the big deal?
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Well, understand that for Israel, Their whole national history and identity was tied up in the temple, and the sacrifices, and the priests, and the high priest, and the day of atonement.
04:53-04:54
That was all they knew.
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And now we get to the New Testament and the New Covenant, and the Old Testament priesthood is over.
05:05-05:14
Because really, the Old Testament, the priesthood was a picture of the one who was to come, Jesus Christ, the ultimate high priest.
05:14-05:20
And he tore the temple veil, which opened the way to God permanently.
05:20-05:26
And that's what Pastor Taylor talked about last week as we got to the end of chapter four.
05:27-05:37
So we need to try to understand, church, why the Jews in this day who would have received this letter would have been like, wait, wait, wait.
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So there's no more high priest being appointed.
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And then Jesus actually is the high priest.
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He's the high priest now, and he's always going to be the high priest.
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Like this is a radical new concept for Israel.
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Like, how does that even work?
05:57-06:03
We always had the guy who, you know, day of atonement, Leviticus 16.
06:03-06:08
We always had that guy, and now it's Jesus, like permanently.
06:09-06:10
Like how does that work?
06:12-06:17
And the question is, well, what makes Jesus qualified to be the high priest, really?
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How is Jesus qualified for the role?
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Well, that's what the whole passage is about today.
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How is Jesus qualified to be the high priest?
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Because you understand if you take a job, if you apply for a job, the first question you need to ask yourself is this, "Am I qualified to do this job?" Would you apply for a job where you're not qualified?
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You need to know up front, "Am I qualified to do the job?" Right?
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You know, I have a few examples here.
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Some of these really might get your attention in our economy.
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Looking for a secondary income, need another job.
07:05-07:12
Here's some examples of some jobs that have some requirements that maybe you meet and maybe you don't.
07:13-07:14
But you might want to jot these down.
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Here's a job.
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It says, "Waitress needed.
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Must be 18 years old with 20 years experience.
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I've never been great at math.
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I think that job might also require a time machine.
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I like this next one.
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It gives the list of requirements, you know, the work detail and age and all of those things.
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But look at the bottom.
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Good looking.
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Could you imagine the poor guy that was looking through this, like, yes, yes, I got this, I got this.
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And it was like, oh, I guess this job isn't for me.
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It's kind of subjective, isn't it?
08:08-08:08
How about this one?
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Here's a job.
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Office admin data entry.
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First one says, perfect attitude.
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Well, there goes half of you right there.
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And then a second one, no simply off.
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I'm not quite sure what that means.
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But the third requirement says no off day to attend funeral.
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But I'm like, what if it's mine?
08:38-08:43
The next one says no off day to go help any friends or family member if they accident.
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Like, don't tell me about your car wreck, I'm at work.
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All right, so there's some job requirements.
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How about this next one?
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This one, this could be my favorite one.
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It says, you will complete various applied research projects for data analysis, strong critical thinking skills and some program experiencing as a plus.
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Knowledge of machine learning techniques as a bonus.
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Now look at this, it says note.
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Can you see that?
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I bet you can, your eyes are better than mine.
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I'm gonna read it in case you can't.
09:19-09:37
In the red box, it says, "Note, "this is a reverse financed internship, "so you will pay $15 an hour to work here." And right now there's somebody like, that sounds like a good deal.
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Like you're gonna pay to work?
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Isn't that called charity?
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So job requirements.
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And this last one, I read this probably three times thinking this can't be real, this can't be real.
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I hope it's real.
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I hope it's real.
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Look at this one.
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It says, I am quite sure most of you have seen the rather large green dragon that has been flying over Northeast Oklahoma City for the better part of a week.
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I'm looking for someone to lure said dragon away from Oklahoma City to a more rural area, force said dragon to land in rural area "Play said dragon in whatever way you see fit." "No pay, dragon slaying is its own reward.
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"Please note I am not talking about the red dragon "that frequents the area from time to time.
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"He and I have an agreement."
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(audience laughing)
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Dragon slaying is its own reward, ladies and gentlemen.
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Well, there's a lot more, we'll stop there.
10:47-10:48
But those are fun.
10:49-11:05
But that's, the point is this, that's the whole point of this passage we're looking at today is the role of high priest carried very specific qualifications with it, not dragon slaying, other qualifications with it.
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And you gotta have a mediator to get to God, You gotta have a high priest and Jesus Christ is qualified.
11:15-11:21
He meets all of the qualifications to be that high priest, all right?
11:22-11:26
So on your outline, job qualifications of the high priest.
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First four verses of chapter five.
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It says, "For every high priest chosen from among men "is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, "to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.
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"He can deal gently with the ignorant and the wayward "since he himself is beset with weakness.
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"Because of this, he is obligated to offer sacrifice "for his own sins, just as he does for those of the people.
11:58-12:17
"And no one takes this honor for himself, "but only when called by God, just as Aaron was." All right, so very quickly, going through those verses, He kind of lays out, hey, he's like, by the way, remember there were job requirements to be the high priest in the Old Testament.
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Here they are, first of all, number one, must be a man.
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Right, why?
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He had to represent men.
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So he had to be a man, not an angel, not an animal, had to be a man, a human being man.
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That was requirement number one.
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Number two, must be appointed by God.
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Do you see that?
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Verses one and four.
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You know, back in the Old Testament, man could not appoint priests, okay?
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It wasn't like, "Hey, you seem nice.
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You seem very priestly.
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Would you like to be priest?" It didn't work that way.
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God appointed priests.
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Exodus 28, one says, "Then bring near to you Aaron and your brother," this is God speaking to Moses, "and his sons with him from among the people of Israel." Here it is, "to serve me as priests." God appointed the priest, the high priest, right?
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Aaron and Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
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So the high priest must be appointed by God.
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All right, number three, must offer sacrifices.
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We saw that here in these verses.
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Sin separates man from God, but in His grace, God allowed a substitute, an animal sacrifice that would atone for sin, but it had to be offered through a mediator, and that's where the priest came in.
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And in the Old Testament, the high priest, yes, a mediator, but yes, also a sinner himself, had to sacrifice for himself, then sacrifice for others, as he points out here.
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Last requirement he mentions, is must understand others.
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You see that?
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Look at that again in verse two.
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It says, "He can deal gently with the ignorant and the wayward since he himself is beset with weakness." Deal gently with others.
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I just wanna pause here for a second because I think there's something for us here at church.
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Only when you understand your own weakness Will you deal gently with others?
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That was a really good spot for an amen.
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Too late.
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We'll call Toronto.
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Okay, they counted.
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All right.
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We'll give you another run at that.
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Only when you understand your own weakness Will you deal gently with others?
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Church can be a very judgy place when we lose sight of this.
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Now, listen, we are commanded to call out sinful action.
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Absolutely.
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When a brother or sister is in sin, we are commanded to call that out, to deal with it.
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But when we forget that we ourselves are weak people, so often we step into condemnation territory.
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We start to judge people, not their actions, and there's a difference.
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That's why the high priest gives us an example here that we need to deal gently.
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deal gently.
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It's an interesting word.
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It has to do with not going to either end of the extreme spectrum.
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It's like kind of being in the middle, dealing gently.
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What does it mean to deal gently?
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It's this, when somebody's in sin, first of all, we don't emotionally overreact, right?
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Like somebody comes to you and they're like, hey, I gotta talk to you, I'm stuck in this sin.
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And you're like, you did what?
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What is the matter with you?
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Not that, but then there's the other end of the spectrum where the person comes to you and they're like, "My marriage is falling apart." And you're like, "Oh, that's a shame." Good luck with that.
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It's just like apathy, like, "Not my problem.
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"Go your way." See, deal gently is in the middle of that.
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Like, I care.
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and I'm gonna help you.
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It's putting your arm around the person saying, hey, this doesn't honor the Lord, let's get to a better place.
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I get it, listen, we all struggle with something.
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Every single one of us struggles with something.
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So let's pray and let's get to work on this, all right?
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So those are the qualifications.
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And then very simple passage, he lays out in verses one through four, the qualifications of the high priest and verses five through 10, he's like, let's take a look at Jesus' resume because he meets every qualification needed to be our great high priest.
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Let's look at verses five through 10.
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So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by Him, who said to Him, "You are my Son.
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Today I have begotten You." As he says also in another place, "You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek." In the days of His flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death.
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And he was heard because of his reverence.
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Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.
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And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
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You see that?
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Jesus' resume, he meets the qualifications.
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All right, on your outline, letter A, Jesus was fully man.
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Remember that was a requirement.
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High priest has to be a man, Jesus fully man.
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That's why the incarnation wasn't just a good idea, it was an absolute necessity.
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Jesus Christ had to be a man to represent men.
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He quotes Psalm 2, which speaks to the unique relationship that Jesus had with God the Father.
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Jesus is the only begotten son.
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Yes, God, yes, fully in the flesh, but absolutely unique.
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There was never anybody, nor will there ever be anybody on the earth like Jesus.
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Perfectly God in the flesh.
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Jesus was fully man, letter B.
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Jesus was appointed by God.
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Do you see that?
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Verse five, appointed by God.
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Verse six, he quotes Psalm 110, verse four, speaking to a unique role, that Jesus Christ is a priest, but in the order of Melchizedek.
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And I know some of you are like, who, what?
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What's Melchizedek?
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Well, you see, the Jewish priesthood came through the tribe of Levi, right?
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Aaron, the Levites.
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You're like, well, wait, wait, Jesus in the flesh wasn't a Levite.
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Jesus was from the tribe of Judah.
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So how can somebody from the tribe of Judah priest, if the Levites were priests, because God had a better plan. There is a superior priesthood and it was after the order of Melchizedek. He's somebody that you meet in Genesis chapter 14. We'll talk about him later. The point here is Jesus was appointed by God.
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C, Jesus' resume, Jesus offered a sacrifice.
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You realize when Jesus was on the cross, he was fulfilling a couple of roles.
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He was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
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He was the sacrifice, but at the same time, he was the high priest offering the sacrifice of himself.
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So he says, you know, high priest has to offer sacrifices.
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Check, Jesus offered a sacrifice himself.
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Interesting, and look at verse nine.
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It says, "I'm being made perfect." I know some of you, you probably, that probably caught your attention.
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Like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
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I thought Jesus was already perfect.
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How was he, how was he made perfect?
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Well, he's not talking about his nature.
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He's not talking about that.
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Like Jesus was like lesser and over time, he got better and he improved.
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He's not talking about that at all.
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What's the passage about?
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Talking about Jesus being qualified to be the high priest.
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That's what he's talking about.
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In order for Jesus to become qualified to be the perfect high priest, he had to offer a sacrifice.
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And that was how that happened.
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That was how that experience of the incarnation and the sacrifice had to be on his resume in order to perfectly fulfill the qualifications of being a high priest.
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And I love this, it says also in verse nine, he became the source of eternal salvation.
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Eternal salvation, you need to underline that because that's a huge concept, especially for the Jews who would have been reading this.
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Because you see under the Old Testament, when an animal was sacrificed, atonement was given.
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But Jesus Christ offers total forgiveness, eternal salvation.
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I've shared this with you before.
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Some of you know what I'm gonna say, with the difference between the Old Testament sacrifices and the sacrifice Jesus made, if you think of it in terms of finance, it's the difference between a credit card and cash.
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In the Old Testament, when an animal sacrifice was offered, it was like the credit card.
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Payment was covered, right?
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You guys realize that, right?
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Quick financial lesson for you.
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When you use a credit card, you're not actually paying for something in that moment.
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You're going into debt.
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What the credit card does is it covers the payment for you.
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But spoiler alert, you get a bill later that says you still gotta pay that.
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All that credit card did was temporarily cover that.
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That's kind of like the Old Testament sacrifices.
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Sin was covered, they were never taken away because they had to keep offering sacrifice, offering sacrifice over and over and over.
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But then when Jesus Christ came, how did John the Baptist refer to him?
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He goes, "There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Jesus didn't just cover sin, he took it away.
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You see the difference?
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Using our financial analogy, Jesus is cash.
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He totally paid the debt.
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And there's no bill coming later that says, hey, you still owe something, it's paid.
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Jesus paid the debt.
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Eternal salvation, no more needs to be done.
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Right?
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Jesus' resume meets the qualifications.
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Oh, there's one more thing.
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The last one is this.
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Jesus understands you.
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This is a valid question we're going to talk about here for a few minutes, because it absolutely needs to be discussed.
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How could Jesus not sin, yet still identify with sinners at the same time?
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We've been talking about this through Hebrews, right?
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Jesus understands us, he's merciful, he understands us.
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And I'm sure there's somebody that's like, yeah, does he really though?
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I mean, does he really?
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I mean, God in the flesh, does he understand?
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Does he really understand?
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And the answer is he absolutely does.
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And I want us to just take a couple of moments and revisit a couple of verses here.
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I want you to look at them very closely.
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Look at verses seven and eight.
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Does he really understand?
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Yeah, he does.
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Look, "In the days of his flesh," the incarnation, it says, look at this, "Jesus offered up prayers and supplications "with loud cries and tears "to him who was able to save him from death.
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"And he was heard because of his reverence.
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"Although he was a son," look at this, "he learned obedience through what he suffered." Here's the thing.
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I think sometimes you can look at verses like that and think that the Hebrew writer speaking in general terms, that during Jesus' life, he was like Isaiah said, a man of sorrow acquainted with grief.
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And he's speaking like, just sort of like a general commentary about the life of Jesus.
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But I don't think that's what's happening here at all.
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I think he's speaking about one specific event in the life of Jesus.
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The Garden of Gethsemane.
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You can read about it.
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We're not gonna turn there now.
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Matthew 26, 36, Luke 22, 39.
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It's a very unique event in the life of Jesus.
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There's nothing else like this in the life of Jesus.
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In his distress, Jesus asked his disciples to go pray with him right before his arrest, his trial, his crucifixion.
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That was all like next on the agenda.
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And Jesus says, "We gotta pray.
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"We gotta go pray, man." And the Bible tells us that Jesus prayed the exact same thing three times.
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And this is it, Matthew 26, 39.
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This is what he prayed.
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The Bible says going a little farther than where his disciples were.
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He fell on his face and he prayed, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.
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It's the cup of suffering, the cup of God's wrath.
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That's what that means, the cup, it personifies the wrath of God.
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My father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.
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Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.
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So you see the Hebrew writer, he's been saying it, Jesus understands you, Jesus understands you.
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And here he's saying, let's talk about one event from the life of Jesus.
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This one specific event shows you that even in your hardest days, even in your worst trials, Jesus understands you.
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And in this one event, Jesus teaches us some things that got him through.
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and we'll get you through to.
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So that was all the introduction, here's the sermon.
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Three things, some of you laugh as if I'm kidding.
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Means we have some visitors here.
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Three things Jesus understands and teaches us about trials.
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Right, from the event, from the Garden of Gethsemane, Here's some things that Jesus understands and teaches us about trials.
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This is something we all need to hear.
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Number one, under this, sometimes suffering is God's will.
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This is a hard pill to swallow because this certainly doesn't wash with the health and wealth crowd.
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But this is reality.
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Sometimes it is God's will that you suffer.
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That's just the way it is.
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There's no getting around it.
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There's no choose your own adventure.
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Sometimes God says, no, it's my will that you go through a period of suffering.
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So like in the Garden of Gethsemane, why was Jesus struggling so hard?
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Well, 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us, when Jesus was on the cross, he became sin for us.
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God was pouring out his wrath on Jesus for my sin.
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Jesus took my sin and your sin on himself and literally experienced all of the pain of hell.
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Literally experienced what it means to be forsaken by God He was bearing the wrath of God.
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Jesus knew that was just ahead.
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I'm about to suffer for the sins of the world.
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That's why he was agonizing over prayer.
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And church, listen, Jesus did that so that you won't have to.
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But even for you, sometimes God's will for your life leads you through suffering.
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And I gotta tell you, I wish it wasn't so.
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I wish I could get up here and just tell you my opinion about things or what I think about things and, "Oh, I just, you know, God wants you to have a happy life.
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And God never wants you to ever struggle or ever suffer." And that's just not true.
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it's God's will that you suffer.
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I wish I could take it all away from you.
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You know, I know what many of you struggle with, and I wish that I had the ability to just take that away.
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Like this trial that you're going through right now, it's over, done, go on your way.
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But part of God making you who He wants you to be means that you're going to have to fight some battles.
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Maybe for some of you it's your marriage.
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Maybe for some of you it's in your parenting.
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Maybe you have some adult kids that are just sideways.
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You can't figure that out.
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Maybe for some of you it's a health issue.
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Like is this ever gonna end?
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Maybe for some of you it's ministry struggles.
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Sometimes suffering is God's will for your life because a servant's not greater than his master, according to Jesus.
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I just look at the life of Jesus and think, if his ministry included suffering, why am I exempt?
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Why are you exempt?
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You know, Paul says in Philippians 3.10, "That I may know him and the power of his resurrection." Stop right there.
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If he's like, I just wanna know Jesus and the power of resurrection.
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And if I was like, all right, church, show of hands, who this morning wants to know the power of the resurrection of Jesus.
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We'd all be like, yes, I wanna know what that's like to raise from the dead in power and in victory over my enemies.
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And we all want that.
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You know what the rest of the verse says?
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He says, and may share his sufferings becoming like him in his death.
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Like, all right, who wants to share in the sufferings of Jesus this morning?
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(whistles)
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Like, nobody's signing up for that.
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But look, it's a package deal.
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You don't know the power of the resurrection unless you experience the fellowship of a suffering.
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Sometimes suffering is God's will.
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You're like, well, I don't like that.
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But you don't have to like it.
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It's reality, it's truth.
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And that leads us to number two, knowing God's will doesn't mean doing God's will is easy.
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Here's something Jesus taught us in the Garden of Gethsemane.
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Sometimes knowing God's will doesn't mean doing God's will is easy.
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Do you know Luke 22, 44 tells us that Jesus sweat drops of blood.
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He was in such agony when he was praying.
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that he was sweating drops of blood.
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You know, sometimes, a lot of times, I hear people say things like this.
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They have to make some decision in their life or whatever, and they say, "I know this is God's will "because I have a piece about it." Have you ever heard somebody say that?
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Have you ever said that yourself?
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I know this is God's will because I have a peace about it.
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I just want to challenge you on that.
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Having peace about something is not always the thing.
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Because in the garden of Gethsemane, did Jesus know that he was doing God's will?
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100%.
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Did Jesus have peace about it?
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He agonized in prayer and tears and blood.
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Knowing something is God's will doesn't take the emotion out of it.
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We're not robots.
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Sometimes doing God's will is agonizing.
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And it's good to know that going in, right?
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I wish I had.
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I was thinking about my own life and testimony as I was working through this.
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And I remember when I was called into ministry back in '95, and I wish I could tell you that God called me into ministry and I was just like, "All right, God, let's do this.
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"Shucks, if that's what you want, "I present myself to you as your servant." I wish I could say that.
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But that wasn't my testimony.
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God very clearly called me into ministry and I was like, um, no.
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Thanks, but no.
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Not interested for a lot of reasons.
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And I gave God all the reasons why this isn't gonna work.
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Not a good idea.
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Sorry, God.
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Please check the number and dial again.
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But this is not me.
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I'm like, I'm not, and I fought it for so long.
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I'm like, I do not wanna do this.
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I do not wanna do this.
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And it is hard to kick against the goads.
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But here's the point, it was God's will for my life, but it was agonizing.
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So finally, finally, I said, all right, God, I'll go into ministry.
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All right, all right, I will do it.
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I'm like, but I will never plan a church.
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That's like my one condition.
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Church planning is stupid and I will not do it.
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(audience laughing)
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And I'm sure our Lord was like, "Oh, you're adorable.
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(audience laughing)
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"Look at you telling me what you think we should do." Agonized.
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And I can just tell you from my life that knowing God's will hasn't always been easy.
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And I have to ask myself, why is that?
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'Cause I'm thinking, look, if God wants me to do something, shouldn't he make it easy for me?
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Well, look at the verse again.
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It says that, verse eight, it says, "Jesus learned obedience through what he suffered." "Jesus learned how to obey when obeying was painful." "Jesus learned how it feels to hang on when bailing would be easier.
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Jesus feels because he learned by experience because his experience was suffering.
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And again, categorize this under things I wish weren't true, but suffering is the world's greatest teacher.
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True or false?
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Suffering is the world's greatest teacher.
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True.
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Suffering is the world's greatest teacher.
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You suffer, you learn.
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You suffer, you learn.
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You suffer, you learn.
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That's been my experience as well, right?
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I remember when I was a little boy, real little, my sister, out of the goodness of her heart, made me a sandwich, and I took a big bite because I was so hungry.
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Immediately ran to the bathroom, violently sick.
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What did you do?
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And she goes, "I just put a little mayonnaise "on the chicken," and I was like, it was horrific, it was a scene that I dare not describe in public.
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I suffered and I learned, that's why I don't touch mayonnaise.
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And you shouldn't either, that's not from the Lord, that's just from me.
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But the point is this, you suffer, you learn, that's why I won't touch it.
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I won't touch it.
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When we go to the store and my wife's like, you know, grab some mayonnaise, I make the kids do it.
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I'm like, I'm not touching that.
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I mean, to be fair, if I have gloves on, I'll put the gloves on and pick it up with that.
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But even then, it's like as far as my arms will get away from my face.
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But the point is you suffer, you learn.
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You suffer, you learn, you suffer, you learn.
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You suffer, you learn, your wife says, your wife says to you, man, do I look fat in this?
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You give the wrong answer, you suffer, you learn.
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But to be serious though, you know, when you and I think back on our lives, I think the biggest lessons we learn came from a painful experience, haven't they?
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You suffer, you learn.
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And you too are going to learn obedience through your suffering, because God is conforming you into the image of his son.
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Romans 8, 29.
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All right.
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Three things Jesus understand and teaches us about trials.
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Number one, sometimes suffering is God's will.
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Number two, knowing God's will doesn't mean doing God's will is easy.
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And then number three, here's something Jesus taught us.
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God's will is all that matters.
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God's will is all that matters.
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Jesus said, "Not as I will, but as you will." Yes, church, how many sermons have we had about prayer here?
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like so many sermons about prayer.
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And we've talked about praying specifically, and praying urgently, and praying expectantly, but ultimately, as our Lord teaches us, we pray according to God's will.
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Ultimately, that's where we land.
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I had the privilege of teaching Harvest Academy a couple weeks ago when Justin was preaching, and that was part of the lesson I taught the kids.
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I said, "Listen, kids, God's not Santa Claus.
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Like, give me your list so I can get you what you want.
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God isn't a vending machine.
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Just put the money in and push the right buttons and he'll give you what you want.
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God's not a genie.
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Rub the lamp, get your wishes.
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I said, kids, do you know how the Bible describes God?
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He's a father.
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And that should shape the way that we pray.
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He's a father.
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And if the perfect son of God prayed thus, not my will but your will, What does that say about how we should pray church?
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Look at verse seven again, it says, "Jesus offered up prayers and supplications "with loud cries and tears to him "who was able to save him from death." Do you see that, from death?
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And I'll be honest with you, when I first read that, I'm like, "Eh." Jesus prayed that the Father would save him from death.
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I'd be like, "Hmm." But he didn't.
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God did save him from death.
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He led him right to death.
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Well, that just shows my ignorance.
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I had to do a little studying.
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The word from here in the Greek literally means out from within.
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He was praying literally, "God, once I get in death, I want, "Please, please, please, I want you to get me out." What's that sound like?
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What's he talking about?
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He's talking about the resurrection.
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Jesus was praying for the resurrection.
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You're leading me to death.
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Please pull me out of death when I'm in.
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God, I know it's your will that I die, and I trust you.
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I trust you to raise me.
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I trust you to bring me out of death.
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There's something for us there, church.
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We say, "God, I committed myself to you.
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"God, I trust you.
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"God, I'm following you no matter where you take me." But God, ultimately my plans don't mean anything.
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Your plans and your will means everything.
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God help us land there.
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So if our worship team would come forward.
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That's this passage.
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Jesus is qualified.
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By the way, he has the job.
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And what I mean is Jesus doesn't need to apply to be your high priest.
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You need to embrace that he is the high priest.
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And you need to be comforted in knowing that no matter what trials you're suffering, he understands.
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and he shows us how to trust our Heavenly Father through it.
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Thank you to bow your heads with me, please.
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As our heads are bowed, I would just ask us, church, who here needs a change of perspective today?
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That sometimes we look at the suffering we're going through as this invader in our lives, this unwanted, unwelcomed, unplanned, shouldn't be here guest that has barged into our home.
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When the reality is sometimes it's the very thing that God's bringing into your life to conform you into the image of his son.
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Jesus showed us that we're gonna suffer.
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But can we suffer in a way that glorifies Your name, that trusts You, that rests in Your sovereignty, that knows that You have a plan?
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Father, I pray today for my brothers and sisters here.
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And Father, admittedly for us Gentiles a couple thousand years after this was written, this This is a hard concept for us to truly understand the gravity and the magnitude and the heaviness of this.
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I pray, Father, your Spirit teach us through your word why we so desperately need a high priest and how Jesus demonstrated that he is the perfect high priest.
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Father, give us a fresh perspective on our trials.
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That whatever is going on in our lives, Father, give us the faith, give us the strength.
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Father, give us the hope that only your Spirit can give that we all land on this place where we say, not my will be done, but your will be done.
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And though it might seem hard now to say thank you, Father, we thank you ahead of time.
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By faith, Father, we want to thank you for whatever it is you're accomplishing through these things that you're allowing into our lives.
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We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Hebrews 5:1-10
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Why was it important for the Jews to understand that Jesus qualifies to be the High Priest? Why is it important for our church to understand?
Why is suffering sometimes God’s will for His people? How did Jesus serve as an example on how to pray when we suffer? See Matthew 26:39.
What does it mean that Jesus “learned obedience through what He suffered” (v8)? How does suffering teach us obedience towards God?
Breakout
Pray for one another.