Our scripture reading this evening is Hebrews chapter 5, verses 7 through 10. Hebrews 5, verses 7 through 10. Hear the word of God. During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek. This ends our reading from God's Word this evening. Some of you perhaps are the sort who like to come into church before the service starts and to look at your bulletins and to see what the title of the sermon is. And those of you who did that this evening will notice that the title of my sermon is Learning Obedience. And if you had seen that, you may have assumed that I would be preaching about we as Christians learning obedience. About our sanctification, about our growth in holiness and righteousness before the Lord. That would have not been an unreasonable assumption for you to make. But as you've noticed, as we have just read this passage of Scripture together, Though the passage does indeed speak about learning obedience, it's not about us Christians learning obedience. It's about Jesus Christ learning obedience. And that perhaps doesn't strike us as sounding exactly right when we hear it. What does it mean for Jesus Christ to learn obedience? How can it be that the one who is holy and righteous from all eternity would need to learn obedience in his life on earth? And yet this is what the author of Hebrews tells us Christ indeed did. Now I might have given this sermon a different title. I might have called this sermon, Becoming Perfect. And if you had seen that title, you may well have made a similar assumption to the first. You may have thought, well, this must be a sermon about the hope that we have of eternal life. of the day when Christ comes, when we indeed are made perfect, where we can serve God truly as He commands us to. And though that too would not have been an unreasonable assumption to make, you again would have been wrong. For though our passage does indeed speak about being made perfect, it is not we Christians who are said to be made perfect, it is again Jesus Christ who is said to be made perfect. And like the other phrase, this one also does not quite strike our ears correctly. How can it be that Jesus Christ, the one who from eternity is pure, spotless, undefiled, how can he become perfect? Why does he have any need to be made perfect? And yet here again, the author of Hebrews tells us that this is exactly what happened to our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the author of Hebrews is not simply trying to baffle us, not simply trying to play tricks with us. He has something very, very important that he is trying to instruct us in these verses. You see in verse 9, he says that this Jesus Christ is the source of eternal salvation. And that above all else is what we need to know about our Lord Jesus Christ. We want to know Christ not as a historical curiosity, not as a fine teacher, not as an excellent moral example, but we seek to know Him precisely as He is the source of eternal salvation. It is as such that we put our faith in Him. It is as such that we worship Him. It is as such that we rest upon Him for this life and the life to come. But the author of Hebrews explains to us here that if we are to understand and know and believe in Jesus Christ as the source of eternal salvation, we need to know Him as the one who indeed has learned obedience, as the one who indeed has become perfect. And in these verses, the author explains to us what this is all about. Now, as we look at these verses, verses 7 through 10, it may be helpful for a few moments to consider the broader context to which these verses come. I come to you and pick up a passage right in the middle of an extended argument that the author of Hebrews is making. And it may be helpful for us to consider what the author has just said and why he says what he does here in our verses. If you have your Bibles open and you look back to the opening verse of chapter 5, you see that the author here is beginning to explain what it means for Jesus to be our great high priest. Now, many Christians who are instructed by the catechism will remember that Jesus had three offices. He had the offices of prophet, priest, and king. And the idea that Jesus is a priest is one of the central ideas of this book of Hebrews. What we have also learned from the catechism is that when we say that Jesus is our priest, What we mean is that, number one, he offers up himself as a final sacrifice for sin. And number two, that he intercedes for us. He prays for those of us who are his own. So Jesus Christ is a priest. And it is at the beginning of chapter 5 of Hebrews that the author begins an extended discussion of what it means for Jesus to be such a high priest. In these opening six verses of chapter 5, one of the things that the author wants to highlight for us is the fact that as a high priest, Jesus was appointed. He was designated or set apart by God to serve in this task. And that's important. All priests in the Old Testament were appointed by God. One didn't just volunteer to be a priest. One couldn't be democratically elected to serve as a priest. It is God's salvation which is to be administered to the people. And so God in His sovereignty is the one who sets apart those whom He wishes to serve as priests before Him. And when Jesus came into this world to be that great, last, final High Priest, He Himself was appointed by God, set apart from the rest of men to serve in this very special task. In verse 5, the author says, Christ also did not take upon himself the glory of becoming a high priest. And then the author quotes two Old Testament verses to show that Jesus indeed was set apart, appointed to serve in this capacity. You may think back to the stories in the Gospels. Was there ever a story about Jesus by some ritual in some special event being set apart as a priest? There isn't any story like that. But what we do have, and what the author of Hebrews points us to, is two Psalms, Psalm 2 and Psalm 110, both of which prophesy about this Messiah who was to come, who would be set apart as this special high priest to offer up a sacrifice for sins and to pray for us, God's people. It is the second of these verses which is of particular importance for us this evening and which is of particular importance for the book of Hebrews. Psalm 110 verse 4 says this, You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. That is the word which the Father speaks to the Son. Now the first part of that phrase is fairly clear. You are a priest forever. But it's the second part of that phrase that may be more difficult for us to understand. You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. What does it mean for Christ to be a priest in the order of Melchizedek? You may remember the story of Melchizedek in the Old Testament. We have to go back almost to the beginning of our Bibles to find it. In Genesis 14, one of the first stories about the patriarch Abraham, we read about Abraham going out and fighting a battle with some of the kings of the land in which he lived. He was going to rescue his nephew Lot after he had been captured. And after the battle, Abraham comes back and he meets this figure called Melchizedek. We're not told very much about him. We're told that he is the king of a city, the city what would later be called Jerusalem. He was also a priest of God Most High. And Abraham comes before him, gives him a tenth of the booty that he has collected from his battle, eats bread and wine with him, And Melchizedek blesses him. And then Melchizedek departs from the scene. We read through half the rest of our Bibles without hearing a single word about Melchizedek. And then suddenly in Psalm 110 verse 4, we see this great statement that this Messiah to come would be a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. But then we don't hear again about Melchizedek until we get here to the book of Hebrews where the author of Hebrews thinks that it is a very, very important verse. One around which he structures much of this epistle. And so what is the significance of the fact that Jesus is a priest like Melchizedek? Well, what the author is trying to help us understand is that Jesus is not like the rest of those Old Testament priests. You see, there were priests who served in the tabernacle and then the temple during the days in which the people of Israel came out of Egypt and dwelled in the land of Israel. Those who served as priests during those times were from the tribe of Levi. They were descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses. And do you know why they served as priests? Not because they were smarter than anyone else. Not because they were wealthier than anyone else. Not because they had a better education. Not because they had greater skills. They served as priests because of their family. Because of who their parents were. Because they had the right lineage. They served from generation to generation as priests before God. In service to the people of God. But Jesus Christ is not a priest like that. Jesus Christ is not a priest because He has the right parents. He's not a priest because He has the right last name. No, He is a priest. Not because of those things, but because of who he is. But because of the work that he does, that's the reason he's a priest. And that's the kind of priest that Melchizedek was. In Genesis 14, we're not told anything about Melchizedek's parents. Not told anything about what family line he comes from. We're simply told who he is and what he does. Jesus, like him, would be a priest simply by the power of his own work. The Old Testament priests, the Levitical priests, they couldn't take away sins. They were sinners like the rest of the people. They had to sleep and they died in the end. They couldn't really minister the salvation from sins. But Jesus could. He is a better priest than they are. And that's why it is so important for us to understand that Jesus was appointed to be a priest like Melchizedek rather than like the Old Testament Levitical priests. And this is such an important thing for the author of Hebrews that we see him repeating this fact again in verse 10, the last verse that we have read in our passage. So you see what we have here. In verse 6, the verse immediately preceding the passage that we're looking at, the author declares Jesus a high priest in the order of Melchizedek. And then in the last verse that we've read, verse 10, He declares again that Jesus is designated a high priest in the order of Melchizedek. It's like bookends. He says it once and he says it again. And in between we have these verses that we've read, which tell us something about how it is, why it is, that Jesus is a priest like this. How he became a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. Look now with me at these verses in particular that we have read. I want to look first with you at verses 7 and 8. Let me read these for you again. During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death. And he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered. Jesus learned obedience from what he suffered. We may wonder, in this book, when the author of Hebrews is so concerned to have us, his readers, understand what kind of a Savior Jesus is, to help us to understand the importance of what he has done, why would he tell us something that is so difficult to understand? Did the author himself have any, does he give any indication that he understood that it would be difficult for us to understand? Indeed, he does seem to indicate just that. In verse 8 he says, Although he was a son, he learned obedience. Although he was a son, he learned obedience. The author seems to acknowledge that there's something unusual about, something unexpected about what he's saying. But what is the significance that Jesus is a son? Is it so unusual for a son to learn obedience? Those of us who are parents of boys don't find it at all unusual to think that our sons should learn obedience. But Jesus wasn't just any sort of son, was he? Do you remember how the book of Hebrews begins? If you look back to chapter 1, verse 1, the author says this, In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways. But in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son. This is the kind of Son that Jesus is. God's Son. And look what He says in verse 3. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful Word. This is the kind of Son that we're speaking of here. The Son of God. The One who is the brightness of the Father's glory. The one whom to look at is to see the Father. The one who by the power of His Word upholds and sustains and governs all things. This is not like any other son. This is God's son. And we don't expect this kind of son to have to learn obedience. But although he was a son, indeed he did learn obedience. Perhaps we should just be clear as to what the author does not mean. He obviously does not mean that Jesus had to learn obedience because he was ever disobedient. When we speak of learning obedience in regard to our children, that's usually what we mean, isn't it? We recognize that our children are by nature disobedient. That they want to do what they want to do rather than what we tell them to do. We recognize that they have a tendency to lie if it will get them out of trouble. we recognize that we need to teach them to train them in the ways of obedience because they're not obedient by nature. That is not what the author of Hebrews is speaking of here. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not need to learn obedience because he was disobedient at one point. But when the author says that he learned obedience, he is explaining to us that the things that Jesus underwent in this life, That His perfect submission to the will of His Father, that that was meaningful. That that was necessary. That it was necessary for our salvation. Perhaps we're tempted to think that it was just a show that Jesus was going through the motions. That He was the sovereign God. He could just decree that we are saved if He wanted to. But that is not the theology of the book of Hebrews. Hebrews explains to us that Jesus really needed to become a man. That He really did need to experience the whole range of human life. That He really did need to offer up obedience to His Father in everything that He did. You see, that's the kind of Savior we need, is it not? We confess that God has appointed us as His image bearers to offer up to Him perfect obedience, perfect righteousness. That's what He required of us. And it's in this that we have failed miserably. What do we need in a Savior? We need one to come as a human being, to offer up that human obedience which we have failed to do. And unless we have a Savior like that, one who is obedient in every way as we were supposed to be, then we are not saved. Then a debt still remains to our Heavenly Father. But indeed, what we need is a Savior who would come, who indeed would go through the whole range of the human experience, who would offer up to His Father obedience at every point that was required. You see, Jesus indeed knew from all eternity what it was to be righteous. But not until He came into this world did He know what it was to be as a human being, To submit Himself under God's law. To humiliate Himself. To become like one of us. And to offer at every point perfect obedience before His Father in Heaven. He had to learn indeed what it was to be that perfectly obedient Son that His Father had called Him to be because His Father had called us to be just this. We can see just how important, just how vital this obedience was as we consider those dramatic statements of verse 7. During the days of Jesus' life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitioned with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death. This was not one going through the motions. Not one doing something unnecessary. It is almost a grotesque picture of the Son of God in such anguish, in such sorrow, through such temptations and trials, that he cries out to God even with loud cries and tears. Here is one who is being tried in ways far greater, far more profound than any of us ever have or ever will be. Here is one who experiences the brunt of Satan's attacks to fullest measure. And here is one in the midst of this, in the midst of these things in which we fail day by day, He is perfectly obedient. In which He cries out to His Father with reverent submission, with true piety, with true godliness. And He's heard because of this. The Father in Heaven hears Him not simply because He is His only begotten Son, but because He sent Him to this world to be our Savior, our obedient Savior. And because He is here fulfilling this task with full obedience, that His Father hears Him, acknowledges Him, and when He goes down into the throes of death, raises Him up victoriously, the perfect Redeemer and Savior of His people. After setting these things before us, we can understand the conclusion that the author comes to in verses 9 and 10. Let me read these verses again. And once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek. This is what the author of Hebrews really wants us to know. That Christ is the source of eternal salvation. The author here shows us how practical are his aims in writing this book. there are many scholars of Scripture who will tell you that Hebrews is one of the most difficult books of Scripture, one of the most difficult to understand, some of the most profound theology that we find in the whole of Scripture. And we may be tempted at times when we consider difficult passages like our own to think that Hebrews belongs only across town at the seminary and not here in the church for all the people of God. But that is not what the author of Hebrews has in mind at all. He has in mind an aim which is most practical, which is most relevant. He wants us to understand that Jesus is the source of eternal salvation. Why eternal salvation? Because there is nothing missing in it. There is nothing lacking. There is nothing that will ever need to be supplemented about it. Jesus Christ is the source of eternal salvation because it is permanent. it lasts we know some things about the people to whom the author of Hebrews originally wrote this book he doesn't tell us explicitly but we can read between the lines and get quite a clear picture of the situation of the church to which he was writing we know that this was a church filled with the children of Israel those who had been Old Testament believers who knew the Old Testament scriptures who worshipped at the temple who participated in the worship of the Old Testament priests. And yet this was a people who had confessed the name of Jesus Christ, who had known Him as Savior, who had set themselves apart from the world and joined the church of Christ. And yet they were tempted to slip back. Tempted to give it up. Tempted to go back to their old ways under the threat of persecution. To be satisfied with the temple worship. to be satisfied with the Old Testament priests, to be satisfied with the rituals of their fathers and grandfathers before them. And the author of Hebrews writes to tell them, you can't go back. It is true that God appointed those things in the days before Christ. He built, He appointed the temple to be built, He appointed the priests, He appointed the sacrifices and all the other rituals. But those things had no meaning in and of themselves. They could not convey salvation by their own power. They had meaning only in so far as they pointed ahead to the Savior who was to come. They had meaning only as they told us about His redeeming work. And now that He has come, now that in the fullness of time He has been revealed, now that He has offered up that one final sacrifice for sin, there is no going back. No more can we be satisfied with the shadow when the reality is here. No longer can we long to have those things which are powerless in themselves when we have the Messiah set before our eyes who has done everything needed for our salvation. He is the source of eternal salvation. If you have Him, you need nothing else. If you have Him, you need no one else. If you have Him, you need no other ritual. He is the source of eternal salvation. And from now until all eternity, He will be sufficient for us. He is our atonement for sins. He is our righteousness before the Father. You see, the author wants us to understand this. He knows that this is essential for our Christian faith in life. And he says that we can understand Jesus Christ as the source of eternal salvation. as the one who was made perfect. Once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation. And here we meet with that other so difficult passage, that other so difficult phrase in the text that we have read. Jesus Christ was made perfect. In the light of what we have just been saying about Jesus, learning obedience, perhaps it is easier for us to understand this now. we can be clear again what the author does not mean. He does not mean that Jesus was ever sinful and needed to be perfected in the sense of being made sinless. That, of course, is not what is the case. But when the author here says that Jesus is made perfect, he is referring to another meaning of this word, perhaps which one that we do not often use, one that we are not often aware of. Being made perfect does not imply that one was sinless before. It implies that one is being made complete. One is being made full in whatever task one has been given. Jesus Christ was not sinless before, but it was not until He finished His redeeming work that He was a complete High Priest for us. Jesus Christ was not complete as a High Priest until He had done this work of salvation, until he had learned the full course of obedience set before him. Why is that? Well, again, think of the kind of high priest that we need. We need one who is like us in every way. One who offered obedience at every point of the law. One who had undergone the full extent of human temptations. One who experienced the full extent of human sufferings. One who had actually gone down to death. One who had actually been raised up as the Lord of life. That's the kind of priest that we need. Until he had accomplished this, the work was not done. Until he had offered himself up unto death and been raised up. He was not that complete, perfect high priest that we needed. But once he had learned the whole course of obedience set before him. Once he had gone down to death and been raised up. Now he is this priest. Now the Father may designate Him to be this final, perfect, complete High Priest before Him for us and for our salvation. Why is Christ the source of eternal salvation? Because He is perfect. Why does His priesthood never end? Because He has made that full atonement for sins. Praise God that we have such a Savior, that we have such a High Priest. one who has become like us in every way, who has been obedient in every way, who has been designated a perfect high priest for us. Congregation, is there any sin, any sin that is unatoned for, any sin that we cannot make up for, Jesus has paid for it. Is there any point of our lives in which we cannot render the obedience that we know that we owe to our Lord? Jesus has offered it for us. Is there any prayer that we know we need to pray, but we don't know how to pray it? Jesus has prayed it for us at the Father's right hand. Is there any trial or tribulation whose burden we need to raise before our Heavenly Father, but we are too weak to even lift up our voices and our eyes to heaven? Jesus has interceded for us. He has carried the burden. And He has lifted that concern before our Father in heaven. This is the benefit of having a high priest who has become perfect. A high priest in the order of Melchizedek. Who will never die. Who will never fade away. But a high priest who endures forever at the Father's right hand. Ever living to intercede for us. In this priest, we might have confidence. In this priest, we might have assurance. Let us throw aside every other confidence. Let us set aside every other person, every other thing, every other ritual that we would substitute for Him or use to supplement Him. Let us hold with confidence to Jesus Christ and to Him alone. Let us pray. our Father in heaven. It is with gladness and with joy that we confess before you that Jesus Christ is indeed our perfect high priest. Father, we look at the story of your people through the Old Testament. We see those priests ministering before you, offering one sacrifice after another, generation to generation. The work went on and on because the work could not really take away sins. Because those priests were not really what we needed. How we thank You that You have sent forth Your Son to step into our place, To offer the obedience that we owed. To suffer the anguish and punishment of sin that we deserved. We thank you that you heard his cry to you. That you raised him up out of death and you anointed him. The perfect high priest. The one who meets all of our needs. The one who is fully sufficient. Our Father, we confess before You the desires and the tendencies we have to seek refuge in something other than Christ. To rely upon our own strength. To rely upon the influence of a person. To rely upon the superstition of a ritual. To rest upon the stability of an institution. But Father, we pray that you strip away from us any other one to whom we might rest. May we be satisfied with Christ, with his perfect obedience, and with his shed blood. Hear us, we pray, in the name of our great high.