Text: Hebrews 4:14-16
My master’s thesis was on crisis management. What is a crisis? There are many definitions, but most people define it as when bad news strikes hurting the image of a company. Sometimes, crises come from nature. However defined, crises usually come out of nowhere, and they usually hurt one or more people.
Have you ever felt like your crisis was too much to handle? Or that you had dug yourself too deep a hole?
As we look at Hebrews 4:14-16, read a couple of verses before and notice that the writer has just reminded the Hebrew audience of their checkered past with God and declaring that God knows every man’s faith and works. That touches us, too, because our past is also checkered. But it helps us because we know he also knows our hearts. 14 So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe.
The author references Christ in verse 14 as a High Priest – in the 1200-year lineage of Aaron. The High Priest was set to enter the Holy of Holies to sacrifice on behalf of the people, and verse 14 tells us that sacrifice has been made for us, thanks to the High Preist. Therefore, we should be even more diligent in our grip of hope and faith. As we hold onto that faith, we still struggle.
Sometimes we feel like we can’t recover from our sins and the decisions we make. Surely God doesn’t understand my troubles right? 15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. That’s right. He walked on this earth. Suffered. Hurt. Was questioned. And no one can say to God, “But, you are God, you surely don’t know what this is like!” He knows exactly what it was like.
Isaiah said: He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. (Isaiah 53:3-4) It was our sin that held Him there, not His: But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all. (Isaiah 53:5-6)
But here’s the thing. The reason we “Don’t Quit”? He did it for us. Yes, He carried the sins of the world on his shoulders, for us. But he did it for us. Do you understand that? He didn’t just die so we didn’t have to – no, He died so we don’t have to. The Bible tells us He was separated from the Father. He went through that. He suffered that. He did that – so we don’t have to. Praise be to Jesus, our Savior!
And it’s because of that we can truly get verse 16: 16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. Don’t crawl. Don’t slowly approach His throne. Run. Stand boldly before Him. Perhaps it’s our attitude that keeps us from the presence of God. We see sometimes see God as a judge waiting to slam down a gavel because we have failed Him. But, while God is a just being who will have His way with people – if we who claim to follow God and keep His commandments to the best of our ability will come boldly, confidently, quickly, to the throne of God’s grace – He will be merciful. He is patient, slow to anger and full of grace. I recently read that perhaps if we approach God’s thrown in this way, we honor Him. We are to have no fear of judgment because of what His Son did for us. He has already bought us. He’s paid the ultimate price, and he awaits our coming.
Whatever your crisis is – whatever trouble you are in; whatever your problems – Jesus knows them. And He already paid the price for those setbacks. And we are called to the throne of grace to receive His mercy. He wants us to lift our head, shake off our strife and look to the High Priest who has already entered the Holy of Holies to pave a way to the Promised Land. He has guaranteed rest for us if we will only accept it. He wants us to come before Him with confidence so that He can wrap us in the same arms that brought us redemption and surround us with grace.
Father God, we ask for you to strengthen our resolve so that we may come before your presence with confidence that we are Yours. May we have the faith to run to You and the hope that Your mercy will cleanse us from our transgressions. Thank you for Your Son, and all that his sacrifice means to us. Through Him we pray, Amen.
Joey Roberts
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