“Since We Have a Great Priest” [Matt's Messages] ~ Matt Mitchell

“Since We Have a Great Priest”

Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus

The Letter to the Hebrews

Lanse Evangelical Free Church

September 6, 2026 :: Hebrews 10:19-25

So What?! What difference does that make?

How often do we ask that question every single day?

“We have two dozen eggs.” So what?

“It’s going to rain this afternoon.” So what?

“Tomorrow is a holiday.” So what?

“Ok. I hear what you’re saying. Sounds very important to you. So what?”

We’ve reached an important “So What” section of the sermonic Letter to the Hebrews.

For several chapters which we’ve been studying for several months, this thoughtful pastor has been trying to show these anxious Jewish Christians that Jesus Christ is greater than anyone and anything in their beloved Old Testament. In fact, Jesus is what everyone and everything in their beloved Old Testament was pointing towards. That was all shadow, and Jesus is the substance.

And he’s especially been trying to show them that Jesus is our (three words, say them with me now), “Great High Priest.”

If you want to see his argument, re-read the last seven chapters or re-listen to the last 12 sermons.

Jesus is our Great High Priest. Our Greater High Priest.

A greater priest than the Sons of Levi and the Sons of Aaron because He’s on Team Melchizedek, the order of ever-living priest-kings.

A greater priest of a greater covenant, the New over the Old.

A greater priest serving in a greater sanctuary, not the copies on Earth, the Tabernacle or the Temple in Jerusalem, but the original and ultimate Most Holy Place in the Universe–the heavenly throne room of God!

A greater priest offering a greater sacrifice. Not the inadequate, ineffective, insufficient blood of bulls and goats but the perfect once-for-all sacrifice of His own precious blood.

A greater priest because he doesn’t stand day after day after day offering the same old sacrifices.

No, this priest sat down. He sat down at the right hand of God (v.14).

That’s what Hebrews has been showing us. He’s been building up to this.

And now he wants to ask and answer the question, “So what?” So what if we have a great high priest? What difference should that make for the lives of these primarily Jewish Christians then and for our lives today?

I’ve pulled the title for this message from verse 21:

“Since We Have a Great Priest”

You can feel the logic in it. “Since we have a great priest over the house of God...”

That, by the way, is you and me. Remember how he called us the “house of God” back in chapter 3? Moses was a faithful servant in the house of God. But Jesus is faithful as a son over the house of God. And, we find out here, a great priest over the house of God.

“Since we have a great priest over the house of God...”

What? How should we live today?

The writer to the Hebrews has three main things he thinks we should definitely do because Jesus is our Great High Priest. And here’s the first one:

#1. LET’S DRAW NEAR IN FAITH.

Let’s draw near to God in faith. He says (v.22):

“...since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith...”

Draw near. Now, those words should sound familiar, because it’s what he started this whole section saying. Way back in chapter 4 when he first wrote the words, “great high priest,” he said, “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

This is the whole point of this section.

You and I should draw near to God.

We should come close to Him.

We should come into His presence.

Not physically, but spiritually. We should come to Him in prayer, in worship, in intimate personal relationship.

For the first time, if you never have.

Or for the five millionth time, every single day.

And forever!

Let’s draw near to God.

What an astonishing thing for him to say! Because you and I are sinners. We are unholy. On our own, we are not welcome in the presence of God. God is holy, holy, holy. And because of our sin, we should not have access to Him.

“Draw near to God???!!! We can do that?!” Oh yes, we can, since we have a great priest.

Now, that word “since,” actually appears in verse 19 in the original. It’s repeated in our English versions in verse 21 to make sure we get the logic of the sentence. In the original Greek, verses 19 through 25 are actually one long complex sentence. We have to break it up into smaller sentences to follow it in English. Let’s back up to verse 19 to follow this astonishing logic. Verse 19.

“Therefore, brothers [and sisters; he’s getting personal again, therefore spiritual family], since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water” (vv.19-22).

Let’s draw near in faith.

This is mind-blowing! Even though he’s been saying it for seven chapters, this whole concept is completely astounding when you really think about it. He says that you and I have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place!

The Most Holy Place? You and I are welcome in there? Do you have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place? That sounds almost crazy.

Were we welcome in the Holy Place of the Tabernacle? No. Only the Jews. Only the Levites. Only the Sons of Aaron.

How about the Holy of Holies? Were we allowed there? No, only the high priest was and that only once a year.

Would you and I be welcome in there?! And that’s just the earthly one. Would we be welcome in the heavenly throne room of the holy God?

Verse 19 says, “Yes!” We have confidence. Or the word could be translated, “authorization.”

We have the boldness because we have the access!

How? “By the blood of Jesus.”

I’m glad we’re going to take communion today. Because we’re going to hold up the cup, and say, “We have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus.” He’s made a way in. Verse 20 calls it, “a new and living way.” A new covenant. A living Savior. “Opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body.” His flesh. We’ll talk about that more when we take up the bread today. We do not enter the Most Holy Place on our own. And not because of animal sacrifices, but because of the shed blood and torn flesh of our great priest over the house of God. We have access.

And since we have access, let’s use our access! Let’s draw near.

Have you come to know Jesus as your Great High Priest? Have you come to God for salvation through Jesus’ body and blood?

Verse 22 says to come with a sincere heart. That is a heart that truly believes all of this. Come by faith. That word “faith” is going to be increasingly important in this letter, especially in the next chapter. We need to believe. We need to put our faith and trust down on Jesus and what He did for us on the Cross and up in the heavenlies.

Here’s what He did. He sprinkled our hearts. V.22

“Having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilt conscience.”

An evil conscience. We know what we’ve done. We know that we are sinners. Some of us pretend we don’t, but we know it down deep in our hearts. We are evil. We are guilty. But Jesus’ blood cleanses us on the inside!

Our consciences can be cleaned. We can be forgiven and know we’re forgiven and even feel forgiven! Because of the blood of Jesus.

And (v.22), “having our bodies washed with pure water.” Now, I think that’s probably a reference to water baptism, which symbolizes on our outsides what Jesus has done in cleansing our insides. [Not all agree. It doesn’t say, “baptism,” here and could be pointing towards Old Testament cleansing rites. The point is basically the same.]

That’s why we use pure water when we baptize, and we don’t fill this tank up here with Pepsi! We don’t dunk people in mud or milk or Mountain Dew because it symbolizes our cleansing.

Jesus has cleansed us! So let’s draw near in faith.

Why would we stay away from the Most Holy Place if Jesus has done all of this to make a way for us? If our hearts are sprinkled and our bodies cleansed, why wouldn’t we approach the throne? Why wouldn’t we come to God?

Church, don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid to come close to God. Don’t be afraid to pray. Don’t be afraid to get to know God. Don’t be afraid to expect God to work in your life. Don’t be afraid to ask God for things, for mercy and grace to help in your time of need. You are not going to be turned away the door. You belong! Since you have a great priest.

I love how the author includes himself in the exhortation. “Let us draw near to God.” Not just, “You guys draw near to God.” Let’s all do it. This is for all of us. Let’s go together! Let’s gather at the Throne. Let’s gather around His Table. Let’s go to God together. He’s our great priest. We have Him. Let’s draw near in faith.

If you have never come to God before, let today be the day. Turn from your sin, and put your trust in the Savior. You can come to Him by the blood of Jesus.

And once you come to Him, stay with Him. That’s point number two. “Since we have a great priest...”

#2. LET’S HOLD ON TO HOPE.

Look at verse 23. Since we have a great priest...

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”

Hold on. Fix your eyes on Jesus and don’t look back. This is whole point of the whole book of Hebrews. These scared Christians were thinking about turning back. Following Jesus was getting hard, and they were tempted to drop out of the race. But Jesus is our great high priest, and He has made us all kinds of promises. And He is faithful! He will keep them.

So hold on. Let’s say our previous memory verse one more time. Hebrews 4:14, “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.”

Don’t give up.

Don’t cut out.

Don’t shrink back.

Don’t veer off.

Don’t swerve.

“Let us [again, he includes himself] hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”

Hope is faith directed into the future. It’s believing in a promise of what’s to come. And that hope is our anchor. And our anchor holds. Our great high priest is trustworthy, so let’s trust Him and keep trusting Him. Let’s hold on to our hope.

And number three. Since we have a great priest...

#3. LET’S SPUR ON TO LOVE.

Let’s spur one another on to love and good deeds. Now we’ve reached our new memory verse which we are going to work at learning for the next few months. Verses 24 and 25.

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

I don’t know about you, but I had a little bit of a hard time following the logic here. I can see how having a great high priest would give me the faith to draw near to God and the ability to hold onto my hope in Jesus. But I didn’t immediately see how having a great high priest would propel me towards others. But it obviously does in verse 24.

He’s got another “let us” which is not something you put in your tossed salad, but a corporate call to do something together.

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.”

Here’s how I think the logic works: You’ve got a great priest, so you don’t have to worry about yourself any more. You can think about other people! Jesus has opened up the new and living way to the Most Holy Place, and you have confidence to get there, so you don’t have anything really to worry about. You can think about other people and what they need.

The key command here is to “consider” which means to “attend to” someone or “watch out” for them. We’re supposed “consider” each other. And specifically, we’re supposed to consider each other for the purposes of spurring each other on toward love and good deeds.

How can I help them to love others? How can I help them to do good things?

You see how that works?

The word for “spur on” is “paroxysmos,” which is actually where we get the word “paroxysm” like a little convulsion or a jolt. We’re supposed to give each other a loving jolt to love others.

Kind of like a cattle prod? BZZT. You and I are supposed to go around zapping each other (in a good way) to show love to others and to do good works.

Do you think of yourself that way? Are you on the lookout for ways that you can prod your brothers and sister in Christ to love someone else? Are you on the lookout for ways that you can prod your spiritual siblings to do good deeds?

You have a great priest, you can do this. And you’re supposed to!

Some translations have, “stir one another.” Some have “provoke each other.” Some have “stimulate each other.” It’s not supposed to hurt so much as to get your attention and redirect and energize you.

I saw one scholar said, “Stoke the fire.” Who stokes your fire to be loving? I hope I do, but I’m not enough. We’re all supposed to do this for each other.

Whose fire are you stoking to do good deeds? Who are you prodding?

BZZT. Hey, have you signed up to clean the free fridge?

BZZT. Hey, are you going to run in the PRC’s 5K?

BZZT. Hey, have you checked on that person that you haven’t seen at church recently?

BZZT. Hey, are you going to invite those new people to sit with you?

BZZT. Hey, are you thinking about running the church table at the Apple Fest?

This spurring on is not optional! Since we have a great priest, we are supposed to consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

Now, consider it. Do it carefully. Do it thoughtfully. Don’t go around just zapping people with a guilt trip. We don’t need more shame. We don’t need to chase people. But we all need prodding. We all need “positive irritants” to do good deeds (thanks to Kent Hughes for the helpful juxtaposition of words).

We need someone to say, “You can do this!”

You know who is good at this? My pastor. Pastor Kerry Doyal. He’s great at giving me a prod to love somebody in a better or fuller way. And my wife Heather is excellent at this for me. I don’t know how many loving things I have done because she gave me a gentle shove in the right direction.

Of course, this also means that we need to be open to receiving those gentle shoves. But we can handle that, too, because we have a great priest!

And there is no age limit here. Kids, you can spur your parents on to love and good deeds. It doesn’t just go one way.

Look around the room. These are the people for you to prod. This church is really good at this (Thank you!), but we could be even better. Imagine what our church could be like if every one of us came every Sunday on the lookout for someone to spur on to love. To love, mind you. To give yourself sacrificially for others. And to be willing to be prodded, too.

Notice how you can’t do this if you aren’t in each other’s lives. That’s why he says verse 25.

“Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Now, that’s a verse that many people use to tell Christians that they need to keep going to church, and that’s right. Don’t “give up meeting together” as Christians. Don’t withdraw. Don’t forsake the gathering. Don’t abandon church.

Apparently some of them already were. Some had already gotten into the bad habit of skipping church which is often the first step of falling away from following Jesus.

But notice that it doesn’t just say, “Don’t give up attending worship services.” As if that’s all that church is. It says, “Let us (he includes himself again) not give up meeting together...but let us encourage each other...”

When you come to church, you come on the lookout for who you can encourage! Who you can prod. Who you can spur. Who you can stoke their fire. Who you can speak words of comfort and life into–reminding them about the gospel and their great high priest.

You don’t just come to church looking to be receive ministry. You come to church to minister to others!

That’s why I say, when someone has been missing from church, that we are impoverished. We need each other here. Don’t stay away from church. We need you! I don’t mean we need your money. (Though you may need to give it.) We need your heart. We need your face. We need your hugs. We need your handshakes. We need your listening ears. We need your voice. We need your prayers. We need your songs. We need your presence. We need your encouragement. You are needed.

That’s why we don’t do the live-streaming thing. That has its uses, especially for those who absolutely can’t come to meetings. But it can also make it way too easy to not actually encourage one another like this says to.

Turning church into a religious entertainment show instead of an encouragement meeting–a weekly spiritual family reunion.

And it’s obviously not just the weekly gathering on Sundays. Christians need to meet more than that. This is prayer meetings and small groups and Bible studies and lunch-dates and coffee times with other followers of Jesus. It’s Fall Retreat with your church family! We need real community. We need to help each other to fix our eyes on Jesus and not swerve off the path.

We need to keep meeting together to remind each other how great our priest is!

And to remind each other that He’s coming back soon. You see that in verse 25?

“Let us (he includes himself) encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

What Day is that? It’s the Day of Christ’s return. We don’t know when that will be, but we can all see that it’s coming soon.

He’s coming.

He’s waiting (remember 10:13!).

We’re waiting (remember 9:28!).

And while we wait, we meet! And we spur one another on to love and good deeds and encourage each other more and more and more.

How are you going to apply this last point to your life this week?

Who might you spur on this week?

Who might you spur on today?

Who can you try to encourage before you leave this morning?

What plan do you need to make to ensure that you don’t fall into the bad habit of missing church?

Almost nobody up and decides one day to fall away. Most of the time, it’s gradual. It’s small little choices. It’s seeing church as optional. “I don’t really need that today.”

Instead of saying, “My brothers and sister need me today over there. I’m supposed to go and encourage them. And I need the encouragement, too.”

How are you going to apply this? This is very practical.

This is the “So What.” And it’s not optional.

We have a great priest, and He’s coming back soon.

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