Generally we know where to get help; if we’re ill we go to the doctors, if we need plumbing sorted we ring a plumber and so on. But what about when you are struggling with your faith? Perhaps it’s the battering of trials, or being bombarded by hostile questions from friends, or the cynical comments of colleagues? Or maybe it’s the disenchantment caused by the actions of other Christians?

We find our passion for God dimming; we go through the motions, maybe enjoying familiar ritual but the joy isn’t there, gradually we begin emphasizing things other than Jesus. We begin drifting, our hearts begin to harden, we’re still in church, still active but there isn’t any joy. Our danger is deformed Christianity with Jesus on the periphery of life, joy replaced by activity and real relationship eroded into dry formalism.

The pastor is worried about exactly that for this church; that they’re drifting away from the gospel into dead formalism, that their hearts are hardening and their faith and joy are fading. If that’s the diagnosis, what is his treatment? Hebrews is a majestic tour of who Jesus is and what he has done.

It’s a bit like a fire, when the flames die down how do you get it going again? Add new fuel for it to feed on.

That is what the pastor is doing here; he keeps showing them Jesus - giving their faith fuel to feed on. Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God, he’s better than angels, better than Moses, he’s our Apostle, the way to enter God’s rest by faith and our High Priest like no other.

4:14-16 are a hinge, they conclude the exhortations to keep the faith in ch1-4 and introduce and apply the High Priesthood of Jesus which chs5-10 focus on. Ch5 introduces us to Jesus High Priesthood by comparing and contrasting Jesus(5-10) and Aaron(1-4) adding more fuel to the fire of faith.

1. Jesus: appointed by God (5-6)
(1,4)Tell us that Aaron is appointed High Priest by God. (5-6)Compare Jesus who was also appointed by God. But that is where the similarities end, Jesus priesthood is far greater than Aarons. (5) Describes Jesus high priesthood, what is the word used? "glory". It looks back to 1:3 "The Son is the radiance of the Father’s glory", in Jesus we see the dazzlingly brilliance of God.

But there are other differences made clear by the quotations from Psalms. What do they tell us? Jesus is God’s Son, and his priesthood is eternal like Melchizedek’s. Twice Melchizedek is mentioned here almost as an appetizer for ch7 and we’ll look at him when we get there in a few weeks. Do you see the contrast; Aaron and Jesus are both appointed by God but Jesus is God’s Son and his appointment as High Priest is eternal, he alone reveals God in his glory.

Both Psalms are Messianic, about God’s long promised ruling King. Jesus is God’s Son, God’s long promised King come, and he is a better, a unique, forever High priest.

Do you see the fuel the pastor adds to the flickering embers of their faith. (14)Therefore, since we have a great High Priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.

Last week we saw how God’s word penetrates and unmasks us before God. But we don’t need to be terrified because we have a high priest who is in heaven acting for us now. Who as God’s word uncovers and highlights, encourages and convicts us stands interceding for us with his Father, so we can be sure and hold firmly to our faith in Jesus, rather than live in fear.

Do you see the encouragement? See Jesus again, be amazed at who he is and what he is doing for you. Even as God’s word exposes us and our sin he is in heaven acting for us, hold on to your faith.

2. Jesus: just like us(7-8)
This week big controversy has been what? The spending review. It has divided people and listening to the radio on Thursday you got a sense of them and us. It’s OK for them but what about us who will feel the pinch, whose jobs are under threat, they spoke of big faceless numbers but each of those represent a person, a family, one of us. They don’t know what it is like, they won’t feel the pain, the pinch, they won’t suffer but we will.

That’s not a charge you can level against God. Just as the High priest was selected from among the people(1) and shares in their weaknesses(2) so Jesus became a man, lived on earth and suffered. The gospel is not a story of them and us, it isn’t God up there in glory and man down here suffering, God becomes just like us in Jesus; he gets hungry, tired, feels pressure, cries, mourns, gets angry, knows what it is to be afraid, face temptation, hatred, anger, resentment, and what to be innocent yet be treated as if guilty.

But that is where the similarity ends between Aaron and Jesus, because (3)Aaron faced those things and sinned, so he had to make atonement offerings for his own sin before he could make offerings for the people. But not Jesus, he is without sin(4:15) but he does make an offering what offering? "prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears..."

Jesus is tempted but never sins so he doesn’t need to make a sin offering instead he makes a prayer offering, in fact he turns again and again to prayer. There is some debate about what Jesus is praying for, some say "the one who could save him from death" is just another way of referring to God. I think it is a reference to God but is also more than that it’s the subject of his prayer. Why?

Firstly how are his prayers described? "fervent cries and tears" there’s an urgency and sincerity to Jesus prayers which mark biblical prayers for deliverance. Secondly Jesus prayers are linked to his submission to God’s will(8). Jesus comes on a mission, knowing he will die judged for sin in our place. It is what the battle is over during his temptations in the wilderness as Satan challenges whether he really is God’s perfect obedient Son, whether he will willingly walk the path of obedience to death.

It is what Jesus teaches his disciples to pray as a reflection of his own prayers ‘Your kingdom come, your will be done’, not in a passive resigned sense but an active obedient sense. It is what we glimpse in Gethsemane as he sees the cup of God’s anger for sin that he must drink and prays "My Father, if it is possible may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." three times. Jesus in his prayers is offering himself as God’s perfect obedient Son as a willing sacrifice, and God answers his prayer; he is saved from death it cannot keep its hold on him.

Jesus is the ultimate high priest, perfect yet who offers himself in our place and is delivered from death by his Father. (4:15)That means when we are tempted we can go to one who understands our temptation, who can sympathise with our battle and our struggle to be God’s obedient sons, yet who also provides the perfect example of it for us, who achieves it on our behalf. We have a high priest to whom we can go who understands! So go to him.

3. Jesus: our eternal Saving High Priest
Sin separates us from God just as the channel separates us from Europe, but unlike the channel there is no way to cross sin.

The High priest on the day of atonement provided a picture of that. Only he could enter the most Holy Place the symbolic throne room of God to make atonement for the people but first he had to sacrifice for his own sin. Sin separates he alone has access to God once forgiven, the people only have access to God once forgiven, once something dies in their place, but this must be repeated year on year. Sin destroys relationship and divides us and God.

Just like Aaron Jesus makes an offering for sin, but unlike Aaron it is not a bull and a goat and it doesn’t have to be repeated. Jesus offers himself and it is eternal, it saves "he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him."

But (9)poses a question doesn’t it, what is it? Was Jesus imperfect before he went through suffering? The sense in which the word is used is fully equipped.

In his living as a man overcoming temptation and suffering and remaining God’s beloved Son in whom he was well pleased Jesus is fully equipped to be an offering in our place. He lives life as the perfect man in our place and yet dies bearing our judgement.

How are we to respond? "obey him",, disobedience in ch3-4 is unbelief therefore obedience here is belief in action.

(4:16)That means we approach God’s throne of grace with confidence. Because Jesus is our High priest and has opened the way to eternal salvation we can approach God not terrified but forgiven, knowing we will find grace and mercy in our time of need.

When we are struggling with unbelief the right place to go is to God, as God’s word exposes our hearts it points us to our dependence on God and so we go to him knowing Jesus our High priest has secured our access and standing as God’s children.

When we are tempted likewise we turn to God, we don’t depend on ourselves because we are aware of our weaknesses and failings but we go to God in his strength because he can help us.

When we feel weak, perhaps we are struggling with our singleness, or with children, with our marriage, with illness, with work, with anything. Jesus our High priest is in heaven now for us having opened up the way to God and ensuring that we will find mercy grace and help.

Where do you go when your faith is sick? You look again at Jesus, who he is what he has done for you, the access he gives you not because you are worth it but because of grace. You look and are amazed at the access you always have to God’s throne and you go to God through Jesus, amazed again at what he has done for you.

Hebrews