Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.—Hebrews 4:14–16

Prayer 

Introduction

My goal here today is to motivate us all to draw near to God and pray. But, I don’t want to try to guilt us into praying. I want to motivate us to pray. In broader terms I want to motivate us to approach God in the way that Hebrews 4:14–16 does.

One of the challenges of preaching from this book of the Bible is that you can’t just say “Paul says” or “Peter says.” We know that this letter was written to Christians who were facing persecution and trials. And we believe it was written at around the same time Paul wrote to the Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. But we do don’t know who wrote this letter. So, you will hear me say “the writer” or “the author” of Hebrews. It’s cumbersome, but what else can we do?

So, here’s where we are going. The writer of this letter to the Hebrews gives two exhortations. But he doesn’t just say “you do this”—he says “we” and “us.” So, he is including himself to show that the exhortations are for his hearers and for himself. You can see the exhortations pretty easily. Look with me. The first one is at the end of verse 14: “let us hold fast our confession.” The second one is at the beginning of verse 16: “let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace.” What motivation does the author give for holding fast and drawing near? Look at verse 14:

"Since then [or because] we have a great high priest ... let us hold fast our confession." So, holding fast is motivated by this great high priest. And now, look at verse 16: “Let us then with confidence draw near.” In other words, because of the great high priest who was just described in verse 15, boldly draw near to the throne of grace. So because the text pushes us there, we will look first at this great high priest and then to each of the exhortations.

Our Great High Priest

Who is this great high priest? What does it mean that he’s great?  He’s not great in the sense that he’s good at it, like “Hey, you’re a great ball player! Or, “You’re a great pianist!” Or, “You’re a great mathematician!” It also doesn’t mean great in the sense that he’s physically bigger than other high priests. This high priest is great in the sense that he is beyond the caliber and significance and importance of the Levitical high priests. In comparison to the priests of the Old Covenant, Jesus is a ‘superior’ high priest. Jesus is supreme!

Right here, there are three ways in which this high priest is described that show us just how great he is: he has passed through the heavens, he is Jesus the Son of God, and he is able to sympathize with our weakness.

I’ll take the middle one first. This great high priest is Jesus, the very Son of God. The writer is reminding us here of how he has spoken in these last days. Turn to the very beginning of Hebrews chapter one, and look at the way Jesus, the Divine Son, is described. 

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.—Hebrews 1:1–4

God brought a final word to the world in his Son. Jesus was that word. He is the word. He will be the word forever—the word that God has spoken for the salvation of the world. God’s word is not just a word that tells us about God. God’s word reveals who he is. When Jesus created the universe, he spoke loudly, "God!" When Jesus walked the earth, his life spoke loudly, "God!" As Jesus upholds the universe, he speaks loudly, "God!" When Jesus purified sinners by his blood and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, he spoke loudly, "God!"

That is why the beginning of Hebrews 2 says “we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard.” Listen up and remember Hebrew Christians, Jesus, the Son of God, is speaking a better word to you than you have ever heard before. God has drawn near. Don’t neglect him. Draw near to him. And we Gentile Christians should not neglect him either. We should draw near to him. And we will get to that in our passage very soon.

Second, Jesus is a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. In other words, when the time of Jesus’ life was complete and he had fulfilled all of the righteous demands of his Heavenly Father, he was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures. He was buried. He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He appeared to the apostles. And then he ascended into heaven.

He passed through the space between earth and the holy place and entered “into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf” (Hebrews 9:24). He has “entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by the means of his own blood, thus securing eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:11–12). That’s why Jesus is the “the mediator of a new covenant” that is better than the first one (Hebrews 7:22; 8:6; 9:15; 12:24). Rather than repeatedly offering sacrifices, like the Old Testament priests did, he suffered “once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Hebrews 9:26; cf. Hebrews 7:27; 9:12; 10:10; Romams 6:10). His obedient suffering and sacrificial death was the display of his perfection before God the Father. And that made the sacrifice of his life perfectly able to remove the sins of those for whom he died. He has made believing sinners perfect in his perfection before the Father (Hebrews 2:10; 5:9). Jesus endured the cross and entered into joy on the other side. Now he ever lives and pleads for me and for you and welcomes us into that joy.

Third, Jesus is a great high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses. We know from Hebrews 5:2 that priests of the Old Covenant were able to “deal gently” with God’s people because they were used to dealing with their own weaknesses. But what about this lofty high priest of the New Covenant? Can he really relate to us?

J.E. Rosscup in his book An Exposition on Prayer in the Bible says, “The reason the writer sees need to point out this great high priest’s sympathy is not because Old Testament priests were (at least in right cases) without [sympathy], but because His being in the heavens, and being the very Son of God, might cause some to suppose that He must lack full identity with other humans.”

But to doubt Jesus’ ability to identify with other humans makes him something other than fully human. That’s why the writer goes on to say that Jesus has been tempted in “every respect as we are.” Hebrews 2:17–18 gives us a little better understanding of what is going on here. Let’s look at it together:

Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

So Jesus is fully human, and was really tempted, and really suffered in that temptation. So he gets what it is like to tempted. But there is one striking contrast between Jesus and the rest of humanity. Jesus was tempted, “yet without sin.” The priests of the Old Covenant could not make anyone perfect by their sacrifices. Those priests could not take away sins because they themselves were sinful (Hebrews 10:1, 11). Christ, however, as the only high priest of the New Covenant, is the Son of God. He “has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 10:12–14). He entered into human temptation and withstood it perfectly without sin so that those who are tempted with sin might be set free from sin’s penalty, set free from sin’s power, and one day, be set free from sin’s presence forever!

Under the Old Covenant (the law), only the high priest could go into the most holy place of the temple and offer sacrifices for his own sins and the sins of the people. And he could only go in once a year. Jesus is a superior high priest because he was not appointed through the law after the order of Aaron. Jesus was appointed by God as a high priest after the order of Melchizedek, which makes him a priest forever. God established Jesus as priest by the character of his purpose and by his oath. Hebrews shows that Jesus fulfilled Psalm 110, which says “The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.’” I don’t have time to try to unpack Melchizedek, but let it suffice to say that it means that Jesus is a priest forever, who always lives to make intercession for us before the Father.

When Jesus was on the cross, his torn body made way for him to enter into the holy place. Jesus died to save God’s people who were crying out for help under a law that could not save them from their sin. Jesus, through his own blood, brought in a New Covenant, an eternal covenant based on better promises. Christ is a great high priest because he has a better ministry than that of the Old Testament priests. Christ’s ministry is as much more excellent than the old ministry as the covenant he mediates is better than the Old Covenant. The crux of the New Covenant says, “I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” and “I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more” (Hebrews 8:10, 12). What better promises! What better hope!

Jesus our great high priest has purified us from our sin by his blood; he has gone before us into the presence of God, and he is now welcoming us to come with him into the very presence of God. Our sins were like scarlet. Jesus has washed them whiter than snow. Oh, what a great high priest we have in Jesus! And because of his greatness as the mediator between a Holy God and sinful man, we have every reason, every motivation to take heed of these two exhortations from the writer of this letter to the Hebrews.

Let Us Hold Fast Our Confession (v. 14)

Now this “confession” is a statement of allegience or commitment which should produce some kind of action. And “hold fast” means “to adhere strongly to” and “to remain closely united to” the confession. One commentator, Peter O’Brien, said this confession is the believers’ public confession of Jesus “as the majestic divine Son.” In 2 Corinthians 9:13, Paul states the content of the Christian confession explicitly as the “confession of the gospel of Christ.” So, a believer’s confession must emphasize not only Christ’s Sonship but also all that the Son has done in his mediating role between believers and God. We can say that to “hold fast our confession” is a heart-consumed clinging to the good news of Jesus, the Son of God, as our great high priest. This was exactly the message that these Christians needed to hold to because they were facing persecution and trials and needed encouragement to stay put in their faith. 

In fact, this is a repeated message throughout the letter to the Hebrews, so it must be pretty important. Hebrews 2:1 says “we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” The idea is that fixating on the gospel message keeps you from being tossed about on the sea of doubt. It's like holding a ship on course until it gets safely home no matter how hard the waves are crashing against it. So, the writer puts it in a different way, but he means basically the same thing. Don’t neglect the gospel of your salvation. If you do, you might gradually drift off course.

This is not just a repeated theme in Hebrews. It goes beyond Hebrews. Holding fast our confession is, in effect, a form of taking “every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Taking every thought captive to obey Christ is the mind’s version of “I discipline my body and keep it under control” (1 Corinthians 9:27). This is a process of the mind learning to obey all that Christ has commanded (Matthew 28:18–20) and resting in “all the promises of God” which “find their Yes in him” (2 Corianthians 1:20). It is a discipline to hold your mind and your heart on the topic of Jesus.

According to the Apostle Paul, when a person has this kind of heart-consumed allegiance to the gospel of Jesus Christ, amazing things happen: people submit to authority, and they give generously for the blessing of others. Glory to God happens! People with a heart-consumed clinging to the gospel of Jesus Christ have confidence to stand before “many witnesses” and even “Pontius Pilate” and give testimony to the gospel that has saved them (1 Timothy 6:12–13).

But it is not making the confession with your lips that gives the confidence. It’s the content of the confession held onto in your heart that gives the confidence. The content is the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as the believer’s perfect high priest who mediates their relationship with God. This is not new news. But it is good news because a heart-consumed clinging to this confession will lead us to do something greater than standing before many witnesses or even Pontius Pilate. A heart-consumed clinging to all Jesus is for us gives us confidence to come before the very throne of God. And this is the writer’s second exhortation in verse 16. 

Let Us Draw Near With Confidence (v. 16)

So, here is the second exhortation that the writer of Hebrews gives. But what does it mean to draw near?

Well, this is where we finally relate what I’ve been saying to prayer. Hebrews talks about drawing near as more than just prayer. It is drawing near to God. But people can’t physically enter into a place called God’s throne room and approach his throne. As the song says, “You are God in heaven, and here am I on earth.” So, what is the writer asking his readers to do? 

First, we need to remember that this should be a throne of judgment and wrath to us in our sin. "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4–6). We have gained access to God, and his throne is a throne of grace because we have been made alive with Christ. I am his and he is mine. He is at the right hand of the throne of God, and he has made it a throne of grace for me through his blood. Now, I can draw near to the throne of grace because Jesus is right there pleading my case.

If you have not been made alive in Christ, he is not pleading your case. God’s throne remains a throne of judgment and wrath to you. You have no hope for coming to God and knowing his grace unless Jesus is pleading your case. Turn from your sin, come to Jesus, and be saved.

If you have been made alive in Christ, you can come into the holy place of the very presence of God. That is what it means to draw near to the throne of grace. You cannot come into a physical throne room, but you sure can draw near to God in your heart when you look to Jesus and the way he made for you to do it.

Why should we draw near to the throne of grace? What does verse 16 say is the purpose for drawing near? Draw near so that you might "receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

What is implied by our receiving and finding? Asking! Jesus said, “Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you" (Matthew 7:7, Luke 11:9). With a heart-consumed clinging to who Jesus is for us, we come before the very presence of God and boldly ask him for what we need. That is absolutely amazing. It seems too good to be true. But we have to remember that God delights to give good gifts to his children. 

James 1 says that God gives generously, without reproach. When you come to God through faith in Jesus and pray, he doesn’t look down his nose at you, but gives out of his generous fatherly character. Good earthly fathers don’t give stones when their children ask for bread. How much more will our Heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him? He even gives the Holy Spirit! So often we do not have because we do not ask. Or we ask just to feed our sinful selves.

That’s why God, in his kindness, puts governors on our prayers. Jesus said, “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you” (John 15:7). Ephesians 6 says to take the “sword of the spirit,” which is the word of God, and pray. 1 John 5 speaks of praying according to God’s will and then receiving what you have asked of God. 

Abiding in Jesus’ words and praying according to God’s word does not mean that we should pray only the words of Scripture. We should pray the words of Scripture, and yet, there are other requests to be made that are not explicitly articulated in the Bible. While abiding in Jesus and with his words rightly interpreted and abiding in us, however, we can ask for many things according to God’s word which gives assurance that we are praying more closely to God’s will. Abiding in Jesus gives confidence to ask and abiding in his Word governs what is asked.

Jesus is the object of our faith in prayer, and his words (re: God’s word) should inform, guide, shape, undergird, and surround the content of our prayers. Drawing near to God’s word in our minds and hearts facilitates drawing near to God’s throne in our prayers. Drawing near to God’s word in prayer moves our prayer more towards the grace and mercy that is promised when we come to his throne in Christward confidence.

Deterrents to Drawing Near

But you might ask, “Will I receive mercy and find grace? Will I? I have prayed before and have not gotten the help I needed. I drew near and prayed to God and then watched my whole life unravel before my eyes.” This is a very sensitive point and I do not enter into it lightly, but I want us to embrace the all the ways God helps us, even when he seems silent to us. Have you ever known the grace of God’s silence? You feel like you need an answer, but God knows that what would be good for you is not an answer, but Himself when there is nothing else to cling to.

You might say, “Okay, practically what kind of help is that? I needed that job to support my family. I needed God to heal my son. I needed God to repair my marriage. I needed God to save my Dad. Where was the mercy and grace!?” Many of you know the answer to this. Where were the mercy and grace? What was Paul’s response to one of his prayer requests that God did not answer in the way that he had hoped? You know where I am going with this:  

So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.—2 Corinthians 12:7–10.

Paul pleaded with the Lord three times about his affliction. He even called it a messenger of Satan sent to harass him. He asked God to take it from him and God didn’t. Jesus answered Paul with more grace than Paul would have received had Paul received what he asked for. Jesus said, “My grace is enough for you, Paul. I am going to make my power perfect in your weakness.”

How did Paul respond to this? Did he shake his fist at God and ask God why he didn’t show up? No. There was a deep spirit-wrought gladness of heart in the middle of his pain that said, “Okay, power of Christ rest upon me, and I will be content no matter what you bring my way. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

So where was the mercy and grace? As a sinful man Paul deserved to get puffed up in his conceit and suffer the consequences. It was a mercy that the Lord did not allow that. It was a grace that Jesus instead gave Paul Himself in power. So there is no doubt that Paul received mercy and grace.

Raise your hand if you were in 2nd grade last year. Keep it raised if you were in the 2nd Grade Wednesday Connection class. Do you remember what you learned about the way God answers prayer? What are the three ways God might answer prayer? Can you say them with me? “Yes. No. Or not yet.” 

When God says no or not yet to our prayers, we need to remember that he is not ignoring us. He is giving a mercy, revealing a grace that is better than the gift we were seeking. He is giving the grace of Himself, the Giver. Whether we receive what we are asking from God or not, God himself is always the greater gift.

We need to remember that prayer, at its root, is communion with God. No matter what prayers we are praying or what needs we have, communion with God is the ultimate goal. Coming before the throne of grace so that you can receive mercy is coming before a king, the only king who can pardon you for your sins. You have communed with him, then, on the basis of his mercy.

Coming before the throne of grace so that you can find grace is coming before this same king, who is the only king who can grant you the favor you need to stand in his presence and not be consumed by his holy wrath, but instead know his love. You have communed with him, then, on the basis of his grace. He has made the way for this through the blood of his own Son, the High Priest of Heaven. The High Priest of heaven communed with us on earth so that through him we who are still on earth could commune with the Father in Heaven. “High priest of heaven my victory won. May I reach heaven’s joys, oh bright heaven’s Sun. Heart of my own heart whatever befall; still be my vision, O Ruler of all.”

Is that your prayer? Pause and ask yourself. Is Jesus truly my vision? Lord, are you truly what I am aiming at? Or is there something else I treasure more? Health or healing? A husband? A wife? A better husband or a better wife? A job or financial stability? A perfect church? Or, is God your gold? Is he what you feel you need most? God make it so for all of us.

This is all good, you might say, but what do we do if we feel like we just can’t draw near to God because we feel our own sin so much, our failures, our deficiencies, our inadequacies, our weaknesses, or our wanderings and think, “I could not possibly come before a holy God with all my garbage. How could God accept me?”

But that is the point! All of my deficiency serves to highlight the sufficiency of Christ and his sacrifice on my behalf. If I keep my eyes on me, I will not come before God because my sin is worthy of God’s wrath and I feel crushed if I stay there. But oh dear friends, what a hope, what a confidence we have to come before God! Coming before God in prayer states loudly and clearly both my deficiency and Christ’s sufficiency. And friends, that is very pleasing in the sight of our God. What an unbelievably beautiful privilege it is to come before the throne of God above. A throne that should be for us a throne of judgment is now a throne of grace. I can draw near to the throne of Grace because Jesus is right there pleading my case! When I don’t draw near to the throne of grace through Jesus, it reveals not how deficient I really am, but how self-sufficient I really think I am. Oh may our sin and weaknesses press us in to the forgiveness and favor to be found at the throne of grace through Jesus.

Feel like you’ve got nothing to give? Good! Jesus gave his all. Do you have the weight of sin on your shoulders? Come to Jesus. Jesus paid it all. Does it seem impossible? Yes. But the children can help us again here. Children, you remember this Fighter Verse, don’t you? “What is impossible with man is possible with God" (Luke 18:27).

So what if you come before God and you do not have words to pray? You can always pray God’s word. Open up his word and pray it back to him. This passage is a really good one to begin your time in prayer. You can pray, “Father in Heaven, since I have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, your Son, I come to you holding on to my confession in him. I do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with my weaknesses. Jesus sympathizes with my weaknesses, but he has been tempted in every respect as everybody is, yet without sin. So I draw near now to your throne of grace, so that I can receive mercy and find grace to help me in my time of need.”

You never have to remain stuck in prayer. As you begin to pray God’s word, your mind and heart, over time, will come back to life in prayer because the word of God will wake up your faith in Jesus and your faith in Jesus will bring you more words to pray.

So Let Us Hold Fast Our Confession and Draw Near to God. But How? 

How do you hold fast and draw near to God? Rehearsal. Practice it every day and in the moments of your days. When a musician practices scales on her clarinet, how does she know she really knows them, that she has really grasped the ability to play them well? Does she practice until she gets them right? No, she practices the scales until she can’t get them wrong. Then, she knows that she’s got it down. She can play scales in her sleep and she probably does! Scales are so important for a musician because they are basic to so many other things in the realm of music. You’ve got to know your scales. They are fundamental to everything else.

I would encourage the same thing in the realm of the Christian life. What would be similar to scales for the Christian life? The gospel. But knowing and living the gospel does not come naturally. It takes practice. How much should we practice the gospel in our lives? Until we get it right, or until we just understand it with our minds? No, we should rehearse the gospel not until we get it right, but over and over and over until we cannot get it wrong. This will take a lifetime of daily practice. Just like a great musician never stops practicing scales, a faithful Christian never stops rehearsing the gospel. Get up. Rehearse the gospel. Go to work. Rehearse the gospel. Love and lead your wife and children. Rehearse the gospel. 

So let’s just say you are sitting in your car on the way to work tomorrow and out of the blue a thought comes to your mind. You didn’t spend enough time with God this morning. You start feeling guilty. Where do you do with that?  Sometimes I can enter into what I call "stinkin’ thinkin’." Thinking that has the stench of self, rather than the aroma of Christ.

I didn’t do what I should have done. The day is going to be horrible. The traffic is going to be worse. I have no hope for God’s blessing today. Where should you go with that? Hold fast your confession! Draw near to God’s throne of grace. Yes, it is true that I did not spend the time I should have spent with you this morning, Lord. I repent and turn to you. I am so glad that my relationship with you does not depend on my faithfulness but on the faithfulness of my great high priest. I cling to Jesus. I cling to his perfect life. I cling to his death for my sin. I cling to his resurrection power. And I come to you and ask forgiveness. Have mercy on me, Lord. Grant grace for today and bright hope for tomorrow. Great is your faithfulness, Lord, unto me.

And you can do the same with any idle time of the mind. Turn to Jesus and draw near to God in your commutes to work, walking on campus in between classes, brushing your teeth, on the way to a big meeting or stressful worksite or difficult conversation.

The moment I take my eyes off of Jesus, my hope and confidence begin to waver, and they should. The longer I look at the tumult around me, the longer I look at my failures and weaknesses, my hope diminishes because hope cannot be found there. My confidence droops because confidence cannot be found there. When all around my hope gives way, He then is all my hope and stay! On Christ the Solid Rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand! All other ground is sinking sand!

Closing Prayer

So, Lord, help us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and his gospel. And may our hope and our confidence in him increase. That is where they can be found—in Jesus alone. Help us to trust in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of our sins and the fulfillment of all God’s promises to us, even eternal life. This is an all-of-life thing. So, help our hearts to be consumed with clinging to Jesus as your High Priest. Help us to come before the throne God the Father through our confidence in Jesus, and receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Help us to look for that mercy and grace and embrace it in all of the ways God gives it.