Peter Barnes: A Perfect High Priest and a Perfect Sacrifice, Mark 15:33-47; Hebrews 7:11-28 (10 April 2020, Good Friday)
Both Testaments focus on Christ – Acts 11:26; Luke 24:44. We need to know who Christ is, and what He came to do.
1. Christ is sinless.
– 7:26. This is a startling thing for the Bible to say about a man.
(a) Jesus mixed with sinners on this earth – Mark 2:15-16; Luke 7:39.
(b) We all enter this life with a sinful nature – 1 King 8:46.
(c) In their best moments, the disciples were very aware of their own sins – Luke 5:8; 1 Tim.1:15.
(d) Yet His disciples regarded Him as sinless – 2 Cor.5:21; Peter 2:22; 1 John 3:5.
Martin Luther: ‘Christ is seated in heaven where there are no sinners’. But the idea is not just a physical but a moral separation from sinners.
– Ex.28:36-38. That was on the turban of the priest. Jesus did not wear a turban with ‘Holy to the Lord’ on it.
2. Christ’s sacrifice is perfect.
– 7:27; Num.28:3-8.
– Heinrich Bullinger: ‘You wretches, how do you dare to repeat what cannot be repeated, nor needs to be repeated?’ ‘Once for all’ in Hebrews 9:12; 10:10.
Because the sinless Saviour died,
My sinful soul is counted free;
For God the Just is satisfied
To look on Him, and pardon me.
Watch the service below.