Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Hebrews 4:14-16
Pastor: Pastor Berg
Sermon Date:  March 6, 2022

It was the 41st day in a row. Can you imagine? 41 days of having the biggest bully on the block come out and taunt you. 41 days of cowering in fear, in embarrassment, in shame. That’s what the Israelite army was facing. For 41 days, Goliath had come out and challenged Israel to a one on one battle, a clash of the champions. And for 41 days, no one had dared to take up that challenge. For 41 days no man had the confidence. They were crushed. Until David showed up. 

Perhaps you know the feeling. You know what it’s like to have the biggest bully on the block, Satan himself, taunting you with your sins. You know what it’s like to cower in fear, in embarrassment, in shame because you know it’s true. You know in your heart that you can’t do this on your own, that you can’t put away your sin and so you sit there and take the taunting. You don’t have the courage or the confidence. You feel crushed. Until Jesus shows up.

That battle of Champions is what’s before us today as we begin this season of Lent. The demons have sent their champion, Satan and mankind’s best warrior, Jesus Christ, has stepped forward. Only, he doesn’t look the part of champion. In fact, he looks very much like us. Exactly like us. Using Hebrews chapter 4, let’s explore why this is so important and so comforting. Let’s see how Our Champion Gives Us Confidence.

We don’t know for sure who wrote the letter to the Hebrews. But whoever it was certainly had a Master’s Degree in the Old Testament. There’s at least 35 direct quotations from the Old Testament and another 34 allusions to the Old Testament. And we don’t know exactly who the audience was other than they were primarily Jewish. What we do know is that they were feeling crushed. They were facing persecution. Perhaps even being driven out of their homes. And it’s clear this persecution and hardship was causing some of them to drift away from the faith. And so this letter comes as a source of encouragement. What we have before us today is all encouragement. The writer says, “Therefore, since we have a great high priest, who has gone through the heavens, namely, Jesus the Son of God, let us continue to hold on to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin. So let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” 

Perhaps the picture of the high priest isn’t the first one that comes to mind when you think of a champion, but for Israel spiritually, that’s what the high priest was in many ways. It was the high priest who was chosen from among the people to represent them before God. He knew exactly what they were going through, because he was one of them. The high priest was their substitute. He was the only one who could enter the Most Holy Place, the physical place where God promised to dwell. He was the one who sacrificed and prayed on their behalf. But those high priests were limited. They were flawed because they were sinful. Compare that with the writer’s description of Jesus. He is a great high priest who didn’t just enter the Most Holy Place, but rather went through heaven itself. He isn’t just a human being, he’s God himself. And yet at the same time, he can relate with us. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin.”

Have you ever felt like no one really understands what you are going through? People might say that they do, but no one truly understands what it’s like to walk in your shoes, to face the temptations you face. Satan loves to tell you that. He loves to make you think like you’re on your own. That no one understands, not even God. How could he? Well, he does. Jesus, our high priest understands. He has been tempted in every way, just as we are. Every way. There’s nothing he doesn’t understand. There’s nothing he hasn’t felt or gone through. And as our high priest, he went through all of it for you…without sin. Don’t think for a second that he doesn’t understand. And it’s exactly because he understands that he went to the cross to take away all of your sins. It’s exactly because knows that he died for each one of you. It’s exactly because he understands that he is able to speak to the Father on our behalf and deal with us gently. It’s exactly because he understands that we can take the encouragement of the writer. 

“So let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”  Our Champion gives us confidence to approach the throne of grace. We can go to God with confidence because Jesus was without sin, because Jesus fought the battle against temptation and won, because Jesus has earned our forgiveness, because we know that there we will receive mercy and there we will receive help.

The truth is…even though the battle is won, we are still in the battle. And what does that battle look like? First and foremost, it’s a battle against temptation. And we know that there will be times when we fail. But our Champion gives us confidence. We are approaching not the throne of judgment but the throne of grace, because of Jesus. We know that there is forgiveness for all of our sins, even those sins that haunt us again and again. 

I’m not that afraid of heights. I’ve climbed up 40 foot ladders. I’ve worked on roofs. So heights don’t really bother me. But I don’t know if I could do the flying trapeze. You know what I’m talking about, right? Where you jump off a high platform and swing on a bar and then let go hoping to grab the next swinging bar. I don’t know if I could do that unless there was an unbreakable safety net just a few feet below. I think that’s sometimes how we view the testing that comes from living the life of a Christian. We’re so afraid, we’re so crushed by past failures, that we don’t even give it a try. We don’t even try to resist temptation. But what if we could remove that fear? That’s what Jesus has done for us. He has removed the fear of failing because he has placed a safety net under us. He has placed the safety net of his grace under us. He’s placed the net of our baptisms under us which daily remind us of the forgiveness that is ours. Which empowers and equips us to try to stand up against temptation.

Secondly, this battle is not just avoiding the evil we are not supposed to do, but also doing the good we are supposed to do. The temptation is there to sit in our sanctuaries of safety and not put ourselves out there in the world. Our Champion gives us the confidence to do what God asks us to do, even when it might be hard, even when it might be unpopular, even when we might fail because we know that we have the safety net of grace and forgiveness to fall into. 

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest, who has gone through the heavens, namely, Jesus the Son of God, let us continue to hold on to our confession.” What is it that made David willing and able to stand up against Goliath? It wasn’t his experience, it wasn’t his skill, it wasn’t his size. It was his confession. “The LORD, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will deliver me from the hand of the Philistine.” David knew that the battle was the Lord’s. His full confidence was placed in the promises of God. We have a great high priest who knows exactly what we’re feeling, exactly what we’re going through, and has promised to give us exactly what we need. That is our confidence as well. We can hold onto the truths of God’s Word. We can confidently live our lives in service to God and to our neighbor because we have a great high priest, because we have a Champion fighting for us.

“So let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Attack the throne of grace with your prayers with confidence. Face the testing, resist the temptation head on because our Champion has already  crushed Satan as one of us and for us and has won the victory. Amen.