Jesus Perfectly Meets Our Needs (A sermon based on Hebrews 7:26-28)

Jesus Perfectly Meets Our Needs
A sermon based on Hebrews 7:26-28
Friday, April 10, 2009 -- Good Friday

        Times are getting tougher. And that means I've been getting more phone calls from strangers having a hard time getting their needs met. The electric bill needs to be paid to keep the lights on. The gas tank needs to be filled to get to work. The pantry needs to be filled or the kids will go hungry. A part of me wonders how legitimate each call is, but another part of me, sympathizes with the struggles that more and more are facing. I want to assume the best and am sorry that I can't meet all of these needs. In fact, I can meet very few of them.
         What about your needs? Are all of them met? Or maybe it's better to ask, what do you really need? Do you need the newer vehicle or the extra cable channels? Do you need that new outfit or the new game? Jesus said we could be content with food and clothing. He didn't even mention shelter, being homeless himself for his adult life.
        But the truth is, you have some very great needs that go far beyond these basics of life. You need holiness. You need purity. You need forgiveness. Without these needs being met, the results are far worse than being stranded, without electricity, or even without food. If these needs are left unmet there is an eternity of hell to pay.
        But we rejoice on this most bitter-sweet of nights that no matter how rich or poor any of us are, we never have to worry about having these most important spiritual needs met. Because Jesus, our great High Priest, perfectly meets all of these needs. He gives us holiness, purity, and forgiveness, all of which he won for us by his perfect life and by his perfect sacrifice, which are and will remain perfect forever. Listen to the author of the Hebrews as he describes how Jesus perfectly meets our needs in Hebrews 7:26-28...

²⁶ Such a high priest meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. ²⁷ Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. ²⁸ For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.

I. He Kept the Law Perfectly 

        When things got tough for the Hebrews, when they were facing persecution and trials and pain, they were tempted to get rid of Jesus. After all, he was causing a lot of the problem. They were tempted to go back to the old priesthood and to trust in their sacrifices for God, in the bulls and goats they brought before the altar, all of which pointed ahead to Jesus. But the author wrote them to point out how bad of an idea that was. They would be throwing away the only priest who could really meet their needs.

        How about you? When things get tough, where do you go for help? I doubt that anyone here things that if they sacrifice a bull that their financial situation or struggling relationship  will suddenly improve. But don't we all too often heed the wisdom of this world too? Don't we sometimes place our trust in our sacrifices for God, in our religious involvement, in our works of service? Don't we sometimes focus more on the "great" things we do for God, rather than on what Jesus did for us?

        Those failures make us less than perfect. Let's call them what they are, not just mistakes, or moments of weakness, but sin--ugly, wretched, rebellious sin. For the times we have not placed our complete and total trust in God and his love for us, we are unholy, full of blame, and impure. And so our greatest needs are not just improved physical health, but spiritual health, not just improved relationships, but a relationship with God restored, not just better finances, but the riches of God's mercy.

        And those needs are met perfectly through Jesus...

        First, Jesus meets our need for perfection. Though you and I have been anything but perfect, he was and "is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens... he does not need to offer sacrifices... for his own sins..." He never once sinned. He is pure with no spot of pollution about him, no moral blemish or imperfection. He is blameless even by those who hated him most. In a moment we'll hear how those who wanted Jesus dead freely admitted that he was a good man. "He saved others," they confessed. As he was being tortured to death there was still no sin of hate or vengeance, no unkind words or selfish thoughts, but words of compassion and concern, "John, take care of my mother." "Today you will be with me in paradise." "Father, forgive them" those who are torturing me, an innocent man, the perfect Son of God, "for they do not know what they are doing." And he perfectly trusted in God, still calling him "Father" even as he was forsaken by him to hell.

        Jesus is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens" in a way that we corrupt sinners can never be. But "such a high priest meets our need..." because he gives that perfection away--to you and me. The perfection that God demands of us, he gives us through Jesus our High Priest.

        Jesus has met our need for perfection by perfectly keeping the law in our place. But what about all of our sins? What about our need for forgiveness? Our great High Priest meets that need too...

II. He Made the Perfect Sacrifice

        The author to the Hebrews writes, "He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself." A pastor from another denomination once said to me, "I cannot believe in a god who would kill his own son for my sins, a god who demands, 'Someone has to die for your mistakes!' I mean, what kind of a cruel, vindictive, bitter god is that?!" Now, months later, I wish I had countered, "But what about a God who would willing sacrifice himself?" For that's what we have in our perfect high priest! God did not force Jesus to do what he did. Jesus volunteered.

        The High Priest became the sacrifice, the Passover Lamb who offered his blood that God's wrath might pass over sinners, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world! And unlike the sacrifices of the other priests, Jesus' sacrifice doesn't need to be made again and again. It's a once for all sacrifice. 

        First, it's one sacrifice for all people. It was not some man hanging on that cross that first Good Friday. It was true God. As if Jesus' miracles weren't enough to prove that, nature itself attested to the fact as the sun stopped shining, the rocks split open, the earth trembled at the death of the Son of God. It was obvious to those there that blessed day, that "Surely, he was the Son of God!"
        And that fact, makes a world of difference! Suppose that it were possible for me to live a perfect, sinless life and I were to say to God, "I will die and go to hell as a substitute for all of you." It wouldn't work. It wouldn't be enough because the death of any one person--a perfect and sinless person, mind you--could still only pay for the sins of one other person, to say nothing of 10 or 20 or a billion people. But Jesus is true God. And so his death was enough in God's sight to pay for more than the sins of a few; for the sins of the whole world!

         And Jesus' sacrifice wasn't just once for all people, but also once for all time. Jesus "does not need to offer sacrifices day after day... He sacrificed for... sins once for all... [and] has been made perfect forever." His mission is complete forever. Nothing can ever undo it or make it less than perfect.

        Think of it this way: Bill fought the weeds in his lawn every season. He'd fertilize, he'd spray, he'd pull the weeds by hand. And by the end of summer he'd have it looking pretty good. But every spring he had to fight the battle all over again. The dandelions, the crab grass, and the wild onions kept coming back. Finally, he was done! He ripped out his lawn and put down Astroturf. His lawn would be weed free once and for all, never again needing to be mowed. That's a pretty extreme fix for weeds.

        And God had an extreme fix for sin. The very Son of God took the sins of all people of all time on himself and forsaken by the Father he endured hell itself to pay for every sin once and for all. And the effects continue to this day, and for all eternity, never to be undone.

        You need forgiveness for your sins. And Jesus has perfectly met that need by his perfect sacrifice.

        In 1700's France, if you didn't want to serve in Napoleon's army, you didn't have to. Really! Back then, you could hire a replacement, a substitute, to take your place. That's exactly what one man did. When he was drafted, he hired a friend to take his place. Unfortunately, that friend was killed in battle. Then, before long, through a clerical error, the young man, the one who had done the hiring, was drafted again. When he appeared before the draft board, he argued, "You can't make me go... I have already been killed in a battle." Of course, with the young man standing right in front of them, the draft board thought they had a pretty good case, too. Eventually, the man's plea was brought to Napoleon himself. After examining the evidence, the Emperor passed down his judgment. His decree said, "Through a surrogate, this man has not only fought, but has died in his country's service. No man can die more than once; therefore the law has no claim on him."

        Rejoice, friends, that our perfect High Priest served as our substitute. He lived a  perfect life in our place and gave that perfection to us. He died an innocent death in our place and took the hell we deserve. And by his perfect life and his perfect sacrifice he's met our every need. You have holiness, purity, and forgiveness, which are and will remain perfect forever. Rejoice, this Good Friday, and every day! Amen.