A God Who Can Sympathize With Us
A God Who Can Sympathize With Us
How can you look down from the ISS, an airliner, or skyscraper, and see and understand Humanity?
Looking at a city from a sea port cannot enable us to understand the city of any country either.
It’s amazing, that we worship a God who can sympathize with us. It is such a simple yet profound thought, isn’t it?
HOW MANY OF THE WORLD’S “gods” ARE ABLE TO DO THAT?
Why would God sympathize with us? The answer can only be love. How does God do that? By becoming one of us. God’s Son chose to empty himself of his divinity and to live a mortal life, just like us, in order to be able to sympathize with us.
Heb 4:14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone to heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us live our lives consistent with our confession of faith.
Heb 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. Instead, we have one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet he never sinned.
Heb 4:16 So let us keep on coming boldly to the throne of grace, so that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
X While the high priests of the old covenant were imperfect and unable to take away sin, Jesus is sinless and paid for our sins completely.
X JESUS CHRIST, AS OUR HIGH PRIEST, FULLY UNDERSTANDS AND SHARES IN OUR STRUGGLES AND VULNERABILITIES.
X WE CAN APPROACH GOD WITH CONFIDENCE KNOWING HE TRULY KNOWS WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN AND CAN RELATE TO OUR STRUGGLES
Jesus can sympathize with all our weaknesses because He lived as a human being and experienced the things that we experience.
Consider this small sampling of what Jesus went through:
He was homeless (Matt. 8.20)
His family thought he was crazy (Matt. 12.46; Mk. 3.21; Jn. 7.5)
His best friends turned their back on him (Matt. 26.56)
One of his closest confidants sold him to be killed for pocket change (Matt. 26.46-50)
He stood face to face with the devil and endured all of his demonic tricks (Luke 4.1-13)
He dealt with death (Jn. 11.1-45)
He endured gossip and slander (Matt. 12.24; Jn. 8.52)
He endured suffering for righteousness’ sake (Jn. 15.20)
He was shamed publicly (Mk. 14.65)
He endured periods of hunger (Mk. 11.12ff)
He received criticism of his ministry (Jn. 5; Matt. 12)
His theology was mocked
His message was rejected
His preaching was critiqued (Luke 4)
He endured complete and utter separation from God so that you would never, ever, ever have to!!
In a special way, it is in “our weaknesses” that Jesus sympathizes with us. In all our weakness—our fear, our anxiety, our loneliness, everything that makes us feel weak—Jesus “sympathizes” with us.
Now what does that mean? The Greek word for sympathize here means to “suffer with” or to “co-suffer.” In other words: When we are weak, he feels that with us.
1st He is concerned for us.
Christ is concerned for us when we are hungry.
He is concerned for us when we are in trouble.
He is concerned for us when we are tempted.
2nd Christ’s sympathy with us means that He cares about us.
He mourns with us when we mourn.
He feels and understands
He understands temptations
Consider your own life.
When it feels like everyone is against you, maybe even your own family . . . when you don’t understand your feelings or emotions . . . when your best friend lets you down . . . when you feel deeply misunderstood . . . when you are laughed at . . .
Here is what you must know:
You have a Friend who knows exactly what such sadness feels like. He feels it himself. You belong to him.
And though your friends may unfriend you, Jesus will never do that to you.
The writer to the Hebrews encourages us this way: So let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
When we come to Jesus with our failings, with our exhaustion, with all the times we succumbed to temptation, we find in him a heart full of mercy and compassion. We find him full of grace, love that is given to us even though we don’t deserve it. We don’t have to cringe before his power and might as the eternal God. We can approach him in confidence because we know that he loves us.
But it’s not just that he loves us, it’s that he loves us and helps us. The writer of this letter reminded us at the start of our brief reading who it is that we are dealing with: Since we have a great high priest, who has gone through the heavens, namely, Jesus the Son of God, let us continue to hold on to our confession.
We have a high priest, an intercessor, a go-between, a mediator, who is not just some guy, but is the Son of God himself, who lives in eternal glory and dwells as the almighty God.
We are so very blessed to believe in a God who not only created us, and loves us, but who also is able to sympathize with us.
This is why we can approach this throne of grace with boldness. Because we know that he will understand what we are going through. And because we know this, we can approach his throne not only with boldness, but also with profound gratitude.
For how can we help but be filled with gratitude when we consider that the Son of God became one of us so that we could become one with him?
Why Did Jesus Give This Up and Come to Earth?
To Do the Will of the Father
To Be Made Like His People
To Save Sinners
To Bring Light to a Dark World
To Bear Witness to the Truth
To Destroy the Devil and His Works
To Give Eternal Life
To Demonstrate True Humility
To Give His Life a Ransom for Many
To Reveal God’s Love for Sinners
To Seek and Save the Lost
To Serve give his life as a ransom for many.”
To Bring Peace
To Bind Up Broken Hearts
To Make Us Partakers of the Divine Nature
To Restore Human Nature to Holiness
To Satisfy Our Deepest Thirst
Jesus came to help us see and understand the Father(Phil. 2:5-7; Jn. 14:8-9; Matt. 1:23; Heb. 1:1-3).
Jesus came to provide us an example of selflessness and obedience (Phil. 2:5, 8, Jn. 6:38; Matt. 14:13-14; I Pet. 2:21).
Jesus came to pay the price for our sins (Phil. 2:8, Heb. 10:1-4; Jn. 1:29; I Cor. 15:3).
Jesus came so we can stand before Him prepared (Phil. 2:9-11; 2 Cor. 5:10).
Conclusion:
A. Consider the possibilities if Jesus had not come to earth.
B. If it weren’t for Jesus, we would not have an opportunity to become children of God (Jn. 1:12).
C. Let’s not let the coming of Jesus be in vain.
