Peter Allison's sermon, titled 'Christ, Our Great High Priest,' focuses on the superiority of Jesus Christ as a High Priest compared to the Old Testament Levitical priesthood. Drawing from Hebrews Chapter 7, the sermon explains that the Old Covenant priests, descendants of Aaron and from the tribe of Levi, were unable to fully propitiate the wrath of God or perfect the people through their sacrifices. In contrast, Christ, from the tribe of Judah and in the order of Melchizedek, possesses an unchangeable and eternal priesthood, as testified by God's oath. Christ's sacrifice is unique and effective, offered once and for all, unlike the repeated sacrifices of the Levitical priests, thus fully satisfying God’s wrath and reconciling humanity with God. Christ's dual nature as both fully God and fully man is essential, as it allows Him to bear the full weight of God's wrath and conquer death, achieving redemption for all. His ongoing intercession for believers ensures their salvation to the uttermost, providing continual access to God's grace and peace. The sermon concludes by emphasizing the importance of recognizing Christ's role and work, urging believers to trust in His complete and perfect mediation.

Hebrews chapter 7. Hear God's word. Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood for under it the people received the law, what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek and not be called according to the order of Aaron? For the priesthood, being changed of necessity, there is also a change of law. For he of whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no man has officiated at the altar.

For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood. And it is yet far more evident if, in the likeness of Melchizedek, there arises another priest who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life. For he testifies, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness. 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. And Inasmuch as he was not made priest without an oath, for they have become priests without an oath, but he with an oath, by him who said to him, The Lord has sworn and will not relent. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." By so much more, Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant. Also, there were many priests because they were prevented by death from continuing, But he, because he continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. 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.

For such a high priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens, who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins and then for the people. For this he did once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath which came after the law appoints the Son who has been perfected forever. Now this is the main point of the things that we are saying. We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord has erected and not man." Thus ends the reading of God's Word.

The grass withers and the flower fades, but this word of our God endures forever. Heavenly Father, your word is truth. Sanctify us by it. We ask now that you would teach us out of your word and cause us to rejoice in the great High Priest that you have provided in Jesus Christ. And I ask that you would sanctify these sinful lips and set them apart to proclaim this truth.

In Jesus name, Amen. We don't have human priests today, like the Israelites did in the time of Aaron, Moses, and the kings. We have something far better. The function of a priest then and now was to represent sinners before God and on their behalf. That's what a priest does.

The purpose of Paul's letter here in Hebrews, this extended discourse of the first ten chapters, of the first ten chapters is to show that Jesus Christ, as a high priest, was far superior to all of the priests of the Old Covenant. The Old Testament priests did perform the function of a priest in that they represented God to the people and the people to God. But to bring God near his people, the people, requires that God's wrath be turned away from us. We cannot draw near to God if His wrath is not turned away from us. That word is propitiate.

It's an important word. Speaks of God's wrath being turned away from us. The great problem is that the Old Testament priests could not do that. They could not propitiate the wrath of God. They could not turn away the wrath of God for our sin.

All they could do was point forward to the great high priest who could do that. And so, Paul, who I believe wrote this book, says if perfection were obtained through the perfection were obtained through the litical priesthood, if they could accomplish the purpose for which they existed to bring God to the people and bring the people to God. If they could have accomplished that, perfected in the sense of complete it, if they could have actually done that, then there wouldn't have been any need for another priest. What further need was there, another priest should arise. But see, they could not do that, and that's the problem.

They were just people, sinful people. Perfection, accomplishment of Appeasing the wrath of God and turning it away, satisfying that wrath could not come, could not be done by the Old Testament priests. They were helpless to do that. Christ is a unique priest. This is seen in several things.

He comes from a different tribe. The Old Testament Christ came from the tribe of Judah, on which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning the priesthood. And so that's why Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. John said, why am I baptizing you? I need to be baptized.

And Jesus said, permit it at this time to fulfill all righteousness. Jesus Christ at the baptism, and his baptism was set apart, was ordained to his office as our great high priest. Even as Aaron and his sons were washed, ceremonially washed, their clothes removed, and They were clothed with the priestly robes. They were vested with that office. And Hebrews says, just a couple chapters earlier, that even as the high priest taken among men is appointed, even so this was true of Christ he did not take this to himself but he was he was ordained just as Aaron was but there's a change in the tribe Christ is unique that he comes from the tribe of Judah not Levi There was a change in the way of making of this priest.

It wasn't by the carnal commandment, a fleshly commandment as our translation says. He didn't come according to the law of a fleshly commandment. The law of primogeniture. The firstborn of Aaron being the high priest, and the firstborn of his firstborn, and so on, continuing on as high priest. Christ didn't come by that law, but he came by the power of an endless life.

God takes an oath to Christ in assurance of His continuance as our High Priest. The Lord has sworn and will not relent. Psalm 110, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. In taking this oath, God declares Christ's immutability, His excellency, His efficacy, His effectiveness, His eternity as great high priest. Nothing like that was ever said of Aaron and his sons.

In fact, they all died. They became the priests by this fleshly law of the firstborn being the priests. Then they died. Then the priesthood was vacant, and another high priest had to be vested with that office. And so you had priest after priest after priest, there was a very large number of priests.

Christ was unique as our priest. There has been no other and never will be another. There is no vacancy in Christ's office as priest. But the biggest change is in the efficacy of Christ's work as priest. As priests.

The Levitical priests offered the sacrifice of animals, of bulls, of goats, of lambs, of birds, But they had to do it again and again and again and again. Year after year, day after day there was a morning and an evening sacrifice. Their work was never done because the sacrifices they were offering were useless to appease, to propitiate the wrath of God. They were useless to satisfy the debt of our sin. All they could do was remind and point forward to Christ, our great high priest.

And so Christ is unique as our priest, And he is superior to any of those Old Testament priests because his sacrifice actually accomplishes its objective. And so Because his sacrifice actually accomplishes its objective, it never needs to be repeated. In fact, to repeat it would be to deny Christ. It would be to deny that his sacrifice has accomplished its purpose. And it would be to say, no, it's not good enough.

Something is missing. Christ's sacrifice was once and for all. And that's why he could proclaim on the cross, it is finished. And That's why he could sit down. You sit down when your work is done.

You sit down when you have completed the job. But the Old Testament priests never could sit down. They were continually offering morning and evening sacrifices because their work was never done. Jesus Christ is our unique priest, for such a high priest was fitting for us. Also there were many priests because they were prevented by death from continuing, but he because he continues forever has an unchangeable priesthood, therefore he is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

For such a high priest was fitting for us." Now what is fitting about Christ's person That he can be our High Priest. Well, as we've seen in previous weeks, Jesus Christ as our mediator is both God and man. These two distinct natures united forever in one person. You see, because he must be God, our Redeemer, our High Priest, because no mere man could ever bear the full force and weight of the wrath of God and the power of death for sin. No man could bear the weight of the wrath of God for sin.

No mere man could die and come to life. See, death is the separation of what God put together when He made us. You know, as humans, we are a mystery in that sense. We are a union of spirit and flesh. God formed man out of the dust of the earth and he breathed into him the breath of life and man became a living soul.

God united something spiritual, something non-material with something material when he created us. When he created us. And if that is in death, in physical death, that spirit is separated from that body. And so when you see the corpse lying in the casket, that is not the person that is there, because their spirit is gone. And a human person has a spirit and a body.

And once, if God separates that, no human could ever put that together. So no mere human could ever conquer death. No mere human could bear this infinite wrath of God without sinking into oblivion. But also, it was man that sinned. And in order to make satisfaction for man that sinned, man must pay the penalty of that sin.

And so man had to die. It wasn't good enough for an angel to die for us. It wasn't angels. We're not made like angels. That is a different category of being.

So an angel can't die for us. A spirit can't die for us. A death that will satisfy the wrath of God for our sin must be one who bears our nature. It was our human death that our sin requires for its payment. And so Christ needed to be human.

He needed to have our nature. He rendered in his life perfect obedience to the law of God, and his obedience is imputed to us. That obedience could not have been rendered in another nature as a spirit. That obedience needed to be rendered in our nature. You see, even a perfect man could not pay the debt for all men.

Because even if there was a perfect man, a mere man, and he died, that might at best pay for the penalty for one other person. But it doesn't have the worth of paying, satisfying the wrath of God for all the sins of all of His people. We see Jesus who is made a little lower than the angels for suffering and death, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. Death is something that only pertains to man. Man is that union of the spirit and the flesh, and in death that is taken apart, separated.

That's only possible of men. A spirit by itself can't die. There must be a human to be able to suffer death. So Christ refused to die for us in our place as our substitute needed to have that human nature like ours, such that his spirit and his body could be separated. And so his body did rest in the grave for three days and three nights.

You see these two things have to be united in one person. Christ is both God and man. He is fully man as we have seen. He bears our flesh and blood and as our representative He can die. He had a human nature where the spirit and the body were able to be separated in death so that he could pay the penalty and appease the wrath of God.

But he is also God. Because he was able to raise himself up again, because the grave could not hold him, he said, no man takes my life, I lay it down and I take it up again. No mere man could have done that. It required our mediator, our great high priest to be both God and man in two distinct natures. These are not confused, these are not mixed together, they are two distinct natures.

And yet one person, because it is the person of Jesus Christ who has appeased the wrath of God. And he needed His unique qualification as the God-man was that union of His human and divine nature. Without that, we have no high priest who can appease the wrath of God. And so Jesus Christ was a high priest fitted for us, uniquely fitted for us. He was holy.

He was holy. He was set apart. He was harmless. Without guile. There was no deceit found in his mouth.

No fraud. He is undefiled. He is unsoiled, unspotted. He is the Lamb of God without blemish. Remember, that was one of the requirements for a sacrifice.

It had to be something that was without any blemish, without any marks. It had to be something that was perfect. I think we just read that recently. Yes, you shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God. Any bull or sheep which has any blemish or defect for that is an abomination.

Jesus Christ as our sacrifice was undefiled. There was no blemish in him. Sinless. And he is separate from sinners. He is separate from us.

He took a human nature but he did not receive a sinful human nature. So he was separate from us in that sense. He was brought into the world, but he was not brought as a sinner. Anselm has noted that God has made man in four different ways. He's made people from men and women.

That's how all of us are made. We have a mother and a father. We were made by a union of a man and a woman. But God has also made a man without a woman, He has made people without a woman as He made Eve. He made Eve just from Adam.

God has made people just from a man. He made Eve from Adam's rib. And He has made people from neither man nor woman as he made Adam out of the dust of the ground. Neither a man nor a woman was involved in that act of creation. But Christ is separate entirely from all of those in that He was made from a woman without a man.

Conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, born of her, born of a woman, and yet without sin. He was fully human. He had a human mother. He had no earthly human father. And so he is separate.

He took our nature upon himself. To his divine nature he added a human nature, but he did it in such a way that he is separate from us. He remains without a sinful nature. So that he who knew no sin became sin for us. The guilt of our sin was imputed to him, and his righteousness, his obedience is imputed to us.

And he is made higher than the heavens. He is a minister in the heavenly sanctuary. We talked about that before. He has passed through the heavens and he entered into this heavenly sanctuary. That earthly tabernacle was just a copy, it was just a shadow of what was in heaven.

And the blood of the bulls and goats that was sprinkled on that earthly tabernacle were completely ineffective for pleasing the wrath of God. But Christ with His own precious blood, sprinkles the heavenly tabernacle, offers his own blood as an atonement for our sins. The efficacy of Christ's priesthood is that he has removed the liability of our sin. He has paid that penalty. So we are no longer under that burden of that debt of our sin.

He has propitiated the wrath of God against us. We have been reconciled to God. We are the ones who have broken God's law. We are the ones who have been alienated from Him by our sin. In Christ, by his priestly work of atonement, by his sacrifice, he has appeased the wrath of God and reconciled us to God.

For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, we will be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. We now have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we also have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope in the glory of God. In that he has brought us to be able to have peace with God. But he also, as our High Priest, intercedes for us.

He ever lives to make intercession for us. This is a wonderful blessing. This is something that is ongoing. He's ever living. His life doesn't end as the Old Testament priest's lives did, but he ever lives to make intercession for us.

He intercedes for us on the basis of his obedience, his righteousness. And his intercession is effective. It's real. It works. We sin.

And the lie of Satan is that, well, that sin is too great. God could never forgive that sin. Yes, you are marked for life. You can never overcome that thing that you've done. That's the lie of the evil one.

God is still upset with you. And we think that because that's the way we are when people have sinned against us, we like to harbor that. And we like to hold on to that. We like to have a sense of they owe us. They're obligated to us.

But Christ as our great high priest has fully appeased the wrath of God, he's fully paid that debt, there is no more obligation. And He makes intercession for us every day. And so therefore we can have peace with God and therefore we can draw near to God in full assurance that our conscience has been cleansed. And so when Satan puts that lie into you, your mind that, well, you've sinned and you really aren't clean, You really aren't good enough for God. You really are damaged goods that can never really be fixed.

You need to remember that Jesus Christ is our great high priest And His blood has turned the wrath of God away from us. His blood has paid that there is no more now obligation that we owe to God for our sin. And that because of that we can draw near to him in full assurance that we are accepted by Jesus Christ, by God through Jesus Christ. That there is peace there and that we have been cleansed. And that we are righteous in His sight, because of the righteousness of Christ.

And that ought to drive us to greater love and admiration and adoration of Jesus Christ, our great High Priest. It's only when we see the greatness of our sin that we can appreciate the greatness of our High Priest and his intercession. And where we doubt that God accepts us, we need to ask the Lord to give us faith to believe in his promises that Jesus Christ is indeed our great high priest who has indeed satisfied the wrath of God and made peace. Christ loved us and he died for the ungodly. He didn't die for people who Didn't need him He died for the wicked the ungodly those who were rebels murderers idolaters thieves fornicators Blasphemers Desecrators of the Sabbath these are the people for whom Christ died, these are the sins whose debt has been paid.

But there's more. Christ, as our High Priest, has a nature like ours. He has a human nature and will for all eternity. What he took, he took forever. And so he is able to sympathize with us in our weaknesses.

There is nothing that you or I could ever experience. There is no pain, no physical pain, no injury. There is no temptation that Christ cannot understand. Because he is a human nature just like us. The worst indignity, the worst thing that you could imagine happening to anyone.

The worst tragedy, the worst of rapes, the worst of murders, the worst of torture and persecution, of suffering, of loss of loved ones. There is nothing, there is nothing that we could even imagine suffering as humans or know of that God cannot, that Christ cannot sympathize with us because he's suffered the same as us. He's been tempted in all the ways that we have. He knows what it's like to have a toothache, a broken back. He knows what it's like to be accused, to be rejected of men, to be mocked, to be ridiculed and belittled.

And That's a difficult thing when that happens. We think no one can understand it. No one knows what we are going through. No one can relate. That might be true on a human level, But it's not true with our great high priest Jesus Christ.

He can sympathize with our situation. Like no other person ever could. He is able to save to the uttermost. He's able to save to the uttermost. He's able to save for all eternity.

This work of salvation that he has accomplished is ongoing in us. We're not redeemed yet. We have this body of sin that suffers. And the hope of our salvation is one day that our bodies will be restored. The spirit and the body will be reunited without pain, without sin, without suffering.

And it's for that redemption that Christ ever lives. He is able to save us to the uttermost. He ever lives to make intercession for us. We are saved completely and we are saved for all time. For those for whom Christ has died, will be saved.

Because Christ has not died in vain. Christ's death was not a hypothetical salvation. He didn't just make possible salvation for people. Christ died to save us from our sins. His death has accomplished that salvation.

His obedience has accomplished our redemption. And Christ's work is not in vain. For us To lose our salvation would be to say that Christ has died in vain. And so Christ is able then to save to the uttermost. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Heavenly Father, we thank you for our great high priest Jesus Christ for His work on the cross, for His ever living to make intercession for us, so that we can come with boldness to Your throne of grace. Not wondering whether we are acceptable to You, but we have Your yay and amen, Your promise which is yay and amen in Christ. That our sins have been forgiven. We ask, Lord, that we might avail ourselves of your work, of the access that you provide to the Father, to your throne.

There to find help in time of need. There to receive your ministering, your intercession for us where we do not know what we have to pray for as we ought. You intercede for us. Where we are overwhelmed with our own sin and its guilt. Your wounds plead for us that our guilt has been removed, That the debt has been paid.

And for this, Father, we are forever grateful. We offer our bodies as a living sacrifice to you this day. For Jesus' sake, Amen.