Hebrews 5 Bible Study: Christ Our Superior High Priest

So number one, the requirements of the Old Testament high priest.

And we look in Hebrews chapter five, and we can see a stark contrast between the two different high priests.

Uh, uh, Christ is our perfect high priest because he's a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, or the King of Salem, which means the King of Righteousness and the King of Peace.

So in verse one, our introduction, we see every high priest is taken from among men.

And this was a requirement for the Levitical priesthood.

They had to be taken from among men, for men.

And secondly, they had to be specifically appointed by God himself.

Aaron was, uh, appointed by Moses, but God instructed Moses to appoint him.

So the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled both of these conditions.

The Lord Jesus Christ took on human flesh.

He became a man, and he was appointed by God.

He fulfilled both of these.

But with our Lord Jesus Christ, there was a third requirement added.

And the third requirement is that in order for him to be a perfect high priest, it was necessary for him to suffer.

It was necessary for him to enter agony.

And after, um, having in perfect obedience and faith endured all, he entered into heaven to be a high priest forever and forever.

The scripture says, "Ought not Christ, who suffered these things, ought he not to enter into glory forever?" So Aaron was appointed by God as a direct command of Moses, but all the other priests that followed Aaron, they came by succession.

They, uh...

But the Lord Jesus Christ was different.

He is called to be a high priest.

And even as we go through the book of Hebrews, ten times it mentions, uh, about him being the high priest.

Let me just go through a few of them with us.

He's the merciful and faithful high priest, uh, Hebrews 2:7.

He's the apostle and high priest of our profession, Hebrews 3:1.

He's the great high priest, and we will come back to that.