Supernatural Help | Nothing Better than Jesus

Finding The Right Kind Of Help

The right kind of help can make all the difference in the world, right? And so, from the right kind of teaching or training or diagnosis or treatment; all of these kinds of things can radically alter an outcome.

I’ve shared this before, but a few months, a few years ago I actually needed an operation to extract a piece of bone out of my leg that was causing me a great deal of pain.

Months prior to that – from physios to sports physicians to orthopedic surgeons – none of them could really truly diagnose what was actually the root cause of the problem, as I was first treated for a muscle tear in my leg, but that didn’t bring me much relief. Then a few, a set of scans, supposedly revealed that I had a split disc in my back and would need a back op. And then another opinion was that I had pieces of bone fragments inside my hip and so I would need a hip replacement. 

And so, it was only after another set of scans and an orthopedic surgeon who then decided to do a biopsy, which then discovered what was really causing me the pain. And then, within months after receiving the right treatment, I made a full recovery. The right kind of help makes all the difference in the world.

We Need God’s Help

Let me do just a quick recap of all the important points that we are seeing in this subsection of Hebrews 3 and 4. 

The Christians that the book of Hebrews is addressing to are actually undergoing persecution, leading some of them to being tempted to actually forsake their faith altogether. The author writes to this audience and wants to exhort them on a few things:

Firstly, he calls them to worship Jesus Christ in order to combat unfaithfulness in their lives. If you want to be faithful to God, you’ve got to press in on Jesus Christ.

Then next he exhorts them to actually exhort one another daily, so that they would avoid God’s judgment over their hard hearts.

And then finally, he calls them to say, “Hey listen, since the hope of God’s redemption still stands, press in, lean in on it, because God is that good, that good that he extends his hope for redemption towards anyone who would receive it.”

So really the heart or the burden of the author’s exhortation, up to this point, has been remaining: faithful to God, remain faithful to God to the end.  That’s what he wants to see happen in his audience’s lives. 

And so, as he caps off the subsection in the book of Hebrews, he then wants to urge them to actually press in, in receiving the right help that they will need to be faithful to God. By receiving this help, it will make all the difference on their journey of salvation.

Let’s look at the text as he caps off. Hebrews 4:14-16 he writes to them saying:

“Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who, in every respect, has been tempted as we are yet without sin. Let us then, with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14–16)  

And so, there are two exhortations – connected exhortations – in this text.

The first is verse 14:

“Let us hold fast a confession.” (Hebrews 4:14)

This has been the burden of the author during the subsection. Think back to Hebrews 3:6 where he writes and he says,

“…and we are his house, if indeed, we hold fast our confidence and are boasting in a hope….”

Again, Hebrews 3:14,

“We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.”

Then the second exhortation in the in the text actually explains, or expands, as to how they ought to actually hold fast.

And so, verse 16,

“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace…” 

The tense of this verb “draw near” actually expresses a continuous coming. So you ought to continuously draw near to this throne of grace and then the verse continues,

“…that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)

What is their time of need? The current persecution and temptation to forsake the faith.

Amidst all of that, the author of Hebrews is exhorting them to say, you’ve got to continuously be coming to the throne of God’s grace so that you would hold fast and remain faithful to God by the help that you will receive.

Therefore, the point that he’s making to them is simply this; that you will need, you will need God’s supernatural help in order to remain faithful to God. You will need God’s supernatural help to remain faithful to God.  

Why supernatural? 

Notice a few things here:

Number one, number one: from where does this help come from?

Verse 14:

“Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens…” (Hebrews 4:14)

And so what’s transpiring with this help that they ought to receive, it is not transpiring in this natural world, but this help will come from the heavenly realm. That’s where this help is coming from.

Then second, you also ought not to miss a miss exactly, just exactly, from whom does this help will come from. 

Verse 16,

“Let us with confidence draw near to the throne of grace…” (Hebrews 4:16)

That is not an earthly throne, for one. The one who occupies the throne is not of this natural world and so this help that we will need in order to remain faithful to God does not originate from this natural world. It transcends this natural world and has got its own origin, its place, in the very infinite being of God himself – the supernatural difference maker that your life of faithfulness will need.

Reasons We Don’t Believe In God’s Help

Now, I don’t know about you, but when I was studying the text again, and getting really confronted with the reality that I will need God’s supernatural help in order to remain faithful to God, it actually took me aback a bit. I was jolted a bit back and began kind of wondering, “Wow, do you already truly believe that and live like that?” 

Because had you asked me prior to that, “Badi, Badi, what is most required for you in order to live faithfully before God?” I don’t know that, “access to God’s supernatural help” would have been the first thing you would have heard coming out of my mouth. I probably would have said probably would have said that I would have needed to do a little bit a less of this or a bit more of that, before actually expressing a dependence on God’s supernatural help in order to remain faithful to God. 

And so then, why am I, or you for that matter, perhaps not always living with a sense, a heightened degree or sense of awareness, of how much we need God’s supernatural help in order to remain faithful to him? Why don’t we always realize that and depend on it more than we do?  

My guess is that many of us don’t live with a heightened level of awareness of just how much we need God’s supernatural help for these following reasons: 

Number one: disbelief. We don’t always believe enough and how much God is present and ready and willing to lend us the help that we need. God can sometimes be too small in our minds to actually be involved in the big problems of humanity, right? In our big human affairs. A sovereign being who watches our every move, who can, will and does intervene in the mundane of our lives can sometimes be too farfetched a reality to really be of use to us, right?  

But that only changes when we start to deal with cancer level kind of stuff. Out of desperation, then we are actually then willing to actually press in and look for divine intervention. But for the most part, in our lives we live in doubt. Is this area really an area in my life that God can really get involved? Do I depend on God? Can I really depend on God and depend on his divine intervention in how I actually respond to a rebellious child or when my best friend lets me down? Can I really truly depend on divine intervention in how I deal with this downcast mood or this anxiety that I’ve been feeling over the past few months? And so, (it’s) disbelief.

Second: discernment. By that I mean, a lack of discernment. The Apostle Paul writes about the Christian life and here’s what he says about the Christian life:

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12)

Sadly we are not always prudent, not always prudent, to really realize just realize and fully comprehend the spiritual aspects of our Christian lives. So, due to our lack of discernment, we don’t always, either believe, or act, as the spiritual being we also are and realize that if we are to actually live Christian lives that more than just the natural will be required. We will need the supernatural in order to live faithfully for God. And so, we lack the discernment of understanding, truly understanding, that and then pressing in on God in order to really truly receive that. 

Third: distracted. Either through forgetfulness, or carelessness we are not always really aware of what it is we’re already up against. And then also, because of an obsession with just the present reality of the here and now, we tend to get distracted about what we really, truly spiritually need. There’s just so many toys that can be gained in this world – so much fun can be had in the just the reality of our flesh – that we allow ourselves to be distracted, be absolutely distracted, by the things there is to gain in this natural world alone.

Four: disillusioned. We have all, right, have experienced the disappointment of having trusted God, (trusted) in God for something and it didn’t turn out in the way that we wanted too. And so out of that disappointment, out of disillusionment, we can actually respond, either in defiance or in defeat. And so let me start with defeat. In defeat, we no longer are expectant on God’s supernatural intervention in our lives, as to spare ourselves having our hopes been dashed. Or, in defiance, no longer to be fooled that God can somehow act supernaturally for me. I better just do it myself.

Then the last one: disobedience. Let’s just be honest that sometimes, in our Christian walks, we enjoy our sin far more than loving God instead of our sin. Sometimes, sin can really promise us some thrills. It can give us some levels of power or whatever it promises us. We start to actually love that more, enjoy that more and more, and so look to that to actually experience life. The Scriptures will tell us we turn to our sin and sin which are broken cisterns that cannot give us any water instead of turning to the living one who promises us living water and so as out of disobedience knowing that God is scoring us away from us and towards him are disobedient sometimes because we love what our sin us and send the temporary pleasures that our sin our sin are able to give us in this world. And so out of disobedience we don’t lean in the supernatural help of God but we turn towards our sin.

Search Your Heart

So friends, I want to urge you today to actually search your heart. Search your heart. Are you actually living expectant of God’s supernatural help as you lead a life of faithfulness before him?  Search your heart over that because if we are allowing some mental or even functional barriers to get in the way of us living expectant of God’s supernatural power, we actually end up self-sabotaging. It is a self-sabotage and here’s why; because you will start to believe in some way (if you’re allowing these barriers to just settle in) you’ll start to believe that somehow that you’re doomed to continuously and perpetually lack what you will need in order to be all the all that God is calling you to be.  

If you allow that that kind of thinking to start to settle as your functional belief, then you’ll start to cultivate a distrust in God himself because God will start to seem like to you that he isn’t prepared to lift a finger to help you become who he who is calling you to be. 

And so know, friend, God is available to help you. He is available to help you. You ought to depend, rely on his supernatural help more than you do.  

God Is Not As Approachable As You Think

If that’s the case, then how do we draw close enough to God in order to rely on his supernatural help? It will be by this: you need to understand this conundrum, that God is not as approachable as you think but he is far more approachable than you think.

I’ll say that again: God is not as approachable as you think but he is far more approachable than you think.

Let’s take these two things apart and unpack them a bit. 

First, God is not as approachable as you think. When we think about the God of mercy and the God of grace, it is understandable that we would immediately think that he is super approachable, right? But he’s not, he’s not. Let’s see that in the text; two ways that the text shows us that God is not as approachable as you may think.  

First in the supernatural aspects of his help and so and so first we saw that his help will come from the heavens which, when you think about the heavens, the heavens is actually inaccessible to us, right? And so, where is it? Do you know the directions to it? Can you just pass through it come and go into it as you please? No, of course not, right?

If the heavens will be God’s dwelling place, then God is not as approachable as you think.

Second thing to note with that is, what do we actually associate with those who sit on thrones? We tend to associate a greater level of status and authority than we ourselves possess, right?

Now here’s the thing; we shouldn’t just assume that with such a levels of authority and power, that God will use his power for our benefit. He just may not if he chooses to. Either way, we are actually at his mercy. Therefore you’ve got to proceed with caution. In approaching such a powerful being, proceed with caution because you don’t know how he might react towards you.

And so when you take these two aspects in the text together, what they actually are conveying to us is the holiness of God. Holiness meaning that everything God is, in character and attribute, it is so unlike us. He is not like us and so he is set apart from us. He’s not like you and me and so therefore, if you’re going to approach such a holy being who is not like you, don’t gamble as to whether it will go well with you in approaching him. No, be sure of it. Be sure of it.

The second way we see in the text how God is not as approachable as you may think, is based on your own merits. Now this is implied when the text speaks to us about Jesus Christ.  

Look at verse 15,

“For we do not have a high priest (that’s Jesus) who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one whom in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)

There’s Jesus’s merit – sinlessness is not like us.

“Let us (verse 16) then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace…” 

Based on Jesus’s merits and not ours. And so therefore, based on your own merit, God is not as approachable as you may think. Which should be actually good news to us! And here’s why:  Because if it was based on your own merits, which can blow hot or cold depending on the day, then some days will be far better than others in how you can actually get access to God’s supernatural help.  Some days will be better, some days will be worse. So then imagine the kind of limbo you will find yourself in life – if some days were better, some days were worse in how you gain access to God – the kind of limbo it will leave you in, since you actually need God’s supernatural help daily, if you are to live in faithfulness towards God.

And so, God is not as approachable as you may think.

Through Christ, God Is Far More Approachable Than You Think

But, and here’s why you’ve got to love the Gospel, in and through Jesus Christ, he is far more approachable than you could ever think. Far more approachable than you could ever think.

Verse 14,

“Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession …Let us let us draw (verse 16) near to the throne of grace…” (Hebrews 4:14-16)

So we are able to keep, continuously keep coming to the throne of grace to receive the help that we will need in order to hold fast and remain faithful to God because of Christ Jesus. Because of Jesus Christ, God is far more approachable than you could ever think.  

Which then leads us to ask the question: how?  How has Jesus somehow made God far more approachable than we could ever think?

Verse 15,

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses…”

That word “sympathize” doesn’t just mean someone who’s actually able to just feel and understand what we’re going through, but it includes that this person is actually moved to take action and do something about what we’re going through. And so, Jesus, as high priest, was moved to take action and do something about our weaknesses. How? The verse continues and tells us in every respect he was tempted as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15)

And so, what does this phrase mean?

Let’s first start by what it cannot possibly mean. It cannot mean that while Jesus walked the face of the earth, that he actually suffered or endured every kind of expression of temptation known to humanity. It cannot mean that.  

I think we can safely say that Jesus did not endure the temptation of online pornography. He did not endure the temptation of social media, for example. He did not endure the temptation of recreational tik or meth use, or any other kind of expression of temptation known to our age because he didn’t live in our time. He lived in a specific time, in a specific place. When the text says that “in every respect he was tempted as we are,” it cannot mean that Jesus knew every kind of expression of temptation known across the ages. 

Which then leaves us to have to ask the question, how then can it be said, how can it be said, that Jesus was so moved to do something about my weaknesses, that it can then be said that in every way he was tempted as I was, and endured it without sinning, and so therefore I, on the basis of his merit, gives me access to God. How can we then say that? How can we then put that together, that if Jesus did not know every kind of temptation that our every kind of expression or temptation that I’m accustomed to, then how can he really be a faithful high priest that gave me the access I need to God?

The answer is: context, context, context. It is so important when you interpret the Bible. Let me ask you a few questions as we try to unravel what this phrase may mean. 

The first question would be this: what kind, sort of temptation is the original audience actually going through? What are they being tempted with? They’re being tempted to abandon their faith. That’s what they’re being tempted with.

Next question: what is actually the root cause, the root cause, at the heart of such a temptation? What would be causing it? What is at the heart of such drifting? Or let me put it another way: of falling away from the living God, which the author Hebrews has been warning them against?  A hardened heart. A hardened heart. And so, when the text talks about how Jesus, in every respect was tempted as they are, and yet did not succumb to that temptation so that on the base on the base of his merits they can have access to God, then (listen this is; very important) here’s what it means: it means that Jesus has once and for all dealt definitively with the proneness of our human hearts. That’s what it means. 

In his humanity, Jesus shared but took on a human heart, in all its proneness – in its pronouns to want to harden and turn away from the living God.  And so, in every respect, Jesus was tempted to harden his heart before the face of the living God and not once did he succumb to it. Therefore, only Jesus knows how to actually draw the human heart in all its proneness into the presence and power of God.

Nothing Is Better Than Jesus

Listen friend, at this point you should be saying to yourself, “Oh my God, oh my God, why?” as actually the penny starts to drop in awe as to why nothing is better than Jesus. For only in Jesus Christ, as the human heart, in all its proneness, has somehow been able to enter into the presence of God and actually receive the right kind of help it will need from God himself, based on the merits of Jesus Christ alone.

And so therefore, Jesus Christ, Christ alone, is the one, on the basis of his merit, has made God far more approachable than you could ever imagine.  That’s the gospel.  

Listen, there is so much complexity in the gospel of Jesus Christ: what Jesus Christ has really done and managed to achieve for us in the presence of God. In fact, that’s what the author of Hebrews will go on to talk a bit about,some of this complexity that we found in the gospel.

And so the gospel is not a simplistic message but here’s the good news: in that complexity, there is a beautiful and disarming simplicity in its call to you to respond to it. Just draw near.  

Come, look at that,

“Since then we have a great high priest, who has passed through the heavens Jesus, the Son of God, let us draw near to the throne of grace.” (Hebrews 4:14-16)

That’s the simplicity of response that the gospel calls and so you, who are prone to harden your heart in the face of God – just draw near.  You who are unable to remain faithful to God unless you receive his supernatural help in your life – just draw near.

And so, the simplicity of response to the gospel calls you to come near, to just draw near and receive from God that which you will need,

But listen friend, don’t miss this stuff. Don’t mess this up. The only reason why it is that simple for you to actually be able to draw near to God is because of the one who has gone before you, entered into the presence of God, pleaded your case before the Lord and so, based on his merit, you are then welcome to draw with confidence to the throne of grace and receive the supernatural help you will need in order to remain faithful to God.

And so, just draw near. The simplicity of response that the gospel calls to.

And so, the simplicity of response actually plays itself out in the simplicity of our prayer lives. That’s how you apply this whole text; through your prayer life. For prayer it’s actually us expressing our dependence on God. So whenever we pray, we are saying, “God we can’t – you must. That’s why we are drawing close and are saying, Lord, into your hands we’re placing all these things. Would you intervene.”

And so, as you draw near based on Jesus’s merit, pray for yourself and others, interceding over your weaknesses, over your temptations, asking God to supernaturally provide the help that you will need in order to remain faithful to God. You pray in repentance and you pray in faith, crying out to the Lord saying, “Lord, would you help, would you help, so that I would live a life that is worthy and faithful to your calling.”  

And so friend, just draw near. Amen