Hebrews 7:1-28 | Jesus - The Better Priest

In the first 10 verses, the author sets about comparing and contrasting two different kinds of priest.

Now, a bit of background for you.

A priest is someone who represents sinful people before a holy God.

Now, just like a peasant like me can't just wander into the court of King Charles, how much less can we sinful human beings have any right to approach or to speak to or have anything to do with the holy God? We need someone authorized to represent us.

We need a priest.

Now, a little while ago, I made this point in a sermon here at church and after the service, a gentleman came up to me and he told me quite self-assuredly that he did not need a go-between, that he could relate to God directly.

He was very confident, but he was completely wrong.

If you think that you can approach God directly, then you have grossly underestimated the damage that sin wreaks in your relationship with God.

You know, you hear those stories of like business partners or family members who are so hostile to each other.

They've had a falling out and the relationship is so damaged that they will refuse to look at each other, refuse to talk to each other.

The only way there can be any communication is through a third party who stands in the middle and just gets beaten up from both sides.

It's a mediator.

That's us and God.

Without a mediator, your relationship with God is dead.

We need a go-between.

We need a priest.

And out of His grace, God takes the initial step.

God gave His people a mediator.

He gave them priests.

Under the Old Testament law, He appointed priests who served in the temple and they offered sacrifices for sin.

And these priests made it possible for sinful people to have a relationship with God.

In the Old Testament, these priests came from a family, the family of a man named Aaron, or Aaron, some people say, Aaron.

And he's from the tribe of Levi.

And so Levi, Leviticus, Levitical, all those words sort of relate to the priests of the Old Testament.

So here in the book of Hebrews, the author has already made the point that Jesus is our priest.