Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life—the One who meets us in the middle of life’s hardest moments and gives us hope that death does not have the final word. When God’s timing doesn’t make sense, do you trust His plan and purpose, or do you find yourself becoming rattled? When life is hard, do you cling to Jesus, knowing that He understands what you are going through and is with you in the middle of your trouble? Because Jesus has defeated death, do you face the future with the confidence that death is not the end?
Jesus is the Door and the Good Shepherd, the only One who can save us, lead us, and give us abundant life. Are you listening for His voice and following where He leads, even when His direction is different from your own? Do you know your Shepherd well enough to recognize His voice? And does your heart reflect the heart of God for the nations?
Jesus is the Light of the World—the One who leads us out of the darkness of sin and into the light of salvation. As followers of Jesus, we are called to carry the light of Christ wherever we go.
Jesus is the Bread of Life—the only One who can truly satisfy the deepest needs of our hearts. Do you know Jesus as the Bread of Life? Is He your ultimate source of fulfillment? Are you following Jesus because of what He can give you, or because Jesus Himself is enough? What are you looking to for satisfaction that only Jesus can provide?
Jesus asks each of us, “Who do you say that I am?” We can’t answer that question based on what our family, friends, culture, or church says—we each have to decide for ourselves who Jesus is. So this week, ask yourself: Who do I say Jesus is, and does the way I live reflect my answer?
Following Jesus means choosing Him over the world—not just once, but every day. Like the people of Israel on Mount Carmel, we can be tempted to divide our hearts and hold on to the things that compete with God for our attention, affection, and worship. The world promises satisfaction, but only Jesus can truly satisfy our souls.
There is no doubt that the matters the writer has been talking about in the last couple of passages are weighty. Such weightiness calls for greater clarification, but he can’t do that because his listeners are not in a place to hear it. This is because they are, simply put, not mature. In this passage he will dive into this hard, but necessary to hear topic on immaturity/maturity.
As we pick up where we left off in verse 4, we’ll see that the writer is not ready to move away from the topic of the High Priest. We saw 2 weeks ago that this was a much-needed position with very clear qualifications and duties, but only Jesus can fulfill them perfectly. So, the position is filled by Him alone. We will see precisely how this is so in the next verses of chapter 5 that Jesus is the only true candidate for the position of the THE High Priest.
Last week’s message on Jesus as our High Priest was really just the beginning of our exploration of this topic because the writer of Hebrews revisits this matter MANY times. In fact, the very next time is now as we dive back into the role of High Priest. In these verses the matter revolves around the qualifications and duties of the High Priest as established by God.
In this week’s text we will look at the concept of and what it tells us about God’s rest and how we can experience this kind of rest.