Hebrews Chapter 5 Verses 5 – 6

• We’ve heard this Psalm quoted before in this letter haven’t we? Sure have. Back in Chapter 1 verse 5 as the writer was establishing Jesus’ superiority over angels. “For to which of the angels did He ever say, “You are My Son, today I have begotten You?” So Jesus is no angel. He is higher than Michael, He is not Michael. He is higher than Lucifer, He is not His brother…He is who He said He is…and here in Chapter 5 again, Jesus is higher than any high priest taken from among men!
• But then…da da daaaaaaaa! The author, if talking about angels wasn’t enough…if elevating Jesus above Moses wasn’t enough, if catapulting Jesus beyond Joshua and higher than even the high priest wasn’t enough, he invokes the ultimate authority, the precedential high priestliness of the OT super hero Melchizedek….quoting straight out of Psalm 110!
• This guy, this Melchizedek is ultra mysterious! Appears seemingly out of nowhere (in slow motion…with theme music!) in Genesis 14 after Abraham went beast mode all over Chedorlaeomer and his three allies. Melcheizedek, the priest of El Elyon (God Most High)…his name literally means, “King of Righteousness,” well turn over to Hebrews 7 and read with me verses 1 – 3…
• The writer of Hebrews I believe is revealing that this event back in Genesis 14 was a Christophany! An Old Testament appearance of Jesus Christ! Super mystery here! Turn over to Genesis 14 and check this out!! (We gotta read the whole thing)
• Psalm 110 says he is a priest forever and then Hebrews 6:20 says that’s Jesus according to the order of Melchizedek. Typically “order” in this context would mean succession yet none in this order are ever mentioned after Melchizedek himself and so the “order” can be ascribed totally to Jesus…fully vested in Him alone…therefore concluding that Melchy and Jesus…same-same!
• What’s more, “without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, but made like the Son of God…(aphomoioo – express yourself, like a copy, a facsimile! HA).” I think we have a bingo, Gertrude! And so the writer makes that connection here which would have BLOWN THE MINDS of the Hebrew readers because now they’re thinking, “This Jesus…superior to angels, superior to Moses, superior to the High Priest, superior to Abraham…and He’s the OT super hero???!!!” BOOOOOM! So the writer introduces Jesus again one appointed by God the Father Himself and even the mysterious Melchizedek…

Hebrews Chapter 5 Verse 7

• Where did that occur for Jesus? In the Garden of Gethsemane! Right! Notice, remember, what was the prayer? “If there is any other way…” What was the answer? “No.” But didn’t He pray vehemently? With cries and tears? Didn’t He pray to Him who was able? The answer to all of that is yes but man prayer, the gift of prayer, is not to change God…but to change me. To conform my heart and will to His…to see it His way…not the other way around…prayer is a place where we learn submission to God’s ways and will, man…my how we’ve got that so backwards…
• In Jesus’ most intense moment, He reveals this purpose…to create heart, soul, mind and strength harmony with what God wants…And here is the amazing thing. When you get there…when your desires align with God’s desires you find something stunning. You discover that’s what you truly wanted all along. Yes there may be a cross to endure, yes it’s the narrow path the hard way, but on the other side of that cross is the resurrection!  
• Prayer, fasting, supplications, sacrificial giving, Bible study, service, worship…it’s all to align our hearts with God’s…not the other way around…if you don’t get this then prayer and fasting and giving and worship and service and Bible study and good works even will always be a problem for you and ultimately will fade to black and white…when God has such a full blessing in full color waiting for us within His perfect and unchanging will…(fellowship pig story – HA!)

Hebrews Chapter 5 Verse 8

• We scratched on this on Wednesday night…that Jesus, fully God was also fully man and somehow someway, even in His humanity, so that He would be a real brother to James, a real Son to Mary, understand what it is like to be just like one of us…to be our Go’el, He laid aside His majesty and stepped through the life of a man…even learning to subdue the pangs of the flesh…hunger, thirst, weariness, anger, want and discouragement…He learned…this is huge!!!!!

Hebrews Chapter 5 Verse 9

• Always perfect in person, He became perfectly suited and perfectly prepared to be called not only our God and our Creator but also our Friend, our Comforter, our Sympathizer, our Compassion-ator, and ultimately our High Priest…

Hebrews Chapter 5 Verses 10 – 11

• Wow, how humbled He was for me. That He would step into this mess and learn it first-hand…experience suffering in the physical for the first time in all of eternity…and through that suffering, His love was for the first time, personally put on physical display…and what did it look like? Submission.
• And the writer says here, “There’s so much more to unlock.” There are major pieces of doctrine, connecting their culture and past and present and cares and hearts and schooling and upbringing…I mean the writer is connecting it all now in the Person of Jesus but yet he says, “There’s SO MUCH MORE, but I can’t tell you, you’re dull of hearing.”

• Literally that phrase “dull of hearing” is the Greek word for “ignorant.” But the ignorance, why even now they’re probably lost or disinterested, that ignorance is not from not hearing but rather from not listening…not caring, ultimately not believing…ignoring what they’ve heard…I’ve heard and even said several times, “I’m just not getting anything. I study, I read, I pray, I go to church, but its…well…I’m just not getting it…”

• Here’s the question…are you ignoring what you’ve learned? Are you installing? Are you doing it, man! Why would God give you more, give me more, when I’m not walking in what I’ve already got? Why give the keys to the family car to the baby? See what I’m saying…what is the last thing God did show you…? Are you doing it? There’s so much more…but step 1 comes before step 2…

Hebrews Chapter 5 Verses 12 – 15

• Oh how I love this…All the traditions, all the festivals, all the works, all the attending church services, all the types, the pointers, the hints, the clues, the opportunities…and yet, in a way, we’re still at square one…goes for us too. Church for years, maybe 10, 15 years! Hundreds of Bible studies, maybe thousands and yet…well correction is needed. Dude gets saved and only after one year he’s ten miles deeper than you in understanding…in love…in submission to God…and delighted to be there…What’s happened? Maybe it’s all only a thing…only a tradition, a festival, motions…
• What does that look like? Well, it says here that the skill comes by reason of use…mixing the word with faith, man…skill and rest virtually the same thing…and then discernment of both good and evil. The sixth sense as it were…, “I see dead people…all the time!” But the world judges us and says, “Don’t point out my death you death pointer-outer!” But how can we see death lest we also can see life? This discernment…can be developed and needs to be developed…
• Effective correct navigation of this life right into the next man…Heed what you have heard, be diligent to press enter, to bring it to the install of the heart and then press “submit…” Many of the Jews were reversing and many of us are backsliding…and the definition of that…arrested development…no longer growing…that is not God’s heart for us…God’s heart for us is so very much more…